Sunday, October 14, 2012

Who Is The Modeructor?

Who is the Modeructor?

At the beginning of this task I selected the image above as SocMedMod's Twitter Avatar. I chose it based on my thoughts of social media moderation at the time - that a social media moderator's  role was to orchestrate the various online platforms for his or her organisation and making various platforms work together to achieve the most harmonious outcome.

But now I'm not so sure that the person depicted above with his back to us represents an organisation's social media moderator. After all the analysis and assessment of social media in Rethinking Media, I am in two minds as to who this guy is.

With a nod to Alvin Toffler's 'Prosumer' who represents a blurring of the line that seperates producer from consumer, I have named the person depicted above The Modeructor (diction, readers, diction!), of course being a combination of Moderator/Conductor.

Does the Modeructor represent the social media moderator as I alluded to above? Yes and very much so, but by analysing social media thorugh a political economy lens for the past month, I have also realised that The Modeructor also represents the political and economic elites who control or attempt to control social media. Whether it is platform owners commercialising their prosumer's content, advertisers attempting go orchestrate influence over social media users, or political elites trying to regulate social media, I'm yet to determine precisely. But in very abstract way I'd argue that this power bloc trinity is an embodiment of the 'power' that  political economy theorists regularly identify in their critique of society.

So for my final SocMedMod post, who do you think the Modeructor is?  

Social Media Moderator or Political Economic influencer? 

Please post comments below, or better yet via Twitter using #WhoIsTheModeructor  

*Twitter users will be helping contribute to this blog assignment's final presentation.

This is my final post. Thanks for all of your comments over the past couple of months. I hope you all have learnt a bit more about social media moderation and critically assessed its role in current PR/Communications practice.

8 comments:

  1. Hi Sam
    Just wanted to say that as a 'produser" I am new to most if not all things social media especially the role of the moderator so you site has really helped me expand my understanding and knowledge.
    I even shared your blog with my Communicating with Publics groups because although we had decide to focus on social media for our debate assignment we had not successfully come up with an 'angle' Happily and inspired in part by your work here we have decided on "Social Media: Authentic Dialogue or Contrived Conversation" and we will also be including theories on power and control and governance in our presentation. So given I am so new to the area and have yet to experience the role of a moderator first hand I will defer to Marshall McLuhan who said before the idea of this role was even invented " A commercial society whose members are essentially ascetic and indifferent in social ritual has to be provided with blueprints and specifications for evoking the right tone for every occasion." and given the discussions here and on Linked In recently this role whatever you chose yo call this has much power, influence and responsibility.
    Thanks Roxanne

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  2. Hi Sam. I'm going with 'both' as well. (I love how this 'new media' terminology lets us combine concepts and not have to call it sitting on the fence). I think it's important for moderators to take responsibility for shaping conversations within their communities - in particular for keeping the agreed standards for debate. But I also agree that we need to recognise that none of these communities exist in a vacuum and that there are many other forces that influence and shape conversations - as you've identified - and that we need to keep these also in mind. It does emphasise the importance and complexity of the role.

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  3. Love the modeructor terminology Sam, and I think I agree with you that moderators/modeructors can't help but impose power over the content on their social media platform. They are essentially content curators and have influence over the direction a the commentary takes. The main difference now is that a barrage of comments can quickly 'get out there' and if the modeructor isn't quick enough to moderuct, the world can know what you reject, unlike in traditional media like newspapers where editors make these decisions in private. That is unless the modeructor doesn't allow comments to be published before they've been reviewed. But what an overhead!

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  4. Hi Sam,

    I agree with the above and also the "Modeructor" (Cute name)has the ability to delete posts as well. Thus shutting up negative/unarguable voices. So yes I would draw a parallel between the moderator and the media elites/gatekeepers.

    Vanessa Papas

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  5. Hi Sam,in this one I go with the majority; The "Modeructor" is the moderator and Political Economic influences- they share the role in shaping the organisational online conversation.
    However, I do not agree with Vanessa, as she mentions the ability for moderators to delete posts. I believe that the "modeructor" must guide conversation, keeping always its authenticity.
    Consuelo

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  6. Thanks for all your varied responses. I'm looking forward to dscussing them further tomorrow night.

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  7. Hi Sam - two papers which I read for my assignment looked at the political economy of Twitter, and the hegemonic power relations operating in this "lingustic marketplace". I know it's slightly off topic, but I thought these two discussions on how we are increasingly implicit in branding ourselves on social media for commercial gain provide yet another different angle on the dialectic that you are teasing out in this post. The first paper by Ruth Page argues that our "self-branding and micro-celebrity place particular emphasis on the construction of identity as a product to be consumed by others, and on interaction which treats the audience as an aggregated fan base to be developed and maintained in order to achieve social or economic benefit". The second paper by Alison Hearn is even more critical, and argues that social networks are contributing to a “rise in ‘self-branding’ in western consumer society” where “all manner of communication under the contemporary cultural condition of promotionalism have as their function ‘some kind of self-advantaging exchange’”. I take your point about the Modeructor entirely, but aren't we the ones playing the instruments? Kerry

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  8. I also enjoyed the modeructor terminology and some of the other ideas you raised on this blog. I also agree with some of the responses that it is both and again we return to fence-sitting. Fundamentally the modeructor plays a huge role in what can and can't be seen is essentially the gate-keeper that we are all too aware of. I look forward to seeing how we play this out tomorrow night!

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