Do social media generate social capital?

• Do social media generate social capital beyond borders between the real and virtual spaces? If so, how do social media function in forming and maintaining social capital? This study is triggered by those simple questions. From the beginning of 2011, a huge number of people have seen political turmoil stimulated by use of social media and felt the inner stirrings of people’s cooperative network via social media. Thus, some people strongly stressed that social media has a great power to change authoritarian regimes from the global political issues perspective. On the other hand, we recognized how social media worked effectively from the local issues perspective, for example in the case of the massive disaster in Japan. Under the critical situation, where existing traditional media like phones, TV, radio and newspapers didn’t work, the Japanese got and exchanged information through social media and in fact some victims were rescued based on information via social media. Both cases, political changes and massive disasters, show information transaction process has been supported by thin trust, generalized reciprocity and loosely tied people’s network, regardless of geographical borders or real/virtual spaces. Therefore it seems that social media plays an important role in fostering a social network leading to social capital. This paper reconsiders characteristics of social capital and its role in improving people’s lives through social media. It also examines how social media influences social capital by giving a few examples of social media and social issues, more specifically, the political turmoil in Tunisia and big earthquake disasters in Japan.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Människa-datorinteraktion (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Human Computer Interaction (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Mänsklig interaktion med IKT (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Human Aspects of ICT (hsv//eng)

Keyword

disaster

internet

social capital

social media

Human-Computer Interaction

Människa-dator interaktion

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)