May 11, 2009 4
Is Social Media… Media?
Last night, I got into an interesting debate over Twitter with Ari Herzog among others over the topic of whether social media is MEDIA. Because Twitter isn’t really the appropriate forum for laying out one’s arguments, I thought to transfer it here in hopes of advancing it some. Or at least getting my thoughts down.
The Setup
It all started when Ari tweeted:
I casually responded:
@ariherzog ain’t social media… y’know… MEDIA? that there is a fundamental problem of modern journalism.
That launched a series of back-and-forths with others jumping in that was one of the more interesting Tweet-Debates I’ve had to date.
My basic point was that if major news sources embrace social media, then that basically puts the value proposition of journalism into jeopardy, because I view social media as a new form of media. Why subscribe to a RSS feed from the LA Times when I can subscribe to RSS feeds from the people and organizations that the LA Times reporter spoke to to get his facts?
It turned out, Ari had a different definition of “Social Media”:
Well, can’t argue with that. If he meant by “social media” stuff like people mashing up maps with data… okay, then journalism has no issues at all.
But what if he’s wrong? What if “social media” isn’t just a stand-in for the undefined term “Web 2.0″? What if it really is a new form of media — transfer of information from one party to another?
I thought it worthwhile to lay down my arguments on… er… “paper”.
