Mr. Mikhail Umarov, Managing Director, PR company “COMUNICA,” discusses the uses of social networks and other uses of the internet
On 9 October 2009, a meeting at United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Moscow was held regarding social networks and other uses of the internet. The guest speaker was Mikhail Umarov, Managing Director, of the Public Relations company, “COMUNICA”.
In his remarks, he stressed, among other things, that today, Internet is the only free platform bringing people together. In his words, the civil society, at least the most advanced part of it, is in its element on the internet. In Russia, audiences of social networks total at least 26 million people, and an information avalanche is an everyday reality on the internet. He also stated that “cyberculture” is a new type of communications environment, where the content is generated by users themselves, and everyone can join a community in line with his or her predilection.
According to Mr. Umarov, the internet as a whole is now perceived as the new Mass Medium - a combination of both "editorial" and "civic" journalism where not only media professionals but also bloggers have input. Mr. Umarov pointed out the importance of reaching out to civic journalists alongside professional columnists and political analysts, as "amateurs" initiate discussions and produce surveys which get a lot of feedback.
After his introductory remarks an exchange of views started in which our UN staff actively participated. A communications officer from one of the UN agencies said that at a recent meeting at its headquarters the issue was discussed in some depth, and the general feeling was the organization was not yet ready to engage in an online free-wheeling dialogue with Internet users. The idea emerged at that meeting to initiate, first, such an open dialogue on the agency's Intranet - as a pilot project.
Several participants tended to agree with their noting that the first step should be for a UN agency to start analyzing and monitoring social media with a focus on subjects central to its mandate. Only after that UN staffers should engage progressively in exchange of views with bloggers and other Internet-users.