This video is a the final project for this course where my group and I discussed Instagram and LinkedIn in relation to PLN building in a professional context.
Month: March 2023
-Reflect on your experience in this course, your development of PLN, your use of social media platforms and networked publics, any changes in your perspective of social media use in professional and private settings. –
Through this course, I have gained invaluable knowledge about how social media platforms can be utilized to build digital identity and PLNs to facilitate professional and personal connections. I discovered how to successfully create my digital identity in public networks through presenting myself as a product of my interests and actively interacting with others online. This is a continual process of constructing my PLN to aid in professional opportunities, rather than a way to connect personally. It is clear that in the current environment of technological advancement, professionals must utilize networks in positive, communication-based ways. This ability has the potential to create a global community of like-minded people and sustain professional development. I have learned that social media use also requires a critical analysis of the information available and use policies to reap the many benefits. I have also come to understand that social media presents challenges and pitfalls to self-disclosure, meaningful communication, and security. As a result, it is increasingly important to build a PLN of trusted professionals and personal contacts. As a whole, this course increased my awareness of how social media can be utilized across settings to become an integral tool for learning.
Can your PLN be relied upon to open professional opportunities? Can your PLN be used to help professional development post-course?
As of right now, my PLN cannot be relied upon to open professional opportunities, and this is something I must actively work on. I think there are two main reasons for this, one of which being the lack of effort I had previously put into building a professional PLN. I have built my digital identity and PLN around who I am as a person, my friends, and interests outside of education. This allows my PLN to successfully foster interpersonal relationships, but does not facilitate professional opportunities. As many of my friends are still currently in school, or not in school at all I have very few connections to others in my field. However, in the next few years as my personal contacts graduate and embark upon professional careers, the number of opportunities will increase. For example, I have many friends who are about to graduate and become teachers, thereby creating a bi-directional professional relationship. As I will soon graduate and enter into the field of psychology, we will be able to further foster our connection from simply personal to include professional. Another main reason for the lack of professional opportunity within my PLN as of right now is the lack of education around making this possible. Perhaps I have not been seeking this information out, but prior to this course, I had no idea how social media and my PLN could be used in a professional context. In my psychology degree, we are taught the concepts, and diagnoses, and treatment but we are not taught how to navigate the professional world. The fact is that the majority of professional opportunities will come from connections built upon social media, but we are not given the tools to do so. Through this course however, I have learned just how integral social media can be in facilitating professional connections and how to utilize one’s PLN in this context. This work is something I aim to continue post-course, and hope to have a PLN that truly can help my professional development.
What is media literacy?
Media literacy is the ability to understand the information shared via social media and related digital technology, and to be able to distinguish between the message and effect. It is the ability to critically interpret content on social media and determine whether it is fact, opinion, or persuasion.
Why is it important?
Media literacy is incredibly important, for users of all ages. Again, this is how social media presents harm and benefit through providing a platform for any individual to share information. The problem becomes apparent when people do not know how to separate information into fact, experience, opinion, bias, intent, and purpose. Another issue is that information shared often exists as a combination of all these factors. Moreover, most users tend to take such information as inherently truthful, rather than critically analyzing it. As discussed in the video with Julie Smith on media literacy, we are currently in an environment with essentially infinite information, so much so that it becomes highly challenging to separate the complex network of fact. With unprecedented opportunity to share information online, it is logical that misinformation is highly prevalent. There are a multitude of examples that demonstrate this, but perhaps the most divisive and recent is the anti-vaccine rhetoric that occurred during the COVID pandemic. Anti-vaccine individuals utilized the lack of media literacy skills among the general population to spread misinformation, fear, and hate. Thus, it became a highly politicized and dangerous belief system that many people took as truth. I recall, back in 2021, talking to my aunt about getting my vaccine when she became angry and defiant; following the same misinformed rhetoric spread by anti-vaccine content creators. I explained how the information she took as truth has countless studies and scientific evidence disproving it, but she chose to ignore it. She didn’t have the media literacy skills to understand how to interpret information on social media, and used that information to build a belief system that disallowed contradicting views. In this way, building media literacy is a crucial piece of media usage and protection, because once embedded as fact, it becomes difficult to dissuade. This relates to a psychological concept called confirmation bias, wherein people tend to seek out information that confirms their pre-existing views and reject information that contradicts them. Thus, without adequate media literacy skills, the information found online is believed, ingrained, and confirmed in an iterative cycle. As demonstrated by this example, the lack of media literacy can have significant consequences on politics, family, public health, and employment. Therefore, media literacy is an important tool to develop when interacting with social media.
Why is it dismissed?
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, people have a tendency to take information on social media as truth and often do not see the need to critically analyze it. Moreover, the implications of confirmation bias demonstrate that people are often unwilling to analyze information that aligns with their viewpoints. As a result, media literacy is dismissed as unnecessary, useless, or inapplicable. We take the words of others as truthful, forgetting that most everyone has ulterior motives, whether good or bad. As mentioned in the video with Julie Smith, with such expansive information, it becomes the user’s problem to sort through, analyze, and develop literacy skills. This work defeats the purpose of mindlessly scrolling on TikTok or Twitter to create an environment that requires conscious effort. This is work that most people do not care to engage in, and thus reinforces the dismissal of media literacy skills. As a person who grew up with technology, I was never taught media literacy skills because they were never seen as important. I have media literacy skills as a result of my university education, which taught me how to critically analyze research. This skill has transferred to media literacy, but it was not intentional. Even now, when I search up media literacy, the articles are targeted towards parents of young children. Media literacy is viewed as a children’s tool, rather than an important skill for all. It is both assumed that information online is truth, and that we should be able to discriminate between fact and opinion easily without being taught.
Why should you aim for varied views but factual consensus in your PLN?
As social media is an excellent place to participate in learning from diverse perspectives, it is important to aim for a PLN that includes these voices. However, as mentioned, it is also important these perspectives have a factual basis. Within my PLN, I try to ensure the people I interact with are either personal friends, accredited professionals, or those who share personal experience. As well, I uphold my personal values of inclusivity and social justice in my PLN to further curate this. Factual information without the accreditation of research and/or scientific evidence is dismissed until I can properly research the claims. Social media is a powerful tool of global communication, but one must ensure that information is critically analyzed before integrating it into a belief system.
References:
https://www.futurelearn.com/info/blog/what-is-media-literacy
YouTube – EDCI 338 – MEDIA LITERACY with JULIE SMITH
How does social media engage communication?
Social media is a powerful tool of communication, as individual users can become influential voices of community and dissent across the globe. Despite the importance of digital identity and building one’s PLN, there remains an inherent anonymity of the internet and particularly social media. Communication is no longer necessitated by face to face conversation; allowing a sense of freedom of expression to flourish. Of course, this freedom and perceived anonymity has both negative and positive consequences, but I will focus on the positive. When individuals utilize social media to create conversation, it has the immense power of reaching millions of people instantly. For example, the MeToo movement that took centre stage on social media throughout 2017 demonstrated how social media can engage public communications. This global movement was created on the basis of open and free conversation from and for survivors of sexual abuse; a topic that is often hidden in public. The use of social media allowed millions of survivors to come forward, empowering truth and justice. This movement, and many others, effectively utilize social media as an integral space to engage global communication. This relates to the article by Clark & Auferdheide where the relationship between content and coordination was discussed. The MeToo movement reflects the power of high-quality, engaging content and the global coordination of the public communication system. With the numerous high-profile allegations that arose, the content effectively engaged the general public rapidly. With such content came the coordination of newspapers, talk shows, campaigns, and criminal cases. Within a single year, multiple prolific criminal trials were held, articles were released, names were blacklisted and defamed. Thus, the content and coordination of such content enabled the movement to further facilitate global communication.
How does social media challenge communication?
To build upon the previous paragraph, such effective communication comes with challenges. As mentioned, the origination of the MeToo movement came from a non-profit organization founded by African-American activist, Tarana Burke in 2006. Despite her use of social media to promote the same message, it was not until celebrities began using it that it gained power and influence. Now, American actress Alyssa Milano is credited for this movement, rather than Tarana Burke. This demonstrates that the use of social media to facilitate communication relies, not on the message itself, but the person posting it. Social media itself reflects systemic barriers to communication found in reality; two of which are race and class. The challenge comes in who is afforded the power of communicating to the public and who the public will listen to.
Is it inclusive?
With billions of people utilizing social media for communication, it must be viewed as inclusive. However, the definition of inclusivity in poorly defined and dependent upon how one interacts with social media. For example, on TikTok one can find communities of people of colour amplifying their experiences, facilitating anti-racist communication and diverse perspectives. You can also find communities of white supremacists, anti-LGBTQ+, criminals and many more. So, the short answer is yes, social media is inclusive of all viewpoints and values, but this also provides these individuals a platform on which they can converse. This is again where the double-edged sword of social media comes in; where the same platform can both amplify anti-racist and racist rhetoric.
Does your PLN amplify the views of others?
To extend the previous paragraph, the definition of inclusivity and amplification of diverse voices is a bi-direction relationship between the user and the platform. I personally value the presence of diverse perspectives, conversations around climate change, the promotion of BIPOC experiences, social justice movements, and the opportunity to reflect upon my privilege. Thus, my PLNs and social media feeds reflect this to create a network that represents these values. In this way, I am blind to the other sides of social media where these values are absent, just as I designed to be so.
The context of employer social media communication expectations.
To bring this discussion back to the politics of social media communication, the MeToo movement also showcased the effects of social media use within employment. In 2017, thousands of allegations from survivors became public knowledge. A vast majority of these allegations were against powerful men; CEOs, coaches, reporters, producers, and presidents. Many of those men faced the consequences, most often the loss of their job and status. Though these are minor repercussions in the face of the harm done, it does reflect the ways in which social media has become influential within the workplace and politics. Today, those same men whose names have been blacklisted on a public platform will carry that with them to future job opportunities. With the volatile and powerful nature of social media to tarnish reputations, whether deserved or not, employers now must consider employee’s presence online as an asset or issue. Within this one example, the survivors who have shared their stories are celebrated as strong individuals prepared to amplify the voices of others in a just cause. This kind of presence and use of communication is valued by most employers, whereas the abusers are seen as liabilities. It is clear that social media is by far the most powerful method of global communication, and it has consequences that extend into work, politics, and life.
References:
Media & Social Justice CHAPTER 4 A New Vision for Public Media Open, Dynamic, and Participatory Jessica Clark and Patricia Aufderheide http://ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?url=http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder/10.1057/9780230119796
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