1. 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? 2. Research our guests and see how they leveraged their network into a campaign. Reflect in your blog on this effort.

I think the great thing about social media is that your voice is able to reach large numbers of people in a short time, and you could form your PLN with people who are coming from different backgrounds who are similar minded but able to offer new perspectives. Public media 2.0, as Jansen et al. (2011) point out, facilitate a participatory discourse, and as of right now: “The initial period of individualistic experimentation in participatory media is passing and large institutions—including political campaigns, businesses, and universities— are now adopting social media forms, such as blogs and user forums” (Jansen et al., 2011, p. 62). In other words, communities, social institutions, organizations and etc are all making good use of social media platforms, because public media 2.0 allows people who have similar interests to bond with one another and raise voices for public issues that matter to them.

In the interview with Markiel Simpson, Markiel shared his experience of using social media. For him, social media such as Twitter is not a platform for him to share his personal life, rather, he used social media to find his voice and advocate for the Canadian Black history curriculum in BC. When researching him, I find that he started off with no followers, but after one year, he is able to have his diverse PLN, connecting to members of NDP, of the B.C education system, and the anti-racist community. His Twitter posts demonstrated the benefits of a diverse and inclusive PLN in social media, he is able to combine the voices from different communities and make a stronger argument about the Canadian Black history curriculum in BC.

3. Consider the audiences and how we adapt our messaging accordingly.

We have to think about our intended audience when we post our message, and what kind of impacts do our message carry. Engagement is more than just posting our thoughts on social media as Jansen et al. (2011) point out: “there are two outstanding needs: 1) content and 2)coordination that builds capacity for engagment” (Jansen et al., 2011, p. 63). Content, in other words, is our message, and coordination is when we have a platform for public interaction and participation; more importantly, “setting standards and metrics to assess public engagement” (Jansen et al., 2011, p. 63). Thus, when we consider how our content and coordination, we faciliate real public engagement.

Reference:

Jansen et al. (2011). Media & Social Justicehttp://ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?url=http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder/10.1057/9780230119796CHAPTER 4 A New Vision for Public Media Open, Dynamic, and Participatory Jessica Clark and Patricia Aufderheid