The Evolution of Communication and Function of New Media - Essay Example

The evolution of communication and the function of new media Introduction Communication has been a core feature of human beings since prehistoric times where human beings used a variety of symbolic or physical devices to convey or create meanings. For example, for thousands of years, cave paintings remain as indelible proof of ancient human communication. With time, the methods and devices humans have used through the course of human history have evolved as the societies continued to advance. While cultural, social, economic, religious, political or natural forces have affected the evolution of communication means, the means or method of communication has in turn shaped and influenced ideas, traditions, values and institutions (Manuel 2008). The evolution of communication means has been most evident and significant in the past century, with the pace of invention accelerating after every 50 years in the 20th century with several advances recorded in the 21st century. Among the most significant inventions in the past centuries are telephone, telegraph, motion picture projector and the motion picture camera, not to be discounted is the invention of electricity, which is the bloodline of the information revolution. Most importantly, these inventions made mass communication possible and established the foundations for present day communication systems (Manuel 2008). Emergence of social media The internet was invented through a collaboration of researchers and the US Department of Defense as a communication network adaptable to extreme conditions. The internet was, however, allowed for civilian use in the 1980s and was mainly utilised by academicians and researchers. It is Swiss researchers who invented the first protocols heralding the creation of the World Wide Web, which consisted of a multimedia component of the internet. This user friendly version of the internet became the preferred interface for internet users making the internet adaptable to the general public (Marjorie 2005). Social media are a form of communication where people interact with each other and communicate with the world using user-created content. Through social networks, people are able to communicate, create new relationships, interact and share information using different tools offered by social networking websites. Users of social media communicate using tools like status, chatting or twitter updates to express themselves and communicate with friends (Marjorie 2005). Social networking sites have changed the way people receive and share information by opening up new portals through which information is disseminated and shared. People no longer rely on traditional mass media like newspapers and television to access news. Rather, friends on social sites give updates on the current news. For example, news can be shared through MySpace status, Facebook, blog posts and comments. An important aspect of social media is the effect it has on the dynamics of traditional journalism and mass communication (Marjorie 2005). Through the use of user generated content and the sharing of content among friends who are members of a social network, social media builds community, fosters diversity and promotes information exchange. It builds on the technological and ideological foundations of web 2.0, which offers internet based applications that allow creation and exchange of user generated content. To attract traffic, social media sites provide periodic site updates and design changes in order to encourage users to simultaneously consume, and produce data. The most prevalent characteristics of social networks are user-created profiles, which feature images, texts, videos, audio, quizzes, links, surveys and the ability to interact with friends (Marjorie 2005). Web 2.0 and the rise of interactive communication The introduction of web 2.0 technologies offered internet users interactivity that transformed the internet into a modern social platform involving mass participation; Social media transmits multimedia content and facilitates interaction between senders and receivers or between content providers and their audiences (Marjorie 2005). Social media has consolidated and transformed mass communication and interpersonal communication into new inter activities such as virtual groups in work places, chat groups and online communities. Generally, the media technology existing in society affects individuals in their thinking, behavior and communication. The era of social media has emphasized interactive communication over oral, prints, writing and telecommunication, which dominated previous developments of human communication (Marjorie 2005). The evolution of social media has been aided by computerization and digital technology especially the internet and its various applications. With the aid of modern technologies, communication and interaction may take place online, in the virtual world or cyberspace without the need for physical contact (Jacob and Ying 2011). Many people now use social media to meet their psychological and social needs. The internet is the place where people meet, interact and form relationships. Unlike web 1.0 which consisted of static pages offering little interactivity, web2.0 facilitated the development of online community centered applications, offering a high degree of interactivity, collaboration, inclusiveness, use of authentic materials, and high levels of digital literacy. Web 2.0 software enabled mass participation in social and collective activities converting the internet into an instrument for and by the masses (Jacob and Ying 2011). Users of the internet can now consume, create, share, facilitate and communicate online. Consumption involves; reading, watching, listening, downloading, searching and buying content while creating involves aggregation, personalising and contributing content to the online activity the user is engaged in. Sharing involves publishing and uploading while facilitating interaction involves tagging and recommending to others. Communicating with other users may involve posting comments, sending messages rating and chatting. Social media has evolved to meet the technical requirements of effective online social networking (Jacob and Ying 2011). The main features of effective social media are bounding, which aim at forming an online group meeting, tracking the list of community involvement in discussions, archiving to maintain records for ease of discussion and warranting, and ensuring the identity of participants. The rapid adoption of social media by groups, individuals, organizations and communities has created online communities and virtue social life (Gerald 2003). This form of media utilizes four basic elements of people; sharing, policy and computer system. Such communities are formed and maintained through the internet. For most users, online community is a third place that is different from home and workplace. This third place is characterised by conversation in a playful mood, verbal wordplay, frivolity and wit, which creates a feeling of warmth and togetherness. Social media appears in various forms such as discussion or internet forums like weblogs and wikis like Wikipedia and Flickr where users share ideas. Sites like YouTube where users share videos. In addition, there are social news sites like Twitter, social games like Yo Ville, and social networking sites like Facebook (Jacob and Ying 2011). Using social media is more exciting than traditional media to the user, causing the users to frequent use these sites more than other media as the user frequents the social media site in pursuit of enjoyment and pleasure. Cyberspace has become a new playground for online interaction where people get together and form groups based on interests with the use of social networking and virtual world sites. Millions of people log in and sign up to participate in the fun, interact and utilise elements of Audio, video and digital animation offered by the new media (Jacob and Ying 2011). Increased online activities have contributed to higher rates of internet penetration in almost all countries. The "Digital World, Digital Life" report released by TNS Global Interactive shows that the average adult respondent from 16 countries spend a third of their spare time online. The use on new media is no longer confined to homes or work places as social media can be used anywhere with a wireless technology or a mobile phone (Mirza 2009). The year 2008 witnessed the growth of online social networking via social networking sites and virtual worlds. this is confirmed by data from comScore World Metrix, which indicates that out of the 1.1 billion people accessing the internet in May 2009, 65% of them visited at least one social networking site. Social media has been converted into a friendship management utility with over 74% of users using social media to send messages to their acquaintances. The sites connect people on a global scale with over 75% of migrants using social media to communicate with people in their native countries. The basic characteristic of social media is providing users with a form of impression or perception, maintenance and acquisition of new relationships. Though the sites may vary in technical features, the backbone of these sites is a profile that displays a list of friends. Each member connects with other members and participates in developing the community (Mirza 2009). If the user is in a blog space, he/she receives the latest information from the portal space, forum or gallery. Online social networking is characterized by trends and preferences, sharing of activities and information for socialising (Mirza 2009). It is a place where people with similar interests meet, act and express themselves. Categories of social media Online social networks can be divided into five categories; egocentric networks, which are very popular and act as a platform to build a network of friends. They are a virtual platform for identity formation involving the fabrication and management of various identities. These social networks act as platforms for personal expression and artistic creativity through songs, photos, videos and other content posted by users. Web communities collect members with strong identity ties based on nationality, religion, race, interests and even gender with the online gathering reshaping the existing community offline (Mirza 2009). There is a strong bond in these communities as they form micro-communities of social network. The opportunistic web, on the other hand, gathers members for rational reasons such as business or professional relationships, such sites include LinkedIn and Plaxo. Passion-centric networks gather people who share interests or hobbies. They can also be referred to as communities of interest as membership is defined based on particular interests. Examples of such sites are Shelfari and Good-reads, which are meeting places for book fans. Media sharing sites are defined based on content. You Tube, for example, attracts users who want to share videos while Flickr attracts those who want to share photos (Held and McGrew 2003). Visitors of such sites come in order to access content produced by others. Elements associated with social networking sites they include; the portal, which is a space for registration of information, profiles and the latest information. Forums are chart rooms and friendly interaction spaces for members. Blogs offer writing space for members while galleries offer space for sharing photos of activities by members (Held and McGrew 2003). Users of Online social networking sites can display their status and distinction to the audience that consists of friends, colleagues and others by stating their tastes or listing their interests such as sports, music, books favorite movies and others (Held and McGrew 2003). People use social networking sites because of their ability to connect people around the world while various types of social networking sites create a variety of online communities. According to comScore, Facebook leads in popularity with 370 million users, MySpace follows with 123 million users, Hi5 has 59 million users, Orkut has 55 million users, and Twitter has 52 million users. Over 35 million Facebook users update their status every day while photo uploads on Facebook increased by over 100% in 2009 (Held and McGrew 2003). An overwhelming majority of social network users are young people who are versatile and always on the lookout for something new. The main use of the internet by the youth is for entertainment and communication with family and friends. They use social media to socialize with others, use applications, play games, send private messages and discuss various topics (Cacilda 2007). By November 2009, over 70% of all users of the social networks in the USA were young adults aged between 18 and 30. Of the 93% teenagers online, 65% use social network sites as a daily tool of communication. The older generation has shown enthusiasm for internet use relying on social network tools to manage their daily communication, though most of them primarily use email to contact colleagues, friends and family (Cacilda 2007). The limited amount of time people have to check social media sites means that people can only check a limited number of sites per day (Gerald 2003). It is this handicap that inspired the RSS (Really Simple Syndication). RSS helps people access blogs and pod-casts through subscription. RSS notifies a newsreader on his/her personal home page that there is new content available and sends texts and images to the user without the news reader having to visit the website (Cacilda 2007). It therefore makes it much easier for social media like blogs to build and become part of communities. Social media networks build communities and keep members interested by providing services that are entertaining and help members expand their network. For example, MySpace allows members to create vivid, chaotic home pages to which they can upload music, images and videos. A lot of MySpace popularity is built around music services. There are thousands of music bands registered on it and over 3 million musicians trying to attract a fan base from the over 200 million registered accounts (Cacilda 2007). As indicated by Hit wise, 2006, My Space was ranked 8th in referral of traffic to HMV.co.uk. Facebook originated in US colleges, but became public in 2007. Facebook’s popularity rocketed with the decision by its creators to go public allowing members of the public to develop applications and use them on Facebook free of charge (Cacilda 2007). As a result, Facebook users utilises games such as Chess and Scrabble, compare each other’s taste and send virtual gifts to members vying for attention. Bebo is popular among school age children, with most members coming from a schooling back ground. It hosts pages of many children authors. Linked-in, on the other hand, allows users to link their business or professional contacts into an online network. It is second to Facebook for popularity among people aged 25 and above (Cacilda 2007). How different social networks function Blogs are online journals where entries are published with the most recent appearing first. They are written in personal conversation style and are the work of an identified author or group of authors. They bear links and trackbacks directing users to other websites in reference to an article or to provide more information on the topic or subject of the article (Cacilda 2007). They have a comment section where audiences debate and post opinions. People subscribe to blogs through RSS so that they can keep up with new content. Google and WordPress offer free blogger services for people to set up blogs. Wikis allow people to share and edit content on their websites. Wikipedia is the most famous of them with 2.5 million articles in English and over a million users (Cacilda 2007). Podcasts are video or audio files published on the internet and which users can subscribe to. With subscription, people who upload audio content on the web can connect regular audiences and online communities around their shows. It effectively puts individuals at par with brands of traditional media in competing for attention (Cacilda 2007). When a podcast is posted on the web, subscribers are immediately notified and can, therefore, download the programme to their computers and listen to them later. Internet forums exist around certain topics and interests, each discussion on a forum also known as a thread, and many threads can be active simultaneously. Forums provide detailed discussions, debate for sharing news, and seeking advice. They have a strong sense of community with little or no connection with other forms of media (Cacilda 2007). Content communities focus on sharing a particular type of content. For one to join, he/she has to register, get a home page and connect with friends. Flickr focuses on sharing photography where members can upload their photos on the site and decide whether to make them public or share with a limited network of friends. Groups on Flickr share photos on a particular interest like towns, graffiti, sports or animals (Cacilda 2007). In addition, You Tube is the world’s largest video sharing service with over 100 million videos viewed every day. Members can upload videos and invent their own channels featuring their favorite videos. The viral nature of You Tube is a feature that allows for users to cut and paste videos on You Tube directly into their blogs. Digg is a news content community where members submit links to news stories and these stories are voted for by other members. Once a story has gathered a critical number of votes, it is placed on the front page where it gets more attention from members and casual visitors to the site. Digg receives over 20 million visitors every month (Cacilda 2007). Micro-blogging combines elements of blogging with instant messaging and social networking. Twitter, the leading micro-blogging site has over 1 million users. Twitter users can send up to 140 characters instantly to multiple platforms. Twitter interactions are made through mobile text message, instant messaging or desktop application such as Twitterrific. Users can subscribe for updates via RSS. It is suitable for breaking news and has been harnessed by BBC and CNN (Cacilda 2007). Case study of use of social media in the Egyptian revolution The 2011 Egyptian revolution witnessed an upsurge in use of social media with Facebook, Twitter and You Tube playing key roles in communication among activists. Despite the Jan 27th 2011 internet shut down, the protests continued unabated implicating extensive use of social media by protestors to communicate. During the revolution, many Egyptians marched on the streets in Cairo and Alexandria to protest against unemployment, poverty, corruption and the autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak. The demands of the protestors were the end of Mubarak’s regime, justice, end of the emergency law, and a non-military government to manage the country (Dan 2003). The Egyptian protests were inspired by events in Tunisia after Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouaziz set himself on fire in protest to the injustices of life under the government of Ben Ali. A Facebook page was created in honor of Bouaziz as a national martyr and this initiated massive protests in Tunisia. Facebook continued to play a major role in the campaign as activists used it to share information and videos when the government blocked several other sites. The shaky videos shot with camera phones created a link between events on the streets and remote areas of the country linking up with the general population. Many of the clips were graphic with one depicting a man lying on a gurney with a concussion in his skull. Brain was oozing out of his skull and cries could be heard all around. Several other videos were uploaded on Facebook depicting the same event (Dan 2003). The videos uploaded, and other recorded actions provided raw materials for a wider on line apparatus, which amplified each injury, death or protest. Pictures, videos and information spread fast and within a few days, several people had signed-up on Facebook and the number of Tunisian users doubled. This attracted government attention, and online activists began to have run-ins with government authorities especially Ammar, which censures the internet. The government captured thousands of passwords and used the country’s Internet Service Providers to log information and delete profiles. Facebook responded by re-routing all Tunisian requests for Facebook to a server, that would not be susceptible to the key logging strategy of the Tunisian government. Facebook further employed a system that required users to identify their friends in photos in order to log back into their accounts (Martin 2004). Citizens in neighboring Egypt watched You Tube videos, read tweets and joined Facebook groups even as Ben Ali was overthrown. The images beamed into the homes of millions of Egyptians depicting the Tunisian uprising, and eventual overthrowing of Ben Ali caused a shift in public consciousness. Hosni Mubarak had been Egypt’s president for over 30 years and had extended the emergency law giving his government the right to incarcerate individuals for no apparent reason (Martin 2004). The Egyptian revolution was the largest popular revolution in 30 years and many people are convinced that use of social media for planning and communication made the revolution possible. Egyptian activists used Facebook to arrange protests, Twitter to coordinate activities, and You Tube to broadcast to the world (Martin 2004). Though lagging behind other Middle East countries in internet penetration at 15.4%, Egypt is well ahead of most African countries, and the substantial penetration especially in the action areas strengthened the revolution. ‘We are all called Khaled Said’ was a popular Facebook page supported by viral videos by a young woman called Aasma Mahfouz giving momentum to the protests. Khaled Said was a young man from Alexandria who posted a video of police sharing drugs from a drug bust and was beaten to death by police in retaliation. The Facebook page ‘we are Khaled Said served as a memorial to Khaled and had 473000 users by Feb 2011. The page united Egyptians in rage and was accompanied by cell phone photos of Said’s battered body and You Tube videos contrasting pictures of a healthy Said with the battered images. The page was an online campaign against police brutality in the country with a constant supply of videos, photos and news. The interactive style of the administrator Wael Ghonim combined with carefully calibrated photos, which were political, emotional and broad in their appeal turned it into one of Egypt’s leading activist sites. When the Tunisian dictator fell ‘ we are all Khaled Said’ announced a revolution in Egypt, all the 350000-plus fans on the page were cordially invited to protest on Jan 25 2011 and could click ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ to signify their decision. Two days after the protest Ghonim was arrested and held for 12 days and was hailed a hero upon his release. He later refuted the hero status in a tweet declaring that he was not a hero as everyone was a hero. Aasma Mahfouz was an Egyptian woman in her 20s and was a founder member of the 2008 April 6 Youth Movement, which was a Facebook group started in 2008 to support workers in an Egyptian town who were planning a strike on April 6. She uploaded a video on Facebook calling on all Egyptians to link-up with her an organised protest at Tahrir Square on Jan 25. The video was uploaded on You Tube and went viral with the message of a girl willing to expose her face spread in Egypt. Part of the success of her video is attributed to her willingness to show her face in sharing her message. The boldness of this act and forcefully speaking out inspired many others to start posting their images online. The Jan 25 protests sparked by ‘we are all Khaled Said’ and Aasms Mahfouz were repeated with the hashtag #Jan25 to mark all tweets related to the protests (John 2003). The protests at Tahrir Square were real, and some 500 died in the clashes. Several unarmed young men stormed the Ministry of Interior building promoting the guards into mowing them down resulting in many casualties. Several more were injured when Mubarak’s supporters tried to take the Square and those who were hurt refused to go for treatment in hospital for fear of arrest. Graphic images, narratives and videos were sent to Egypt and the world at large by those who had access to social media (John 2003). The #Jan25 strategy was to use online communication to mobilize people from poorer regions and avoid police tactic of cordoning off protestors preventing them from rallying. The protestors had internet access reported to the world in real time with tweets from the protests ranging from rallying calls to requests for help to journalistic note taking (John 2003). The government’s decision to block the internet highlights the effect social media had on the protests. However, the blockade was too late, and by this time protests had been planned and activists connected. Social media had moved from a planning and organizing tool to a real-time reporting tool, and Egypt had already caught the world’s attention, and with the world tuned in protestors enlisted the support of overseas friends. The Egyptian protests clearly demonstrate how social media can be harnessed to get the masses communicating and sharing information (John 2003). Conclusion It is apparent that communication has evolved greatly in the last 100 years. The advent of social media converted citizens into journalists who could create and spread news using internet based applications. The internet especially web 2.0 inspired the emergence of social media where people could generate and share content and at the same time create and join online groups. Social media can be a powerful reform tool as witnessed in the Egyptian revolution. However, the evolution has been influenced by various factors such as culture, social, economic, religious, political and natural forces. Nevertheless, it is correct to note that the evolution has been most beneficial especially in facilitating and enhancing people’s way of life. For instance, social media is believed to have enabled people to share, learn and socialise effectively. 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