What is Real Online?

With a majority of people having some form of social media account, it is becoming harder and harder to distinguish between the real person and the person they portray online. There are a few reasons people change who they are online but it mostly comes back to one thing, attention. Whether it’s your normal average person with a Facebook account or a celebrity posting photos on Instagram, they both crave attention from others. This comes in the way of likes, followers, comments, views and subscribers. People see this as some sort of validation of their life, as though more people liking their photo or agreeing with their status or tweet makes them feel more important. This encourages people to post things that they feel others will approve of, whether it is an accurate indication of their life or not.

With the world being constantly connected in today’s society, we are constantly being hit with these social media posts so it is becoming extremely difficult to differentiate the actual person from the online person

Sources:

http://www.seoblasts.com.au/img/preview/forum-profile-link.png

http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2015/07/29/facebook-is-testing-new-tags-for-your-profile-page/#gref

http://www.wikihow.com/images/e/ef/View-Profiles-on-Facebook-Step-4.jpg

http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/twitterprof.jpg

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=online+persona%27s&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiW9ciO2tTMAhXElJQKHTRyCcQQ_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=602#tbm=isch&q=taylor+instagram+followers&imgrc=junVB48Wo852NM%3A

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a4/ea/a9/a4eaa945b6bd8e6de24b560b37502beb.jpg

http://newmediarockstars.com/2014/01/pewdiepie-makes-20-million-subscribers-a-club-of-one/

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQDILsIpyp1702t5NFmENm_UEQQvnwtJLfayOm5PexRaT6lEeV4

http://www.internetmarketingteam.co.uk/youtube-advertising/

http://www.rrautotech.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/r-r-autotech-new-car-log-book.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSw08j3zFEMnrEHxsUcoMyTMy-s7iIywrb7VQjgzqbx3tYHRT0PCw

Citizen Journalism

Pages such as the one spoken about in this article have become more and more common with the change in role of the audience. These pages are commonly started by members of the community who have no connection to legacy media outlets. They serve as a source of news and information for the community, with members of the public sending in news, photos and other information to be published on the page. This ‘citizen journalism’ is made possible by technology such as smart phones which enable anyone at any time to take photos or record an event and distribute it through social media to a worldwide audience.

However this can have negative consequences as well, one of which is outlines in this article. These contributions sent in are often not fact checked which can lead to cases such as the one stated in the article where a man was incorrectly accused of being a part of the Boston bombings, was found dead, apparently from suicide. Cases such as this show how important fact checking and information quality can be.

Citizen journalism will continue to grow as a concept as the world becomes more and more connected. However we need to be wary that we don’t accept anything we read on the internet as fact and still apply the same high standards that we have/do to legacy media.

 

Sources:

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/05/14/4004510.htm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/how-social-media-is-suppo_b_3239076.html