Identify the risks and benefits of engaging with a public audience in a media space.

There are many benefits to engaging with a public audience through social media. The main ones that became obvious with Jody Vance’s interview are that it builds trust, reliability, and openness. You are more than your brand and creates connections that can turn into an opportunity.  When connecting through social media on a more personal level, you can build trust between people. Further, when you post trustworthy and accurate content, it creates reliability where people can go to your page to find the truth. This all creates a strong connection with other users, which can turn into a career opportunity; as jody Vance explained when she was laid off, someone she was connected with via social media DM her regarding a position at this company.

The risk of engaging with the public via social media is that you cant look into someone’s eyes, you can’t have the raw connection, you are unable to relate on a personal and real level with someone (Vance, jody). The connection you can make in a classroom, or work or in a group that in person is very different than the connection through social media where there is no face you are engaging with. It is less impactful, in my opinion. Furthermore, you have to be careful; as Jody explained, ” social media complicated things and at the same time exposes your strengths,” social media puts you in the spotlight, especially when you have thousands of followers in your content, comments, post, pictures are all analyzed. You need to ensure you are portraying yourself the way you see yourself. And this goes into knowing where the line is and ensuring you do not go past it. There is no going back on social media as we know about the digital footprint; whatever we post is on the internet forever. It is never truly gone, even when you delete it. Ensuring you are calm and composed when responding to people who are causing hate and negativity and knowing when to fight or let it go.

What are the risks for a public figure or person in a position of trust (educator, lawyer, government official)?

People in a position of trust as educators, lawyers, and government officials are now public people. What you say or do affects others. I personally do not think it is fair, but it is the reality of the world. People in this position have the power of change, and this change affects people’s lives, so what they do online, what is posted, commented on, liked is accessible to the public where they can decide if it is appropriate. The biggest risk of this is losing the public’s trust; not having their trust can have a huge impact on that person’s personal and work life.  The loss of trust can follow of loss of connection in their network; it can affect their power in their role.  People of influence and power need to ensure that they do not cross the line on social media, ensure that their content is reliable and ensure that the wording and information are appropriate.

How to best address negative replies and critiques reflective of your personal values and employer social media policy?

As Jody Vance said, “prepare yourself for a degree of pushback” not everyone is going to agree with you or like you. And you need to prepare yourself for that type of negativity.  You need to be true to yourself, know your values, who you are, what you stand for and be confident in who you are. As a line from one of my favourite movies (Princess diaries), “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” and this is true with anything. No one’s comments or posts or hatred can affect you without your consent. Furthermore, I think addressing a negative reply or critique is dependent on the content. If the reply is commenting on body shaming, racism, sexism, homophobia, there is no room for that on any platform. The easiest way to address it is by deleting the comment and blocking the user. However, I have seen people who address it differently on TikTok and Instagram by creating a post in response to that comment, saying that this comment does not affect me, or define me or make me feel bad. I follow many fitness and wellness pages, and a person commented on one of the fitness accounts “you have gotten fat” the person the comment was for replied to it in another post where she has the comment on the post, she is working out doing various activities and saying “Yes I have fat, that doesn’t mean I am fat or that I am not worthy or I am not beautiful, or I am not healthy” And think this was a strategic, impactful and respectful way to respond. The best way to address a negative comment is dependent on what the comment is and who the person is that is getting the comment.

How do notable individuals use social media? What are the benefits of being in the public eye and having a PLN?

Notable users use social media to promote their brand and connect with others. They reach out to other notable individuals to collab to reach out to a greater user base. This is how they grow their plateform, idea and connect with others. But many of these users take the opportunity to share and spread awarness. Many influences shared how they have been staying home because of COVID-19 to promote their follower base to do the same. One very impactful example is when Rihanna posted on Twitter about the farmer protest “why are we not talking about this?” that comment alone created a spark other influential users retweeted and created their own tweets, which was retweeted by their followers so large of a movement that the new took coverage of this. Notable individuals use their platform to share what they are passionate about and spread awareness to change. By posting trustworthy and factual content, they can educate other people.

 

Building community with online tools provided by the employer can be limiting; what are the perceived
restrictions and benefits?

The restriction of using an online tool provided by your employer is limited to communication and conversation. People will use the tool to ask a question, share information they found, but it will not be a true dialogue (Hirst). People who want to engage with others want to create a conversation, a safe space to discuss new ideas or challenge old ones. But by having an online tool that may be watched over by the employer can limit that conversation, limit the growth of trust and creative thinking. Furthermore, a person who is apart of the company no longer have their own identity what they say and do affect the look of that company they work for, so this can be seen when using an online tool provided by the employer, ensure that what you say and what information you share will affect the employer and the company you worked for. The benefit of using the tool is that you have a specific platform for work, where you are discussing work matters and are connected with all the people you need to be. You will not have to look for a person at work or ask to be connected to them. This would make completing tasks or asking for resources much easier.

Delivering information in a connected society requires verifiable resources; how to build a PLN to rely on?

It is important that when sharing information that you ensure, there is data to back it up. Providing where the information is from making people who see your content more trusting of your other post. Providing quotes, stats, or a link to get more information regarding your post will make your feed reliable, and people will come to it for answers and information. I know someone who is creating a PLN about women empowerment; this person is sharing stories of successful business owners. These women are given a chance to share their platform and information about it; providing information in this way versus reposting allows your followers to know that you are connecting and reaching out to the people and information you are posting about, making it a verifiable resource to use.

How do those, who are veteran storytellers, minimize the risk of sharing misinformation?

A storyteller is someone telling a story, and a story can be embellished and made up in some parts. It could be historical fiction where the main idea is true, but the character and the actions are not based on a real person. I think to minimize the risk of sharing misinformation is to give background information saying this is a true story, a fictional story; this story is based on this part of history, but the characters are not real. You are letting the audience know where the information is coming from, where there is a true part, what part of the story is fiction or non-fiction. Being open and honest is the best way to ensure that no misinformation is shared.

 

References: 

Hirst, Martin. Navigating Social Journalism. 1st ed., Routledge, 2018, pp. 142-143.

Miller, J. EDCI 338 – Judy Vance. Youtube, 2021.