Social Media

Clearly, the sky is falling.

The question now is how many people will be left to cover it.

It seems a bleak industry to be entering - the lectures every week are focusing or at least start by focusing, on the demise of the media and how traditional models of journalism are crumbling around us. It’s like a real life fairy tale. We start off with the doom and gloom and look at how things have been destroyed.
The 3 P’s being the baddies,

Baddie No1: power to publish,
Baddie No 2: power to participate
Baddie No 3: power to choose

We see how over the last decade these sources of power have set about killing off the traditional forms of media. The baddies have done their work and have given the wicked witch the power to create her own news, sitting in her dark and eerie castle she now doesn’t have to wait for the news she can just access it whenever she wants and access the exact piece of news she wants. She can create her own news, she can actually comment on and start a discussion of her own. The wicked witch is in control! She may just as well lock up the traditional journalist in the tower and throw away the key. THE END…

Or is it the beginning of a new tale? Enter the remodelled journalist on his white horse, equipped and ready with the appropriate tools and the adaptable skill base! He’s ready for this new world of sharing and creating communities. As he’s riding along he connects to the internet on his mobile phone and sees that the wicked witch has just used Twitter to release a breaking news headline. She’s also posted a very interesting blog and made friends with the prince on umpteen different social networking sites. They follow and comment on each others blogs and share interesting links with one and other and they all live happily ever after. THE END


Each week I am introduced to more forms of social media sites. It’s an exciting time for us as journalist as long as we keep up with the latest technologies. I still don’t believe that UGC or social media will replace the traditional forms of journalism we have. However, I now understand and appreciate how they can have a symbiotic relationship. Nobody can answer the question about where journalism is heading but as we can see it has and continues to evolve at quite a pace so I’m sure there’ll be many more tales to tell – A new broomstick sweeps clean! “Witch” this space!!!!!!!!

Storytelling is and always has been the source of every art form. We think in story form, we make sense of the world around us through narrative – the evening news, the documentary, the radio feature, the newspaper article, to the family stories we remember and we retell. Thanks to new media and the developments of technology anyone can now tell their story. An individual in a remote little village anywhere can potentially make their own multimedia story which can be shared with others around the world at anytime. Programs are no longer simply made by big production companies and stories are not only found and retold by journalists. We have definitely moved into the realm of participatory media.

In the lecture last week with Daniel Meadows we discussed what exactly the public, or anyone for that matter, need to be able to produce a story. In order for participatory media to work it has to encompass a strong story and has to be strong, it has to be told in the best possible way. It’s about transferring skills from the facilitator to the story maker. There has to be ownership of the story - the storyteller has to have complete control over the story and the need for what is made to be shared.

The projects we looked at such as ‘Capture Wales’ gave wonderful insights into people’s lives, some emotional and others funny but for a few minutes we were captured by a stranger’s story - they were as *** suggested multimedia sonnets from the ordinary people. One individual who possibly had never done anything of the sort before was suddenly taking on the role of the news maker, the storyteller, the editor, the producer, the writer and the presenter. Through making one little mini movie of a few minutes in length it allowed the skill base these people had to expand dramatically.


Ofcom are encouraging this type of program making and it is easy to understand why. It creates a real sense of community and a sense of sharing. I looked up a few different websites after the lecture and thought that this summed it up. Storytelling no matter in what form can be educational and can only help to better societies understanding of one and other.

‘Emotions are being triggered by events shared with each other,’ Filipino woman, Leonida ‘Baves’ Ventura said, reflecting on their story sharing. Aboriginal elder, Aunty Norma Shelley said, ‘We all accepted our differences…while I have never been to the Philippines, I feel I now understand the Filipino way of life and culture more than I did.’

These stories are all short little insights into people’s lives. A way for people to reminisce and keep their memories alive. Not necessary anything news worthy but still an example of how UGC has come into it’s own in the world of broadcasting.