Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 08/2014

The Challenge of Social Media in Security Policy Institutions: A Note of Caution

Mario Masdea

June 2012

NATO Defense College

Abstract

"New Media," "social media," "followers," and "likers" are words which in recent years have entered the mainstream of communication parlance. Communicators, researchers and academics enthusiastically underline the power of new and social media, as well as the major opportunity they offer to communicate better and reach a wider audience. Institutions everywhere are involved in the trendy use of these tools, in some cases not so much focusing on the specificities of their field of business as simply spreading information and trying to reach as many people as possible.