The Dark Side of Social Networking Sites

I may have to rethink my position on facebook - it seems its more foe than friend

What's the buzz??

There is a lot of buzz around the term citizen journalism. It is not new, (it played a part in the American Revolution) nor is it an exclusive area which is only accessible by the qualified journalists of society. From my research, citizen journalism, in a nutshell, is ordinary people compiling multiple forms of multimedia such as photos, articles, videos and even blogs, to tell a story. Stories which may not have been told without the level of technology we have today. The thing is now that technology has been developed to a point where most people can access the internet, in one way or another, which has opened up this whole new channel for communication. The internet also has far less gatekeepers than traditional media which allows for easier publishing (Bruns, 2008).

Having fewer gatekeepers on the internet is both a positive and a negative aspect of citizen journalism. The positive is that, as stated before, more people can publish their works and, as a result produce more hyperlocal content targeted to a certain group which can be distributed to a large network of people who care. The downside of fewer gatekeepers is the quality and accuracy of the content which is distributed. However, there are many blogs and websites which are run by uneducated individuals but are updated by successful business people, entrepreneurs and even ex American government field agents.

But, by having a limited supply of people to check the work and correct in a lot of cases, there are many articles out there in cyber world which are completely useless. This is due to the lack of evidence which is needed in traditional media to support claims, and simply, just to be considered a credible source of opinion and information. This online community is relying on the members of these communities to be the gatekeepers (Bruns, 2008).

Although this lack of gatekeeping can be seen as negative, it also allows more viewpoints to be presented (Bruns, 2008). This type of journalism can also be seen as less biased than the main stream media due to most media companies and publications having a certain set of news values which they follow in order to possibly retain readership and even to potentially appeal to advertisers (Wilson, 2008).

This citizen journalism movement is not overly popular within the professional journalism industry. It is apparent that academics welcome this type of journalism with online publications like the Nieman Report whereas journalists who participated in the ABC Nyheter debate were not particularly enthusiastic about it, with good reason as well. Professional journalism will never disappear but will mainstream publications consider publishing more articles written by citizens? If so, the need for professional journalists will diminish accordingly.

There is a lot of useless information out there which is still deemed as citizen journalism. It includes blogs about elections, world news, local news even the conspiracy theories which have been proved false time and time again. The concept is important and is relevant to the changing needs of 21st century media consumers but there are issues which need to be addressed before we can fully understand the potential of the citizen journalist.

Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang

Wilson, J. (2008). KCB201 Virtual Cultures: Week 10 lecture notes. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au (accessed May 8, 2008)

Facebook - Friend or Foe?

I recently read Axel Bruns’ blog titled ‘Social Networks on Ning: A Sensible Alternative to Facebook’ and even though I found he put forth good points about the social networking site Facebook, there are still has to be something that appeals to users when the numbers show they just keep going up.

Axel does bring up a valid point about the fact that so many people want to become your ‘friend’ when you have neither heard of them or spoke to them once at a party 3 years ago. This is one thing that does bug me about Facebook. I have people I went to high school with, who I either never spoke to or had a mutually relationship of dislike yet they still have sent a friend request to me. I can’t ignore them either because I do have some manners plus they would probably work it out after a while that I rejected them. I’ve had this conversation with several people before and while I think it’s stupid to do this, people say it is just out of their own curiosity that they add me. I suppose this is logical although the cynic in me suggests it is simply to gain more friends and look more popular within this social network. However, I believe this is a small price to pay when I can easily contact friends from around the globe at any time without having to wonder if they ever received the message.

Another point Axel presents is that Facebook is the ‘Net’s Hotel California’ referencing The Eagles song, Hotel California. However, it is not only Facebook which is difficult to get out of. There have been many stories where users on MySpace have not been able to delete their profile but have simply been told to put it onto the private setting. So really it is not only Facebook who is the monster out of the social networking sites….it’s many of them. The whole point of these websites, once they have become successful and have corporate sponsors or owners, is to retain membership so that their advertisements may be shown to the maximum number of people within their target markets. It’s a smart move when looking from a business perspective.

These websites are just another business but while this is true, they still serve the purpose of social networking on the internet. They have functions which allow you to chat with friends, email them, send friends flowers or gifts and even send them a fish for their aquarium. They are not simply traps for every person who decides to join. Yes, there are issues surrounding these sites but they still serve the purpose for which they were created – to connect people.