Is Social Media an Innovation or a Challenge for Medium Theory?

   7 November 2023  3 Comments on Is Social Media an Innovation or a Challenge for Medium Theory?  Posted in 2. ‘Medium theory’ Or ‘Construction of Identity in a digital world’

Nowadays, social media plays an important role in our lives, not only in changing how we communicate. Media theory also plays an important role in helping us better understand social media’s diversity and influencing the digital age.

Media Theory: Marshall McLuhan’s most famous quote, “The medium is the message”.This quote shows the importance of media and also says that media is not just as simple as spreading information.

It also influences our understanding of the message. Different media present information in different ways and have different impacts. McLuhan creates cold and hot media, illustrating the unique ways in which multiple media shape the viewer’s perception.Hot media is a vehicle for providing information,while cold media is ambiguous and requires more involvement on our part.

Social media as a new medium is not like traditional media.

  • Images, videos, and texts on social media platforms enable users to understand and share information in different ways. Social media provides a variety of ways to disseminate information, which is more appealing to the readers.

  • The interactive nature of social media allows users to express their opinions, and like or share anytime and anywhere, which promotes interaction between users, and of course, it makes the dissemination of information more convenient, faster, and wider.

  • Social media facilitates socializing, social media creates a virtual platform where users can connect with strangers. This facilitates connections between people.

    • In the 2016 Trump and Clinton campaigns, the two candidates used social media to spread different messages that shaped voters’ perceptions of them. Trump’s and Clinton’s social media posts served as mediums to communicate their political messages. The findings suggest that for Trump and Clinton fans on a Twitter feed, configuration, and moral frameworks invariably attract retweeting behaviors, whereas affective frameworks attract favoritism behaviors.

    However, social media also has limitations, especially in the fast-changing digital age.

  • False information: social media is used as a channel for information dissemination, and some false information and rumors are spread, which may cause panic in society and have a great negative impact.

  • Invasion of personal privacy: Personal information submitted on social media may be stolen and used in places such as identity theft.

  • Information overload: As the number of embedded messages and social connections in social networking sites increases, so does the amount of social information that individuals are required to respond to It may leave people with no way to focus on their work, study, etc.

    • Here’s a video to help ease the information overload.

    Reference

    1. Abdulsamad, S., Chun, S. & Hazel, K.K. 2019, “Social Media for Political Campaigns: An Examination of Trump’s and Clinton’s Frame Building and Its Effect on Audience Engagement”, Social Media + Society, vol. 5, no. 2.
    2. Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A. & Weitzel, T. 2015, “Giving too much social support: social overload on social networking sites”, European Journal of Information Systems, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 447-464.

    3 thoughts on “Is Social Media an Innovation or a Challenge for Medium Theory?”

    1. I agree with “Hot media is the medium that provides information, while cold media is ambiguous and requires more involvement on our part”, although it depends on the level of media involvement and the amount of information. Hot media can provide more information in a direct way without getting too deeply involved. Like newspapers, it is a detailed and informative medium that gives full coverage of events but leaves little room for interpretation. However, cold media is also obvious, especially on social media and posts with differences in opinions. This means that it relies on the participation of web users, and everyone can contribute to the overall meaning of the content by posting comments and adding their own thoughts, thus leaving more room for interpretation, and I believe that cold media can engage audiences in a more positive way.

    2. The article is rich in writing, colorful in rhetoric, simple in language, fresh in writing, rich in emotion, clear in structure, reasonable in plot, ups and downs, vivid in description, fascinating in plot, strong in artistic appeal, the finishing touch, profound in meaning, thought-provoking, meaning long.

    3. You have done a good job! In my opinion the topic you wrote about social media on media theory both is great. I think the theme is innovative and challenging. It also introduces the challenge of bringing information overload and the spread of disinformation. I think this is very creative!

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