THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IN 21ST CENTURY: AN OVERVIEW OF CYBER CRIMES IN INDIA

Abstract

The Social Networking Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Share it, What Sapp, Instagram, Pinterest, Google +, Micro blogging services like Twitter, and content-sharing sites like YouTube and Flicker have created a wide scale online social participation. The attention and visibility to powerful social issues like Terrorism, Outbreak of Diseases, Public Health, Sports, Elections, Accidents, Disasters, Conflicts and Crisis, Environment has increased humongous. According to a new study from Pew Research Center with respect to the ongoing election campaign in the United States U.S. adults are now getting news and information about the presidential elections from the candidates’ social media channels than any other mediums of communication like Newspaper, Magazine, Television, Radio, or Films. Hence, Social Media has become the Primary Point Of contact with voters. Yet we know little about the benefits and challenges of engaging in participatory communication through social media. This paper aims at discussing both the positive and negative outcomes of such participation. Media Theories and approaches to Participatory Communication with case studies. Most people might agree that social participation raises awareness of, if not knowledge about, social issues; however, it is less clear whether raising awareness translates into more meaningful and tangible societal benefits. Technology mediated social participation has been harnessed itself in the past for many social welfare activities in a number of novel ways. One recent example to quote is the use of Facebook and Twitter during Chennai Floods to gather and distribute timely, relevant information, creating a platform for guidance which resulted in saving the lives thousands people.