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Is Social Media the New Courtroom?

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DQI Bureau
New Update

It all starts with a post and ends with a massive outrage. Today, social media is turning into a strong platform to express views and opinions. Take for instance, the recent case of former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman journalist, or the alleged sexual harassment of intern by a Supreme Court judge, social media played a vital role in ballooning these into hot topics.

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The outrage over the Tehelka case started with a post on pastebin, an anonymous document sharing site. According to media reports, it contained the e-mail former managing editor of Tehelka Shoma Chaudhury had sent to the Tehelka staff with editor Tarun Tejpal's atonement letter and few hours later, the story spread like wildfire.

Empowering Voices

From Twitter to Facebook, and blogs to pastebin, the internet's reach is allowing many to share small stories of abuse and they are been transformed into big stories, triggering questions such as-Is social media the new courtroom?

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According to Sanjay Sethi, CEO and Co-Founder, ShopClues: "While most other forms of media distribute messages to a passive audience, social media has given a voice to every user that translates onto a powerful voice for the community."

"Undoubtedly, social media is a game-changer-whether it's the courtroom or the business of retail. What makes it so unique is that it is as much a mass-media as it is a personalized marketing tool," he added.

Even though social media is turning into a major platform to express views and opinions, it will take time to show its real prowess. "Social media at present is acting as proxy courtrooms but this is the fastest and in current scenario, the best means to spread awareness.

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Gradually, as the society becomes more matured in handling social media all cons what we see today will go away. In today's societal situation, social media is aptly stirring the society and societal biases. We will see real-time results in the next one to two decades," said Rajesh Tripathi, Vice President and Head-HR, GHCL.

The Grey Areas

But at the same time it has its own grey areas. It is a type of media and media should be free, but there should be some self-regulations as most of the times their likes or dislikes can be purchased.

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"Social media is becoming too commercial. Our past experience says that most of the likes and dislikes are purchased and there is a sponsored channel for this. And as far as courtrooms are considered, we have our honorable courts for that they should decide we should not. We become proactive due to our enthusiam and sentiments, the verdict should be pronounced by the courts only...we should only give suggestions," said Rajesh Chharia, President, ISPAI.

There is no doubt that social networking sites have impacted lives like they have never done before. The prevalence of smartphones and increased use of texting has demonstrated the ability to change opinions and create pockets of significant influence in society.

Visions have been reshaped and communication channels have exploded in a magnitude that one could never have dreamt of just 10 years ago. It appears that the entire community is interacting with each other all over the world. Social media has endowed ordinary citizens with the ability to becoming key players in high profile cases. Whether it is on the road to becoming a courtroom is still a highly debatable issue.

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What is incontrovertible is that social media has changed the perspective, said Sanjay Kapoor, Director and CEO, Iris Corporate Solutions Private, a talent management company.

Meanwhile, social media tools have made every individual a reviewer and he/she can recommend brands at the click of a button. When social sharing is so easy and Internet research informs so many purchasing decisions, more and more people are ignoring broadcast messaging and relying on feedback from friends and other external sources. And as people begin to spend larger chunks of time online, frequently indulging in social exchange-that's where marketers too should be heading.

What started by being a two-way engagement tool, rapidly evolved into a popular ORM mechanism, and going forward, will now be used for social behavior-based targeting by marketers. The year 2014 will see the industry flooded with data-mining tool and apps that will track social behavior to enable targeted marketing as well as for picking up trends that will guide marketers, Sethi said.

But one thing is certain that this social media wave is providing a big comfort and gives us a feeling that we are not isolated. Whether courtroom or not but it's a platform where we share our pain, views, etc on an everyday basis.

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