personally created, on interactions aimed contributions may take the form of text, images, video or audio will be published on-line media for a selected target group in a community or the public as well as basic and support services and tools of Web 2.0, are covered by the term "social media".
forms of social media therefore include even the expression of user-generated content as well as the related information technology tools. The latter are sometimes also known as "social Software“ [1] subsumiert. Social Media reicht jedoch über die technologische Perspektive des Begriffes „Social Software“ hinaus. Wikipedia beschreibt dies treffend: Social Media “ refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences.“ [2] social media, then, combines technology, content and design perspectives to achieve social exchange processes in virtual communities, and communities.
social media encompasses so concrete example
- text-based opinions expressed in the form of weblogs, wikis,
- images of a photographic platform
- videos that have a video deck or
- Audio Files, published a podcast service
for a particular virtual community or the general public and exchanged.
may be supplemented by social media or Internet services such as social bookmarking services and social networking platforms are expected, but a few aimed at the interpersonal exchange to name typical of Web 2.0 services.
Social media is clear from the mass media such as newspapers, TV and radio to separate, are geared primarily to a one-way communication from a sender to many receivers. While it is evident even in these media, the possibility of the reaction, such as for newspapers in the form of a letter to the editor. The interaction process is time consuming and cumbersome. The time between the press and the media depicted reader reaction is linked to the appearance frequency of the medium. Sun must pass before the publication date for days, sometimes weeks.
addition, you as a user of the medium almost exclusively in the role of the recipient. The direct and immediate access to send their contributions information is provided only in exceptional cases and then only indirectly through the editor or program directors in the role of gatekeeper of content.
social media opens up the possibility of communication volunteer work and contributions to be unsolicited, unfiltered to a wide public to the public. The worldwide spread of the Internet opens up the fundamental option to acquire a reach that exceeds that of traditional mass media. It For example, there are user-generated video entries on Youtube.com, which was considered a million times. Provided that basic rules of decency are violated is subject to terms of the scale and type of publication specific blog, photo and video platforms without hindrance.
course, is also observed for certain forms of social media that user-generated information is filtered according to the objective of the side responsible. For example, if the right of forum moderators have recourse to unnecessary comments removed or only allow "valuable" contributions, which affects the Publication opportunities. Restrictive requirements for content and a selective selection procedures, in particular the criteria which are not in a transparent but are subject to the risk of being as a lack of openness or even interpreted as a fear that it did not want to put the vote of the public. To make any assumptions at first can not arise and go to conflict regarding the selection of content from the beginning of the way, have many social media providers to realize all the user contributions. The communication possibilities of social media are so clearly against the background of a total of occasional limits by the selection of content higher than with traditional mass media.
The far-reaching possibilities of effective public articulation through social media clearly also differ from the potential of the web of the first generation. That offered only technologically savvy experts familiar with HTML, the chance to create content. The masses of Internet users was due to the technological and knowledge-related barriers mainly the role of the receptor of fremdgeneriertem content. Interestingly, the first of Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 developed Web browser is not only able to view documents, but he also pointed to an editor could be created with the new documents. "This shows that Berners-Lee, the original WWW anticipated as a symmetrical system, in which all the information consumers and producers simultaneously and add new content. In this sense equivalent to the original WWW already heavily promoted the later as a Web 2.0 system. " [3] The practical use of the first tools for creating websites, however, remained the domain of experts and was not to the public. It was only the second generation of the Internet could contribute to the technological and economic barriers to entry are relatively low to the medium. Provider of social media tools eighth in their own interest that the Managing and using is as simple as possible and to accomplish without special technological knowledge. Even in terms of cost-related access to the use of social media by a variety of free services today is very simple.
In the following discussion summarizes key differences of social media than traditional media.
| Traditional mass media | Social Media |
| focused on one-way communication: focus media users in the role of information receiver | to multiple communication: media users in the role of "prosumer" |
| very limited communication capabilities of users to achieve a public | unlimited communication possibilities for users to obtain a public |
| pre-selection of user submissions published | contributions from users are mostly unfiltered |
| reactions of users represented in the medium only with a delay represented | immediate response from users in the medium represented |
| high technological barriers | low technological barriers |
| high economic barriers to access | low economic barriers to access |
Figure: distinguishing features of traditional mass media and social media
[1] See, Wikipedia, Social Software, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_software
[2] Wikipedia, Social Media,
[3] Schiele, G., Hähner, J., Becker , C. Web 2.0 - technologies and trends in: Interactive Marketing and Web 2.0, ed Bauer, H. et al, 2 Edition, Munich 2008, p. 7 (p. 4 - 13)
