The document provides an overview of a presentation on social media and the network society. The presentation covers several topics: 1. The history of networks from railroads in the 1800s to the development of the internet and social media. 2. A discussion on media convergence and Rupert Murdoch's influence over news production, distribution, and consumption. 3. How Barack Obama successfully used social media tools like Facebook and Twitter in his 2008 presidential campaign. 4. The role of social media in social changes in North Africa like the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. 5. Issues around who controls the internet and debate around western vs. Chinese influence online.

1. NETWORK SOCIETY
PRESENTATION OVERVIEW
An Overview of Social Media & The Network Society
Media: Rupert Murdoch and Convergent Technologies (DISCUSSION)
Political: Barack Obama and Social Media (DISCUSSION)
Social: Power Shifts - A Look at North Africa (DISCUSSION)
Control: US Homogenisation vs. China (DISCUSSION)
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

2. THE HISTORY OF NETWORKS
As a telecommunications concept, networks have
long been associated with the connection of one
entity to another, spreading and linking together
like the veins in a body.
It is the infrastructure from which we have built
modern communication and the means by which
society advances.
From the early railroads to today’s intricate social
network, let’s explore the history of the network.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

3. THE HISTORY OF NETWORKS
1800’s
America’s vast landscape is connected by rail, creating the fastest network for
transporting goods and personal travel yet known.
1851
Telegraph lines in the US span over 20,000 miles.
1876
Emerging from the success of the telegraph, the landline telephone was
patented by Alexander Graham Bell as a circuit switching invention, laying the
foundation for future telecommunication networks.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

4. THE HISTORY OF NETWORKS
1896
Guglielmo Marconi transmits the first radio signal. It isn’t until the early
1920’s that voice broadcast radio is developed.
1924
John Baird becomes the first person to transmit moving silhouette images over
a new cutting edge invention: the television.
1966
Xerox invents the “telecopier”, the first successful commercial fax machine.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

5. THE HISTORY OF NETWORKS
1969
Arpanet, the Model-T of the global internet, is deployed as a packet switching
network that breaks digital messages into small blocks transmitted
independently and reassembled.
1971
The first email is sent.
1978
Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) are created to exchange data between users over phone
lines. In many ways, it’s a precursor to the modern social network.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

6. THE HISTORY OF NETWORKS
1979 - 1981
Technology gets mobile. The cellphone communication network is introduced
in Japan (1979). Weighing 23.5 pounds, the first commercial laptop computer
is sold to the public (1981).
1983 - 1990
The computer industry declares this year as “the year of the LAN” (1983). The
grounds are laid for the World Wide Web when Tim Berners-Lee builds HTTP
and HTML. The modern birth of the internet (1990).
1994
Yahoo GeoCities allows users to develop free Home Pages where they can
chat, post on bulletin boards and foster an online community.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

7. THE HISTORY OF NETWORKS
2002
Friendster is launched an introduces a new model of networking to the
mainstream. A year later, MySpace introduces it’s own, more successful
version.
2004 - 2006
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook becomes available. A few years later, it gathers
several hundred million users, surpassing that of all other social networking
platforms. Micro-blogging site Twitter takes flight.
2010
Broadband access among US adults reaches approximately 65% and mobile
internet catapults the smartphone into a multibillion-dollar industry.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

8. THE HISTORY OF NETWORKS
PRESENT DAY
“The new knowledge culture has arisen as our ties
to older forms of social community are breaking
down, our rooting and physical geography is
diminished, our bonds to the extended and even the
nuclear family are disintegrating, and our allegiances
to nation states are being redefined.”
Jenkins - Convergence Culture
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

9. Tuesday, 12 July 2011

10. MEDIA: RUPERT MURDOCH
What is Rupert So
Happy About?
“Global multi-media businesses
networks (including government-
owned media) have taken advantage of
the tidal wave of deregulation and
liberalisation to integrate:
the networks of: communication,
the platforms of communication,
and the channels of communication
in their multi layered organisations,
while setting up switches of connection
to the networks of capital, politics, and
cultural production.”
(Castells)
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

11. MEDIA: RUPERT MURDOCH
Convergent
Technologies
Rupert Murdoch has been successful in
obtaining huge power due to his ability
to exert influence over three core areas
that facilitate online economies:
the networks of: communication
the platforms of communication
and the channels of communication
In context he influences:
How news is produced...
How news is distributed...
How news is consumed...
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

12. MEDIA: RUPERT MURDOCH
Before Online
Media Fuelled
Globalisation...
The process of gathering, producing
and consuming news was very linear...
New producers such as Reuters might
gather the news.
(Facilitation)
News channels such as the BBC might
distribute the news.
(Context)
People like you and I might watch it at
home on our Television.
(Dictation)
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

13. MEDIA: RUPERT MURDOCH
Since Social Media...
The process of gathering, producing
and consuming media is increasingly
convergent...
For Example:
You, I, Reuters gathers the news...
(Accessibility)
We report the news...
(Democracy)
We talk about the news...
(Interaction)
This does not replace traditional news
channels; rather it alters their role:
Media can now be distributed,
consumed and discussed in one place.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

14. MEDIA: RUPERT MURDOCH
Thank You &
Goodbye...
The recent phone hacking scandal
shamed the News of the World into
closing the newspaper.
Negative sentiment/accountability
spreads very quickly via real-time
networks...
...especially when the public is
spreading it for you.
A convergent and interconnected
media network can facilitate both rapid
success and rapid demise at the hands
of the audience.
Media can now be distributed,
consumed and discussed in one place.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

15. CONVERGENCE CULTURE
MODERN DAY MEDIA
“The roles of content provider and
consumer have become increasingly
muddled, and the traditional view of
the audience has been turned on it’s
head.”
Powell - 33 Million People In The Room
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

16. NETWORK SOCIETY
DISCUSSION
Q: Can we identify convergence in any form locally?
Q: Is convergence in business restricted to online
environments?
Q: More Questions
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

17. POLITICS: BARACK OBAMA
How Did Obama Get
It So Right In 2008?
“By using interactive Web
2.0 tools, Mr. Obama’s
campaign changed the
way politicians organise
supporters, advertise to
voters, defend against
attacks and communicate
with constituents.”
(Miller)
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

18. POLITICS: BARACK OBAMA
Taking the debate to
the voters...
The administration understood that
there were core advantages in
generating a dialogue within those
spaces in which audiences spend the
majority of their time in terms of
media consumption.
What tools did he use?
Facebook to engage communities...
Twitter to distribute materials...
Put simply, rather than waiting for the
audience to come to the campaign, the
administration took the campaign to
the audience.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

19. POLITICS: BARACK OBAMA
Organise Supporters
Using Social Media tools allowed the
campaign to:
Organise core support groups into
niche communities to fuel support...
...in essence generating mini-
campaigns supported by these
groups...
...which were facilitated by networked
social media technologies.
The core advantage was:
To allow his supporters to make his
message as accessible and widely
available as possible.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

20. POLITICS: BARACK OBAMA
Advertise to Voters
Using Social Media tools allowed the
campaign to:
Access as wide an audience as
possible...
...with various multi-media forms of
message appropriate to specific
audiences...
...which channeled and influenced
on-going discussion and maximised
support...
...which could be accurately measured
in comparison to traditional campaign
methods...
...which spread rapidly in a viral nature.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

21. POLITICS: BARACK OBAMA
Defend and
Communicate
Using Social Media tools allowed the
campaign to:
Exert influence over negative
sentiment...
...by communicating in an accessible
and direct manner with audience
groups...
...empowering the Obama
Administration with the ability to...
...manage a crisis with superior
resources than that of sceptical groups.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

22. NETWORK SOCIETY
DISCUSSION
Q: Could local politicians make better use of
communications tools?
Q: Can these principles be applied to local
businesses?
Q: More Questions
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

23. SOCIAL CHANGE: NORTH AFRICA
Social Media and
North Africa
“There has been a
common thread in the
recent political upheaval
in Tunisia and Egypt.”
“Social media has played
a role in both influencing
the protests and
reporting on them”
(CNN)
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

24. SOCIAL CHANGE: NORTH AFRICA
Autocratic principles
rely on...
Control of the media:
Which is increasingly degraded by
various democratic social media
distribution methods that facilitate
freedom of speech.
A closed society:
Which is difficult to achieve when
networks of communication allow
messages to leave the country and for
foreign influence to flow back in.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

25. NETWORK SOCIETY
DISCUSSION
Q: Could the social change have occurred without
Social Media?
Q: To what extent did western influence over
communications networks “fuel the fire”?
Q: More Questions
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

26. WHO CONTROLS THE INTERNET?
Western Influence...
“The effects of
technology do not occur
at the level of opinions
and concepts.
But alter sense ratios or
patterns of perception
steadily and without any
resistance.”
(Redhead)
Consider the Western legacy of the
Internet; both in terms of structure
and influence over time.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

27. WHO CONTROLS THE INTERNET?
Did we really ever
have a level playing
field?
“Paradoxical as it may
appear isn't it through the
rights of man that
transpire today at a
planetary level the worst
discriminations?”
(Poster)
Social Media has ‘globalised’
western opinion and influence. Did
we ever really have an equal voice?
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

28. WHO CONTROLS THE INTERNET?
A War over
Influence...
Western influence has prevailed online
to this point in time...
...spreading democratic western
influence across the globe.
We have seen those with lesser
resources, such as North Africa,
succumb to change...
...but the west has one big challenge:
CHINA
China has the resources, both
culturally and economically to
challenge western influence online.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

29. WHO CONTROLS THE INTERNET?
Food for thought...
The Google China Incident.
Limited Use of Social Media in China?
Can Democracy Work in China?
Chinese Internet fuelled capitalism.
Increasing Cyber Warfare Budgets.
China has a vested interest in
exerting social, economic and
political influence over the internet.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

30. NETWORK SOCIETY
DISCUSSION
Q: What does this mean for western economic
models?
Q: How will the US respond to opposition online?
Q: More Questions
Tuesday, 12 July 2011

31. SO WHAT ABOUT GUERNSEY?
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
FOR US?
Guernsey needs to drive innovation to support its
service based economy.
To neglect use of any form of technology in the face
of a rapidly evolving market place, that relies on
communications, could render Guernsey ill equipped
to “do business”.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011