” » What is “social media?”” from Pro PR – Annotated
“Exploring social media and public relatons” = tagline. Includes an excellent new / reworked definition of social media by Joseph Thornley.
The definition Thornley came up with is this:
Social media are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests.
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Thanks Yule for linking to this definition. The number of comments I received on this post tells me that actually being able to describe what social media is has been a real concern for a lot of people. I hope this definition provides a simple, plain language concept that people can use to explain the essence of social media.
Thank-you Joseph for stopping by, and for coming up with this pithy definition. What I especially appreciate about it is the “shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author” aspect. I think that really nails it.