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Summer Nights: Series 2

Summer Nights: Series 2: Episode 1: Social media - does the retweet empower us?

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Episode 1

Episode 1: Social media - does the retweet empower us?

Series 2

Social media - does the retweet empower us?

BBC Radio 4 - Summer Nights, Series 2, Social media - does the retweet empower us?

Jane Garvey asks if we are better informed, but more powerless in the age of social media?

Jane Garvey discusses the power of retweets, updates and other social media. We are better connected, but are we engaging any better with each other?

Social media has connected us to each other throughout the day in ways that we could not have previously imagined. Now our smartphones don't just ring in our ears, they buzz with a constant feed of words and images. Through a stream of tweets, retweets, updates and selfies, we think of ourselves as more emotionally, socially and politically engaged than ever - but are we?
In a week where graphic images from the site of a plane shot down in Ukraine and the casualties in Gaza have been shared in cyberspace, without inhibition - are we now learning that just because we can do something, that it doesn't mean we should? Can we dispense graphic and horrific images without facts, filtering or empathy? And what does it do to us when we do?

Presenter: Jane Garvey
Series Producer: Ruth Watts
Producer: Jane Thurlow
Interviewed guest: Alex Massie
Interviewed guest: Felicity Morse
Interviewed guest: Eamonn O'Neill
Interviewed guest: Alison Phipps.

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Episode 1: Social media - does the retweet empower us?

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