The subject matter for this lectorial was institutions.  Brian started the conversation by talking about marriage as a social institution.  He questioned the class what makes marriage an institution by social standards.  Personally I think marriage is slowly breaking down as an institution as the norms and values continually change within cultures and societies.  Plenty of couples these days have children out of wedlock and I’m guessing the divorce rate is forever climbing as well.

We were given a class exercise to brainstorm the institutional characteristics of the following media organisations, Facebook, NewsCorp, Google and Community Media.  Our group analysed Facebook and we came to the conclusion that privacy is a concern when it comes to using this product.  Always read the fine print.  Facebook also has over 1 billion members which gives it plenty of power in the advertising stakes.  Zuckerberg held out on gaining advertising revenue at the birth of Facebook but he eventually sold out.

The rise of social media has changed how media institutions communicate with their audience.  For example I get my ABC local news content by liking their page on Facebook or following them on Twitter.  It is also more complicated for political institutions to enforce social control on the social media platform.  We have all heard the stories of bullying on social media but how can the government have any influence or control on what people write?  Political and legal institutions will always struggle to maintain order on the internet.  Obviously governments can block servers to suppress information.  But then freedom of speech is compromised when government restrictions are put in place.