The Modern Journalist

A Newspaper’s Platform for Social Media or Why Games Will Save the Media

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I’ve been trolling around the Web looking for a definition of social media. It’s become a quest, although I hope it doesn’t end with me latching on to a big white whale.

The listserv has given me great insight into the thinking of others, but I’m still uncomfortable.

Then I came across this post called Socialutions: Product, Process or Philosohpy? that best summed up what is happening.

This definition best defines the new paradigm of problem solving and finding or creating innovative solutions through social exchanges. Socialutions redefines organizational and institutional methods used previously to manage people, groups as well as customers and suppliers.

The idea is simple: these communication networks don’t simply sit on top of existing structures, they completely redefine the ways in which me interact — and think about interacting — with other people when it comes to solving problems.

It’s the idea of redefining that intrigues me. Because that’s what we need to do: think not outside the box, but think like a new polygon altogether.

Which led me to Alternate Reality Games.

It’s a weird intellectual leap, but the idea of social media is already in practice. I know this because John and I wrote a feature story about them back in 2005.

For those who don’t know, ARGs are games that exist somewhere between online games and offline games. They use web-based media — websites, audio, video, text — to create cryptographs and other puzzles that sometimes require you to simple crack a code online to get the next clue — but oftentimes require small packs of people, in geographically spread out locations, to gather information which is then shared in online forums to solve problems.

So far, they have largely been used as promotional pieces for games like Halo 2 and movies like A.I.; however, folks like Jane McGonigal are beginning to use them to either solve real world problems or bring fun into daily activities.

I blogged about this during her SXSW Interactive talk but you can skip right over my notes and head to Citizen Logistics to see what this looks like.

At Citizen Logistics, we’re developing new game-like ways of working, volunteering, finding assistance, and having a good time. Anyone can play, and you get points for making other people’s dreams come true. Our software will let you find cool things to do, build teams, and connect people with jobs and resources, all via the text messaging capability of your cell phone.

What this activity does, effectively, is skewer my perspective on what social media can do for media organizations.

I rail against those who create “upgraded” versions of failed news operations (hence my Newspaper 2.0 section now), but Mcgonigal has — without knowing who in the hell I am — done the very same thing to me.

Maybe the future isn’t about setting up MeetUp on your editorial page for instance. Maybe it’s about creating a forum — a platform one might say — to engage the citizenry.

Taken one step beyond, how amazing would it be to include a toolset that would — like NING alows anyone to set up a social network — allow people to create their own version of Citizen Logistics that goes along with a newspapers goal of informing the public.