Every day, the editorial staff at the UKrant wonders: What are we writing about, why are we writing about it, and how are we writing about it? ‘At UKrant’, an irregular column, we take a look behind the scenes.
Social media is under fire: secret algorithms, espionage by or for foreign powers, political interference, the all-powerful Big Tech. They’re all relevant discussions, but especially young people rely on social media as their (most) important source of information.
The US elections? They learn about it from an Instastory. News about the war in Ukraine? From a TikTok video from the trenches. The Oscars? Can be followed live on Facebook.
Twitter (now X) was the first social-media platform that UKrant joined, back in July of 2009. We joined Facebook three and a half years later in December 2013, and Instagram in February 2015.
News about the war in Ukraine? From a TikTok video from the trenches
Back then, social media was mainly used as a billboard, an advertisement for the ‘real’ work. The ‘real’ work was the website, and social media was used to ‘generate traffic’, in fancy terms. In less fancy terms, it was meant to generate clicks.
But social media no longer works like that. Each platform has become a channel on its own, with a unique dynamic, tone of voice, selection, and most all, its own audience.
This digital landscape is constantly changing, though. While ten years ago, you were deemed an idiot for not having a Facebook account, people now think you’re slightly pathetic if you do still have one. Twitter used to be a flashy medium that could be used to spread news or start a discussion; these days, it’s considered to be populated by the dregs of society.
In the editor’ office, we once again had a discussion of all the pros and cons of social media: what is UKrant’s goal, what will we not do, and what will we say goodbye to?
Ten years ago, you were an idiot if you didn’t have Facebook
The UG, other universities, and media outlets have all quit X. While we’re obviously aware of the debate surrounding X and its owner, Elon Musk, but in spite of the political sentiments, we’ve decided to stay for now. Time and again, it’s been shown that X is important when it comes to academic matters such as strikes, budget cuts, collective agreement negotiations, or the discussion on who does and who doesn’t get to wear a toga.
We’ll be leaving Facebook, as UKrant has become practically irrelevant there.
We will continue our presence over at Bluesky (an X alternative that is slowly gaining ground), while saying goodbye to Mastodon, which has become too fragmented. We won’t be bothering with Threads, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta alternative for X, Blueskey, and Mastodon, but UKrant will soon be joining TikTok. We still have some organisational hurdles to clear before we do that. More information to come.
We’ll be expanding our presence on Instagram. Insta has always been our first point of contact with our younger target audience in particular; our motto is ‘Insta first’, posting Instastories and Reels (short videos) whenever something happens involving the uni.
Finally, there’s LinkedIn, making a comeback, it seems. It’s the best social media platform by far to reach a more professional target audience: the UG’s academic staff. UKrant’s account was mostly inactive, but we’ve renewed it and are ready to post.
Rob Siebelink is editor-in-chief of UKrant