dark side of social media
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under academic
When I considered whether to apply to Glocal conference and what to present, I already finished my thesis, which addressed the web 2.0 phenomena in a critical way, in the context of economy governing this ecosystem. More precisely, I focused on the idea of economic value of user-generated content. Since, I did not want to repeat that story, having spent six months writing those 100 and something pages, therefore I thought what would capture my attention. And that is related to social media.
It seems to me that the region in which I live is a bit late with comprehending what are all the affordances of social media (other than having a profile on Facebook), such as application in education or business. As well as that everything that was accepted from the social media, it was not without any critical consideration. While parents and teachers are thinking that the kids are wasting time surfing the net, a generation is emerging, for which new media are not “new”, but the only media they know. As such, they are suitable for influencing its users in all kinds of ways. Due to this, it is no wonder that the groups, considered by many as extremist, are using all the available social media channels to communicate their message. Hence, the paper I presented deals on one hand with the criticism of liberal discourse, which perceives web 2.0 as the initiator of all positive processes in society, be it education, economic development or social change, while on the other it focuses on the concrete case, as I wanted to demonstrate in what way activities within social media have influence on the political sphere and public opinion in Serbia. Unfortunately, the cancellation of Gay Pride in September, made the argumentation a lot easier.
When the paper gets published by Glocal conference organizers, I will post it online. Untill then, you have to settle for a presentation:
The reactions to the presentation were good. David Bailey, who is acquainted with the region, as he lived in Banja Luka and now resides in Kosovo, reported from the conference and interviewed several presenters, me among them. I was a bit nervous, since David’s camera looked like a lollypop and confused me even more, but I hope that I explained what motivated me to do the paper.
UPDATE: Lovely Glocal people uploaded the video of the entire presentation. So if you are into the topic and you don’t mind the manic hand gesturing, be my guest.
Tags: glocal09, nationalism, serbia, social media
