The fourth estate

This week is economic week at Sandvika High School. The students listen to lectures about everything from Facebook to stocks. Today we listened to a lecture about social media, which is very important in marketing today. We learned about how social media has changed the very principals of marketing and has introduced a whole new set of thinking when it comes to communication between seller and buyer.

Before it used to be the companies who decided what the costumers should know about them, they were the ones supplying people with information. The information was imparted through newspapers, radio and television. But as the society and technology developed the internet was invented, and a whole new world of communication and information opened for a new and more creative thinking. We have the opportunity to be active in the marketing, we can decide what information we want to read and we can impart selected data further.

For the younger generations social media is the main platform where we gather and share information. A clear example of this is how the teenagers on Utøya used networks like Facebook and Twitter to keep friends and family updated on the situation on the island during the 22^nd of July this summer.

Up to this date the internet is the most important source of information for the majority, and social media the most powerful informer. The power lies in the hand of the costumer, and corporations are challenged to find creative ways to reach out to us.  It is a reason for why we call the media the fourth estate.  

Source:

Cecilie Staude