In a recent UPIarticle, National Defense University researcher Mark Drapeau says the U.S. Department of Defense should consider using social media for national defense purposes. Drapeau points out the recent terrorist attacks in India, and how quickly information about the attacks spread through sites like Twitter. He says the India bombings are just one demonstration of how potentially powerful social networking can be if used for national defense.
Drapeau has called on the Defense Department to develop a comprehensive strategy for utilizing social-media technologies to support U.S. government strategic security objectives. “It’s still important to be aware of the power and reach of these tools,” Drapeau said, according to Nextgov. “If you work in national security, some of these things happening in other countries may affect your job or mission. What’s happening over the past couple years is people in other countries are using Facebook, Twitter and blogs to organize. In some cases, even when government security knew it was happening, they were overwhelmed by the amount of people who show up.”
According to Sarah Radwanick, the writer of the article, the individuals “driving the trend” are between the ages of 25 and 54. More specifically, the age group using Twitter the most is actually between 45 and 54. I found this information surprising; shouldn’t the “young people,” those of us between 18 and 24, be eating up social media? Why are people our parents’ age so interested in this tool?
Radwanick has an interesting perspective…
“The skew towards older visitors, although perhaps initially surprising for a social media site, actually makes more sense than you might think at first. With so many businesses using Twitter, along with the first generations of Internet users “growing up” and comfortable with technology, this is a sign that the traditional early adopter model might need to be revisited. Not only teenagers and college students can be counted among the “technologically inclined,” which means that trends are much more prone to take off in older age segments than they used to.”
Good points, right? Now that I think about it, I actually follow quite a few “older” people on Twitter – and typically, they’re the ones posting the most relevant and interesting information.
“In the face of declining circulations, falling offline and online revenue, and competition from digital sources, newspapers have not taken adequate steps to integrate social media tools into their content management “ecosystem,” the report said, adding that the most important task for newspapers now is to prioritize the integration of social media into a current or future content management system.”
Could social media tools help save newspapers? I’d say it’s worth a shot.
Bottom line: readers and consumers are no longer satisfied with simply taking in a story. They’re craving more.
If you don’t feel like you’ve gotten enough already, Birmingham City University in the UK is now offering a one year master’s course in social media. The course description details possible job placements which include “becoming a social media consultant” and contributing to the “social media industry.” An article in the Telegraph explains its purpose and details some of the backlash from students.
The panelists and the moderator of “From Facebook to Twitter: Rules, Rights and Realities of Social Networks” convocation event at Belmont University talk about the importance of the discussion.
Meaning and connection — two key anchors of all things social media — are corroding by the day as people’s ability to organize their experiences and find the relevance of their networks declines. Social media, in essence, is bumping up against its own ceiling, no longer able to serve the needs of those living within its walls; and for these reasons, social media as we know it is changing course.
Given what she argues are the shortcomings of social media, Lichtenberg outlines the ten most significant ways in which she think social media will change in 2009, including ”building a truly cross-platform experience” and “preparing for new social media jobs.” Be sure to check out the whole article.
Check out this video I did on Dave Delaney’s lecture at SEJC. I used iMovie to edit and record the voice over.
Admittedly, it’s not the greatest piece of video out there, but it gets the point across, and it’s the first time in a long time I’ve dealt with video. Plus, it’s the first time I’ve used iMovie.
While “Twittering,” my eye caught a post by mashable – it said, “All media is social, All social is media” and included a link. The blog, by Steve Rubel, discusses how important bloggers are and how interactive media is rapidly growing in popularity. He says, “…we’ve seen time and again that social networks like Facebook, Friendfeed and Twitter are now essential sources of news and information for millions. This is particularly true around big events and breaking news.”
