Social Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Social Media - Essay Example Social media is such a rich source of information that it has become very easy for people to know the root-causes of problems, and make informed decisions as to what side they should support. Just like everything has certain positive and negative aspects to it, social media also has both kinds of effects on the society. Positive effects of social media include creation of awareness in the society regarding the real issues whereas the negative effect of social media is primarily the disorganized and uncivilized retaliation and protest of the people after they realize the potential ways in which they have been targeted. Positive Effects of Unbiased Reporting by Social Media Creation of Awareness in the Society about the Real Issues News channels like CBS and Fox News have lost credibility in the eyes of public since people learnt how these channels have tried to manipulate them and feed them with wrong information about the threats to the USA from Iraq, when there were none. There are a lot of ways in which the television channels tend to dodge the audiences in order to streamline their perceptions according to their agenda. An example of the ways in which the television channels play with the audiences is here; â€Å"The Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) Wednesday evening newscasts devoted more than 9 minutes (9 minutes, 28 seconds) to the flap over Mitt Romney's statement criticizing the administration's handling of the Libyan crisis but spent just 25 seconds on questions regarding Barack Obama's Middle-East policy, a greater than 20-to-1 disparity† (Dickens). This was intentionally done to make the audiences’ attention increasingly diverted towards Romney’s criticism of Obama’s policies and at the same time male the audiences overlook or pay least attention towards the Middle-East policy of the president. In many cases, interests of the television channels are aligned with the interests of specific political parties either in charge or in o pposition and the channels make use of its programs include talk shows, news, and discussions to brainwash the audiences in the best interest of the political parties which the channels serve. There are numerous factors that contribute toward making the news spread through social media more reliable. A person’s profile on such a social media website as Facebook is essentially his/her virtual identity. People know him/her in the virtual world by that profile. Owing to this fact, people tend to remain as much truthful and honest in the expression of their views and opinions on the social media websites as possible because whatever they write on their profile has an effect on their image in the public eye. In order to construct good image and avoid their image from getting tarnished in the public eye, people support what is right and condemn what they really think is wrong on the ethical grounds. Another concrete example of reliability of social media is that it is a fairly accu rate medium where one can learn cultural perceptions about the latest events around the world as well as debatable topics like gay marriage and euthanasia. All one needs to do is read the comments under the videos on Youtube, and one can know what the people of a certain country generally think about a certain issue. Not only can one understand the generic