Sosyal Medyanın Uyuşturan Etkisi

Yeni medyanın ifade özgürlüğünü genişlettiği, demokrasiyi ve toplumsal hareketleri güçlendirdiği görüşü, ortaya çıkışından beri akademisyenler tarafından yaygın bir şekilde kabul edilmiş; buna karşın bu iletişim kanalının ‘uyuşturan etkisi’ çoğunlukla görmezden gelinmiştir. Bu çalışma, sosyal medyayı genel olarak eleştirel bir bakış açısıyla incelemekte, Lazarsfeld ve Merton'un “Medyanın Uyuşturan Etkisi” yaklaşımını sosyal medyaya uygulayarak bu iletişim mecrasının bireylerin toplumsal hareketlere ve eylemlere katılmasında etkili bir araç olup olmadığını ortaya koymaktadır. Bu çalışmada, sosyal medyanın bireylerin organize olmalarında, içerik üretmelerinde ve bu içerikleri paylaşmalarında kullanışlı bir kitle iletişim aracı olmasına rağmen; sosyal huzursuzluk dönemlerinde, sosyal medya aracılığıyla artan enformasyon tüketiminin bireylerin enerjilerini ‘aktif katılımdan’, ‘pasif haberdar olmaya’ dönüştürdüğü görüşü ileri sürülmektedir. Çalışma, ilk kez Lazarsfeld ve Merton'un “Medyanın Uyuşturan Etkisi” yaklaşımlarını sosyal medyaya uygulamakta ve sosyal medyanın 'karanlık' taraflarını ortaya koyabilmek amacıyla 'slaktivizm' ve 'cliktivizm' kavramlarını tartışmaktadır.

Narcotizing Effect of Social Media

Since the emergence of new media, it has been widely accepted by the scholars that new media strengthens democracy, freedom of speech and social movements; however, they have mostly ignored new media’s potential for narcotizing. This study examines social media from a critical perspective and applies Lazarsfeld and Merton’s “Narcotising Dysfunction Approach” to social media to see whether or not social media helps people’s active participation to the social movements. In this study, it is argued that although new media can be a useful tool for helping users to get organized, generate contents and spread these contents out to their peers, increasing dosages of mass communication, during the times of unrest, may transform the energies of citizens from active participation to passive knowledge and this may lead people to become passive protesters. This study, for the first time in the literature, will apply the “Narcotising Dysfunction Approach” to social media and will discuss the concepts of “clicktivism” and “slacktivism” to put forth ‘the dark sides’ of social media.

___

  • Balkin, J. M. (2004) 'Digital Speech and Democratic Culture: A Theory Of Freedom of Expression for the Information Society', NYU Law Review, 79(1): 1–55.
  • Barlow, J. P. (1996). An Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace, Retrieved (Accessed on 11 February 2016).
  • http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/barlow1.pdf
  • Barnett, S. (2010) What’s wrong with media monopolies? A lesson from history and a new approach to media ownership policy. ‘MEDIA@LSE Electronic Papers’http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/mediaWorkingPapers /pdf/EWP18.pdf(Accessed on February 5, 2016) Working
  • Bell, C. V. (2013) “Clicktivism.” In Kerric Harvey (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics (pp. 283-284). Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press/SAGE
  • Berger, G., (2002). Theorizing the Media – Democracy Relationship in Southern Africa. The International Journal for Communication Gazette, Vol. 64, No.1, London: Sage Publications.
  • Boyd, D. (2007). Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. David Buckingham (Ed). MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume (119-142). Cambridge: MIT Press.
  • Breindl, Y. (2010) Critique of the Democratic Potentialities of the Internet: A Review of Current Theory and Practice. TripleC. Vol. 8(1): 43 – 59
  • Eltantawy, N. & Wiest, J. B. (2011) ‘Social Media in the Egyptian Revolution: International Journal of Communication, Vol. 5: 1207 – 1224. Resource Mobilization Theory’.
  • Eşitti, Ş. (2015). Bilgi Çağında Problemli İnternet Kullanımı ve Enformasyon Obezitesi: Problemli İnternet Kullanımı Ölçeğinin Üniversite Öğrencilerine Uygulanması. İstanbul Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Dergisi, 49(2), 75-97., DOI: 10.17064/iüifhd.90504
  • Fuchs, C. (2011). New Media, Web 2.0. and Surveillance. Sociology Compass. Vol. 5 No. 2: 134 – 147
  • Gezgin, S. (2006). Medya ve Demokrasi. 20. Alman-Türk Gazeteciler Semineri. http://www.konrad.org.tr/Medya%20Mercek/19gezgin.pdf on 19 February 2016) pp. 165 – 176. (Accessed
  • Gladwell, M. (2011). From innovation to revolution-do social media made protests possible: An absence of evidence. Foreign Affairs, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2011-01-19/innovation- revolution(Accessed on 19 February 2016)
  • Hassanpour, N. (2011). Media disruption exacerbates revolutionary unrest: Evidence from Mubarak’s natural experiment, APSA 2011 Annual Meeting Paper.
  • Hess, D. J., Breyman, S., Campbell, N., Martin, B., (2008), Science, Technology, and Social Movements, In Hackett, E.J., Amsterdamska, O., Lynch, M., Wajcman, J. (eds.), The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, (pp. 473-498), 3rd edition, Cambridge: MIT Press.
  • Howard, P. N., and Hussain, M. M. (2011) The Role of Digital Media, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 36-48
  • Karpf, D. (2010). Online political mobilization from the advocacy group's perspective: Looking beyond clicktivism. Policy & Internet, 2(4), 7-41
  • Katz, E., Gurevitch, M., & Haas, H. (1973). On the Use of the Mass Media for Important Things. American Sociological Review, 38 (2), pp. 164- 181.
  • Kerrigan, S. (2011). “US Gov. Software Creates ‘Fake People’ on Social Networks.” http://www.examiner.com/article/us-gov-software-creates-fake-people- on-social-networks.(Accessed on 19 February 2016) at
  • Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy I. P. and Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious Understanding the Functional Building Blocks of Social Media. Business Horizons, Vol. 54, 241- 251.
  • Kırık, A. M. (2015). Sivil Toplumun Sınırlandırılamayan Sosyal Medya Sorunsalı. Ahmet Çetinkaya, Ali Murat Kırık, Özgür Erkut Şahin (Eds). Bilişim ve... (161-184). İstanbul: Hiperlink Yayınları.
  • Kwak, H., Lee, C., Park, H., & Moon, S. (2010, April). What is Twitter, a social network or a news media? In Proceedings of the 19th international conference on World Wide Web (pp. 591–600). Retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1772751. (Accessed on 19 February 2016)
  • Lazarsfeld P. F., Merton R. K. (1948). Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action. In. Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America. B. Rosenberg and D.M. White (Eds.) (1957). New York: The Free Press
  • Lyon, D (2007). Surveillance Studies: An Overview. Cambridge: Polity
  • Morozov, E. (2009, May 19). “The brave new world of slacktivism,” Foreign http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104302141(Acce ssed on 19 February 2016) Policy. Retrieved from:
  • Morozov, E. (2011). The Net Delusion The Dark Side Of Internet Freedom. New York: Public Affairs.
  • Panday, P. K. (2009). Does globalization affect media role in a democratic country? Communication Studies, 1 (2), 33–42.
  • perspective. Journal of Media and
  • Safko, L. (2010). The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
  • Smith, C. (2011) "Egypt's Facebook Revolution: WaelGhonim Thanks the Social http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/egypt-facebook-revolution- wael-ghonim_n_822078.html (Accessed on February 15, 2016) Post,
  • Trottier, D. (2012) Social Media as Surveillance. Surrey. Ashgate Publising
  • Unwin, T. (2012) Social media and democracy: critical reflections. Background Paper for Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, Colombo, http://www.cpahq.org/cpahq/cpadocs/Unwin%20CPA%20Social%20m edia%20and%20democracy.pdf (Accessed on Februay 29, 2016) From:
  • Vanobberghen, W. (2007), ‘The marvel of our time’: visions surrounding the introduction of radio broadcasting in Belgium 1923-1928, Paper presented at Media history and history in the media: Media and time, Wales, Gregynog (University of Aberyswyth), 28 - 30 March 2007.
  • Wilson, E. J. (2009). Digital Democracy and Diversity. Amit Schejter (Ed.) … And Communications for All: A Policy Agenda For a New Administration. (29 – 39). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.