new media & policy making:

levers and loopholes

Sanjana Hattotuwa
Ashoka News and Knowledge Fellow TED Fellow Architect and co-curator, Groundviews

What really is this social media/new media ecosystem?

Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratisation of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. (Wikipedia)

social media landscape in early 2011

social media landscape today

plus.google.com

new media foundations

Blogs Social networks (Twitter, Facebook) Mobiles: SMS to social networking sites, mobile photography and video Wired (ADSL) and wireless broadband (3G etc) Greater access, also in Sinhala & Tamil Lower transactional cost (cost per SMS, subscription for ADSL, cost per dongle, data subscriptions)

whats new?
Ubiquity of two way communications Addressable peoples, even those who IDPs or refugees Both news generation and dissemination leverages new media Disintermediated models vs. traditional media model Citizens as producers Low resolution, hyperlocal helps focus and granularity Aggregation of low resolution helps macro analysis and strategy

old information model

Event / Issue Journalist Mainstream media

Policy making

Consumer

new information models

Event / Issue

Consumer

Citizen media

Journalist

Mainstream media

Consumer

Policy making

the revolution
Passive Media
Information as a package

Consumer

Active / Reactive Consumer / Witness / Producer

Media
Information as a conversation Knowledge through curation

the use of new media internationally

SourceWatch: Crowdsourcing
http://www.sourcewatch.org

10 questions: YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/show/10questions

crisis in darfur: using google earth

new eyes: using google earth

information in real time

all mainstream media use new media

bombings in london
7 July 2005 Within 24 hours, the BBC had received 1,000 stills and videos, 3,000 texts and 20,000 e-mails.

saffron revolution in myanmar 2007

100,000 people joined a Facebook group supporting the monks No international TV crews allowed in the country Mobile phone cameras were the rst footage of the monks protest Blogs from Rangoon were the only sources of information The junta shut down all Internet and mobile communications

burma vj reporting from a closed country

the green revolution: post-election Iran 2009

haiti earthquake, january 2009

getting updates: google crisis response

http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

The telegenic revolutions

Our present

The use of social media in Sri Lanka

Presidential Campaign 2010

ickr for sarath fonseka

ickr for the president

facebook for president

facebook for sarath fonseka

more local examples

groundviews.org: participatory journalism

http://www.groundviews.org/2010/03/15/strengthening-democracy-in-sri-lanka-an-open-invitation-to-generate-freshideas/

groundviews citizen journalism bearing witness

online video: vikalpa YouTube channel

www.youtube.com/vikalpasl

alternative politics in sinhala vikalpa

www.vikalpa.org

boondi alternative Sinhala critiques

www.boondi.lk

kottu blog aggregation

www.kottu.org

sinhala bloggers union: Sinhala blog aggregation

www.sinhalabloggers.com

sinhala bloggers union: Sinhala blog aggregation

www.sinhalabloggers.com

twitter topical, pithy perspectives www.twitter.com

what is curation?

curated content

selecting the best produce

curating news
Buying fruits of vegetables Check price Weigh it in ones hands Look at it from all angles Look at it in context Look at a few, not just one Discard if old Ascertain location where it was produced
Curating news Check authorship Check for veracity, quality Is it accurate, fair, topical? What is the bias? Is it progressive? Select a few from many sources Discard if out-dated information is presented Be cautious of unveried information and breaking news

curated twitter content on sri lanka: news

http://twitter.com/groundviews/sl-news

curated twitter content on sri lanka: blogs

http://twitter.com/groundviews/sl-bloggers

facebook for work

social networking: facebook

750 million+ users

social networking: facebook reach

Avg. FB account: 130 friends Groundviews FB page has 9,500+ fans Potential reach of ~1,235,000 FB accounts. Instantly.

social networking: facebook reach

producing and reading content

google maps

google news
http://news.google.com

google reader
http://reader.google.com

wordpress.com: blogging

twitter.com micro-blogging
http://media.twitter.com

ustream.tv: broadcasting via a PC

ustream: mobile phone broadcasting

http://www.ustream.tv/mobile

bearing witness

ickr online photos

open data - statistics freed!

open data

open data in government

open data by NGOs

open data on NGOs

infoviz

interactive timelines
http://www.timetoast.com

bundling social media, adding value through curation

http://www.bundlr.com & http://www.storify.com

word clouds
http://groundviews.org/2011/05/11/from-draft-to-ofcial-text-wikileaks-reveals-the-usresponse-to-the-end-of-war-in-sri-lanka/

interactive graphics
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/03/us/20110503-osama-response.html

infographics
http://www.smallmeans.com/new-york-times-infographics/

organisational hr & nancial costs

Skilled / Free
IBM ManyEyes Google Moderator Bundlr Storify Ustream Timetoast Open Data statistics Wordpress VIP

Skilled / Paid
Flash based infoviz

Curated Twitter

Wordpress

Wordle

Google Maps Facebook Google News Google Reader Flickr YouTube Facebook Ads Flickr Pro Vimeo

Easy / Free

Easy / Paid

challenges

enduring challenges
Impartial, accurate coverage still vital, increasingly hard to ascertain Torrent of information, trickle of knowledge Veracity and veriability Eye-witness accounts are partial, subjective New media / technology illiteracy even amongst journalists

recording history: archiving vital websites

http://sitesatrisksl.wordpress.com

lter bubbles
"A Squirrel Dying In Your Front Yard May Be More Relevant To Your Interests Right Now Than People Dying In Africa", Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook Human gatekeepers being replaced by algorithmic gatekeepers.
http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_lter_bubbles.html

A new, pervasive, almost invisible, systemic ltering?

ltering to counter lter bubbles

Ushahidi SwiftRiver | http://ushahidi.com/products/swiftriver-platform

SwiftRiver is a platform that helps people make sense of a lot of information in a short amount of time. In practice, SwiftRiver enables the ltering and verication of real-time data from channels like Twitter, SMS, Email and RSS feeds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb0Gs7vtrgk

take home
Think beyond text. Online is not print. Think beyond prose. Online can be satire, verse, haiku! Think of photos, audio, video. Rich media tells stories, adds context. Think of SMS and crowd-sourcing, the audience are the producers. Dont suggest you know everything. Use the community to add value to story. Link to other stories online, they add value.

Thank you
sanjanah@cpalanka.org