Sanjana Hattotuwa discusses social media and new media. He defines social media as using internet technologies to transform broadcast media into social media dialogues where people can be content producers. New media encompasses digital technologies for information and communication. While traditional media leverages new technologies like the web and mobile, citizens can now also generate and disseminate news and information through blogs, social networks, maps, and mobile devices. Key aspects of new media include two-way communication, addressing diverse audiences, and citizens producing content that gets broadcast on high-definition media.

1. Social networks & new media
Online audio content
Sanjana Hattotuwa
TEDGlobal Fellow 2010
Editor, Groundviews (www.groundviews.org)

2. what is social media?
• 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 democratization of knowledge and
information, transforming people from content consumers into content
producers. (Wikipedia)

3. what is new media?
• New media is a term meant to encompass the emergence of digital,
computerized, or networked information and communication technologies.
• New media is not television programs, feature films, magazines, books, or
paper-based publications. (Wikipedia)
• But increasingly, old media is leveraging the web, Internet and mobiles in
generating and disseminating news and information.

5. new media and foundations
• Blogs
• Social networks (Twitter, Facebook)
• Google Maps and mashups
• Mobiles: SMS, mobile photography and video
• VoIP: Skype, Google Chat
• And making this all possible is ADSL, 3G wireless broadband

6. what’s 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 content broadcast on high definition media

7. enduring challenges
• Impartial, accurate coverage still vital, increasingly hard to ascertain
• Torrent of information. Trickle of knowledge.
• Veracity / Verifiability hard to determine
• Post-disaster communications can be unreliable and difficult. Eye-witness
accounts are partial, subjective.
• New media / technology illiteracy even amongst journalists
• Apathy and animosity against citizen journalism
• Licensing and attribution of online content

8. What is out there?

9. bearing witness: Groundviews
www.groundviews.org

10. online video: Vikalpa YouTube Channel
www.youtube.com/vikalpasl

11. alternative politics in Sinhala: Vikalpa
www.vikalpa.org

12. news from provinces: Perambara
www.perambara.org

13. kottu: blog aggregation
www.kottu.org

14. sinhala bloggers union: Sinhala blog aggregation
www.sinhalabloggers.com

15. sinhala bloggers union: Sinhala blog aggregation
www.sinhalabloggers.com

16. twitter: new perspectives
www.twitter.com

17. flickr content on sri lanka
www.flickr.com

18. social networking: facebook

19. social networking: facebook reach

20. readership and reach: web media
From 19 – 27 May 2010, Groundviews ran a special edition on the end of war in Sri Lanka.
Over this week alone, the site received over forty thousand readers and exclusively
featured over eighty-thousand words of original content, one video premiere, over
a dozen photos, generating over one hundred and fifty thousand words of
commentary. Tens of thousands more have read and commented on this content since.

21. What is out there in audio form?

22. music: from pop to classical
http://www.grooveshark.com

23. music: from pop to classical
http://www.lastfm.com

24. podcasts from BBC: news and current affairs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts

25. podcasts from BBC: news and current affairs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts

26. podcasts from NPR: news and current affairs
http://www.npr.org

27. podcasts from Apple iTunes
http://www.apple.com/itunes

28. podcasts from Apple iTunes
http://www.apple.com/itunes

29. pronunciation from google dictionary
http://www.google.com/dictionary

30. Managing content: Pushing out

31. essential email: Gmail

32. wordpress.com: blogging

33. wordpress.com: blogging
http://si.wordpress.com

34. wordpress.com: blogging
http://ta.wordpress.com

35. wordpress.com: blogging via phone
http://en.support.wordpress.com/post-by-voice

36. ustream.tv: broadcasting via a PC

37. bambuser.com: mobile phone broadcasting

38. drop.io: reports through audio

39. soundcloud: upload audio to the web
http://soundcloud.com

40. Managing content: Pulling in

41. google search: Updates from social media

42. google news: thousands of sources

43. google reader: a web based RSS reader

44. key points: recap
• New technologies potentially give voice to all citizens
• Be sceptical of new information, but use new media to push and pull content
• Develop media literacy to embrace new technologies

45. Thank you