Social Media @ RDI
Rural Development Institute is launching online articles titled: Social Media Research. This series examines the use and influence of social media on rural, northern, and remote communities. The articles explore the growing dimensions of social media, their limits/opportunities, and impact on the connectedness and future of today’s rural communities.
Social media can be defined as a wide range of Internet-based and mobile services allowing people to participate in online exchanges, contribute content, or join online communities. These services include blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, social network sites, status update services, virtual world content, and media sharing sites.
Over the past several years, social media have become an increasingly popular means of idea and information sharing, and participation in the world. Network sites have become platforms for interaction among users offering instant, collaborative alternatives to more traditional ways of information sharing and distribution.
The purpose of the series is to provide a venue for insightful articles, that over time map the changing patterns of communication within a context of rural communities, and related challenges and opportunities social media creates for the future of rural Canada.