Social Media: Social Revolution

We in the media biz have been desperate to figure out how to monetize social media ever since Facebook started allowing externally-created applications, enticing more than just undergrads to waste time petting Fluff Friends and throwing virtual snowballs. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr: the Fab Four of virtual sharing. These are the first four thoroughbreds in the race to keep connected in an increasingly fragmented world. We use them to share our thoughts, snapshots and video clips of our lives, to remind ourselves that others are out there, interested in what we do with our days.

We share news about ourselves and our world, and pretend that the fact that we're eating a sandwich, or going to a ballgame is interesting to anyone else. The fact is, it is. We look at dozens of pictures of people we don't even know, because at the end of the day, we are a voyeuristic race of creatures. Who cares about the trainwreck that is Speidi on the cover of OK! when we can look at all 42 of Cindy-in-the-next-cube's weekend barbeque pics?

So publishing is frenzied to make a buck on this phenomenon. If we can only understand the patterns, sell advertising, MON-E-TIZE... We attend conference sessions, listen to panel discussions, pens poised for the golden key to generating revenue, and at the same time fumbling with Re-Tweets and hashtags since it is now part of our job descriptions to be active on these platforms. Do we tweet about our lunches? Our latest launches? How much information is too much? If we post our videos is it free PR or giving away our assets?

Business Is All About the Bottom Line

The investment bankers that now own most major media outlets will tell you that if it's not making money, it doesn't matter. It's hard to argue with that when scores of media folk are unemployed, losing their homes, wondering how to pay their kids' medical bills. But the fact of the matter is that media in its purest form has always been about sharing information.

Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to a church door for free. Thomas Paine didn't have sponsors buying tower ads in his pamphlets during the American Revolution. Yet, we've built this system that considers information useless unless someone is making a buck.

Viva La Revolucion!

The U.S. State Department claims that it recently asked Twitter to postpone its scheduled maintenance so that Iranians can continue to communicate with the rest of the world about their election crisis. Twitter disputes that its decision to do so was influenced by the government and that it acted independently, but the fact remains that this platform that is the source of so much frustration for media execs, an annoyance to some editors who have been forced to learn it, and deprecated by some "serious" journalists, is a lifeline for an entire nation struggling to get a small piece of what we Americans take for granted.

YouTube is another champion, giving Iranians a platform to post videos of their situation. When the Iranian government shut down this platform (all of a sudden Iranian YouTube traffic is down 90 percent, according to BBC News), San Francisco IT superhero Austin Heap championed the cause and made proxy servers available. THAT is what the media is about: just like Luther and Paine, Austin facilitated a voice for the people.

YouTube spokesperson Scott Rubin told the BBC: "I'm likening this to the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic where all these barriers are placed in front of people and they keep marching. Only this time it's happening online and it's happening on YouTube."

The First Amendment is the backbone of the American media and the American people. Instead of social media being seen as more back fat adding to lumbar strain, perhaps these platforms are the oblique muscles propping up our hemorrhaged frame.

Comments

[Rebecca Cheeks, PhD]

I really like this post. I've been thinking about Facebook and connectivity a lot lately, as it pertains to a personal crisis. It has facilitated positive energy, thoughts, prayers, thoughtful meditation, whatever you want to call it and in whatever language is of your heart, to be sent to my nephew and our family during a time of crisis. This is a very good thing, and it is giving our family the oblique muscles to frame our hearts and soothe our minds in a real time of need.