Social media chosen as Newsmaker of the Year

The Vancouver Courier chooses social media as 2011’s top newsmaker

I fetched my latest edition of the Vancouver Courier off my front walk, neatly tucked inside a plastic bag to protect it from rainwater. The cover story was one I had been anticipating since, for the second year running, I’d been asked to contribute to the paper’s “Newsmaker of the Year” edition. What pleased me was to see that the Courier team felt as I did: that 2011 was the year where social media (in particular Twitter) came into being as a powerful communications force.

For their ‘top newsmakers’ I had to choose from the following list:

  • The downtown casino proposal
  • Canucks Stanley Cup run
  • Stanley Cup riot
  • The election
  • Occupy Vancouver
  • The key role of social media in civic life

Before making my choice I mulled the list over for a couple of hours. During the year I had commented on all of these topics, and was particularly invested the Vancouver election as you imagine a city council candidate would be. Despite devoting months of my own life to the election, for me it wasn’t the biggest story of the year.

I think in any other year the biggest story should have been the disastrous Stanley Cup riot of June 15th. I have many strong feelings about how and why it happened, and how our elected leaders convincingly shirked any responsibility for their own actions. Such is the power of good public relations. But in the end, it was not my choice either.

As I eyeballed the list the last line about social media stuck out for me. It was awkwardly expressed, but it reminded me of dozens of conversations I’d had over the past year about the impact of bloggers and Twitterers alike. I chose social media because of the way it linked all the suggested topics. I even thought I’d be clever and write my 250-word submission as a series of tweets, but scrapped the idea after a first draft.

Christine Ackermann, president of the West End Residents Association, also agreed that social media was the top newsmaker. Ackermann, who’s no fan of centre-right politics from what I can tell, compliments this blog in her Courier submission, saying:

Consider that the main voice opposing city hall for the last three years has come from CityCaucus.com, an online blog

The power of Twitter, Facebook and online media was best demonstrated this year in the events surrounding the Arab Spring. Time magazine made the protests the subject of their “Person of the Year” selection. Anthony De Rosa, online editor for Reuters news agency recently released this timeline of social media related to the Arab Spring protests, which he says took him two days to compile. It’s a fascinating and revealing account of how social media led to the downfall of several autocratic regimes.

Vancouverites have been some of the world’s earliest adopters and most enthusiastic users of social media. As the Courier points out in its introduction to the Newsmaker feature, some of the biggest social media innovators come from here.

Social media is not new. Social media in Vancouver, the birthplace of Flickr and Hootsuite, is also not new.

But when our newsroom sat down to examine the top stories of the year, one thing stood out: whether it was the Stanley Cup riot, the civic election, Occupy Vancouver or the debate about the proposed downtown casino, social media powered these events and the debates around them to an extent not seen before in this city.

Twitter and even Facebook (which I call a social newspaper) still baffles many of us who otherwise can’t live without websites and email. However, I believe social media is transforming our world in ways we can’t yet fully comprehend. My advice to anyone is to simply try them out. The barrier to entry is very low, provided you have access to the internet.

Here below is my submission to the Vancouver Courier‘s Newsmaker of the Year feature. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the paper or read all the other submissions here.

What made 2011’s headlines about gambling, billion dollar developments, big league sports, riots, political campaigns and demonstrations unique is the new way we chose to discuss them.

The year began with the rancor around a development on the north end of the Cambie Street Bridge. The proposal for an expanded casino next to the renovated B.C. Place stadium had been quietly worked on for years by the time it came to public hearing.

But a grassroots campaign led by former and aspiring politicians rose up in opposition at the eleventh hour. Unlike the casino proponents they crafted their media campaign over blogs and sharp exchanges on Twitter, an evolving and immensely powerful communications tool. They turned public opinion against the expansion with city council approving a zoning for a new, larger casino facility, but without additional slots and tables.

Twitter couldn’t help Luongo’s net-minding skills during the Vancouver Canucks’ playoff run. But thanks to the #Canucks “hashtag” (a phrase combined with a hash, or number, symbol added to a Twitter post, or “tweet”) our hockey success became an even more collective experience.

The social signals were plain as day in the lead up to the Stanley Cup riot on June 15th. One only had to heed the Twitter hashtag #Riot2011 to know trouble was brewing.

As Election Day approached and the #OccupyVancouver movement took over the VAG’s front lawn, it seemed the most fulsome debates were happening online, 140 characters at a time.
For these and many other reasons, Twitter is my Newsmaker of the Year.

— Mike Klassen, former NPA city council candidate and CityCaucus.com blogger

See Also...