Social Media in the News

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/02/justice/texas-stabbing-videochat/index.html?iref=allsearch

In this case Face Time was used to save a woman’s life. Rachel Poole was stabbed while Face Timing her husband, who was deployed in South East Asia. A few weeks ago this woman walked into her home at night and was attacked by another soldier, who apparently owed her and her husband money for vehicle damage. While being attacked the woman was able to scream out her attackers name and her husband heard it and posted the picture of the attacker on Facebook asking help to find him.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/15/us/social-media-suicide-stop/index.html?iref=allsearch

            In this case Facebook was used to reach out to a potential suicide victim and save his life. Police from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department were informed of the teen’s suicidal posts hinting at jumping off a local bridge. They downloaded his profile picture and handed them out to local officers who went searching for the teen. However unsuccessful that attempted was they did not give up. Police directly posted to his Facebook profile urging him to call them, even other friend on the social media site posted comments to him. Soon after he actually did receive the messages and met with one of the officers who helped him check into a hospital.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/13/justice/pennsylvania-teen-charged-twitter/index.html?iref=allsearch

                A teen in Pennsylvania used twitter to expose witness information about a 2012 shooting. Now this teen is being charged with witness intimidation and making terroristic threats. Using pictures from another Instagram account this teen posted information that could potentially hurt criminal cases. Obviously not much detail about the actual post could be provided, but it does make you wonder how much damage social media can do in certain instances.  The uses of  social media tends to be like a double-edged sword; with both positive and negative repercussions. 

Arab Spring

I feel that social media encouraged the Arab Spring. If there had been no social media with the ability to spread the injustices that it probably would not have gotten such coverage. Yet the people in the countries would still be facing the issues, just without international attention. If there had not been cell phones there that day when Mohamed Bouazizi lit himself on fire to protest the government corruption, would people outside the country even be aware? I think the problem and probably the protesting would be there regardless of the social media, it’s just that social media is a great tool to spread the news faster.

 Social Media can spread information at lightning speed. Information is power. Different groups of people are fighting for the power, so it makes sense that both groups try to use social media to convey their information to the rest of the world. In this case, similar to Egypt, protesters used real time video to show the cruelty of the regimes in power. Both the government and the rebel groups use social media tools to spread their propaganda.  

I personally have never used to social media to organize a group but I could see where it would be useful. Using Facebook to promote and encourage participation in a fundraiser or nonprofit organization is a great example. Social media, for the most part now, is free so using it to spread information can lead to great outcomes. People are now able to know or at least be aware of many things they otherwise would not have found out about.