CURRENT CLIMATE AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Dr. Kris MarshProfessor Sociologistkmarsh1@umd.edu(323) 422-7373

OBJECTIVES

1. To examine the current climate2. To connect the current climate to social

media3. To expose the general use and users of

social media 4. To explore the social implications of

social media5. To discuss current research on social

media

RACISM (ISMS)

https://buildingformission.com/

ANTI-RACIST (INDIVIDUAL)

https://www.surgeryredesign.com. Inspired by the work of Dr. Kendi

ANTI-RACISM (STRUCTURAL)

https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/being-antiracist

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS DEFINITION

• Social institutions are mechanisms or patterns of social order focused on meeting social needs, such as government, economy, education, family, healthcare, and religion

• Social institutions are systems and structures that shape the activities of groups and individuals in society

• Social institutions are a structure but not a place

TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• What is the purpose of your institution?

• What is the hierarchical structure of your institution?

• How does your institution promote anti-blackness (other –isms)?

• What is your action plan? • connection your institution and policing

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINITION

Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content (quickly) or to participate in social networking

WORLDWIDE USERS ACROSS MOST PLATFORMS

Source: Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2019). The rise of social media. Our World in Data (September 18), https://ourworldindata. org/rise-of-social-media. (7.7 Billion)

SOCIAL MEDIA USERS BY AGE

Source: Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2019). The rise of social media. Our World in Data (September 18), https://ourworldindata. org/rise-of-social-media.

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS

Source: Pew Research Center, October, 2019, “Americans Are Wary of the Role Social Media Sites Play in Delivering the News”

DAILY SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE IN MINUTES

Index, G. W. (2016). Daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide from 2012 to 2016 (in minutes). Statista (accessed July 10, 2018), https://www. statista. com/statis tics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide.

SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE OVER A LIFETIME (72)

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics https://www.bls.gov/, Table 12. Average hours per day spent in primary activities for the civilian population, 2018 quarterly and annual averages. NOTE: 72.0 years was the average life expectancy at birth of the global population in 2016

WHERE DO PEOPLE GET THEIR NEWS BY AGE?

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/10/social-media-outpaces-print-newspapers-in-the-u-s-as-a-news-source/

OFFENSIVE?

OFFENSIVE TWEET?

TWEET CONTEXT

Justine Sacco, a South African

Flight from New York to Cape Town in 2013

Sacco tweets to her 170 followers

Sacco claimed to be a satire intended to mock American ignorance of South Africa

TWEET OUTCOME

Fired from her job and online-shamed

People on the internet weren't happy with the original tweet

Started #hasjustinelandedyet hashtag

Example of how a vigilante campaign of public shaming can affect and even destroy a person's life and career

OFFENSIVE TWEET?

TWEET CONTEXT

2011 observing the American reaction to the death of Osama bin Laden

Rashard Mendenhall, Former NFL running back posted his thoughts on Twitter

Tweet met with criticism

TWEET OUTCOME

Rashard Mendenhall lost his endorsements

Traded from Pittsburgh Steelers to the Cardinals

2014 retired from professional football career

OFFENSIVE FACEBOOK POST?

FACEBOOK CONTEXT

2015, Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo employee Rochelle Robinson decided to complain about visitors at the zoo

Took to Facebook, announcing that she's serving “rude ass white people”

Zoo representatives issued a statement:“Yesterday, we became aware of the actions of a single employee which we agree are unacceptable. This employee's statements in social media are in violation of our policies and do not reflect our institution's values. We have zero tolerance for these kinds of divisive behaviors. We treat all employment matters confidentially but please know that we took prompt action to remedy the situation

FACEBOOK OUTCOME

Rochelle Robinson backlash online

Forced to quit her job

Change her name on Facebook

OFFENSIVE TWEET?

TWEET CONTEXT

2011 hockey player Sean Avery expressed support for same-sex couples which started a gay marriage debate

Todd Reynolds, a hockey agent, criticize Avery's stance

Damian Goddard, sportscaster, express his solidarity with Todd Reynolds

TWEET OUTCOME

Damian Goddard, a Toronto based sportscaster for Rogers Sportsnet, was fired for a homophobic tweet

Rogers Sportsnet representatives issued a statement that simply said:

“Damian Goddard is no longer with us.”

OFFENSIVE TWEET?

TWEET CONTEXT

Carly McKinney, a high school math teacher in Colorado, posts caught the school board's attention

Carly appeared in provocative situations, like smoking, intoxicated and/or semi-nude.

Carly stated her Twitter account was a parody and she never had drugs involved in her professional life

TWEET OUTCOME

Carly was fired for a series of tweets and racy photos online

OFFENSIVE INSTAGRAM POST?

INSTAGRAM CONTEXT

Florida security guard known as Doug filmed himself farting over 75 times while at work and posted some of the footage to his Instagram account “Paul Flart”

The account's description labels Doug as “The Fart Authority”

Avid fan of immortalizing his life on video

Followers: 111,000 (@paulflart)

INSTAGRAM OUTCOMEHospital didn't take too kindly to Doug’s

footage

Supervisor declared Doug violated company policy which prohibits using phones on the job and by filming himself wearing his security guard uniform on hospital grounds

Doug starter a fundraiser where he said that his “goal is to be the first person to make a living off farting after getting fired from [his] job in a public manner”

ACADEMIC DEFINITION OF HATE SPEECH?

No formal definition exists but there is a consensus that it is speech that targets disadvantaged social groups in a manner that is potentially harmful to them

Drawing upon these definitions, some define hate speech as language that is used to expresses hatred towards a targeted group or is intended to be derogatory, to humiliate, or to insult the members of the group

Academics (theoretical) versus Legal Scholars (impact) Source: Davidson, T., Warmsley, D., Macy, M., & Weber, I. (2017, May). Automated hate speech detection and the problem of offensive language. In Eleventh international aaai conference on web and social media.)

HATE SPEECH AND SOCIAL MEDIA

STORY OF PEPE THE FROG

The Pepe the Frog character did not originally have racist or anti-Semitic connotations

Pepe the Frog first appeared in 2005 in the comic “Boy's Life” by artist Matt Furie

Internet users appropriated the character and turned him into a meme

Many variations of the meme became rather esoteric (understood by only a chosen few), resulting in the phenomenon of so-called “Rare Pepes”

HATE SPEECH, SOCIAL MEDIA AND PEPE THE FROG

Source: https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-adds-pepe-the-frog-meme-used-by-anti-semites-and-racists-to-online-hate

HATE SPEECH, SOCIAL MEDIA AND PEPE THE FROG

Source: https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-adds-pepe-the-frog-meme-used-by-anti-semites-and-racists-to-online-hate

HATE SPEECH, SOCIAL MEDIA AND PEPE THE FROG

Source: https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-adds-pepe-the-frog-meme-used-by-anti-semites-and-racists-to-online-hate

HATE SPEECH, SOCIAL MEDIA AND PEPE THE FROG

Source: https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-adds-pepe-the-frog-meme-used-by-anti-semites-and-racists-to-online-hate

HATE SPEECH, SOCIAL MEDIA AND PEPE THE FROG

Source: https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-adds-pepe-the-frog-meme-used-by-anti-semites-and-racists-to-online-hate

HATE SPEECH, SOCIAL MEDIA AND PEPE THE FROG

Source: https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-adds-pepe-the-frog-meme-used-by-anti-semites-and-racists-to-online-hate

HATE SPEECH, SOCIAL MEDIA AND PEPE THE FROG

Source: https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-adds-pepe-the-frog-meme-used-by-anti-semites-and-racists-to-online-hate

FATE OF PEPE THE FROGSeptember 27, 2016, the Anti-Defamation

League (ADL) identified “Pepe the Frog,” a cartoon character as a hate symbol

Pepe the Frog was added to ADL’s online “Hate on Display” database.

According to Pew Research Center, 2016 was the first year that an internet meme made its way into the Anti-Defamation League’s database of hate symbolsSource: Rainie, Lee, Janna Anderson and Jonathan Albright. The Future of Free Speech, Trolls, Anonymity and Fake News Online.” Pew Research Center, March 2017. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/03/29/the-future-of-free-speech- trolls-anonymity-and-fake-news-online/

RESEARCH ON SOCIAL MEDIA

1. Whiting, A., & Williams, D. (2013). Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal.

2. Sheldon, P., & Bryant, K. (2016). Instagram: Motives for its use and relationship to narcissism and contextual age. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, 89–97.

3. Vogel, E. A., Rose, J. P., Roberts, L. R., & Eckles, K. (2014). Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(4) 206

TEN REASONS PEOPLE USE SOCIAL MEDIA

(1) social interaction (2) information seeking (3) pass time (4) entertainment (5) relaxation (6) communicatory utility (7) convenience utility(8) expression of opinion(9) information sharing (10) surveillance or knowledge about othersSource: Whiting, A., & Williams, D. (2013). Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal

MOTIVATION RANKINGS FOR USING SOCIAL MEDIA

Alhabash, S., & Ma, M. (2017). A tale of four platforms: Motivations and uses of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat among college students?. Social Media+ Society, 3(1), 2056305117691544.

RESEARCH ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Research on both Instagram and Snapchat is still in its infancy due to the recent increase in adoption rates

Instagram users place less emphasis on connecting with others, more on personal identity and self-promotion

Other motives: surveillance and knowledge gathering about others, documentation of life events, self-promotion and displaying creativity

Surveillance was the strongest motivation for Instagram usage

Source: Sheldon, P., & Bryant, K. (2016). Instagram: Motives for its use and relationship to narcissism and contextual age. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, 89–97.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER• What is the purpose of your institution?

• What is the hierarchical structure of your institution?

• How does your institution promote anti-blackness (other –isms)?

• What is your action plan? • connection your institution and policing