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#Gronk is #Gone! Patriots Tight End is Traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

After playing nine seasons with the New England Patriots, Robert Gronkowski, arguably one of the best tight ends in the NFL, has been traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Over the past decade, the New England Patriots have risen to be an NFL powerhouse. Gronkowski, more commonly referred to as “Gronk,” has helped the Patriots secure three Super Bowl victories. This trade has been especially controversial because Gronk is moving to a team that has had a significantly lower success rate than the Patriots. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have not won a Super Bowl since 2002 or even made it to the playoffs since 2007. NFL followers have speculated that Gronk is making the move to the Buccaneers because his fellow teammate Tom Brady also announced he would be joining Tampa Bay shortly before. Lots of people (mostly Patriots fans) are upset that Gronk is leaving the Patriots, especially because they think it is just to follow Tom Brady. Some people, however, are excited for the reunion of this power-duo and think they can turn the Tampa Bay Buccaneers around!

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The Newest Trending Video Game

Click on the video above to get a sneak peek of the new and FREE Call of Duty: Warzone downloadable for Xbox One and PlayStation4!

Click on the video above to hear about the two new game modes and where it ranks amongst trending topics on Youtube currently!

The tweet above by the #1 E-Sports Consultant and Insider, Rod Breslau, shows that the game is off to a great start!

 

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Blog 3 Post

I looked up the hashtag #HistoryWillRememberDonaldTrump as the relevant discussion as his impeachment stays a national current news topic. This hashtag was also on the trending page on 11/19/19. Here are the following 6 tweets.

Most of these tweets fall into the same category: those in support of his impeachment. I found two tweets that show support towards Donal Trump, which has proven in the past to be risky when discussing support towards the President on a social platform through the current times. This shows that the opinion about our current President is still divided in the country, and even though his secrets and scandals have been exposed and covered by the press, some choose to stick by him while others show their support towards impeachment. Personal opinions aside, those who seem to support him stick to the facts, while those who long for impeachment look beyond the facts and more towards his character and his actions and behaviors on top of what he hasn’t done for our country and the negativity he has brought to the image of our country.

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Campaign Analysis

Objective:

  • To be over 500 views on Imgur
  • The background of my campaign came from accounts that I follow on Instagram such as memezar. I saw the layout of it in a different tweet and came up with a lot of different ideas of what I could do. I also noticed how tweets are popular if they take a dig at getting old or “adulting” so I wanted to make it something about that as well.

example meme

View this post on Instagram

Ummmm @kiracohen

A post shared by Betches Media (@betches) on

 

 

Imgur meme:

GETTING OLD HURTS 

 

Analyzation of Campaign:

When I was first coming up with ideas for my meme, I went through the saved folder I have on my Instagram of all of my favorite ones. I decided that I did not want to incorporate a picture in my meme I had faith that words could help me achieve my objective. When I first brought my meme to class, I had high expectations and thought it would be the most “shared” aka, have the most stickers. I received a few, but not as many as I had hoped. However, when I posted my meme to Imgur in the first 55 minutes I had over 500 views; hitting my objective almost immediately. The tags that I put in on my meme were “funny,” “kids,” “lol,” “growing up,” and “getting older.” I feel that the tags is what helped my memes go viral on Imgur, where in class my audience was just limited to classmates. I achieved over 102k views on my meme and this achieved all of my goals and expectations.

Final Engagement Number:

  • 103,040 views, 169 comments
  • No one created a deriviative of my meme that I saw
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Hoaxing to fame: an internet story

The rise of social media as a form of mass communication has changed the face of society and how we communicate with each other. No longer are we limited to the few people we gather around us but now our messages can be heard all over the globe. We can spread information instantly to thousands or millions of people instantly.  Some people see this as an opportunity to spread misinformation or hoaxes. Many of these hoaxes are completely harmless little jokes that people like to play.

Some of them can be very dangerous and spread incredibly misleading or downright false information.

People can create these in order to put their own spin on any number of topics. From skewing how we see politicians and celebrities to causing panic and unnecessary anxiety among the people. The 2016 US presidential election was full of internet hoaxes about both of the candidates. It seemed like every other week some new Hoax would pop up claiming that “Hillary Clinton is dying” or “Donald Trump wants to go to war with NATO” these were exclusively pushed for political reasons. This seems to be the underlying reason for some of the more prominent internet Hoaxes in our time. It is fully expected that we will begin to see more of these types of hoaxes as this next election cycle really starts to get moving

 

Sources

https://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/fakenews.pdf

Twitter

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Facebook or Fakebook?

Recently Facebook has come under fire for the continuos fake news that circulates their platform. The COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, was questioned by the US Senate about the problems that fake news on Facebook has caused and how they are going to address it. She can be seen talking about what Facebook is doing in an attempt to combat fake news below:

But with all of this misinformation online this leads us to another question, how can we tell what news is authentic?

While some people choose to handle it with a comedic approach

 

There are real steps you can take to determine what is fake news and what is real.

First off, checking where the information is coming from. Facebook verifies big users with a blue checkmark next to their name, confirming that they are the real person. Public figures vary from politicians such as Hilary Clinton to social media influencers such has Youtube star Liza Koshy. Information from verified users heighten the likely hood that the news is true.

Another way to differentiate between fake news and real news is titles of articles. Webwise cautions people about titles that fall into the category of “clickbait”. Referring to outrages titles that are just used to get more clicks and views on their perspective websites. Most of these articles are fake news, and is just used as a tactic to get people to click on the link.

And lastly, in the era of fake news, cross checking information with other sources is key. If something seems off double check it against credible news sources. Because no one is safe from falling victim to fake news, not even you.

 

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Facebook’s Role

When Facebook was founded, it was designed to be a social network for college students. Nearly 15 years later, it has become so much more than just a space to connect with friends – it is a source of information. Ask any college class how they get their news, and chances are at least one response will be “Facebook,” but how can we trust that the information we see posted and shared is authentic? The truth is, we can’t.

Sure, Facebook can (and should) crack down on foreign influence on its site, but even removing all foreign content will not ensure that all content is 100% authentic. Think about it: how many times have you seen that one of your Facebook friends shared an article that seems too outrageous to be true, only to debunk it with a quick Google search? This content doesn’t have to be foreign propaganda to be harmful – domestic groups are just as capable of influencing the public to take hateful stances. This post from Twitter User @kristinaxb describes the prevalence of these hateful posts:

The problem is that Facebook has labeled itself an information source, which means that its executives have an obligation to ensure that its users are receiving authentic information. In this thread, Twitter user @trekonomics evaluates different tech companies’ roles as public goods, Facebook included:

So how can Facebook properly function as an information source and become a public good? My answer has nothing to do with making the platform more authentic. In fact, my answer is completely different –  I believe that Facebook should return to its roots as a social network, and let other platforms take the lead in information.

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