Media Ecology – Social Media – the pros and cons and THE DEMO + THE TWITTER TIRADE

Facebook is one of the major players in the world of Social Media.  They have changed society and impacted hugely on how audiences and media creators interact and how news, views, information, entertainment is distributed.

However, as a hugely influential company, they have responsibilities to society too.

The founders of Facebook had the mission statement to…

‘Move Fast and Break Things’.

Now that the genie is out of the bottle, should they be saying

‘Move Fast and Fix Things’.

How does it fit within our study of Media Ecology?

Facebook and Instagram have recently made a decision to ‘hide’ likes from posts.

  • Do you think this is a good idea?
  • What was the original purpose of the ‘likes’?
  • How has it been abused and manipulated and by whom?
  • In your own personal experience, how do you view likes or ‘response’ emojis?
  • Do you feel a sense of obligation to ‘like’ photos?

With your partner, create 2 placards that you could carry in a march designed to tackle the issue of Facebook/social media in our online age.  One will be pro social media platforms and one should be anti-social media platforms.

You will have to present and explain your placard and slogan to the class. Be prepared to explain the slogan and the reasoning behind it. Having some facts and stats will help your cause.

Next week we will be taking these placards and finding case studies, evidence, proof, facts and stats to back up your ideas.  This will all be really evidence for your Media Ecology question in the exam.

An Interesting Aside

LESSON 2

Now that you completed your placards, decide on which one of you is going to be pro social media and which one is going to be con.

Using your placard as inspiration you must now as an individual do some research:

  • Find an interesting article, news story, feature, interview, piece of research that includes some facts, stats, case studies, news that could back up your placard’s slogan.  In the exam you will always be expected to provide evidence to illustrate your ideas so this is one way of gathering some up to date and contemporary research to use in the exam.
  • In 140 characters (the old maximum for any Tweet), summarise the message you want to get across using powerful and persuasive language. Use the group moodboard that will be shared with you.
  • Embed, link, attach the article to the document for reference.
  • Add in an image of your placard to create an eye catching tweet.
  • You will then be expected to read/present your tweet to the class and sum up the contents of the article – in particular, citing a useful stat, fact, figures, case study to back up your Tweet.
  • Extension – add in a GIF/MEME if appropriate.
  • You have a week to complete this as independent study.

Here are some articles to get you going:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/social-media-anxiety_n_1662224

Is Your Smartphone Making You Sick?

6 Positive Effects Social Media Sites Have on Society

7 Ways That Social Media is Affecting Us Positively

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180104-is-social-media-bad-for-you-the-evidence-and-the-unknowns

 

 

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