Influence of the Media

Social media has definitely influenced my perspective of events.  I’m not sure I ever really believed everything I read or heard without giving it some thought, but the speed and breadth of social media has made me more conscientious of my responsibility as a consumer of information. I consider this a positive influence.

I use Facebook on an almost daily basis, for work and for personal use.  I use my smartphone throughout the day, mostly for the calendar/schedule functions, but also for personal email and texting.  (I deliberately do not have my work email on my phone.)  Some of the posts on Facebook remind me of spam email that need to be dealt with carefully, or simply deleted and put out of mind. I compare utilizing new media to being a good consumer of products.  I evaluate the information I have to choose from.  I use experience and reputation of the individual or source posting to decide if the claims are true or exaggerated to promote responses.  What validates the information that I’m supposed to believe?  Is it presented objectively or is it laden with emotional hype?   I think I’ve always been an active “thinker” when it comes to accepting information, but social media has developed that skill further and has produced additional skills that enable me to evaluate reliably.

In my professional capacity, I work in Animal Control where social media can create unintended consequences, both positive and negative.  We recently posted a photo of one of our Animal Control Officers returning a Beagle to a senior citizen who had lost the dog 2 years ago!  Nice story…or so you would think.  We were proud of our officer and his detective abilities to reunite the gentleman and his long-lost hunting partner based on a very cryptic, handmade dog collar.  However, rather than focusing on what we thought was important (reuniting a pet with an owner), some people chose to comment on the officer’s appearance.  Social media opens the door for criticism on various levels.

I feel like I’ve witnessed an increase in sloppy journalism, both traditional and electronic.  It makes me even more convicted to be a better consumer of information and a distributor of such, since I have the opportunity to write articles for the facility I work at. I admit that I write with a purpose—typically to educate the community and get animals adopted. I include an emotional component to solicit the response I’m looking for from readers.  However, I never compromise truths and facts.   I think as both consumer and producer of information, new social media has had an overall positive effect on how I view, and present, events.