Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA SITES 1
SOCIAL MEDIA SITES 6
An Analysis of Social Media News Platforms and Sites
Student’s Name:
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An Analysis of Social Media News Platforms and Sites
Thoughts on the Social Media Platform(s) Studied
The social media platforms I studied are Facebook and Twitter, on which leading media companies have accounts. The media firms post news updates, which can be accessed by subscribers and followers (Muise et al., 2009). Although the two sites suffice for sharing information, they have significantly different uses. Facebook, in my view, includes casual engagements and the portrayal of personal lives through practices such as posting updates of photos. Twitter, on the other hand, involves more official engagements with subscribers posting informative and somewhat educative content. In the context of Twitter, hardly do people post photos of private life in a bid to attract comments and likes. News media, however, register accounts on both Facebook and Twitter due to the fact that both platforms have numerous users, who represent the target audience.
The Practices Observed
In the course of visiting the sites, I made multiple observations, one of which is information types that receive widespread user attention. In this case, my observation was that information that related to crimes received widespread attention. The indicator of increased attention, in the case of Facebook, was the number of likes and comments that people made to news posts that involved crime. Therein, users even resort to sharing the information on crime until it reaches the agencies that are charged with responding to such occurrences. The other information category that I realized receives widespread attention is that which relates to celebrities. In the context, whenever the media house posted information regarding celebrities, regardless of the topic, subscribers that either identify with the artist or disapprove their conduct would make numerous comments. The other category of news that receives exceptionally high attention levels is politics. In the case, my observation is that the users perpetuate political debates on account of holding differing political views, whereby some users will support an assertion made, while others will oppose it. An unwarranted situation in such cases, however, is that the platforms exhibit considerably high levels of a lack of control in that it is commonplace for people to hurl insults against others or make derogatory statements against a group of people (Mehdizadeh, 2010). Some other news categories do not receive high attention levels, a common example therein being religious content. The only exception is when the religious content posted presents the potential for people to hold sides, thus, engage in a debate or heated exchange of words. On response to religious updates, I observed that women have a predisposition to respond to religious content when compared to men. An observation that is specific to twitter sites is that responses to content involve a great deal of professionalism and decorum with little or no cases of insults or character assassination.
Regulations
The sites involve some form of regulation that guides the activities that one may engage in on the platforms. A regulation that I noted is reporting content that is believed to be obscene to the support team. The mode of regulation applies to content posted on the platforms or derogative comments posted in response to some updates. In the context, the support team examines the content that it receives complaints against to consider whether to block it from access by viewers (Phua et al., 2017). If they consider the complaint to be valid, the support team blocks the content and censures the user that posted such content. The approach may seem to be effective for the control of malicious use activities on the platforms. My view, however, is that a more effective approach may be essential in the context for the censoring of content before it is viewed by other users.
An Analysis of Ethical Concerns
A remarkable attribute of the sites and platforms is that they do not exhibit any bias tendencies. As an illustration, all users and subscribers to a news feed have equal opportunities to view the content posted by a media house without the potential for discrimination. In like manner, the subscribers have equal opportunities to respond to the content that is posted by the media houses. Furthermore, all media companies, regardless, of regional background enjoy unlimited access to the sites as well as interactions with their target audience. Conversely, no form of patronage exists as no users are considered superior to others.
Culture of the Respective Sites
As mentioned previously, Twitter and Facebook exhibit different cultures. In terms of response to content that is considered inappropriate by a user, Facebook users tend to lose objectivity and support the users that they have common characteristics with. Such is the case for political posts and racial sentiments that a group of people may raise complaints against. The users, however, unite to rebuke obscene posts, examples of which are nudes, where morality appears to override political and cultural affiliations (Phua et al., 2017). Mockery, however, appears to be the order of the day on Facebook. Turning to Twitter, users exhibit a great deal of objectivity in response to the content that is highlighted as being inappropriate. The objectivity, however, does not mean the absence of criticism and open mockery based on an individual’s views. In the case of undisputed vices such as racism, however, users unite against the perpetrators in calling for action.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Twitter and Facebook are two social media platforms that media companies employ to reach the intended audiences. The two platforms, however, exhibit some differences regarding users therein. As an illustration, Twitter users exhibit professionalism, while Facebook involves a great deal of casual interactions. The content that users respond to, in significantly high numbers, include politics, crime, and information on celebrities, while religious content receives the least attention. The regulation approach used therein is that of reporting users and content that is considered inappropriate to the support team. A commendable attribute of the platforms is that they do not involve any biases against users, both individuals, and firms.
References
Mehdizadeh, S. (2010). Self-presentation 2.0: Narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and social networking, 13(4), 357-364.
Muise, A., Christofides, E., & Desmarais, S. (2009). More information than you ever wanted: Does Facebook bring out the green-eyed monster of jealousy?. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(4), 441-444.
Phua, J., Jin, S. V., & Kim, J. J. (2017). Gratifications of using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat to follow brands: The moderating effect of social comparison, trust, tie strength, and network homophily on brand identification, brand engagement, brand commitment, and membership intention. Telematics and Informatics, 34(1), 412-424.