The Effect of Social
Media on Media Consumption and Distribution[1]
Sim Jia Hui, Daniel
(daniel.sim.2013@economics.smu.edu.sg), 1st Year Economics Student,
Singapore Management University
Executive Summary
The advent of the Internet and in
recent times, social media has dramatically changed the way media is consumed
and distributed, as much as the invention of the Printing Press has revolutionized
the spread of information. Social media has empowered consumers to become media
producers and distributors much more easily. Media, and consequently ideas and
knowledge are more freely accessible, thus opening up vast new opportunities
for a great number of people, changing our way of thinking and proliferating our
access to media as well as the people we are connected to. Yet, it presents new
challenges for media production firms and advertising companies that depend on
the traditional means of media distribution.
1
Introduction
Since the past, until as recent as
the early 21st century, the consumption of media has followed the traditional
pattern: Producers would create content for consumers (Croteau,
Hoynes & Milan, 2012). Furthermore, technology has all along
greatly empowered the means of media distribution of producers, from the
invention of the Printing Press, to the Radio and Television, and finally, the
Internet.
This paper seeks to explain how the
proliferation of Social Media has caused a paradigm shift in the media
consumption pattern into one of user-generated content, freely available to
almost anybody connected to the Internet. This transformation is by no means complete since
traditional content such as: Newspapers, Hollywood movies and television programs
are obviously still existent. However, this paper will also cover the effects
(both positive and negative) that Social Media has had on these traditional
media giants. Furthermore, it will cover the political ramifications, as well
as future considerations for people to take note of, as Social Media becomes
ever more pervasive in their lives.
2
Historical Perspectives
Throughout history,
media has relied on technology to be broadcasted and shared with its audiences.
The first movable type printing press was created by Johannes Gutenberg in
Mainz in the mid 15th century (Dewar, 2005). By allowing books to be mass-produced,
it was partly responsible for the spread of ideas and scientific knowledge
during the Renaissance (Dewar, 2005). Terrestrial Broadcasting, in the form of
wireless transmissions, enabled media to be sent nation-wide live to anybody
tuning in, unifying them to into a single audience as opposed to print media.
As a dominant form of media during WWII in the USA, radio (ThinkQuest, n.d.)
was able to provide up-to-date news of the war faster to concerned relatives of
soldiers fighting in the war. Furthermore, radio was a household entertainment,
providing live music, variety shows, soap operas and comedy (CyberCollege,
2012). Yet, it was the television (TV) that defined the 20th century, capturing
major happenings around the world and broadcasting to viewers who have access
to it (Anthony, 2013). For example, the historic Apollo 11 Moon Landing of July
20th, 1969 was broadcasted to an estimated 600 million people around the world (Kane
& Marder, 2012). The television opened up a whole new media platform of TV
news, entertainment TV, and even making sports viewable to audiences around the
country.
It was not long before the Internet
came onto the scene. Its predecessor, the ARPANET, commissioned by the US Department of Defense
allowed computers to exchange information with one another (Deffree, 2013),
paving the way for the Internet. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in
1989 (Kimpton, 2013). Later on, especially with the onset of Web 2.0, did media
content distribution really start taking place on the Internet. With
infrastructure, more and more were people being connected to the Internet.
Furthermore, due to the advancement of technology, faster Internet speeds
became possible, from the dial-up to broadband to today’s fiber broadband,
making it easier and faster for companies to sell and distribute media across
the Internet rather than just through brick and mortar stores. Apple’s iTunes
Store in 2003 allowed users to buy music online and Netflix in 2007 enabled
on-demand Internet streaming of TV shows and movies primarily in North America.
That
being said, it was really social media in the 2000s that revolutionized and
fundamentally altered the pattern of media consumption and distribution,
because it relied on user-generated content and allowed for users to
communicate with one another more fluidly. For example, YouTube was launched in
2005 as a video sharing website and has grown phenomenally as one of the key
drivers of change in media consumption and distribution (see Section 3.1).
Facebook,
launched by Mark Zuckerberg on February 4th, 2004 (Carlson, 2010), and Twitter,
launched by Jack Dorsey in 2006 (Bellis, n.d.), both social media giants today
greatly improved and revolutionized the way people network, interact and share
memories, photographs and videos together. Facebook displayed rapid growth from
just 1 million users in 2004 to 1.11 billion users in 2013, which encompasses
more than 1 in 7 people on Earth today (Associated Press, 2013). From the mundane, to poetry, comedy and even
citizen journalism (see Section 3.2), Twitter has taken on a role of a rapid,
interactive information disseminator. In such a relatively short period of time
(even less than a decade), social media has become so integral and central to
people’s lives; some may even argue inseparable from them.
3
Current Situation
3.1 User-Generated Entertainment
(YouTube)
Unlike
traditional TV programs, videos are on YouTube are not heavily bogged down by
advertisements. However, it is a subject of much contention when copyrighted
content gets uploaded onto YouTube without the copyright holders' permission.
Instead of going against YouTube, there are media companies that collaborate
with YouTube, such as VEVO, which provides sites such as YouTube with music
videos. YouTube also has an in place a “Content ID System” that scans videos
that are uploaded and cross-references them to a database. If they are
copyrighted material, the copyright holders are alerted and can have control
over their content by blocking them or even sharing the revenue from YouTube advertisement
(YouTube Help, 2010). In doing so, YouTube is able to act more as a partner in
distributing copyright holders’ content rather than as a competitor.
YouTube
has been successful in leveling the playing field for amateur content producers
such as singers, filmmakers and educators. Amateur content producers can become
very popular in a short amount of time at very little cost, without the
traditional process of seeking distribution companies to make their content
available to the masses. Natalie Tran from Sydney owns a YouTube channel: CommunityChannel, and typically produces
comedy videos to over 1.3 million subscribers. Receiving widespread media
coverage for her creativity and popularity, she has also partnered with Lonely
Planet to produce travel videos (Lowe, 2012). While major TV networks in Australia have been
criticized for not being inclusive to Australia’s ethnic mix, YouTube has
allowed a more precise portrait of Australia’s ethnic diversity. YouTube has
created a virtual assembly for ethnic groups across Australia to freely express
themselves, unlike conventional media (Whyte, 2012).
Even
professional music artists have leveraged on social media like YouTube and
Facebook, and on online markets like iTunes. For example, Macklemore managed to be the first independent artist in two
decades to reach number one on US Billboard Charts without a major record label
(Feeney, 2013), perhaps setting a future trend for aspiring artists.
Content
producers are also able to earn money from producing their own content by taking
part in the YouTube Partner Program (Beese, 2012). Such monetary incentives
open up a whole new realm of creativity; empowering online citizens to create
videos for other people just like them.
However,
by allowing people to upload any content freely to YouTube, controversial
content that provokes racial or religious hatred and intolerance can be spread.
In 2012, the video “Innocence of Muslims” was uploaded, besmirching the Prophet
Muhammad, sparking outrage and riots in the Muslim world, culminating in the
deaths of over 50 people (Stone, 2012); a bounty was even placed on the head of
the man responsible behind it. This is a poignant reminder that there will be
people ready to abuse the freedom of expression, even by using social media.
Even if such a video is eventually taken down, damage would have already been
done, and in the case of “Innocence of Muslims”, lives were lost when they
would not have been.
In
an effort to rake in more profits, YouTube has poured millions of dollars to
bring in professional content, but amateur producers felt that they were being
undermined (Shih, 2012); ironic that the purpose of YouTube in the very
beginning was to share videos made by amateurs. With the competition, these
producers may not be able to match up to the professionals in terms of budget,
advertisements and connections. Instead of leveling the playing field for video
distribution, the structure of the big budget Hollywood and TV industry today
may simply just be replicated into the YouTube community in the future.
3.2 Citizen Journalism
While
print technology has allowed newspaper companies to dominate news reporting in
their respective cities or countries for the past 300 or so years, in recent
times the Internet has allowed blogs to flourish, covering a range of topics,
including news and political commentary. Such blogs pose direct challenges to
the traditional news media companies that rely on newspaper sales and
advertisement to make money. While many newspaper companies try to ride the
wave of technology by providing a subscription service for readers to pay to
read the news on their tablets or phones, few people are willing to pay for it.
A research done by Pew Internet & American Life Project showed that only
10% of adults in the US who use mobile apps to access the news pay for it
(Choney, 2011). To exacerbate the situation, many Americans do not trust
traditional media news. According to a report by Gallup, in 2013, only 23% of
Americans have confidence in newspapers and television news (Mendez, 2013).
The
freedom and zero cost to set up a blog, accessible for anybody on the Internet
to see, has empowered ordinary non-journalists to post their own reporting or
political commentary. Notable blogs for news include The Huffington Post,
offering news coverage and US politics. Blogs also cover a wide range of other
topics, from personal reflections to cooking recipes, comics and travel guides.
As such, one may argue that readers no longer have to purchase a physical (or
digital) magazine but can search through a wide range of blogs free-of-charge.
3.2.1 Microblogging
A
smaller, swifter version of blogging: Microblogging, is also making headway in
society. Twitter is the best example of microblogging today. As in the case of
Twitter, microblog posts or tweets
can be no longer than 140 characters; tweets take just mere seconds to be read
and can be retweeted to other people,
as opposed to blog posts. Small bits of information can be spread around and
disseminated at rapid speeds. A survey conducted in 2012 showed that the
percentage of Twitter users using a mobile device increased to 71% while that
of computers declined (Mercer, n.d.). The proliferation of smartphones and tablets
and growth in mobile networks, and the fact that browsing through Twitter
requires short attention spans mean that users are more inclined to access
Twitter when they are on the go.
It
is unsurprising that Twitter is perfect in sharing and disseminating
information, in some cases: the news and latest happenings at an extremely
rapid rate, by the people there “on the ground” to witness it happen around
them, or simply to participate as a mass virtual audience of spectators able to
broadcast their own opinion on major events as they unfold live. When news
broke of Michael Jackson’s death in 2009, the number of tweets doubled to 456
per second (Holt, 2013), even causing Twitter to shut down temporarily (Bates,
2009).
3.2.2 Political Ramifications
 |
Figure 1: Real-time Twitter
feed during Iran’s Presidential Elections. Reproduced from Time World (2009)
|
A more pressing issue is that such freedom that social media
entails mean that alternative views are easier accessible and suppression of
information more difficult. Being out of the reach of governmental control, it
is easier for dissidents to stir political unrest, such as in Iran's 2009
Presidential Election protests (Grossman, 2009), or outright anarchy such as in
the case of the 2011 London Riots, inflamed by participation on Facebook pages
and Twitter (Mathew, 2011). It is thus unsurprising that such platforms are
banned in countries such as China.
In 2009, the Communist Party in
China banned access to Facebook, in addition to Twitter, in the wake of deadly
riots in Xinjiang (Wauters, 2009). This is a testament to the potency of social
media. The Chinese Communist Party feared that its power might be at risk if
dissidents were successfully able to launch an uprising on the backs of social
media. However, even as Western social media sites are blocked, Chinese copycat
versions have emerged, such as Renren,
Weibo and Youku, showing that people would still want to be connected on
social media platforms. While having said that, blocking Chinese Internet users
from Western social media sites inadvertently alienates and isolates them from
the rest of the world. For example, a Chinese user would be unable to access
videos on YouTube or connect with foreign friends who are only using Facebook,
thus limiting his global outreach.
More importantly, however is that
such empowerment means that hoaxes or inaccurate reporting can be easily
circulated around social networks. On 23rd April 2013, the Dow Jones
plunged sharply, losing $136 billion of market value after a false tweet
claimed that Barack Obama was wounded in an explosion at the White House. This
raised concerns of the use of trading algorithms to analyze information from
sources like social media (Chozick
& Perlroth, 2013).
It is worth noting that while there
is plenty of excitement and talk of the power of social media to bring about
political change, and indeed a number of political and social movements have
sprang out from social media, many have not matured into coherent, viable
political movements (Keen, 2012), and are merely just aggregations of
individuals trumpeting the same views. Take for instance, the Occupy movements
that failed due to a lack of clear goals (Anil, 2011) and strong leadership
despite the strong coverage they received on social media.
3.3
Collaboration
Despite the threats that citizen
journalism seem to pose to journalism, rather than compete with news companies,
citizen journalism can instead enhance and bolster traditional news reporting.
Richard Sambrook, then Director of Global News at BBC writes that on the day of
the 2005 London Bombings, photos, videos and reports from eyewitnesses came
pouring into BBC, which they used to report the story. He emphasized that, due
to empowerment by consumer gadgets, like tablets and smartphones, news coverage
of major events from now on would be a partnership with the public (Sambrook,
2005).
Russia Today (RT), a Russian-based
television network is extremely popular on social media, such as YouTube,
recording nearly 1 million views on an average day. Rather than just deliver
information, it posts videos with the aim of provoking responses and sparking
debates. The videos are also in a variety of formats, such as documentaries,
interviews or even user-generated videos. Furthermore, RT looks at the comments
left by users to see which stories are of most interest (McAthy, 2013). RT is therefore an excellent
model of engagement with the community, using social media to its fullest
advantage and delivering the news that challenges viewers’ thoughts and
perspectives on the world around them.
Figure 2: Advertisement by RT
challenges viewers to question more. Reproduced from The Guardian (2009)
4 Future Considerations
4.1
Education
While most students in developed
countries receive formal education, students have inherently different learning
speeds and thus schools everywhere face the problem of not being able to cater
to every student’s learning speed, leaving slower students behind while holding
faster students back. However, education can be a very viable industry to be
transformed by Social Media in the future. Currently, the Internet, especially
sites like YouTube and Khan Academy contain a wealth of educational video
courses for free, on demand to suit any topic that students or teachers would
want to go through. In the future, it would be tremendously beneficial to
students that a Digital Aristotle (Grey,
2012), a computer program is developed that can tap on this wealth of resources
to teach students, test their knowledge and adapt to their learning speeds. The
democratization of information by social media means that people would be able
to contribute such resources very much cheaply and easily through social media.
Furthermore, in such a knowledge-based economy, a better education would mean
better opportunities for students in the future, who may not have the financial
means or ability to afford tutors or an expensive education.
For subjects like the Liberal Arts
and Social Sciences, the diversification of viewpoints that students are
exposed to would be beneficial in that their knowledge on national history
would no longer be limited to their textbooks, which may have be biased in
their points of view. It is not surprising that conflicts between countries
have emerged in the past because of content in their textbooks. Yet, it is also
worth noting that the proliferation of viewpoints may be too overwhelming to
students at a young age.
4.2
Consumer Gadgets
Social media has already seeped into
everyday life, due to the mass availability of consumer gadgets such as
smartphones, tablets, and even smart TVs. While people are able to watch online
videos and surf their social sites on their smartphones now, with the release
of Google Glass in 2014, the possibilities for consumers would be virtually
limitless. With wearable technology possibly paving the way, people would be
empowered with the ability to record photos and videos from one’s actual
first-person view, allowing for more personal experiences to be shared with
friends and family on social networks. More ambitiously, entertainment in the
form of augmented reality may be very viable in the near future, together with
gesture technology already present today, providing an even more immersive
experience.
4.3
Effect on Consumption Patterns
One effect that most people should
be able to observe recently is that more and more of the devices that being
used are designed and marketed towards participation in social media, such as
those mentioned above, and even smart cars in the future. It is as Andrew Keen,
author of the book Digital Vertigo
puts it: Everything is becoming social (Keen, 2012). Even today, many popular
games thrive on social networks, and it is likely that society is heading in
the direction that every form of media that is consumed in the future would
have social media embedded in it, from e-book readers that can share one’s favorite
books with friends, to smart TVs that can recommend TV programs based on what
one’s friends are watching. This raises a whole debate on whether social media
has become too pervasive in our lives and whether our personal privacy may be
in jeopardy.
Another point worth considering is
that, with consumers increasingly being constantly bombarded by fast
information (as mentioned previously in the case of Twitter), or images and
videos such as Instagram, it is likely that, for better or worst, social media
could shorten future consumers’ attention spans, especially for the most
tech-savvy in developed societies, such as Generation Y. Many children today already
have access to smartphones and tablets, and this could lead to the effects
discussed above on the future generations. An online survey of more than 2000
teachers in the US by Pew’s Research Center has reported that: “87% say these technologies
are creating an ‘easily distracted generation with short attention spans’” (Purcell
et al., 2012, p. 2). This change in appetite could lead to changes in the type
of media produced in the future, such as smartphone or tablet games that are
short and require minimal bursts of attention, not to mention that such games,
videos and music obviously can be accessed and downloaded that much more easily
and quickly in time to come.
4.4
Filter Bubbles
With people increasingly relying on
the Internet and social media as their primary source of news of concern,
whether it be from a Google search or through one’s Facebook or Twitter
newsfeed, a worrisome trend has emerged that may restrict their exposure to a
balanced worldview. Increasingly, sites like Facebook and Google track users’
behavior on their sites by keeping track of what they click on, and thereby
filtering news stories to tailor-display what they think is best for them using
algorithms. Other social media sites like YouTube and Twitter are also using
such algorithms and recommending content based on one’s behavior, not to
mention retail sites like Amazon. Yet, people may end up unwittingly trapped in
filter bubbles where they are not exposed to content that challenge their
opinions and broaden their perspectives (Pariser, 2011). Earlier in this paper
I discussed about how social media has liberated people from information
control, but it is chilling and ironic to think that in the future, people’s
information access may instead be controlled by these algorithms belonging to
these social media sites in the first place.
While using such algorithms does
bring more relevant information to the people who want to see it, and while it
does people with similar views together, it should be such that users should be
given the personal choice to opt out of such filtering, and even then the
filtering should not be so drastic so as to polarize the community. Functions
should be put in place in these filtering programs to provide alternate views
on a particular issue.
5 Conclusion
In conclusion, the Internet and
Social Media has transformed the landscape of media and the relationship
between the producer and consumer dramatically. Consumers will stand to benefit
since more content is freely available to them. Yet with more uncensored and
unverifiable user-generated content, consumers and producers alike need to
practice greater discernment. Though it is highly unlikely or even impossible
for all media consumption to be transposed onto social media, traditional
content producers, such as film and news companies need to remain open to
change and new ways of collaboration, rather than purely seeing them as
competition. As social media opens up new opportunities for people to broadcast
their talents, and likewise to be open to a diverse range of content to broaden
their appreciation and perspectives, it is important that people do not become
overly preoccupied with social media and become unwittingly trapped in their
own filter bubbles.
6
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[1] This paper was reviewed by Quah Yi
Yao Cedric and Siddarth Sethi
