As with the term “Mass Media” before it, the term “Social Media” is something of a misnomer since, in so far as a medium is a means of communicating and all communication is inherently social, it follows that all media are inherently social as well.
Therefore, what is truly meant by the term “Social Media”?
What are the attributes of so called “Social Media” that might either differentiate it from or indeed liken it to other types of media?
Is it that “Social Media” is more sociable than other forms of media? Well that can certainly be so, especially when compared to other popular forms of “Mass Media” such as Television and Film, although with the advent of “phone in programmes” Radio and to a lesser extent TV have become a little more sociable albeit that participation is limited and is certainly not capable of truly achieving mass involvement.
The term “Mass Media” was coined in the early part of the 20th Century to describe the then new medium of Radio although methods of communicating to a large “mass” audience had been in existence long before Radio. However, Radio provided the potential to communicate (“Broadcast”) to a far wider audience than possible through speech (say) which, notwithstanding the use of amplifiers (i.e. an amphitheatre), requires the participants to assemble in relatively close proximity. Radio also provided the means to broadcast far more quickly than the printed word (say) the dissemination of which, whilst potentially extremely far reaching, is nevertheless bound by the speed of the distribution process.
“Social Media” also has the primary attributes of “Mass Media” in that it is possible to broadcast to a wide audience virtually instantaneously but unlike traditional “Mass Media”, “Social Media” adds another dimension on a mass scale which is the ability of the audience to respond and thereby create a discussion in which all can participate in real time. On the other hand, Social Media is extremely useful for communication within a smaller community, even down to the most intimate of conversations between two people. Therefore, “Social Media” permits much greater breadth of involvement (sociability) than previously. “Social Media” also provides the tools with which to build communities in both a virtual and real sense and such communities are not constrained by geographical location.
There are also many diverse aspects of “Social Media” that provide the opportunity, as never before, for an individual to reach out and to make public their thoughts, ideas, knowledge, poetry, songs, artwork, photographs, videos etc., virtually anything you can think of can now be shared on the internet either as widely or as intimately as desired depending on the level of desire or indeed reticence of the author concerned. For those that don’t want to or are not yet ready to publicise themselves or their artefacts there is the unconstrained ability to share in the thoughts and ideas of others and to dabble by adding comment where appropriate, whilst drawing on the unfettered knowledge that now freely abounds and which is there to assist when they are ready to take the plunge.
What really differentiates this relative new media is the level of openness, connectedness, responsiveness and indeed unexpectedness it is capable of providing as compared to the closed arena of the more traditional media. So perhaps it should more correctly be called “Spontaneous Media”.
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