The Relationship Between Social Media Platforms And The Government

Social media can be described as a set of websites, online platforms, or applications that give people an opportunity to create, publish or use, save, and share content like images, videos, or text materials over the internet. Regardless on the social media places, anyone can become a publisher, post and comment whatever they would like, disregarding the social media policies. It is seen as a form of convenience that gives people the liberty to express their ideas and thoughts without fear or favor, which offers a kind of democracy, where the rule of the majority wins. Social media permits users to abuse, intimidate, and put threats to others without any fear of punishment. Social media grants its users the opportunity to abuse, intimidate,

Traditional media has failed to live up to its fourth estate role. This has lead us to the question, can the more modern, social media, make up for the lack of success that traditional media has had in fulfilling this watchdog role for the people? Kemp’s rules of CIDRA1 apply to social media as they do with traditional media. Thus, we must determine what, if any, obstacles are present in preventing social media from completing this role. More specifically, do the five filters that Chomsky highlights apply to social media as they do to traditional media? Or does the fundamental structure of social media allow for it to accomplish a fifth estate role? I argue that social media is more effective at playing a watchdog role than traditional media. Social media is built on a platform that has the interest of working for the people in terms of freedom of distributing ideas and checking elite power in liberal democracies. Furthermore, “…traditional media formats are no longer the only politically relevant forms of media” (Metzgar, Maruggi, 2009, p. 149). The reason that social media can have higher success in acting as a watchdog role stems from one central theme: when it comes to social media, less of Chomsky’s filters lie between the person wanting to distribute an idea and the ability to have this idea delivered to the public.

The media today is something that is used more than anything else by teens to obtain information about the world. “Social media in this day and age cannot be ignored; it is now a critical part of presidential politics, it has been part of the revolutions in the Middle East and its going to be an unavoidable part of high-profile legal cases; just as traditional media continue to be” (Hochberg 1). The media have reached the peak of influence since the beginning;

In “Enough about You”, Brian Williams, journalist and anchor states that Americans became selfish and not interested in anything that does not involve them due to the use of the social media. He believes people will not be informed about crucial events around the world, because they will only read about things they care about: “with the ability to tailor our media consumption today to only those sources that reflect our already held view, we may be missing out on alternative perspectives ‘that citizens in an informed democracy need to know” (472). I believe Williams makes valuable points about negative influence of social media. However, in my opinion, this new technology platform has many positive aspects as well and I would like to describe them both in my essay.

With technology ever changing in today’s society, social media has become a driving force for people (especially the millennial generation) to educate themselves on current events, Canadian, and U.S. politics. As Arthur Siegel states in his book Politics and the Media in Canada, “the media, preoccupied with their own economic interests, have not placed sufficient emphasis on their political and social functions in society.” This does not necessarily mean that mainstream media (newspapers, magazines, radio) is irrelevant in the Canadian and U.S. political arena, but it does seem that they are losing touch with the Canadian and U.S. public and the technological advances. Siegel states that “even in the 19th century, electronic media was envisaged

The impact social media has had on American politics is undeniable. Because of social media it is now more difficult than ever to decipher between what is fact and what is fiction. This new form of political information sharing has left people more uncertain than ever before. Despite its downfalls, social media has had a massive impact on politics and it would be negligent to ignore it in its entirety, however social media should be used and consumed in moderation and in conjunction with other forms of

Social media like Facebook and Twitter have become more and more popular in recent times. Their popularity is creating new opportunities for data collection performed by the state and private companies like Google and Facebook. The point of this exercise is to outline a theoretical framework for defining monitoring social media in the context of today's society and understand its broader societal implications.

However, it seems that new media has created the opposite effect. The media is now characterised by self-interest, overwhelming advertising, as well as heavily managed and sorted information. Most notably, the shift from what used to be in the interest of the ‘public good’ to what is now largely for ‘private benefit’ (Jones, 2012, p. 15). This shift has contributed to the oversimplification of political news and policies. It has enforced a celebrity, cult like online culture, which often leads to the demise of important political figures.

Preview of Speech: Social media plays a huge role in our society, and it’s not a good thing. To understand its impact, we have to know a few things that come

In his article “How Social Media is Ruining Politics”, Nicolas Carr argues that the media of today is more “encompassing and controlling than ever before. (Carr 1)” Media can be manipulated in a way that allows a candidate to have a perceived excellent reputation. However, it can also provide the candidate with a disadvantage by misrepresenting their ideas. As James Fallows, author of “ Learning to love the (Shallow, Divisive, Unreliable) New Media”, points out, “If ideas are misrepresented, it becomes easier to lie. (Fallows 4)” Candidates can easily change the context of their message to make it more appealing on a social media platform. this change causes political issues to become an easily overlooked. He concludes that social media is primarily “used to create a warm emotional connection for a candidate rather than keeping the focus on issues that would help our country.(Carr)” In his article, “Beware of Online Filter Bubbles”, Eli Pariser expresses similar concerns to Carr. He concedes that popular internet mediums like Yahoo and Google “filter search results to fit the needs and intrests of the user. (Pariser)” The websites “filter in what users like and filter out what they dislike. (Pariser)” His concern is that “online media personalization causes important issues to be overlooked easily. (Pariser)” His research provides a

The media influences how people experience social life. Media such as newspaper, television and film, are important sources of information, education and entertainment. It can be used to learn more about the world and the people in it. In this regard it can be said that the media represent, interpret and endorse aspects of social experience (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2005). The media are also implicated in social regulation, or in other terms, the government of society. The media are implicated in government and politics in an obvious way because modern systems of democracy are conducted through the media. But the media have a bigger role to play in government by structuring how society is controlled and maintained.

Kaye is the professor in the School of Journalism & Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She studies the effects media has on consumers and how they use new technologies to get their information. Thomas J. Johnson got his Ph.D. at the University of Washington and he researches how people’s political attitudes and behaviors are affected by digital and social media. The topic discussed in the article is the influence media platforms have on the public’s interpretation on politics, which are the areas of expertise and research that the two authors work on. Kaye studies the technologies behind presenting information and Johnson studies the effects media can have on people’s attitudes and behaviors. This validates them both as credible sources. The article is published in a journal that specifically discusses broadcasting and electronic media, which also acts as the authors’ targeted audience––people familiar and interested in broadcasting and media. This is interesting, when the article talks about how some people can be tunnel visioned into believing only some sources and exposes the audience they’re writing

Kellner and Share, Peters, and Storey’s texts all exhibit themes of media and power in modern day society and how media influences culture. Kellner and Share’s “Critical Media Literacy, Democracy, and the Reconstruction of Education” emphasizes the role of critical media in communication and technology; whereas, Peters’ “The Facebook Purge” focuses on the network societies found on social media platforms. Storey’s second chapter in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture hones in on media’s corruption on people and how social classes become established. All three texts additionally have a focus on the importance of power in the media and its effects on an audience.

This dissertation aims to identify and explore the use of the different social media platforms, focusing on the impact that the rise of social media has had on journalism practices. In addition, this paper will examine the public’s responses to the news that they receive through social media platforms. Examples of social media platforms that this dissertation will include are; ‘Twitter’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘YouTube’ as scholars claim that these are the most frequently used sites in the 21st century.

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be considered mediums of what is produced, the media. One can look at the distinct similarities between those mediums, and mediums such as paper, the printing press, or film. Marshall McLuhan’s, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man proposes that the medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by