There’s a phenomenon occuring as we speak that could change the way people receive and react to the news. It’s called Social Media, and it’s sweeping the nation. Social Media is different from traditional media (newspapers, TV, journals, etc) in the fact that anyone can participate. It relies heavily on participation in peer to peer discussions, generally using technology as its driver.
Everyone has a voice and an opinion, but not necessarily a camera or a newspaper to broadcast that voice. What they do have, however, is an opportunity to join millions of other citizen journalists in the world of blogging, podcasting, multimedia, and collaboration. This is the basic idea for the concept of Web 2.0. What Web 2.0 is focusing on is enhancing creativity and collaboration while sharing information to the masses. Web 2.0 is not replacing what was the Internet, it’s supplementing it into what can be the Internet.
The most popular sites today all fall in line with the concept of Web 2.0 – Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube, just to name a few. These sites, along with countless others, are ways to increase ones visibility to the world. It’s redefining the way we view the news and media. Traditional Media employs a one-to-many approach, meaning that one source broadcasts to many destinations. The beauty of Social Media is that it shifts the paradigm toward a many-to-many approach. News and views can flood in from many sources and travel to many destinations. It’s easy to see why these sites are so wildly popular – not to mention addictive.
I see a future where traditional media sources being embracing the new social media market. It has already begun, but still feels like it’s in an infancy period. I’ve actually heard one account where a traditional media source contacted the owner of a social media site about a story he received from a traditional media source. Would this story have gotten out with intervention of the social media? Maybe, but maybe not. In my (limited) experiences in this field I have noticed that word of mouth travels extremely fast, and because of its fundamental nature, it reaches a huge number of people in a short time. Visibility is vital to success in today’s market. Social media is yet another tool to increase your chances of success, perhaps becoming one of the more important ones.
