Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Social Media Furthering the Cause

Two social medias types that I would use to further communicate policy issues on universal Pre-Kindergarten in Charles County, Maryland are Facebook and Blogger.

  1.  Facebook was established ten years ago as a place for collegiate students to form relationships. Since its inception, Facebook has expanded their membership to all walks of life throughout the world.  Facebook has been credited for the uprising against the Egyptian's Mubarak government in January 2011 uprising.  Bel Trew explained that during that time, "'It also acted as an alternative to traditional Egyptian media.Citizen journalism really exploded in 2011 and Facebook and Twitter were one of those ways, well two of those ways, that people were able to get information out there to the rest of the world because their own media wasn't helping'"(Anonymous, 2014, para. 8).  Facebook changed history in Egypt and has the potential to change early childhood policies.  Facebook allows users to organize interest and advocacy groups where anyone who belongs to the site can join.  In these groups, site administrators and group members can post information about universal preschool including articles and blogs. One of the challenges in using Facebook would be group members may not agree with your view or the process that you desire to implement universal Pre-Kindergarten in Charles County, Maryland. Group members may post their views on the topic which may distract from the common goal. In order to lessen these types of incidents, security settings would need to be adjusted to benefit the cause.  
  2. Blogger  is a free blog site where individuals can set-up a blog where readers can respond to their blog and share their insights. In blogger, one can subscribe to your feeds and receive notifications whenever a new entry is published. One of the challenges with using a blog would be publicizing its existence beyond colleagues and friends.  In order to promote their blog, one can place the link onto other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. 


References:
 
Anonymous (2014, Feb 06). Egypt: In egypt, facebook serves as tool for government, opponents. Asia News Monitor Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1494521573?accountid=14872

5 comments:

  1. Melissa,

    I agree with both of your media sources to help communicate your policy issue of universal pre-kindergarten. My concern with blogging is the same as yours in that who would the blog information expand to? Is that a limited audience? I am not an avid blogger so I do not know how much people use this forum to communicate. However, with the right advocates assisting you, I would think that the blog message could be spread rather effectively.

    As for Facebook, I continue to be amazed at the worldwide reach it has achieved. I have friends in other countries and am able to keep in constant contact with them every single day. Before Facebook our communication was once a year because of the cost of overseas calls. Much like the situation you spoke of in Egypt, I have friends in Venezuela who have been able to show of the violent situations that have been occurring there because the local media was not communicating this situation to the outside world. Nothing is done in secret anymore and that could be positive or negative. Here in the Chicago area a young man was beaten to death and another teenager caught it all on his phone. This form of media unfortunately showed the gruesome act as it took place, but as a result, the guilty were caught and justice was serviced.

    Facebook can serve to effectively communicate your message of universal pre-kindergarten even though there will possibly be some negative comments. However, if you are going to support a policy, you also have to face opposing views and be able to address them. Having lively discussing on these issues is what helps you to make improvements were needed and can serve to enlighten the public as a whole.

    Darla

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    1. Darla,

      Before starting Walden University, I had never blogged or followed a blog. Since starting my coursework, I have shared my blog on Facebook, but I have not entered any additional blog entries not required by coursework. In order for the blog to be effective, the blog entries would need to be on a more regular basis and would need to gain a wider audience. Do you read blogs on a regular basis? How did you originally hear about the blogs?

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  2. Melissa,

    I have not followed blogs before Walden, even though I tried once. I found it a little too boring because the person did not blog on a regular basis. In that short time, I also noticed that not too many people followed the blog even though it was open to the public. It seems like there are other mediums that people use where there is more interaction and the responses are almost immediate. You asked where I had originally heard about blogs. Do not laugh, but I first heard about blogging when I watchd that movie Julie and Julia, where she prepared one of Julia Child's recipes and then blogged about it. Even at that time I wondered if anyone read blogs. I suppose if it is a topic of great interest where you truly gain insight from the information provided, it might be something I would do, but probably not on a regular basis.

    Darla

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    1. Darla,
      Thanks for your insights on blogging. Julie and Julia is one of my favorite movies. It's amazing how technology is integrating into entertainment.

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  3. Hi Melissa,

    You have some strong and convincing insights about the value of something like Facebook. One thing I am curious about relative to Facebook, blogging, etc. is the overload of "stuff" on these sites to the point where some of it becomes ineffective. What do you think?

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