Title: Perpectives in the Social Sciences (2016)

Editors: C.E Uzochukwu, T.M. Oguegbe & U.P. Ekwugha

Published by: School of General Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University.
Chapter pages: 1 – 16.

Chapter Title:

The New (Social) Media: A contemporary introduction

Chapter Contributors:

Chikezie Emmanuel Uzuegbunam,

Chinwe Elizabeth Uzochukwu, PhD.

Introduction

Since at least 2004, the internet, and more specifically the web, has witnessed a
notorious and controversial shift away from the model of the static web page towards a
social web or web 2.0 model where the possibilities of users to interact with the web
have multiplied. It has become much easier for a layperson to publish and share texts,
images and sounds. A new topology of distribution of information has emerged, based
in ‘real’ social networks, but also enhanced by casual and algorithmic connections
(Terranova and Donovan 2013, p.297).

While we may have missed the dawn of the very first modern mass medium in the world – newspaper

– in the 15th Century, our generation has undeniably witnessed the arrival of the New Media

innovation. The new media, as it is popularly known, is an offshoot of the Internet. The Internet came

into existence since the late 1960s. In 1993, the Internet became expanded into a truly user-friendly

media with the creation of the World Wide Web and its accessible navigation tools known as

“browsers” and “search engines”.

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The term New Media has become both a buzzword and a contested concept that its definition has

defied any uniformity and consensus among scholars. Nonetheless, the editors of the Handbook of

New Media (Lievrouw and Livingstone, 2006) choose to define it in a composite way, linking

information communication technologies (ICTs) with their associated social contexts, bringing

together three elements: technological artefacts and devices; activities, practices and uses; and social

arrangements and organizations that form around the devices and practices.For McQuail (2010), new

media is not so new, the term having been in use since the 1960s (the time the Internet originated) and

encompassing an expanding and diversifying set of applied communication technologies. He further

sees the features of the new media as consisting in their interconnectedness, their accessibility to

individual users as senders or receivers, their interactivity, their multiplicity of use and open-ended

character as well as their ubiquity and ‘dislocatedness’. However, Nelson (2011) has identified the

new media to include:

 Internet publishing (books, newspapers and magazine)

 Social media

 Internet broadcasting (online streaming – radio and television)

 Internet Audio and Video Streaming.

Indeed, the new media are fast revolutionising the communication terrain and expanding the way

information is created and generated, processed and disseminated. The bigger news is perhaps that

these technological affordances have necessitated a growing, dynamic shift in the media use pattern,

indicating a steady flight from the use of conventional media. The age long dependency on traditional,

mainstream or “mature’ media like television, radio, newspapers and magazines seems to be giving

way to a shifting process of mediatisation at this new media revolution.The advent of the new media

as an offshoot of the Internet has brought about a shift from the first Web 1.0 to a new one. In a report

titled ‘The Participative Web and User-Created Content’, the OECD (2007) describes the rise and

growth of a new type of intelligent Internet services which have enabled users to share, adapt and

create content. These ‘new’ services are commonly labelled as social media and Web 2.0 (Verdegem,

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2011, p.32). Web 2.0 simply stated is the technical name for the modern Internet. Coined by Tim

O’Reilly in 2005, the term “Web 2.0” is a name for the evolution of Internet-based communications.

From the foregoing, it is clear that the social media has become a key part of the New Media. The

coming of the new (social) media on the communication scene has opened up the third phase of the

Internet revolution consisting of email/computer systems and the arrival of the Web. Social media thus

is still the newest and most celebrated communication and technological innovation today.Its diffusion

and use have been growing dramatically, the world over. Suffice it to say that it is helping to make real

the idea of a “global village”, first theorised by Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s.

This chapter is aimed at offering a concise overview of the new (social) media, its definition, and

scope, its categorisations and varied uses; why it is regarded as social; its popular forms, as well as tips

on becoming an effective social media savvy individual. As an introductory treatise on the subject

matter, it is hoped that students will be better positioned to grasp the nitty-gritty of the concept of the

social media in the end.

Defining the social media

Social media has been variously defined and extrapolated on, by scholars of various backgrounds.

According to Verdegem (2011) social media are open, web-based and user-friendly applications that

provide new possibilities when it comes to the co-creation of content, social networking, the sharing of

taste and relevance, connectivity and collective intelligence. Auvinen (2011) has also defined the term

as new information network and information technology that uses a form of communication utilising

interactive and user-produced content, and where interpersonal relationships are created and

maintained. In like spirit, social media, write Mayfield (2008) and Abubakar (2011) is online or

electronic media which have the capacity to facilitate participation, openness, conversation,

community, connectedness and at the same time, foster textual and audio-visual characteristic appeal

amongst online users. Furthermore, UNESCO (2011) has simply defined social media in terms of its
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ability to foster human relationships through technology, allowing for a better, faster and more

constant social interaction among web users. Social media is one of the new media networks which

provides users with the mix of interpersonal and mass communication capabilities that have not

existed before, and which place emphasis on interactivity and mobility (Paxson, 2010, quoted in Adaja

and Ayodele, 2013).

Juxtaposed with the more conventional mainstream media, the social media tools offering new and

powerful ways to communicate, share and create information, collaboratively and more creatively, is

different in a number of significant ways; marking a change from a unidirectional to a multidirectional

model of communication. Control of information has been ceded to the users themselves, meaning that

social media users have become both users and producers of media. Bruns (2009, p.3) quoted in Evers,

Albury, Byron & Crawford (2013) has called them ‘produsers’. And so, user generated content is the

mainstay, as most social media sites have no editors. This has made every social media user both a

publisher and a critic of information. This perhaps is one of the most significant dynamisms of the

social media phenomenon.

Categorizing the social media

Social media has been ideally categorised into five main segmentations. They include Social

Networking Sites, Content/Video sharing sites, Weblogs, Wikis and Microblogs. We take a look at

them briefly.

 Social Networking Sites (SNS) – This speak of Social Networks like Facebook and LinkedIn,

which connect users with similar background and interests: who create personal, fully

customizable profiles displaying their identity and then share these with so-called friends or

fans. Profiles can include any type of information, i.e. photos, videos, audio files and blogs. By

definition, they are online tools and utilities that allow communication of information online

and participation and collaboration (Newson, Houghton and Patten (2008). Social networking

sites are online communities where people can interact with friends, family, co-workers,
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 acquaintances, and others with similar interests. In Africa, a number of SNS have been

developed and deployed to meet the peculiar needs of users. They include: Mxit, Blueworld,

AfricanPlanet, AfroIntroduction, etc.

 Content/Video-sharing Sites – These are content communities like YouTube, Flickr,

Instagram, Pinterest or Slideshare that focus on content and file sharing between users. These

content communities exist for a wide range of different media types like videos, text, photos,

songs, and PowerPoint presentations, respectively.

 Weblogs – Otherwise shortened as Blogs, these represent the earliest form of social media and

are regularly updated websites on which contributions are published in reverse chronological

orders. In general, blogs allow extensive interaction between blogger and readers and between

readers themselves, via the comment section of the blog. There are strictly news blogs,

entertainment blogs and a fusion of both. The most popular blog in Nigeria is Linda Ikeji Blog.

 Microblogs like Twitter are seen as a hybrid of blogging, instant messaging and status

notifications. They allow people to publish short text messages (restricted to 140 to 200

characters) using a multitude of various communication channels such as cell phones, instant

messaging, e-mail and the Web.

 Wikis – These are collaborative projects that encompass knowledge communities like

Wikipedia; bookmarking sites like “Mr. Wong” or review sites like “Yelp”. Knowledge

communities enable users to add, remove, and change text-based communities, whereas

bookmarking and review sites allow a group-based collection and rating of Internet links,

media content or products and services.

 Others include Virtual Worlds, which comprise virtual games and social worlds where a three-

dimensional computer-based environment replicates the “real world”. In games like Warcraft,

user can appear in the form of a personalised avatar and interact with the community.

These are the major classifications of the social media. Contrary to some misconceptions, it is worthy

of note that other social applications such as 2go, WhatSapp, Badoo, Mxit, Viber, Skypeetc. are not
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social media; so also the email, though they use the Internet for their connectivity. They are at best

regarded as Instant Messaging (IM) Applications while email is an Internet-based new media

communication interface. “IM apps” are usually free and offer a less expensive alternative for rapid

communication because messages can be sent over the Internet. They allow users to send messages

over the Internet either using their mobile data plan or free accessible WiFi networks. This confusion

between Social Media and Instant Messaging applications has been noticed among users of the social

media, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. It is important then to note this distinction.

So then, what is ‘social’ about the social media?

Because the word “social” features prominently in the term “social media”, one of the first questions

that pop up in the minds of people when the term is mentioned is perhaps “what is social about the

social media?”, “aren’t all media social?”. To answer this question, a professor of social media,

Christian Fuchs (2014) has argued that social media are particularly social for four major reasons: they

are tools of vast information dissemination; they are tools of communication; they are tools for the

maintenance of communities and lastly they are tools for collaborative work, to an extent. He however

posits that all forms of media including all computing systems and all web applications can be

considered as social because they store and transmit human knowledge that originates in social

relations in society. They are objectifications of society and human social relations. Furthermore,

social media is distinct from the conventional, mainstream media in five important ways: its social

networking and social interaction features; its participatory culture; the use of different providers (e.g.

search engines, blog spaces, etc.); its element of openness and collaboration (between both users and

user groups).

Social media’s varied uses and gratifications

As social media has been widely diffused, it has come to be put to diverse uses and gratifications

among its teeming audiences. It is popular among a diverse array of different segments of the
6
population, government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGO) and businesses around the

world. There are nearly 1.75 billion social media users worldwide (Counterpart International, 2014).

Regarding its specific uses in society, the environment can play a huge role in determining what

platforms users use, based on what they have access to in their given region.

Social media is a new kind of mass media which provide greater access to information; enable rapid

information dissemination and seamless communication between people. Besides, it helps in the

development and maintenance of social relations with people outside one’s immediate environment by

aiding formation of virtual communities, construction of personal identity and psychological

development. Little wonder, Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels (2009) argue that the core of social media

lies in the fact that users can have individual profiles and personal images; users are able to

communicate their thoughts, feelings, interests (music, hobbies, preferences) and link to affiliated

profiles (friends or professional fan pages). Moreover, social media are used for leisure and

entertainment as well as for learning and cognitive development. Furthermore, social media provide a

valuable opportunity for civil society organisations to reach their communication goals more

efficiently and to engage with their audiences more deeply. They can be used as tools to galvanize a

group of supporters behind a cause through onlineactivism. It is a low cost method to broadcast a

message to supporters and keep them informed and engaged on updates instantly in real-time. With

increased information sharing through online tools, there is greater opportunity for development.

Citizens can quickly disseminate critical information and play a direct role in democracy-building in

their respective communities.

The foregoing uses notwithstanding, one of the most profound and simplified uses of the social media

have been offered by Chris Brogan (2010) in his book, Social Media 101. They include (albeit

modified) the following:

 Blogs allow chronological organization of thoughts, status, ideas. This means more

permanence than e-mails.

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 Podcasts (online video and audio) encourage different types of learning — and in portable

formats.

 Social networks encourage collaboration, can replace intranets and corporate directories, and

can promote non-email conversation channels.

 Social networks can amass like-minded people around shared interests with little external

force, no organizational center, and a group sense of what is important and what comes next.

 Social bookmarking means that entire groups can learn of new articles, tools, and other Web

properties instead of leaving them all on one machine, one browser, for one human.

 Blogs and wikis encourage conversing, sharing, creating.

 Social software, like Flickr, Last.fm, and even Amazon.com, promote human-mediated

information sharing.

 Social news sites show the popularity of certain information, at least within certain

demographics.

 Social networks are full of prospecting and lead-generation information for sales and

marketing.

 Social networks make for great ways to understand the mind-set of the online consumer,

should that be of value to you.

 Online versions of your materials and media, especially in formats that let you share, mean that

you’re equipping others to run with your message, should that be important (e.g., if you’re a

marketer).

 Online versions of your materials and media are searchable, and this helps Google to help you

find new visitors, customers, and employees.

 Social networks contain lots of information about your prospective new hires, your customers,

your competitors.

 Blogs allow you to speak your mind and let the rest of the world know your thought processes

and mind-sets.

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  Podcasts are a way to build intimacy with information.

 Podcasts reach people who are trying out new gadgets, like Androids, iPhones, iPods, Apple

TVs, Zunes, and more.

 Tagging and sharing and all the other activities common on the social Web mean that

information gets passed around much faster.

 Human aggregation and mediation improves the quality of data you find and gives you more

“exactly what I was looking for”.

 Innovation works much faster in a social software environment, open source or otherwise.

 Conversations spread around, adding metadata and further potential business value.

 People feel heard.

Did we miss anything? You might have a personal, peculiar experience of what social media does for

you. What could that be?

Meet the most popular social media forms

Earlier we have signposted the basic categories of the social media there are; from SNS,

Content/Video sharing sites, Weblogs, Microblogs, to Wikis. In this section we will be looking at, in

detail, five most prominent types of social media from each category listed above. Admittedly, these

five social media form the most popular and most widely used in each category. These include

Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, Wikipedia and Twitter.

Facebook: Facebook, among other social media and social networking sites, has grown exponentially

over time to become the biggest and most popular social networking site with online population of

above 1 billion active users, as at the end of 2012 (Facebook, 2012b), and still counting. Its

introduction has become one of the most important social trends of the past decade. Available in over

70 languages, Facebook has sure become a global phenomenon and experience. Facebook was

founded in 2004 by college students at Harvard, namely Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin

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Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Its initial reach started in February 2004, for Harvard students only and

by 2006, it has become a regular platform in all American Universities. The aim was to offer each

registered user the chance to create a user profile with pictures and to keep in touch with their so-

called “friends”, or contacts they link to on the site. It was however opened for public use in 2006.

Between 2006 and 2008, it had become a popular sought-after social media globally. Being a

Facebook user is not just limited to sharing information within a group of friends. Through groups,

users can form new networks and communities. A user’s posting, in the form of text, pictures, video or

a combination, can receive feedback from other users known as “friends” in the form of the ”Like”

button or “comment” option. They can also forward the posting to their own Facebook contacts using

the “Share” option. That is how information can get viral on Facebook. Having such huge online

citizens as registered users, Facebook undoubtedly has become a nation of its own! Writing about the

significance of Facebook, Time magazine quoted in Fletcher (2010, p.22) reported that:

Sometime in the next few weeks, Facebook will officially log its 500 millionth active
citizen. If the website were granted terra firma, it would be the world’s third largest country
by population, two-thirds bigger than the U.S. More than 1 in 4 people who browse the
Internet not only have a Facebook account but have returned to the site within the past 30
days.

YouTube: YouTube is the Internet’s leading video service. Owned by Google, it began operating in

2005, and grew very rapidly, with 50 million visits to the site just by the end of the same year. By

2010, there were already more than 2 billion visits to YouTube every day. Today, it has become the

leading video sharing site in the world (Counterpart International, 2014). Jenkins (2008) argues that

YouTube is a site for the reproduction and distribution of grassroots media and that participation on

YouTube occurs on the level of production, selection and distribution. Visitors to YouTube are offered

opportunity of accessing videos, produced by both amateurs and professionals, on varieties of topics

and on just about anything in the world. Auvinen (2011) shares some thoughts about YouTube:

Users upload videos to the site and at the same time, watch and comment on what they see. Based
on the number of viewers, the most popular videos on YouTube are music videos, entertainment
programmes, and news videos, but there are also some user-made videos about personal problems
that have found quite a large audience. YouTube is also an important channel for parliamentary
and regional election candidates, with a much lower cost than TV commercials. YouTube users
have so far been more inclined towards entertainment than politics.

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Auvinen’s thoughts above, among other things, have demonstrated some of the critical uses to which

YouTube could be put to. It could be used to create awareness about a cause, bring to public glare a

societal problem that needs urgent action by offering graphical visual representation of such issues.

For instance, Human Rights Watch uploads investigative pieces onto its YouTube channel to bring

awareness to human rights abuses around the world. Organisations can create YouTube channels, much

like profile pages on other social networks like Facebook, to upload their own videos and subscribe to

and follow other channels. This is aside its potential of being used for audio-visual education and

entertainment.

Blogs: A blog, short form for Web log, is an online communication platform through which a blogger

(the person who submits content to a blog), can regularly share stories, photos, videos or links

according to the purpose for which the blog exists. It has been in existence since mid-1990s. It is often

likened to a journal or a diary, in that most blogs are written in first person and offer a more personal

narrative compared to content usually found on a website. The difference however is that the online

versions can receive comments, links and other feedback from readers via blog posts. Users can also

subscribe to the blog in order to get notifications of new posts to the blog. This feature stimulates

conversation and communication between bloggers and their readers and between their readers

themselves. Some of the most popular blogging platforms include: WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr.

Blogs are becoming ubiquitous and widely accessed even in Nigeria. A lot of blogs exist in Nigeria but

the most popular is perhaps the Linda Ikeji Blog. They are becoming veritable alternatives to the

traditional news media. They offer regularly updated news on just about any area: politics,

entertainment, economy and the mundane. It is believed that this increasing patronage is owing to the

fact that the mainstream media organisations are battling with issues of objectivity, speed in

information updates, propaganda and the like. Jenkins (2008) cited in Fuchs (2014, p.62) celebrates

blogs as a means for their participants to express their distrust of the news media and their discontent

with politics as usual; for their potential to increase cultural diversity and lowering barriers in cultural
11
participation; expanding the range of perspectives, and as grassroots intermediaries that ensure that

everyone has a chance to be heard.

Wikipedia: Wikipedia is the most popular Wiki in the world. According to Counterpart International

(2014), a wiki is a special web application that allows open content editing by users, thus encouraging

the democratic use of the Web. Users can add, modify or delete content in a collaborative

environment. The owner of a wiki can choose to allow open editing or limit editing to only those who

have an account or special permissions. Simply stated, Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia produced

collaboratively by volunteers around the world. It is the sixth most visited web platform in the world

(Fuchs, 2014, p.235). It is markedly different from other social media platforms such as Facebook,

Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn in that it is a non-profit, advertising-free organisation, owned and

operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. It has become such a growing online resource for private

persons, researchers and academics alike. Fuchs (2014) clearly identifies five pillars of Wikipedia as

follows:

1. Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia

2. Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view

3. Wikipedia is free content that anyone can edit, use modify, and distribute

4. Editors should interact with each other in a respectful and civil manner

5. Wikipedia does not have firm rules…they are not carved in stone, and their wording and

interpretation are likely to change over time.

Some facts arising from the foregoing is perhaps why Wikipedia has often been argued in the

academia as not being a truly reliable and genuine reference for educational and academic business.

Often times you hear academics arguing that information gleaned from Wikipedia should not be cited

in a research work as part of references or bibliography. However, it continues to be a widely

consulted online resource. It has users who commit themselves to maintaining high quality and to

communal problem-solving when content from different users does not agree (Lih, 2009). According
12
to Wikipedia itself (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About), it has grown rapidly into one

of the largest reference websites, attracting 470 million unique visitors monthly as of February 2012

and that there are more than 77, 000 active contributors working on more than 22, 000, 000 articles in

more than 285 languages. Now, that is hard to ignore!

Twitter: Twitter, is the most visible microblog there is. Created in 2006, it is owned by Twitter Inc., a

company whose founder is Jack Dorsey. A microblog is a further development of the concept of blog,

in that users share short messages with the public who have users following them also. Thus,

microblogging is tantamount to sending SMS online to a large number of people. Defining

microblogs, Murthy (2013, p. 10) shares that it is “an Internet-based service in which: users have a

public profile where they broadcast short public messages; messages become publicly aggregated

together across users and users can decide whose messages they wish to receive…”.

Twitter is thus a social networking and microblogging site that offers a very simple interface that

enables fast discovery and sharing of information. Twitter users can create a profile, gain followers

and in turn follow others. Twitter posts are called Tweets and these are restricted to 140 characters.

Within the 140 character limit, users can share text, links, images or hashtags with (#) symbol. They

can also favorite, retweet, or reply to a tweet. More than Facebook and other popular social media,

Twitter in recent times have come under the public eye since 2011 for its role in the so-called Arab

Spring revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria; and the Occupy movements that swept through North

America, Greece, Spain, the United Kingdom and even Nigeria. In Nigeria, the #BringBackOurGirls

campaign has made Twitter revolution real. This is reason Twitter revolution claims imply that it

constitutes a new, bourgeoning and emancipatory public sphere of political communication, used to

start off and drive a particular cause or any campaign online. This has otherwise been termed digital

activism. Did you notice the #BringBackOurGirls, #Kony2012, #YesAllWomen, #Wearesilent etc.

that were trending in recent times? These are all Twitter-based online activisms that are used to

clamour for one change or action or the other.

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Conclusion and parting shots

We have systematically dealt with the meanings, categories, uses, gratifications and popular forms of

the social media. From all indications, the new (social) media have come to stay as it continues to

garner segmented and fractionalised audiences, even in Nigeria. Indeed, this newest media

development points to the increasing debate about the impact of globalisation in the world and

continued interdependence of nations in terms of technology, artefacts and resources. Social media are

a fast-growing spreadable media known for their participatory culture and co-creation of content; thus

empowering the hitherto disempowered and unsuspecting media consumers and making them part and

parcel of media production, consumption and distribution. Little wonder the audiences of the social

media have been termed “produsers”.

Moreover, while we celebrate the new (social) media, we must not lose sight of the fact that, as a

relatively new and emerging media, it behoves audience members especially from developing

countries like Nigeria to learn to cultivate certain ‘virtues’ that will help them realise the potential of

socially and personally satisfying forms of communicative interaction online. This has become

important as there are growing indications that social media users, especially the young generation, are

making fun, trivial, informal use of the social media which invariably might be making it difficult to

use the media for any critical online engagement/activism (Uzuegbunam, 2014; Lami, 2011).

Uzuegbunam (2014) has equally argued that this trend might give way to what Morozov (2010) calls

“slacktivism” - “feel-good online activism that has zero political or social impact”, another word of

which is “clicktivism” (merely clicking, and no action).

In conclusion, the social media have revolutionised the communication landscape in the 21 st century

and opened up a dialogic, alternative channel for a unique type of mass communication to emerge.

One of the foremost fathers of modern Internet who has theorised extensively on the concept of

Networked Individual and Society, Prof Manuel Castells has called this evolving type of
14
communication, “mass self-communication”. Arguing that this is a novel quality of communication in

contemporary society, Castells writes that:

It is mass communication because it can potentially reach a global audience, as in the posting of a
video on YouTube, a blog with RSS links to a number of web sources, or a message to a massive
e-mail list. At the same time, it is self-communication because the production of the message is
self-generated, the definition of the potential receiver(s) is self-directed, and the retrieval of
specific messages or content from the World Wide Web and electronic networks is self-selected.
The three forms of communication [interpersonal, mass communication and mass self-
communication] coexist, interact, and complement each other rather than substituting for one
another…” (Castells 2009, p.55).

A new type of communication in general, and of mass communication in particular has thus emerged

as a result of the influx, diffusion and use of the new (social) media – mass self-communication. Given

all we have seen regarding the social media phenomenon in this chapter, we can’t agree more. Or what

do you think?

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