Blog post #7

Identify the risks and benefits of engaging with a public audience in a media space – what are the risks for a public figure or person in a position of trust (educator, lawyer, government official)?

The benefits of engaging in a public audience in media space are that you can connect, share, and support as well as engage in advocacy communications. Social media, especially when you are in a position of trust, gives you a platform to “preach” to the masses. Furthermore, your career associated with the position of trust such as being a lawyer can add credibility to your narrative. For example, a lawyer can publicly comment on the impeachment trial on his/her Twitter account (via general statement) as long as he/she is not directly associated with the case. Viewing the J.D. title behind the user’s name ensures the followers and readers that the user possesses legal understanding to comment on a legal case with accurate information.

As Jody Vance (2021) stated, reputation can take a lifetime to develop and create, but only “a heartbeat to break it”. This statement highlights the efforts it took for an individual to acquire a position of trust while acknowledging the impact their words can have, not only on the public but also on their own self. Now imaging the same scenario I presented prior, if the lawyer stating his/her opinion is false, media and followers can judge the lawyer harshly and view his/her credibility to be false and ineffective. His/her credibility is directly associated with his/her education in law, and distrust of his/her credibility projects him/her to be an inadequate lawyer. Furthermore, this incident can hinder his/her respect within the PLN and since one can see/observe/follow others’ PLN, the poor image of one PLN’s member can influence the image of all PLN members. This is one of the reasons why I, myself, am very careful in terms of what I post on the internet as almost anything on the web can either be downloaded or screen recorded, which can impact one negatively.

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

Social media is full of users from different backgrounds and societies. This diversity welcomes various opinions. For example, some people view success as having a lot of money and fame, while others as doing what they love. Sharing about your life on the web can make others post comments about your success, which really are just their opinion of what success is and how YOU do not fit in it. These opinions can make your “success [to be seen as] illusory” (Hirst, 2018). I use this example because, for me, success is me having my ideal life which is being financially independent and belonging in the 1% or upper class. In high school, sharing my perspective of what success means to me, welcomed criticism and statements which were “you will never be happy if you act like that” or “that’s a very materialistic and gross way of thinking about things”.

Upon hearing these comments, I knew I need to defend my own perspective because when one hears something a lot, he/she can be influenced by it and I did not want my ideology to change because others said so or deemed it, but rather if it changes, it should change from my own personal growth and understanding of the world. I handled these comments as always saying I respect their views and I ask that they respect mine and if they don’t, they can kindly choose to no longer associate with me. I truly believe that this is the best way of address negative replies because you always need to remember that you cannot defeat negativity negatively as that will just cause you to be negative – being the bigger person and showing respect is the most mature way in regards to staying true yourself and not giving in to the negativity impacting you.

How do notable individuals use social media?

I follow various celebrities on my social media platforms and all of these celebrities have well over two million followers. Knowing that you have large amounts of followers is directly proportional to the number of people who pay attention to you and your presence online.

In the modern world, to survive, one must have a stable income, and having a large fan base along with being in a position of trust and influence allows celebrities to find ways to influence their followers in hopes of obtaining brand deals for example. In my opinion, for notable individuals, as Vance (2021) said, “opportunity meets preparation” because most notable individuals portray their best image on the web because they do not have to lose their position of trust and influence they have online. By doing so, they create their platform with as large of a fan base as possible, since the more followers they can influence, the more likely a brand is to reach out to them. Furthermore, since they have a position of influence, many followers tend to take the notable individuals and their narratives at face value.

What are the benefits to being in the public eye and having a PLN?

Being in the public eye highlights whatever you do and say. This can be a blessing as you can share resources, thoughts, data, etc that you believe is good for people to know and for the betterment of society such as sharing about the benefits, safety, and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines. Furthermore, since being in the public eye gives you attention, you can use this attention to highlight the work your PLN has done for example such as specific projects or expand your PLN.

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

I do not have any experience building community online using tools provided by an employer. However, at my current job, we do have a group chat where all the employees in our department are added. Furthermore, managers are not present, added, or welcomed in the chat because, in a workplace, it is actively reminded that you must act appropriately and at times, in a specific manner, when your managers are around since they hold a supervisory position over you. This creates a very stressful vibe at work. Therefore, the group chat allows as a way for co-workers to let go of the whole “suit and tie” personality and engage with each other as friends. Thus, in our chat, we share memes, funny videos, and occasionally gossip but the only perceived restriction is that you must remember to stay behavior appropriately because just cause your managers can see what you say and do, doesn’t mean no one else can.

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

Disclosure, justification, accurate explanations, and welcome of criticism are crucial to building a PLN that one can rely on. Disclosure allows us and what we share to be seen as genuine which elevates the credibility and trustworthiness that others have towards you. Justification is crucial because in a PLN, for growth and learning to occur, the reasoning behind the theory, for example, must be well understood and justified. Furthermore, justification can only be well accepted if it is provided with logical and accurate explanations. Lastly, PLN and information shared within the PLN can and should evolve over time as the world around us evolves. Thus, with evolution, individuals can develop different understanding and begin critiquing things using the newer or more relevant information. Rather than viewing criticism from a negative and hostile point of view, one must welcome criticism because criticism allows one to see things with a new pair of lens. Also, criticism welcomes growth and evolution which is needed for making a PLN genuine and reliable.

How do those, who are veteran story tellers, minimize risk in sharing misinformation?

For veteran storytellers, it can likely be assumed that he/she has told a or a specific story numerous times. With this, he/she should have an opinion on how the story was perceived and what details about the story were beloved. The thing all storytellers, in my opinion, keep in mind that is they are TELLING A STORY, not their rendition of a story or their opinions about the story. Opinions can welcome strong words which can influence a listener whether intentionally or unintentionally. A professor I had in my second year once said during a lecture, “you must know how to read the room…you must know your audience”. For storytellers, they should know what story to tell and what to share since doing so is the only way for them and their stories to be welcomed and appreciated by the listeners. For example, a storyteller would and should not share a story about nazi propaganda to grade 3 students or share his/her opinions on the communist manifesto to chemistry students.

References: 

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

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