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What is ‘Social’ About Social Media? Lecturer: Sue Mew The Social Media Revolution How do we understand this social phenomenon as sociologists? What is ‘social’ about social media? What does it mean to be ‘social? What does social media tell us about the structures and power relations at the heart of the social media landscape? What possibilities does social media hold for participatory culture and participatory democracy? Lecture Aims and Themes To develop student critical understanding of: 1. What is ‘social’ about social media?; 2. Social media as the product of a techno-social system; 3. Sociological theory and approaches to social media; 4. Social media as ‘participatory culture’. What is ‘Social’ about Social Media? Links to question of ‘What does it mean to be ‘social’?: Information and Cognition - All media is regarded by some as ‘social’ because they are part of society and because aspects of society are present in the technology we use. Cognition regarded as social activity. Communication - Some argue that not all media are social, but only those that support interpersonal communication (cf. symbolic interaction) - e.g. not ‘social’ if you write a document alone, but is ‘social’ to write an email or chat on Facebook. Community - Some communications result in more than social relationships - e.g. a ‘community’ of friends, fans, activists. Collaboration and co-operative work - A fourth form of sociability is collaborative or co-operative work - e.g. Wikipedia. Understanding Social Media Fuchs (2014:6) Social Media: A Critical Introduction, argues: “Understanding social media critically means, among other thing, to engage with different forms of sociality on the internet in the context of society.” Specifically, it means we need to be careful to specify which meaning of the term”social’ we are employing. It also means we need to engage with social theory as a tool of thought to help us come to grips with key concepts and ideas when discussing different aspects of social media e.g. ‘sociality’, ‘power’, ‘communication’, ‘democracy’, ‘participation’, the ‘public sphere’ What is ‘Social’ about Social Media? Fuchs (2014:6) argues: All computing systems, and therefore all web applications, as well as all forms of media can be considered as social Why? Because they store and transmit human knowledge that originates in social relations within society They are objectifications of society and human social relations However, not all computing systems and web applications support direct communication between humans, in which at least two humans mutually exchange meaningful communication For example, Amazon is primarily a tool of information rather than communication. Contrast with Facebook which has in-built communication features (walls, mail system, comments) which are clearly tools of communication. ‘Social Media’ as a Complex Concept ‘Social media’ has multi-layered meanings For instance, Facebook contains a lot of content (information) and is a tool for communication and creation of ‘communities’ BUT, it is only to a minor degree a tool for collaborative work However, Fuchs argues (2014:6) is does involve at least three types of sociality: cognition, communication and community. Therefore, important when trying to critically understand what is ‘social’ about social media to engage with the different forms of sociality on the Internet in the context of society In 2013 the most accessed websites were Google, Facebook, YouTube Windows Live, Blogspot, Twitter, Wikipedia These platforms include social networking sites (Facebook, Linkedin), video sharing sites (YouTube), blogs (Tumbler, Blogspot), wikis (Wikipedia), and microblogs (Twitter) Media and Social Theory Media are not technologies but techno-social systems In otherwards, media based on the duality of structure and agency Sociologist Giddens (1984: 25-26) explains this duality as follows: “ According to the notion of the duality of structure, the structural properties of social systems are both medium and outcome of the practices they organise … and they both enable and constrain actions” Media are techno-social systems, in which information and communication technologies enable and constrain human activities This process is dynamic and reflexive and connects technological structures to human agency The Dialectic of Structure and Agency Social Media and Social Theory 1 Fuchs (2014) produces a model of human activity explaining social media using sociological theory: Durkheim (1982) Rules of Sociological Method Structural approach; social facts as fixed and objectified social structures that condition social behavior According to this approach, all media and all software are social in that they are the products of social processes They objectify knowledge that is produced in society and used in social systems Yet, these structures also have a existence of their own, independent of individual manifestations Web technologies therefore, according to this approach, are ‘social facts’. Social Media and Social Theory 2 The second understanding of sociality is based on Max Weber: Weber - Social action approach; Social activity as reciprocal and meaningful symbolic interaction “Action is ‘social’ insofar as its subjective meaning takes account of the behaviour of others and is thereby orientated to its course.” Weber, 1978:4) According to this approach, Weber clear to distinquish between social character of activities and individual activity and actions Ferdinand Tonnies - Social co-operation approach; community as social systems that are based on feelings of togetherness, mutual dependence, and values According to this approach, web platforms that enable the social networking of people, and bring people together, creating a sense of mutual togetherness, are social Marx - Social co-operation approach - the social as social cooperation that result in collective goods, owned co-operatively According to this approach, web platforms that enable the collaborative production of digital knowledge are social Social Media and Social Theory 3 Ferdinand Tonnies (1988) Community and Society - Social co-operation approach; community as social systems that are based on feelings of togetherness, mutual dependence, and values According to this approach, web platforms that enable the social networking of people, and bring people together, creating a sense of mutual togetherness, are social Tonnies concept of Gemeinschaft [community] is based on consciousness of belonging together and affirmation of mutual dependence Tonnies distinquishes Gemeinschaft [community] from that of Gesellscahft [society] - a more abstract, objective, recognition of unity based on common traits and activities and other external phenonomena. Social Media and Social Theory 4 Marx & Engels (1846) The German Ideology Social co-operation approach - the social as social co-operation that result in collective goods, owned co-operatively For Marx and Engels, co-operation is the essence of the social and the foundation of human existence: “By social we understand the co-operation of several individuals, no matter what the conditions, in what manner, to what end. It follows from this that a certain mode of production, or industrial stage, is always combined with a certain mode of co-operation, or social stage, and this mode of co-operation is itself a ‘productive force’. (Marx and Engels, 1846: 50). According to this approach, web platforms that enable the collaborative production of digital knowledge are social The Ideology of Social Media as Participatory Culture General assumption that Web 2.0 and development of social media platforms results in a more democratic society (see O’Reilly, 2005) Jenkins (2008:137) argues that increasingly “the web has become a site of consumer participation” Tapscott and Williams (2007) refer to Web 2.00 as having resulted in “a new economic democracy” But these approaches, all questionable when one delves more closely into the actual participatory character of social media platforms That is, these are dominated by transnational corporations The Limits of Participatory Social Media Ideology Links to political economy of social media platforms Asymmetries in terms of visibility and attention evident Analysis of top ten most viewed videos on YouTube shows that transnational media corporations control “YouTube political attention economy” (see Fuch, 2014:99) Same analysis reveals that entertainment and music very popular on both YouTube and Facebook, whereas politics is a minority interest The top 10 results of a Google search for political news are all associated with corporate news organisations (Fuch, 2014:101) 9 out of 10 most followed user profiles are entertainment orientated - Barack Obama being the exception All such results suggest a ‘corporate colonisation’ (cf. Habermas) of social media Communication Power and Social Media Key social theorist of the Internet is Spanish sociologist, Manuel Castells Author of trilogy The Information Age (2004), and Communication Power (2009) Castells (2009: 80, 97) argues Internet is shaped by conflict between global media business networks and “creative audience” that seeks to establish degree of control and assert right to communicative freedom Views communication process as a dialectical process in relation to mass self-communication = rooted in conflict On the one hand, once in cyberspace, people watch “the powerful”;but in order to access global communication networks people have to surrender their privacy and become advertising targets (Castells: 2009:421) Thus, Web 2.00 business strategies result in”the commodification of freedom” - the enclosing of the commons of free communications Thus, struggle for communicative power is central site of conflict (cf. Habermas, Foucault)