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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 8, March 27-April 09, 2009

Social Media Is No Panacea

Writing for the Boston Review, Evgeny Morozov warns of the dangers of "starry-eyed cyber-optimism." Morozov remains skeptical of the widely assumed "democratizing potential" of web 2.0 technology, and cautions that the "grandiose promise of technological determinism—the idealistic belief in the internet’s transformative power—has often blinded even the most sober analysts."

Morozov argues that there is no evidence that web 2.0 technology will suddenly promote dreams of democracy. "We also cannot assume that people will seek out information they do not agree with or simply do not know about," he argues.

In an article on the Mountain Runner blog, Matt Armstrong also notes that social media "cannot magically transform an organization’s structure or processes without support from 'traditional' places often viewed as barriers to progress."

Armstrong describes the modern "now media" environment which demands "greater speed and agility." Social media can help to bypass outdated hierarchical information structures through "information dissemination systems that facilitate and encourage dialogue."

However, Armstrong concludes that "social media isn’t a panacea." Rather, social media’s role as a value transformative role is still to be explored and exploited for optimal impact.

Despite the reservations of Morozov and Armstrong, "'digital diplomacy' is all the rage in Foggy Bottom," reports Rob Salkowitz of Internet Evolution. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is "embracing new media, using the web to promote the agency and her role as the nation’s top envoy." The Department of State’s new website now features a comment-enabled blog, a Twitter feed, an interactive map and a YouTube channel.

At The Examiner, Maria Lewytzkyj highlights the State Department’s own social networking site, ExchangesConnect, announcing that "online diplomacy has arrived."

Nevertheless, Salkowitz is also skeptical of the potential gains from a diplomatic use of social media. The writer notes, "Effective social media channels gain authority from several factors: authenticity, candor, transparency and reciprocity. These values are conspicuously absent from the discourse of diplomacy…Diplomats are proverbially evasive and indirect."

Thus, Salkowitz emphasizes that social media cannot merely function as a capitalization on "the PR value of the newest communication fad." Instead, "success will be dependent, as always, on the quality of the story…not on the means of conveyance."

Thomas Hegghammer similarly argues on Jihadica that, "in the overall 'war of ideas' we must realize the limits of the internet and other media, because at the end of the day they are just that: media."

Hegghammer continues, "For several years people in Washington have been discussing public diplomacy in the misguided belief that it is somehow enough to tinker with the form and distribution techniques of 'our message' to win the war of ideas. The elephant in the room (or in the beltway) is that the war of ideas has to be waged on substance."

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