How social media can make history - Clay Shirky

Summary

The video explores the profound transformation of the media landscape, emphasizing how the rise of social media and digital platforms has empowered individuals to become both consumers and producers of content. The speaker illustrates this shift with examples, such as citizen journalism during elections and crises like China's Sichuan earthquake. They argue that the current media environment is more global, social, and collaborative than ever before, challenging traditional media models and requiring new strategies for effective communication in a world where messages are no longer controlled by professionals alone.

Takeaways

• 📱 The media landscape has transformed, making it easier for anyone to share messages globally due to technological advancements.
• 🤝 Social capital is crucial in leveraging new media tools, as they become impactful when widely accessible and integrated into society.
• 💻 The Internet supports both group communication and individual conversations, a significant shift from the previous media patterns.
• 🌍 Media digitization means all forms of media now converge on the Internet, creating a unified platform for information and interaction.
• 👥 The former audience has become active producers of content, contributing to a democratized media environment.
• 📡 The Internet allows for instant global communication, as seen during major events like the Sichuan earthquake, where citizens reported news faster than official sources.
• 🚧 The Great Firewall of China struggled to contain the rapid flow of locally produced, amateur content during crises, highlighting the challenges of censorship in the digital age.
• 💬 The traditional media model of one-way communication is obsolete; now, the audience interacts, responds, and even collaborates on content creation.
• 🌐 Media is now global, social, ubiquitous, and affordable, which has changed how organizations and individuals approach message distribution.
• 📣 The Obama campaign's use of social media illustrates the shift towards creating environments for group interaction rather than merely broadcasting messages.

Q & A

What is the central theme of the speech?

The central theme of the speech is the transformation of the media landscape and its impact on how messages are disseminated and received, highlighting the shift towards social, global, ubiquitous, and cheap media.

How does the speaker illustrate the changes in media?

The speaker illustrates the changes in media by comparing the old media landscape, dominated by one-way communication (like printing presses and broadcasting), to the new landscape, where the internet supports many-to-many communication, allowing both conversation and group formation simultaneously.

What is the significance of 'technical capital' and 'social capital' in the context of the speech?

In the context of the speech, 'technical capital' refers to the physical tools and technologies used for communication, while 'social capital' emphasizes the importance of collective social engagement. The speaker argues that tools become truly impactful only when they become so common that everyone can use them to foster social connections.

What example does the speaker use to demonstrate the power of citizen media?

The speaker uses the example of the 2008 U.S. presidential election's 'video the vote' initiative, where citizens used phones to document and prevent voter suppression, highlighting how citizen media can ensure transparency and integrity.

How did the Chinese government respond to citizen journalism during the Sichuan earthquake?

Initially, the Chinese government allowed citizen journalism during the Sichuan earthquake, but when citizens started reporting on corruption related to building collapses, the government cracked down, arresting protesters and censoring media to control the narrative.

What does the 'great firewall of China' refer to, and how was it challenged?

The 'great firewall of China' refers to the Chinese government's system for censoring and controlling the internet. It was challenged during the Sichuan earthquake when the rapid and widespread creation of local, amateur, and abundant media overwhelmed the government's ability to filter information.

How has the role of consumers changed in the new media landscape?

In the new media landscape, consumers have also become producers. With the same tools used to consume content, like phones and computers, individuals can create and share their own content, leading to a shift from a one-way broadcast model to a participatory model where everyone can contribute.

What example does the speaker give of a successful use of social media in a political campaign?

The speaker cites the Obama campaign's use of 'my.barackobama.com,' where millions of supporters engaged in conversations and coordinated efforts, showcasing the power of social media in mobilizing and organizing political campaigns.

Why is the shift from a one-to-many to a many-to-many communication model significant?

The shift is significant because it democratizes communication, allowing more people to participate in creating and sharing information. This change undermines traditional media's control over messaging and enables more diverse and widespread participation in public discourse.

What challenges do organizations face in the current media environment?

Organizations face the challenge of adapting to a media environment where the audience can talk back, and where communication is no longer a one-way broadcast but a two-way conversation. They must learn to convene and support groups rather than just disseminating messages.

Outlines

00:00

📱 The Rise of Social Media in Election Monitoring

This paragraph discusses the significant role of social media and mobile technology in transforming media and society. It begins by describing a grassroots initiative during the November presidential election where citizens used phones to document and upload videos to monitor voter suppression. This initiative illustrates a shift from technical capital to social capital, highlighting how social tools become impactful when they become ubiquitous and widely accepted. The paragraph emphasizes the unprecedented scale of expressive capability in human history, framing this moment as a revolutionary shift in the media landscape.

05:02

🌍 Real-Time Citizen Journalism in the Sichuan Earthquake

The paragraph narrates how citizen journalism played a pivotal role during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China. As the earthquake struck, people used their phones to report the event in real time through texts, photos, and videos, which were uploaded to social media platforms. This immediate, grassroots reporting reached global audiences, with news spreading faster on social media than through official channels. It highlights the power of amateur media in bypassing traditional censorship and the challenges governments face in controlling the flow of information in the digital age.

10:03

💻 The Challenge of Managing Amateur Media

This section explores the challenges that governments and organizations face in controlling the surge of amateur media. It discusses how the Chinese government, despite its strong internet censorship mechanisms, struggled to manage the flood of user-generated content during the Sichuan earthquake. The narrative includes the story of the government shutting down Twitter on the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square as a drastic measure to prevent unfiltered information flow. The paragraph underscores the broader implications of a media landscape where the audience is also the producer, making traditional control strategies obsolete.

15:06

🎥 The Obama Campaign's Embrace of Social Media

This paragraph highlights the Obama campaign's innovative use of social media, particularly the creation of the platform my.BarackObama.com, which allowed supporters to actively engage and organize. It recounts the controversy over Obama's change in stance on the FISA bill, which sparked a significant backlash among his supporters on the platform. The campaign's decision not to censor or control this dissent demonstrated a new approach to media, where the focus is on facilitating conversations rather than controlling messages. The paragraph concludes by reflecting on the broader shift from traditional media to a more participatory, decentralized media environment.

Keywords

💡Transformed Media Landscape

The transformed media landscape refers to the significant changes in how media is created, distributed, and consumed due to technological advancements. In the video, the speaker discusses how media has shifted from being controlled by a few professionals to becoming more decentralized and participatory, with ordinary people having the ability to produce and share content globally.

💡Citizen Observation

Citizen observation is the concept where individuals actively participate in monitoring and reporting events, often using technology such as smartphones to document and share their observations. In the script, this is exemplified by the 'video the vote' initiative, where citizens used their phones to document potential voter suppression at polling places, illustrating the shift towards a more socially engaged media.

💡Social Capital

Social capital refers to the networks, relationships, and social interactions that enable collective action in society. The speaker emphasizes that in the modern media landscape, social capital is more critical than technical expertise. The example given in the video shows how people used social networks to ensure the integrity of voting processes, highlighting the importance of social connections in the digital age.

💡Media Revolution

Media revolution refers to the profound changes in media over the last 500 years, marked by significant technological advancements. The video outlines four key periods of media revolution: the printing press, two-way communication, recorded media, and the use of the electromagnetic spectrum. The current revolution is characterized by digital and social media, which have transformed how information is shared and consumed.

💡Many-to-Many Communication

Many-to-many communication describes a media pattern where information is exchanged among multiple users, as opposed to the traditional one-to-one or one-to-many models. The internet exemplifies this pattern by allowing people to communicate and collaborate on a large scale, which is a core theme of the video. The speaker discusses how this communication model enables innovation and social interaction in unprecedented ways.

💡Digitized Media

Digitized media refers to the conversion of traditional media formats into digital forms that can be easily distributed and accessed online. The video mentions how phone calls, magazines, and movies have migrated to the internet, transforming the media landscape into one where all forms of media are interconnected and accessible. This change is crucial to understanding the current media environment.

💡Amateur Media

Amateur media is content produced by non-professional individuals, often using tools like smartphones or computers. The video highlights the rise of amateur media as a significant force, noting that every new consumer of media also has the potential to be a producer. This shift challenges traditional media models, as amateur content can now compete with professional media on a global scale.

💡Social Media and Global Coordination

Social media and global coordination refer to the ability of social platforms to facilitate rapid communication and collective action across the world. The Sichuan earthquake example in the video demonstrates how social media enabled a global response to the disaster, with information spreading quickly and donations pouring in from around the world. This illustrates the power of social media in mobilizing people and resources.

💡Censorship and the Great Firewall of China

Censorship and the Great Firewall of China refer to the Chinese government's efforts to control and filter online content. The video discusses how this censorship system struggled to cope with the rapid spread of information during the Sichuan earthquake, highlighting the limitations of traditional censorship in the face of decentralized, user-generated content. The Great Firewall is used as a metaphor for the challenges authoritarian regimes face in controlling modern media.

💡Obama Campaign and Social Media

The Obama campaign and social media refer to the innovative use of social media platforms by Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. The video describes how the campaign utilized social media to engage with supporters, allowing them to participate in discussions and organize. A notable example is the backlash Obama faced over his FISA vote, demonstrating the power of social media to hold leaders accountable and the shift from top-down messaging to interactive, participatory media.

Highlights

The rise of social media has transformed the media landscape, making it more participatory and collaborative.

The 'Video the Vote' initiative during the presidential election aimed to protect voter rights by using citizen-generated content.

Social tools gain significant impact when they become widely accessible, moving from novelty to common use.

The Internet uniquely supports both group formation and conversations, unlike previous media forms.

As media becomes digitized, the Internet is increasingly the primary platform for all forms of media.

The integration of different media forms on the Internet facilitates new forms of coordination and communication.

The Sichuan earthquake in China showcased the power of citizen journalism and rapid information dissemination via social media.

The Chinese government struggled to control information flow during the Sichuan earthquake due to the decentralized nature of citizen media.

The 'Great Firewall of China' faced challenges due to the speed, volume, and local production of citizen-generated media.

The Obama campaign's use of social media, particularly MyBarackObama.com, highlighted the participatory nature of modern political campaigns.

Obama's change in stance on FISA led to a significant backlash on his own campaign site, illustrating the power of organized digital communities.

The shift from a broadcast model to a participatory one means that media is now more about facilitating group interactions than pushing a single message.

The future of media involves understanding and leveraging the global, social, and cheap nature of digital platforms.

Organizations can no longer control the message in the digital age; they must convene and engage with their audiences.

The most effective use of modern media involves creating environments for group collaboration and conversation.

Transcripts

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

I want to talk about the transformed

media landscape and what it means for

anybody who has a message that they want

to get out to anywhere in the world and

I want to illustrate that by telling a

couple of stories about that

transformation I'll start here last

November there was a presidential

election you probably read something

about it in the papers and there was

some concern that in some parts of the

country there might be voter suppression

and so a plan came up to video the vote

and the idea was that individual

citizens with with phones capable of

taking photos or making video would

document their polling places on the

lookout for any kind of voter

suppression techniques and would upload

this to a central place and that this

would operate as a kind of Citizen

observation that citizens would not be

there just to cast individual votes but

also to help ensure the sanctity of the

vote overall right so this is a pattern

that assumes We're All in This Together

what matters here isn't technical

Capital it's Social Capital these tools

don't get socially interesting until

they get technologically boring it isn't

when the shiny new tools show up that

they're used to start permeating Society

it's when everybody is able to take them

for granted because now that media is

increasingly social Innovation can

happen anywhere that people can take for

granted the idea that we're all in this

together and so we're starting to see a

media landscape in which innovation is

happening everywhere and moving from one

spot to another that is a huge

transformation not to put too fine a

point on it the moment we're living

through the moment our histor iCal

generation is living through is the

largest increase in expressive

capability in human history and that's a

big claim I'm going to try and back it

up there are only four periods in the

last 500 years where media has changed

enough to qualify for the label

Revolution the first one is the famous

One the printing press movable type

oilbased inks that whole complex of

innovations that made printing possible

and turned Europe upside down starting

in the middle of the 1400s then a couple

of hundred years ago there was

innovation in two-way communication

conversational media first the telegraph

then the telephone slow text based

conversations then realtime voice-based

conversations then about 150 years ago

there's a revolution in recorded media

other than print first photos then

recorded sound then movies all encoded

into physical objects and finally about

a 100 years ago the harnessing of

electromagnetic spectrum to send sound

and images through the air radio and

television this is the media land

landscape as we knew it in the 20th

century this is what those of us of a

certain age grew up with and are used to

but there's a curious asymmetry here the

media that's good at creating

conversations is no good at creating

groups and the media that's good at

creating groups is no good at creating

conversations if you want to have a

conversation in this world you have it

with one other person if you want to

address a group you get the same message

and you give it to everybody in the

group whether you're doing that with a a

broad casting Tower or a printing press

that was the media landscape as we had

it in the 20th century and this is what

changed this thing that looks like a

peacock hit a windscreen is Bill

cheswick's map of the internet he traces

the edges of the individual networks and

then color codes them the internet is

the first medium in history that has

native support for groups and

conversation at the same time whereas

the phone gave us the one to one pattern

and television radio magazines books

gave us the one to many patterns the

internet gives us the many to many

pattern Right For the First Time media

is natively good at supporting these

kinds of conversations that's one of the

big changes the second big change right

is that as all media gets digitized the

internet also becomes the mode of

carriage for all other media meaning

that phone calls migrate to the internet

magazines migrate to the internet movies

migrate to the internet and that means

that every medium is right next door to

every other medium right put another way

media is increasingly less just a source

of information as increasingly more a

site of coordination because groups that

see or hear or watch or listen to

something can now gather around and talk

to each other as well right and the

third big change right is that members

of the former audience as Dan Gilmore

calls them can now also be producers and

not consumers every time a new consumer

joins this media landscape a new

producer joins as well because the same

equipment phones computers let you

consume and produce it's as if when you

bought a book they threw in the printing

press for free it's like you had a phone

that could turn into a radio if you

pressed the right buttons right that is

a huge change in the media landscape

we're used to and it's not just internet

or no internet right we've had the

internet in its public form for almost

20 years now and it's still changing as

the media becomes more social it's still

changing patterns even among groups who

know how to deal with the internet well

second story last May China and the

sichan province had a terrible

earthquake 7.9 magnitude massive

destruction in a wide area as the RoR

scale has it and the earthquake was

reported as it was happening right

people were texting from their phones

they were taking photos of buildings

they were taking videos of building

shaking they were uploading it to QQ

China's largest internet service they

were twittering it right and so as the

Quake was happening the news was

reported and because of the social

connections right Chinese students

coming coming elsewhere and going to

school or businesses in the rest of the

World opening offices in China right

there were people listening all over the

world hearing this news the

BBC got their first wind of the Chinese

Quake from Twitter Twitter an announced

to the existence of the Quake several

minutes before the US Geological Survey

had anything up online for anybody to

view the last time China had a quake of

that magnitude it took them three months

to admit that it had

happened now they might have liked to

have done that here rather than seeing

these pictures go up online but they

weren't given that choice because their

own citizens beat them to the punch even

the government learned of the earthquake

from their own citizens rather than from

the shinan news agency and this stuff

rippled like wildfire for a while there

the top 10 most clicked links on Twitter

the global short messaging service nine

of the top 10 links were about the Quake

people collating information pointing

people to news sources pointing people

to the US Geological Survey the 10th one

was kittens on a treadmill but you know

that's the internet for you but nine of

the 10 in those first hours and within

half a day donation sites were up and

donations were pouring in from all

around the world this was an incredible

coordinated Global Response and the

Chinese then in one of their periods of

media openness decided that they were

going to let it go that they were going

to let this this citizen reporting

flower and then this

happened people began to figure out in

the Sichuan province that the reason so

many school buildings had collapsed

because tragically the earthquake

happened during a school day the reason

so many school buildings collapsed is

that corrupt officials had taken bribes

to allow those buildings to be built to

less than code and so they started the

citizen journalist started reporting

that as well and there was an incredible

picture you may have seen it on the

front page of the New York Times a local

official literally prostrating himself

in the street in front of these

protesters in order to get them to go

away essentially to say we will do

anything to Plate you just please stop

protesting in public but these are

people who have been radicalized because

thanks to the one child policy they have

lost everyone in their next Generation

someone who's seen the death of a single

child right now has nothing to lose and

so the protest kept going and

finally the Chinese cracked down that

was enough of Citizen media and so they

began to arrest the protesters they

began to shut down the media that the

protests were happening

on China is probably the most successful

uh manager of Internet censorship in the

world using something that's widely

described as the great firewall of China

and the great firewall of China is a set

of observation points that assume that

media is produced by professionals it

mostly comes in from the outside world

right it comes in in relatively sparse

chunks and it comes in relatively slowly

and because of those four

characteristics they are able to filter

it as it comes into the country

but like the majino line the great

firewall of China was facing in the

wrong direction for this challenge

because not one of those four things was

true in this environment right the media

was produced locally it was produced by

amateurs it was produced quickly and it

was produced at such an incredible

abundance that there was no way to

filter it as it appeared and so now the

Chinese government who for a dozen years

has quite successfully filtered the web

is now in the position of having to

decide whether to allow or shut down

entire Services right because the

transformation to amateur media is so

enormous that they can't deal with it

any other way and in fact that is

happening this week on the 20th

anniversary of Keanan they just two days

ago announced that they were simply

shutting down access to Twitter because

there was no way to filter it other than

that they had to turn turn the spigot

entirely off now these changes don't

just affect people who want to censor

messages they also affect people who

want to send messages right because this

is really a transformation in the

ecosystem as a whole not just a

particular strategy the classic media

prom from the 20th century is how does

an organization have a message that they

want to get out to a group of people

distributed at the edges of the network

and here's the 20th century answer

bundle up the message send the same

message to everybody National message

targeted individuals relatively sparse

number of producers very expensive to do

so there's not a lot of competition this

is how you reach people right all of

that is over right we are increasingly

in a landscape where media is global

social ubiquitous and cheap right now

most organizations that are trying to

send messages to the outside world to

the distributed you know the distributed

collection of the audience

are now used to this change the audience

can talk back and that's a little freaky

but you can get used to it after a while

as as people are do it but that's not

the really crazy change that we're

living in the middle of the really crazy

change is here it's the fact that

they're no longer disconnected from each

other the fact that former consumers are

now producers the fact that the audience

can talk directly to one another because

there's a lot more amateurs than

professionals and because the size of

the network the complexity of the

network is actually the square of the

number of participants meaning that the

network when it grows large grows very

very large as recently as last decade

most of the media that was available for

public consumption was produced by

professionals those days are over never

to return right it is the green lines

now that are the source of the freak

which brings me to my last story we saw

some of the most imaginative use of

social media during the Obama campaign

and I don't mean most imaginative use in

politics I mean most imaginative use

ever and one of the things Obama did

they famously the Obama campaign did was

they famously put up my Barack obama.com

my.com and millions of citizens rushed

in to participate and to try and figure

out how to help right an incredible

conversation sprung up there right and

then this time last year Obama announced

that he was going to change his vote on

fisa the foreign intelligence

surveillance act right he had said in

January he would not sign a bill that

granted Telecom immunity for possibly

warrantless buying on American

persons by the summer in the middle of

the general campaign he said I've

thought about the issue more I've

changed my mind I'm going to vote for

this bill and many of his own supporters

on his own site went very publicly

berserk it was Senator Obama when they

created it they changed the name later

please get fisa right Within days of

this group being created it was the

fastest growing group on mayo.com within

weeks of it being created it was the

largest group and Obama had to issue a

press release he had to issue a reply

and he said essentially I've considered

the issue I understand where you're

coming from but having considered it all

I'm still going to vote the way I'm

going to vote but I wanted to reach out

to you and say I understand that you

disagree with me and I'm going to take

my lumps on this

one this didn't please anybody but then

a funny thing happened in the convers a

people in that group realized that Obama

had never shut them down nobody in the

Obama campaign had ever tried to hide

the group or make it harder to join to

deny its existence to delete it to take

it off the site right they had

understood that their role with mayo.com

was to convene their supporters but not

to control their supporters and that is

the kind of discipline that it takes to

make really mature use of this media

right media the media landscape that we

knew as familiar as it was as easy

conceptually it was as it was to deal

with the idea that professionals

broadcast messages to amateurs right is

increasingly slipping away in a world

where media is global social ubiquitous

and cheap in a world of media where the

former audience are now increasingly

full participants

right in that world media is less and

less often about crafting a single

message to be consumed by individuals

and it's more and more often a way of

creating an environment for convening

and supporting

groups and the choice we face I mean

anybody who has a message they want to

have heard anywhere in the world isn't

whether that's the media environment we

want to operate in that's the media

environment we've got the question we

all face now is how can we make best use

of this medium even though it means

changing the way we've always done it

thank you very much

[Applause]

[Music]