credit to constructionexec.com
As Jessica Clark and Patricia Aufderheide(2013) introduced in their journal, the invention of the internet and social media created an innovation of information spreading. In the past, people receive the latest news mainly from the mainstream media like TV or Newspaper. But nowadays, everyone can be the source of information sharing in the online form. People can engage in advocacy communications through various ways like using social media online. Social media has contributed a great impact on building advocacy communities, especially by the invention of hashtags. A hashtag is a great tool for people who want to share the same interests or thoughts on certain topics. It is such an effective and collective way for people to gather the desirable information/knowledge in a short time period. Since everyone has the same opportunity to share experiences, tons of interesting topics/social groups/academic updates are formed on social media tag pages for people to learn and share on it. Like the podcast by Jesse Miller and Markiel Simpson mentioned, people are inspired by these shared thoughts and get to know more people from the different advocacy communities (since we all have multiple interests and identities). It also enlarges our PLN network and helps us to learn more from the world. Some people will accumulate many followers through social media by sharing ideas. Thus, it is also important for us to keep in close attention to what we post as influencers and commentators! Things we post online can be the representation of our digital identity, which also present our personalities. Therefore, it is important to share positive, non-judgemental, non-racist and critical ideas when we are engaging in advocacy communities.
On the other hand, since social media is a public platform, there are certainly many negative/fake/harmful contents in it. It is crucial for people to have critical thinking when valuing internet content and be aware of the potential risky insecurities like online rumours. We need to keep in mind what we read from the internet influencers since they sometimes had great power in impacting our thoughts.
I think my PLN amplifies the views of others. I retweet and share my thoughts on spreading certain events like gender equality and minority equality. I always pay attention to some feminist influencers that I follow online. I think it is great to spread words to help more women to feel stronger as females. Also sometimes if there are harmful events that happened, many people (including me) will retweet it and make it trending for more people to call on justice for the victims. Nowadays, more women have abandoned negative gender stereotypes like “women are vulnerable and needed to be protected by men.” I think social media has played a great part in this that it connected women across the countries to inspire feminism and call on gender equality and protect themselves. For example, the “Metoo” campaign unites women globally to fight against sexual assault/violence. I think being in a part of it is a great thing to find my identity and extends my PLN.
References
Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P. (2013). A New Vision for Public Media – Open, Dynamic, and Participatory. In J. Pooley, L. Taub-Pervizpour, & S. C. Jansen (Authors), Media and social justice (pp. 55-67). New York: Palgrave.
Simpson, Markiel. “EDCI 338 – 2021 – 02 – 22 MARKIEL SIMPSON.” 22 Feb. 2021. doi: https://youtu.be/yCSpm1Lx8-A
yuxitang February 28, 2021
This is an insightful post Alison! I could not agree more when you said that before, in order for one to be informed about a certain advocacy they have to tune in to news either through television or radio. This means that the advocacies spread relatively slower compared to how advocacies can spread these days through social media. I would say that social media is powerful in promoting advocacies because a single post can reach thousands of people in just a matter of seconds.
alisonjiang February 28, 2021 — Post author
Hi Yuxi!
Thank you for commenting on my post! Yes, our voice can spread further by using social media! Therefore it can be so important to speak up on social media for events like charities or social injustice.
yanlixu February 28, 2021
Hi Alison,
I agree with your idea that hashtag is a useful took for people want to share the same interests on certain topics. I also find that hashtag is very helpful for academic learning. As we can see other people’s opinions and inspired learning experience from others. I see that you also repost and share your thoughts on certain events. This is a really good way of building your PLN.
alisonjiang February 28, 2021 — Post author
Hi Yanli!
Thank you so much for replying to my post!