Social & new media tactics: Generating and curating provincial news

Sanjana HattotuwaEditor, Groundviews (www.groundviews.org)

what is social media?

• Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. (Wikipedia)

what is new media?

• New media is a term meant to encompass the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies in the later part of the 20th century. New media is not television programs, feature films, magazines, books, or paper-based publications. (Wikipedia)

new media and foundations

• Blogs

• Social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Myspace)

• Google Maps

• Mobiles: SMS, MMS, Mobile photography and video

• VoIP: Skype, Google Chat

• And making it all possible are ADSL, 3G HSPA wireless broadband

what’s new

• Ubiquity of two way communications

• Addressable peoples, even those who IDPs or refugees

• News generation and dissemination linked to new media

• Disintermediated models vs. traditional media model

• Citizens as producers

• Low resolution content broadcast on high definition media

what’s old and enduring challenges

• Impartial, accurate coverage still vital, increasingly hard to ascertain

• Torrent of information. Trickle of knowledge.

• Veracity / Verifiability?

• Post-disaster communications can be unreliable and difficult

• New media / technology illiteracy

What is out there?

online video: Vikalpa YouTube Channelwww.youtube.com/vikalpasl

kottu: blog aggregationwww.kottu.org

sinhala bloggers union: blog aggregationwww.sinhalabloggers.com

sinhala bloggers union: blog aggregationwww.sinhalabloggers.com

online video: Perambara YouTube Channelwww.youtube.com/internewslanka

online news from provinces: Vikalpa www.vikalpa.org

online news from provinces: Perambara www.perambara.org

twitter: new perspectives

flickr content on sri lanka: www.flickr.com

Producing content from the provinces

essential email account: Gmail

essential sinhala unicode toolshttp://ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/ltrl/services/feconverter

wordpress.com: blogging

ustream.tv: broadcasting via a PC

bambuser.com: mobile phone broadcasting

drop.io: reports through audio

Pulling it all in and keeping abreast

google maps in elections monitoring

google search: Updates from social media

google reader: a web based RSS reader

google docs: web based document management

google calendar: web based document management

know your twitter hastags (#slelections)

twitter: desktop aggregation via Seesmic Lookseesmic.com/look

spy: http://spy.appspot.com

news management toolkit

key points: recap

• New technologies potentially give voice to all citizens

• Be sceptical of new information, but use new media to push and pull content

• Develop media literacy to embrace new technologies

Thank you