Presentation to Global Media Communication and New Media students at Murdoch University, Perth, WA, 2 September, 2009

1. Ten things about social media Professor Terry Flew Queensland University of Technology Presentation to Global Media Industries and New Media Technologies Murdoch University, Perth, WA 1 September, 2009

2. Social Media is a development within Internet culture, rather than something radically new “Websites which build upon Web 2.0 technologies to provide space for in-depth social interaction, community formation and the tacking of collaborative projects” Features: Low participation thresholds Highly granular participation tasks Assumption that users have equal potential to contribute (not that they are equal contributors) Shared content ownership

3. There is a time-lag between new technologies and their socio-economic impact Kondratiev long waves Levels of technological impact (Lievrouw & Livingstone, 2005) Development of new devices/artifacts New activities and practices associated with their use Social and institutional arrangements arising from their development Techno-economic paradigms: Manuel Castells Carlota Perez

4. The Internet was the radical innovation, not social media Source: Carlota Perez, Technological Revolutions, Paradigm Shifts and Socio-Institutional Change (2004)

5. Social media is related to, but not the same as, Web 2.0?

6. We may be coming to the end of the Web 2.0/social media hype cycle Entries to Wikipedia now growing at a slower rate Pressures to better manage editing of Wikipedia Rupert Murdoch lost more money on MySpace than newspapers Is Facebook fatigue happening? Hype cycle (Gartner Group)

7. Social Media: Creativity or Chaos? “a period of unparalleled social creativity when we sought to devise new ways of working together to be more democratic, creative and innovative … creating a collective intelligence on a scale never before possible” Charles Leadbeater, We-Think: Mass innovation, not mass production, 2008. ‘we are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions and organizations’ Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, 2008. ‘Democratization, despite its lofty idealisation, is undermining truth, souring civic discourse, and belittling expertise, experience and talent … the free, user-generated content extolled by the Web 2.0 revolution is decimating the ranks of our cultural gatekeepers, as professional critics, journalists, editors, musicians, moviemakers, and other purveyors of expert information are being replaced … by amateurs … the real consequence of the Web 2.0 revolution is less culture, less reliable news, and a chaos of useless information’ Andrew Keen, The Cult of the Amateur, 2007.

8. Social Production Rise of social production (YochaiBenkler, The Wealth of Networks (2006)) Rise of knowledge-intensive service industries Co-ordinate effects of individual activities in networked information environments Rise of peer production and sharing of information, knowledge and culture Altruists versus signalers (Media International Australia, No. 128 – Digital Literacy John Quiggan: social media participation as non-market production Jason Potts: social media participation as proto-market production or “market signaling”

9. From mass communications media to social media: the crisis of news 9

10. Social Media and Politics Barack Obama’s 2008 US Presidential campaign “reverse-engineered” campaign fundraising Difficult to carry campaigning into government (health care reform opposition Government 2.0 Task Force in Australia May be less “Left versus Right” than insurgents versus incumbents Sarah Palin’s 800,000 Facebook friends

11. Social Media and Global Politics: plus ca change? Iran: Social media influence on 2009 election results China: Internet influence on politics contained