PewInternet.org
The New Environment for Advocates & NGOs
10 fresh realities of the digital age
State Department Visitors ProgramJanuary 17, 2012Lee Rainie: Director, Pew Internet ProjectEmail: [email protected]: @Lrainie
Digital Revolution 1Internet (83%) and Broadband at home (67%)
71%
67%
Digital Revolution 2Social networking – 50% of all adults
% of internet users
Digital Revolution 3Mobile – 84%
327.6million
Total U.S. population:315.5 million
2011
Mobile internet connectors – 63% adults
35% own “smartphones”
New Reality 1) The world is full of networked individuals using networked information
Image attribution: Flickrverse, Expanding Ever with New Galaxies Forming Cobalt123 http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/34248855/sizes/z/in/photostream/
New Reality 2) Giant changes in civic culture and mediasphere have created new opportunities for
NGOs and activists
New reality 2) Corollary New civic actors are emerging with social media
New reality 2) Corollary
Do-it-yourself/hacker ethic of networked individuals can be tapped to fill gaps
New Reality 3) The is no high-tech secret sauce for effective message making
New Reality 3) Corollaries
• Credibility is assessed through multiple filters– Trusted information sources (including search engines)– Personal beliefs/experiences– Social networks– Aggressive fact checking
• Yes, bad information hangs around, but it can be attacked in several ways– Recanting– Better information, especially from multiple sources
New Reality 4) Mass-media megaphones still matter to getting a story out, but new messaging
opportunities have emerged
David Edelman: “Branding in the Digital Age: You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places,” Harvard Business Review http://hbr.org/2010/12/branding-in-the-digital-age-youre-spending-your-money-in-all-the-wrong-places/ar/1
apps
New Reality 5) There are stages of engagement with audiences and each has a different weight
http://www.idealware.org/articles/engagement-pyramid-six-levels-connecting-people-and-social-change
New reality 5) Corollaries
• The social media space is a “fifth estate” with a different civic sensibility
• Facebook is different from Twitter• Social media users are semi-elite, they do not
represent everybody• Lurkers matter as an audience that is watching
and assessing
New Reality 6) Influence is migrating from organizations to networks and new “experts”
Traditional experts with new platforms, esp. blogs
Amateur experts who are avid contributors – sometimes with tribes
New algorithmic authorities
New Reality 6) CorollariesSocial networks are more influential and are
differently segmented and layered
Sentries
New Reality 6) Corollaries
Evaluators
Social networks are more influential and are differently segmented and layered
New Reality 6) Corollaries
Audience
Social networks are more influential and are differently segmented and layered
• Continuous partial attention to media streams
• Immersion in deep dives
• Info-snacking in free moments
New Reality 7) The flow of news has changed – and so have people’s attention zones
New Reality 8) All organizations are under more scrutiny and transparency is a new marker of trust
Surveillance – powerful watch the ordinary
Sousveillance – ordinary watch powerful
Coveillance – peers stalk peers
New Reality 9) The age of big data is upon us – and will give new power to analytics
New Reality 10) Critical uncertainties remain
The architecture itself
Information policies
Social norms and attitudes
Thank you!
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