Social Media Research Source #5

"Millenials use online media for social change." UWIRE Text 22 Mar. 2012. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.

This article is interesting because it concentrates on a different angle of social media, in particular the generational differences that make people of different ages more susceptible to social media marketing.

The Kony video is used as a case study, and analysed for the manner and speed with which different age groups came into contact with it.

Research found that the older age groups were less likely to first come into contact with it through the internet.

"Kony 2012 is a great case study of generational differences," said Morley Winograd, a senior fellow at the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at U. Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. "The Millennial generation is a group-oriented generation. They share things widely and enjoy doing so."

The article goes on to also consider why even after older generations came into contact with it, they were less likely to instantly support it.

"You have Boomers saying, 'No, no leave this to the experts already at work,'" Winograd said. "Then you have Generation X at the forefront of the pushback [against Kony 2012] skeptical of group activities and saying, 'Where is my money going?'"

The Pew poll supports this, as it found two-thirds of the initial Twitter conversation supported the video against Kony. Winograd said the data shows how the Millennial generation, most active on Twitter, was quick to embrace the movement and offered the least skepticism toward it.

This article points towards what we might make a secondary question in our research of social media, specifically asking “how do generational differences affect the way people receive social media marketing campaigns?”