Media Trends
The two media trends that I chose to discuss are Influencer Marketing and the use of artificial intelligence. I would like to say these two types of media trends are extremely boosting in popularity. To start Influencer Marketing is on the rise and is already such a big concept. This trend allows brands and companies to share their business and products to target markets. These influencers include Youtubers, celebrities, Instagramers and on basically any social media account. This trend allows these influencers to share details and “usage” of the product and then their viewers are more likely to buy that product because someone they trust and follow is using it. I think the reason this trend started was to allow for a wider range of audiences and get more knowledge about the brand out. The next trend I chose to discuss is the use of AI aka Artificial Intelligence. This trend includes work with technology like Amazon Alexa, voice control, self driving cars and Siri. This trend is on the rise, with the use of technology evolving everyday day more and more things are becoming “hands-free” and “easier”. These trends are important to pay attention to because this is what the future is going to be. Teens and young kids are getting paid for posting youtube videos and more and more of your everyday things are becoming more advanced and technological.
Future in Social Media
With all this advancement in the technological world, there’s a lot in store for the future. Social media is going to run the world, yes this can be great with all these new advancements, but I truly believe privacy is going to be a very big issue. In the future everything is going to be run through social media, that saying we already have some shopping and videos but what next? If I’m being honest I can’t even predict what we would have, there are so many things that have changed with platforms that I would have never imagined. I don’t even know how people come up with all these new platforms and technologies and that’s the easy part, then they actually build it and that is even crazier to me. I may sound cliche when I say this but in the future, since we already have some self driving cars, I predict maybe even flying cars, but who knows, It’s hard to predict what will come. However, I believe in the future the use of social media will be even higher, it’s how people stay connected with friends and family and a way for users to share their feed. By the time millennials and Gen Z’s are the older generation social media will run the world and be used by almost all since this is something we have grown up with.
Fake News
Fake News! It’s everywhere and anywhere. Fake News is found practically everywhere, however where I seem to find it the most is on Facebook. Facebook seems to be spreading fake news like it is a job. Especially during campaign season and honestly ever since the 2016 election. Ever since I have seen fake news to the extreme. One particular time I remember reading “Fake News” was when I say a facebook post about a muslem who stood up in congress and a “Fake News” article went around that said “Every time a Moslem stands up in Congress and tells us they will change the Constitution, impeach our President, or vote for Socialism, remember (There’s a picture of the World Trade Towers) you said you would never forget. They said they would destroy us from within.” This piece of fake news is horrible not only is it incorrect, but it’s also extremely racist and immorally wrong. This type of Fake News is Fabricated Content. This is meant to hurt people and to mislead them. This information is so out of context and is to get political gain.
Pizzagate
The most shocking thing that I have learned about the Pizzagate conspiracy was that they thought James Alefantis was running a child trafficking ring out of their basement pizza shop. And that anything pizza related had to do with child abuse. And that Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama are involved. Like WHAT?? My favorite was that Jame Alefantis’ name sounded like “I like children” in french and that his parents just knew so they named him that on purpose. It is a huge responsibility for social media platforms to detect and stop the spread of fake news, they have to constantly be on the lookout and create site blockers and most importantly look out for hackers.
Deepfake
Before the module I really did not know much about the Deep Fake, but after reading the module, I have learned more and what I would like to share with friends and family is that you always have to do your follow up research with some of these videos or articles that you are reading. What I think the dangers of deep fake are that it can create a lot of hysteria and problems in society. It is misleading and that is what can affect if not all but many people. The challenge when it comes to tracking deep fake is that some of the things may seem real because it may look like someone is actually saying something but they are actually not. What makes it challenging is that there are not all the tools available to help track these deep fakes.
#HiAllNatural Challenge
We came up with this challenge because of the social issues within how you are supposed to look and wear and that if you don’t look a certain way then you are not considered “pretty”. We wanted to challenge this issue because it was completely wrong and messed up. Everyone is beautiful and you do not need makeup to be beautiful. We considered the factors for this challenge to be that first, will other people actually join in or will they be too shy or insecure to participate. The features that make a challenge on social media easy are first the easy sharing. Nowadays it is so easy to share thoughts and pictures and ideas to others using instagram stories, Twitter posts, etc.. Factors that stand in the way with running a successful social media challenge is will it spread. Is anyone going to participate or will it flop. At this point I would say our challenge may not have gotten a lot of recognition, however at this moment there is actually a challenge on Instagram that is very similar to ours. This challenge is the positivity challenge. One thing that I liked about this challenge is what the challenge stands for, that everyone is beautiful and you do not need make-up and other things to make you beautiful. One thing I did not like during the challenge is the selfie part. I am not one who likes to take selfies and therefore I was a little uncomfortable, however I did it to spread the word that everyone is beautiful.
Chinese Hacking Is Alarming. So Are Data Brokers.
By : Charlie Warzel
Chinese Hacking
In 2017, over 145 million Americans personal data had been stolen due to an Equifax breach. This attack was part of a Chinese Intelligence to target Americans by stealing and trading their personal information. Four members of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army were charged on that account. Taking the information without their consent is not the main problem. The main problem is that they then sold the information which is illegal. This is how the system was designed. The problem is then that Equifax tried to play it off as being a victim saying that it was a work of “a well-funded and sophisticated military”.
Equifax tried to play the victim card saying that it was not only an attack on the American people but also the US as a whole and that why would they do this to their own people and country. The people who are most affected by this are the people who were directly impacted, AKA the ones whose personal data had been stolen. A way to stop this from happening is for site blockers and warnings to people who come across certain sites and social media accounts. There is no justification for stealing and profiting off of people’s information, especially without consent.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/10/opinion/equifax-breach-china-hacking.html
Social Media and Political news
Political news is delivered in two main different ways, through mainstream media and social media. I had found that the biggest difference between the two is how on social media there is targeting. This targeting allows them to talk directly to their own audience. The only downside is you will not get the other views and information from the other source. Verified journalism is fact not fiction. You are able to backup your information and never share your own opinion. I believe that this type of journalism should have a place on social media because users need to know truth and not lies. Especially during election times, many lies come out to attack other candidates and it causes a large divide. Sharing these false reports creates hysteria and only makes things worse. Twitter has created live tweets to share breaking news and uses hashtags to spread the word to allow users to know what is happening. One social media platform that has started a similar type of concept is Instagram. Instagram had created Instagram LIve to share live videos of what is happening around them but also so users could connect with their audience. Here they allow their audience to ask questions and then they can respond.
Social media and Political Campaigns
It was just recently started that candidates have taken to social media for campaigns. One of the largest is Facebook, this is because Facebook is one of the largest used social media platforms. Also Facebook users are usually an older generation, rather than taking to platforms like Tik Tok or Instagram where users are generally at a younger age. President Donald Trump’s campaign was able to effectively utilize the platform with the spreading of “fake news”. This is known as hyperpartisan. This is allowing websites and Facebook pages to send misleading information to users. Now that many people are using these social media platforms are now thinking these false allegations are now true. This created many protests and even death. Many of these sites were being run by Russians and their intentions were only to make money. They said how people wanted to read about Trump and so they began creating ads on fake websites to draw people in, and it worked. They also created an anti-Trump ralley and also a Trump ralley in different states.
Facebook is considered a tech company because it is a platform that is helping to develop new ways to connect and can connect people throughout the world. However I consider it more as an editorial company because it is a place where people share their stories, pictures and connect with friends and family who they are not able to see daily. Facebook’s response to these red flags by different actors were hiring many people, many who are international and in safety and security and language barriers. They were slow in identifying these hat crimes and did not put into perspective the second languages in other countries. They also started an election team to monitor false news accounts and to block them. They should have owned up to their mistakes in the very beginning and work harder for fact checking and all this violence that was created could have been largely avoided.
https://www.pbs.org/video/the-facebook-dilemma-part-two-iev1xh/
How 8chan became the worst place on the Internet
8chan was a site where anyone can go on and say what they feel with no limitations while also keeping it anonymous. This site was created by Fredrick Brennan, a spin off of 4chan so that people could now make their own boards. For Fredrick, the online world was a new reality for him. He was able to do things there that he could not in the real world. Once he visited 4chan, reality stopped and 4chan was his place of existence. On this site you could say whatever you wanted to and no one could stop you. The site was racist and sexist and all together the things being said were horrible.
The ways in which our actions and behaviors impact what we do on the internet varies. If you like certain sports, you may follow some athletes and post about that. That saying, your actions are usually around your interest and things that make you happy and feel like you belong. As a media professional, this is important to me because what I do on the internet and what I post will impact other people. For anyone who follows my accounts will see what I am saying and that can directly impact them. Its important to know this link because what you do in person should reflect what you do on the online realm.
For 8chan, what helped this site thrive was allowing people to create their own boards so then they are directly allowed to post anything they want no matter the context. People were allowed to share what they might not be allowed to share in person to someone. And with that, they were able to then find a community of people with the same ideas and create groups and these groups then created physical rallies. For Fredrick, he said he had no idea that this site he created would end up where it was filled only with racist, sexist and prejudiced comments. When managing an online site you have to think of the effects and what problems can occur especially when its a site with open, anonymous comments, you have to think that it could lead to some type of trouble and that there will groups unfavored.
For me, the most surprising thing that I learned about this documentary is actually how dark this dark web actually is. These sites actually led to the El Paso shooting in Walmart and then for a shooting in a Mosque. It’s scary to see how something on the internet can push someone to go out and commit these horrible acts of terror. The biggest lesson I learned to always be mindful of our actions and comments as to they could lead to negative affects and how your actions can affect anyone.
Ever wondered how facebook came to be? How is this social media site as widely known a used around the globe and who are the faces behind the creation? Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg designed an online program called “Facemash”, where students could compare faces in photos and see which one was the `hottest”. However, Zuckerberg had actually gotten in some trouble and then the framework for Facebook had then been created. February 4th of 2004 in a dorm room at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts, Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes launched Facebook. Their idea was to connect Harvard students through an online community. But only six days later they were confronted by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra saying they stole their idea. Originally the site was just for Harvard students, but soon after it was spread to students at other Ivy league Universities. Now the site is a world wide platform and used by millions everyday.
Evolution of Facebook
Originally the site was just for Harvard students, but soon after it was spread to students at other Ivy league Universities. Then in October of 2005, FB went global and in just 2 months the site launched photo sharing and tagging. September of 2006 the site allowed anyone to sign in using email and in that exact same month they launched newsfeed. That created a huge impact from 6 million users to 12 million in about three months. About a year later in November of 2007, Facebook ads and and pages came in the picture. And less than a year later, in July of 2008 the game changed with the production of the Facebook app and one month after that launch, Facebook hit their 100 million user. With that, FB had to think of new things to grab people to use their site and so roughly five years after the startup of the site, Facebook created the “Like” option. With the rising popularity of social media and having a new competition, Facebook buys Instagram for approximately 1 billion dollars. It wasn’t until 2012 that Facebook hit its 1 Billion user and 2 years after that Facebook joins forces with “Whatsapp”, a messaging site to help connect and allow people to communicate around the globe. In March, they decided to buyout Oculus Vr, Zuckerberg said he was thinking of the future and how mobile phones are the future and Oculus is a way to change how we see it. After the disastrous earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Facebook launched “Safety Check”, a way for people to check in on relatives when disasters strike. It was only four years ago in February of 2016 that reactions were added to Facebook and allowed users to show emotion other than the simple “Like”. In that same year, Marketplace was launched and now users were able to buy and sell products. Just 13 years after the first launched, Facebook hit 2 billion users. Now the site is a world wide platform and used by millions everyday to communicate with relatives around the world and friends and family who you just don’t see as much.
https://thinkmarketingmagazine.com/facebook-celebrates-14-years-of-milestones-a-timeline/
Social Media to Create a Social Impact
I have recently watched a Ted Talk on Amonge Sinxoto, a 17 year old Activist from South Africa. Sinxoto’s purpose is to give a voice for the African youth to acknowledge their frustrations in a non judgmental environment. At such a young age she was able to take a stand in world issues and give people a voice. How you ask? By using Instagram and social media. She told us her secrets on how to use social media to impact society in four steps. The first is to invest in a cause, that can either be creating your own, joining a pre existing one or by simply doing your research on social issues. Her next step is to find them, by them she means the people who are passionate about the issue(s). This step is is not a solo project, it takes a group effort. This step also includes finding a way to make the rest of the world care about the issue and with social media it made this step a lot easier. For her third step, Sinxoto says you have to prepare and populate a remedy. This step is important because if you never had an implementation for a solution then this whole process would be meaningless and there would really be no point to even starting an awareness for a certain cause.
I have noticed how a similar story to Amonge’s while reading Social Media Transformed Teens’ Ability to Build Activist Movements Online. This article shows the depths and hardships Rayne Fisher-Quann had faced while protesting issues in school and social issues. Rayne had conducted her own schools walkout by using social media. Here she caught the attention of students from over 100 schools with the use of Instagram. Her protest followed the work and steps that Amonge discussed in her Ted Talk. Rayne had used just about the same steps in her activism including step one, finding a topic. Here she looks for issues that affect her and the people around her. Then she talked on looking for her audience and how to catch their attention and why the issue affects them too. One was a school’s walkout after the 2018 Parkland shooting in Florida. Finally there was consistently with the post on social media. Rayne used Snapchat and Instagram and post the details of the protest and walks on there just as Amonge talked about as her final landmark in using social media to create a social change.
Both Rayne and Amonge have put time, effort and resources into their social movements. Each have represented and showed how anyone can help make a change no matter your age, race, or any other factor. With the simple use of social media these teenagers are able to make a huge impact in the world. Amonge and Rayne had used Instagram to to get the attention of youths globally for a social impact.
Social Issues
Due to the use of social media I have found myself more involved in social problems. Social issues that I care about are all on the basis of Human Rights. This is because everyone deserves the rights and to not be treated differently due to race, religion or sex. In order for myself to spread these social issues on social media I would have to use number four of Amonge’s pillar system which is to be consistent. This includes resharing and posting on stories including but not limited to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and any other site that has viewers. I would also have to dedicate time throughout my day to share my thoughts and opinions on the topic and maybe even create creative posts on photo editing apps to grab people’s attention. To continue to share the issue amongst social media will bring awareness and help spread the idea through many and help people gain the knowledge on the topic and with that it can eventually lead to a solution.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/social-media-activism-changed-everything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G3OqmGhLgc
Social Sharing
Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest are all some ways of my contribution of using social media. Using these platforms are a huge way to help spread awareness and knowledge of events and incidents that are taking place around the globe. For instance, the big thing being spread around Instagram at this time are the Australian brush fires. Many pages are helping out by donating for every like, follow or story post that is being made. Another platform known for sharing social issues is Twitter, the amount of times I will see the message, “please share for Ellen, she needs to see this” or “please sure for more prayers”. These messages are all part of spreading social issues and personal.
Social Media Changes
My participation on social media does vary when there are new changes to an app. Like when I first downloaded Snapchat in middle school, I found myself on the app constantly, always snapping my friends and watching stories. Now with these new changes like having AD’s and no longer being able to see users’ friends list, I surprisingly started using it less and less. Instagram then got stories and as did Facebook, but also the app became more annoying and time consuming but that could just be because my friends on there just post too much on their stories. The cultural rules and norms of an app used to be all over the place and each app used to be different. Now, I feel as if many apps are pushing to have similar concepts. Twitter stands out to me though because when Instagram and Facebook both got stories, Twitter did not add that concept. Thank God! If you follow the same person on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, they post the same story on each platform. Okay we get it you are on vacation or have a cat or dog! I have also found that Facebook can go from very sweet and cute videos of animals to politics real fast and same for Twitter. But for Instagram and Snapchat, probably because of a young audience, you steer clear from politics.
The Art of Design
I have recently watched the documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design, Ian Spalter episode on Netflix and this amazing special had me look deeper into my app usage and whole perception of Instagram. My whole perception for the app had changed, before I never had thought so much into the app changes and designs. But while watching memories were brought back from the day I looked down on my phone and could not find IG and then came to the realization the face of IG has been changed. I remember hating it at first and how it blew up everywhere, but I still made a post and was on it almost four hours a day. As time went on more and more features got added and the more and more this new change had grown on me. From the episode I had learned about the concept of the np bottom scroll and to me that is crazy, I have never thought of it as a negative concept for the app creators until it talked about. This scroll has no end which means there is no saying on how long a person is on the app from and people only scroll until they find what they are looking for. One of my favorite features is the business feature, here you get to add a title to your bio and and get to view your insights and and build your profile. I find that having my account on business opens up new opportunities for me, I get other businesses and sites asking to be sponsors and to try new products and places. I find myself wanting to try new things and travel more. All these new designs and features really do affect the day to day usage of the app but in the end, they only make me want to use the app more.
Jenkins, H., Mizuko, I., boyd, d. (2016). Participatory Culture in a Networked Era. Polity Press.
“The Art of Design.” Abstract, season 2, episode 5, Sep, 2019. Netflix.com
Social Media Today
“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention”, H. Simon stated, this quote is applied to today’s social media in that when people hear something from the media they usually believe it to be true. Rather than really doing research and digging to find if the information is true, they believe it is. However, there are ways in which this statement is false, especially in politics these days. Right now there is a huge divide in politics and each side does not like to believe what the other is saying about their representatives. However, the statement can be true to today because they still believe everything their side is saying.
Types of Social Media
I find myself mostly on snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Each of these social media platforms are unique in their own way, for instance, I find myself using Snapchat for talking to friends and watching stories. While on Instagram I find myself posting photos and diving deeper into the lives of people I have lost touch with. While on Facebook I find myself on there for hours watching videos.
Fragmented Media Users
Today’s media users are fragmented according to Webster, that saying there are many different sections and types of media users/ creators. For instance, there are some media users who are producers and like to post and share things about their daily life and personal interest. While other media users like to watch media and take from what information is being presented to them. And finally there are many media users who like to do both, produce and watch, each give the media user a sense of speciality and allow them to share their thoughts and take from what is being given.
Webster, J. (2014). The Marketplace of Attention: How Audiences Take Shape in a Digital Age. MIT Press.
Fast Fashion 