Like countless others, I watched at least some of the webcast on YouTube of the U2 concert at the Rose Bowl. It made me think of the only time I have seen U2 play live, more than 20 years ago at the Milton Keynes Bowl in Britain.
Back then, to reach a global audience of millions would have required the collaboration of national TV networks. Today, all you need is YouTube.
But it was still a one-to-many broadcast. The significance of the U2 webcast was less the webcast itself, but the integration of Twitter into the YouTube page.
This added a real-time, social dimension to the concert, enabling thousands of fans to participate in a shared experience.
Essentially, Twitter helped created a virtual, networked community around an event, in this case the U2 concert. One way of thinking about this is social capital theory.
Social capital is a broad term that is open to multiple interpretations, but it can be defined as norms and networks facilitating collective actions for mutual benefits.
These networks, norms and social trust allow for coordination and cooperation in society. In the social capital model, a person’s involvement in organizations builds trust with others in the community.
Robert Putnam took this a step further, arguing that the internet is a new mechanism of bridging and bonding in society. Whereas older models of community relied on face-to-face communication,the internet allows for the creation of a virtual community where people interact without ever seeing each other.
As I watched U2 on one screen, and participated in the discussion on Twitter, it occurred to me that this is what was happening. People were creating social capital by coming together via Twitter.
It left me questioning how to measure the value created by connecting people around specific events like this. This is a question that applies directly to journalism, as media organisations seek to connect with audiences online.
And, for some, the question will be how to convert this social capital into a return on capital.
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