ABSTRACT
Social media are commonly understood as media that foster social interaction, collaboration, sharing and participation. Clay Shirky argues that social media “increase our ability to share, to cooperate, with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutional institutions and organizations” (Shirky 2008, 20f). Van Dijk stresses that “The very word ‘social’ associated with media implies that platforms are user centered and that they facilitate communal activities, just as the term ‘participatory’ emphasises human collaboration. Indeed, social media can be seen as online facilitators or enhancers of humannetworks—webs of people that promote connectedness as a social value” (van Dijck 2013, 11). According to boyd the term social media “is often used to describe the collection of software that enables individuals and communities to gather, communicate, share, and in some cases collaborate or play” (boyd 2009).
