People use mass media for many different reasons, such as enjoyment, companionship, surveillance, and interpretation. In order for a person to interpret what mass media puts out, media literacy is applied. Media literacy allows the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a variety of forms while focusing on being able to interpret media messages and its effects in many different ways. This is done through audiences whom actively receive and process the medias messages. In Adrian Chen’s article, “Unfollow” the effects media technology has on people is brought to light through the story of a previous Westboro Baptist Church member, Megan Phelps-Roper, who became acclimated with Twitter. The unfiltered and controversial …show more content…
In “Unfollow,” Phelps-Roper’s experience and interaction with Twitter shows the effects of media technology on its consumers. Originally, the article identifies Phelps-Roper as a member of the Westboro Baptist Church who decided to take up Twitter after she read an article about a student who used his Twitter account to inform his friends that he was arrested while photographing riots. Phelps-Roper made a Twitter account in August of 2009 when Ted Kennedy died. This situation prompted the publication of her first tweet that celebrated Kennedy’s death stating “He defied God at every turn, teach rebellion against His laws. Ted’s in Hell!” When World AIDS Day Phelps-Roper realized her account began to reach numerous people because comedian Michael Ian Black, who had more than a million followers, had discovered her tweet on that day. Once her tweet was discovered by the comedian other people, such as “The Office” …show more content…
This effect of media technology is shown later in the article when Phelps-Roper began to create a significant relationship with the outside world. Through direct messaging and connecting on Twitter, Phelps-Roper began to create meaningful relationships with people that followed her and began to question what she really believes is true compared to the teachings of the Westboro Church. When actress Brittany Murphy died on December 20, 2009 Phelps-Roper was looking through her Twitter feed and saw how many people were mourning that she had died, and instead of going on Twitter to praise God for her death, she said “I felt like I would be such a jackass to go on and post something like that.” This showed the effect media technology had on Phelps-Roper because when she originally started tweeting she did not care what others thought but wanted to get the views of the Westboro Church out, but then after she had interacted with media technology she had changed. This is when her hesitance on this matter showed her growing compassion for the feelings of people outside of Westboro.
Eventually, the effect media technology had on Phelps-Roper created a divide between her personal view and the views of the people of Westboro and resulted in her leaving the Church. People use media technology today as an active audience,
The issues of how technology is influencing our nation today has come into play with social media and surveillance in our personal lives. We use twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to express our opinions on things and as a voice to inform people on what’s going on in today’s society. We have learned how to use the tools we’ve been given to change our lives forever; our government has access to all of our personal information in exchange for our protection against terrorism. In Bijan Stephen’s article on “Black Lives Matter” and Rebecca McKinnon’s chapter on “the Arab Spring”, they both touch on the power of technology in negative and positive ways.
Twitter and tear gas is authored by none other Tufekci Zeynep. A Turkish decent from the early 1950’s, Zeynep depicts how the media (twitter especially) has impacted our world. Zeynep is a Turkish writer, a sociologist, and also a programmer. She is known for her research in how technology and society intersects. Most of her work focuses on social interaction, social movement, and privacy and surveillance. She is a professor at the school of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and also the Department of Sociology. Her book Twitter and tear gas is a must read.
Throughout his book, Dobson mentions several examples of the effect of social media and mass media on dictatorship. For example, Dobson thoroughly talks about how a large group of people around the world quickly came together to protest against the dictatorship. This incident arose from “an anonymous call for a Chinese Jasmine Revolution…over social media and the Chinese equivalent of Twitter” (Dobson 50). Dobson later mentions that China’s senior leaders had a meeting on how they should control China’s mass and social media on the events happened in the Middle East, so that such incident would not occur in the future (50). This effect of social media and the ...
In response to James Fallows’ four premises in his “Learning to Love the (Shallow, Divisive, Unreliable,) New Media,” April 2011. I must say that while I want desperately to argue against his fears, as I am an optimist at heart, I cannot. I have turned this over and over and I have to say that with only a few points of specific contradiction, as a whole I agree. I believe that this is becoming an age of lies and idiocy. I agree that already there is a tendency for media to follow dollars instead of issues. I believe that we Americans are becoming more isolated. Finally, our ability to concentrate is not only undone by technology, but also by our own expectations to be entertained by the media. However, I do not think that the responsibility lies totally with the Gawker.coms of the world, but within ourselves. This is a trend that has been a long time coming. And, like a train down the track, it cannot be easily stopped.
Baran, Stanley J., and Dennis K. Davis. Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub., 1995. Print.
In an article captioned “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” Malcolm Gladwell, a writer for the New Yorker, and crowned one of Time magazine’s top 100 greatest influential people in 2005, argues that, social media is effective in uniting a large group for a cause, but ineffective in promoting high-risk activism.
David. "Mass Media and the Loss of Individuality." Web log post. Gatlog. N.p., 11 Sept. 2007. Web. 10 May 2014.
Rather than being a neutral conduit for the communication of information, the U.S. media plays an intricate role in shaping and controlling political opinions. Media is extremely powerful in the sense that without an adequate functioning media, it is virtually impossible for a sophisticated social structure like the U.S. Government to exist. Henceforth, all known sophisticated social structure, have always dependent upon the media’s ability to socialize. The U.S. government generally will exploit the media, often times manipulating the enormous power of the printed word. Ultimately empowering the U.S. government, strengthening it with the ability to determine and control the popular perception of reality. One way in which government achieves this objective, is by its ability to misuse the media’s ability to set the agenda. Contrary to popular belief, media is in fact an enormous hegemony. In fact, separate independent news organizations relatively do not exist. Rather than creating an independent structured agenda of there own, generally lesser smaller news organizations adapt to a prepared agenda, previously constructed by a higher medium. Based upon this information alone, it is quite apparent that media functions in adherence to the characteristics of a hierarchy. This simply means that media is structured in a way that it operates functioning from top to bottom. This is also identical to the hierarchical nature of the human body, in that from the commands of the brain transferred through the central nervous system, the body responds accordingly. In order for the U.S. government to control and determine the public’s popular perception of reality, the government must shape and oversee the information that the media reports to the existing populous. This particular process of democracy is known and referred to by political scientists as cognitive socialization. However, many of us, who do not adhere to the cushioning of political correctness, refer to it as the propaganda machine. Numerous political scientists consider cognitive socialization to be the most effective form of political socialization. According to theory, cognitive socialization is doctored up information, which is strategically fragmented in such a manipulative manner, that the probability of its rationalization is highly predictable. The manipulative properties of cognitive socialization are so diabolical and Machiavellian in nature, that I consider it to be the ultimate perversion of the democratic process. In all seriousness, numerous intellectuals, and gentleman held in good stature agree, that cognitive socialization is the product of an evil genius.
Mass Media. Ed. William Dudley. Farmington Hills, MI: Thompson Gale, 2005. 121-130.
... the concern of social limitations aren’t entirely present. Twitter provokes ignoring social standards and previous obsession with image in order to allow for greater ideological development, without going becoming too extraneous.
“Social media has also created an exciting outlet for the people to see news and stay updated on current events in the world” ("Are Social Networking Sites”). The majority of the media broadcast the troubles and trials the United States have and to some extent people could get ideas from the bad broadcast and could do the same things. Maybe if the media could limit the broadcast of bombing, gun shootings, killing police officers, and much more than all of it would gradually disappear.
Orenstein, Peggy. “I Tweet, Therefore I Am.” What Matters In America. Third Edition.Gary Goshgarian and Kathryn Goodfellow. New Jersey: Pearson, 2012. 40-43. Print.
Naturally, journalism would spill over to the Internet and as social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook grew in popularity, so did regular citizens involvement with sharing news. The argument can be made that the explosion of social media journalism was due to frustration from the lack of coverage of news that mattered to society. For example, the lack of subjective coverage of Michael Brown 's death helped with the creation of #BlackLivesMatter and spread of news related to African-American’s and other minorities across the country. After all, journalism is supposed to be a public forum. Millions of people on Twitter share their thoughts and opinions on several topics, furthering the conversation and to some degree challenging society. Things such as “Moments” on Twitter provide us with direct links and summaries to the world’s most important stories and encourage a conversation. According to journalism.org, 63% of users on Twitter and Facebook get their news from these websites. Even more eye opening is that 59% of users on Twitter keep up to date with news stories via Twitter while they are in the process of happening.[3] The rise of social media related journalism has caused some issues however. “Inevitably, as citizen involvement grows, more of our media culture is concerned with talking about news, instead of focusing on original reporting and the vetting of it.”[4] Because the general public has the ability to post as they wish and pass it off as news, it has affected the accuracy of many reports. Many stories lack reputable sources but are shared between millions as an accurate and true story. There are several websites designed to spread inaccurate information. The website www.fakenewswatch.com exists to inform people of these sites in order to avoid mishaps. Recently a Connecticut mom went viral for being involved in an online hoax
Lowrey, W. (2004). Media Dependency During a Large-Scale Social Disruption: The Case of September 11. Mass Communication & Society, 7, 3, 339-357.
"Journalists and Social Media | The Changing Newsroom." The Changing Newsroom | New Media. Enduring Values. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. .