Post on 09-May-2015
new media: what’s really new?
Sanjana Hattotuwa
TED FellowFounding Editor, Groundviews, www.groundviews.org
what is social media?
• Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).
• It supports the democratisation of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. (Wikipedia)
social media landscape in 2011
new media foundations
• Blogs
• Social networks (Twitter, Facebook)
• Mobiles: SMS, mobile photography and video
• And making this all possible is ADSL + 3G wireless broadband
what’s new
• Ubiquity of two way communications
• Addressable peoples, even those who IDPs or refugees
• Both news generation and dissemination leverages new media
• Disintermediated models vs. traditional media model
• Citizens as producers
• Low resolution content broadcast on high definition media
old media model
Event / Issue
Journalist
Consumer Mainstream
media
new media models
Event / Issue
Journalist
Consumer Citizen media
Mainstream media
Consumer
the revolution
Journalist Consumer
Journalist Consumer / Witness
News as a conversation
News as a package
no longer just the elite
the use of new media internationally
SourceWatch: Crowdsourcinghttp://www.sourcewatch.org
10 questions: YouTubehttp://www.youtube.com/show/10questions
crisis in darfur: using google earth
new eyes: using google earth
all mainstream media use new media
bombings in london
• 7 July 2005
• Within 24 hours, the BBC had received 1,000 stills and videos, 3,000 texts and 20,000 e-mails.
“saffron revolution” in myanmar 2007
• 100,000 people joined a Facebook group supporting the monks
• No international TV crews allowed in the country
• Mobile phone cameras were the first footage of the monks protest
• Blogs from Rangoon were the only sources of information
• The junta shut down all Internet and mobile communications
burma vj reporting from a closed country
burma vj reporting from a closed country
the green revolution: post-election Iran 2009
• YouTube and Flickr brought multimedia out of the distressed country. Twitter and Facebook updates have spread videos virally. Blogs, Wikipedia, and citizen journalism have helped disseminate and filter this information.
• Most of all though, these tools have helped people take action.
the green revolution: post-election Iran 2009
haiti earthquake, january 2009
Our presentThe telegenic revolutions
The use of social media in Sri LankaPresidential Campaign 2010
flickr for sarath fonseka
flickr for the president
facebook for president
facebook for sarath fonseka
more local examples
groundviews citizen journalism bearing witness
readership and reach: web media
From 19 – 27 May 2010, Groundviews ran a special edition on the end of war in Sri Lanka.
Over this week alone, the site received over forty thousand readers and exclusively featured over eighty-thousand words of original content, one video premiere, over a dozen photos, generating over one hundred and fifty thousand words of commentary.
Tens of thousands more have read and commented on this content since.
commemorating lasanthahttp://unbowedandunafraid.com
groundviews.org: participatory journalismhttp://www.groundviews.org/2010/03/15/strengthening-democracy-in-sri-lanka-an-open-invitation-to-generate-fresh-ideas/
recording history: archiving vital websiteshttp://sitesatrisksl.wordpress.com
groundviews citizen journalism bearing witness
online video: vikalpa YouTube channelwww.youtube.com/vikalpasl
alternative politics in sinhala vikalpa www.vikalpa.org
boondi alternative Sinhala critiqueswww.boondi.lk
kottu blog aggregationwww.kottu.org
sinhala bloggers union: Sinhala blog aggregationwww.sinhalabloggers.com
sinhala bloggers union: Sinhala blog aggregationwww.sinhalabloggers.com
what is curation?
curated content
selecting the best produce
curating news
• Buying fruits of vegetables
• Check price
• Weigh it in one’s hands
• Look at it from all angles
• Look at it in context
• Look at a few, not just one
• Discard if old
• Ascertain location where it was produced
• Curating news
• Check authorship
• Check for veracity, quality
• Is it accurate, fair, topical?
• What is the bias? Is it progressive?
• Select a few from many sources
• Discard if out-dated information is presented
• Be cautious of unverified information and breaking news
curated twitter content on sri lanka: newshttp://twitter.com/groundviews/sl-news
curated twitter content on sri lanka: blogshttp://twitter.com/groundviews/sl-bloggers
facebook for work
social networking: facebook600 million+ users
social networking: facebook reach
Avg. FB account: 130 friends
Updates featured on ~690,000+ FB accounts. Instantly.
Groundviews FB page has 5,311+ fans
social networking: facebook reach
social networking: facebook reach
social networking: facebook video
case study: mumbai bomb blastsNovember 2008
flickr : first images of the attackshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/vinu/sets72157610144709049
wikipedia: first narratives of the attackshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26_November_2008_Mumbai_attacks
400+ edits / updates
100+ authors
Less than 24 hours after first attack
wikipedia: first narratives of the attackshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26_November_2008_Mumbai_attacks
Getting updates: twittering the attackshttp://spy.appspot.com
case study: japan earthquakeMarch 2011
getting updates: google crisis responsehttp://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html
producing and reading content
gmail account: email, maps, news
• Free
• Access to Google Maps (mapping)
• Access to Google Reader (RSS / web updates)
• Access to Google News (news updates)
google maps
google newshttp://news.google.com
wordpress.com: blogging
twitter.com micro-blogginghttp://media.twitter.com
ustream.tv: broadcasting via a PC
ustream: mobile phone broadcastinghttp://www.ustream.tv/mobile
bearing witness
flickr online photos
creating online content
• Think beyond text. Online is not print.
• Think beyond prose. Online can be satire, verse, haiku!
• Think of photos, audio, video. Rich media tells stories.
• Think of SMS and crowd-sourcing
• Don’t suggest you know everything. Use the community to add value to story.
• Link to other stories online
enduring challenges
• Impartial, accurate coverage still vital, increasingly hard to ascertain
• Torrent of information, trickle of knowledge
• Veracity and verifiability
• Eye-witness accounts are partial, subjective
• New media / technology illiteracy even amongst journalists
• Apathy and animosity against citizen journalism
• Licensing and attribution of online content
groundviews: first civility code2006
still not convinced?