Four Steps To Expose False Information on Facebook

In times of social media, the gatekeeper roles of classical media are increasingly dissolving. It has never been easier to spread important news all over the world in the shortest possible time. However, this also applies to false information and hate speech. Especially on Facebook, the largest social network in the world, disinformation is a […]

How to Spot False News on Your Social Media

I have never liked to use the words “fake news” to describe inaccurate or intentionally false information on Facebook because those words have been thrown around a little too freely by people who don’t like to face the truth. However, there is a real threat of accounts spreading inaccurate information on Facebook. So, how do you […]

Trust the Blue Badge?

Edgar Allen Poe told us “Believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear.” When he coined this term it is hard to think he saw a world where images can be altered and people hide their identities behind a computer screen. So, if we are meant to question everything how do […]

World Wide Web: Facebook’s Lack of Authenticity

The creation of the World Wide Web has lead to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These platforms allow people to share and post information while connecting and engaging with others. An issue that has followed the emergence of these social media sites is the authenticity of the information shared with its users. […]

Beginning to Unlearn Outrage

After the shocking revelation that social media were used to influence Americans during the 2016 election, the specter of meme-savvy Russian agents has haunted public discourse. Today there’s a kind of arms race to identify and oust troll-generated content on platforms across the internet. In May and June of this year alone, Twitter suspended over […]

Where do we draw the line? The problems facing Facebook and Twitter in the age of authenticity.

In a recent effort to address potential anti-conservative bias and foreign influence on major social platforms, Facebook and Twitter, the two companies most senior executives were called to a series of hearings in front of a Senate committee. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared to address these concerns and the countermeasures […]

Do You Believe Everything You Read?

For years, I’ve heard the phrase “you can’t believe everything you read”. Though this phrase originally applied to untrustworthy information in print media, in current times it’s most applicable to information shared via social media. Facebook has been at the forefront of this investigation of the spread of false information, which was put on the […]

Land of the Free, Home of the Tweet?

Agenda Setting Theory was put forth by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972. This theory suggests that the media sets the public agenda. It is not a matter of what is being said in the media, but what topics or stories should be talked about. With social media on the rise, it seems there may be a shift from power of the media to power of the people, so what does this mean for politicians?

I would first advise politicians to utilize social media carefully. It may sound silly, but as a public figure you are already under a microscope and an individuals credibility can easily be damaged if used frivolously. Your mother wasn’t kidding when she said, “don’t post it on social media unless you want it on the front page of the newspaper.”

Today, politics in general have taken over social media allowing social media users to join the open-ended conversation. Another piece of advice I would offer to politicians is to utilize social media but to do so strategically and keep their personal life out of the conversation. Social media is so instantaneous that one post can hinder credibility and opinions and personal life can quickly get tied into the media agenda or what is being talked about.

Crooked Hillary Clinton is the worst (and biggest) loser of all time. She just can’t stop, which is so good for the Republican Party. Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2017

Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me “old,” when I would NEVER call him “short and fat?” Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend – and maybe someday that will happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2017

Neither tweet is becoming for a man who is known as the leader of our country, yet these outrageous statements are constantly discussed in our daily media agenda: “Donald Trump’s 10 Most Offensive Tweets.”

With agenda setting power shifting toward consumers, politicians certainly should check themselves before they wreck themselves.

References

McCombs, M. (2003). The agenda-setting role of the mass media in the shaping of public opinion. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved from http://www.infoamerica.org/documentos_pdf/mccombs01.pdf

Beyond Facebook

The recent debate surrounding the “Fake News” circulating on Facebook has began to change the way we, as a society, consume our social media. Trump Says Twitter and Facebook Are Interfering in 2018 Election https://t.co/T4znGaaQbr — HillReporter.com (@HillReporter) September 5, 2018 This shift in the overwhelming quantity of shady sources circulating on our timelines has […]

Fighting the Fake

Amidst a world where social media sites track our every like, post, share and search, the publics’ privacy has never seemed less private. In fact, with the use of big data, bots, artificial intelligence and so on, the line between private and public has never been more blurred. We unknowingly ‘accept’ the terms and conditions […]

Newhouse

SOCIAL MEDIA

Month: September 2018