Connective Media

In Clay Shirky's TED talk "How Social Media Can Make History", he discusses this transformation from one-to-one, or one-to many, to many-to-many. We've covered this topic before in class, but when I listed to his talk, I realized he brought up some new points that aligned with some of van Dijck's ideas in The Culture of Connectivity. Both of them agree that there is a relationship between the users and the ways in which the media is now used. 

Shirky says, "Media is less and less a way of crafting a message to be consumed by individuals. Media is more often a way of creating an environment for convening and supporting groups.” Social media allows users to become producers and active participants in shaping the media landscape. He ends with a question, asking how we can make best use of this media, even though it means changing the way we've always done it. Van Dijck might say that people are using the Internet as a way to communicate messages in ways that they weren't able to before because, in theory, they have infinite connections. She would agree with Shirky that the users are changing the scene so much, but she might think it is more important to focus on the way in which they are interacting with the media to connect rather than to transform its uses. I think that they are interconnected, though. Van Dijck could have spent more time talking about how much social media has transformed our everyday lives and what possibilities it holds for the future.

People are transforming the media that we use, because they are changing the ways that they disseminate information through social media. For example, Shirky talks about how some news stories are first reported on through Twitter, rather than by the mainstream media. Van Dijck could have talked about how these platforms allow for people to share information in ways that they couldn’t before. Also, other sites have integrated buttons to share their links to social media, like the “share to Facebook” or “Tweet” this buttons below many articles or videos.

Van Dijck, José (2013).  The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. New York: Oxford University Press.