Will Social Media Continue to Play an Important Role in the Next Election, or is the Phenomenon Over-Hyped?

                In my opinion, social media will absolutely play an important role in the next election; social media has become the way of today’s world and people today rely on it for everything. I also believe that Barack Obama opened up the door to the idea of using social media during elections; people now see it as an option and want to join in.

                Everyone today uses social media to express their opinions, frustrations, and what they are pleased with; this includes their opinions of upcoming elections. These opinions cause discussion, thought, and even may influence the decisions of others. Further, our readings described something called “citizen 2.0”; people who use social media platforms to learn more about certain elections and have discussions related to the elections (yahoo, 2007). Further, the readings brought out that in the 2008 election, 18% of people had discussions relating to the election on blogs or other social media platforms; 45% watched a video campaign relating to the election. It is pretty clear that people are open to using social media for discussions and research regarding elections and find it useful.

                As with anything in life, not everyone will be on board with using social media to have discussions relating to elections; there will be people who don’t participate, but overall, social media plays a huge role in people’s lives—including the decisions they make regarding elections. Just to prove this, in our readings we read about a recent study from branding agency Digitas, that stated that 88% of people on social media sites are registered voters, and approximately half will use social media to learn about the presidential election; that is a lot of people.

                We can see it even in our provincial elections, people use social media to learn more or even express their opinions. Think of the whole situation with Rob Ford; there are countless YouTube videos, posts on Facebook, and opinions going around every other social network about Rob Ford. This plays a huge role in the election outcome as it shapes people’s opinions of him.

                Even the government uses social media to get information out and participates in campaigns that use social media. It isn’t perfect though, there are issues with using social media, like privacy for example; sites like wikileaks can release information to the public that should not be made available to them. Although this is an issue that the government will have to figure out, it will not decrease the use of social media by governments, only make them look for a solution.

                It’s pretty clear that the trend of the world shows that social media will continue to play an important role in the next election, as well as elections to come. As the video, How Social Media Can Make History brought out, social media is not about crafting a single message for people to consume, it is about bringing people together based on opinions and mutual feelings. This is exactly what we see today; people use social media to express opinions about things like the elections and people either come together on those opinions or oppose them.

Social Media: Increasing or Decreasing the Quality of Today's News and Information?

            In today’s world, social media is used for absolutely everything, including the spread of current news and information. Individuals today do not need to turn on the television to know what is going on in the world at that very moment; between friends, family, and acquaintances, news items are posted constantly, sometimes even before they are released in the media by professional news reporters. In my opinion, social media has increased the quality of news and information, but discretion is most definitely needed as we cannot believe everything we read.

            To explain, I believe that social media has increased the quality of news and information because it is now so readily available and at our finger tips; people are so eager to get the news they hear out there to the rest of the world that we can access accurate news and information before we hear it or see it on the radio or television. For example, just recently, there was a teacher that went missing in the area; this teacher was one of my high school teachers. It was such devastating news to hear but I was able to learn of this news through Facebook before anywhere else. So many concerned friends and family were posting about this sad news and sharing news articles and I was able to access the accurate information much earlier than I would have if I was just relying on the news on television or the radio.

            As with everything though—including what we see on the news from professional news reporters—we cannot believe everything we hear, see, or read; we have to be cautious of personal and even professional biases. With news being posted on social media, there is a chance of distortion of truths and postings of inaccurate information. I do not believe however, that social media has decreased the quality of news because as mentioned, this can happen from anyone, including professional news reporters. As with everything in life, we have to use our own discretion, judgement, and research to ensure that we are getting accurate information.

            No, I don’t believe that social media alone can be relied upon; as mentioned in our readings, as mentioned in our readings, one study done by PEW Research Center's for Project Excellence in Journalism (2010) stated that social media and traditional media embrace difference agendas, meaning they are not always going to be sharing the same stories. That being said however, this can be a positive thing; social media provides us with stories that may not even be covered in traditional media; cell phones with video cameras and data plans allow people to be “citizen journalists” and spread the news themselves.

           It cannot be ignored though, that traditional media has even started to use social media to spread their news. We can see things like YouTube Direct, and even social media sites like twitter who have companies such as CBC news affiliated with it, spreading their news through twitter. According to PEW Internet and American Life Project Report (2010) 75 percent of people say that they get information and news forwarded through their email or through posts on social networking sites; 52 percent of people say that they share links to news articles with others through social media sites. It is official, people rely on social media to spread the news; this has not decreased the quality of the news, only made it more accessible.

Social Media- Fad or Biggest Shift since the Industrial Revolution?

           Social media, over the years, has continued to grow and evolve constantly. The internet has come such a long way; not only do we use it for research, for the majority of the population, it is the main way of communication. Take this social media course, for example; it is an online course; more and more people are using the internet for communication and learning because it is convenient. This has led into the world of social media expanding. In my opinion, the perception of social media is much more than just a fad; it could perhaps be the biggest shift since the industrial revolution.

            In my opinion, social media is so much more than just a fad because it is growing and evolving constantly. A fad is something that is popular for a period of time, but then people begin to lose interest and it starts to fade out of society. When it comes to social media, however, there is absolutely no sign of people losing interest. There are constantly new social media sites emerging. Just a few examples would be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, SnapChat, and many more. If people start to become disinterested with a particular social media site, they move on to the next. Social media has not slowed down in any way; people rely on it to stay in touch with family, friends, and current events. During some research, I found that in 2013, the total users for Facebook reached 1.11 BILLION (A Brief History of Social Media, 2013)! Just take a second to think about that... Further, according to Universal McCann’s Global Social Media Survey from this week’s readings, the three most popular social media participation activities worldwide are watching videos, visiting social network pages, and reading blogs (July, 2010); therefore people are actively and constantly using social media. It has become a way of life for people. Today, people do not pick up a phone as often, they go to their friends Facebook page to see what is new. I know personally, if I want to get in touch with friends, I go to Facebook and Instagram, I send personal messages or comment on pictures; especially since I have family living in other countries, social media allows me to keep in touch with them, it is the way to do things in this day and age. Even further, according to Fruchter, social media is not just about the tools, as we learned in one of this week’s readings about what social media is. Rather, it is the conversation happening within these tools (2009), such as the conversation and communication that occurs through Facebook. This is exactly what we are seeing today. Although there may still me a very select few that have not jumped on the band wagon of social media, as a whole, Ontario, Canada, and even the world, has. That is why I believe that social media is much more than just a fad, and could perhaps be the biggest shift since the industrial revolution. 

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