1 Paige Cunningham LIS 490 SMG Final Reflection Paper 5/1/13 Social Media in a Peaceful Transition Sometimes its

not the phenomena that lead to conflict that are interesting, but the phenomena that dont cause much conflict. This can even be true in a class on the relationship between social media and global change. Despite a common assumption that when it comes to political change social media is most relevant to addressing the rise and fall of conflicts, I decided to take this opportunity to look at how an essentially peaceful and controversy-free transition of power could play out and be covered and promoted in this era of constant professional and social media. On April 30, 2013, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands officially abdicated in favor of her son, Willem-Alexander and his wife Mxima. While on the face of it this event might not seem entirely relevant to a class on Social Media and Global Change, many factors surrounding this event were closely linked to concepts we discussed in class, heard about from our guest speakers, or read about in readings. This is particularly true in the case of our readings and discussion about copyright, dissidence (or the lack thereof), censorship (or the lack thereof), and the role of YouTube in creating discussion and communities and sharing news and information. This abdication and inauguration was one of the first truly globally accessible royal accessions in history. The event had, of course, received coverage in the worlds media in the form of newspapers and quick news blurbs, much as used to happen in newspapers and either news-reels or TV news spots. Following in the footsteps of the British Royal Wedding in 2011, however, the events of the inauguration were also live-streamed on YouTube, with coverage lasting for approximately 14 hours. While the royal wedding was heavily covered on American channels for much of the day of April 29, 2011, there was relatively sparse coverage of the inauguration. The Dutch media outlet NOS had the contract for the days events, apparently running their coverage all day on their primary television channel. The YouTube feed ran on NOSs Koninghuis (or royal news) channel, joining close to 200 archived short documentary video segments. The oldest of these segments was only posted a month ago, so it appears that this channel may have been created in anticipation of the media coverage of the abdication and inauguration. The channel currently has 3,541 subscribers and 75,597 total views. It appears that the statistics for the inauguration live stream do not count towards the channels viewing statistics. On the day of the abdication and inauguration the coverage began before 10 am. Events covered on the 14 hour continuous live television broadcast included the signing of the instrument of abdication, the balcony appearance of the former and current monarchs (and the current monarchs consort and children), the inauguration ceremony itself, the Samen voor Oranje (Together for Orange) concert and Kings Song to celebrate the inauguration, the evening water pageant, the final Andre Rieu concert, and a lot of talking heads from commentators between the various events. This same coverage was streamed live on YouTube, making it accessible around the world (perhaps partially to broadcast it to Dutch territories in the Caribbean). All broadcasts were in Dutch with no obvious way to find subtitles in other languages, but many of the events were easily understandable and enjoyable despite the language

2 barrier. The estimated number of people physically in the square next to the royal palace and the church where the inauguration took place was around 25,000. In contrast, the final count for viewers of at least part of the full live stream was 316,690, with another 4,038 viewers watching the dedicated stream for the Samen voor Oranje concert. While the NOS Koninghuis news channel on YouTube belongs to a Dutch news agency, the Dutch Monarchy also has its own YouTube channel, called Het Koninklijk Huis, which translates simply to The Royal House. The channel has uploaded a total of 247 videos since it was created 3 years ago, and has 4,699 subscribers and 3,847,921 video views. The available videos on this site include a mixture of current events and archival material, such as weddings of members of the royal family, royal addresses, state visits, and funeral proceedings for deceased former Dutch monarchs and consorts. One common element with the Dutch royal channels videos is that all have the YouTube commenting feature disabled. This same trend appears on other major output channels such as the British monarchys The Royal Channel. Major governmental institutions seem to prefer to use sites such as YouTube as a place to put their message out without giving their audience an opportunity to respond directly. This may be an attempt to control that message, but it may also be an attempt to try to eliminate thread hijacking or defamation. Despite the lack of the ability of individuals to respond directly to the videos or events by commenting on the videos themselves, however, individuals who want to express a message can simply create their own YouTube videos and upload them with whatever they want to say. These videos will appear when searching for the same keywords as the official videos, and may often show up in the suggested related videos list when watching an official video. This allows for a level of interactivity and egalitarianism that might, on first glance, seem to be missing. However, through its suggested videos and ability for anyone to upload, YouTube does have ways of leveling the playing field away from just the official media channels. As has become somewhat of the norm in social media, once the official NOS Koningshuis inauguration broadcast was complete and the live feed disappeared, clips of the coverage quickly showed back up on YouTube, posted by individual users. KOS does not appear to have yet put up any dedicated footage on their YouTube channel for people who missed the broadcast to watch. However, if there seems to be enough interest they perhaps they may do so, as the British Royal Channel did with the footage of the royal wedding itself, even though much of the surrounding BBC coverage and commentary was not returned to YouTube in archived form. As we discussed in class during our week with Olena Zhylinkova, digital copyright has become a major issue in the digital age of social media. Since the official YouTube version of the event is gone, other users have chosen to fill in the gap by uploading technically pirated material (which often includes statements that explicitly state that the uploaders dont own the copyright) that will then be viewed in place of the legal versions. The best way for the original copyright owners to reclaim their copyright may not be to go after the violators legally, but to return their official versions to YouTube so that people can watch the original materials, since if they are willing to watch often poor quality copies of the pirated material their interest is clearly strong enough to warrant the original materials being available. Upon doing a subject search in YouTube on the evening of May 1, 2013 for the Dutch phrase Inhuldiging koning Willem-Alexander (Inauguration King Willem-Alexander), the title used by NOS Koninghuis for their live stream, YouTube returned About 1,170 results. Some of these videos were likely actually taken by people who had actually travelled to watch the ceremonies in person, but the vast majority is reposting of material initially broadcast on

3 television or streamed online. Not all of the results are from the past few days, in fact, with the upload date filter for This Week enabled, the results drop to About 501 results. Either way, this is an enormous number of videos made available by individuals, which indicates that there is considerable interest in the Dutch royal family within the Dutch-speaking community. The results from searching for the English-language phrase Inauguration WillemAlexander were also interesting, returning 134 results for the past week. An additional 75 results for this week emerged from searching for Coronation Willem-Alexander, which is not the correct word for the Dutch ceremony, but is likely one that is far more familiar to English speakers who are acquainted with the actual coronation ceremony undertaken by the Englishspeaking British monarchs. Clearly there is interest in the change in the Dutch monarchy from outside of the Netherlands, an interest that I personally can attest to as I watched chunks of the live feed around working on a project and attending class and I have watched some of the other Dutch and English-language videos. The bulk of all of these videos have at least several hundred views and a few have tens of thousands. This kind of event essentially creates a community in social media sites such as YouTube, even when the official channels only send out their signal one way. Most individual users do allow commentary on their videos and the one with the most views (63,153 since it was posted on April 30), which is simply 4 minutes of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Mxima processing outdoors and in to the installation ceremony, has received 217 positive votes, no negative votes, and 152 comments. It is in reading these comments that things get interesting. Many of the comments are in Dutch, but one English-language exchange demonstrates a difference of opinion that is characteristic of potential unrest. One comment from a selfprofessed American denigrates the monarch and claims Dutch people are leaving the Netherlands to avoid royal repression. The only response to that comment comes from a person who is implied to be Dutch, saying that The majority of Dutch people are in favour of a Monarchy, Obviously you're American. You have no value or respect for traditions. But hey what about googling exact info about the power they hold before posting BS here? The power they have is very limited (posted on http://youtu.be/qssnjRI099A by hartnick). It is precisely this kind of reaction that I believe is what makes the general response to this event so generally positive. From our readings and discussions it has been made clear that much of what causes political mobilization online is dissidence against authoritarian or otherwise repressive regimes. During Sarah Kendziors week we talked about how countries such as Uzbekistan control internet access in order to protect national values. The outcome of this type of action tends to be a strong rebellion against those restrictions. This is in direct contrast to the type of relationship the Dutch monarch has with his or her people. The Dutch monarchy is now almost purely symbolic and the power is vested in the parliament, which is relatively well respected in the Netherlands. In many ways it is because the monarch holds a symbolic role he or she is held as separate from the working government itself, allowing for a freedom of enjoyment and lack of resentment that can often build when the head of the nation also has governing powers. In many ways, the Netherlands has no need for a significant technologically-mediated uprising. In contrast, the digital broadcasting of the events of this past week are a form of transparency that can help to further connect the monarch and his or her people. I may come across as somewhat of a monarchical-apologist, but I dont see this kind of live streaming of spectacle as merely a Roman circus, providing entertainment to distract the Roman citizens from their starvation and misery. Nor is it the kind of pageant put on by countries such as North Korea, where massive displays are put on to show both the North Koreans and

4 the World North Koreas might and mighty forces. Instead, by putting this kind of performance on for the Dutch people and the world, the Dutch monarchy is celebrating its traditions and putting on a show to connect with the their people. After all, hundreds of thousands of people wouldnt have tuned into the live broadcast if they werent interested, and so why not give them what they want? People tend to enjoy pomp and pageantry, and if putting on that kind of show for people comes in concert with the commemoration of a peaceful transfer of power, one which can be broadcast to the world, then in this digital age it seems only logical to do so.