Defining Social Media

Posted: May 3rd, 2009 | Tags: , , | Comments

Social media has become the phenomenon of the twenty-first century. The consequences of social media have increased radically. Anyhow the term itself hasn’t had a clear definition. In order to separate social media from the earlier development phases of internet and media, it needs a specific definition.

In my thesis the term social media, was analyzed and its consequences and manifestations were examined. Social media was studied by its attributes, preconditions, consequences and neighboring terms.

According the research social media is a technology-related and structural process where individuals and groups are building shared meanings, through peer production and produsage, with help of content, communities and network technologies. Social media is also a post-industrial phenomenon and because of the changes in the production and distribution structures, it has an impact on society, economy and culture.

Master’s thesis: Erkkola, Jussi-Pekka: Sosiaalisen median käsitteestä (pdf). Lopputyö. Medialaboratorio, Taideteollinen korkeakoulu 2008.

  • Any chance you have this in English? :)

    mp/m
  • Sorry mate, but not at this time. I decided to write this work in Finnish :) Let's see if there will be something in English later.
  • Dawid Pacha
    It's a pitty its not in English:( Im writing a MA thesis on Social Media Marketing;) Wanted to check out what is your story. Can you recommend me any good resources?
  • @Dawid Why not check out the bibliography from the pdf starting from page 89.
  • Interesting topic. Would also like to read this in English.
  • How nice that I can Finnish :).

    "peer production and produsage"

    what is produsage?
  • Produsage - the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement.

    http://produsage.org/produsage
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