What are the benefits of a diverse and inclusive PLN in social media sharing that understands where you are coming from with messaging that impacts the community?
A diverse and inclusive PLN on social media that understands where you are coming from with messaging can play a significant role in reaching a broader audience. This is because conversations or important messages in a community can be reshared on social media, reaching more people. This can be explained through the people-centric public media model that demonstrates how individual users have moved from being an anonymous part of the media to the center of the media picture (Clark & Aufderheide, 2011). In the center of the media picture, are producers and consumers. Producers share their content to gain people’s attention and the consumers who are viewing the content and updates. Since we all can be the center of social media, it allows people from a variety of perspectives to work together to share stories, facts and ask questions, which can create a community (Clark & Aufderheide, 2011).
Markiel Simpson has used these aspects of social media as an advantage to reach more people. He mentioned that he had used the social media platform Twitter to develop his voice by using the hashtags, #StrongerTogether and #TogetherWeRise (MILLER, 2021). Since Markiel has a diverse and inclusive PLN, politicians and others have shared these hashtags, reaching people outside his PLN. For instance, he shared on Twitter that all 60 school districts are actively lobbying the ministry of education for calls to action then the president of the BC school trustees association shared his tweet with the hashtag (MILLER, 2021). Participating or growing up in one community provides a space to fit into, but then people within that same community can branch out (MILLER, 2021). As Clark and Aufderheide (2011) mentioned, people who join a diverse platform are recognized as members of a public with a group of people commonly affected by the same issue. A diverse platform has provided a platform for people to meet, learn, and exchange information, and discuss solutions. In some cases, these interactions can lead to action based on this transformative act of communication (Clark & Aufderheide, 2011).
References
Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P. (2011). A New Vision for Public Media Open, Dynamic, and Participatory. In S. C. Jansen, J. Pooley, & L. Taub-Pervizpour (Eds.), Media and Social Justice (109-142). Palgrave MacMillan. https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/content/pdf/10.1057/9780230119796.pdf
MILLER. (2021, June 1). EDCI -338 Markiel Simpson [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsoDHGaXNNs
letterstokate November 1, 2022
Hi, I enjoyed reading your blog post. I agree that a diverse and inclusive PLN on social can play a significant role in reaching a broader audience as social media conversations can be reshared. In turn, that broader audience will also reach an even broader audience, and so on, which makes social media a powerful tool. Thanks for sharing!