The Integration of Technology, Media, and Culture

Throughout our Southern New Hampshire University graduate course Communication with Media Technology, we have been learning about the integration of technology, media, and culture.  Advancements in technology provide opportunities for us to bring media forward in ways that were not previously possible, to parts of the world and its citizens who did not previously have a global voice or ears.  These have impacted societies and shifted cultures.  People are now able to become citizen journalists and bring their own form of journalism to the world.  

Acclaimed journalists and authors Bill Kovach and Tim Rosenstiel explain, “journalism is not defined by technology, nor by journalists, or the techniques they employ.  The principles and purpose of journalism are defined by something more basic: the function news plays in the lives of people” (American Press Institute, n.d.).  Nowhere in their definition is the need for a certificate before providing value to the world through journalistic efforts.  Just as the integration of technology, media and culture are strengthening the capabilities of all of us to become one type of valuable, but inexperienced, journalist of the future, our efforts strengthen the work of experienced journalists as we become additional eyes and ears to their professional efforts.  We are all, in our own ways, working together to achieve the purpose of journalism, that of providing “citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments” (American Press Institute, n.d.).

This series of blog posts provide another type of integration, that of bringing together elements that impact how successfully this integration of technology, media, and culture becomes.  Whether looking at how advancements in technology have caused communicators to evolve their skills in order to maximize the potential of their voices, or how societies are demanding more of media because of the advancements in technology, these are ultimately creating shifts in our cultures.

Here is a video where Bill Kovach talks about the purpose of journalism and how its importance is more than just the article they produce, it impacts both society and culture.  In one excerpt, Mr. Kovach explains,

Journalism was disappearing in to this more diffuse world of communication and how could journalists maintain a space in there that was producing the kind of information democracy required.  You cannot have a democracy unless the people have an independent source of quality information on which to make informed decisions. (InvestigatingPower, 2012)

References

American Press Institute. (n.d.). What is the purpose of journalism. Retrieved September 15, 2015, from American Press Institute: http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/purpose-journalism/

InvestigatingPower. (2012, April 24). Bill kovach - The elements of journalism. Retrieved September 15, 2015, from YouTube: https://youtu.be/-U5jteaSQQY

The Partnership of Twitter and Social Movements

Individuals involved in social movements expect tools of mass media to be a vital partner in their success by providing them the platform to instantly attract, engage, update, debate, and raise global awareness of their efforts.  Oppression thrived when it could not be stopped, but advancements in technology have created mass media tools that can instantly communicate throughout the world.  Twitter continues to excel in its ability to leverage advancements in technology through text, audio, and video.  One successful way is its ability to support the efforts of participants of social movements.  
 

Photo Credit 2009 Creators Syndicate

The revolutionary events of one social movement that began in North Africa and the Middle East in late 2010 have been labeled the ‘Arab Spring’ (Houissa, 2015).  Philip N. Howard, the Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Washington, and his team, gathered data during the time of the uprising.  Here are several quantifiable excerpts showing the contribution Twitter made to the movement.

Our evidence suggests that social media carried a cascade of messages about freedom and democracy across North Africa and the Middle East, and helped raise expectations for the success of political uprising.  People who shared interest in democracy built extensive social networks and organized political action. Social media became a critical part of the toolkit for greater freedom. (as cited in O'Donnell, 2011)

Professor Howard and his team determined 

During the week before Egyptian president Hosni Mubaraks resignation, for example, the total rate of tweets from Egypt — and around the world — about political change in that country ballooned from 2,300 a day to 230,000 a day.  Twitter offers us the clearest evidence of where individuals engaging in democratic conversations were located during the revolutions.  Twitter provides a window into the broader world of digital conversations. (O’Donnell, 2011)

Award winning correspondent Peter Beaumont  researched the impact of social media on the Arab uprisings.  Beaumont identified that Twitter had multiple impacts during the uprisings.  When he spoke with Khaled Koubaa, president of the Internet Society in Tunisia, Koubaa shared that  “Social media during Ben Ali's dictatorship existed on two levels. A few thousand "geeks" like him communicated via Twitter, while perhaps two million talked on Facebook. The activism of the first group informed that of the latter.” (as cited in Beaumont, 2011)

Whether it is to communicate about the uprising itself or to seek support for those impacted by it, Twitter has become a vital tool in the overall support of these movements.  “Social networking sites have supplied the most graphic images of the crackdowns on protesters, but also broadcast messages from hospitals looking for blood, rallied demonstrators and provided international dial-up numbers for those whose internet has been blocked”. (Beaumont, 2011)

Experts agree that mass media alone is not enough to stop unrest, but it has become a vital partner in all facets of these movements.  In his 2011 article, The Arab Spring's Cascading Effects, Professor Howard shared a quote from an activist who identified how they leverage digital media in their protest infrastructure. "We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world" (Howard, 2011).  Technology has created the foundation for mass media to be used to communicate to the world during and about unrest, impacting both society and culture.  

These charts, prepared by the Dubai School of Government, show
Twitter usage during the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings

Technology Must Support the Requirements of Diverse Cultures

Global technology advancements create societal expectations that mass media tools must support the blended perspectives, but unique requirements, of as diverse cultures are brought together through their use of technology.  In his 2012 TED video How Culture and Technology Create Each Other,  Associate Professor Ramesh Srinivasan (2012), explained that “with more than 5 billion people in the world and us really starting to be concerned about the voices of these diverse people, it’s not just technology creating and shaping culture, it’s also culture creating and shaping technology” (2012).  The importance of his messages is the validation that advancements in technology are allowing diverse perspectives to engage and that neither technology nor culture evolves independently.  

This creates expectations that technology will support where the blended perspectives of diverse cultures have the potential to meet.  Srinivasan explains the power of these expectations on diverse cultures as they mobilize through their unique uses of technology.  "The experiences of diverse cultures can be shared through technological tools that other cultures have access to.  This results in the mobilization of communities formed from members of these diverse cultures and leads to collective actions that drive change" (Srinivasan, 2012).  Mass media alone will not solve the world’s issues, but it carries the voices of the world that want and need to be heard. 

More than 2 billion people around the world use mass media tools of communication including Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook (Kemp, 2015).  Expectations of mass media have been set to support individuals coming together to engage and pressure change.  Perhaps it is to share the activities of uprisings with the world and engage support like exiled Tunisian businessman, politician and Internet activist Tarak Mekki (2012) did when he leveraged YouTube to bring awareness of the atrocities of the regime of then President Zine Alabidine Ben Ali.  Mekki explained “It's amazing that we participated via the internet in ousting him. … Via uploading videos. What we did on the internet had credibility and that's why it was successful.” (as cited in Beaumont, 2011, para. 14).  

Perhaps it is the expectations consumers have of brands to be present, transparent, and engaging on social media around the clock and around the world so they can communicate with brands when they need to, not when brands think it is convenient.  With 95% of Millennials expecting brands to have a presence on Facebook (Delzio, 2014), consumers want to engage with brands to improve their experience with the brand and improve the brand value to them, all while sharing their value from the brand with the rest of the world.  According to customer experience company Parature, "This is the Age of the Customer, where each interaction can make or break a brand" (2014).  Highlighting the results of their 2014 State of Multichannel Customer Service Survey relevant to customer expectations of brands to be present, transparent, and engaging on social media around the clock:

When consumers were asked if they had ever asked a customer service question on social media, 35% said yes. 51% percent of those polled said a brand answering them on social media gave them either a somewhat more or much more favorable view of the company, and 65% said they had stopped using a brand when they had a poor customer experience.(Parature, 2014)

No matter what the tool is, no matter where or how it is used in the world, individuals expect technology to support their needs.  Collectively this support drives changes in mass media, technology, and culture. 

2014 LoudDoor Top 20 Brands With the
Most Loyal Followers on Facebook

2014 Parature State of Multichannel

Customer Service Survey

References

Beaumont, P. (2011, February 25). The truth about twitter, facebook and the uprisings in the arab world. Retrieved August 28, 2015, from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/25/twitter-facebook-uprisings-arab-libya

Delzio, S. (2014, December 30). New social media research shows what people expect from brands. Retrieved August 28, 2015, from Social Media Examiner: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-research-shows-what-people-expect-from-brands/

Kemp, S. (2015, January 21). Digital social & mobile worldwide 2015. Retrieved August 28, 2015, from We are Social: http://wearesocial.net/blog/2015/01/digital-social-mobile-worldwide-2015/

Parature, Inc. (2014). 2014 State of multichannel customer service survey. Retrieved August 18, 2015, from Parature: http://paratureprod.blob.core.windows.net/wp-uploads/2015/01/StateofCustomerServiceReport_2014.pdf

  
Srinivasan, R. (2015). About. Retrieved July 24, 2015, from Ramesh Srinivasan: http://rameshsrinivasan.org/pages/about/

  
Srinivasan, R. (2012, December 13). How culture and technology create each other. Retrieved July 22, 2015, from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo8iNn2CCE4

  

 

Professor Henry Jenkins on Culture, Technology, and Platform Independence

Technological advancements are creating a shift in cultures because individuals now expect modern media solutions to provide platform agnosticism, the opportunity for engagement with their chosen communities, and tools to support their individual creation of any form of media content.  Prolific author and USC Professor, Henry Jenkins (n.d.), explains culture as being a convergence where “consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among dispersed media content” (Jenkins, 2006), so the shift is both within them and through their social interactions.  Rather than passive cultures where individuals were spectators of those in different roles, the new culture is participatory through these interactions and their engagement, which is supported by the tools being used (2006, pg. 3).  In his 2009 video about Convergence Culture, Professor Jenkins talked about benefits two of the expectations of modern media are bringing and how this new convergence culture serves them.

Explaining that opportunities for engagement with chosen communities lead to collective intelligence where groups as a whole can “put together knowledge in a more complex way than an individual member is capable of doing” (Jenkins, 2009), Jenkins extols the benefits of platform agnosticism.  He explains this as the foundation of the convergence culture world where “every story, every sound, brand, image, relationship plays itself out across the maximum number of media channels” (2009).  Cultures are being shaped as much by individuals as corporations because everyone has access to the tools necessary to participate on the available media channels (2009).  This platform agnosticism also supports transmedia projects where each platform contributes what it does best so that “each story or experience is spread across a variety of media platforms.  Not in a way that is redundant, but in a way that is complementary” (2009).

Technology will continue to advance and cultures will continue to shift, each creating demands on the other and each providing opportunities for the other to advance.  This has been a continuous cycle since the beginning of man.  With each advancement and shift, expectations are forever transformed.  The components will change, serving to add to the excitement about the potential of where the shifts can occur.  Each advancement creates new possibilities; each shift creates new opportunities.  In my next post, I will discuss how culture and technology shape each other and how mass media tools are expected to be part of their interaction. 

Professor Henry Jenkins talking about Convergence culture, 

transmedia projects, and collective intelligence.

References

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. 
    Retrieved August 26, 2015, from Masaryk University Information System:
    http://is.muni.cz/el/1423/jaro2012/ZUR286/um/22759680/Jenkins__
    Henry_-_Convergence_Culture.pdf

Jenkins, H. (2009, September 21). Henry jenkins. Retrieved August 26, 2015, 
    from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibJaqXVaOaI

Jenkins, H. (n.d.). Who the &%&# is henry jenkins? Retrieved August 26, 2015, 
    from Henry Jenkins: http://henryjenkins.org/aboutmehtml

  

Social Media Drives Organizational Change Which Drives the Need for Changes in Leadership Skills

In their 2013 McKinsey & Company article Six Social Media Skills Every Leader Needs, authors Roland Deiser and Sylvain Newton explain organizational changes that have resulted from the advancements of technology and social media.  These changes have required both a reevaluation of the structure of organizations as well as the skills leaders need in order to capitalize “on the transformational power of social media while mitigating its risks” (2013).  In their article, they explain the dilema this has caused for senior leaders.

While the potential of social media seems immense, the inherent risks create uncertainty and unease … there’s a mismatch between the logic of participatory media and the still-reigning 20th-century model of management and organizations, with its emphasis on linear processes and control. Social media encourages horizontal collaboration and unscripted conversations that travel in random paths across management hierarchies. It thereby short-circuits established power dynamics and traditional lines of communication. (2013, para. 02) 

In order to address this, the authors believe organizational leaders need to enhance additional leadership skills as well as “cultivate a new, technologically linked social infrastructure” (2013, para. 05), and are calling this Social-Media-Literate Leadership.  The exhibit below, presented in their article, reviews the six interrelated dimensions at both a personal leadership level, and a strategic and organizational design principles and media literacy level.   

The Six Dimensions of Social Media Literate Leadership

The authors caution leaders to maintain the skills that elevated them to leadership status while adding skills that help them understand the currencies of the social media world, including cocreation and collaboration (Deiser & Newton, 2013, para. 04).  A representative example of this focuses on just one of the skills leaders need to learn, creating compelling and engaging multimedia content where their influence in the content is so great they are considered auteur filmmakers.  Mark Begor, President and CEO of GE Energy Management, explained his work in this area  “I was used to a studio environment where I could do several takes and have editors polish what I wanted to say.”  Begor explains how he crafts his short, informal, authentic stories, finding they are more engaging and help employees relate to him.  “I talk about what I learned during the week, about a great deal we’ve closed, and the status of the business. I also add comments about employees that I want to recognize” (2013, para. 11 – 12).  

Each of the skills and strategic / organizational design principles and media literacy are, as the authors explain “interdependent and feed on each other” (Deiser & Newton, 2013, para. 06).  No one skill is more important than the other.  As leaders need to refocus their existing skills and work to learn these new skills, “they will initiate a positive loop allowing them to capitalize on the opportunities and disruptions that come with the new connectivity of a networked society. And they will be rewarded with a new type of competitive advantage” (Deiser & Newton, 2013, para. 37).  

Watch the interview between General manager and founder at HeadlineAffairs, Jochen Leufen and Roland Deiser as they discuss The Six Social Media Skills Every Leader Needs.

YouTube interview of Roland Deiser

Reference

Deiser, R., & Newton, S. (2013, February). Six social-media skills every leader needs . Retrieved August 05, 2015, from McKinsey & Company: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/six_social-media_skills_every_leader_needs

You Don’t Have to be Professional to Need New Communication Skills

How many of us have found treasure troves of history, those packets of letters bound together by ribbon or string, in the boxes stored in our grandparents attics?  They were sometimes in the same boxes with the photo albums, scrapbooks, and cards that held memories of experiences, the stories of their lives.  With the advances in technology that support digital communications including images, audio, video, greeting cards and memoir makers, todays communicators and historians from Baby Boomers to Generation ‘C’, the connected generation (Fox, 2012), need to learn new skills in order to successfully communicate as well use new tools to record the stories of their lives. 

According to a 2014 Pew Research Center survey, social media use by members of multiple generations continues to rise.  
     • 52% of online adults now use two or more social media sites, a significant
        increase from 2013, when it stood at 42% of Internet users.
     • More than half of all online adults 65 and older (56%) use Facebook. 
        This represents 31% of all seniors.  
     • Roughly half of internet-using young adults ages 18-29 (53%) use
        Instagram. And half of all Instagram users (49%) use the site daily.
     • 71% of Internet users are on Facebook.  70% engage with the site 
        daily (and 45% do so several times a day), a significant increase 
        from the 63% who did so in 2013.
     • 49% of Instagram users and 17% of Pinterest users engage with their
       respective platforms daily. (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & 
       Madden, 2015)

Because so much communication is being done through digital media, cursive writing has been discontinued in almost all schools in favor of students learning how to use digital keyboards and keypads (Los Angeles Daily News, 2013).  Scrapbooks and letters are being replaced by oral history recording through tools like StoryCorps and digital scrapbooking tools like MyMemories Suite.  Writing is done digitally through tools like Google’s Blogger software, Twitter, Facebook, or other tools.  Images and video are recorded through applications like Instagram or YouTube.  Most of these tools integrate with each other, serving whatever need there is to communicate and share most appropriately to serve the memory, lesson, or communication goal.   

With all of these different ways to communicate, communicators need to learn the new skills of digital communications.  How do you learn to use these tools? On the Internet of "course"!  Using mobile?  No problem, there's a mobile application for each one.  Do you want to learn to use Facebook?  There are free online courses and there are nearly 6.5 million free videos on YouTube just focused on learning Facebook.  Do you want to watch stories that have recorded history?  Go to the dedicated StoryCorps YouTube channel. 

Technology continues to advance.  How we communicate continues to evolve.  The blend of the two has infinite possibilities both for personal and professional communication, and their impact reaches to how we communicate about what touches our society and creates shifts in our culture.  

Want to learn how to use Facebook?  Check out this YouTube video!

Free YouTube Facebook Training 

Want to listen to podcasts to learn how to Blog?  One great resource is Leslie Samuel.  Check out Leslie's podcasts here:

Leslie Samuel video and podcasts on Blogging

References

Duggan, M., Ellison, N., Lampe, C., Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2015, January 09). Demographics of key social networking platforms. Retrieved July 31, 2015, from Pew Research Center: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/demographics-of-key-social-networking-platforms-2/

Fox, Z. (2012, February 23). Forget generation y: 18- to 34-Year-Olds are now 'Generation C'. Retrieved August 06, 2015, from Mashable: http://mashable.com/2012/02/23/generation-c/

Los Angeles Daily News. (2013, November 18). Should school kids still learn cursive writing? Question of the week. Retrieved August 05, 2015, from Los Angeles Daily News: http://www.dailynews.com/opinion/20131118/should-school-kids-still-learn-cursive-writing-question-of-the-week

Journalists Don’t Need to Know How to Sharpen Pencils Anymore

It is often quoted that at its heart, journalism is storytelling (CubReporters, 2010).  From the cave paintings of 35,000BCE (Mark, 2011) to the digital publications of today, technology advancements change communications, each bringing with it requirements for new skills. In the past ten years, digital technology has accelerated changes in the landscape of skills needed by communicators (Finberg, 2014, para. 31).  One way is in the skills required to support these recent advancements in technology.  Whatever the field of communication, media, platform, or language, the need to effectively tell a story today includes understanding the skills of a multimedia environment.  

A 2013 article published by the International Center for Journalists featured International Journalism Fellow James Breiner.  In it he explains the current job market demands students applying for jobs must know:
• Multimedia storytelling skills. Producing slideshows with sound, shooting
        and editing video and photos, writing for the web.
• Data and statistical skills for storytelling. Collecting, editing, analyzing and
        interpreting data to produce compelling interactive maps and graphics.
• Audience development skills (formerly known as marketing and circulation)
        such as managing online communities, interpreting data on audience
        behavior, crowdsourcing for information, interacting with the audience.
• Basics of programming. How to create compelling pages that attract web
        audiences.

Two experts back up Mr. Breiner.  Texas State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication Professor Cindy Royal (2013) advocates the need for a digital-first curriculum for journalism.  “What I am proposing is a curriculum in which digital is the foundation, and the basic skills of writing, reporting and editing are injected into digitally focused courses, as opposed to inserting a digital lesson or two into traditional classes"(Breiner, 2013).  NPR news application editor Brian Boyer’s declared: “No print design. Done” (as cited in Royal ,2013, para. 02).

Another change is the significant increase in digital publications, which has had a correlated decline in both print media and jobs in print media.  In the 2014 Poynter Institute for Media Studies report, co-author Howard Finberg (2014) explains:

Print media have lost 16,000 jobs in the past decade, a drop of almost 30 percent, according to the American Society of News Editors, reported in the Pew State of the News Media 2014 report. The survivors are expected to take on new digital-focused tasks. In the same time frame, Pew [Pew Research Center] estimates that about 5,000 new journalism jobs have been created — in digital-only news outlets … It seems obvious that digital skills are essential for any journalist who wants to succeed in the 21^st century. (2014, para. 21).

Journalists don’t need to sharpen their pencils, but they definitely need to sharpen their digital media skills!

Read the entire 2014 Poynter report here

Watch the webinar review of the 2014 Poynter report by co-authors Howard Finberg and Lauren Klinger here: Core Skills for the 21st Century Journalist

References

Breiner, J. (2013, September 04). Skills every aspiring journalist should learn. Retrieved August 04, 2015, from International Journalists Network: https://ijnet.org/en/blog/skills-every-aspiring-journalist-should-learn

CubReporters. (2010, February 10). Journalism history. Retrieved August 04, 2015, from SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/cubreporters/journalism-history

Finberg, H. (2014, April 13). Journalism needs the right skills to survive. Retrieved August 04, 2015, from The Poynter Institute: http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/journalism-education/246563/journalism-needs-the-right-skills-to-survive/

Mark, J. (2011, April 28). Writing. Retrieved August 04, 2015, from Ancient History Encyclopedia: http://www.ancient.eu/writing/

Royal, C. (2013, August 08). We need a digital-first curriculum to teach modern journalism. Retrieved August 06, 2015, from Media Shift: http://mediashift.org/2013/08/we-need-a-digital-first-curriculum-to-teach-modern-journalism