October 26th – November 1st
Identify the risks and benefits of engaging with a public audience in a media space – what are the risks for a public figure or person in a position of trust (educator, lawyer, government official)?
There are many risks and benefits of engaging with a public audience in a media space, and with the world around us today it seems as though it has become exponentially more popular to be doing so. The benefits of engaging with a public audience within a media space include the ability to connect with others globally, sharing information, networking with others, and creating an identity for yourself through your engagement with the media of choice. Alongside many of the benefits that engagement with a public audience brings, there are numerous risks that should be strongly considered. I am somebody that chooses to keep most of my social media platforms private, and I do so for my safety. I do not want a large, unknown audience to the things I choose to share on social media. It scares me that strangers could potentially find out where you live or where you are at a specific time. I think that the conversation with Sophi Lui where she was discussing how phonebooks worked back in the day was very interesting (2020). Somebody would not be interacting with a public audience in a media space during those times. Another risk is that now, information about somebody can be found much quicker and very efficiently. As a person that is in a position of trust (such as an educator, lawyer, or government official) there are more risks that are different from a common citizen. This is because interacting with civilians as a person in a position of trust is oftentimes a large part of their profession. When these people have engagement with public audiences, their conversations are evaluated differently due to their line of work. Their mannerisms and viewpoints are considered differently than others, and often their reputation can suffer consequences as a result.
Further your thoughts by exploring how employers use social media policy to hire, terminate or suspend individuals who use social media inappropriately or contrary to employer expectations – how would you address negative replies and critiques reflective of your personal values and employer social media policy? Can you provide notable examples?
How do notable individuals use social media?
I feel that notable individuals (people that are in a position of trust or have a certain status) often use social media as a way of sharing their personal life with their followers. They are able to advocate for issues they feel need attention. Sharing their life with followers builds the followers trust in them, and oftentimes this trust is used to then promote products or services.W hen a well-known person shares anything, personal content, work-related, or product-related, third party groups will often manipulate the information one puts out to create a marketable headline (Hirst, 2019). This makes sense as many prominent figures have publicists that censor what is posted to social media. Those that subject themselves to the public audience of a large size should consider that their information will be used differently by different people. For example, as a woman, Sophie Lui has faced lots of criticism and received very negative feedback at times. This is as a result of her being in a position of trust and broadcasting information (the news) to a very wide public audience. Her comments have made me think that potentially women need to decide what they are comfortable with and be mindful that people will always have an opinion.
What are the benefits of being in the public eye and having a PLN? (career development in the public eye)
There are many benefits of being in the public eye and having a PLN that can help with career development. Sophie and Jesse discuss what social media means to her in terms of career development and use of social media in her personal life as well. Sophie comments that she uses Twitter to connect with people and engage with their comments more frequently than she would instagram. Using a PLN can be beneficial to career development, a site that this is prominent on is LinkedIn. I found a co-op position through the job search function on LinkedIn. The job was a drastic learning experience in my life, and because of the PLN I created on LinkedIn, I was able to have this. Having the public eye helps you stay relevant, connect with others, and have discussions about potential jobs.
Building a community with online tools provided by the employer can be limiting, what are the perceived restrictions and benefits of having social media directly associated with employment? (verified accounts because of employment, accounts that are professional versus personal, hybrid accounts)
I think that Daniel Ku provides a very informative article on social media policy examples and what they mean from an employers perspective (2020). The perceived benefits of having a social media that is directly associated with employment is that it enables you to engage with people that are interested in you, and your line of work. This creates great opportunities for networking and sharing information with others. The limitations of using online tools provided by employers are the severity of mistakes, the “rules,” and the significant negative impact that opinions can have. An example of a limitation comes from Intel’s social media policy: “There is no room for bigotry, prejudice, misogyny, or hatred in our company or on our associated social media feeds.” (Ku, 2020). This statement infers that misusing social media through prejudice, misogyny, hatred, etc. could result in a loss of privilege or termination. Your actions are your responsibility, although they may affect many more people that one realizes. Using social media as a tool provided by an employer requires a lot of consideration and responsibility as it reflects both your character, and the business.
Delivering information in a connected society requires verifiable resources, how does one build a PLN that can be consistently relied on?
I have been feeling very conflicted by the information that is shared online, I am quick to trust and oftentimes I do not try to find a resource to further my learning on the things I read. Humans by nature are trusting, hence why we believe what we see so to speak. This is changing, as described by Hirst (2019) as a crisis of declining trust factor. I feel that when building a PLN and delivering information using social media, it is important to provide references and credit where it is due. This also enables people to make sure the information you are sharing is accurate, and when they find it is, they start to trust you. As you continue to prove yourself as a reliable, valuable source of information, you develop a trusting relationship with your PLN. You trust your audience to read your posts and consider what you are saying when your opinion is involved. They trust you to provide accurate information and respectful opinions on matters where it is appropriate. This trusting relationship is how one can build a PLN that is consistently relied upon.
How do those, who are veteran storytellers, minimize risk in sharing misinformation?
Those who are veteran story tellers can at times stretch reality to better fit with their story. An example of this is movies that are telling a true story. While the storyline is the same, the people, surroundings, conversations, and even facial expressions, are fabricated. People that are veteran story tellers most liekly change the story from time to time to make it feel more interesting, engaging, or shocking. Minimizing the risk in sharing misinformation is important for these people as it can be detrimental. I feel that ensuring stories are based on fact when recounting a situation is important, and decreases the likelihood that things will be altered. An additional strategy is having somebody present who witnessed what happened, so they are able to correct any misinformation or fill any gaps in the story.
References
EDCI 338 (2020, Oct 21). A01 Lui, Sophie [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T4jOdKd12I&feature=youtu.be
Hirst, M. (2019). The Political Economy of Fake News. In Navigating social journalism: A handbook for media literacy and citizen journalism (pp. 78-100). New York, NY: Routledge.
Ku, D. (2020, October 26). 5 Terrific Examples of Company Social Media Policies for Employees. Retrieved November 03, 2020, from https://www.postbeyond.com/blog/5-terrific-examples-of-company-social-media-policies-for-employees/
Hello Leah! I learned a lot in your post. One of the things I learned from your post is that alongside the benefits of using social media are its numerous risks. In line with this, I totally agree with the idea that if social media users wanted to keep their privacy, they should make it a point to know who their audiences are. This is because if they have no idea about the people following them, then the information that they are sharing, particularly the personal ones, are compromised. When I first used social media, I would approve requests from random people and strangers because I wanted to show my friends that I have a lot of followers. However, now that I learned about the risks of following strangers online, I deleted the people I do not personally know.
Hi, Leah
Thanks for sharing. Nowadays, I believe that many people are using social platforms, such as the blog we are using now, we can post any messages on this communication platform at will, and we can also share our geographic location. Just like the example, you shared in your blog, we usually share our photos and locations on trusted apps, which creates space for some people who have bad intentions. Sometimes the information shared online is really easy to make people feel contradictory because once shared, it will be exposed. So when we use the trust relationship established by PLN, we can use the media with confidence.
Mike