Oxford Social Media Convention 2009: Assessing the Evolution, Impact and Potential of Social Media

With corporations, governments, newspapers and universities embracing blogs and Twitter feeds as key elements in their communication strategies, social media have finally come of age. Yet research shows that the landscape of social media use and impact is a complex one, quite unlike the simple depiction of ubiquitous use and democratisation of content production that was widely heralded with the advent of Blogger ten years ago.

This conference will look back at the evolution of blogs and other social media to give a nuanced understanding of the ways in which such tools have or have not made a difference at the social, political or economic level.

Looking to the future, speakers from industry, media and academia will also look forwards to identify the trends and developments which will most likely shape our experience of these technologies in the next ten years.

Plenary Sessions

• From weblogs to Twitter: how did we get to where we are today and what are the main impacts to date?
• Social media, so what? Assessing the impact of blogging and social media
• Blogging at 20: The future of blogs and social media

Parallel Sessions

• Breaking news: the changing relationship between blogs and mainstream media
• Making science public: data-sharing, dissemination and the public engagement with science
• The growth of the corporate blog
• Parties, campaigns and representation: the political impact of blogs and social media

This Convention is organised in collaboration with the Said Business School.