This semester I took on a course I needed for my major, Mass Media and Society. I was actually really looking forward to this class this semester and it has really opened my eyes to the sort of information we look at on our social media outlets. And how we handle our “news” on social media.
My beliefs, from the beginning of the semester, in media have altered slightly over the semester. Something this election, as well as other aspects of this semester, has opened my eyes too is the way that we shape our own media outlook. We have the ability to change what we see on our social media or on out news sources. We also have the power to believe whatever we want from our sources. For example, if we see a news video or article we have the power to simply look up the sources from that piece of information or to simply just believe what we see/read. This is something very important that I found I simply just overlooked.
When we have the power to change what we see it changes our discourse with other people and it can even hinder out ability to see all sides of an argument. If we simply choose to only see one side, then how can we effectively have discussion about all sides of an argument. For some people, the outcome of this election came as a shock because many people only saw people posting about Hillary or a Third Party candidate. But, this is because they only followed people who had the same view point as them and so they couldn’t effectively see who was voting on the other side of the election.
Another major shock to some people would, and is, finding out about the Dakota Pipeline. Major news outlets are not reporting about the people trying to stop the Pipeline from being built, or even that a giant pipeline is in the works of being built. Most of the information I have gotten about the pipeline would be from Facebook posts from other friends who are following the events. But, if I didn’t follow these friends or the small news sites that are following the events then I would not know about Dakota Pipeline either.
Because I became more aware of my ability to select what news I see I started to be more careful about how quickly I would delete people or unfollow a site. I wanted to be able to look at all sides of an argument. At first this was very difficult because it is very easy to just unfollow things and know that you will never have to deal with people that disagree with you. But, if you don’t face people with varying viewpoints what do you learn? If you just stick with people who have the same view point, then the discourse of society becomes very divided and very one sided.
Another large part of this class was talking about privacy. This surprisingly didn’t have a huge effect on me and again I think it’s because it is so easy to push away and not think about. I take advantage of some of the privacy we do have. Like when I view people’s profiles, they can’t tell I am viewing it because that is a piece of privacy I get. But, on the flip side I will never know who if viewing my profile and you would think that would scare me. But, in reality it just makes me think of my “public persona” because it makes me think twice about what I post because it isn’t truly private. There are ways to get around the privacy settings I have up, whether it is in a legal way or not. For example, if I have someone as a friend on facebook and they are friends with someone I don’t want to be friends with on facebook, for whatever reason, that person can still see what I post through that mutual friend. There are of course ways of hacking accounts but again that is easy to just push from my mind.
Overall, my behavior has changed in what may seem like minor things because things are easy to just push from my mind. I have become more aware of the kind of media I am viewing and how that can affect my world view and my conversations with people. I am also more aware of fact-checking the news I view because not all of it true. The instantaneous of the “news” has changed the truthfulness of it and that is something that all people should be aware of.
