[Air-L] Where the term "social media" comes from?

[jeremy hunsinger]

the term social media has been around for ages, at least according to google scholar, which went back to 1997, then before that in theology/liturgy studies to quite far back....  Social media has something apparently to do with some Christian right in its early uses

the technological use of the term seems to have really taken off in 2004-5
according to 

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=social+media&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&btnG=Search+Archives

social software was coined by ross mayfield i think, though it may have been someone else.   one of the founders of the social software alliance that i was part of....  It came before social media by popularity for 2 years as per:

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=%22social+software%22&btnG=Search+Archives&scoring=a


personally, i tend not to buy into the 'who coined the term' and arguments of origination.  In this case... I don't think it is even that important.   


Jeremy Hunsinger
Political Science
Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
Virginia Tech


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