PewInternet.org

The New Environment for Advocates & NGOs

10 fresh realities of the digital age

State Department Visitors ProgramJanuary 17, 2012Lee Rainie: Director, Pew Internet ProjectEmail: Lrainie@pewinternet.orgTwitter: @Lrainie

Digital Revolution 1Internet (83%) and Broadband at home (67%)

71%

67%

Digital Revolution 2Social networking – 50% of all adults

% of internet users

Digital Revolution 3Mobile – 84%

327.6million

Total U.S. population:315.5 million

2011

Mobile internet connectors – 63% adults

35% own “smartphones”

New Reality 1) The world is full of networked individuals using networked information

Image attribution: Flickrverse, Expanding Ever with New Galaxies Forming Cobalt123 http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/34248855/sizes/z/in/photostream/

New Reality 2) Giant changes in civic culture and mediasphere have created new opportunities for

NGOs and activists

New reality 2) Corollary New civic actors are emerging with social media

New reality 2) Corollary

Do-it-yourself/hacker ethic of networked individuals can be tapped to fill gaps

New Reality 3) The is no high-tech secret sauce for effective message making

New Reality 3) Corollaries

• Credibility is assessed through multiple filters– Trusted information sources (including search engines)– Personal beliefs/experiences– Social networks– Aggressive fact checking

• Yes, bad information hangs around, but it can be attacked in several ways– Recanting– Better information, especially from multiple sources

New Reality 4) Mass-media megaphones still matter to getting a story out, but new messaging

opportunities have emerged

David Edelman: “Branding in the Digital Age: You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places,” Harvard Business Review http://hbr.org/2010/12/branding-in-the-digital-age-youre-spending-your-money-in-all-the-wrong-places/ar/1

apps

New Reality 5) There are stages of engagement with audiences and each has a different weight

http://www.idealware.org/articles/engagement-pyramid-six-levels-connecting-people-and-social-change

New reality 5) Corollaries

• The social media space is a “fifth estate” with a different civic sensibility

• Facebook is different from Twitter• Social media users are semi-elite, they do not

represent everybody• Lurkers matter as an audience that is watching

and assessing

New Reality 6) Influence is migrating from organizations to networks and new “experts”

Traditional experts with new platforms, esp. blogs

Amateur experts who are avid contributors – sometimes with tribes

New algorithmic authorities

New Reality 6) CorollariesSocial networks are more influential and are

differently segmented and layered

Sentries

New Reality 6) Corollaries

Evaluators

Social networks are more influential and are differently segmented and layered

New Reality 6) Corollaries

Audience

Social networks are more influential and are differently segmented and layered

• Continuous partial attention to media streams

• Immersion in deep dives

• Info-snacking in free moments

New Reality 7) The flow of news has changed – and so have people’s attention zones

New Reality 8) All organizations are under more scrutiny and transparency is a new marker of trust

Surveillance – powerful watch the ordinary

Sousveillance – ordinary watch powerful

Coveillance – peers stalk peers

New Reality 9) The age of big data is upon us – and will give new power to analytics

New Reality 10) Critical uncertainties remain

The architecture itself

Information policies

Social norms and attitudes

Thank you!