Social Media Networks: Challenges and Opportunities to Shape Public Opinion - Thesis Example

This study examined the role played by social media networking in creating a higher level of political activism sufficient to overhaul the entire social order. It addresses the popular belief that social networking is responsible for the succession of political overthrows and unrest in the Middle East since 2010 to the present. The study concluded that while social networking has played a crucial role in facilitating political activism, it was at best effective as a tool for communication dissemination and for instantaneous coordination among a large group of dispersed individuals.

Social networking, however, could not dictate how people thought or what action they decide to take. It does not take away individual discernment or create personal convictions. Without the underlying political instabilities and social disequilibria, social networking performs more the function of opinion and information forum, minimizing misunderstanding and reducing extreme perceptions by facilitating social interaction and consensus building. Technology has always been the determinant of the means by which people communicate with each other.

The Internet and the instantaneous electronic communications it facilitates have changed the way in which people view the world in general and each other in particular. While the Internet as a medium is capable of empowering individuals, the development of social media networks accessible through the Internet has developed a particularly strong psychosocial influence on the way people collectively think. . ons Management 17 2.5 The Labor Law on Social Media Cases 19 2.6 Social networks as a retail marketing tool 20 2.

7 Distinctions in the use of online networks 20 2.8 Online social networks and its transformation of mainstream journalism 21 2.9 Effect of social networking on the conduct of mainstream journalists 25 2.10 The politicization of social networking 28 2.11 Conceptual Framework 32 2.13Chapter summary 37 This chapter explored the existing knowledge on social media, online networking, and the manner individuals interact with each other over the internet. Social media was defined and elaborated, and the different ways social media has been employed in different cultures have been described.

37 Shifting emphasis to institutional applications, social networking was examined in the light of human relations management, labour relations, and its effectiveness as a retail marketing tool. Online social networks have been noted to transform aspects of conventional journalism, and mainstream journalists are compelled to conform to the new developments in an effort to remain relevant. This leads to the politicization of social networking, and the prospects of using social media as the channel for political activism.

37 Finally, the conceptual framework for the study is formed, based on two theories, one exploring the factors that influence people’s interest in electronic word-of-mouth, and the other investigating the demographic and media exposure factors, including social networking, that act as determinants of political activism. The following chapter discusses the methodology by which this conceptual framework shall be actualized. 37 Chapter 3: Methodology 38 3.2 Research philosophy 38 3.3 Research strategy 39 3.

4 Description of variables used in the study 40 3.5