This document discusses challenges related to social media and communication. It notes that while social media originally promised transparency, feedback and co-creation, it has since led to issues like dumbing down of content, polarization, fake news and abuse. This is due to factors like media companies seeking new business models, a focus on popularity over credibility, the rise of data usage, fake news being profitable, and platform owners and marketers prioritizing metrics over engagement. However, the document also argues that some level of "gossip" is human nature and that not all fake news is equal, with some distinctions between types. It provides some examples of the fake news problem, both in the US and India.

1. Communication through social networks
Challenges and Opportunities
IIMA, November 2017
rajesh.lalwani@scenario.in +919810640163

2. The innocent days

3. The genesis

4. The world before social media

5. And then

6. People could impact brands

7. Brands could engage people directly

8. On the marketing side

9. What do marketers & salespeople want?

10. Social media can be an enabler

11. Out takes

12. The innocent days

13. The promise
Transparency
Feedback
Co-creation
A better world

14. “Before social media
can change the world,
the world will change
social media.”
IndiaSocial Summit,
December 2010

15. And then our world changed

23. A promise belied?
Dumbing down
Polarization
Fake news
Controversy
Abuse & Trolling

24. The why

25. Media on the
lookout for a
new business
model
Global print media threatened by
lowering numbers, moved fast to
leverage the digital medium.
Emerging media players, several
starting as one-person blogs, in all
genres, politics, tech, food, lifestyle,
travel and so on, gained scale.
Both however have not been able
to crack a sustainable business
model beyond ‘clicks’.
No alternate to eyeballs yet

26. Credibility gave
way to
popularity
An opportunity presented by social
media to become thought leaders
became a rush to become popular.
The desire to gain more likes, fans,
followers meant that shallow
became the norm in terms of
creation, curation, engagement.
Controversies were pursued
artificially even as reputation lost
premium to popularity.
Personal Brand

27. Changing
proportion of
telecom income
As data started to contribute lion’s
share of telecom income, a new
industry of jokes, memes, gossip,
gifs, greetings emerged and thrived.
Call versus data

28. Fake News
sells
Stakes have changed for both
politicians and for unscrupulous
players. Having successfully tested
the polarizing effect of social
networks, politicians (and activists)
and their supporters have thrived in
dividing their audience further by
perpetuating fake news and
misinformation.
Unscrupulous players who would
previously thrive on SEO business
have found fake news/ clickbait to
be much more rewarding.
Politics
Polarization
User generated
Unscrupulous players

29. Platform owners
like Facebook
changed the
game mid-way
Realising that brand-owners found
the prospect of engaging customers
through transparent conversations
risky and non-scalable (large mass
of people aren’t really that articulate
+ brands need to put thought/
people/ measure risk if engaging in
open conversations) and in their
own hurry to generate ad income
(they were getting listed), platform
owners abandoned conversations
and positioned themselves to
become ‘reach mediums’. See us
as a replacement/ add on to TV
they said.
Conversations to Reach

30. Platform owners
like Facebook
changed the
game mid-way
Further polarising opinion and
deepening the echo chamber.
In a saturating global marketplace,
time spent on the platforms has
become key to growth and survival
for them
Algorithms show us what we
want to see

31. Skewed
priorities of
marketers
Marketers in their search for RoI
from the digital medium, largely
abandoned real engagement to
chase vanity metrics and sales
conversions.
RoI

32. The human web
Over 30% percent of referral traffic
is today being generated through
social media consumption and
sharing.
This has changed the fundamental
nature of how content needs to be
packaged - from headlines and
content being ‘search engine’
friendly to human reading and
share friendly.
SEO to social sharing

35. Interestingly,
more than half
internet traffic is
bots.
23% of internet traffic is good bots -
they can be aids to better internet
experience
29% of internet traffic is bad bots -
from making money through clicks,
to selling products, to influencing
elections, bots can serve many an
evil.
The good, the bad, the evil

36. You can put it
on human
nature.
Homo sapiens are the only species
gifted with the ability to imagine,
articulate and share the imaginary
situations. This is what made for
human progress in the first place.
It was our ability to come together
and function in large groups that
made us the dominant human
species, eventually leading to the
disappearance of Neanderthals
who could not - we are said to have
killed them.
Gossip is what makes us
human.
Our ability to group.

37. You can put it
on human
nature.
The world has always been divided
in creators and consumers. Social
media changed the paradigm,
giving everyone the the opportunity
to create - but just because
everyone has an equal opportunity
(in reality, they do not) to create
doesn’t mean that they can create,
leave alone create equally.
Mass-creativity is too much to
ask for.

38. You can put it
on human
nature.
We are wired differently as ‘the
dress’ proved in this viral image,
originally posted on Tumblr, and
seen by many million. The dress
actually in blue and black
appears white and gold/ blue and
black to different people.

39. So how big is the fake news problem?

40. But, first, is all fake news equal?
Nasr Ul Hadi, ICFJ Knight Fellow, suggested that we consider dealing with different types of fake news
differently:
– User generated misinformation “which is rumours, or citizen journalism that has gotten it wrong”
”Which part of the stakeholders can potentially sort this? One is platform, by scoring or giving a
verified kind of a tick.”
– Publisher endorsed misinformation: “when a publisher is getting information wrong. Did it start at wires,
did it get picked up without corroboration? Or getting it from a source.”
”What you also need to look at is that newsrooms don’t have the bandwidth to corroborate
everything that is flowing through their pipeline. You also need better processes and frameworks.”
– Organised misinformation generation: “for which you need legal implications and government originating
regulation to address organised efforts.”

41. Fake News -it’s a big problem
Facebook has handed over 3000+ ads from Russian sources that were used to
influence voters in the US elections.

42. Fake News -it’s a big problem
Recently Facebook released newspaper ads asking readers to more alert, but it is
being asked to take more responsibility for spotting and cleansing

43. Facebook under
attack
This can potentially bring Facebook
down; it has already managed to get it
down to its knees - a first.
It has now decided to put profits as
secondary and clean-up as a primary
goal.
But it’s not only Facebook, Twitter too
has had to raise its participation and
has issued steps to increase ad
transparency.

44. The problem is rampant in India too
Daily flood of news items on Facebook, Twitter posted by party supporters of BJP,
Congress and others (often finding its way into mainstream media).
Recently The Hindu had to issue a prominent apology around a story it published
falsely maligning a man, who was trying to save a woman who was being crushed
at the Elphinstone Bridge stampede, as molesting the woman.
Handles like @altnews and BoomFact Check @boomlive_in have emerged on
Twitter to help distinguish fact from fake.

45. Good Fake
Sometimes fake can be good though.
A new, interesting way to celebrate
Diwali might emerge.

46. And it’s not just
about fake-
news...
“In July 2016, the aftermath of a
police shooting of an African-
American man was broadcast live
on Facebook. Instantly, Americans
of all stripes used the platform to
step up the race wars and attack
each other.”
It’s the viral and polarizing
nature of the medium itself.

47. Some notable New-s

48. Some notable trends
Online activism has taken forefront
Social no-longer only about interest creation
Voice search
Tech and life integration
Automation
Fun formats - gifs, emoticons etc.
Storytelling

49. Deleted slides

50. Thank you.