Social Media and Society Final Project: Literature Review

The primary works of literature that will be examined and reviewed are based upon the social media phenomena and work closely with the idea of the union of this with politics and societal opinions. It will only support and bring more importance to why this issue needs to be discussed once more in a serious conversation and why it is not simply feminist bitching or millennial whining because we got too many trophies as small children on parentally dominated recreational sports teams. The question that is being asked throughout is if what we know about rape culture has changed due to this recent populist presidential nominee and the things that he has made overtly clear  that he stands for, and the social media interactions and conversations that have occurred in reaction to this.

This analysis appropriately begins in Chapter 8 The Influence of User-Controlled Messages on Candidate Evaluations of the book Controlling the Message by Farrar-Meyers and Vaughn. “The rise of social media as a potent political force in campaign politics played a major role in journalistic analyses of the 2012 presidential election,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled Messages on Candidate Evaluations). It has been agreed that President Obama was the first president to use social media, namely Twitter, as we know it now, and this social media use has only increased since then, as seen with Trump. This rise in social media use in presidential and political settings translates into the amount and speed of audience response to the content shared, in this case, by Trump in relation to the topic of rape culture. “The main purpose of social media is to provide users the ability to communicate with others in the same digital space,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled Messages on Candidate Evaluations). This is the trend that arises for all topics within the social media platform, and this is no different for the topic of rape culture. “…social media offers users an unprecedented amount of control over the message environment…The ease of communication through these platforms has facilitated broad-ranging political discussion and activity,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled…). This environment that is surrounding rape culture has changed due to the rhetoric of Trump and the turning to social media to further spread this rhetoric. Many people turn to social media platforms as a way to find others who are like-minded in order to find a sense of comfort and safety, especially with our current presidential nominee and the hatred and fear he has inspired. Turning to Facebook, President Obama made a mark on this social media platform as well. “Politicians such as Barack Obama have started to capitalize on the possibility that familiar networks will have greater social influence through social media,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled…). Trump capitalizes heavily off of the comfort and format of Twitter and in becomes a raging, old, orange Twitter troll that comes out to cause destruction at three in the morning.

In Chapter 8 of The Social Media Reader by Michael Mandiberg the concept of trolling arises in how it has become more prevalent and a culture of its own in social media. The evolution of phreaking, to hacking, to trolling is viewed in conjunction with politics and Internet culture in order to examine the cause and effect relationship.  “In recent times, the aesthetic of audaciousness has veritably exploded with the Internet trolls—a class of geek whose raison d’etre is to engage in acts of merciless mockery/flaming or morally dicey pranking. These acts are often delivered in the most spectacular and often in the most ethically offensive terms possible,” (Coleman; Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls). In regards to the tweets and Facebook posts analyzed, they are more angry, upset in an attempt to educate, rather than of a trolling nature. I am sure that there are trolls out there who are wreaking havoc on any platform possible, but the majority of the posts that have been accessible, they are not of this nature. It could be debate that ignorance could be confused with trolling, and therefore a miscommunication of ethical substance could be at hand. “The question that remains, or course, is whether there is any ethical substance to these spectacular antics, especially those of the troll, whose spectacle if often generated through merciless mocking, irrelevant pranking, and at times, harassment,” (Coleman; Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls). Does ignorance count as trolling? At the rate in which it arises, it should. However, this persona of the trickster or the troll can be argued that it serves as an “alibi, a defense, or an apology for juvenile, racist, or misogynistic behavior,” (Coleman, Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls). In some cases I believe this may be true, but there is simply too much content that is being born each day on social media to have a truly accurate knowledge of the statistics behind the motives.

This idea of trolling is able to make a connection with ‘flaming’, which is what Dr. Steven Vrooman discusses in his article The Art of Invective; Performing identity in cyberspace. “There are many definitions of this phenomenon. In essence, flaming can be defined as the use of invective and/or verbal aggressiveness in computer-mediated communication (CMC),” (Vrooman). Trump can be seen as using invective language throughout his campaign; namely on Twitter if we are focusing on the CMC aspect of this. This flaming only enhances the hate and ignorance-filled platform that he speaks from and makes individuals s in society feel as if it is acceptable for them to participate in similar behavior. Trump is participating in by speaking and carrying himself in this way is a performance of sorts; it is hard to know exactly if this is his genuine character, or an enhanced shade of who he truly is, but his consistency leads more towards the first. This performance is, as Vrooman describes, “The perspective offered here is that flaming is part of what Bell calls ‘the most virulent contest on-line’, the creation, maintenance, and performance of identity (Plotz and Bell, 1996: 183),” (The Art of Invective).

Moving to the third and final point that revolves around books used from class assignment and discussion, Chapter 8 of Controlling the Message is examined once more. As with anything else, everything must be put into context in order to understand it for what it truly is, as unattached from bias and distortion of intention as possible. “Given past findings that political communication can influence candidate perceptions in given context of ads, news media, and debates, we expect social media political communication to have some effect on candidate evaluations,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled…). These perceptions are automatically distorted for each individual due to the political party they affiliate with. For Trump supporters, anything racist, sexist, misogynistic, or white supremacist that comes out of his mouth or arises on his social media feeds is probably something that they agree with, for they voted for him, and they perceive what he says as honest, going against the grain (government), and he is going to make things great again (if you are a wealthy white man). These perceptions that Trump supporters have created about him and what he says have transferred into the discussion of rape culture. If Trump denies that sexual assault, rape culture, sexism, and misogyny, are real aspects of our society, it would make sense that his followers would agree with this thwarted logic. The rising of Trump has brought out the inner Trump in millions of people across the country and this only hinders the discussion and perception of rape culture as compared to discussions and perceptions the past. This future is not leading us forward, but backwards, perhaps decades. However this may translate differently due to the data I have found via social media. 

“Since campaign communication is inherently context dependent, any effect of social media communication should also be tied to a specific context,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled…). I think this context is what is lost when the discussion and perception of rape culture arises. Many want to defend Trump and themselves, for no one wants to say they are a racist, misogynist, sexist, or supporter of sexual assault and rape, so they throw out the context and try to make empty justifications for their beliefs and for Trumps platform. A perfect example of this is provided in this chapter that revolves around rape culture as well. “For example, discussion of Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin’s controversial remarks about “legitimized rape” (e.g., Lieb 2012) should have a negative effect on his standing because the context of the conversation is not positive for him,” (Hawthorne and Warner, The Influence of User-Controlled…). This is exactly what has and does happen for Trump. Things that he says in regards to sexual assault and rape culture should hurt him significantly in regards to followership and number of votes he received, but this was not the case, for he won the election. He won. He actually won. 
I also examined various articles from Huffington Post, as well as from NY Mag, The New York Times, and The Atlantic that had compiled Trump rhetoric or had expanded upon it. These sources may not be purely academic, but I believe that they offer important and valid insight to social and political dynamics that everyday people may be experiencing, rather than a select audience. They simply added another layer of depth to the data that I had already accumulated. 

I think that this uncovers truths about our society that was encouraged by a leader who is unsettlingly ignorant and dangerous in his way of thinking to become proud for their own ignorance and to then share this ignorance via social media. Many are thriving with the falsities and ignorance that Trump is spouting, for it allows them to remain comfortable in the small, uneducated boxes that they have grown to adulthood in, and have never strayed. This clinging to the “ good old days”, religious “truths”, and fighting back against the perceived unfairness of the government with Trump as the prodigal leader is a common theme. As Women’s Studies and English professor, Dr. Pamela Johnston suggests in an interview I conducted with her on this topic, "In the end, misogyny won the day. Which just goes to show that, as a culture, we still have a lot of work to do,” (Johnston). 

These are the same individuals who view silent protesting as whining and that it shouldn’t be happening. When it comes to social media, there is not really a beginning or an end, but rather a constant ebb and flow of information and opinions; in this case, the election and the conversation that it has spurred. This contributes to our definitions and perceptions of realities like rape culture that are consistently discredited and not given the proper level of seriousness and concern, but are also advocated for in a surprising amount as well. 

Social Media and Society Final Project: Introduction

In the tumultuous wake of the recent presidential election, there have been many masked truths and hidden realities that have been unveiled in various facets in the society that we thought we knew and certain enlightened realities of the world that many have collectively attempted to deny. One of these facets in which truth has been revealed is in the realm of social media and the conversations that arise from this community of online interaction in regards to social and political stimulation from the election. The rhetoric that has been projected from the platform of president-elect Donald Trump has been consistent in its ability to draw overt and covert negativity, ignorance, and hatred in our society. This ability has made its presence known not only throughout this election cycle, but even after his nomination, and has been one that has struck a chord of fear, sadness, anger, and betrayal within the hearts and lives of so many, often due to the realities that have arisen among friends, family, co-workers, and even the nation as a whole. 

One of these realities is the examination of rape culture by society collectively as we have moved through this time of political change. The conversations that have arisen in social media due to the election and the wordage that has been associated with women has heightened the feelings and portrayals of sexism and misogyny not only in everyday interaction, but overwhelmingly in the social media sphere. This connotation towards women, largely due to the language used by Donald Trump, has brought forth many negative opinions that are believed to now be justified because of its use by Trump himself, in association with rape culture that either deny it, humor its existence, condone it, victim blame, and so many other appalling things that only ensure its reality and heartbreaking presence in our society today. 

It would be inaccurate to say that these cynical and dismissive views towards rape culture has come up due to this election cycle alone and the climate that Trump has singlehandedly assisted in creating, for controversy over rape culture has been prevalent since there have been divided political parties, a legal system, and the ability for humans to lie unapologetically and be stagnant in their education of social and political issues. Even in our time of seemingly updated and progressive social and ethical thinking, we as a society still have not reached a consensus of what rape culture is, how it affects not only the victims and perpetrators, but our world collectively, and why it is something that must be understood, made aware, and worked against in hopes of victory and safety. 

These dated understandings of rape culture have been made all too known on in our society, but is this true on social media platforms, namely Twitter and Facebook? There is an innumerable amount of content on both sites that potentially supports this change, the issue is simply finding it. This is not simply a feminist issue, a womanist issue, a race issue, ethnicity issue, gender issue, religious issue, or political party issue, but a human one. This is a potential change that we need to pay attention to in order to truly know how much progress we are making socially, if even at all. 

The view of rape culture has been able to be manipulated by so many ill informed and ignorant minds in past and present history, one that is to soon lead our country, and the fallout is showing up in one of the most influential, available, and prevalent forms of communication in the world, for better or for worse. To examine this activity via social media, we delve into the controversy firsthand, on Twitter and Facebook, to attempt to gain further understanding as to how the election has changed the rhetoric and view of rape culture since the beginning of the presidential election, specifically in correlation with the messages that Donald Trump has stated and supported in regards to this topic of rape culture and women in general. The expectation to find clear answers or solutions is not realistic, so this research would be better suited as being described as a social examination. 

The inspiration behind this analysis of choice was not simply due to personal conviction or disagreement, but due to personal interaction with others via Facebook in recent months on the misunderstanding and ignorance of this topic of rape culture. Uneducated political jargon was thrown wildly and irrevocably connected the conversation to the election and the high running tensions and shaky belief system that so many keep attempting to prove true. In attempting to prove this false misinterpretation of rape culture true, the reality of rape culture is distorted and sometimes distinguished, along with the voices and experiences of those who have felt this pain and hurt firsthand. The personal witness of victim blaming from those who I thought I could trust the most, in conjunction with the most recent presidential turmoil, this gave a sense of revelation and hopefully cleared away any naivety I had left in relation to this subject.

  So the question is how the perception of rape culture has changed since the genesis of Trumps’s destructive campaign, due to the culmination of all of his jaded ideas and words, to now with Trump as our newly elected president, and how his rhetoric has assisted in making this change, if any. An overt move of the government to continue to silence the voices of women? No, not quite. But a man who is not yet in office yet has led a majority of the nation by storm and has effectively closed the mouths of so many, due to his election, who now may believe, even more than before, that their voices will never be heard or given merit, or has he? I think that he has simultaneously opened the mouths of many who were once quiet, regardless of the reasoning. Trump as awoken a sleeping beast and that beast is making its presence known on social media. The examination to how society is perceiving and discussing the topic of rape culture on social media platforms is not an examination that will end in concrete evidence, but will rather provide an idea in how our culture and society may be shifting, for better or for worse. 
I think it is important to be aware of the shifts that take place both on and off of the Internet, for so much of our world now exists within the bounds of a computer or phone screen. We are able to see life unfold like never before, in ways that we cannot in real, physical life. It never hurts to learn more about your surroundings, especially the truth of them. This analysis is the working towards a certain truth, even if that truth will change tomorrow with newest and latest news, trend, or tragedy. 

I Guess This Is The End...Or Is It?

This post serves the purpose of laying a framework for the next five posts that will follow. This blog was created and utilized for the purpose of learning and exploring social media and societal connections in COMM 339 and it is now time to culminate all of the knowledge learned into the form of a final project in blog form. The project will be posted in five separate blog posts that relay an argument with data analysis via social media, namely via Twitter and Facebook, and various sources of literature, both text and news articles.

I will be exploring and arguing the effects that the current political climate, due to the rhetoric used and the platform established by presiedent-elect Donald Trump, has in regards to the perceptions and conversations revolving around rape culture. This topic of choice has roots in personal interest, experience, concern, social prevalence, and educational history within my own degree.

A significant transition in analysis and use of social media is being made within this project, for it is no longer just being reformatted within the bounds of what was learned in class, but is being expanded to more unique topics that are of personal interest. The totality of the five posts together are lengthy, but this is due to my attempted thoroughness and ample examples of what I observed on the social media platforms that I chose to use.

My hope is that this series of posts only leads to further research and participation with topics such as this in the future, for no exact end is met, but rather ponder on for the future changes in political and social climate. It is a topic that unfortunately can be revisited time and time again.

Share It and Spread It...The Media!

The everlasting debate of what works on social media in the shareable and spreadable sense of interaction or response with an audience is the main inspiration and focus for this discussion. Depending on what source you consult with, you will usually get a different answer each time for what types of content will always get shared, regardless of audience. “...the spread of all forms of media relies as much (or more) on their circulation by the audience as it does on their commercial distribution, that spreadability is determined by processes of social appraisal rather than technical or creative wizardry and on the active participation of engaged audiences,” (Spreadable Media). When paired with the audience and producers of each set of content further engines, changes, and creates mass and popular culture. According to Jenkins, Ford, and Green in Spreadable Media, this list looks as follows:


-Uncertainty: Pick any news station. Seriously, any of them. This stuff sells.

-Shared fantasy: This can be G to R rated fantasy. Dream vacations to dream hookups with anime Star Wars characters dressed as furries...well I guess that would just be Chewbacca..scratch that, but you get the point.

-Humor- You know those videos of people falling off of buildings, flying off of rope swings, catapulting off of overexcited trampolines, being attacked by the collateral damage of a 5 year old trying to break a piñata with a baseball bat? They are humorously satisfying and pleasurable regardless of the pain factor. Humans, what masochists.

-Unfinished content- There are various artists that you can find on any social media platform where they thrive off of creating large projects that are released in small bits at a time. The trick is that it is interesting enough that their targeted audience for them to wait for the next round of sharing and will even pay for the content that is being created. One of the best and most unique examples that comes to mind are artists and couple Mitch Gobel and Sally Mustang who together create an ongoing art exhibit about sexual experience and defying social norms.

Next to the man I love, in front of what we create when we are together. This piece especially is a complete mixture of mine and Mitch's creative energy merging together. To view this piece along with our whole new collection, come join us for our exhibition 'Paradise Valley' if you are interested in making a private booking to see / purchase any of the original pieces, I urge you to get in contact asap with Mitch: mitch@mgracorporation.com tickets to the opening night of the exhibition are nearly sold out, jump online now if you would like to fill last few spots- - 12th of Nov held at @tradertrove Miami, Gold Coast QLD. ( it's over 18 as we have a few sneaky surprises ) Link for the last few tickets is in my bio ✨

A photo posted by Sally Mustang (@sallymustang) on Oct 30, 2016 at 2:32pm PDT

Mystery- Paranormal things, haunted objects or houses, Netflix series, clowns...Trump... 

-Timelines- The current presidential election is one timeline that has everyone spreading and sharing until their brains explode and even their mothers won’t support them anymore. No more likes for you, Bobby, this isn’t you, those liberals have brainwashed you.

-Activism- Feminism, Black Lives Matter, the current pipeline controversy on Native American reservations, LGBTQ rights, vegetarian and veganism, and the list goes on.


Now, when comparing this to a list that our COMM 339 class created together, that we believed was most shareable and spreadable from our perspectives in the social media world, you can see some similarities based on the genre rather than the specifics of what is shareable. Each personal list will vary depending on each student’s experience with social media, their level of involvement, and specific interests in either platform or content, but the collective list as a class looks as follows:


-Practical or Life Hacks - Facebook is one of the main platforms that shares content like this in super short and inedible shareable videos or picture collaborations. There are specific brands or content creators that have recognized this shareable nature of this genre of social media culture if you will.

Follow @lifehack 😬😬😬😬 Source: Reddit #DIY #Awesome #cool #craft #love #like #20likes #amazing #smile #iphone #look #swag #girl #boy #followme

A photo posted by Life Hack (@lifehack) on Nov 3, 2016 at 11:18am PDT

-Relatable or Personal- Tumblr poetry feeds or sappy relationship tweets.

-Cute- Animal videos, baby videos (I don’t know why), cutesy relationship things that are just depressing if you’re single, etc are all under the cute umbrella.

-Shocking or Breaking- This is just renaming Uncertainty from the previous list.

-Scary- More clowns....Trump. Okay, okay I digress.

-Celebrity- For some reason people still are interested in Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

-Contests/Giveaway- Free stuff? Count us in. Even if nothing is truly free, we like to believe this Utopian falsehood anyway.

-Trolling -Also called “roasting”. Extra crispy to the point of disintegration is the desired roast level.

We can see a few consistencies, but quite a few dissimilarities just between the interpretation of shareability from two groups who study the same type of social media content. This may be due to age, qualification at this point in life, the types of social media that we are interested in personally, and the list goes on. According to Spreadable Media, all media needs certain qualities in order to be spreadable. It needs to be “available when and where audiences want it”, “portable”, “easily reusable in a variety of ways”, and “part of a steady stream of material”. This isn’t a guaranteed formula of success of course, but the success rate of the shareability of posts is greatly increased if these aspects are implemented.

I am able to create my own list of aspects that I personally think are the most shareable or spreadable on most social media platforms Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, etc, by examining what culture means to me in a social media sense. According to Fiske, “audiences “pluralize” the meanings and pleasures [mass culture] offers, evade or resist its disciplinary efforts, fracture its homogeneity or coherence, raid or poach upon its terrain” and that people produce culture when they integrate products and texts into their everyday lives,” (Spreadable Media). Whether it is mass culture or popular culture depends on who is in control. “Under the producer’s control, it is mass culture. Under the audience’s control, it is popular culture,” (Spreadable Media). My list would look as follows:

Cultural Connections - A great example of this which is currently happening is Wurstfest in New Braunfels, Texas. There is a huge cultural connection that people have with each other, on and off of social media, based off of familiarity, experience, and enjoyment.

Tragedy and Love- Just read ancient social media. Yes, I am talking about Shakespeare. Nothing has changed.

Politically Stimulating Topics/Issues- Politically stimulating issues will always, always be shareable as long as there are polarized political parties, religions, social classes, genders, etc. This aspect can extend towards the Activism aspect previously mentioned.

Okay, it can be funny too...

I'm nervous, I think they all have flaws as presidents, But you gotta choose the better of two evils and also, Government, Stop letting Hillary get away with her emails. - - - - - - - #meme #memes #dankmeme #dankmemes #funny #comedy #joke #lol #lmao #editranked #rofl #lmfao #haha #dank #spongebob #president #politics #isupporttrump #hillaryforprison #garyjohnson #jillstein

A photo posted by Erik || Aries (@sirtrashington) on Nov 6, 2016 at 8:52pm PST

Social Circles- Depending on the social media community that is interacting, the level of shareability and spreadability changes. This is similar to the cultural connections aspect. The spreadability and shareability of my posts varied depending on how it relates to my multiple social circles; high school circles, college circles, friend circles, interest circles, and the like.

My list is shorter, but my aspects have more of an umbrella functionality rather than being specific.  Each aspect can branch out into other channels that are connected by relevancy and cultural influence. Shareability and spreadability is different for each social media user, but if the content itself is grounded in the basic principles described in Spreadable Media, you’ll experience more successful spreading and sharing much quicker.

The Analysis of Facebook Pages of Small Businesses in Texas; What Works?

     It is one thing to examine social media activity on a grand scale, disconnected from your immediate environment, social circles, or everyday culture, but it is another to look at the social media of individuals or businesses that you interact with personally on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. By examining the social media feeds of local businesses in my community, and in other small town in Texas, I have been able to diagnose what strategies or types of posts either are successful or not for this specific area, population, or simply the business itself via likes, shares, and comments. There is no fix all to make sure a post will be successful or interesting for the audience you are trying to reach, but you can try to simulate the professionals in certain ways that bests reaches the audience your area. For example, social media guru Guy Kawasaki.

     Guy explains specific social media strategies in the article Guy Kawasaki's 10 Tips for a Perfect Social Media Post that can be used to improve the success rate of the posts that you share to various social media platforms. The platform that I focused on specifically during this analysis of local Texas businesses occurred primarily on Facebook, and Guy provides tips for this platform as well. The pages of the bushinesses that I analyzed would function as a brand page where a particular tone and business persona is used to attract a targeted audience. The two businesses analyzed were Court Street Coffee Shop in Seguin, Texas and Kay’s Finds Antique and Unique in Yoakum, Texas. I examined the most recent 20 posts at the time of research and analysis and looked to see how many likes, comments, and shares that each post received and how that correlated with the post itself and what was or was not included.

     The graph above represents the data of how many likes, shares, and comments that the 20 Facebook posts on the Court Street Coffee Shop's page had. Court Street Coffee Shop is a well known establishment in the Seguin community and it has steadily grown over the years to better fit the needs and wants of the community here; both residential and collegiate. It is a coffee shop which automatically increases the interaction that it may receive due to what coffee shops represent to us in society as we know it. A place of gathering, making friends, meeting them, hosting events, and enjoying coffee. Across the board, the numbers for all activity on the posts examined were incredibly low expect for one major outlier and a few higher numbers. The post that received the most attention had 545 likes, 42 shares, and 44 comments. This posts shows two different drinks that the coffee shop is currently offering with a cute and punny caption. Super cute. Super shareable. Super likable. "The easiest thing you can do to attract more readers and to increase interaction is to add a graphic to every post. This simple act can double engagement,” suggests Kawasaki. This type of posts definitely works for the Court Street Coffee Shop and the audience that it is trying to advertise to, which is primarily Seguin residents.


 

     Other posts were not so fortunate in the attention that they received. The post below shows the content of an event that was happening in the coffee shop and a listing of upcoming events. There were only four likes and no comments or shares. Either this is not interesting to those who follow CSCS on Facebook, they are not planning on attending any of these events, or they simply do not feel the need to like, comment on, or share this post with others who may share a similar interest. This could also be due to how the post looks itself. Maybe the picture isn’t interesting enough, maybe a video clip would have worked better, the caption could have been more interactive or emotion-filled. The post may have been too long and many viewers just don’t want to click the “See More” option to continue reading what the post has to say. "I’ve never seen a post that was too short. Most posts are too long. Obviously Twitter has a 140-character limit, but posts for other platforms should be three to five sentences long. If you want to go longer, write a blog post and use social media to drive people to it. You have a few seconds to capture people’s attention—think Tinder, not eHarmony,” said Kawasaki. There are a lot of variables that are attempting to work in unison here and it is hard to say exactly what worked and what didn’t based off of the low audience response that we see.

     Then we see posts that fall somewhere in the middle based off of the amount of reaction that they receive which suggests potential or simply luck in sharing based off of the time in which is was shared or the content within the post. Below we see that Seguin residents obviously would rather win stuff than go to an event if we are solely analyzing social media. This type of post catches more attention and seems to be more important based off of the increased amount of likes that it receives.





     Moving on to a differnt town in Texas, Yoakum, Texas to be exact, we see a very differnt social media dynamic. On Kay’s Finds Antique and Unique Facebook page, we see fewer posts and fewer likes, shares, and comments on all of the posts collectively. This potentially may be because this is a newer business and it has not yet established a strong local or social media presence in the community. The like, share, and comment numbers did not exceed two for this business, regardless of what was posted. There are no posts past January of this year, which means that either this business simply gave up on social media, or they did not find it necessary. to their success. The graph below shows the Facebook activity for the businesses’ posts. Little to no activity can be seen and the highest amount of interaction was two comments on a post with a few singular likes or shares scattered throughout. 

 

     The post above only received one like and one share. This is a low quality picture with one view of the product for sale and a mediocre caption, so this may be an indication as to why it hasn’t really caught anyone’s attention in regards to shareability. Unlike the Court Street Coffee Shop, this business did not have even 20 posts to analyze, for there were only 15 posts total in this businesses social media history on Facebook.

 

     The above post did not receive any response at all. The pictures are still low quality, are at awkward angles, with emotionless captions, and evoke no connection between the audience, potential customers, and the business. I think that antique shops have a real potential to connect with their audience with the cuteness factor, just like the cute coffee post seen earlier by Court Street Coffee Shop, but this has to be taken into consideration and used properly and effectively.

     These two businesses may not be the best examples of effective and shareable social media, but they are great examples of what some smaller, local organizations and businesses are trying to do as far as social media goes. It is a lot of trial and error, which is a good deal of what this business may be doing, but they is not where it can stop. You have to be able to learn form the responses that you receive from your followers via likes, shares, and comments and begin to share more of what you believe people will be more apt to respond to. Do not make it shareable for just one type of audience member, but for multiple types of audience members. An easy way to do this is to continue to reformat posts in multiple ways to reach multiple types of social media users. Links, no links, pictures, no pictures, promotions, no promotions, whatever it takes to grow and promote a relationship between your business and those that you are catering to with the product that you have. 

The Hinderances and Advantages of Crowdsourcing

Back in 1946 when Charles Babbage successfully created the first programmable computer, I doubt even he and his fellow visionaries ever dreamed of what this new piece of technology could accomplish when given to the mass public and used with a common goal in mind. Now, in 2016, we are able to directly see just what does happen when this public format of togetherness is put into motion; it’s called crowdsourcing. Life itself is a series of strategic social moves, both via technology and in person, whether this is intentional or not, these strategic moves have led to some pretty amazing things, like solving cold cases, and some more mundane things, like the never-ending attempt to find Bigfoot.

This leads to the idea of being able to control the message, who has this control, and what can we do with the control that we do have. In Chapter 1 of “Controlling the Message” by Farrar-Myers and Vaughn, we see this idea exemplified in the 2008 Obama campaign and how the use of social media escalated to create a more personal, impactful, and interactive campaign that focused on crowds and targeted their specific interests based on information that could be found about each potential voter, especially through programs like Project ORCA and the Houdini system. “This social media targeting was premised on voter modeling, which entails assigning numerical scores representing political attitudes and behavior to every member of the electorate,”(Kreiss and Welch). This allows politicians who are leading a campaign to control the message in new ways in order to create a persona that they believe is desirable to the public.

But it also gives the public a good amount of leverage as well, for they are the ones who are depended upon to respond and interact within this platform. They hold the power in this way for social media movements can just as easily be created via crowds as it can via a political candidate. Even if these social movements are just in the form of memes about Trumps hair, they are still created by a crowd coming together with a common goal in mind in order to create, share, and make a recognizable theme of humor that those outside of this crowd can understand.

New Funny Picture: Since we’re hating on Donald Trump… http://t.co/a3GiVPMOoB #funny #meme pic.twitter.com/9JCH5M2Bqf

— The Funniest (@funnyquotedaily) March 4, 2013

Or in the form of a Facebook page for all memes Bernie Sanders and low down political fun. AKA: Bernie Sanders’ Dank Meme Stash. You just have to see it to believe it.







Okay, enough fun for now. Crowdsourcing actually can do much more than the Tom foolery shown above; not always, but it has happened. In “Controlling the Message” we find that digital political advertising began in 2000 and has only progressed since then. This advertising model is easily broken down into three primary objectives in the 2008 Obama campaign. “...to build a robust supporter base, to mobilize those supporters to become volunteers and donors, and to persuade undecided members of the electorate (Barnard and Kreiss 2013),” (Kreiss and Welch).

This digital advertising model can be seen in how Reddit and Facebook users were able to crowdsource together to help solve the 20 year old cold case of Jason Callahan who had been missing. In a way, the volunteers and detectives who were working on this case were using digital advertising to their advantage in order to find Callahan. They dropped this call for help out on the Internet, in hopes of building a supporter base (objective one), to mobilize some of these supporters to become participants in this search by volunteering or donating time or funds (objective two), and in hopes of persuading others to join in on this search, at least in the form of support, which can mimic the objective of persuading voters to choose one side of the electorate or the other (objective three).

It all began with the simple sharing of a photo, something that happens on massive scales every day. "That month, an Australian woman with the handle greymetal opened a Grateful Doe subreddit and posted his picture to Imgur. She and other volunteers circulated the image widely, particularly within Grateful Dead fan communities; they also posted it to places like r/washintondc and Buzzed,” (Dewey). The formula is not completely interchangeable, but there are definitely some similarities between both situations.

Do you recognise me? I have been without my name for nearly 20 years.

Crowdsourcing is simply a search for answers, even if those answers involve something more simple and nostalgic, like Bigfoot. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, the BFRO, is an example of how independent groups are able to interact within themselves to reach a common goal. In Chapter 3 of  “Controlling the Message” we see how social media has opened doors for independents in a political sense, in order fro political narratives to be shaped via “attack dogs” or “cheerleaders”, but in a non-polical setting, this looks a little different. “This new medium allows independent groups to reach important constituencies,” (Azari and Stewart). This Bigfoot crowdsourcing is happening by area, state, and region; this same categorizing also happens when mapping for the presidential polls.

The belief with this type of crowdsourcing is by collecting community option and input, this will lead to potential truth. Given that the search for Bigfoot has been going on since the mid-1800s on the Pacific Northwest coast involving the indigenous tribes that lived there, which is still debatable, just like Bigfoot itself, it is hard to say if this crowdsourcing will lead to any truth at all. The only truth that attempts to present itself is the fact that the amount of data regarding Bigfoot sightings uploaded  to the BFRO page has become more sporadic or slowly trickled off in all the regions as a whole, taking into consideration the regions that receive the most sightings like California, Ohio, and Oregon.

This has potential to be an example of “audience fragmentation” given the specific focus on information at hand. Azari and Stewart describe “audience fragmentation” as “allowing readers to choose content on the basis of topic and point of view”. Those who are participating in the BFRO site are choosing their topic of focus and are allowing bias based on their point of view. They are expressing a small ability to control the message that is being created for they are playing an active part in creating that message itself in the hopes of finding truth. There have been claims to truth in these sighting, but no actual truth has been acknowledged.

The last example of crowdsourcing is the infamous 4chan and Reddit users who investigated the Boston Marathon bombing. "The Boston Marathon bombing is easily the most crowdsourced terror investigation in American history, with the FBI soliciting videos, cellphone pictures, and anything that could lead to the capture of whoever set off those pressure cooker bombs. This is what happens when you ask for the public's help,” (Abad-Santos). These users are seeming to act as “surrogates” as Azari and Stewart describe, who are carrying and creating a narrative for what may or may not have happened during the bombing and who is responsible for the bombing itself. 

Once again, pictures were the main source of evidence in the attempt to find truth, even though no truth was found, but the sharing and discussing of photos and media in a crowd-focused way was the main way in which the public attempted to find answers; much like I think the FBI or police force would. The main focus was on backpacks, for that is what the bombs would have most easily been transported in without looking suspicious. Photos are a huge part of our lifestyle and one of the biggest ways we look for answers; whether that be Facebook stalking your ex or literally trying to find the perpetrator of a bombing. 

The reasoning behind this type of crowdsourcing is if you get a big enough group of people together, it will make up for the unhelpful weirdos who just scream conspiracy theories when they have nothing else, and they never do. I believe the 4chan and Reddit users were truly trying to help solve this, and I think there were solid attempts, without just blaming conspiracy theories, even though there was a fair amount of this kind of conversation involved regardless. 

Ultimately the question is how big does a group have to be in order to find a “truth” reagardless of the level of seriousness involved. There is a certain amount of “it depends”, but social media is really about manipulation, for better or for worse, so the question is how much of a manipulator do we have to be to find truth? Don’t act surprised, truth isn’t as gleaming and pure as you thought. Crowdsourcing is massive manipulation to find an answer, and truth, unfortunately so, sometimes acts in the very same way.