I always believed social media is a giant cluster of people sharing their opinions, desires, glimpses of their personality and interest, and more often, hilarious yet overused memes. But upon watching the interview with Markiel Simpson, and comparing as well contrasting the interview with the reading  A New Vision for Public Media, I have realized that social media is a giant bubble that is strongly associated with advocacy and information (as well as some internet behaviors) sharing are connected with this sense of advocacy that is prominent on the web.

It is this sense of advocacy that makes social media such as Twitter, a substantial zone full of individuals sharing their beliefs, thoughts, and opinions with strong passion and charisma. “Open, and digital public media will be an essential feature of truly democratic public life” (Clark & Aufderheide, 2013), and social media achieves precisely this! One of the most prominent features of democracy is the freedom of speech and the right to express yourself, beliefs, opinions, and faith! On social media, using Twitter as an example, hashtags are a medium that allows an individual to search posts and information that are similar, if not the same, as their beliefs and find the information they desire. For example, on Facebook, in my first year when I was enrolled in chemistry and biology classes, I search for ‘UVic Biology 184’, and numerous groups showed up, from which I joined the ones that we were created in my corresponding academic year. And this is the social media practiced the essential components of democracy (freedom of speech) as it allowed us, students, to express our learning in a safe environment and ask questions as a way to succeed and we all benefitted from our correspondence; hence, we succeeded together which is what a democracy aims to do, succeed together!

Furthermore, advocacy communications aim to influence specific audiences. Now, because social media makes it easy to find individuals, groups, pages, and information regarding specific topics (using hashtags), any traffic conducted on social media can impact any user, and this results in a change in the user’s mentality, hence, social media becomes a great platform to not only reach out to individuals and share developing theories and/or recent understandings/developments but also influence the present and future minds that will lead the world. Also, social media shares aids in “educating, informing, and mobilizing users” (Clark & Aufderheide, 2013), and as we all know, education is always changing, for example, look at how we are studying now, and how education has transformed, starting from all in-class learning to conducting discussions, writing blogs, and participating in zoom lectures. Hence, as the material shared on the web is changing and transforming as time progress, users’ mentality who affiliated with social media is constantly changing as well thus, resulting in growth within a society to occur all via virtual manner. Therefore, going back to advocacy communications, because social media continues its stay active regarding its goal of educating and informing users, and the material shared online is constantly evolving, social media, hence, is capable of influencing people, in both broad and tight niches and because of this, social media actively partakes in advocacy communications and the practices of sharing associated with social media further promote advocacy.

One thing to keep in mind is that because you can post ALMOST anything you wish online from opinions to comments to statements, social media can also become a toxic environment. An example of this is the ‘cancel culture’, where people aim to destroy a user’s social image due to a mistake/issue that arises or is known publicly. Furthermore, as online communities such as YouTubers grow, it welcomes certain people and their beliefs to be strongly highlighted by and to the general media. This has both positive and negative impacts on advocacy communications. From a positive point of view, an influencer can use his/her resources and fame to shine a light on matters that are important as a way to progress the growth within the society, but from a negative point of view, sharing any comment or belief by an influencer will gather support from certain public regardless. Thus, in both scenarios, advocacy communication is being supported and promoted, but it is important to know how appropriate a statement that is being promoted is, as failing to do so can result in a negative effect on society and mass media.

I wholeheartedly agree and share a similar experience with Simpson on two matters which he stated during his interview, the growth of his PLN and the attention social media brought to his work. Similar to Simpson, my PLN grew gradually as well. I remember being a student in 3rd year thinking “I will be graduating soon, I should make some connections” and I started conversing more with my friends. The next thing I know, a professor in my faculty emails me asking me to meet with him for a potential research opportunity.

Regarding social media highlighting mine and Simpson’s work, I aimed to create a club last summer as a way to help people socialize since due to the pandemic, many were left lonely. To make a club, you need 10 signatures + V-numbers. I was afraid I won’t get that and posted about my goal on UVic-related groups on Facebook. I checked three hours later and I had 2 signatures… I was sad as I felt like my goal wouldn’t be fulfilled. However, the next day, I had 30 signatures!!! Furthermore, Uvic-related pages and clubs reached out to me to help me promote my potential club on their handles. Ultimately, I had 97 signatures and currently have about 80 members in my club! This story highlights the power of social media and how it can aid in spreading information to vast groups of people and various online communities. Both me and Simpson have experienced this and our experience serves as proof that social media is essential for the growth of an idea, and it can influence people by practicing advocacy communication.

Furthermore, Simpson stated that authenticity aided in the growth of his PLN, and I wholeheartedly support this claim. In my past blogs as well as my communications with my social pod, I have repeatedly stated that to obtain a healthy, developing, and stable PLN, one must be open with experience and communication. I grew my club, and my PLN by associating it with the club members, by being authentic with fellow students on UVic groups about my idea, plan, needs, and goals! Furthermore, because I practice authenticity with my PLN, it creates a chain reaction where my PLN members aim and partake in practicing authenticity which welcomes various opinions, topics, and discussions which is essential for the growth of a PLN. Literally, last night, I was face timing my best friend who still lives in India and he asked me “Can you explain to me why the BLM movement is so important?” Growing up in India, we did not know about systemic racism or had experienced racism ourselves. Because I am open about everything and share anything and everything I desire, my friend did the same and asked about BLM and I educated him about it. This resulted in him learning more and something important which not only promoted his understanding of the world but will also come up in the future during his discussion with his peers furthering their growth (if they didn’t know about BLM). Hence, this now will become a chain reaction!

Ultimately, what I took away from the reading is the importance and practice of advocacy communication and how it allows growth to happen in an online environment, which results in growth within the society. Furthermore, Simpon’s interview highlighted that I and him have shared some similar experience and if we both have experienced it, chances are many others have experienced the same thing with social media. This put the idea of “we are all connected” into perspective for me because we all know that social media allows us to stay connected or makes us stay connected but we only rarely REALIZE that we are CONNECTED!

References:

Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P. (2013). A New Vision for Public Media – Open, Dynamic, and Participatory. In J. Pooley, L. Taub-Pervizpour, & S. C. Jansen (Authors), Media and social justice (pp. 55-67). New York: Palgrave.

Simpson, Markiel. “EDCI 338 – 2021 – 02 – 22 MARKIEL SIMPSON.”  21 Feb. 2021. doi: https://youtu.be/yCSpm1Lx8-A