The time may be right to move from using the term “social media” to just “media.”

It’s clear that the integration of social media tools with conventional media is occuring with lightening speed. Steve Rubell recently spoke to this point on a 2/2/09 post on Micro Persuasion. He makes a good case that all media is social and all social is media. A report from the Bivings Group clearly shows that 58% of Newspapers in the study are using some form of user-generated content on their Websites. Steve also makes the point that social networking sites are being used to distribute news.

The lines are blurring so that clearly defining “social media” will become more difficult. Ian Orekondy has a great post today on the fusion of traditional media, social media  and search in today’s campaigns. While his example Pampers Potty Dance is pretty crazy, his analysis is dead-on.