This week I read Chapter 8 of Networked (Raine & Wellman, 2014), entitled "Networked Creators." The main focus of this chapter was on content creators, the people writing content, and connected by a network. This chapter highlighted a few key points, and many of them felt eerily relevant to where we are today. For example, the chapter begins by sharing an example of how a man begins blogging about his poor experiences with the train system, safety concerns, overcrowding etc. and connects to others who also blog about their poor experiences. These collective blogs raise awareness and noise until they become public and are brought to attention in mainstream media, at which point, change is enacted. This type of content creation led to real a change in the rail system. I feel like this year we have seen content creation, especially on Twitter with the use of hashtags, cause change all around us.
Another example the book discusses is the Egyptian Revolt, and how social media allowed a network of people to come together with similar beliefs, feelings, and passions that would not have been able to connect so easily before. With the internet and social media their network was larger than it would have been with out social media. Because of this the revolt was able to grow, videos went public, support was increased, this was because of a network. We can see this happening with many marches and movements in our country right now. Often people are being united over social media, despite not knowing each other, and these are people who would probably never have met without the network of social media.
The final fact I found quite interesting, was research coming from Pew Research Centers' Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), that found that blogs, Twitter, and YouTube are often not reporting on the same news stories. "PEJ found that blogs shared the same lead story with traditional media in just 13 of the 49 weeks studied. Twitter...just 4 of the 49 weeks...On YouTube the top stories overlapped with traditional media 8 out of 49 weeks (212)." The social media platforms in this study were tracked from June 2009 to January 2010. I'd be curious to see how it stacked up today. I feel like at least Twitter would be reporting top news stories more closely to what mainstream is reporting now, but maybe that's simply my perception.
The remainder of the chapter shares why someone might create content. Personally, I think this class is doing a great job helping me identify reasons for creating content, feeling comfortable when to do so, and finding spaces where I might want to, but pages 217-220 are great too!
Another example the book discusses is the Egyptian Revolt, and how social media allowed a network of people to come together with similar beliefs, feelings, and passions that would not have been able to connect so easily before. With the internet and social media their network was larger than it would have been with out social media. Because of this the revolt was able to grow, videos went public, support was increased, this was because of a network. We can see this happening with many marches and movements in our country right now. Often people are being united over social media, despite not knowing each other, and these are people who would probably never have met without the network of social media.
The final fact I found quite interesting, was research coming from Pew Research Centers' Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), that found that blogs, Twitter, and YouTube are often not reporting on the same news stories. "PEJ found that blogs shared the same lead story with traditional media in just 13 of the 49 weeks studied. Twitter...just 4 of the 49 weeks...On YouTube the top stories overlapped with traditional media 8 out of 49 weeks (212)." The social media platforms in this study were tracked from June 2009 to January 2010. I'd be curious to see how it stacked up today. I feel like at least Twitter would be reporting top news stories more closely to what mainstream is reporting now, but maybe that's simply my perception.
The remainder of the chapter shares why someone might create content. Personally, I think this class is doing a great job helping me identify reasons for creating content, feeling comfortable when to do so, and finding spaces where I might want to, but pages 217-220 are great too!
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