Current Issues in Social Media - Essay Example

Heading: Current Issues in Social Media Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date Social Media Usage in Canada Social media has increasingly become a crucial and fast growing component not only in the Canadian society but also across the globe. It plays a critical role in the world events, such as, the recent occurrences in Japan, Haiti, and Middle East. In fact, social media is popular for providing the first hand updates of disasters and crimes through stories and images even before the relevant authorities get to the scenes. For instance, social media platforms provided firsthand accounts on the recent issues including terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India; hostage issue in Maryland; and the landing of a plane on River Hudson in New York. These pieces of information were first received through social media platforms, such as, Twitter, Facebook, and microblogging. Another instance was the real time information on Osama’s attack by the information technology expert, Sohaib Athar. Nevertheless, the emergence and widespread use of these social media platforms in Canada and the globe have a substantial share of opportunities and challenges, especially to the law enforcers (Marshall, 2014). The use of these platforms has enabled various agencies to raise community policing to advanced levels. This is because social media permits the law enforcers to disseminate information, humanize their officers and work, as well as to engage the citizens via online communities. Clearly, social media is widely used in the protection of the public. It is also worth noting that social media has many positive effects on the Canadian economy through fast dissemination of information to the clientele and effective and efficient marketing activities. For instance, research reveals that this medium contributes $7.3 billion to the country’s economy and this is expected to reach $14.8 billion by 2018 (ICTC, 2013). However, criminals have also advanced in relation to the use of social media. They understand its importance and thus, they are exploiting its power in recruiting the members and coordinating their unlawful activities. Besides, there is a worrying trend of cyberbullying and other internet crimes in the country; hence a great challenge to the police, citizens, and businesses. This paper intends to explore further on the background, opportunities and issues, ethical considerations, tools, current issues, as well as the future of this medium. According to the ICTC (2013), 75% of the country’s businesses use at least one of the available digital platforms in information sharing, disseminating, communicating, and broadcasting. 46% of the country’s businesses employ social media platforms in including Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, or Twitter. Other technology used by about 28% Canadian businesses includes the dynamic platforms, such as, iTunes or You Tube in user content generation. Meeting applications employed by 16% of the Canadian businesses include WebEx, FuzeBox, and Go ToMeeting. ICTC also approximates that digital platforms emergence and adoption have resulted on the employment of 79,000 Canadians. Between 2013 and 2018, about 22,000 jobs related to the platforms will be created for the Canadians and the whole employment is expected to go beyond 101,000 (ICTC, 2013). What is more, 68,000 of the present jobs consist of businesses that use digital platforms to achieve business efficiencies. 11,000 of the present jobs entail those in companies that offer digital services. These platforms ecosystem presently contributes about $7.3 billion yearly to the country’s GDP, and by 2018, it is expected to approximately to attain $14.8 billion. In fact, the digital service providers in the country provide platforms services and products internationally and the subsector is currently $1.3 billion. Besides, revenues from service providers firms are expected to rise to 17% per year (ICTC, 2013). Moreover, ICTC (2013) indicates that there is a wide range of digital platform usage in the country today. These platforms have facilitated the stimulation of the consumer need for mobile technologies, and are intensely changing consumer behavior. About 18 million citizens use smartphones and majority of them access the platforms on their mobile phones. In addition, these platforms make the country’s business agile; hence helping them to achieve efficiencies in the processes. They enable them t efficiently communicate, share, broadcast, and disseminate digital information. Adoption of the platforms is not consistent throughout the Canadian provinces. 71% of the firms within the Atlantic region use the platforms in business. Additionally, these platforms are imperative in helping the businesses attain cost reduction and efficiency; hence establishing a competitive advantage (ICTC, 2013). It is also crucial to note that the service providers in Canada have gained momentum. Out of the $7.3 billion that the platforms ecosystem currently adds to the GDP, the service providers add $1.3 billion. The revenue collected is likely to rise to 17% per year (ICTC, 2013). Despite the benefits associated with the use of social media and digital platforms, there are numerous issues that tend to hinder their effective use. One of these issues regards the organized crime. People suspected to be involved in organized crime d not show their illicit activities on their profiles, but employ social media to connect with their families and friends as well as in sharing their interests. On the contrary, the police use the medium in connecting communities and investigating various issues in the society (White, King, & Tsang, 2011). The medium also helps in linking people who have shared interests and in facilitating various activities in the legal sector. It is possible that such a trendy business and communication can enhance work in the illegal sector. The main goals for using social media by the police were to enable the connection to and interaction with the Canadian community, as well as in proactively monitoring the people’s disruptive activities and events. Some of the challenges encountered during online investigations include inability to find the right person from the large number of subscribers, procedural difficulties in accessing private information of the users, and the time-wasting nature of forensic following appropriate procedures regarding collecting online evidence, especially when the criminals were too careful to leave any traces for the police. Another issue involves the need for the police to get basic training on the usage of internet and computers to enable effective open source gathering of intelligence. It is also critical for the police to access a variety of websites, computers, and software in order to enhance their fluency and use different tools. It is also critical to acknowledge that the police officers would want to employ online medium for personal purposes (Gupta, Brooks & Vines, 2013). Nevertheless, it is appropriate to separate police work from private work. For instance, it is dangerous to post personal information and photos on these social medium platforms even if there are stringent privacy settings. It is also vital for the authorities to put in place certain principles to be followed as regards how the police should and acquire evidence, as well as what they should avoid in a crime scene involving a computer (Clark, 2012). Generally, the people involved in organized crime are mostly late-onset offenders who are older than the frequent sites and may not use the medium. Outstandingly, the two blog sites: Wordpress and Bloggers, tend to have group of users. Members of the criminal organizations are more attracted to blog sites than Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Notably, women involved in these criminal activities seem to belong to minority groups as compared to their male counterparts. In fact, male crime offenders ted to use social media more than their female counterparts (Marshall, 2014). More specifically, social media and digital platform usage in Canada also faces a great challenge regarding cyberbullying. Some of the forms of cyberbullying include targeting, insulting, excluding, harassment, identity theft, and uploading. Insulting refers to the act of spreading or posting wrong information about an individual that may cause him harm or taint his reputation. Harassment involves constantly sending an individual mean, insulting, and nasty messages, whereas excluding is the act pressuring others to reject one in the community either offline or online. Identity theft regards the pretext of becoming someone else, while targeting entails inviting others to make fun or attack another single-out individual. Lastly, uploading involves sharing a person’s images especially in an awkward condition without their consent, or posting their emails without their consent. Cyberbullies employ social media, texting, blogs, and instant messaging to assume purposeful, constant, and rude behavior aimed at harming, embarrassing, or slandering someone (Clark, 2012). If the social media technology is used responsibly, they offer many possible benefits to various sectors of the economy in the country. For instance, in the nursing sector, it serves as a means of connecting the colleagues and classmates and other nurses with common specialties and interests that aid best practices. It is a great tool for synthesizing and disseminating nursing information and knowledge and in engaging platforms to aid in the ongoing education. Nurses employ social media helps in keeping updates on new organization policies and information. Additionally, firms use social media in promoting an effective nursing image as well as sharing with others what nurses do and the importance of their roles (CNA, 2012). Another opportunity associated with social media involves its widespread use by the police department. One of the uses of social media platform, such as, Facebook by the police is evidence collection in case of a criminal activity. It is also used in locating suspects, and identifying criminal network in the country. What is more, the country uses social media as a marketing tool for its tourism industry. The Canadian tourism commission uses social media opportunities in sharing the country’s story and inviting the people around the world to pay them a visit. The country is engaged in various social media spheres that include corporate communications, consumer marketing, industry outreach, event integration, and media relations. These activities aid the main marketing initiatives that keep the communication active in the target market. The country’s brand is well set for the medium’s activities as it positions the country for self-expression, personal exploration, and authenticity. By using the medium, the brand achieves visibility and builds the brand equity in an authentic and successful way (ICTC, 2013). Social media has a number of tools used in enhancing its activities. Social media is a wide field that is continuously evolving. Compared to the social media which is a two-way street that enables everyone to communicate, conventional media, on contrast is one-way street that limits the parties’ ability to share information. Social media involves interactive networks including LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, You Tube, social business platforms including Google Docs, microblogs, such as, Twitter, and blogs. It also involves websites, and geo-social. Social media platforms involve publicly available as well as internal communication techniques. A blog is viewed as the new social system space. It is compared to an online journal containing usual entries that detail a specific professional or personal interest. Secondly, there is a LinkedIn which is a social site invented for the businesses so as to enable professionals to design a profile in order to enhance networking, business contacts as well as hiring workers (ICTC, 2013). Twitter, on the other hand, is another social site that enables effective connection and interaction among users y use of short messages known as tweets. This is similar to Facebook. You Tube, by contrast, entails a social site that facilitates the uploading of videos by users for the public. Flickr enables users to share photos by uploading and labeling them for the public to view and comment. Other platforms involved in social media involve emails, webcasts, podcasts, and MySpace (Johnston, 2013). Just like any other communication tool, there are some ethical considerations involved in the use of social media and they include free speech, intellectual property, confidentiality, security, and privacy (Ess, 2009 & Swatman, 2012). In the hospital context, nurses should use social media carefully in order to uphold the patients’ privacy and confidentiality (CNA, 2012). Similarly, it is critical for the police department in the country to employ social media with caution in order to avoid infringing on the individual users’ rights including privacy, security, confidentiality, and free speech (Deen & Hendricks, 2012). Notably, social media usage should be void of cyberbullying as it amounts to a serious criminal offence. For instance, stalking, harassing, targeting, and uploading are among the forms of cyberbullying that are punishable by the relevant Canadian laws (Clark, 2012). The current trends of the social media usage in Canada indicate that the medium has gained a lot of popularity among both the young and the old in the society. Besides, various sectors have embraced and employed social media in carrying out their activities. For instance, the tourism industry, healthcare, education, and the police use social media in their processes. Significantly, social media is known to contribute immensely to the country’s GDP by $7.3 billion yearly. The future prospects regarding this medium in the country are also quite encouraging. This is because the need to embrace and use it is rising among the people, businesses and other institutions in the country. The concept of globalization is also one of the major driving factors of the social media growth in the country. In addition, constant technological innovations also facilitate and enhance the use of the medium in the country. In fact, there are research projections that the medium usage will increase the country’s GDP by 2018 to attain $14.8 billion. Regarding the ethical issues, relevant authorities seem to be taking serious measures to curb any malpractices in the social media usage. References Canadian Nurses Association, CNA (2012). Ethics in Practice for Registered Nurses: When Private Becomes Public: The Ethical Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media. Pp. 3-13. Clark, B.B. (2012). Five Social Media Ethical Issues for Texas Lawyers. State Bar of Texas 24th Annual Advanced Administrative Law Course. Pp. 1-10. Deen, H. & Hendricks, J. (2012). Social media: usage and impact. Lanham, Md: Lexington Books. Pp. 90-120. Ess, C. (2009). Digital media ethics. Cambridge: Polity. Pp. 8-20. Gupta, R., Brooks, H. & Vines, R. (2013). Using social media for global security. Indianapolis, Ind: John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 1-30. Johnston, J. (2013). Media relations: issues and strategies. Crows Nest, N.S.W: Allen & Unwin. Pp. 50-70. Marshall, M.A. (2014). Social Media Solutions Specific to You. The Police Chief. The Professional Voice of Law Enforcement. Accessed on 29th January, 2014. http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&issue_id= 62011&category_ID=2 Swatman, P. (2012). Ethical Issues in Social Networking Research. University of Tasmania. Pp. 1-10. http://www.deakin.edu.au/health/research/research- downloads/Swatman%20Ethics%20&%20Social%20Media%20Research.pdf The Information and Communications Technology Council, ICTC. (2013). Canada’s Digital Imperative: Measuring Digital Platforms’ Labour Market and Economic Impact. Pp. 1- 20. http://www.ictc-ctic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Digital_Platforms_Sept_2013.pdf White, B., King, I. & Tsang, P. (2011). Social media tools and platforms in learning environments. Heidelberg New York: Springer-Verlag. Pp. 1-40. Read More