Who has the Power

Perhaps I need to stop referring to the Twitters and Facebook as new media or social media. After all, it’s clearly not new and really just today’s way of communicating. In the past I have made reference to concerns about personal privacy and how important it is to approach certain sharing with some caution. This is not the only issue being raised. There are questions and issues that need to be considered as the worldwide usage continues to rise. This past week we have been witness to the huge potential of social networks and perhaps the unregulated power that it can provide. The unlikely source of this demonstration was actor/ director Kevin Smith
Yes the Kevin Smith who was at least in part responsible for Jay and Silent Bob, Clerks and most recently Cop Out. The story goes that Smith was refused boarding a Southwest Airline flight from Oakland to Burbank. Apparently he was judged to be too big to fit in the seat (against a longstanding airline policy). Smith “tweeted” his experience as it happened which in turn created a media storm. Not immediately reported was that Smith had booked two seats for his flight (as he had for the outbound flight from Burbank to Oakland) and was flying standby in order to catch an earlier return flight that, as it turned out, had only one seat available.
With almost 1.7 million followers on Twitter, Kevin Smith clearly has power – in this case he got an apology from Southwest (via twitter) and a $100 travel voucher plus a great deal of publicity for his new movie. In addition, Southwest posted a blog about the incident, which I can only assume, was “damage control”.
I’m not suggesting an Orwellian type reaction but regardless of whether he is in the right or not, what gives Kevin Smith the right to this kind of easily accessible power. In this case, the result is insignificant but I can certainly imagine how the ability to reach millions of people with “one side” of a story could easily be abused. The spread of information is so rapid it would be impossible to stop misinformation before significant damage was done.
Clearly, the new tech revolution will have its share of issues to deal with as it becomes more and more a part of daily lives.
Cheers and have a great day.
George
P.S. I love the "We love bags" ad campaign that Southwest Airlines is currently running.