ABSTRACT
Whether with words of love, hate, curiosity or indifference, the museum world is talking about social media. These technologies appeal on bases both practical and philosophical. In the face of declining budgets, social media offer new channels for audience outreach (as well as internal communication) that require relatively low set-up costs and little to no technical training to use and support. As museums face questions of definition and relevance in the so-called ‘digital’ or ‘information’ age, the explosive popularity and increasing accessibility of social media represent ways to make traditional-seeming institutions less intimidating and more regularly present in everyday life. Facing the continuing need to address and correct the historical role museums have played in the oppression and exclusion of disenfranchised populations, social media even offer museums potential to democratize their practices. Their myriad forms and promising reach may help expand and diversify audiences, make museums more responsive and transparent, and acknowledge and incorporate the knowledge of audiences into practice.
