Networking: social networking
social network sites are so popular ‘is that they
appeal to our instinct for collecting’. Th ere is also
something of the herd instinct in expanding Net
acquaintance. Rettberg writes, ‘Once enough of
your friends have joined a social network site,
social pressure can make it very diffi cult not to
participate.’
Th e Wikpedia defi nition of a social network is
a ‘structure made up of individuals (or organiza-
tions) called “nodes” which are tied (connected)
by one or more specifi c types of interdependency,
such as friendship, kinship, common interest,
fi nancial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships
or beliefs, knowledge or prestige’. J.A. Barnes is
credited with using the term in 1954 to describe
the nature and process of patterns of association.
Social network analysis has become a rapidly
expanding field of study, producing a new
generation of commentators and gurus matching
optimistic with pessimistic visions of the impact
of social networking on users. Th e optimism of
American writer Clay Shirky shines through the
title of his book published by Allen Lane in 2010,
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity
in a Connected Age. In an interview with the
UK Guardian’s Decca Aitkenhead (‘If there’s a
screen to worry about in your house, it’s not the
one with the mouse attached’, 5 July 2010), Shirky
says the popularity of online social media proves
that ‘people are more creative and generous than
we have ever imagined, and would rather use
their free time participating in amateur online
activities such as Wikipedia – for no fi nancial
reward – because they satisfy the primal human
urge for creativity and connectedness ... Instead
of lamenting the silliness of a lot of social online
media, we should be thrilled by the social activ-
ism also emerging’.
Shirky talks of the ‘civic value’ of this activ-
ism and sees it as potentially revolutionary. He
acknowledges the downsides of Net anonymity,
which allows users to ‘behave more meanly’, but
predicts a time when ‘we are slowly going to set
up islands of civil discourse’ in which norms are
established that encourage people to use their
real names or some well-known handle. Th e chal-
lenge for social networking is how ‘to maximize’
the Internet’s ‘civic value’. See blogosphere;
digital natives, digital immigrants; mobi-
lization; web 2.0; youtube.
▶Jan van Dijk, Th e Network Society (Sage, 2nd edition
2006, reprinted 2010); Gerard Goggin, Global Mobile
Media (Routledge, 2011); Leah A. Lievrouw, Alterna-
tive and Active New Media (Polity Press, 2011).
Network neutrality Means ‘open’ and ‘equal’- that is, open to all without discrimination,
likely it is that information is distributed equally- assuming that all members communicate
through all the links at their disposal.
In a network with a high level of centrality it
is likely that some members will possess more
information than others. Communication
networks may take several forms, such as the
two illustrated. Networks may vary as to the ease
with which individual members can be isolated
from fellow members, and some networks will
suff er more than others from the removal of a
member or a link. If a member or link is missing
from a chain network, for example, the eff ect
is likely to be more serious than if either were
missing from a circle network. A network may
also spawn a sub-network: a sub-network can be
said to exist when the number of links between
certain members is greater than the number of
links between these members and others.
Th e term network is used in broadcasting
to describe the pattern of connection of the
broadcasting stations of a broadcasting company
or companies. Such a connection allows the
simultaneous broadcast of the same programme.
To ‘network’ a programme means to broadcast it
to the widest number of TV/radio stations both
within one network and in other networks. In
the US, the term is used more specifi cally: the
Networks are those companies that commission
programmes and programme-series.
Perhaps the most familiar use of the term
‘network’ applies to those established electroni-
cally. Computer networks (see internet) are
key to practically every aspect of modern life,
at the personal, national and global levels,
while social networking constitutes a whole new
dimension for the term – see the next entry.
Networking: social networking The
internet has rapidly fulfi lled the prophecy of
media guru Marshal McLuhan that electronic
communication would turn the world into a
global village; indeed it can be said that, with
the exponential growth of social networking, it
has become a global backyard. Basically, social
networking is hundreds and thousands of people
e-chatting and message-exchanging via the
Net and sites such as facebook, LiveJournal,
myspace and Bebo. Th ese are used for commu-
nicative exchange both with people you know –
old school or college friends, for example – and
with new people you would like to get acquainted
with. Potentially these may extend into hundreds
or thousands, each serving as a node to future
personal, group and organizational connections.
As Jill Walker Rettberg says in Blogging
(Polity Press, 2010), one of the reasons why