CHAPTER - I
INTRODUCTION
Social media is relatively young compared to mainstream media with regard to its origin. However, its popularity has made it a major tool used to exchange views and ideas globally. The ease and wide reach of social media makes it an obliging platform for people to discuss and consider various issues. Claims or warrants made on this medium are quickly generalized due to the manner in which shared statements are posted and viewed by all. The speed of communication through this medium is also an added advantage.
With the advent of internet, especially broadband in India, the entire Indian category has started using internet in their daily life. People have realized that the communication is growing at a rapid rate through internet. Therefore Internet nowadays forms a significant part of everybody’s life. Recently the researches and statistics have proved that a more effective and cheaper online communication technique is social media.
This is not a saying, nor a quote by a famous personality or an influential person. It is a thought expressed by most of the people around the globe who are a part of the worldwide digital society, called the ‘online social network’. This study will try to highlight how the concept of online social networking has affected some of the crucial aspects in human life, and most prominently, how it consumed ‘space’ has in the real world.
1.1 The Internet and Communication:
The Internet has revolutionized the way world communicates. It has helped in building the bridge between communication, computers and the world. The invention of telegraph, telephone, radio and computer set the stage for this extraordinary blend of capabilities. The Internet which defines multitasking to the world in a lot of respects is itself capable of serious multitasking. It is capable of worldwide broadcasting of information, information dissemination and storage, collaboration and interaction between individuals and organizations through their computers, e-commerce and trade etc., all at the same time, regardless of the geographic location.
According to The Internet Society, the Internet today is a widespread information infrastructure, the initial prototype of what is often called the ‘National (or Global or Galactic) Information Infrastructure’. Its history is complex and involves many aspects - technological, organizational, and community. And Moreover, its influence reaches not only to the technical fields of computer communications but throughout society as we move toward increasing use of online tools to accomplish electronic commerce, information acquisition, and community operations.[1]
1.2 Social Networking:
Social Networking has been a subject of interest for various researchers and scholars especially in the period from 2000-2010. Also, it is interesting to know that it has been of interest even for its mere users who get addicted to the habit of digital social networking, across the globe in various countries and continents. The difference is only its time of arrival. In some countries it is old and established, whereas in some, it is new and promising and in some others, it is yet a distant dream.
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige. [2]
These Social Networking sites have gained popularity for one simple reason, the ability to share, with others, information about yourself your interests, your hobbies, your thoughts and feelings or anything you choose. It provides you a centre stage to showcase (almost) all about you. These can quickly be reciprocated by others in your network and by you through messages, comments, instant messaging applications, photos, games, and group interaction.
‘Social networking' sites (social networks) offer people new and varied ways to communicate via the Internet, whether through their computer or mobile phone. These sites allow people to easily and simply create their own online page or profile and to construct and display an online network of contacts, often called ‘friends'. Users are able to build a network of connections that they can display as a list of friends. Nearly all sites allow users to post photos, video and often music on their profiles and share them with others.[3]
1.3 Media and Society:
Media is considered as the mirror of the society. It is through the media people are aware about the daily happenings and they are connected to the world. The delivery of news, sharing of ideas and the expression of opinions is regularly done through media. As long as one person is able to connect to the internet and express their view about a situation or simply about an idea, then the information that individual will want to share, will get out into the world. The spreading of an idea, or of news occurring somewhere in the world can no longer be completely blocked by anything.
When we say social media it includes the different mediums such as
· Blogging
· RSS
· Social Networking
· Chat Rooms
· Podcasts
· Video Sharing
· Photo Sharing
· Message Boards
So the society uses these mediums to share their views, to update their knowledge about everything, too get connected to the people from different parts of the world. It has become an important part in their regular life. Social media has changed the way the society works may be by the way it thinks, may be in sharing of an idea or in the communication of news. When we say media, the different mediums like print, broadcast and new media comes into the media category. These mediums perform their works well as they have to update the society about everything. Media is a place where the publication occurs and social takes place where the sharing occurs. Social media have almost become a regular part of our daily life. It has both positive and negative aspects which may lead to the change in usage of the social mediums.
1.4 Social Networking: The Fastest Growing Trend on the Internet:
It has been amazing to see the growth of ‘Social Networking’ over the last several years. Almost every ‘Netizen’ is today exposed to and a user of at least one social networking service. It is that space where people can develop networks of friends and associates (whether only on line, in real life, or both) and create, share or provide information on similar interests, tastes, lifestyles and other information.
Facebook started as a site for previous College Associates to remain in contact with one another during and after they had finished College. YouTube is another social networking site and not just a repository for uploading various types of videos (as presumed by many) since it provides space for comments and feedback.
Some sites are popular by type of category they use, where others are popular by region (like UK and Europe, Africa, etc), but they often have a USP of its own. The only way to know if a Social Network is suitable/apt for one is to research some of these sites on the Internet, ask friends, family or work colleagues who may already use one (or more) of these sites. Popular social networking sites, including MySpace and Facebook, are changing the human fabric of the Internet and have the potential to pay off big for investors, but -- given their youthful user base -- they are unusually vulnerable to the next 'new new' thing. As quickly as users flock to one trendy Internet site, they can just as quickly move on to another, with no advance warning, according to Wharton faculty and Internet analysts.
Many-a-times social networking sites have been observed and appreciated for reporting events like fires, storms, and even floods in other countries that have occurred locally in that vicinity instantly, usually even hours before these events are made aware by the media.
1.5 Social Media in Egypt:
Egypt had blocked Facebook and Twitter after the social networking sites were used in the rally demonstrators for extraordinary protests in Cairo against the dictatorship. The president Hosni Mubarak was asked to wind up his authoritarian rule which was started in 1981. Now the ruling party can go according to the law and democracy, which is the major recommendation of the people from many years. This is a remarkable achievement by social media in setting up a revolution through its online activities and brought a change in the history of Egypt. The revolution has shown how social networks get perceived and has an impact on any kind of social movements.
Egyptian uprising was started based on the developments in Tunisia, which was set up with the effective use of social networking sites in curbing the activities of the authoritarian government and their rule. With Egypt’s mass upraising having achieved its main goal of pushing President Hosni Mubarak from power, it has also set a best example of proving the positive and effective usage of social media in bringing the change in the country.
Anti-government activists used the popular social networking site Facebook to plan the protests. They gathered the support of 90,000 users who willingly agreed to be a part of the protests against the ruling party which is considered as the authoritarian government. As soon as there was a wide spread of the usage of the popular social networking site against the authoritarian government, Twitter was blocked in order to prevent videos, photos and other details from the protests from being broadcasted. Soon even Facebook was blocked. But by then the popularity of the protest took over the mass to the street and everybody openly agitated against the authoritarian rule of the corrupt government. Social networking sites were used as a powerful medium to eradicate the tyranny which prevailed in the country. Social networking is a very good way to get connected to the family, friends and relatives, but Egyptian uprising has proved that it can be also used in social up gradation and social demonstration.
CHAPTER – II
LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER - II
LITERATURE REVIEW
Social networking once meant going to a social functions like family get-togethers, class reunions, festivals, social functions such as a cocktail party, conference, or business luncheon. Today, much social networking is achieved through Web sites such as Facebook, Orkut, MySpace and Twitter.
Social Networking Services more often than not, have been accused of impacting an individual’s social and personal sphere in a number of ways, of which not all were positive. Also, the booming domain of online social networking services, at the rate of its growth, has instigated scholarly research and attracted specialized studies about the same. Although, the fact that it impacts an individual’s life is accepted and agreed upon, but researchers have presented varied and vivid results from an array of studies carried out in the recent past. Due to some startling observations made by researchers in the past about the negative influences that were said to be observed in the youngsters addicted to online social networking, through websites like Orkut, Facebook, Twitter etc., the change in humanity’s regular communicating habits is apparent.
No wonder, social networking sites have been in lime light, on and off, for the good, bad and ugly reasons. Evidently, much of the studies have gone into online social networking, as compared to other streams of communication. An attempt to study how have social networking sites and services, have been consuming space in human life, especially among young adults has been done to understand the not so obvious reasons for an obvious phenomena.
Considering the dynamic nature of this contemporary media form, many news reports and articles were reviewed as they were the best way to get an idea about the latest developments in the field. Also, to understand what could have been a better place to study the Internet born phenomena, than the Internet itself? Thus, a lot of content available online was considered for the study. Also, existing journals and research papers were a major knowledge base to provide inputs for the study.
2.1 The Network in the Garden: An Empirical Analysis of Social Media in Rural Life:
Eric Gilbert, Karrie Karahalios and Christian Sandvig
In the literature review chapter, the researcher has analyzed and reviewed a researched article published from the Department of Computer Science and Speech Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The title of the research journal is “The Network in the Garden: An Empirical Analysis of Social Media in Rural Life” by Eric Gilbert, Karrie Karahalios and Christian Sandvig. In this article the researchers has done a survey on the use of social networking sites in rural areas of America specifically Facebook and My space.
They say that rural communities are famous for using technology in novel ways. When something is introduced to them they don readily accept it. It will take time for them to get used to the technology and be the regular user of the same technology. To address the gap between the urban and rural areas in using social networking sites, this empirical paper has been designed by the researchers which helped investigating the behavioral differences between more than 3,000 rural and urban social media users. Using a dataset collected from a broadly popular social network site, the researchers analyzed users’ profiles, 340,000 online friendships and 200,000 interpersonal messages.
Using social capital theory, the researchers predict differences between rural and urban users and find strong evidence supporting their hypotheses. Namely, rural people articulate far fewer friends online, and those friends live much closer to home. The study results also indicated that the groups have substantially different gender distributions and use privacy features differently. Thus the researchers conclude by discussing design implications drawn from their findings; most importantly, designers should reconsider the binary friend-or-not model to allow for incremental trust-building.
To investigate the impact of rural life on social media, the researchers focused on MySpace.com, the most popular online social network site in the United States. According to the researchers the social networking sites offer different features to get close to the people from all over the world. The researchers study focuses on a broadly popular site that has always been open to everyone. So in this research first the review of demographics of rural America has been done which says that about the rural area as a town with less than 2,500 people in America. The social technology in rural America is well used as they are getting used to the new technology, says the study.
The study introduced the following hypotheses concerning rural and urban social networking sites use:
H1: Rural users will have far fewer friends and comments than urban users.
H2: Females will account for a greater proportion of rural users than urban users.
H3: Rural users will set their profiles to private at higher rates than urban users.
H4: Rural users’ friends will live much closer than urban users’ friends.
H5: As compared to urban users, rural users’ distributions of friends will preference strong ties over weak ties. [4]
To test the hypotheses, the researchers sampled 2000 rural and 2000 urban MySpace users from 4000 different zip codes in the United States. The scripts were distributed online through My Space. The zip codes method helped the researchers to answer the fundamental question of their study without making the design in a complex way. The study was made simpler by extracting the unused and orphaned accounts. After collecting 2000 rural and 2000 urban users, the researchers removed accounts that had never been used, resulting in a sample of 1,661 rural users and 1,721 urban users.
The study clearly shows that the rural users do not use social networks to find many friends far from home. The findings indicated that rural social networks span other rural areas, creating limited access to social capital and there is also political discourse through social media. This result was through surveys and interviews conducted in these rural areas with specific target groups. Thus this finding has shown that the rural youth have access to social networking site especially My Space and is used to the new technology. Their access to the social networking sites is to build and expand their friendship with people from other part of the world. The study has proved that rural and urban people use social media in different ways for different purposes.
2.2 Tapping Facebook to Improve Traffic:
The study of the relationship between media and society has a long and varied history in the social sciences and the humanities. Realizing the impact and following of social networking the Delhi traffic police department conducted a novel experiment with Facebook to open a two-way channel for instant communication with road-users, by installing a fan page on the site. The campaign has tasted success, bringing in more than 21,000 dedicated members in barely three months. This experiment is not only limited to Delhi but spread all over India and especially in the metropolitan cities.
The police use the platform to give out frequent updates and advisories on the traffic scenario in the capital. They also share data on special drives carried out from time to time. Bulldozing bureaucratic barriers that often prevent the flow of information on the ground realities to supervisory officers; the platform has fast evolved into a medium for both road-users and the traffic police for sharing information and exchanging views.
The police also acknowledged the fact that they have been able to deliver more efficiently, thanks to information being provided by the members. Interestingly, people are frequently reporting traffic rule violations and other problems they come across. They feel empowered to contribute to the prosecution of violators as said by the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg. Taking up the issues seriously, the traffic police are issuing receipts to violators and also getting back to the contributors about the action taken. The social platform turned out to highly effective with the traffic police receiving 4,425 complaints through their Facebook account in all till August 15, with prosecution been initiated in 1,577 cases of violations.
Apart from the wall, a discussion board has also been set up on which the members have so far posted nearly 130 topics. Senior officers, including Mr. Garg, have been regularly responding to issues highlighted by the members. Other traffic police officers are also encouraged to respond to area-specific problems.[5]
2.3 Political communication and participation trend in the social media: Focus on the O1-S-O2-R model application:
Kweon, Sang-Hee and Kim, Wi-Geun
The third analysis is made on the researched paper by Kweon, Sang-Hee and Kim, Wi-Geun from the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea under the title “Political communication and participation trend in the social media: Focus on the O1-S-O2-R model application”. This paper explores political communication in the online social network space. This study was made to understand and know the factors affecting political participation on the internet. The target was male and female adults who were equal to or over the age of 19. A total of 861 respondents were considered for the final analysis to test the research questions.
The O1-S-O2-R model was applied on the data to conduct a research questions. Factors affecting awareness of politics on the internet and political act on the internet were empirically analyzed and described. The result proves that factors affecting the direct act of participation in politics through the internet are demographic that is they are depended on the geographical area and individual characteristics, purpose of political act on the internet, use of political websites and awareness of comments on the internet. Totally it speaks about the internet educated users who will be a part of political awareness through social media.
Social Networking Sites have caused the revolutionary change in the form of new media throughout the public sphere and political structure. This study was carried out by the researchers to identify systematically the factors affecting political participation on the internet as an activity. The study by the researchers helped them to analyze the various means of political communication through internet. According to the O1-S-O2-R model, the activity of political participation on the internet as a response results from each causal relation of orientation, online activity and result orientation. Systematically, identifying the factors affecting political participation on the internet required checking the causal relation of the different factors.
The study was based on the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: In political participation on the internet, the predisposition of internet users affects their online activity.
Hypothesis 2: In political participation on the internet, the online activity of internet users affects their result orientation.
Hypothesis 3: In political participation on the internet, the result orientation of internet users affects their response.[6]
The study was divided into four main groups like Predisposition, Online Activity, Result Orientation and Response
· The predispositions for the survey on participation in politics through the internet were demographic characteristics, individual characteristics and extent of media use. The demographic characteristics included gender, age, educational attainment and family income.
· To survey participation in politics through the internet, online activity consisted of the purpose of political act on the internet, use of political websites and online network activity.
· The result orientation for measuring participation in politics through the Internet consisted of awareness of public opinion on the internet and awareness of comments on the internet.
· The response included the direct participation and the use of media to involve themselves in political activity online.[7]
The study resulted showing online social networks can have enormous influence on different areas. In the field of politics in particular, the online communication and the use of social networking sites provides a new online public sphere and gives awareness of political communication and activities. Individuals and online media are factors affecting the recipients' predisposition, political communication and participation.
CHAPTER – III
RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER - III
RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY
3.1 What is Research?
Research refers to a search for knowledge. One can also define research as a scientific and systematic search for relevant information on a specific topic.
The Encarta dictionary lays down the meaning of research as: “Organized study: methodical investigation into a subject in order to discover facts, to establish or revise a theory, or to develop a plan of action based on the facts discovered”.[8]
Some people consider research as a movement, a movement from the known fact to the unknown fact. This is justified by the fact that our inquisitiveness led us to probe and attain fuller understanding of the unknown.
Inquisitiveness is the mother of all knowledge and the method, which researcher employs for obtaining the knowledge of whatever the unknown, can be termed as research. [9]
3.2 What is Research Methodology?
Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. Ibid.8 It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. Here, the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind them are studied.
3.3 Types of Research:
According to Kothari, 2005 the basic types of research are as follows:
1. Descriptive vs. analytical research
Descriptive research includes survey and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds. The purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affair as it exists at present.
In the Analytical research the researcher uses facts and information already available and analyzes these to make critical evaluation of the material.
2. Applied vs. fundamental research
Applied research aims at finding a solution for immediate problems facing a society or an industrial/business organization. Here the research is aimed at certain conclusion or solution facing a concrete social or business problems.
Fundamental research is mainly concerned with the generalization and with the formulation of a theory. It is directed towards finding information that has a broad base of application and thus, adds to the already existing organized body of scientific knowledge.
3. Quantitative vs. qualitative research
Quantitative research is based on the measurement of quantity or amount. It is applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in terms of quantity.
Qualitative research aims at discovering the underlying motives and desires using in depth interview for the purpose.
4. Conceptual vs. empirical research
Conceptual research is something that is related to some abstract idea(s) or theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones.
Empirical research relies on experience or observation alone, often without due regards for system and the
3.4 Documentary Research:
Here the researcher has followed the Documentary analysis. Social research is an activity that is undertaken to find an answer or explanation regarding a particular social phenomenon. It involves systematic collection of data about such a social phenomenon for the purpose of finding and or understanding patterns and regularities in it. Through social science research, the researcher tries to find out the facts and figures related to the topic of coverage and this result in a good analysis which will be the final output of research method. Usually social surveys, in-depth interviews and participant observation are the main procedure undertaken in social science research.
The documentary research method is cost effective than social surveys, in-depth interviews or participant observation. The use of documentary methods refers to the analysis of documents that contain information about the phenomenon we wish to study.
Payne and Payne (2004) describe the documentary method as the techniques used to categorize, investigate, interpret and identify the limitations.[10]
The documentary research in social science is a useful approach that can be adopted by researchers in the full confidence. Documents are produced by individuals and groups in the course of their everyday practices and they are referred in their regular needs. They have been written with a purpose and are based on particular assumptions and presented in a certain way or style.
There are two types of documents that are used in documentary study, namely primary documents and secondary documents. Primary documents refer to eye-witness accounts produced by people who experienced the particular event or the behaviour we want to study. On the other hand secondary documents are documents produced by people who were not present at the scene but who received eye-witness accounts to compile the documents, or have read eye-witness accounts.
Documents range from public through private to personal documents. The list of public document sources include government publications such as Acts of Parliament, policy statements, census reports, statistical bulletins, reports of commissions of inquiry, ministerial or departmental annual reports, consultancy reports, etc. Private documents often emanate from civil society organizations such as private sector businesses, trade unions and non-governmental organisations, as well of course from private individuals. They include minutes of meetings, board resolutions, advertisements, invoices, personnel records, training manuals, interdepartmental memos and other annual reports, etc. The list of personal documents include household account books, photo albums, address books, medical records, suicides notes, diaries, personal letters, etc.
3.5 Significance of the Study:
The study tries to explore the role of social networking sites in bringing a revolution in Egypt and other South East nations. This study highlights the role of social networking sites and their contribution in changing the condition of the society. Here the researcher has tried to analyze different news stories and researched articles on this issue and has analyzed the effectiveness of social networking site in the present scenario.
3.6 Objectives:
The objectives are listed below:
· To know more in depth the role of social networking sites in the society.
· To analyze the changing scenario of the world caused by the social networking sites.
· To highlight the role played by the social networks in bringing a revolution in the history of Egypt.
· To create awareness about the uses of social networking sites.
3.7 Method of Study:
Social networking sites have been in lime light, on and off, for the good, bad and ugly reasons. Evidently, much of the studies have gone into online social networking, as compared to other streams of communication. An attempt to study how have social networking sites and services, have been consuming space in human life, especially among young adults has been done to understand the not so obvious reasons for an obvious phenomena. These Social Networking sites have gained popularity for one simple reason, the ability to share, with others, information about yourself your interests, your hobbies, your thoughts and feelings or anything you choose.
The effectively used medium today has brought a revolution in Egypt and has proved its strength and uniqueness in bringing the change in the society. Here the researcher has analyzed the newspaper write ups, news stories and online researched articles. The main purpose of this analysis is to show how social networking sites have contributed in the social development and its impact on the society especially in Egypt.
3.8 Operational Definition:
a) Social Networking:
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes", which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.
b) Websites:
A website is a depository of information destined for public or private use, usually residing in a remote server. When a computer terminal calls the website (using the HTTP or HTTPS protocol) the server responds by sending the information requested back to the user.
c) Uprising:
Popular revolt or a rebellion against a constituted government and its policies.
d) Revolution:
A fundamental change in political organization, or in a government or constitution; the overthrow or renunciation of one government, and the substitution of another, by the governed.
e) Facebook:
It is a social media, a database for social networking. It is used for communicating and staying in touch with people.
f) Twitter:
It is a social media where in which people keep updating about what they do and whereabouts of everything.
g) Mass Media:
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies, including the Internet, television, newspapers, and radio, which are used for mass communications.
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