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–Reflect on your experience in the course, your development of PLN, your use of social media platforms and networked publics. Note any changes in your perspective of social media in professional settings and personal use. Submit a closing blog post about your experience and consider how you can pivot your PLN into your next steps. 

Before learning about PLN in this course, m

y social media usage and learning habits through connections were scattered and inconsistent. I never thought of improving and inspecting my learning habits and learning outcomes in learning through networks. I was even not aware of the option to develop a personalized learning network. After the systematic learning about the subject matter, I am now more conscious of developing a learning network and how to achieve maximized learning efficiency and learning outcome.

As I am gaining knowledge in this course, I have learned multiple crucial skills and idea to pay attentional in my learning networks:

• I learned to be conscious of separating personal approaches to learning and networks for a professional setting, namely for entrepreneurial purposes.
• I am now aware of my own digital identity and use my personal information wisely. Also, I am more careful of the privacy released on the internet, including my geographical information, passwords, etc.
• I have identified my role of being a resident or visitor when using social network services and how to choose what platforms to use to expand your PLN and combine the degree of freedom of the platform to be visible as a residence.
• I learn that creating a professionalized profile of my own on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram can be used to seek professional learning opportunities and even a job.
• I can now behave appropriately to maintain an admirable reputation, avoid conduct behavior, and conduct a comment that might be a problem for my future career if an employer is tracking the content.
• I am more conscious of avoid sharing misinformation and how to identify verifiable sources.
• I have a clearer image of the aspects that an influencer uses on social media in the eye of the public.
• I learned to use media literacy skills when I am learning and sharing information and conducting controversies. 

Before, I never purposefully think about my use of social media and connections and how I can be a more innovative life-long learner using them. I not only learned the techniques and perspective to view my learning process with PLN, but I will also continue to build and expand my PLN. By that, I mean to develop skills revolving around PLN to better assist my academic learning and professional learning with PLN.

Why should you aim for varied views but the factual consensus in your PLN?

-The reason for this is, when we are learning through PLNs and conducting discussions, it is easy for us humans to filter information that disprove our pre-set believes, and we tend to share information according to our own believes, it is psychological human nature. In a commencement speech This is Water given by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005, he tells a story in making an analogy of fish and water. The story goes, A fish ask another fish ““Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two fish was confused and says, “What the hell is water?”(Wallace, 2005). Any fish live their entire life in the water that they cannot acknowledge any choice other than being in the water. Therefore, they are unable to notice the existence of water and to agree with the existence of water. Similarly, when we humans have a pre-occupied believes, it is so hard for us to notice the potential flaw in our believes and opposite views. A good way to be aware of the “water” is to absorb from varied views. By pointing out the water to fish enables them to think about whether they live in water.

Open dialogues about media literacy and factual information can create conflict, why does this happen?

-Sometimes it is not like we are wrong with our pre-set believes, but an information can be processed differently influenced by one’s culture values. Referencing the fish and water example mentioned earlier, people indulge in their own pre-set values so long to recognize the probabilities for others people to be right. It is similar to the confirmation bias in logical fallacies which means the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories. People are often to accept views similar to their value psychologically. Vice versa, people are usually uncomfortable with opposite views, when there are different views about a certain topic, everyone holds on to their views and are sometimes angry with the opposite.

What is the benefit of having a PLN that values media literacy?

Just like critically views that are in different opinions can let us be more successful learner. Being exposed to varied views helps us to learn be a smart learn and learn more efficiently in PLN. A well-rounded and more just learning attitude is created. When we are contributing in our PLN, we can be more responsible to other people by applying media literacy skills. When we are valuing media literacy, a more harmonized environment to engage is created, and people are more willing to participate deep with a topic in the intended field, thus boosting our learning outcome.

References:

1. Wallace, David Foster. This Is Water. Little, Brown, 2009. 
2. Bass, Jossey. “Digital Literacy Skills INFO-SAVVY, MEDIA-FLUENT, TECH-TUNED.” 2009. 

– How does social media engage in advocacy communications?

Integrating social media into advocacy programs makes it easier to succeed as communication strategies can be used in a broader scope. As people nowadays rely heavily on social media, it has become a perfect tool to boost the reach and influence engagement activities in public.
Any social advocacy projects or political projects can benefit from the nature of social media, as it has low entry barriers, and it is self-generated through conversations with interactions. Advocacy missions are significantly more efficient with the mobility internet created and the powerful algorithms that gather potential participants to the communication subject.

– How does social media use in public discourse potentially challenge advocacy communications?

Some argue that activists or groups of interest use social media and its technical ability to impact citizens’ choice and can primarily affect their choice in political events such as voting, resulting in citizens being instigated and making impulse decisions. In political events, such disruptions are potentially causing enormous consequences, especially when the disruption is widespread. Political advertisement and fake gossip are examples of the techniques that the marketing sectors of a particular election campaign might use to turn the tide. Therefore, policies of regulating social platforms to stay neutral are applied not long ago.

-Does your PLN amplify the views of others?

I am usually cautious when dealing with opinions and advocacy campaigns. However, it is hard to avoid personal feelings applied to a specific opinion commented in PLN. Once the opinion is published, the upgraded attitude can potentially pass down to the next person to result in a butterfly effect.

– The policies of employer social media communication expectations.

Firms without proper social media policy are ignoring the probabilities of a massive public relations crisis. Employers are also expecting employees can contribute positively with their social media usage. Examples of the expectations can be, addressing the consequence of slander, threatening, or spread personal hate towards personal within the firm. The use of social media related to firm-related content or brand-related content is also essential to manage and regulate, or else reputation loss may take place.

References:

Whelpton, Shelley. “Why Investing in Media Is Critical to Successful Advocacy.” Arabella Advisors, 25 June 2019, www.arabellaadvisors.com/blog/why-investing-in-media-is-critical-to-successful-advocacy/. 

“Social Media Has Changed the Advocacy Landscape Forever.” Association Adviser, 18 Nov. 2019, www.naylor.com/associationadviser/social-media-has-changed-the-advocacy-landscape-forever/. 

Hi! My name is Xie Yumeng and you can call me by my English name Tessa. I am a second year BCom student. I was born and raised in Southeast China on a beautiful island, Amoy. My hobbies are singing, dancing and music-creation. I have been dancing for over a year and skilled in multiple dance genres like Hip-Hop dance, Jazz dance, Choreography dancing, Waacking and K-pop dancing. I am also good at singing, and I like Hip-Hop, lofi, pop music in different languages. For professional interest, I am interested in Business related topic including finance, marketing, E-commerce and international business. I enjoy analyzing different business on how they operate, market and form their branding.

1. 1. 1. 1. Explore the video provided and reflect on the themes and questions above, reflecting on how you would curate your social media with a critical public audience.

No one can be invisible on the internet; almost all of your footprints and speeches are tracible. Although it is unethical and illegal to reveal private information, what you have expressed and participated in is mostly exposed on the internet. As long as you participate on social media, your comment and trace can be searched and viewed by other people unless you encrypt and intentionally hide your information. Therefore, we need to be aware of everything to form our digital identity, especially our speeches. Suppose our employer or other authorities saw our inappropriate moves on social media. In that case, it will affect their judgment of you as a person and even damage your career or social credit.

To avoid a negative digital identity with a critical public audience, we need to make sure our words are benevolent while representing who we are and our values. First, we need to express our political standing appropriately concerning those who hold opposite standings. It is okay to have a different political standing from others. However, if you express your political attitude in an over radical way or disrespect people with a different view from you, a critical audience on social media might doubt your respectfulness and tolerance. The possible outcome of revealing extreme political views in intensive ways can be your employer reevaluate your ability and suitability to work and interact with others. Second, cyber-bullying and abuse one’s character on social media.

Similarly, your malevolence online and mean comment lets your employer deny your ability to be socially adjusted. Third, to show that you are dedicated and professional in your intended field, you can actively engage in discussions and participate in related online activities to represent your dedication and professionalism. Forth, another harmful thing to do on social media is sharing your colleagues’ and your employers’ disreputable stories; these acts can frustrate your employer or other people about your sense of boundary. Overall, we need to be mindful of what we are sharing online and think twice about whether it will harm our digital identity or even reputation.

1. 1. 1. 2. Identify the risks and benefits of engaging with a public audience in a media space – what are the risks for a public figure or person in a position of trust (educator, lawyer, government official)?

For a public figure or person in a trust position, being in the public eye in a public media space is beneficial because it exposes the person to more professional and works opportunities. The opportunities include creating an integrated figure of yourself to be accepted and become a public influencer to share the influence related to your profession. When you persist in actively sharing meaningful insights in a particular field, naturally, the audience is willing to discuss their knowledge regarding the field. This type of engagement can benefit your learning and build a reputation.

Nevertheless, once you have created an integrated figure of yourself, an increasing number of people will notice you. Due to a critical audience’s close attention, potential threats can be people going on the internet to find your skeletons from the past and even twist the truth as a weapon against your reputation. With the tracible speeches and online footprints, it is easy for people to persecute a reputed public figure exposed through media, and it could potentially harm one’s profile, reputation, and career.

1. 1. 1. 3. How do notable individuals use social media?

Public figures that stand out have different ways of utilizing their social media. Most treat social media as a platform to do personal branding. By sharing photos or written passages, public figures build up characteristics to their digital identity on personal and marketing levels. Figures promote themselves by adding traits, personalities, and uniqueness to stand out, attract followers, and ultimately monetize the hard work of forming their digital identities both directly and indirectly. For example, NowThis, a social journalism firm, posts videos of global news sourced on other news on social media, forming an unofficial news collection channel nurtured by social media, with some journalism professionals’ contribution (Hirst, 142). NowThis is tending to profit through doing brand collabs and so on (Hirst, 142). Similar to NowThis, many public figures are intended to monetize their account directly by promoting profitable brands or indirectly by promoting themselves as a potential affiliate to an existing organization or company.

Also, notable individuals who have their own brand or are working for a brand often utilize social media to expose and thus promoting their brand. Usually, suppose the founders of the brand decided to be a social media influencer. In that case, they dedicate to making their digital identity stand out, meanwhile tie their digital identity with their brand to create a bonus effect in attracting purchases and providing some light customer relationship management.

1. 1. 1. 4. What are the benefits to being in the public eye and having a PLN?

Being in the public eyes means more attention; having a PLN means having wider learning opportunities. These two features put together can create an effect of excellent learning outcomes. Because when more attention is attracted, more people tend to participate and join the PLN, which leads to more fruitful knowledge sharing, a large community of PLN is thus created. Therefore, the benefit of having a PLN can be largely enhanced with the attention of the public eye.

1. 1. 1. 5. Building community with online tools provided by the employer can be limiting, what are the perceived restrictions and benefits?

When an employer builds an online community, their purpose is to trigger work-related discussions and perhaps monitor employees’ working enthusiasm. This perceived intention can encourage employees to participate in concentrated and centralized discussions to assist their professional learning of professional skills and instant industrial insights. On the other hand, however, the employer’s monitorization causes the community to be a not entirely comfortable environment for sharing.

1. 1. 1. 6. Delivering information in a connected society requires verifiable resources, how to build a PLN to rely on?

In order to build a trusted PLN, we first need to share our insights. Before you start to share your content, you do not provide a reason for others to share their knowledge with you. Building a PLN is always about giving and taking, selecting the people you are intended to connect and starting by sharing your own content (Lynch, 2017). Nevertheless, no one is professional in a field at the very beginning; if you have not gained enough knowledge in the intended field, it may be helpful to first introduce yourself as a modest learner and share some genuine thoughts and personal experience. Making such a genuine impression to as many people as you can ultimately will attract helpful professionals to share their meaningful insights with you.

1. 1. 1. 7. How do those, who are veteran story tellers, minimize risk in sharing misinformation?

People who are experienced in sharing professional knowledge or stories are often careful of the authenticity of the information. The reason for that is, they are fully aware of the danger of sharing incorrect messages and the harm it could do to one’s career. As a result, before they share, they make sure the content they share have a trusted original source. They would identify the credibility of the source and critically inspect if there are any suspicious details. Identifying a source includes the provider’s ethos and trustworthiness who first communicates the story and then verify if the view or story has the probability of being altered for private interest. After verifying the credibility of a source, the veterans give credit or cite the trusted source. Even if the information or story were then proven incorrect, the person who shares and gives credit to the source is often pardoned from the mistake’s responsibility. When people are not sure of the source, it is always helpful to clearly state the information’s uncertainty before sharing it. Once the information or story is proven to be misleading, the veterans would immediately address the issue clarify with the correct information.

References

1. 1. 1. 1. Lynch, Matthew. “How to Create Your Own Personalized Learning Network.” The Edvocate, 13 Aug. 2017, www.theedadvocate.org/create-personalized-learning-network/.
         2. Hirst, Martin. Navigating Social Journalism: a Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism. Routledge, 2019.