Diversity and Social Media

Diversity and Social Media

by Kevin Wolfe

After the Web 2.0 Conference in 2005, Anil Dash commented on the lack of diversity in social media. Mashable's Pete Cashmore picked up on this as a discussion point on his site.

Through the comments on the post, it seems as though the social media world at it's roots, the creators and event organizers, are not as diverse and do not come across as accepting as it may seem from the general user's experience.

Marshall Kirkpatrick also wrote about this issue on his blog after reading about it on mashable.com. Kirkpatrick provides some suggestions, such as stepping outside of the normal realm of "A-list" bloggers when considering experts in the field and bringing together the for-profit and not-for-profit organization.

User diversity doesn't seem to be that large of a problem at the user level. The largest barrier to using social media may be the accessibility to the Internet by some lower income people. But all the average citizen needs to become a user of social media is access to the Internet, something that most library systems provide free of service to patrons.

Social media may end up being a great unifier in the common person's ability to create and access media on their own.

Picture from http://mobasoft.com/wordpress/category/social-media/

Ethics and Social Media

Ethics and Social Media

by Kevin Wolfe

Transparency in social media is one of the major areas of ethical concern in the subject.  As more and more companies move to online social media to try to connect with their publics and stakeholders, 

it is even more necessary to increase organizations’ transparency in the online communication.

When organizations ignore transparency in their online communication, it can create a lack 

of trust between the organization and publics. Companies such as Belkin have recently been caught writing fake reviews on amazon.com. Writing fake reviews or overly positive reviews for a company with 

which you have an affiliation, but without acknowledging the connection, is referred to as astroturfing. In Belkin’s case, the company released a statement saying the actions were not in accord with the company’s ethical standards and were being dealt with swiftly. Public relations professionals are taking a stand against astroturfing and the blatant lack of transparency by some organizations.

On the other end of the spectrum, companies such as Starbucks seem to understand the importance of transparency to the point that they list exactly who posts updates on their twitter page. An appropriate use of transparency helps to hold the company accountable to their message and to their relationship with the public.

Picture from http://www.mojaveinteractive.com/think/ethics-in-social-media.html

Diversity and the Film Festival

Unlike my earlier entry pertaining to ethics as it is related to film festivals, diversity in film and festivals is a bit more obvious. In fact a simple Google search can return number of film festivals that either revolve around diversity or have chosen their annual theme to be diversity. 

            However, how do I consider diversity when it comes to my project, a film festival? What I have found is that it will be important for me to try to incorporate diversity into my festival in more than the typical ways. I must look at what diversity means and determine ways to incorporate all meanings of the word, so that the festival contributes to the cultural learning of different ideas. By using the Diversity Bibliography found on the Poynter website, I was able to browse through some topics that I think will better allow me to incorporate diversity into my festival.

            As a way of encouraging more diversity, I am planning on opening up the festival to both professionals and students from the region. Because Norman and the OKC Metro are not necessarily diverse, I think I will be able to receive a more varied selection of short films from a broader selection. 

Case Study: Contemporary Media Research Issue, Ethics & my Topic.

by Joshua Lunsford

My project involves researching bicycle-sharing programs for the University of Oklahoma and/or the city of Norman through the theory of Social Marketing. The project is relevant to Contemporary Media Issues simply because of the many global advertising and public relations agencies that have become involved in sponsoring these programs.

William Lynn discusses in "The Ethics of Social Marketing for Conservation: A Learning Module" how a social marketer must behave ethically in making decisions. However, he states that "how we judge the ethics of a social marketing campaign will depend on situation-specific features that we can never fully anticipate." He then gives three guidelines to follow - well-being, integrity, and empowerment.

The Paris bicycle-sharing program is one example. WIth the major sponsorship of JCDecaux, an international outdoor advertising specialist, Paris has both escalated a program thought a loss from the beginning by some and created an example of what to look for in retaining a major sponsor for a public-use system. However, JCDecaux is reconsidering its partnership with the city of Paris due to the loss of bicycles to theft, vandalism, and overuse. JCDecaux did not foresee the system as such a success, and are rethinking the costs associated with the upkeep of these bicycles.

The B-Cycle program that was recently launched at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado is currently ran by a nonprofit organization. However, this program has been advertised and co-sponsored by the Crispin Porter + Bogusky advertising agency in Boulder and Miami.

Is it ethical for a corporate sponsor to be a profiting partner of a social good? I think that if we are to follow Kotler’s theory of social marketing, it doesn’t matter if someone (a corporation, nonprofit organization, city, state, or individual) profits from the successful marketing of a social good. Alan R. Andreasen & Minette E. Drumwright discuss in "Alliances and Ethics in Social Marketing" how a social marketer is not focused on profit-maximization, but on the social issue. They state that "A significant and inevitable consequence of these differences is that, in order to have significant impact, social marketers must seek the help of other organizations and individuals to achieve their objectives."

My project will take ideas from each of the bicycle-sharing programs and attempt to eliminate any reason for potential users to not access the program. The reason for the bicycle-sharing program is multidimensional, but one of those dimensions is to bring members of the university community and city of Norman together. If this is done by creating a profit-making business for some, a supplemental program for a community’s mass transit system, and an environmentally-friendly option for those interested, then it must be seen as an ethical solution to a social need. If a bicycle-sharing program is successful, it will only lead to creating similar programs elsewhere and expansion of current programs.

Diversity Within My Graduate Project

First and foremost, my project is centered on art museums and the increasing need for a larger audience base. Authors and researchers have accepted the notion of a current generational gap formed in the people that choose to attend art museums. Currently, white affluent men and women over the age of 50 contribute a major portion of attendance and donations to art museums around the country. This in itself is nothing to be alarmed about. The part that is scary for the art museum industry is that there isn’t another demographic that is picking up the remaining portion. This is where my master’s project will come into play.

My project is a portfolio-based project that will be grounded in research involving a specific group (14-21 year old males and females). I will be researching the methods of creativity and social dynamics by holding six focus groups with 6-8 members of this demographic in attendance. The information provided by these as well as other research means will provide me the necessary information and insight to complete a creative brief for an advertising platform. Once this creative platform is completed, I will devise two separate advertising campaigns containing between 10 and 15 advertising print executions. I will then use my research to justify my creative executions, thus allowing for an effective method of advertisement to a previously uninterested group of individuals. 

When looking through the Internet for a viable example of diversity integrating with my project topic, I came across an excerpt from Susan Donley’s book, Cultural Diversity; The Museum as Resource. I found this excerpt at http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/museum/museumschool.html. Within this chapter excerpt, Donley outlines the nature of art museums. She goes into detail about their historical significance as well as their ability to teach diversity. She believes the artifacts themselves, being made by different cultures, is in itself a valid form of diversity. Pieces shown within the walls of a museum are not racially specific in nature. Each and every piece has a different beginning, middle and end. The artifacts themselves are evidence of diversity in action. Within one museum, there are thousands of artifacts, each expressing a different meaning or idea. It is this melting pot of significance that diversity is found. With each piece, a new story is told; it can be one of a middle class Caucasian woman or that of a high class African American man. The point is that art has the luxury of not being racially distinguishable. It is because of this very fact that my project integrates diversity within itself naturally. Conversation about diversity within my project is therefore unnecessary.

My Project and Diversity

The overarching concept of art museum advertising messages is extremely relevant to contemporary media. The notion of talent construction comes into play when regarding advertising different creative outlets to a younger generation (in this case, art museums). In order for contemporary media outlets to continue to strive in the future, it is imperative that younger generations foster a passion for creativity. This is where the issue of art museum advertising comes into play. Squidoo.com defines creativity as “the ability to make something original, to imagine things that don't exist, and to come up with new ideas.” With that being said, the importance of continued creativity generation should be understood. Without creativity in our younger generations, the business fields associated with this wonderful ability will disappear. 

With a topic centered on the renewal of creativity in minors, the ethical constrains of such a task should be considered. According to Ethical Conduct of Clinical Research Involving Children, even though children have benefited greatly from clinical research, their rights must be thought about in an excessive amount. Since children are younger and thus more prone to physical and emotional damage, their care must be ensured at all times when participating in a study. Psychologist Allen D. Kanner, PhD, says “advertising is a massive, multi-million dollar project that's having an enormous impact on child development. 

The sheer volume of advertising is growing rapidly and invading new areas of childhood, like our schools.” This notion outlines the importance of the ethical treatment of children in this study. With the increasing amount of messages being targeted toward children, we as media vehicles must choose the way in which we reach our children targets. It is an important issue that is currently being addressed by different venues across academia. 

The country of Iceland has taken an extreme position on advertising directed toward children. They have several laws that both limit and deny advertising messages during children specific programming. These actions show how important this topic is. When a government makes laws against a topic, it implies importance. 

The way in which American advertisers treat the issue of advertising for children can be described as a self-policing action. There is a lack of laws preventing the advertisement of products to children, however, advertisers answer to the people within their publics. Chris Moore of Ogilvy & Mather wrote a speech in which he stated “Society imposes context on advertising ethics all the time - especially in advertising that involves children.” If a member of the advertising community can recognize a trend within that community, it must be an apparent issue. 

The ethics involved around the notion of creativity prosperity are important to consider when executing research. These children must be thought of before being spoken to. Hopefully, the industry will continue their self-policing in the future, for our children’s sake that is.

The following is a list of sources used in the creation of this blog.

http://www.squidoo.com/fosteringcreativity

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10958&page=R1

http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep00/advertising.html

http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/docs/library/studies/finalised/studpdf/minadv_ic.pdf

http://www.aef.com/on_campus/classroom/speaker_pres/data/3001

When it comes to ethics and the mass media, and in some cases the lack thereof, many examples come to mind. Typically they range from the Jayson Blair and fabricated stories of the print world to the Geraldo Rivera’s and Dan Rather’s of broadcast… But where does film fall in all of this? Film, on a large scale, is not like journalism. Sure, documentaries are a video based form of journalism, but with documentaries and all of film comes the opportunity of the director/producer/writer to tell a story. Many times these stories are encouraged to push the boundaries of what we know and accept as ethical. After all, isn’t the point of the cinema not just to tell stories with an electronic media, but rather to entertain us?

What this all boils down to is the idea that film creates the opportunity for ethics to be pushed and ethical situations to be documented. Aly Colón from the Poynter Institute created a fun list of movies that tell the stories of journalists battling what is ethical and unethical. And in the forum his article created, many of the readers posted lists of movies that revolve around ethics. In fact, it wouldn’t take along look to find ethical dilemmas in just about every movie you watch. After all, there has to be some sort of issue for the antagonist to overcome. So, connecting film and ethics isn’t as difficult as it seems.

My project, however, is not just a film. Instead it is an entire film festival, short film festival to be exact. So what does all of this mean for me… how do ethics play into a film festival? The way I see it, a film festival is to a film, like a newspaper is to an article. The festival is a showcase for for the films that make the cut, much like a newspaper, magazine or news broadcast is the showcase for the articles and stories that make the cut. In looking at the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, I found two of the four areas of standards to be especially prevalent in a public film festival. The first is the notion that you should Minimize Harm. This couldn’t be more prevalent. I need to understand that although one of the beauties of film is that issues, ideas and ethics can be pushed there is still a risk of emotionally harming those who attend the festival. I think it will be important for me to consider this capability of harm when going through the selection process of entries. Although all of the principles listed in the SPJ Code of Ethics are important to know and understand with my project, the other specific principle that struck me was the idea to Be Accountable. I should be held accountable for all things relating to the festival. I need to be prepared for any criticisms and possible situations that may arise when holding a public event. I feel that if I can keep these principles at the front of my mind, I think I can create a successful event