Social Media: Two Views

Two views on social media. The first, courtesy of Scott Adams, below:

and the second is available here, from mashable.

Essentially, the article argues that in the future, social media will cease to be a media phenomenon--not because it's going to disappear, but because it's going to be integrated. ("All media as we know it today will become social, and feature a social component to one extent or another.") Author Vadim Lavrusik claims that social media is already becoming integrated into online journalism, via such trends as collaborative reporting and social media beat-mining.

Seeing as how PD involves elements of both marketing and journalism, what does this mean for the noble field of public diplomacy? Less message content control (bad) but more active engagement with potential audience (good). The problem is that most PD bodies seem to be a little slow to capitalize on social media technology. There's a desperate need to better align objectives with technological capabilities--not the government's strongest suit.

It's not that I think the State Department shouldn't be on Twitter--but there's a reason they have fewer followers than your average sirloin-clad pop starlet.