After reflecting on the conversation with Jody Vance, it becomes ever apparent to me that curating your social media cautiously and effectively while still trying to maintain a genuine attitude towards your viewers is a careful balance. Particularly striking was the comment that “it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and a heartbeat to break it”- Jody Vance 2021. Which made me think about how especially in this era its important to curate your content and be cautious of the opinions you share as you are communicating with a diverse PLN that may not share those views. In saying that, I would curate my social media cautiously but genuinely. Being careful with what I share but never sharing anything I don’t believe in. Which is the practice I believe notable figures would use aswell.
Martin Hirst’s article on the economy of fake news brings an incredibly interesting perspective that misinformation is in some ways a capitalist tool used by certain news network PLN’s in order to garner more views. This criticism of mainstream media has never been more valid. Real journalism and sourcing is increasingly difficult to find and so this ties into how we interact with our own PLN’s. Misinformation is one of the risks of engaging with a public audience space. Whether you unknowingly share misinformation or are a target of that misinformation, it is undoubtedly an increasingly common issue especially for government officials and educators. For this reason we must be very conscious of what we post in our PLN’s misinformation is inherently deceptive obviously by nature, it can be concealed and convincing. People in positions of power need to be ever careful due to their sphere of influence as Hirst insinuates in his article.
Being a public figure online comes with the scrutiny of many eyes. There will undoubtedly be criticism of your personal values. I think the best way to combat this is through dialogue. So often when a figures values are called to question online they are quickly defensive and to say that those critiquing are wrong and crazy. But if we ask questions and try and understand why that persons perspective disagrees with our value we can further advance our PLN to being even more diverse and effective as a learning tool. If you seriously believe you are the target of needless hate, take a step back though. Trying to address the problem and defend yourself can often just throw more fuel on the fire.
Be receptive to critics but don’t interact with online bullying.
Refrences.
Navigating Social Journalism | A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citiz (uvic.ca) (2018)
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