Social media allows people to communicate and share content with friends and large groups. Popular social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Bebo, with Facebook having nearly 1 billion members who can spread ideas worldwide. Video sharing sites like YouTube allow users to upload videos for global audiences, with some amateur videos gaining over 100 million views. A new development is livecasting, which enables ordinary people to broadcast live video shows and opinions to viewers around the world, similar to live sports broadcasts but at lower cost, giving many people a chance at 15 minutes of fame.

1. What is Social Media? Darren Yeoman

2. Social Networking Over the past few years, social networking sites have become the most visited websites on the internet. It is a way for people to communicate with friends, make friends and share music or pictures. It’s even used for bands, like the Arctic Monkeys to get recognised. There are now thousands of groups which people can join up to like “DMU Media Production” or “Michael Jackson we love you” which currently have hundreds, thousands or even millions of followers. It’s creator can post his/ her ideas and feelings into their group or on to their profile, which then can be shared with millions. Today there are four big networking sites: Bebo, Twitter, Myspace and the biggest Facebook. It has nearly 1 billion members, so as you can expect, peoples ideas on the world can be easily spread from person to person, country to country. If a person likes, or supports these ideas, then they can either add this person as a friend or join up to their group.

3. Video Sharing Video sharing is one of the most popular activities performed using the internet. It’s mainly done using podcasts but more frequently by the site Youtube. This is, with Facebook one of the most viewed sites on the web and has over 100 million channels. People can upload videos to their accounts which can be viewed all over the world. Videos such as “Thriller” are often watched because it is of a general interest. However, it’s the videos such as “The Evolution of Dance” which is most significant because it is of an ordinary man who dances in the style of the music played. It’s received over 100 million views on Youtube. It shows what people of this world enjoy to watch and shows that popular videos are made more popular by the power of the spoken word. The video started unknown, but because 1 person watched it and enjoyed it and was consumed by it, they told their friends to watch it and before long, it’s where it is today.

4. Livecasting It’s said the next big thing is livecasting. This is similar to podcasting, except that you can do your show live like Justin.tv. This is a channel where viewers can watch full length shows like “Mock the Week” live and post comments throughout the show. The most appropriate for social media however is when ordinary people can film their own shows, which voice their own opinions, which can be viewed live all over the world. It’s also used for sports, where viewers can watch e.g. Live premiership action on their laptops etc and post comments about the match. For a start it’s a lot cheaper than sky and airs shows from all around the world. Viewers of the live show can chat with one another and make predictions. You can consider this the next evolution of podcasting and YouTube. People want their 15 minutes of fame and now it's really easy to get it. In fact, when livecasting catches on, we can all have our 15 minutes of fame, once a week or even once a day.