When people talk about the benefits of social media, majority would actually come-up with a long list of its advantages. Just as Sophie Liu shared in the video interview, back then, they would use brick phones, real phonebooks, and yellow pages if they wanted to connect with someone (Miller, 2020). With respect to today’s scenario, everything can be found in Google and it is easy to connect with people via Twitter or other Social Media. However, even if PLN can be beneficial to public figures, it also has its downsides. In the case of Sophie Liu, there were instances when she will receive letters, or receive phone calls from viewers (Miller, 2020). My personal take on this one is that, the public could easily connect with public personalities because their information is readily found online. For this reason, public figures find it hard to live a normal life once they are done with their duty. Aside from invasion of privacy, public figures are also prone to fake news. Fake news is intentionally fabricated to mislead the audience (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017 cited in Hirst 2019). In the case of public figures, malicious people use fake news to discredit them.
Nevertheless, even if using Social Media has negative effects, this does not mean that public personalities like news reporters and government officials should not use it at all. For news reporters, they could use social media for exposure. More so, being in the public eye will also help them be recognized by people and having the right PLN will help them to be in touch with the right people. In the case of government officials, they could use Social Media for official announcements and dissemination of information. On the other hand, public figures just have to remember that they need to observe some restrictions. For instance, if they are using verified accounts due to employment, they should make it a point that the content of their posts and comments will not harm the image of their employee, does not contain foul language, and most importantly, not some kind of fake news.
Fake news is no longer new; it just happened that with social media, it can spread like a wildfire in seconds. To deal with fake news, Hirst (2019) suggested that Media Literacy shall be promoted. Media Literacy refers to the act of critically evaluating, create, or manipulate media. Promoting media literacy will prevent people from believing whatever they see online. More so, on the side of content creators, if they know what Media Literacy is, they will create contents that are not just consistent but also reliable. In this regard, it is important to point out that veteran story tellers minimize the risk of sharing misinformation through cross checking and cross referencing. This means that if their different sources say the same thing, then there is chance that that certain information is true. Social media users can apply this strategy too. If they have read a certain news, they should consider checking other news sites before they believe that a certain information is valid and reliable.
References
Hirst, M. (2018). The political economy of fake news. In Navigating social journalism: A handbook for media literacy and citizen journalism. Routledge.
Miller, J. (2020, December). EDCI 338 A01: Lui, Sophie [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T4jOdKd12I&feature=youtu.be
Hi there,
Great blog this week. I loved your insight saying that public figures have difficulty having a normal life outside of their career. I didn’t consider that aspect while writing my blog and it made me think back to discussions I’ve had in some of my classes where we discuss profs answering emails outside of “school hours.” I can’t imagine opening my social media when getting home from work to hateful comments or anything of that sort. I know that I use my social media a lot each day, so having a platform connected to your career would be exhausting! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts in this week’s blog.
Erica
Hello Xiaoqi,
Your post looks quite clear and informative! I loved your ideas about what public figures should do and remember in a social space. I agree that they need to follow some restrictions, such as not containing foul language, not sharing fake news or information, and not posting negative comments. As I described in my own post, sharing or posting fake news or information will not only mislead their readers, but also causes negative effects. Therefore, we should not only never post fake news online, but also should never rely only on non-validated information circulating on social media to decide that a person is guilty as well. Also, I agree that using and checking news in some reliable and professional news sites will be a good way for people to ensure if the information is valid, or not. For myself, I really like reading news on CBC.
Chunlin