Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus

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Vision: TUP: A premier state university with recognized excellence in engineering and technology education at par
with leading universities in the ASEAN region.

LYKA SHANINE G. MENDOZA Grade:

BSECE – 1A Mrs. Lizette P. Terania
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
Km. 14 East Service Road, Western Bicutan, Taguig City CRN TUV SUV PSB-PH
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How social media can make a history

By: Clay Shirky

Traditional media landscape allowed every individual to disseminate information at any

time to anywhere around the world. This was a vital part in the history of media as it is the most
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
Km. 14 East Service Road, Western Bicutan, Taguig City CRN TUV SUV PSB-PH
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accessible form of it. Internet can truly make a big change when put to proper use with a good
agenda.

At the beginning of the talk, Shirky opened up about a certain Presidential election that
happened years ago. This election was a bit different for the voters did not only cast their votes
but were asked to video the vote to monitor for any form of voter suppression. The video will
then be posted on website. This act was mainly to ensure the election happened was righteous.
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
Km. 14 East Service Road, Western Bicutan, Taguig City CRN TUV SUV PSB-PH
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For me this showed not only the unity among the citizens but also the accessibility of media and
using it as monitoring platform for the election. That was so convenient. The government didn’t
need to deploy people that will roam around the polling areas. Instead, the voters themselves will
be the ones monitoring.

In addition to that, I learned from Shirky the evolution of media from printing press to
telegraph and telephone to recorded media like photos and sounds and finally to radio and
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
Km. 14 East Service Road, Western Bicutan, Taguig City CRN TUV SUV PSB-PH
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television. As time passed by in the last 500 years, these were the media people were used to. I
observed that step by step it changed to be convenient and accessible to everyone. Shirky pointed
out what seems to be odd in the different media he mentioned. He said that those media that can
create a group, is no good in creating conversations and vice versa. I can say that the media back
then is just right to disseminate information and provide communication but I noticed what
Shirky was trying to say. He was referring to the internet that brought a big change – symmetry
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
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to media where it can create group and conversation at the same time. This is the only time that I
see what internet has that the other media don’t. Internet offered us a wide variety of choices and
enabled us to do things the way we wanted it. Another change is that all other media were
available also online including magazines, phone calls, text, movies, music and all that stuff.
Lastly, the internet made it possible for us the audience, the consumers, become the producers as
well. That was an amazing transformation from mass media to mass as the media. It was great
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
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knowing that we, the citizens can also produce, evaluate and spread information throughout the
world easily.

Shirky told a story when the 7.9 magnitude earthquake happened in Sichuan, China. As
the disaster happened, people were already taking pictures and videos of the earthquake, posting
it online. The news quickly spread over the internet even before it was reported in the news. This
clearly showed how internet was able to bring such a big change. The local news didn’t even
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
Km. 14 East Service Road, Western Bicutan, Taguig City CRN TUV SUV PSB-PH
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need to report the earthquake just to let the authorities and other citizens know because of the
rapid dissemination of information. Because of that, donations and help arrived earlier than when
the locals waited for the news to let everyone know. I was personally amazed to learn about that.
It wasn’t obvious to me what the rapid spread of information can do. Though this was a positive
result, the next happenings prior to the earthquake weren’t so good. An issue was raised when
the school buildings easily collapsed. This was caused by the corrupt officials. As a feedback,
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
Km. 14 East Service Road, Western Bicutan, Taguig City CRN TUV SUV PSB-PH
100 01 0027

there was a protest and a local official tried to stop them. The anomaly was also posted online
and on the magazines. They arrested the protesters and shut down media to prevent the news that
there is a protest happening in China. However, though China was known as a great manager for
internet censorship failed to shut down media as it was so enormous that it can’t be stopped.

According to Shirky, the landscape being free, global and social, most organizations and
their audience can now interact. In the old times, the audience can only read and evaluate the
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
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messages sent by the organizations but currently, I think that the internet made it efficient and
convenient to send feedbacks, responses and opinions. It is better that organizations or groups
can easily access what their consumers want so that they can improve or modify their system or
products. In this case, those consumers as what is already stated above, is also the producer. The
communication is now a two way process that can benefit both parties. As an example, as
mentioned by Shirky was the website MyBarackObama.com where millions of citizens
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participated on the conversation out there. Obama announced that he wouldn’t sign a certain bill
that would grant telecom immunity but later on changes his mind causing a lot of people to be
angry. But even after that, Obama still stood on his latest decision that he would vote for the bill.
Kidding aside, I thought the website’s agenda was to influence the minds of who participated
that conversation but it turned out that it only wanted to be connected to the citizens and spread
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
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information. They let what the people would like to think and they did not go on to control their
people. With this, we can see how powerful media is and how properly it was put to use.

Overall, this talk made me see what that media and the internet, when used responsibly,
can make a history. It was so powerful and almost unstoppable. As it was easy to deal with
whether you are an amateur or a professional it became widely used and some are responsible
enough to get with it. It is free and enabled us to support and convene anything or anyone. It is
 Technological University of the Philippines – Taguig Campus
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made us all producers so it is up to our choice how we will use media. Shirky left the crowd with
a question “How can we make best use of this media, even though it means changing the way
we’ve always done it?” I think this world need its people the most over anything and we must
embody the media we wanted before we can make a history out of it.