OBSTRUCCIÓN DE ALCANTARILLAS 1. Consideraciones generales

Social media are new information technology networks which use interactive forms of communication and user-generated content where there is creation and maintaining of interpersonal relationships (Lynch & Hogan, 2012). Social media – such as MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, wikis and blogs – foster interactions between users online. Boyd and Ellison (2007) define social media networks as web-based services that allow individuals to „construct a public or semipublic profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users

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Smith, P. (2015). Chilling Stories Of Fake Online Identities And Why People Create Them. [Online]. Available:

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with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system‟ (Boyd & Ellison, 2007: 211). It is an Internet-based application that is built on ideological and technological foundations that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content (Balarabe, 2014).

The existence of social media became noticeable worldwide during times of crisis, with the very first incident being the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001. For the very first time, people looked to the web for eyewitness reports, some of which were even used by mainstream media42. The second crisis was during the 2004 Asian tsunami, where the photographs and videos which some tourists had uploaded on their personal blogs were used on television and in print (Lule, 2004). However, the 2005 London bombings took social media to the highest level when people who were affected by the attacks sent their images and personal accounts to mass media, making traditional media realise the potential of social media platforms in situations where their journalists/reporters could not be present in time (Siegl & Foot, 2004). Social media enables users to communicate and share information instantly and independently from their geographical location (Di Capua, 2012). Additionally, people are able to express how they feel and think and can also form online communities based on affinities, interests, political and religious views and common causes (ibid: 36).

Characteristics that make social media possible in new media technologies are their ability to promote openness, connectivity, community, conversation and participation (Kapoor & Kulshrestha, 2014: 902). The openness of social media is due to there being few barriers to accessing information or making comments; hence promoting user feedback and participation (ibid). Meadows-Klue (2007: 246) argues that a Web is a near-frictionless media channel along which anything can flow. For example, the younger generation shares their lives on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and various organisations distribute information and receive feedback via their corporate blogs. This openness is a result of social media‟s networking philosophy; the availability of easy-to-use mechanisms for creating and sharing content. Having the characteristic of connectivity (defined as interpersonal), community and general social ties (Teixeira, 1992: 36), social media provides mechanisms through which interpersonal ties can be

42 _{Outing, S. (2011). Taking Tsunami Coverage into Their Own Hands. The Pointer Institute. A Global Leader in}

Journalism [Online]. Available: http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/29330/taking-tsunami-coverage-into-their-

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maintained. Through social media, people who tie offline could easily expand their relationships and experiences online (Ha & James, 1998). Social media promotes community conversation by allowing individuals and organisations to identify and communicate with the people with whom they share some commonality (Kapoor & Kulshrestha, 2014). Social media promotes a two-way conversation which differentiates it from traditional media channels such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines, as these only deliver a linear communication mechanism (Rowley, 2004). Rafaeli (1988) argues that „conversationality‟ is an important virtue of social media as it is the ideal of interactivity. Participation is behaviour/action-oriented interactivity, whereas conversation is rooted in the communicational aspect of interactivity (Kapoor & Kulshrestha, 2014).

Social media networks are said to have presented an alternative space for: political discourse between publics; communication and interaction between politicians and the public they represent; oversight by publics of the operations of the state and publication of protest and dissent (Salanova, 2012). Studies by, for example, Yochai Benkler (2006), have shown that the advent of digital technologies that make social media possible has transformed the way civil servants and institutions disseminate information and communicate opinions. Benkler argues that social media have speeded the transmission of information at a lower cost amongst individuals, communities and organisations in a globalised era.

Many studies have hailed social media for enabling publics to directly and actively exercise their rights on political issues through their participation on social media platforms. A situation report by the Institute for Security (2012) argues that „social media have the potential to facilitate the active citizen political engagement required to bring about political change in Africa‟ (Chatora, 2012: 1). Benkler (2006) argues that the Internet as a tool for mobilisation has presented to people the potential of being speakers, rather than just being listeners. Apart from challenging the traditional media, social media platforms have also, to a large extent, indicated the potential to challenge sovereign power. Grassroots movements have benefited through the Internet, which has brought about new possibilities for publics to organise themselves, even under authoritarian regimes. Although there is an increase in the censorship and capabilities of the state and/or corporates to limit access, shut down the Internet and to criminalise content, Salanova (2012) and Benkler (2006) state that the Internet has still proven to be harder for authoritarian regimes to

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control and censor than traditional media outlets. In Africa, social media networks are increasingly becoming mass communication tools and vehicles for mobilisation.