Final Paper Outline

SOCIAL MEDIA ISSUES

 

I. PURPOSE OF STUDY/INTRODUCTION:

a. Thesis

b. Why I chose this area/Why this interests me

c. Purpose of my research

            d. Intended Audience

II. SOCIAL MEDIA SITES:

a. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr

b. Why are these sites so popular?

            c. Different uses of these sites

            d. Communication using these sites

                        i. Messaging

                        ii. Instant Message

III. SOCIAL MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION

            a. Talking on social media sites vs. real life

            b. How this changes relationships

IV. FACEBOOK/SOCIAL MEDIA PRIVACY:

            a. How to keep your information private

            b. Why you should keep information private

            c. Privacy issues

                        i. Example: sexting gone public

                        ii. Private information getting out

V: EMPLOYERS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

            a. Employers look at future employee’s social media accounts

            b. Why this can be an issue

            c. Employer policies against social media

VI. SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES:

            a. TBA

b. Will include examples from case studies that support thesis

VII. MY FINDINGS:

            a. My interpretation of findings from case studies/research

            b. Personal opinion of social media sites

VIII. CONCLUSION:

a. Reiterate thesis

b. How my findings prove my thesis

Digital Democracy

Before I began this assignment, I didn’t really know what digital democracy was. It is basically the use to technology and media to get people involved with government issues. I found this definition from this website that makes sense to me:

“Digital democracy here refers to the use of digital communication technologies to enhance the democratic process by, among other things, making the process more accessible, increasing and enhancing citizen participation in public policy decision making, and increasing government transparency and accountability.”

I came across this website called digital-democracy.org and their company provides tools to community leaders so they can help get other people in their communities get involved with public policy issues (Digital Democracy). Their three goals for their company are:

1. Direct Implementation: We train communities to use basic digital tools, such as cameras, mobile phones, and online maps. Our tiered approach emphasizes digital literacy, digital organizing and digital governance.
2. Tool Building: We create tech solutions to empower our partners and help them adapt existing tools to their needs. We also work with digital innovators to develop and implement new open-source tools.
3. Local-to-Global Engagement: We scale our impact beyond our direct partners. Through events, workshops, and tool-kits, we build bridges between our work and the work of advocates and decision-makers around the world (Digital Democracy).

In 2010, the company paired with an app called Extraordinaries and people could volunteer time through this app to help people who were suffering from the earthquake in Haiti (Digital Democracy). The company has also provided Chiapas, Mexico with a variety of media technology to document what happens in their daily life, as well as what goes in with their government, and also to communicate outside of their village. The company also runs a blog to keep readers up to date with what is going in the world (Digital Democracy).

I like that this company uses media to help people become more involved not only in the United States, but other countries as well. They have all kinds of videos and photos and news and events on their website to get people involved. They have a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/digidemocracy) that people can 'like' and they post more news and links to other digital democracy related websites.

Bibliography

Digital Democracy. 14 November 2012 <http://networkedpublics.org/digital_democracy>.

Digital Democracy. 14 November 2012 <http://digital-democracy.org/>.

Privacy on Facebook

If you have a Facebook profile, you know that your information can be seen by all of your friends. Your information can also be seen by friends of your friends, or by everyone, depending on what privacy settings you choose. You can even include your email, phone number and home address if you so desire. While having your information public can be great for business reasons or for networking, many people do not want this information available to others.

There are a lot of things that you can do to keep your information private.*

1. Use your friend lists: Friends can be sorted into categories such as friends, family and professional and you can share different things between each category.

2. Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results: Change settings so people can’t search for you.

3. Remove Yourself From Google: Turn off the ability for your profile to be searched.

4. Avoid the Infamous Photo/Video Tag Mistake: You can make the photos that you are tagged in private.

5. Protect Your Albums: You can make certain photo albums private.

6. Prevent Stories From Showing Up in Your Friends’ News Feeds: You can make things like relationship status changes private.

7. Protect Against Published Application Stories: This is avoidable by not joining applications that could embarrass you.

8. Make Your Contact Information Private: You can adjust privacy settings for each piece of information.

9. Avoid Embarrassing Wall Posts: You can pick which friends can post on your wall.

10. Keep Your Friendships Private: You can hide your friends section in your information.

*All ten tips are from the following website:

O'Neill, Nick. 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. 2 February 2009. 10 November 2012 <http://allfacebook.com/facebook-privacy_b3571>.

                Many employers now look at potential future employee’s Facebook pages, twitter feeds and accounts on other social media sites. Employers can decide not to hire someone if they don‘t like what they see on these kinds of sites. Following the pointers from above can keep your information safe and avoid potentially embarrassing situations.