Blog Post #4 – Public PLN & Media Literacy

The idea of having a private page on social media did not sit well with me at first. The nature of social media provides us with the opportunity to form a connected society based on mutual interest. For me, it was a world with no borderline. I opened my public page nine years ago. After one month, I got over a thousand followers, and more people followed me daily. It came out that the majority of my followers followed me for reasons like: to advertise their business, to get a follow back, to steal my identity and my pictures, to date me, etc. The lesson for me was that people have divergent interpretations of the app, and choose to participate as if it is a dating app or commercial brake. I was being targeted for those intentions. I was not educated to handle the situation, so I changed my public page to a private page and decided either accept or reject followers!

My intention of having social media was never to have a big audience or countless likes. I wanted to try citizen journalism. I wanted to build a community and be able to choose the topic of conversation. I wanted to be relevant in a medium that is becoming big and real as society itself.
Like a real society, social media have a variety of people. There are both risks and benefits to engaging with a public audience in a social media space. Some users are listeners, and others are active members. Some users are nice, and others manage to cross the line, no matter how sensitive or irrelevant the issue is. Some users are there for social marketing. Some want to be an influencer and others just want to keep in touch with their family worldwide. Having a public page is not everyone’s cup of tea. You are exposed to negative replies and critiques. I would ignore or block this group of people. Moreover, you might give away information that may compromise your security.

All of us as users should analyze media and understand both how and why media messages are constructed, and for what purposes. Dialogues about media literacy and factual information can create conflict. The conversation around fact-checking suggests that there’s only one truth. It can raise a concern about what is true or false and who said so. Other topic of interest is the freedom of speech. Do you think that offensive ideas and views can be freely shared?

Miller, J. [MILLER]. (2021, June 6). EDCI 338 – MEDIA LITERACY with JULIE SMITH [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57r3-aEnci0

Miller, J. [MILLER].(2022, June 6).Sophie Lui – EDCI 338 [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57r3-aEnci0