Title:	DO SOCIAL MEDIA GENERATE SOCIAL CAPITAL?
Author(s):	Ryoko Asai, Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos
ISBN:	978-972-8939-76-2
Editors:	Gunilla Bradley, Diane Whitehouse and Angela Lin
Year:	2012
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Social media, social capital, trust, norm of reciprocity
Type:	Short Paper
First Page:	133
Last Page:	136
Language:	English
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Paper Abstract:	Do social media generate social capital beyond borders between the real and virtual spaces? If so, how do social media function in forming and maintaining social capital? This study is triggered by those simple questions. From the beginning of 2011, a huge number of people have seen political turmoil stimulated by use of social media and felt the inner stirrings of people’s cooperative network via social media. Thus, some people strongly stressed that social media has a great power to change authoritarian regimes. On the other hand, we recognized how social media worked effectively from the local issues perspective, for example in the case of the massive disaster in Japan. Under the critical situation, where existing traditional media like phones and TV didn’t work, the Japanese got and exchanged information through social media. Both cases, political changes and massive disasters, show information transaction process has been supported by thin trust, generalized reciprocity and loosely tied people’s network, regardless of geographical borders or real/virtual spaces. Therefore it seems that social media plays an important role in fostering a social network leading to social capital. This paper reconsiders characteristics of social capital and its role in improving people’s lives through social media.
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