Week 7 Flip lecture response- Alex Lambert
How can social media be used to produce an interactive documentary?
Dr Alex Lambert, ‘Facebook and its discontents (or ‘how I learnt to stop worryin)’
Alex Lambert’s lecture discussed social networking sites and how they impact real life interactions, with particular reference to Facebook. These ideas can be used to assist my understanding of the prompt for IM2.
The internet is thought to empower the user as it allows us to acquire and produce knowledge, produce and publish online content, get involved in activism and expand social networks. Lambert advises that we should always be critical of power.
All of the various social networking sites have their differences, but are interrelated in their ability to connect people, such as the way that Instagram connects with Facebook and Facebook connects with Twitter. This cross over can be used to reach wider audiences and keep certain ideas/products on the audience’s mind by approaching them from a variety of platforms. With the introduction of mobile applications such as Four Square that map locations, this can also assist the gathering of participants in one place. It helps to understand where these individuals are located.
The concept of distant intimacy allows for more immediate and regular contact and connections. The instantaneous sharing of information and organisation of data allows these groups to share ideas and events with unintentional networks that then form part of the group. The concept of information being publicly displayed on news feeds allows for quick and targeted spreading of events. The information ‘Imogen Tyers is going to Symphony Cacophonia’ will appear on my friends news feeds. They might be intrigued and click on the link which will lead them to the event page. If the event interests them, they might click attending and this information will appear on their friend’s news feeds and so on. Encouraging these connections will help reach a wider audience.
This sharing of this information within people’s own networks helps people reach audiences who have common interests. It would be wise to share our event ‘Symphony Cacophonia’ with our musical friends and drum circle Facebook pages. If I had the interest and money to make our event huge, we could pay Facebook to target an audience through their data mining capabilities. The concept of convergence is discussed in relation to producers & consumers, private & public and contexts such as work, family & university, when they used to be separate. Private information can be used publicly to enhance our public event.