Social Media

Social Media Use is Soaring—Tine to Reconsider Your 2013 Strategy

·         What did you learn about the growing trends in the use of social media?

That Pintrest has had the largest growth, but Facebook still dominates people’s time on the internet.

·         What takeaways do you see from the data?

One thing that I noticed was an 80% increase in Google+, I think that this may be due to the fact that a Google account was needed to sign up for Google+ in the first place, recently they have expanded Google+ to anybody with a Google account. The 80% increase of Google+ users may not even know that they are Google+ users.

Technology & Internet:  10 Social Media Tips Every Business Needs to Know

·         How does business uses social media?

Businesses use social media platforms less socially, and less personally. It is used to disseminate information, not to share personal stories with your target market.

·         Were you surprised by what “social media is NOT?”

I was not surprised at what “social media is NOT.” Businesses should not be using Facebook the same way that personal users use it.

·         Describe some of the things that “social media IS.”

Social media is a free outlet that users spend lots of time on. It is a creative way for businesses to reach their audience, but it should only be part of their marketing strategy.

·         What are the takeaways for business from this article?

Use social media, but don’t use it frivolously.

Questions for “Can Blogs Revolutionize Progressive Politics?”

1.      Why do the Democratic leaders embrace blogging as a potential political communication considering the traditional media landscape in politics?

Young people tend to vote more for democrats and also tend to adopt new technology more readily than their older counterparts.

2.      Blogging encourages a participatory culture. In what way does the participatory culture in blogging expand digital media convergence?

Participatory culture in itself expands digital media convergence by turning digital media into an auditory experience.

3.      In the article, the author says: “The ability of the Internet to erase geographical distances can become a structural weakness in elections where district lines and eligibility are key.” How can blogging counter this weakness in the process of turning the netroots to grassroots?

With the use of blogging, politically active people can encourage change not only in their own voting district, but in others as well. Television and radio do this to a degree as well, but only on a corporate scale. Blogging allows anyone with enough knowledge and time to become politically influential.

4.      The author spends the second half of the article discussing the lack of diversity in current blogosphere dominated by elite bloggers. Please use the concept of digital convergence to explain how blogs can become the real bearer of freedom, democracy, egalitarianism, and participation in the new media communication?

Blogs allow anyone to rise to the top and become an “elite” blogger with enough hard work. People are often found on the internet (twitter, blogs, etc.) and given writing jobs with little-to-no experience other than what they write in their blogs. Influential people have started blogs and almost instantly become the “blogging elite,” but others have started from nothing and raised themselves to the same level with their own hard work. If anyone can become influential due to blogging that leads to the idea that blogs can become the bastion of freedom, democracy, and egalitarianism.

The Keystone Pipeline Debate

The Keystone Pipeline is a planned pipeline system that will bring crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast. While there has been much debate about the environmental effects of the pipeline and much discourse about its implementation, the facts show that the alternatives could be even more detrimental to the environment. 

Some people believe that we should not exploit the Alberta Tar Sands at all; that extracting the oil itself would be environmentally dangerous and would set us back in the development of new energy resources that could eventually replace fossil fuels. There are two problems with this argument; one is that we have yet to develop these new technologies and the infrastructure to deliver them to the people.  We still currently depend on fossil fuels for everything from driving our cars to fertilizing our fields, and we are much better off getting our fossil fuels from Canada than from the tumultuous Middle East. The other problem with that argument is that stopping the pipeline will not stop the exploitation of the Alberta Tar Sands, it will only change the way the crude oil is being shipped. 

Others believe that oil pipelines are too dangerous and that running them through the United States creates too large of an environmental risk. The problem with this argument is that we already have many oil pipelines crisscrossing the United States. Another problem with this view is that if we do not use an oil pipeline to ship the Crude from Alberta to the Gulf Coast then the rail system will be utilized. Shipping the crude by rail presents the same environmental concerns as shipping by pipeline, but since rail shipping of crude has only recently become so utilized, the contingencies for major disasters are far fewer than those set in place for pipelines. While it is true that there have been less oil spills due to trains than pipelines in the past, the increased use of rail to ship crude will also lead to increased number of disasters associated with it. According to an article by James West in Mother Jones Magazine, last year alone 1.2 million gallons of crude was spilled from trains—more than every year before it since 1971 combined.

The Keystone Pipeline will create jobs, tax revenue, and a reliable source of energy for years to come. Opposition to the construction has valid points, but when the alternatives are considered the Keystone Pipeline is the safest and most environmentally conscious way to move the crude oil from where it is to the place that it is destined to end up.