Guest Lecture PIO activity

I felt like the Public Information Officer activity we did in class was interesting but I don't necessarily think it needs to be so structured. It was hard for us to relate when we don't know how PIO's actually respond to things like this and they probably deal with it so much they would react differently than we do. If you have certain questions you want to ask them, you can outline the meeting with those questions but don't necessarily need each person to pick a card. Also after picking the card I felt like I was supposed to answer the question rather than having it open for discussion.

One thing that I think the PIO's could benefit from is getting involved with social media. They should have an official facebook/twitter/blog/newsletter that gives important information on whats going on in the community, especially when disaster hits. If people knew there was a legitimate site that was post up to date information about a crisis as it is happening would be incredibly helpful. They could have one person dedicated to updating their website/facebook/twitter and sending newsletters and if advertised correctly people would know where to turn when a crisis hits.

Columbine V. Katrina

It was interesting to compare the Columbine shooting with Hurricane Katrina in terms of prevention, response and aftermath. Neither one of these is completely preventable. I am sure there were warning signs that Eric and Dylan were planning this disaster, kind of similar to the warning signs of when a person is about to commit suicide. The thing is, it is pretty obvious that no one ever really paid attention to these boys in the first place, therefore no one really noticed if they started to act a little different. I think that is where this whole problem begins...

As for Katrina, there were warning signs sent out with a significant amount of time to react, but they were ignored. This problem stems from the lack of city planning and from those who didn't listen to the experts who said it was a bad idea to put a town at the bottom of a flood zone. The housing that was most devastated by the hurricane was of course that of lower income families who don't have as many resources to rebuild and recover from such a disaster. 

Social media could be used in either situation although I think it would be more beneficial during a hurricane rather than a shooting. I know that if I were at a school when this was happening my first reaction would be to send a mass text message with my phone rather than jump to my facebook/twitter. Mostly because I know the majority of my friends/family would see my text before they would get my "tweet" or facebook notification.

Google's Social Search

I think it's cool how google wants to match your searches with friends tweets, blogs, pictures, etc. That would be incredibly helpful during a time of crisis. If a friends post came up on one of your searches you could probably get in touch with them to find out more about it, a random critic might be a little bit harder to get a hold of. Also I think for the most part, your friends will give you an honest opinion unlike the people who benefit from whatever it is you are looking for. Between your friends you could probably determine those whose interests are similar to yours and those who are not. For example, not everyone is looking for the same experience when going on a tropical vacation. Some will look for peaceful serenity, others will look for the biggest party. 

When it comes to disaster we know there is quite a large number of people who tweet about it right away. There might still be some trouble in organizing all of the information as it comes in, as to put at the top those that are most relevant to you.

Guest Speakers

I really enjoyed both speakers that we had in class on Thursday. I think one of the things that stuck out to me the most was when Jason Zietz was explaining how to use social media to connect people with an easy way to make a difference. The hardest thing I am trying to overcome with this project is how to invoke change in other people, especially with issues that don't necessarily hit home for them. Also it seems the common solution for this is to donate money to a cause, but that's hard for me as I am sure it is for other people too, when we don't actually know where that money is going? How do you know when you give money to a website that the money is actually going towards something good rather than straight to someones pocket?

It starts with looking at all of the angles of an issue and then seeing where there is possibility for change. People will be more inclined to help if it is easy for them to do so. I will need to think of the easiest way to get people involved and I think that starts with awareness. Then perhaps I will focus on one issue at a time starting with educating people on overfishing and encourage them to find out where the fish comes from that they are eating. It is also important to know that the labels are correct in what you are buying as we have seen in Japan that is not the case, people are unknowingly eating hazardous dolphin meat. Then next step would be to get involved. It would be interesting to compile a list of all of the restaurants and groceries that sell fish state where each place gets their supply. If this information was made widely available people might be more conscious of the fish they are eating. If there happen to be restaurants who get their fish from harmful practices and enough people stop going there, they might change their ways.

Understanding TECHnology

Human values are closely linked with the internet. From the things you make public, to the videos you share, the blogs you post and the websites you visit. The way certain sites are organized make them more user friendly to those with a higher understanding of technology. Different sites attract different people with different values. With social media you create a persona for yourself and how you want others to see you. Some people use a nickname for their facebook so that only a select group of people can find them and especially so that employers cannot see how hard they party every weekend. Other people have their settings set so that everything is public, have every detail of their life posted on either their information page or through their status updates or wall posts. Privacy is another issue all on its own, after the passing of the Patriot Act and with the internet are we truly entitled to a certain amount of privacy? Anything posted on the web, no matter what you privacy settings are, is fair game. Just because you have your pictures blocked on your page doesn't mean people won't see the pictures if all your friends have the same ones...

I thought it was really interesting how people use Amazon not only to buy things, but also just to check up on the reliability of certain items. These days people rely heavily on citizen journalism. Rather than reading published reviews, many would rather read reviews written by others just like them. It makes sense that the reviews by any citizen would be more honest than the reviews by the company, but what about the news people are getting from citizens who are not trained in journalism? Reading a hardcopy of a newspaper every day is almost unheard of, and rather than checking news sites, many people get their news from social media sites, twitter, blogs, and facebook. The main thing you must be careful of is fact checking your source before reiterating what they said. Otherwise its natural for people to have their own opinions and listening to that could open your eyes to a view of an issue you might not have previously thought about. 

Hunter S. Thompson saw the beauty in honest reporting, and (in my opinion) was one of the best journalists there was. He reported on what he saw and clearly stated his own opinions for you to take from as you will. His style of journalism was unique and will probably never be imitated in quite the same way.

Social Change through Social Media Project

For my project I decided to follow the destruction of our aquatic and oceanic ecosystems and marine life. This is a huge issue in the United States and across the world. Introducing foreign species into an unnatural habit, pollution, overfishing and the slaughtering of whales, dolphins and sharks. In using social media to address these issues I am going to find different videos, articles, causes, blogs, pages, and other tools that people are using to spread awareness and initiate change and post them on my own social networking sites. I am going to send invitations to my friends on various causes and see how much I can affect the growth of them.

The videos and groups that I have "liked" on my facebook page has already gotten attention from many of my friends. People have commented and "liked" the issues I have been writing about. This issue is important to me because I admire, respect and cherish our lakes, oceans, and rivers across the world. Scuba diving was like being in a whole different world, a mysterious world full of species I never even knew existed. It's incredible to be 80 feet below the surface of the water and still look underneath you only to find a dark blue abyss.

Can you imagine what our waters will look like in 20 years if we keep going at this same rate of destruction? The oceans would be polluted, desolate and eerie without the marine life we have today. It is important to eat fish that are caught in an eco-friendly manner with as little by catch as possible and it should be regulated just as the hunting season is. People need to learn that bringing foreign species into a place they don't belong will ultimately kill the native population. The most obscene of these things that needs to stop is the slaughtering of dolphins, whales and sharks. Killing for sport is unnecessary and inhumane and if enough people stand against it there is possibility for change.

Unveiling a scandal through the web

The Voice of the Faithful is an activism group that was created as a reaction to priests who had raped and abused little boys. Within months this group had grown into hundreds of participants and within their first year had members in more than 20 different countries. This sort of growth is a huge and amazing accomplishment for this group. Previously priestly abuse had been dealt with by the church, treated as an internal matter where the priest was just moved from one parish to the next instead of being punished. This is awful, before this group came into effect these priests, who are looked up to in their Catholic communities, were getting away with abusing children and were just relocated to places where their crimes were unknown so they could keep doing it.

With the emergence of the internet, crucial information like this can be spread rapidly through the community and beyond. It takes time to get a hard copy of an article and show it to others, an article written in a local paper will only reach the local audience. With the internet you can copy and paste a link onto a social media account, or forward an email to every person in your contact list with just a simple click of the mouse. Now this information is available to people across the world, making it more difficult for these disgusting people to move and start over in a new place. Also the growth of the VOTF owes part of its success to the internet, where it is easy to find information on all kinds of activist groups and how you can help the cause.

One of the most important elements of this is spreading awareness about the issue. People get away with doing terrible things because no one knows about it. Nothing will change if people do not act to change it. People should most definitely know if their priest has a history of abusing children, I think many would choose a different place of worship if they knew their Priest was involved in such a horrible act.