When I try to define social media and what it means for those of us who use it, the phrase “jamming econo” comes to mind. The quote comes from Mike Watt of the influential 80s band The Minutemen – jamming econo meant they could play their music, record albums and make enough of a living to keep doing what they were doing. Becoming superstars was irrelevant – just being able to build a community around their music and make enough money to support themselves doing it was enough.
Jamming econo was a point of view. It mean the mainstream didn’t matter. It wasn’t us vs. them – it was us. Them was irrelevant.
If you want to know more, read Michael Azerrad’s “Our Band Could Be Your Life,” a chronicle of the 80s alternative music scene. Just click the link over there.
This brings me to Steve Rubel’s statement a few days ago that since the mainstream has adopted social media tools, there is in fact, no more such thing as social media vs. mainstream media. It’s all media now.
Sorry but wrong, wrong, wrong.
Social media is more than just tools. Social media is a point of view and a way to get that point of view out to the world while bypassing the corporate-dominated mainstream media. Social media is the ultimate form of jamming econo – you can do all this for practically nothing. In fact you can blog for free.
If one or more of the handful of companies that dominate our media are using a few tools from the social media toolbox, that’s not social media winning the battle – it’s social media being co-opted. The mainstream media is not trying to bypass itself or become more democratic – it’s trying to do what it always does – grab eyeballs and sell crap. If it can do that with trackbacks and phony podcasts, it will.
The mainstream media will always be different from social media no matter how many tools they might share because it’s about intent and not tools.
I’ll also second what Brian Oberkirch thinks:
Maybe it’s also a data point about why Edelman’s social media programs (Walmarting, the Vista outreach hullaballo, the shiny object Second Life and social media release stuff) feel so off the mark as well.
Related Posts:
- Social Media Relations Manager
- Social Change Agents - P.R. Global Challenge
- Green Guerrillas Youth Media Tech Collective: VOTE for Green Guerrillas!
