Month: November 2020

“Social media platforms (such as Twitter, Facebook, Sina Weibo¹) have revolutionized the dissemination mode of information, which greatly improve the velocity, volume, and variety of information transmission.”

 

— The Future of False Information Detection on Social Media: New Perspectives and Trends

 

Nowadays, people talk about social media more and more constantly: who posted Instagram, did you see someone’s story, did you follow this actor(actress), who shared his(her) vlog on YouTube… Everyone lives in the digital world, which is fast-growing in recently decade. However, sometimes social media brings some negative influence as well, if people could not treat it rationally.

• • Why social media platforms important and what are the key characteristics of them?

Social media platforms are a low-cost market strategy, which can receive consumers supports easier and quicker. As for public, companies can communicate to existing and potential consumers with more responses on advertisement and promotion. For example, shoppers use Instagram to show products and promotions. Riley states that “[o]ver 1/3 of the population is using [apps] to purchase a product or connect with businesses”, which can share their work to people and tag them who the companies or teams relate to, by posting on the social media platform (2020). As for officials, governments use social media platform to share the world. People can know real-time update news, weather, traffics… by following designated accounts. As for private, the individuals can follow others to know their friends, read updated news, go shopping, share their daily life and other activities.² In general, billions of people worldwide are using social media because it is the easiest and most cost efficient.

• • What features & characteristics of existing media technologies make it effective for personal learning?

The existing media technologies advance communication which is not only in the individuals’ daily life, but also in the study and work environment. To be more specific, connecting people with libraries as places through social media (and other digital technologies) has the potential to expand the community base and local connections, and which means development in these areas requires human development and technical resources (Houghton, Foth and Miller, 2013). However, social media may lead some misunderstanding information, people need to distinguish which information is effective for our personal learning. The authors claim that “[sometimes] the adversarial use of social media to spread information poses a political threat” (Guo, Ding, Yao, Liang and Yu, 2020). For instance, during last US presidential election in 2016, as many as 529 different low-celebrity statements were spread via Twitter, and approximately 19 million malicious bot accounts published or retweeted posts supporting Trump or Clinton, which potential influenced the election. One of the science magazines reported this statement as “Fake News” in 2018, which arouse people’s feeling of fear and surprise (Guo, et al, 2020). Thus, when people use existing media technologies, they should notice risks, which lead personal learning ineffective, influence public opinion implicitly and threaten social media development. [1]

• • How does the technology allow you to enhance/develop your digital identity/reputation?

Identity, the term identity encompasses multiple dimensions, including culture, society, region, psychology, politics, and beliefs. Identity is the society’s definition of a person, this definition will always be with people from birth to death.

Then digital identities. After the popularization of the Internet, digital identities follow. Digital identity not only includes identity coding information such as birth information, individual descriptions, and biological characteristics, but also involves personal behavior information with multiple attributes. For example, WeChat and Facebook store social information, Alipay and Amazon store transaction information, and games and video software store entertainment information. These different attributes of information are all part of a personal digital identity.

Existing media technologies can enable users to easily access, create, disseminate, and share information in a user-friendly open environment. When we build our brand on the Internet, we need to spread quickly in social media to attract people. So we need to “take hold of your presence on social media and use it to improve your digital reputation”(Baldwin, 2020). It is important to choose a platform to create and develop digital identities for the rapid access and dissemination of media technology. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. have many active users every day. Put your energy into social platforms and link each platform’s information together. Stay active on social media platforms and let more and more people pay attention to yourself so that can maintain and enhance a good digital identity/reputation.

• • What are the ways the technology tracks and uses your data – how can this be used to benefit a PLN?

Nowadays, various emerging technologies have changed our lives and made our lives more and more convenient, especially the Internet communication has become easier.  In Social network platform，people can share information with each other.  And media technology allows us to easily find the information we want when we are browsing. In the Internet, technology makes social media sometimes know us better than our friends.(Emerging Media. 2017) It uses the method of data collection to recommend content that we are interested in by collecting the content and information we publish on the platform. For example, in social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, you can learn about our interests through our browsing history; Ilchenko recommend similar users to you through the user address book; and push similar topics through our activity status (2020).

The tracking of technology and the use of data enable our PLN to get the correct crowd recommendation on social media. Attract like-minded people to browse PLN, exchange and share opinions. For example, in the comments of PLN, we will get positive and valuable relevant response suggestions.

• • What are social considerations that should be accounted for?

In PLN, we will meet different people from all over the world and discover different opinions. In the network society of PLN, we need to consider the different social and cultural backgrounds. Every user will read content according to their culture, and different cultures will have different opinions. As a result, there are sometimes positive or negative responses in PLN. When making comments on social media platforms, you need to consider whether there is content that violates different cultures. This also has a great impact on our digital identity. Maintaining a good digital reputation, the most important of which is respect for culture. [2]

• • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the privacy, security and acceptable use policies for the social media platforms.

On the Internet, privacy and personal security have always been hot topics. In many advanced countries, they have gradually developed into basic rights protected by various legal systems. The Internet privacy that we often discuss can actually be discussed at different levels; the most basic concept of privacy can be limited to the link “whether the footprints left on the Internet are tracked”, such as cookies. Its advantage is the cookie on the web service, some websites will use it to make the user experience better; for example, transfer data when switching between different pages, so that you don’t have to fill in the information on the first page again. Or when you log in to a website that you have already logged in, you can still log in again when you browse it next time; it will not be deleted until the expiration of the setting expires. Also because of these records, when you are browsing social media or shopping sites, there will show the related products or advertisements that you have viewed before on those sites. Based on those records, the system will calculate what you are interested in and appeared on those social media. Although such a function is very convenient, there are also concerns about security and privacy leakage. There are also many social media, applications, or tool platforms that require membership to be used. In addition to using a new registered account in the email, you can also log in a faster way, such as to connect to a Facebook or Google account. Many people want to be fast and convenient, regardless of their platform credibility and bind Facebook or Google accounts to log in. In this way, personal privacy can easily fall into the third party, and they will be able to grasp personal community behavior, interests, or various online behavior trajectories. Therefore, for users, editors or corporate community managers, no matter what platform they use, in addition to still adopting the old method to create new accounts with email, they should also observe whether the tool or platform has credibility, confidentiality and security measures. Convenience and speed should not be used as the reason to allow hidden loopholes in security.

• • Provide examples of individuals who have used a PLN to become leaders in a field of interest, discuss their presence in the platform?

If PLN wants to be popular, the basic idea is to create great value and promise, and provide in-depth, high-quality information. According to each post or work, it is necessary to understand its own publishing structure and what content you want followers to know, what information followers want to know and help them solve their problems. Challenge yourself to write quality articles or show the best work. For example, PAPARAYA, a creator I like, publishes his work on Pixiv³, a drawing creation platform. On Pixiv, a large number of new works appear every day. He will steadily submit works at short intervals. This method is quite useful, because the number of followers and comments gradually increase. Some people would like his work; some people may not like it. But as long as he continues to contribute, people who can understand his work would definitely appear. So he eventually became very famous, and he can be seen on many well-known creative platforms. He would also post videos of his painting process on YouTube or live while he is creating, and interact with his followers. Sometimes he would interact with other creators in the way of drawing solitaire, and record the creative process as a video, and upload it to YouTube. At the beginning, he would create his works based on the preferences of the followers, but as his work gets better and better and has more and more followers, he starts to focus on himself and confidently shows his creations to everyone. [3]

• • How do they use the social media platforms to build their reputation/presence?

Social media platforms are essential for building a professional learning network. However, for the desired objective to be attained, the users must be keen on how they utilize such sites. This means that if they are not keen, it will be difficult to attain the required goals. Therefore, building a reputation or presence is very important. First, a PLN should formulate his or her vision and make sure that whatever they are doing reflects what they have already communicated to the public. If people start to see any deviation, they will raise a number of questions, something that will not be good since individuals will lose trust. Also, the questions that people ask should be answered professionally and make sure that individuals are satisfied at the end of the process. Consistency should be observed when the same question is asked now and again, or else adequate explanations are provided to elaborate why changes are were experienced in certain cases. APLN can use different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to reach various groups of people. However, to boost trust and confidence among the public, all the handles or user names on both platforms should be the same. Additionally, they should provide their contacts and physical address when they can be found when necessary. Lastly, be available to respond to the questions that are asked promptly and do not ignore any questions.

• • How will you know that your PLN is a success?

It is difficult to know when your PLN becomes a success. However, in case someone had goals and objectives, and they have been achieved, it will be an indication that the PLN is successful. When the followers on various social media platforms increase and start asking questions, it will be a confirmation that the assistance provided is useful to the people. Also, there are cases where individuals can give suggestions on how they have been assisted. [4]

Personal learning network is helping users control and manage their own learning, allowing users to set goals, manage learning content and process; in the learning process, communicate and interact with others to complete learning goals.  This kind of learning can promote personal growth, career development, professional knowledge acquisition and even cooperation and co-creation.  Heterogeneous members in the practice community can share implicit and explicit knowledge and regard learning as a process of changing actual operations; through exchanges in practice, co-creation and enhancement of knowledge, thereby changing society.[3]

Footnotes

Sina Weibo¹: A Chinese application, which is similar with Facebook.

Jomahll²: My Instagram account is named Jomahll, which is from Chinese name Yuechen Zhou in Korean. It is welcomed to follow my Instagram and check my daily life.

Pixiv³: A Japanese online community for artists.

[1]: Yuechen Zhou created part 1, which is the part above [1].

[2]: Tingting Li created part 2, which is the part above [2].

[3]: Weiting Wu created part 3, which is the part above [3].

[4]: Hsienwen Kuo created part 4, which is the part above [4].

At first, our group mates discuss what we need to focus  on through the whole final project. Then, we talk about the ten questions on the final project introduction briefly. After that, we choose the topic questions which we are interested in (Yuechen Zhou chose point one and point two, Tingting Li chose point three, four and five, Weiting Wu decided to choose point six and seven, and Hsienwen took charge of the rest.) After finishing the parts what we respond, Yuechen stated that we need a introduction and conclusion to and attract audiences and strength our final project. Yuechen wrote the  introduction and Weiting was in charge of the conclusion. Finally, we went through the full text together and edited a few parts. Yuechen suggested to add a grey box before the introduction which made our final project look structured and interesting.

References

Baldwin, C. (2020, February 7). Improve Your Digital Reputation With Social Media and Content. [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.wsiworld.com/blog/improve-your-digital-reputation-with-social-media-and-content

Emerging Media. (2017). 3 Ways That Social Media Knows You Better Than Your Friends and Family Do. [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.loyola.edu/academics/emerging-media/blog/2017/3-ways-that-social-media-knows-you-better-than-your-friends-and-family-do

Guo, B., Ding, Y., Yao, L., Liang, Y. & Yu, Z. (2020). The Future of False Information Detection on Social Media. ACM Computing Surveys, 53(4), 1-36. doi:10.1145/3393880

Houghton, K., Foth M. & Miller E. (2013) The continuing relevance of the library as a third place for users and non-users of IT: the case of Canada Bay, The Australian Library Journal, 62(1), 27-39. doi:10.1080/00049670.2013.771764

Ilchenko, V. (2020, September 25). 7 Ways How to Use Big Data in Social Media. [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.byteant.com/blog/7-ways-how-to-use-big-data-in-social-media/

Riley, M. (2020, January 7). Why is Social Media so Important? [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.anvilmediainc.com/blog/why-is-social-media-so-important/

Networked digital media enable new convergences of textual forms.

Modes of communication that were previously separate – text, image,

audio, video, animation – come together within a single platform,

bringing new challenges and possibilities for the telling of the news.

— Chapter 4 “Social Media: Communication, Sharing and Visibility”

In the modern society, networks do exist some disputes, which it has both benefits and disadvantages for each individual when they use networks or social media .

How much of personal identity should be connected to professional social media platforms?

Nowadays, some appilactions are real-named, so as to ensure that everyone’s money or other aspects will not be deceived, which will create a relatively safe Internet environment for everyone. On the other hand, the real-name system sometimes will cause “cyber-bullying”. Due to  more and more developed technology, personal information is leaked by illegal methods. In addition, human flesh searching is become very simple, which is used by some lawbreakers, so it can be said to be more open and transparent to everyone. Sometimes a real name reveals many things, for example, you can now find the address or family relationship by a single name. Thus, everyone should use social media rationally, and show personal identity properly on the Internet. At the same time, everyone should also state their opinion appropriate. Be less offensive, and people are encouraged to use networks rationally.

Community communications go beyond blogs and social media shares, how does a PLN help and hinder the development of thoughts and ideas in public discourse — especially when addressing our differences?

Social media does lead people’s thinking and behaviour to a certain extent, because people would listen and see some words to change or prove their ideas heteronomously. In addition, PLN can develop thoughts leaders. When people express their opinions via social media platforms, they will receive comments with agreement or criticism. In the modern era of high-speed growth of data, the statements can be searched in the database by entering keywords on the search box. Many of the people who have adopted it have become thought leaders in the field of education, because it seems that it promotes a lot of thinking and cooperation (Whitby, 2013). However, every advantage has its disadvantage. Large scale use of social media platform will hinder the development of ideas and concepts in public discourse. Taking the essence and discard the dross, people should remember that lifelong learning requires hard work, and they should accept as much from themselves. Fortunately, with an open learning attitude, anyone can expand knowledge and broaden horizon.

How can a PLN be curated to minimize bias and expand knowledge of the lives of others?

As I mentioned above, the era we lived is overloaded information and data. People can follow the topic what they like or want to pay attention to by using tags, so that it can decrease the content what they lose interest in. In a blog named Building Your PLN, it states that “A person with good curation skills saves us time by sifting through the vast abundance of content on the internet to select the best, most relevant resources on a specific topic or theme. The curator organizes, manages, and collates for their own use and shares with us” (2020). On the other hand, if people meet some opinions with disagreements, they need to analyze and reflect rationally, a wave of following the trends is not advocated.

How does the identity of who you are, fit into your PLN?

As for everyone, social media is a platform to express and share their opinions. People treat social media platforms differently: some of them treat as leisure actives, however, the others work on social media. The latter devotes most time and effort in social media.

As for myself, I use social media for sharing my daily life on Instagram, WeChat and Weibo. I believe that social media is a way to improve people’s taste and quality of life.

Do you include professional and personal boundaries?

When people want to know you, the best place is your social media website where it may contain your name, birthday, education, hobbies and so on. However, from the professional point of view, the more important points which the audience want to know is your occupational abilities. For example, it is important for healthcare providers to maintain professional boundaries. Patients should first see them as a professional. Blurring these boundaries by connecting with patients on social media can lead to misunderstanding, embarrassment and inconvenience to them and the patient (Risk Management, 2019).

Reference:

Building Your PLN Step 6: Using Curation Tools As A Connected Educator [Web log post]. (2020). Retrieved November 15, 2020, from https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-curation/

Meikle, G. (2016) Social Media: Communication, Sharing and Visibility Meikle, G – Chapter 4 https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315884172/chapters/10.4324/9781315884172-10

Mooney, H. (2020). [Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/elKNQpz0RrI

Risk Management (2020, August 28). Maintaining Professional Boundaries on Social Media. Retrieved November 15, 2020, from https://www.ncmic.com/insurance/malpractice/risk-management/maintaining-professional-boundaries-on-social-media/

Whitby, T. (2013). How Do I Get a PLN? [Web log post]. Retrieved November 15, 2020, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-do-i-get-a-pln-tom-whitby

It is no longer enough simply to read and write. Students must also become literate in the understanding of visual images. Our children must learn how to spot a stereotype, isolate a social cliché, and distinguish facts from propaganda, analysis from banter, and important news from coverage.

—Ernest Boyer, former president, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Sometimes media literacy and factual information are in an opposite relations.

Why does open dialogues about media literacy and factual information meet conflicting?

• • What is media literacy?

Media literacy refers to the information selection ability, questioning ability, understanding ability, evaluation ability, creativity and production ability, and speculative reaction ability shown when people face various information through different media such as television, radio, computers, newspapers and magazines, and advising. In the past people collect information through paper-based books, which called “literacy”due to read print. Nowadays, thanks to social media network, viewers can gain information and data by receiving verbal and visual message (Copper, 2002).

Media literacy also influences  foreign speakers, “using them in the classroom can be a daunting experience, especially when combined with the task of making its information understandable to foreign speakers” (Cooper, 2002). For international students studying in the North America, they use information everyday. Elizabeth Thoman, founder and president of the Center for Media Literacy. Thomas worked in this field over twenty years pointed out foreign students need critical skills to see through the images of North America culture.

In general, media literacy can help international students, and it also enhances critical thinking. Media literacy refers to the ability to use mass communication resources correctly and constructively, to make full use of media resources to improve oneself and participate in social progress. It mainly includes the public’s motivation for using media resources, the methods and attitudes of using media resources, the effectiveness of using media resources, and the ability to criticize the media.

• • Why is it important?

• • • Cognition. It helps to improve their ability to understand the nature and form of information carried and broadcast by the media, be familiar with the methods of seeking information, and have the ability to evaluate, interpret, discriminate, select, organize and aggregate information;
    • Affection. It helps to recognize the value and power of media information, and judge its appropriateness, which is legal and ethical;
    • Skills. It helps to have and improve the basic ability to operate media tools, including the use of computers, media systems and Information retrieval, processing and dissemination on the Internet;
    • Creating  environment It helps to continue to pay attention to the scientific use of media, actively participate in creating a suitable and healthy media ecological environment and atmosphere, and promote the reform and development of the cultural media industry and journalism.

We should promote mass media to improve its quality and social benefits, and improve media with good social benefits to obtain economic advantages and development momentum.

• • Why is it dismissed?

Actually, people may have different understanding in the same thing, but sometimes media literacy makes people easy to blindly follow the trend. People should learn to think independently and analyze rationally to improve their media literacy.

• • Why should you aim for varied views but factual consensus in your PLN?

In our PLN, we express our opinions in different aspects with varied views, however, each single word is base on every individuals. Thus, although the opinions are varied, the main frame of their thoughts will not change dramatically. For instance, as for teachers, the perspective of them reflects  views of teaching as a complex … digital tools, but depending on their professional roles, the other PLN items varied slightly (Trust, Krutka & Carpenter, 2016).

Although everything has two sides, the characteristics and importance of media literacy allow everyone to use and trade social media more rationally.

Reference:

Cooper, A. (2002). Teaching Media Literacy in the ESL Classroom. Retrieved November 15, 2020, from http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/teaching-media-literacy-esl-classroom

Media Literacy – Course YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/Z_T9RghwJlI

Trust, T., Krutka, D. G. & Carpenter, J. P. (2016) “Together we are better”: Professional learning networks for teachers. ScienceDirect Computer & Education, 102. 15-34. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2016.06.007

Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st century skills: Learning for life in our times. Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

Fake news should be a serious topic in the political economy of communication because it brings into sharp relief a critique of the news industry and journalism from a critical theory perspective.

—  A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism

What  are the risks for public figure or person in a position of trust?

As a public audience in social media, people need to distinguish between fake news and truth, because the article “A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism” states that fake news has the advantage of a focus on unequal power relations in the field of communication (news and journalism). In the media ecosphere, fake news exists period-specific. In addition, fake news is no doubt at the heart of a profoundly political debate in the North America.

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

In social media, negative replies and critiques reflective are the most common thing in the public topic. In my opinion, those have two different categories to distinguish:

• • truth or objective comment
  • emotional reflective or “cyber-bulling”

When the blogger or people who use social media to express their idea always need to face hard words or criticism, they may care about those words which affect their mood.

In my opinion, as for public audiences, they need to read and comment rational, even though some audiences “enjoy” to comment with hard words; as for authors or publisher, they need to analyze and treat negative replies and critiques reflective. Due to culture, education background, world outlook, view of life and values, people would have different observations. The publishers should absorb the essence and discard the dross, after all it is said that there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people.

How do notable individuals use social media?

The individuals as celebrity, educator, lawyer, politicians and government officials need to pay attention to their manner of speaking, because they do not represent themselves only, but also the public. Normally, they have professionals to evaluate and analyze their words and expression.

It does have benefits of being those kind of people who are mentioned above. In some ways, they can lead the trend of the world, also can bring some effect to the public. That is why the celebrity cachet is applicable to the current era of technology and science.

Reference:

Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism by Martin Hirst Chapter 4. The Political Economy of Fake News – pp.78 http://ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315401263