Thursday 7 November, 6.30pm until 8.00pm, Statoil ASA Fornebu, Oslo, Martin Linges vei 33 1364 Fornebu, Norway International Satellite Events 2013
Social media may not yet have the ability to topple governments, despite some initial hyperbole around the Arab Spring, but it has certainly revolutionised communication. So when comedian Beppe Grillo, leader of Italy’s Five Star Movement, won a quarter of the popular vote in February, his success was attributed to his social media strategy. Viral campaigning, such as creating Twitter storms like #endfossilfuelsubsidies, is now a regular strategy for NGOs and advocacy groups. Digital marketing specialists are increasingly influential in both business strategy and public policy. From 02’s widely-praised handling of its recent signalling black-out to Barack Obama’s high-profile tweeting from within the White House, having an online presence is viewed as essential communication tool for building trust and managing reputations in business and politics. Meanwhile, the use of the hashtag #Utoya by sympathetic tweeters was shown on an interactive map of the world to reveal a compassionate, global virtual community in the face of tragedy.
But for every positive example of online ‘clicktivism’, there are numerous examples of the darker side of blogs and Twitter in hate speech and ‘trolling’. Fjordman’s anti-Muslim blog was closed down after it was cited as an inspiration by Anders Breivik. Norwegian politician Sandra Borch has drawn attention to ugly comments on her own blog, and worries about increasing cyberbullying by ‘anonymous cowards’. Reputations can be maligned online even with little evidence, while malicious gossip is easily circulated and given the veneer of truth. In business, slips and mishandling of online strategy have seen the likes of McDonald’s, Vodafone, Qantas, LA Fitness and myriad tweet-happy local politicians suffer reputational fails. Careless tweets have also led to people being sacked, and teenagers in the UK have been arrested for offensive, sometimes drunken tweets.
Are concerns about the dark side of social networks anything more than a moral panic, or are new technologies debasing society? Are social media platforms for building relationships and trust or destroying reputations and cruel abuse?
Jamie Bartlett
director, Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, Demos; author, The New Face of Digital Populism; co-author, #Intelligence |
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Ole Gunnar Dokka
manager innovation engagement, Corporate Innovation Team, Statoil |
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Dr Bernard Enjolras
research director, Institute for Social research, Oslo |
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Dr Gunn Enli
associate professor, Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo |
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Rob Killick
CEO, Clerkswell; author, The UK After The Recession |
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Chair: | |
Tony Gilland
associate fellow, Academy of Ideas |
Being first and fast is all very well, but there is a way to do that without publishing falsehoods. In a brilliant insight, the New York-based digital guru Jeff Jarvis wrote: 'The key skill of journalism today is saying what we ‘don’t’ know, issuing caveats and also inviting the public to tell us what they know.'
Roy Greenslade, Evening Standard, 21 April 2013If you are interested in social media for international development many of you will have already seen the fantastic Africa for Norway video which I mentioned in a previous blog. I was interested in how this video reached 2 million views so quickly, was it traditional or social media that contributed to such a swift success?
David Girling, Social Media for Development blog, 13 April 2013Grillo's Five Star Movement won 25% of the votes in Italy's election through mixing new technology with old-style activism
Jamie Bartlett, Guardian, 26 February 2013Two years ago, Egyptians took to the streets en masse – and helped to usher in a new age of citizen journalism. Old media is still trying to catch up.
Sahar el-Nadi, The European, 26 January 2013Yes, online trolls often ruin debates and annoy the hell out of people. But it is their censorious critics in the media who truly harm internet culture.
Brendan O’Neill, spiked, 27 September 2012Citizen journalistic experiences differ from one context to the next in terms of roles and objectives, the produced contents, their formats and their quality.
Nadia Faris, Nordic Page, 11 March 2012A topic guide from the Institute of Ideas' Debating Matters Competition.
Patrick Hayes, Debating Matters, 31 January 2012Five centuries before Facebook and the Arab spring, social media helped bring about the Reformation
Economist, 17 December 2011