Social Media Is Dead – So Says Steve Rubel

by Karl on December 28, 2006

In 2006 all media went social. Pretty much every newspaper, TV network and publication has wholeheartedly embraced these technologies. Newspapers have comments, RSS feeds, blogs, wikis and other forms of two-way communications. TV networks have a presence in Second Life and more. The lines have blurred. Even some of the marketers themselves are producing content that could be called “media.”

I think I have to call bullshit on Steve here, just because mainstream media “participated” in social media in 2006 doesn’t change the essence of what social media is. Kind of like me pissing in a lake doesn’t change the what that lake is.

To me the difference between social media and “the media” or “big media” is control and influence. Social media is primarily controlled by the participants, by the viewers, readers, listeners etc. where as traditional media is primarily controlled by an organization with a narrower agenda like a corporation, or a political party.

In the spirit of the recent tagging meme that has been floating around i’m going to tag some folks that i would like to weigh in on this, how about it David from Logic and Emotion, Pete from Mashable, Neville from FIR, and Shel from FIR, and Joseph from Jaffe Juice.

{ 6 trackbacks }

Welcome Social Media Relations Agency. Wither Public Relations. at Emergence Media
December 28, 2006 at 7:25 pm
David “Dsquared” Dalka - Creating Revenue and Retention - Chicago GSB MBA » The Growing Conversation Debunking the “Social Media Is Dead” Post by Steve Rubel
December 30, 2006 at 3:19 pm
David “Dsquared” Dalka - Creating Revenue and Retention - Chicago GSB MBA » How to Forge a New American Mandate Via Social Media Political Revolution
January 6, 2007 at 8:53 am
Sunday Social Media News » Online Marketing Blog
January 7, 2007 at 12:39 pm
RSS World » Blog Archive » How to Forge a New American Mandate Via Social Media Political Revolution
January 17, 2007 at 5:27 am
The Complex Brand » Blog Archive » Get a Life
January 22, 2007 at 10:23 pm

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

David Armano December 28, 2006 at 9:19 pm

OK, I just gave my 2 cents for what it’s worth over at L+E.

Neville Hobson December 29, 2006 at 4:45 am

Thanks, Karl – you’ve just suggested a great discussion topic for an upcoming FIR. Stay tuned!

FWIW, I agree with Steve that the lines have blurred…

david weiner December 29, 2006 at 10:59 am

Thanks for calling him out … it’s not that social media isn’t fading into media media, it’s that the way he chose to write about it was so “Die Social Media Die Die Die.”

Anthony Butler January 3, 2007 at 1:29 pm

Karl,

You have a link on the Google homepage… NIIIICE!

Back to the question at hand (nice image btw of you whizzing in the lake):
Content is always “sponsored’ to some degree. Even a web forum where the content is produced by the participants has someone looking over that content and tacitly approving it or not. He who admins the site…

Steve Rubel is just trying to get ahead of the curve here… everything stops being hot at some stage if not outright dying. When that happens, he can say he was the first. All the same, some of the lame attempts by Ford, Coke etc… to create social media do seem to be speeding Web 2.0 to the gallows.

arb:

Paul Adams January 7, 2007 at 9:11 am

Karl,

I really like the idea of tagging people to get their opinion. Not sure if you saw this elsewhere or if it’s your own idea but it’s great!

And highly appropriate to the post content.

Paul.

karl long January 7, 2007 at 12:33 pm

thanks Paul, actually i got the idea from that whole 5 things you don’t know about me” and other similar memes. The 5 things meme relied upon people tagging 5 other people they wanted to answer the question, I just replicated that for the purpose of trying to get some other opinions :-) It actually worked spectacularly well.

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