SOCIAL MEDIA 2023 SUMMARIES
WEEK 1
* Media - forms through which valued contents are spread or communicated to others
- forms are more important than contents, forms are individual (each is different)
* Mass media - forms of media that broadcast messages to a large audience / media becomes
associated with the media industry (information / entertainment)
* Digital media - forms of media made to work together using computing technology
- computers are linked together in a network, affordable personal computers made digital media
popular
* Social media - forms of media made to work together in a platform using computing
technology, they are loosely gated, accessible to anyone using a computer, the platform enables
social communication, most social media platforms are commercial in nature
* The commercial model - a social media company offers you a free subscription so that you
can post information about yourself, others, and the world in exchange for letting the company
sell the information that you post to third parties who wish to tailor advertisements
* Baym: Seven Key Concepts - used to differentiate digital media, and which influence how
people use them and with what effects
1. Interactivity – social vs. technical; the many modes of communication on the internet
vary in the degrees and kinds of interactivity they offer; the ability of a medium to enable
social interaction between groups or individuals (televisions does not allow interaction
between users)
, 2. Temporal structure – synchronous vs. non-synchronous (at the same time);
asynchronous communication allows very large groups to sustain interaction and gives
people time to manage their self-presentations more strategically
3. Social cues – rich vs. sparse; provide further information regarding context, the meanings
of messages, and the identities of the people interacting (body movements, eye gaze,
appearance, hear the sounds of voices, environmental influences, etc)
4. Storage – maintenance of data; human memory is poor; digital media can be stored,
replicated and retrieved;
5. Replicability – ability to copy
6. Reach – audiences can be local or global, one press of a button can reach many people
which is not the case with face-to-face communication
7. Mobility – cell phones, tablets…freedom or constraint; extent to which they are portable
-enabling people to send and receive messages regardless of location
* New technologies lead to social and cultural reorganization and reflection
* The telegraph (1800s) allowed real-time communication across long distances for the first time
* The separation of presence from communication offers us more control over our social worlds
yet subjects us to new forms of control, surveillance, and constraint
* Our autonomy is increasingly constrained by the expectation that we can be reached for
communication anytime, anywhere, and we will owe an appropriate and timely response
* Boundaries between public and private are changed by digital media
* Synchronous person-to-person and small-group communication also developed early in the
Internet's history. "Talk" was an early synchronous internet communication genre. When using
Talk, a horizontal line divided the top and lower halves of the screen, each half showing
messages from one interactant
WEEK 1
* Media - forms through which valued contents are spread or communicated to others
- forms are more important than contents, forms are individual (each is different)
* Mass media - forms of media that broadcast messages to a large audience / media becomes
associated with the media industry (information / entertainment)
* Digital media - forms of media made to work together using computing technology
- computers are linked together in a network, affordable personal computers made digital media
popular
* Social media - forms of media made to work together in a platform using computing
technology, they are loosely gated, accessible to anyone using a computer, the platform enables
social communication, most social media platforms are commercial in nature
* The commercial model - a social media company offers you a free subscription so that you
can post information about yourself, others, and the world in exchange for letting the company
sell the information that you post to third parties who wish to tailor advertisements
* Baym: Seven Key Concepts - used to differentiate digital media, and which influence how
people use them and with what effects
1. Interactivity – social vs. technical; the many modes of communication on the internet
vary in the degrees and kinds of interactivity they offer; the ability of a medium to enable
social interaction between groups or individuals (televisions does not allow interaction
between users)
, 2. Temporal structure – synchronous vs. non-synchronous (at the same time);
asynchronous communication allows very large groups to sustain interaction and gives
people time to manage their self-presentations more strategically
3. Social cues – rich vs. sparse; provide further information regarding context, the meanings
of messages, and the identities of the people interacting (body movements, eye gaze,
appearance, hear the sounds of voices, environmental influences, etc)
4. Storage – maintenance of data; human memory is poor; digital media can be stored,
replicated and retrieved;
5. Replicability – ability to copy
6. Reach – audiences can be local or global, one press of a button can reach many people
which is not the case with face-to-face communication
7. Mobility – cell phones, tablets…freedom or constraint; extent to which they are portable
-enabling people to send and receive messages regardless of location
* New technologies lead to social and cultural reorganization and reflection
* The telegraph (1800s) allowed real-time communication across long distances for the first time
* The separation of presence from communication offers us more control over our social worlds
yet subjects us to new forms of control, surveillance, and constraint
* Our autonomy is increasingly constrained by the expectation that we can be reached for
communication anytime, anywhere, and we will owe an appropriate and timely response
* Boundaries between public and private are changed by digital media
* Synchronous person-to-person and small-group communication also developed early in the
Internet's history. "Talk" was an early synchronous internet communication genre. When using
Talk, a horizontal line divided the top and lower halves of the screen, each half showing
messages from one interactant
