Factors of Media Revolution

The world is becoming a global village and distance among countries is shrinking day by day as Internet is reaching to the farthest distance of the remote part of the world. There are several factors that has helped to flourish social media movement which are as follows:

Influence of Education:
The influence of education and mass awareness on social media revolution cannot go unnoticed. People of our time has better access to information and knowledge than our predecessors. Education undoubtedly enlightens a person to make better choice and distinguish the difference between right and wrong. With the help of education people are able to analyze the actions of governments and other social institutions. So whenever they see that the government or social agencies that they rely on are not performing accordingly they take the help of the social Medias to imply their concern about these regards.

Technological Advancement:
Undoubtedly we live in era of tremendous technological advancement. Every day we are getting introduced with technologically advanced and easy to use tools that enable us to actively engage in an interconnected web network. To illustrate the influence of newly invented tools in social media sector Michael Mandiberg said:
Access to tools and the invention of new media forms allow formerly passive media consumers to make and disseminate their own media. New technological frameworks have arisen that center on enabling this media creation: message boards, audience-driven review sites, blogs and comment systems, photo- and video-sharing websites, social networks, social news sites, bookmark-sharing sites, and microblogging platforms, to name some of the more prominent ones.”(Mandiberg, 1)

Increased Sharing:
The shape of world economy is changing. People are moving from a commercial economy to a sharing economy. Especially people are eager to share knowledge and information with others unconditionally. The new sharing culture has helped people to share “midgrained” and “lumpy” sharable goods as described by Yochai Benkler. In developing and underdeveloped countries where people cannot afford to own a computer or subscribe monthly expensive internet subscription we have seen people to go to cyber cafes to do computing or web browsing. To illustrate the influence of increased social sharing Benkler mentioned as follows in his article:

Social sharing an exchange is becoming a common modality of producing valuable desiderata at vthe very core of the most advanced economies-in information, culture, education, computation, and communications sectors. Free software, distributed computing, ad hoc mesh wireless networks, and other forms of peer production offer clear examples of such large-scale, measurably effective sharing practices.”(Benkler, p19)

Increased Collaboration:
We no longer share and receive information. We do collaboration too. This is one of the prime reasons why social Medias are gaining so much popularity and we getting lenient on social media. It allows us to give our feedback on the idea of other people. It helps to make an idea a better idea, turn data into information, and ensure accuracy of information. According to Adam Hyde:

“Some products characterized as collaborative are generated simply through people’s common use of tools, presence, or performance of routine tasks. Others require active coordination and deliberate allocation of resources. While the results may be comparable from a quantitative or efficiency perspective, a heterogeneity of social relations and design lie behind the outputs.”(Hyde, et al, p60)

Easy access to Social Media:
People have easy access to Social Media unless it is not restricted by the government. Different than old or traditional media these new social Medias opened their gate for everyone. Anyone can join from anywhere to this virtual society while traditional media has a very narrow space for the audience. New social medias has created a democratic space for the participants to raise their voice on current issues that and gain support from international social networking community. These new Medias allow people to stay connected with each other continuously unless there is a service interruption and help them to achieve a collaborative goal. According to Danah Boyd which is as follows:

Instant messaging is a tool used by many but often in different ways and for different purposes. There are those who log in solely to communicate with others. And there are those who use it to convey presence and state of mind. Needless to say, the latter is much more a part of the always on ethos. Being always-on is not just about consumption and production of content but also about creating an ecosystem in which people can stay peripherally connected to one another through a variety of microdata.”(Boyd, P72-73)

Increased amount of leisure hours:

After the Industrial revolution people started having extra amount of leisure hours with the blessing of automation and division of labor. Before the widespread use of internet leisure hour activities included watching television, reading newspaper, spending time at bars and cafes. Now people can use their cognitive surplus in creative activity. As a result there has been a positive change in the production and consumption level of the consumers. More creation has ensure more consumption. To illustrate this Clay Sharky said:

Media in the twentieth century was run as a single consumption. How much can we produce? How much can you consume? Can we produce more, and, if so, can you consume more? The answer to that question has generally been yes. People like to consume, but they also like to produce, and they like to share.”(Sharky, p239)

analysis of social media revolution