Blog Post 6
Prompts
- How does social media help engage in community-based communications?
- How does social media challenge community-based communications?
- Within community engagement, are there extended rules from the employer that you should consider? Are there cultural sensitivities that should be considered?
- What should your PLN say about you as you communicate to the public via social media or communication tools?
- What does it mean to balance your professional expectations and your personal beliefs in curating a PLN for the purpose of career development?
- What do you think you need to reflect on (in regards to your PLN or development of a PLN) to adapt evolving social media communication expectations as a community learns more about who you are?
Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash
In my opinion, social media plays a quite important and meaningful role in community-based communications. It not only provides an opportunity for people who have different backgrounds or cultures to connect with each other, but also help them to engage in online communication in order to expand their thinkings and get new inspirations. By using social media, our engagement in learning new perspectives is increased and our relationships or connections online are strengthened as well. Social media creates a platform for us to engage in communication and learn from others significantly.
Although social media is meaningful on community-based communication, it may also bring challenges to the public, such as the post of fake information or news with controversial topics on social media tools. From our course material, Clark and Aufderheide stated that “social media tools can be used for rabble rousing or for engagement across difference (Clark & Aufderheide, 2011). Therefore, if fake information or news with controversial headlines are posted on social media, it may not only spread mis-information in public, but also may bring negative interaction to the public seriously.
Also, in my opinion, when engaging in community-based communication, there are some extended rules from the employer and cultural sensitivities that you should consider. As I mentioned above, social media allows people who have different cultures to communicate with and interact with each other, therefore, when engaging in communication online, you may get different ideas or reflections from other people, which are based on their cultures. Cultural sensitivities are about understanding other people’s background, experiences and values from your own; therefore, knowing how to respect to other people’s cultures and beliefs is quite important in online interaction and it will lead with understanding and empathy as well.
In my opinion, when communicating to the public via social media or communication tools, your PLN should provide positive online platform or environment for you and the public to interact with each other and connect with each other. It will be free, positive, and effective for you to engage in the communication, share ideas and learn from each other directly. Actually, my PLN am trying to build this kind of professional and comfortable relationship with different people in public via social media.
From the communication between Professor Miller and two guests in week seven, I feel that they both work very well in balancing their professional and personal lives in creating and developing a PLN for the purpose of career development. From the communication between Miller and Kermer, I completely agree with Kermer’s opinion, which is the connection between you and other people online should be for a reciprocity, not just to gain something. In my opinion, when you engage in online communication, you will not only share your ideas, but also will get new inspirations from others as well. Moreover, from the communication between Miller and Russell, Russell also emphasis on the importance of curating a balance between personal and professional lives in creating your PLN for the purpose of career development.
In regards to my PLN, I think I need to reflect on how to work with people who have different cultures in order to adapt evolving social media communication expectations. Social media provides more opportunities for people who are from different places to communicate with each other and learn from other; therefore, learning how to build a professional with people who have different cultures will make people feel comfortable to share ideas with me in order to help me to develop my own PLN.
References
Miller, J. (2020). EDCI 338 A01 – Russell M. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH_UiTWYYwU&feature=youtu.be
Miller, J. (2020). EDCI 338 A01 – Kermer, A. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73KOxy_fMSM&feature=youtu.be
Jansen, S., Pooley, J. & Taub-Pervizpour, L. (2011). A New Vision for Public Media. In Media and Social Justice (pp. 55-67). Retrieved from: http://voyager.library.uvic.ca/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=2606041
Hi! I feel like this entire post is worded really well (much better than I can do). It really sums up what I think about social media. It’s a great way to connect with those of differing backgrounds from us, but it also allows people to share information about anything, whether it’s true or false, fact or opinion. This is incredibly common and sometimes with all the negativity on social media, I just want to shut everything off. Obviously that’s not at all the way to go about this, since social media can be really great, but it can be tiring seeing so many people spouting rude comments at one another.
Hello Callie,
Thank you for your reply! I agree that rude comments on social media will make people feel upset and disappointed. That’s the reasons why I think people should try to be respect to others on social media.
Impressive work Ray! I could not agree more when you said that PLNs should be a positive environment where everyone can feel comfortable to learn from others and teach others as well. In addition to being positive, I also believe that PLNs should also be culturally sensitive. In my own discussion post, I was not able to fully discuss this aspect but you did great! I learned a lot on how cultural sensitivity can be reflected in PLNs. Also, when you mentioned that cultural sensitivities are about understanding other people’s culture, it also suggested the fact the people need to take time to educate themselves about other cultures as well.
Hello Xiaoqi,
Thank you for your reply! I agree that we need to educate ourselves about our own cultures. That’s a really good point!