Can social media build a community?
Many of you think so. And the
scholars agree. Media expert Henry
Jenkins has observed that 'New forms of community
are emerging, defined through voluntary,
temporary and tactical affiliations, and reaffirmed through common
intellectual enterprises and emotional investments'.
What hold these communities
together? Jenkins believes it's
the 'mutual production and reciprocal
exchange of knowledge' enabled by social
media.
Productive exchanges
have happened on this blog. Dialogue, poetic conversations, and an exchange of personal
views.
In this post,
we look a bit further. Social media has a democratic availability to anyone who
wants to participate in an activist community, one that will right some wrong
in the world. Do we make use of this? My blog visitors certainly do.
Here are the results
of the poll I ran recently among colleagues, fellow students and friends. The
40 respondents, aged 21+, showed a high level of engagement with media, particularly
in terms of sharing with friends any issues of injustice they encountered.
I presented three scenarios:
SCENARIO 1 - what
you’ve already done.
If a friend of yours posted
an article on their Facebook timeline about an issue that really grabbed
you—e.g. child abuse, animal cruelty, injustice, disease, drug abuse,
poverty—have you
1 shared it on your own
timeline? 2 researched the issue?
3 talked to your friends
about it? 4 signed a petition? 5 made a donation?
6 joined an online group? 7
written a letter to the press or a politician? 8 attended an event? 9 joined a
real organisation to help this cause?
SCENARIO 2 - what you might
do in the future
If a friend of yours posted
an article about an issue that really grabbed you—e.g. child abuse, animal
cruelty, injustice, disease, drug abuse, poverty—have you
1 shared it on your own
timeline? 2 researched the issue?
3 talked to your friends
about it? 4 signed a petition? 5 made a donation?
6 joined an online group? 7
written a letter to the press or a politician? 8 attended an event? 9 joined a
real organisation to help this cause?
SCENARIO 3 - Other media If you heard about the same
kind of issue on TV, on the radio or in a newspaper, would you be likely to-
1 research it? 2 talk to friends about it? 3 sign a
petition? 4 make a donation? 5 write a letter to press or
politicians? 6 attend an event? 7 join an organisation to
help?
Here are the results.
Though the sample is very small, the results are consistent. Most respondents
have shared links to issues, researched them, and discussed them with friends.
Around 25% have joined organisations to help address the issues.
Launching dialogue See this site,
in the footsteps of An Inconvenient Truth,
for tips on how to create or strengthen an activist community
We just need to take the
first step, and connect online. That way we can enjoy ‘sense of connection that listening participants can
feel in online spaces’ say Kate
Crawford, of the University of Sydney.
What’s your view? Can
social media create community, do some community building, or even just plant the
first seeds of interest about communal issues?
This post is great when you did a survey amongst your audience. To answer your question, I do believe that social media can create community engagement or in other words, social media can build community and connect people together. As your first scenario, I will definitely share the article, talk to my friend and research about the topic. So actually, social media platform has encouraged involvement from audience, then you can response back. Hence, relationship and engagement are all built. The important thing is, you need to keep your social media alive
ReplyDeleteWhile looking up stuff on social media and the Arab Spring, I found a blogger who said: "While the social media was so effective during the uprisings, its role became insignificant immediately after the change of regime. Traditional, better organized religious groups got an almost landslide victory over different “ad hoc” temporary action groups. It seems that with Tweet and FB it is difficult to create any deeper group identity, common vision or commitment." Which is interesting. In the Aus context, it isn't (usually) a state of life or death. Getup uses sm excellently for activism.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/forum/topics/blogging-web-2-0-as-a-tool-in-the-media-war-by-ari-rusila#.Ul5ZJygyk0B
Interesting results! The seeds to create community through social media have not only been sowed they have sprouted and are growing fast!
ReplyDeleteI think as you say the results are clear people are certainly connecting more on or because of social media.The talking about social media with friends is an interesting stat...that social media can spark connections offline.. a bit like TV used to do in the old days when everyone watched the same movie or TV show the night before and talked about it the next day....these days that broadcast effect isn't as prevalent ...but the need to talk about your experience and share it with others seems to be just as strong.
ReplyDeleteRox
Thanks to all of my commenters. Seems to me that all your responses make valid the claim that social media is increasing the possibility for connections to start happening. And, of course, the creation of connection is the beginning of the creation of community. Thanks for contributing to the development of a community of thinkers about social media. That's what this blog is about!
ReplyDeleteReally interesting results. Good to see there are other people that feel the same way.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous of 16 October in that messages are easily spread via social media and this can provoke action amongst like minded people. However, once action has been initiated or the aims have been achieved, the group will disintergrate.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I have found that smaller groups of like minded individuals may splinter off into subgroups which will continue.
E
There is a really interesting connection between active listening and taking action and it goes to the level of engagement with the issue. I think social media is brilliant for distributing the message but its popular responses such as reposting or liking are relatively shallow and passive - because they require little effort on the part of the individual. I really enjoyed Kate Crawford's article on listening and agree that if individuals do engage with the issue this is a highly valid form of participation and engagement. Clearly if they become highly engaged through first being alerted to an issue through social media this is a wonderful result. However I think other people may require to be led through a different process in order step up engagement. The technologies of social media can certainly assist this process by making action more acceptable eg. No fuss buttons for signing petitions, donating or signing up for membership. Really interesting post many thanks Avril
ReplyDeleteCatriona
I totally agree - I have an extensive social media network, and the advantage is by writing one facebook or twitter status, I can easily reach a lot of people. Case in point, a campaign for PETA regarding the cruel treatment of bulls gained huge momentum through social media, as everyone who read it on the FB page, was able to share it on their own page, and thus keep spreading the message. Its the fastest way to spread the word. (BC)
ReplyDeleteA great analysis.There must be a correlation with the sort of early research that was done on talk-back radio- how many people listen without doing anything is correlated to the number who take action, even shallo/passive action.
ReplyDelete