Participatory Session - User Empowerment in a Social Media Culture

Chair: Ronald Soetaert

This participatory session will start from an interdisciplinary research project on User Empowerment in a Social Media Culture (EMSOC). Media and communication are fundamentally changing, with increased convergence and an evolution from mass communication and personal media to mass self-communication. Mediated communication becomes more and more participative and personalised by means of social computing (Web 2.0). In this realm the user is the central actor, but only to the extent that he or she is actually empowered to grasp the opportunities and to face the challenges in the digital media environment.

The goal of this participatory session is to critically assess to what extent and how people are empowered or disempowered by their everyday use of social media. We will investigate how the vulnerability of users (does not) change(s) through these new forms of online communication and interaction. The issues are addressed from a social, legal, media, educational and policy perspective.