Wrapping It Up

This semester has flown by! It seems like not to long ago I was deciding what I wanted to do for my Face book page and now the semester is over. As I am wrapping this semester up, we had one last blog about what we learned or benefited most from this class. This is a loaded question that probably could turn into a novel but I will try to keep it semi-short and sweet. 

I have learned so much in taking this New Social Media class. Before this class I was very unaware of the effect media has on me and everyone around me. It is easy to get consumed in it and have no idea the impact. This class however opened my eyes to the effects that media can have. I didn't realize there was such a broad range of things the media impacts. From religion, sex, democracy,  to learning, climate change and so much more. I know for me the week on sex and talking about how media portrays both men and women and their expectations hit home because I think it is something the media focuses a lot of it's attention on. Because it is such a personal subject it makes it easy for everyone to relate.

 It is the little things that make it easy to connect and get easily swallowed up in media. That was one of the big take aways for me this semester. We need to learn how to impact the media and not let it impact us so much. We can be the change we want to see in the world. We each have a voice and opinions on things. Being aware of what is going on around us, doing research and forming opinions is the best thing we can do. If we disagree we can voice it and hopefully make a difference even if it is a small one. If everyone did this, image what media would be like today. I know that seems a little out there and far off, but I think that's what this class also taught me. Nothing is too far or out of reach. If there is something you want to do or change, you can do it. Having the realization that you can do this is a little something I think everyone could use. I know it has changed me and my perception on the media and life in general. 

This class has been by far one of my favorites. I have learned so much and the things I learned I can apply to my everyday life. I learned so many more things then mentioned above but those are just to name a few. I hope to be better about my use and consumption of media in the future, and hopefully be a force of good. Thanks everyone for a great class! Happy summer to all! :) 

Contextual Analysis

It is safe to say that every day through social media something new emerges. A new trend, something a celebrity said or did, the latest news happening in our area or around the globe. A recent event that I have heard and seen more about in the social setting is vaccinations. People are continually voicing their opinions and speaking out about whether or not they will chose to vaccinate their kids. Celebrities, parents, and scientists are all speaking up on the matter. What was it that started this huge anti-vaccination movement and how has it evolved into citizen journalism?

One main event that led to the anti-vaccination movement was that back in 1998 Andrew Wakefield published an article supporting the idea that there was a link between autism and vaccinations. Wakefield's findings were carried out and found out to be false data and has since been discredited.  While the findings were proven to be false, that doesn't change the fact that this data had and continues to be talked about. This is the base work for this idea, but it was celebrity Jenny McCarthy who in 2007 brought this idea into the light once again and became the poster woman for anti-vaccinations. After her two year old son was diagnosed with autism, Jenny claimed that vaccinations played a role in him developing his autism. From there she became the spark for this movement and it has spiraled to become a topic for debate in today's society. 

The physical context can be found all over the internet. There are websites, videos, and news articles showing Jenny speak out about her stance on vaccinations and autism. Having this information on the internet makes it quick and easy for anyone to access. Anyone can choose to talk about their opinion on this topic and post it so it is out there for all to see. Because the physical context made it easy for everyone to hear and read about this event, it makes it that much easier to spread their opinion on the matter.

The psychological context behind this topic is what I believe caused it to boom so quickly. It is a topic that has controversy, and it today's society many people want to fight against the norm or be able to speak out and voice their own opinion. When Jenny spoke out about this I believe she wanted us to feel what she felt when she found out her son Evan was diagnosed with autism. People are reacting to this and getting upset over what Jenny and others of the anti-vaccination movement have said. The reaction that Jenny received was not what she anticipated and a lot of negative feedback came back to her. She then later claimed that she was not anti-vaccination, just that she demands safer vaccinations. 

In an article from U.S. News room, it talks about how McCarthy and other celebrities choose to speak out about not vaccinating their kids. Dr. Sheedy, a spokesperson for Centers of Disease Controls says,

 "We are a victim of our own success. We’ve made these diseases disappear for the average person so the outcome of that is that parents don't necessarily feel threatened, they don't feel that urgency to get vaccinated.” 

In the midst of many people speaking out about their choice to be apart of the anti-vaccination movement, Dr. Sheedy realizes the application of what vaccinations in the past has done for us. We have made the diseases disappear and because of that, the need to get our kids vaccinated is no longer something we feel the need to do. This movement has either caused us to realize we are victims of our own success and agree with the anti-vaccination movement, or anger stirs up in us because we don't understand how one could simply choose to not vaccinate their kids.

The cultural context of this debate could affirm your position or stance, or go against what you believe. Speaking out against vaccines itself goes against the culture belief and value of pro-vaccines here in the United States. For many what McCarthy said affirmed their position for the need of vaccines. Science has proven that autism and vaccines have no correlation and many are not willing to disagree with the significant science findings. Because it does go against the cultural belief of many here, it was easy for many to speak out against McCarthy. After asking a question about what quality people looked for a spouse on Twitter to her followers, many responded with remarks relating back to vaccinations.

For many, myself included, I find McCarthy's words to affirm me in my position that vaccines are for the better. I think McCarthy should have done better research and find out the truth of what science has said on the matter and what it has proved to this point in time. This topic became personal to Jenny when her son was diagnosed with autism. However, I think going public with her opinion early on without doing proper science background make it easy for this topic to become citizen journalism. Anyone who is willing to put in the amount of time to look up research and read up on the topic can form an opinion and go against what Jenny was theorizing. Once she chose to voice her opinion, it became a topic for debate that citizens could become involved in and share their opinion. Anyone could now become a journalist and research and write about the topic. 

When it comes to the social context it is easy to see that their is a bias and automatic predispositions when it comes to the topic. Not only for myself, but for others as well. We have grown up in a society where vaccinations is something we all get from the moment we are born. To even start school certain shots are required to protect us from getting diseases and sicknesses. Growing up in an a country that puts a high push on vaccinations we have automatic predispositions when it comes to this topic. Vaccinations are here to help us and keep us safer in the long run. This is what we have been taught to believe and seen as true for many of us. Jenny McCarthy and anyone involved in the anti-vaccination movement is going against what we have grown up and been taught is right. There is obviously a bias when it comes to pro-vaccination. 

The temporal context of this event plays a huge impact in turning this event into citizen journalism. Immediacy played a giant factor in turning what Jenny McCarthy said into a giant movement. After speaking out about being anti-vaccinations, or as she claims "pro-safe vaccinations," the word was able to spread like wild fire. Jenny is use to being in the spotlight and after this, it definitely didn't decrease any. She was able to use her popularity or celebrity status to draw even more attention to what she said and what she wanted to achieve. She was being interviewed, articles about her popped up and even to this day still do. The word was able to be spread quickly through media. including social, and was backed by a celebrity. Below is a clip from CNN covering this news story at that time. 

 For many it stirred up ideas that went against what they believed and made it a topic that many could debate on. Because what Jenny said went against what science has proven to be wrong, for many it was a chance to speak up and downgrade McCarthy in any way they could. It was not just a topic that people were able to speak up and voice their opinion on, but they were also able to insult McCarthy and anyone who agreed with her. This topic is something everyone could choose to put their two scents in on. Educated or not, spiteful or not, it was a chance to speak out. Many took the chance to do just this, just as Jenny McCarthy did. 

Facebook Analysis

For my Facebook page I chose to start a page for a friend who started up a business in February. The business is called Platinum Detail and is ran by Colton Hamlin and Taylor Cox.  They do mobile detailing for cars, trucks and trailers of all kinds.

Here is the Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/platinumdetailstg

Here is my mission statement letting everyone know what Platinum Detailing is all about. 

Mission Statement:
Platinum Detail is a mobile detailing service for anyone in need of a clean ride. Detailing is offered for cars, trucks, and trailers of any kind. We are committed to excellent service and quality in everything we do. We aim to provide a pleasant and satisfying experience for each of our customers. We abide by honesty and make our services as convenient for you as possible.

I wanted to reach a variety of people with this page. It could be from someone in college, to a soccer mom, or even an older single guy. Here are the 3 Persona's I wanted to reach:

Mark is 56, a real estate agent who is currently single after loosing his wife a few years back. He has two kids with 5 grand kids. He enjoys being in the outdoors and playing golf every chance he gets. He enjoys hiking and going for scenic drives when he can. He uses social media to establish dating ties, keep updates on his children and grandchildren, and stay in touch with friends. 

Shela is 34, married with four kids under the age of fifteen. She is a stay at home mom who keeps busying taking care of her children and keeping the house orderly. Her and her family love to go hiking and be in the outdoors. The whole family is very active in sports, and she is constantly running kids from one practice to another. Her social ties share ideas on how to's, recipes, and ways to relieve stress. She finds these ideas, and keeps in contact with close friends and other mothers through Face book. 

Joseph is 23, attending Dixie State University earning a degree in Business. He is single and currently dating to find his significant other. He enjoys hunting, fishing, and going off-roading in his truck. He basically lives out of his truck because he is always on the go. Joseph uses social media to stay connected with friends back home, to look for possible dates, as well as to share his fun adventures that he has. 


For my ad I stayed within twenty miles of St. George. Because we are a local business we don't travel to far. I chose to keep it between the ages of 18-65+.  I added interest like vehicles, pets and anything outdoors.




Below is my actual ad. My text says, "Mobile Detailing for any vehicle that is dirty from daily routine to spontaneous adventures!" With this text I was hoping to include anyone who gets their vehicle dirty, as well as keep it simple. I stuck with the company logo so people would learn to recognize it. If I could go back and change my ad, I might bump up the age a little bit, as well as put more detail into interests and hobbies to really narrow in on the audience I want to reach. I also would like to actually run the ad and see how it helps the company.



Doing this Facebook page was a lot of fun for me. I didn't know there was the insights portion to a page so being able to look over that has been such a good learning tool. First lets start with likes. Overall when the page first started we skyrocketed in likes pretty quick. I accredit this to the owners sharing and telling people about their page. People want to support them so they go and follow the page. There have been plateau's, but overall there is a steady increase. I think as more people get to know about us we will continue to get more likes and increase our fan base. Overall we haven't lost too many people. Maybe lost one right at the beginning but I couldn't tell you why that happened. Could have been an accidental like.

When it came to reaching people I wasn't as successful as I thought I would overall. I averaged around 40 people reached and my highest was close to 500. When I first started the rage I was able to reach lots of people I think because we had just started. However after time, it slowed down for us. The posts that reach the most people and do the best so far have been things about the owner's (info. about them/pictures) as well as before and after pictures.  Overall the reach wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. I hope to find ways to reach more people in the future, and get them more involved as well. I am able to get a lot of likes, however I want more people sharing and commenting on our posts.

Visits to the page went well overall. With this page, I wanted more everything then what I actually got, but being it only two months and finally getting the hang of things, I think I can improve the page for the future. Most of my page visits came from my timeline just as I figured it would. I am happy about this because everything on the timeline gives you a little idea of what Platinum Detail is all about. I hope that as the page continues to grow and we become most consistent with posting, more visits and involvement will take place. 

Overall I could reach about the same amount of people on any given day of the week. The times were a little bit all over the place. I assume this is because a lot of followers are in college so they get on constantly throughout the day. However, 8am and about 10pm overall is when most people were on. There was usually a spike around 6 or 7 pm and sometimes after lunch.  

As mentioned earlier, my best posts were ones that talked about the owners, or before and after pictures right at the beginning. 11 am and 9 pm gave me my best engagement overall. These were two of the best times for me to post. Overall my posts were pretty sporadic. I think It did very well at the beginning like any page would but as time goes on, engagement starts to dwindle a little. 

When it came to post types, overall every kind of post did good. Status had the most involvement but both photo and video were close behind. I think in continuing, I would add a little bit more variety to the posts. Try to add a few more videos of different lengths, add more or less photos, and continue with status updates to see if I could get more involvement. 

My fan base was about what I expected it to be. I had about equal men and women like the page, with the average age group I suspected, 18-45. We had people from Utah like the page, as well as from neighboring states all the way to Tennessee. The far off fan base I believe is most likely family of the two owners. 

I didn't have enough to show people engaged :( which makes me pretty sad, but I have people reached. It is a little higher in the age then I thought it might be, but it makes sense because it is the age of our customers and those getting their car cleaned. 

Overall I had a great time doing this page and learned a lot from it. Over summer I think the owners will take over but I will hopefully continue to help with the page and accomplish some of the things I wanted to. I was able to learn a lot about Facebook but social media as well. I have a better understanding of what works and what doesn't. I think this company has a lot of potential and I hope to see it build and hope I can help contribute to it's success through social media. 

Facebook Ad

For my Facebook Ad I wanted to get more likes. Because I am doing a page for a business, I think it's more important to have people know about it and like the page then to boost the individual posts. The more people who know about us, the better the business which the company will not complain about!

For my location, because it is a St. George based business I kept it local with a radius of 25 miles so people in the outskirts of St. George, like  Hurricane, could be included as well. I kept the age range from about 18-65+. While kids may not be able to afford the service themselves, they can spread the word to their parents and hopefully get business that way as well. Men and women were both included. For interests, I played around a bit. I could add all the different kinds of vehicles and trucks and things like that out there, but I just stuck with vehicles which encompasses them all. I included people with an interest in pets because most people who are pet lovers let them in their vehicles. Hair and hidden dirt can be all over and this is a service they might be interested in. I also added all sports and outdoors. I could have narrowed down this section but I think including all outdoor activities and sports would help reach more people. Both of those are activities that include getting dirty to some degree so all could be interested in a detail of their car. I made the connection to all, reaching me to about 86,000 people reached. Once again I wanted to reach as many people as I could with this ad.

For my actual ad, I chose to stuck with their logo for the business. It is crisp and clean and I think draws peoples attention. For my text I chose to do tell them what we did, mobile detailing, and then tried to make it relatable to everyone. I did that by choosing to say, " dirty from daily routines or spontaneous adventures!" Our vehicles can get dirty from daily routines, running kids around, getting in and out, etc. However sometimes we all chose to do those fun activities and just make the car a mess. I went with this because to me it helped people relate better and make the ad more personable to them. I know my ad would need some improvements if I actually did want to run it, but for now I think it's a great start! 

Religion 3.0 / Sex X.0

Religion 
I know we talked about religion quite a while back, but it was a topic and discussion that I really enjoyed. I myself am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I grew up a member and am still an active member. A lot of the ideas we hit on about my religion, as well as others, I found to be very true and this is me having the chance to have a voice on the matter. 

No matter what religion you are a part of, there is always going to be the people who don't follow all the teachings, those who aren't 100% committed, and those who may act complete opposite of what they are taught. Mormons just like everyone else are guilty of this. Mormons I feel have the label of being very judgmental, when in actuality they are suppose to love everyone. Sometimes I wonder if this stereotype is felt more in Utah than other places because there are so many of us here. I agree with this statement and I have my judgmental moments too, just like everyone else. I know there is one thing that has helped me with this idea and maybe can help others to. It is simple and nothing you haven't heard before. Look at yourself before you look at others. It is easy to look at someone else and say they do this, dress/look like this, act like that. Each of us are unique individuals in our own ways. We can't judge others until we look in the mirror and see our own flaws. It's a hard thing to do, none of us want to admit to things we aren't good at, or areas we struggle. However as we realize our own flaws and focus more on ourselves, I don't think we will be as worried or judgmental of others because the focus is on ourselves and how we can improve. There won't be time to see the flaws of others, and even if you do, you easily remember that you have your own and have no place to speak up. That's my advice and probably my biggest input from our religion discussion. There is so much more I could go on about, but this topic hit me the most. I myself have been working on being more caring and non-judgmental of others, not purely for religious reasons, but because it is something I need to work on to become a better person. I hope all of us, no matter what religion, can take a look in the mirror and see our own flaws before we go and point them out in others.

Sex
Now to the Sex topic. This was such an awesome week of class and discussion. It has been one of my favorite weeks so far, because the topic hits home so much. There are so many internal and external pressures when it comes to being what a "man or woman" is suppose to be like. Social media plays a huge factor in what the world wants us to believe is acceptable, how we should dress, what beauty is, etc. As a woman I pay attention to what it says and speaks to me. It was eye opening to hear about the "man box" and some of the guys perspective on this. Sometimes I forget they have their own expectations of what they should be, and I am trying to be more conscious of how I treat men. I don't want them to feel like they have to fit that box if it's not how they are. They don't have to fit into any expectations, they just need to be true to themselves whether that is what society says you should do or not. Just do you guys! 

Back to what I can relate to, woman. Sometimes I forgot just how much pressure there is to be beautiful, skinny, and dress a certain way. The media portrays woman in a way that I think isn't beautiful or realistic. In order to be beautiful you have to be tall and thin, wear the most "in" clothes, wear make up and always look good. However when I think of people that are beautiful in my eyes, I don't think of celebrities or whoever the media is portraying as beautiful. Beauty to me is something so much more than looks and physical appearance. Beauty is being confident in yourself. Not only on the outside, but on the inside and who you are as an individual. It's the people who can say i know i'm not perfect, but i'm working on it. I have things about me that are wonderful and i'm going to embrace these, as well as find new things to improve on.
It was so sad to hear women in our class talk about how they felt the need from their mothers to be beautiful as the way the world would portray it. The women who are close to us I feel should be the ones to help us embrace our own beauty. I know growing up my mom has always been great at this. As a kid I use to wear these shiny pink pants with a purple shirt that had roses on it. I thought it was the most amazing outfit ever, but looking back now, I can see it was the furthest thing from it. My mom however never told me I looked silly or that I should change. I loved that outfit and felt great in it, and she never took that away from me. We need to be able to feel beautiful in our own skin, in our own way no matter what the media or others tell us. 

I myself have been caught up in the media telling me what beauty is. I want to wear some of those clothes, I want to be tanner, more fit, have volumized hair, look as pretty as other girls. However I have learned, and am continuing to learn that I am beautiful just the way I am. We all have things we wish we could change, but that's not what makes us, us. I am learning to love everything about me and things I don't love that I can change, well that's just something I can work on to improve everyday. I can't say it's been easy to come to this, because the media does play a tole on us whether we want it to or not. However i'm better able to recognize it and resist the urge to just give into to what everyone else thinks.

For all you woman out there, don't ever forget how wonderful and amazing you are. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL JUST THE WAY YOU ARE!! Embrace it :) 

Climate Change

When it comes to talking about climate change or global warming, to me it is just another example of what we have been talking about all year long. Social media puts out all sorts of views on the topic coming from both ends of the spectrum. People can voice their own opinions, say whatever is wanted without facts to back it up. That is what social media is and mainly consists of. Sadly we all are sucked into this trap, and without conscious effort, it's hard not to. Its easier to just believe what pops up or what most people you know are thinking or saying about the matter. 

How do we fix this problem then? What is a solution to the matter?  I think it comes back to what we have continually talked about since day one in this class. We need to figure it out for ourselves. We need to go dig and find the data and truth about the topic, no matter what it may be. Whether it's global warming or what ISIS is doing, or the next big thing, we just need to find the truth. Go out and find reliable sources that can give us the right information for both sides of the issue. From there we can form our own opinions about the matter, and follow through how we see fit. It we want to find a solution to climate change, go out find the truth and make the change you see fit. While we are only one person, we can make a difference by knowing, understanding, and making change happen.

Contextual Analysis Topic

For my contextual analysis topic, I want to look at the issue of vaccinations and how the recent effect of social media has made an impact on this topic. I chose this topic because I myself think vaccinations are important, as well as topics in the health field interest me. I am excited to learn more about the topic and how social media has played a role! :)