Interactivity, social media, digital media and political activity Brooke Taylor and Erin McKinney

INTERACTIVITY  has allowed for mere citizens to participate in a greater conversation as well as on a much larger scale.  Prior to news being produced on the internet, people could not so easily voice their opinion to every other readers who cares to scroll through the comments section.  As article 1 explains, news articles have become a communicative space for the public to debate where journalists become moderators, or simply establish a topic for the masses to discuss.  However the facts are not always there, it is common for people to leave their opinion rather than fact.

QUESTION 1  Digital media and interactivity allows for the masses to participate, are people more educated because of it??? clinton-conspiracy-theories-to-the-daily-show/ - Watch this video then discuss  Political news should be COGNITIVE and inform us of the pros and cons of each candidate or policy or law, however this video was made as a way to poke fun at supporters for Donald Trump.  This video is also proof that a great deal of the people interviewed at this rally are more influenced by their friends and family than by facts.

FACEBOOK AS A POLITICAL PLATFORM  Facebook is a common place for people to tell all of their friends about their opinions  Many users have become ‘PROSUMERS’  The term we learned last week which refers to people who consume and produce news

QUESTION 2  The study in article 2 says Facebook has actually had the opposite effect, why?  Many people will choose to ‘filter’ out their friends during election time because they do not want to see that sort of news  This can add to ‘limited media effect’ as seen in the video

INSTAGRAM AS A POLITICAL PLATFORM  Instagram is a budding platforms for sharing thoughts on politics in a comical manner with political memes  The new 'political cartoon' to keep up with web 2.0