New Media revolution
27 Jul 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: africa, facebook, Ghana, moon walk, new media, Obama, Social media, Twitter
The 20th of April witnessed a worldwide 40th anniversary celebration of what is up to date considered one of mankind’s greatest escapades, the moon walk. This “small step for man, and giant leap for mankind,” has proved to be a great step indeed. 40 years down the line effects of the moon landing and exploration into orbit has begun to elucidate immense results. The establishment of space satellites has greatly boosted and enhanced the communication systems of mankind since the first satellite was launched into space in 1957.
The over 500 satellites in earth’s orbit today have facilitated the establishment of the internet and in turn Twitter and Facebook. Social media sites such as these have taken advantage of the technological advancements in the global communication sector. A move from mere peer to peer communication to one of mass communication has been realised by most of these social networking and media sites.
On the 11th of July US president Barack Obama made use of the social media and networking sites Facebook and Twitter to broadcast his message of good governance and economic progress in Ghana. The speech was streamed live on the Whitehouse website, Facebook and Twitter accounts. South African based mobile social network and instant messenger service Mxit also got into the action as users sent messages and comments to President Obama.
In an effort to better understand the mindset of the African youth, President Obama asked young people across the African continent to engage with him on MXit. Users of the service were asked to send a message to Obama and he would respond to the messages within 24hours.
Growth and Importance of New Media
This endeavour by the US president has illustrated the growth and importance of new media in modern day society. Issues of instant communication between distant parties have become the sort out objective of modern day communication. Although main stream media through television and radio can achieve this form of communication, social media and networking sites go a step further by providing a two way communication platform.
Having received the live Obama stream on Facebook and Twitter, viewers could post comments and engage in debates with other people distant to them. Even if the questions are not personally answered by the president himself direct communication between the president’s office and the ordinary citizen has been achieved, something that was perceived as being near to impossible 10 years ago.
Revolution around the corner
So, as the world celebrates the 40th anniversary of what could have been seen as impossible 100 years ago people should not ignore the communication advancements that are being made in the new media sector. The evolution of social media sites into major mass communication channels can potentially be the doorway to effective communication and information distribution within the next 10 years.
After all, contrary to popular belief, Africa, one of the most under developed continents in the world is not completely absent from the Internet. In fact, the continent at large is undergoing a connectivity revolution. Although many people might not have access to computers, many are accessing the internet via their mobile phones. The average is 30.4% and there are 280 million subscribers in total, making Africa the fastest growing mobile market in the world. So as long as internet accessibility is becoming global, the growth and dominance of new media technologies is inevitable.
News via Twitter…
05 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: how does twitter work, information dissemination, Jack Dorsey, mainstream media, Social media, Swine flu, Twitter, twitter as a media tool, twitter iran, twitter news, what is twitter
Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey and became an incorporated company in May of 2007. The concept of Twitter relies on messaging services, whether through the use of cell phones, instant messengers, such as Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger. It allows users to send messages to friends and family quickly and easily. Twitter only asks “What are u doing?” and as long as one’s answer is 140 characters or less, it is possible for thousands of people to see the answer immediately.
A user can follow other users as well. It’s easy to have conversations with other people and before long; many people will be reading updates from many different people. Twitter is a really unique social media tool that helps individuals to engage with effective:
- Article marketing
- Social networking
- Promotion of traffic to specific websites
- Staying in touch with people
Once a Tweet is posted on the webpage, people are able to easily see what other people are doing. Users can in turn let others know what is going on with them as well as commenting on their posts.
Twitter as a media tool
This ability to mass communicate is revolutionising the speed at which information can be disseminated. Social media tools such as Twitter make it easier for breaking news to be disseminated to distant places within a short space of time. With Twitter a person in China and one in Zambia can simultaneously get information about an event that just happened in Mexico with having to wait for news bulletins to aggregate the information for them.
The 140 character limitation that Twitter has enables users to post “Headline” like tweets which give the reader enough information about what has happened. Most news agencies and organisations are also using Twitter to promote their content on their tv channels and online news portals. The CNN for example uses Twitter to distribute headlines of top and current events and then people who get these twitter feeds then log onto the CNN website to read the full articles.
Over the last eight days, Twitter has managed to raise eyebrows and debate over the way people are exchanging information about the Swine Flu virus via the website. The site reported that over 10 000 posts concerning the swine flu virus were being posted every hour during the last two days. People are educating and informing each other about the virus via the website. Although this is a good thing there are questions of the reliability and validity of the information being passed around. Some twits have links to reputable sites whilst other twits just give advice on how to deal with virus.
Citizen Journalism via Twitter
However, Twitter, has also been an effective tool for citizen journalism. People from all over the world have realised the mass communication potential that Twitter has and have began to use it as a channel for voicing their marginalised voices. In Iran, citizens used twitter to update the world on what exactly was happening on the ground. Mainstream media outlets were viewed by many of the protestors in Iran as giving out biased news coverage on the intensity of the problems in Iran. So through the use of Twitter and other social media platforms which are not regulated by the government ordinary Iranians managed to voice their opinions to the world.
Twitting alongside blogging has caused eyebrows to be raised especially in the journalism industry. These social media tools have managed to equip ordinary citizens into news mediators who are not restricted or monitored by any governing body. This can be a good thing in the sense that gatekeeping can at times limit freedom of expression but on the other hand the absence of watchdogs leaves the media audience at the mercy of flawed information.
Can we trust Twitter?
So having realised the potential and effectiveness that Twitter has, the question that one can ask is how beneficial is this media tool in relation to its free for all use by ordinary citizens. Twitter has its pros and cons and it has proved to be a fast way of disseminating and raising debates but is this tool ready to be used as a major source of information alongside well established news sources?
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