August 26th was the first day of classes and this year I was determined to start the year off right and stay on top of my work and studies from the start. I organized my school stuff into my backpack with colored folders, labeled notebooks, and plenty of pens and pencils. Within the first week I quickly got behind in some of my readings and my expectations of staying organized quickly failed. Junior year right from the start showed to be much more difficult than sophomore year.
In the past production companies have only had one means by which to access their viewership. Yet recently, the more progressive channels have sought to employ a secondary means by which to engage their viewers – Social Media. While not yet adopted by all channels or programs, a select few TV shows effectively employ the use of social media to maintain access to their viewers.
Social media hasn’t just altered the way we stay connected to people, it has also transformed the way we meet people. Social media has had a huge impact on the way we find love or the way we date. Online dating in today’s age is become a norm on how people meet their special someone and fall in love.
Law enforcement is using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms to help solve crime cases. Authorities can now take out a warrant to gain access to people’s private information on their social media pages. Police officers are gathering information during their investigations from their phones and computers, quickly knowing all the personal information of their suspects. Social Media Used in Solving Crimes is gathering steam and making it easier for law enforcement to gather the information needed for their case.
Social media has become a huge part of everyone’s day-to-day lives. Today millions of people use the Internet to express themselves; with the touch of a button they can upload pictures, videos, and post comments. Social media has many advantages at keeping people connected and sharing information, however when used inappropriately it can have a lot of negative affects.
Purpose of the Harmful Communications Bill
The Harmful Digital Communications Bill of New Zealand in 2013 main purpose is to reduce harm from harmful digital communication caused to individuals. The bill aims to provide victims of digital media a means of redress. The Bill reflects the Government’s decision to address digital communication that harms others. The Bill states that the courts must act consistent with the rights and freedoms of New Zealand’s Bill of Rights act and its 10 principles found on their website, which are the following:
Guilty of Disobeying Harmful Communications Bill
Someone commits offense of this Bill if the person posts a digital communication with intent to cause harm to victim, posting the communication would cause harm to an ordinary person in the victims position, posting the communication causes harm to the victim. The courts determine if the post would cause harm by taking in several considerations. These considerations are: the language being used, the age and characteristics of the victim, if the digital communication was anonymous, if the digital communication was repeated, the circulation of the digital communication, if the digital communication is true or false, and the context that the digital communication appeared. The penalty of committing this crime can be up to 3 months in jail or a fine up to $2000.
Problems With Harmful Digital Communications Bill
The problem some people are having with this Bill is that some cases are not as straight forward as teens harassing other teens with negative comments. This subject is discussed by Thomas Beagle in The Harmful Digital Communications Bill and criminalizing free speech. One example he shares of a case where this law doesn’t fit is, if someone took a photo of a corrupt politician taking bribes and posted the picture online they would technically be committing a crime under this law. They person posting the picture is posting with intention to harm the politician, the politician would be harmed by the act, and any reasonable person would be harmed by losing their job due to the picture being posted. However by not allowing the photo to be published the public doesn’t have the knowledge they need to know about their politicians to vote to the best of their ability. Some harmful digital communication is essential to the society and their freedom of speech.
Digital communication is contributing to cyber bullying and abuse that is significantly effecting teens. There is fast growing concern about new communication technologies that are causing harm to people, which need to be addressed. Cyber bullying needs to be controlled and restricted but the law should take in account these outliers that are disobeying the digital communication law but for the good of society.
Social media applications usually are there to aid us in conversation, make our lives easier and more enjoyable. Some apps however do the opposite and whether its their intention or not, they are being used to bully other kids. The new application in question that is doing just this is called Yik Yak.
First thing that comes to mind when thinking of social media in the written sense is usually abbreviated words, informal relations, and pretty much nothing is off limits. People have taken writing on social media to the extreme of say whatever. There is however such thing as social media etiquette however and rules people should follow.
Pinterest Logo
Pinterest is becoming the next big thing in social media. Pinterest is a social media platform that has online bulletin boards where users post their favorite images that lead to sites to show how to make that recipe, buy those products, make that craft, and so on. Users can follow other users on Pinterest who have similar interests to them, to see what they post. The site has become the third largest social media network behind Facebook and Twitter in a very short time period.
On the eve of Facebook’s tenth birthday, reports show that Facebook is more popular than ever before. Facebook is used by 57 percent of adults, and of adults that use the Internet 70 percent have Facebook. As far as teenagers 70 percent have one, and 64 percent of Facebook users use the social media site everyday. All together Facebook has more than 1.2 billion users and is the most used social media platform in the world.
Social media has changed the way people operate. People gain access to news faster, keep in touch with friends and family better, keep themselves more occupied, and many more positive outcomes. However social media is not all positive, it has changed the way people “date” and some would argue that this change is not for the better.
Twitter has not been around that long; in fact it is only seven years old. To say that Twitter has been successful would be putting it lightly. Twitter has more than 200 million active users. For PR professionals Twitter has changed the way they do their job. The way PR professionals get their message to the world is hugely based off Twitter today. What exactly has Twitter done however to the way PR professionals do their job, and is it extremely prevalent throughout the PR community?
Twitter has not been around that long; in fact it is only seven years old. To say that Twitter has been successful would be putting it lightly. Twitter has more than 200 million active users. For PR professionals Twitter has changed the way they do their job. The way PR professionals get their message to the world is hugely based off Twitter today. What exactly has Twitter done however to the way PR professionals do their job, and is it extremely prevalent throughout the PR community?
To begin we must define Twitter and what it is. Twitter is an online tool that allows its users to send updates to the people that are following them on what is happening in their life and their personal thoughts (Twitter) <http://www.techterms.com/definition/twitter>. It is free to join and once a member anyone can follow any other user to see their “tweets”. Once you follow someone their posts will show up on your homepage once logged onto twitter. The character limit which means how many words someone can type per entry is 140(Twitter) <http://www.techterms.com/definition/twitter>. Twitter allows people to stay connected to each other at the touch of a button.
Next to understand this research question we must understand the concept of public relations. The definition of PR from the Public Relations Society of America is, ““Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”(PRSA) <http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/PublicRelationsDefined/>. To break this down it means that these professionals help bring together individuals and organizations to stakeholders. They use communication strategies to bring together these individuals. To be successful PR professionals must know a great deal about their clients and understand their interests and concerns (Roos)<http://money.howstuffworks.com/business-communications/how-public-relations-works1.htm>. . It used to be that most of what PR professionals did was draft press releases which ultimately were sent to the media. Today these professionals do much more; they are the face of the client (Roos) <http://money.howstuffworks.com/business-communications/how-public-relations-works1.htm>.. They answer the hard questions to the media, organize community volunteer programs, and form relationships with possible investors of companies (Roos)<http://money.howstuffworks.com/business-communications/how-public-relations-works1.htm>. .
In order to come to the answer of how twitter affected public relations, we must look at how these two subjects fit together. Well first the purpose of public relations is to build mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. The purpose of Twitter is to keep people connected. So if you combine these two they ultimately benefit one another by PR professionals using Twitter to form relationships between organizations and its stakeholders.
In the past PR professionals only source to gain attention was to pay for expensive advertising, get media to present story, or to hire someone to approach people one by one. Social media which includes Twitter changed all that. Now PR professionals can publish information onto social media cites to gain attention which is cheaper, reaches more people, and fast and easy. People are greatly influenced by what they see and read on Twitter which companies can use to their advantage. Ultimately Twitter along with other social media platforms have made it easier for PR professionals to reach their ultimate goal in getting their message out to the public.
Cited Sources
“Twitter.” Daily Definition RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2013. <http://www.techterms.com/definition/twitter>.
Roos, Dave. “How Public Relations Works.” HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2013. <http://money.howstuffworks.com/business-communications/how-public-relations-works1.htm>.
“What Is Public Relations?” PR Definition: PRSA Official Statement. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. <http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/PublicRelationsDefined/>.