How does social media use in public discourse potentially challenge advocacy communications?
Social media use can profoundly increase the efficacy of advocacy efforts due it wide global reach. However, in the past social media is often a platform where individuals chose to portray themselves in a manner that may attract a certain audience, however, their portrayal of themselves may be an authentic representation of themselves or their beliefs. Slacktivism is when an individual “support a cause by performing simple measures” but “are not truly engaged or devoted to making a change” (Muslic, 2017). This can pose critical challenges in advocacy efforts and communications as the advocacy efforts may reach a large audience, however, that audience may simply portray as though they are supporting the advocacy initiative, to cater to their personal audience, when in reality they may not put forth any significant action or effort to actually support the advocacy initiative. Furthermore, in the reading this week of Media & Social Justice, an interesting quote that seems appropriate for my discussion states, “While such media projects can effectively engage and mobilize their users around issues, they do not serve the same broad civic function as public media projects, which provide information, framing media, and platforms for debate, discussion, and negotiation of contested issues in a democracy” (Clark & Aufderheide, 2011, p.61).
How diverse is your existing PLN?
Currently, my PLN is very diverse, as I follow accounts consisting of individuals from various career paths, educational backgrounds, races, genders, and those whose interests are very different than mine.
In your PLN, are you learning from a variety of voices?
Shelley Moore’s readings and interview this week were really insightful. An aspect of the reading that caught my eye was her representation of inclusion, exclusion, segregation, and integration through the various circular diagrams. This aspect resonated with me particularly when she discusses these diagrams were a traditional model of education…the goal of the model was to produce more of the same (Moore, 2017, p.9). This is something that needs to change as we should embrace each other differences and individually and be inclusive in our lives as a whole, including our PLN. A simple way to ensure that my learning outcome of actively learning from a diverse audience is met is by following people on social media platforms either by recommendation of friends, colleagues, or even news and broadcast articles. This simple method allows me to be exposed to a wide range of diverse information on a daily basis, thereby consistently broadening my views.
Having a diverse PLN allows me to actively learn from various people who provide a wide breadth of knowledge and insight regarding a topic that I may not be privy to. As such, this enables me to further increase my learning, broaden my views, and have a more open outlook which will further aid in inclusion in a professional community. Currently in my professional inclusion appears to be actively embraced, as my colleagues are from a wide range of diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, our organizations put forth efforts to increase inclusion and to have an open discussion regarding various topics to ensure that everyone in our professional community can know that they are in a safe environment and can speak up and know they will be heard and understood. It makes me feel incredibly grateful to have this professional community, as inclusion was not embraced in my previous work experiences.
How does social media engage in advocacy communications?
As we aware, the rapid information dissemination method employed by social media, allows the information to spread across the globe, thus reaching a diverse audience, who can instantly access the information. When used appropriately, social media can have a significant impact on advocacy communications. For example, if a health care organization is aiming to raise awareness for a particular advocacy effort for a health condition, they can include hashtags in their posts which can allow increase engagement of their advocacy efforts, as a diverse audience will interact every time someone chooses to click that hashtag. Furthermore, including links to resources or corresponding websites for the advocacy initiative may increase engagement of their advocacy communications, as individuals can easily access the required website/resource, which may further influence them to actively engage and promote the particular advocacy initiative.
References:
Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P. (2011). A New Vision for Public Media. Media and Social Justice, 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230119796_5
Muslic, H. (2020, December 16). What is Slacktivism and is it Even Helping? Nonprofit Hub. https://nonprofithub.org/social-media/what-is-slacktivism-does-it-help/
Moore, Shelley. One Without the Other: Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion, Portage & Main Press, 2017, pp.6-12. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/lib/uvic/reader.action?docID=4832579&ppg=6
Moore, Shelley. “EDCI 338 – 20 Minutes Moore.” YouTube, uploaded by MILLER, 30 May 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeSV0rUl1bA
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Leave a Reply