What is Social Media? - (Page 8)

The new means of production and distribution... Media production More useful than asking Are blogs a fad? or How much of this is hype? is to look at the fundamentals that are behind the phenomenal growth of social media. The big thing that has changed in media is the ability of almost anyone to produce and distribute content. It used to be that the ability to create content and distribute it to an audience was limited to individuals and organisations that owned production facilities and infrastructure to do so. In other words: the media. If you were in the video creation and distribution business you were called a TV station and employed thousands of highly skilled individuals to write, film, edit and broadcast your content down a relatively small number of channels to the public. If you were a newspaper, similarly, you hired a team of reporters and editors, designers, typesetters, printers, delivery men and had deals with a network of newsagents for them to sell your product to your audience. With the advent of digital technology and the internet it became a lot easier for people to create their own content, be it images, words, video or audio. But even five years ago, it was still beyond most people's technical skills to create and maintain their own website. Today, the ever-lower costs of computers, digital cameras and high-speed internet access, combined with free or low- cost, easy to use editing software means that within minutes of deciding to do so anyone can have a live blog website up What is Social Media? An e-book from Spannerworks 8 www.spannerworks.com/ebooks  http://www.spannerworks.com/ebooks http://www.spannerworks.com/ebooks

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of What is Social Media?

Contents
Introduction
What is social media?
The new means of production and distribution
How social media works
How blogs work
How podcasts work
How social networks work
How content communities work
How Second Life works
About Spannerworks

What is Social Media?

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