Satire and Social Media research study - Participants needed!

As part of my final University project for my Social Media masters degree, I am doing a research study about the impact of satire on social media.

The project discusses topics from memes to GIFs and how this is contributing to political debate around the world.

And I need your help with it!

You don't need to be a political expert, social media expert, or have background knowledge on social media practices, you just need to be a user of social media!

Who am I looking for?

Anyone under the age of 40 who uses social media, in particular Twitter.

(I'm not being ageist, the project just has to focus on a particular age range otherwise the findings would be too broad)

What will it involve?

Two one hour interviews with myself, this can be over the phone or via Skype (or any other communication platform, you call the shots).

What happens after?

I will collate the findings and they will make up my primary research for my final dissertation project.

Who will see it?

Me, my tutors and potentially external examiners. The project may be published online, but if you want you can remain completely anonymous.

Can I have a copy of the finished project?

YES.

If you're interested please drop me an email - sam@samwiseonline.com

Thanks!

Sam Willey.

Why J.K Rowlings Twitter apology says more about Donald Trump's character

One of the worlds most popular authors, J.K Rowling has issued an apology on Twitter, after she commented on a video of Donald Trump, which was taken out of context.

The footage appeared to show Trump ignoring a disabled child, whilst shaking the hands and speaking with the other kids, who were visiting the White House.

It later turned out that he hadn't ignored the disabled boy, and had spent a considerable amount of time with him before the photo opportunity.

Rowling took to Twitter to criticise the President.

It t then emerged the video had been edited to appear as though Trump ignored the boy in the wheelchair.

After recognising her mistake Rowling, most popular for the Harry Potter books issued an apology:

"Sources have informed me that that was not a full or accurate representation of their interaction".

 I very clearly projected my own sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I saw".

"If that caused any distress to that boy or his family, I apologise unreservedly. These tweets will remain, but I will delete the previous ones on the subject".

To me this particular episode actually says more about Trump's behaviour and attitude, than it does about Rowling.

Lets no forget his track record! Including this occasion on the campaign trail when he mocked a disabled reporter:

Then there's the hidden camera footage from a few years back, which features Trump making obscene and sexist remarks, and talks about sexually assaulting women.

Those two incidents give a snap shot into Trump's attitude towards the disabled and towards women.

Add that to his clear prejudice against immigrants and transgender troops, and you expect the worst from Trump after a while (or like most of us, from day one of his bid to become President).

That's not the publics fault, that's his fault, for proving himself time and time again as a bigot and generally offensive man.

Secondly J.K Rowling apologised when she realised she had made a mistake (it happens).

When was the last time we saw the same humility from Donald Trump? NEVER.

Get some tips on social media engagement!

If you want some tips on how to get more engagement on your social media channels, then I have just the thing for you!

Tomorrow I will be part of a Facebook Live event, full of handy tips and tricks on how to increase things like followers and interactions on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

As part of the event I will be doing a presentation on Twitter.

It starts at 6pm (GMT) and will stream live - HERE

Hopefully see you there!

-Sam

The best tweets from International Women's Day 2017

Today marks International Women's Day and I've searched Twitter to bring you some of the best tweets to mark the occasion.

This year's theme for IWD is 'Be Bold For Change' which asks us to "call on the masses or call on yourself, to help forge a better working world - a more inclusive, gender equal world."

Even if you're not a woman, I hope that you will join me in solidarity to mark this very important day.

Here are some of the best IWD 2017 tweets...

1, J.K. Rowling gets in early before the ignorance brigade starts banging on about why there apparently isn't an International Mens Day, it takes no magic for JK to point out they're factually WRONG...

2, This next tweet from Jack Williams shows the worldwide fight for equal women have faced in years gone by, and continue to face today. Much respect goes out to these brave activists!

3, MTV have decided to mark IWD in their own unique way, by simply flipping their logo upside down, so instead of "M", we have a "W" for women (though I'm sure I probably didn't need to explain that).

4, This next one from Neos Chronos features a collage of inspiring women, who have each, in their own way furthered the cause of equality...

5, And finally, this tweet draws attention to the trans community, who still have many hurdles to face in terms of equality. Let us not forget that trans women are real women, there's so much ignorance out there with regards to the trans community, which can't be tolerated.

You can find out more about International Women's Day at the official website - HERE

Social Media: Contributing to a live event

As part of my social media masters degree course, one of the assignments this semester is to organise a social media 'event'.

I'm looking to contribute to a Facebook live event, which will take place over the course of one week, with the other people in my class.

Each person will go live on social media each day and talk about a different topic, relating to social media.

For my contribution I am looking to focus on the following:

• Creating a profile/persona on social media focussed primarily on being an activist and political commentator.
• Ways in which I have increased my prominence, on Twitter in particular, giving some tips as to how this has been achieved.
• Ways to create more engagement and get the most out of content.
• Instagram, and how content from Twitter can easily be easily re-hashed on Instagram, through things like posting Twitter post screen shots.
• Klout score and how this has been of benefit in terms of increasing my prominence on social media.

As most of my contribution would be related to Twitter I would look to present my segment on Twitter 'live', using the Periscope app.

This will also mean I can hopefully get some of my Twitter followers watching, many of which are newly emerging activists, looking to increase the impact they have on social media.

So in a nut shell the main focus of my segment will be: Audience, Engagement and Prominence on social media.

The importance of having a social media strategy

A few tips and comments on having a strong social media strategy.

This semester as part of my University masters degree in social media, we have started looking at 'social media as practice'.

Straight out of the gate, the key focus has been on having a strategy, and how this is essential for businesses, news outlets, and those wishing to raise their social media profile.

In week one we looked at the BBC's English regions social media strategy from 2012, which begins by presenting the following vision...

This 'vision' appears at the very start of the BBC's strategy, and gives guidance as to what the BBC hopes to achieve on social media.

The 'vision' is for the BBC to produce content on social media, on a daily basis, by BBC journalists and other staff, focussed on the local community (e.g. a social media presence for a local BBC radio station).

I think even as an individual on social media, having a vision as to what you want your presence to look like, and be about, is vital.

I have done a lot of work on my personal Twitter profile in order to increase my prominence on social media among the LGBT+ community.

In terms of a vision for my social media strategy, mine would be...

"To be an advocate for LGBT+ issues, posting daily about topical issues, encouraging engagement, and as a result, increasing my profile as an advocate and political commentator"

I think it's important to have a vision for your social media strategy, it gives you a broad goal to work towards, and helps in terms of sticking to your audience, and posting content which will appeal to that audience.

The BBC, in its strategy talks a lot about individual social media sites and how they should interact with their social media audience, for example they say the following about Twitter...

To me this idea of interaction with those who mention you on social media is vital to not just building, but sustaining a base of loyal followers, who will interact on a weekly, or even daily basis.

If all you're doing is posting endless content each day, people are taking the time to mention you, which in turn gets an @YourProfileHere mention, and you don't bother replying at all, the likelihood is that individual may cease interaction, or even unfollow you.

Of course I'm not talking about the accounts that spam you - For example someone sends you about 10 mentions a day, that of course is over kill, and could be considered bad interaction, and does anybody really have the time to respond to every single mention? (especially from the same person!) - the BBC even mention in their strategy that replies should be to a "manageable proportion" of users.

But if someone does comment on a post to say they agree with a post, or to offer some other insight, taking a few seconds to send a "thank you", can have fantastic benefits for your social media presence.

It may even mean others are more likely to follow, if they can see that the profile has an added element of humanity. I think this is especially important if you're posting on a business account, rather than an account representing yourself as an individual.

You can read more about the BBC and social media strategy at the BBC Academy - Click Here.

YouTuber claims he was kicked off a Delta Flight for speaking Arabic

(Update: December 22nd 00:49am GMT - Since this posting Delta has since said that upon investigation they believe Adam Saleh and his friend were in fact shouting and being disruptive on the flight, according to "multiple passenger statements", which were collected when the flight arrived at its destination. Mr Saleh is yet to comment on this claim from Delta, and did tweet to say he had further video which showed what happened before they were escorted off the aircraft)

Delta Airlines have come under fire today, after a man posted a video on social media, claiming he was removed from a Delta flight for speaking one word of Arabic.

In the video posted at 11:20am (GMT), the man, Adam Saleh, begins filming as a flight attendant, and what appear to be airport ground staff begin to start escorting him off the flight.

It appears he is travelling with his friend from London to New York City.

Saleh has got over 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube and over 260,000 followers on Twitter.

The video shows other passengers on the plane, waving and saying bye as the pair are escorted to the exit of the aircraft, Saleh responds to them by calling them racists and repeating that he was being kicked off for speaking a word in a different language...

A fellow passenger who overhears what has been happening proceeds to rise from his seat and question the flight staff, saying it made him feel sad that the pair were being kicked off the flight for the reasons being claimed by Saleh.

Hours later Delta airlines began to respond on Twitter, as concerned frequent flyers of the airline, and people who had been disturbed by what was being claimed during the video, began to ask questions around why this had happened.

Delta says they take allegations of discrimination very seriously and would be "conducting a full review to understand what happened".

The airline also say they booked Adam Saleh and his friend on another flight, however according to Saleh on Twitter at 2:02pm (GMT) he had booked himself on a flight to New York with a different airline, after having to be checked by security for a second time.

Here's more of a sense of what Delta have been saying via Twitter today:

Delta has been essentially copying and pasting the same response to everyone who enquiries about it, and they won't answer any questions when they receive replies wanting further information.

The claims have caused an absolute storm on Twitter, with the initial video getting over 100,000 views since it was posted. Some have started posting parts of the Delta terms of conditions, one section of which states they don't refuse travel on the basis of "Race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry".

Many have also cited the fact that in November, a supporter of Donald Trump started being offensive towards women on a flight calling them "Hillary bitches" and being generally offensive, yet Delta did absolutely nothing in this instance.

In terms of Delta's response to Saleh's claims, it hasn't exactly been swift, making only extremely vague statements about passengers "expressing discomfort" as the reason behind the two men being removed from the plane, which could mean absolutely anything.

If that discomfort was based solely on the fact these men spoke a few words in a foreign language, some serious questions need answering, because that is nothing more than blatant discrimination.

Delta need to act swiftly because with the power of social media, this could be massively damaging to the companies reputation, the hash tag #BoycottDelta has already started doing the rounds on social media and as the news spreads, I think it will only continue to gain speed.

Trump and Alt-right supporters want people to #DumpStarWars

Donald Trump has targeted plenty of people during his divisive campaign and after, from disabled people to women, and now his supporters have another target - Star Wars.

The online protest started with the hash tag #DumpStarWars, an idea encourage by 'alt-right' who are one of the newest racists movements of white supremacists to infect the Earth.

They basically want people to boycott the latest Star Wars film, Rogue One, when it hits cinema next week (December 15 in the UK).

They're unhappy with the so called "anti-white agenda" of the film's scriptwriter Chris Weitz.

It comes after Weitz and several others working on the film placed safety pins on their social media profiles.

The pins are being used as a symbol of solidarity following Trump's election win in November, as a way to reject the rising Islamaphobia, racist and anti-Semitic sentiments that have arisen as a result of one of the most divided election campaigns in US history.

To me I think it's just a case of the Star Wars universe being too much for these small minded people to handle. The film features a strong female lead, which I bet is a lot for them to handle all at once!

I feel Trump and alt-right supporters would get a lot out identification from the film though, what with the Empire's attitude of wanting to be supreme overlords of the galaxy, for conformity, and against any kind of multiculturalism and diversity.

But lets be clear, to me, any Trump supporter who thinks this film is about them needs to seriously get over themselves, and get some perspective. The film is a work of science fiction to be enjoyed, nothing more, I think the film makers have far too much creativity to have to stoop to looking towards the Donald Trump or alt-right movement for ideas.

Here are some of my favourite responses to this nonsense...

Rogue One hits cinemas on December 15th in the UK, and a day later in the United States.

So why not #DumpHate and go and get your tickets booked!

The importance of Gratitude

I hit the grand old age of a quarter of a century over the weekend - 25, and on the run up to it I decided to do a little project on social media, particularly on Instagram.

I was 25 on November 26th, so for the first 26 days of the month I decided to make an Instagram post, mentioning one thing I am greatful for each day.

The point was I didn't feel like I was appreciating things in life as much as I should be, and when you consider the poverty and suffering of human beings and animals around the World, that feels rather selfish to me.

Every day we see images coming out of Syria and other War torn countries and it dawned on me that those people would give anything, just to be able to go to sleep at night, without wondering if they will wake up the next day, or if a bomb will destroy their home and kill them overnight, something which we take for granted, in countries such as the UK, which aren't war torn.

But it's not just what's happening abroad, right here in the UK people are living in fear, such as the young person who comes out as LGB or T and is disowned by his or her family, or the people who have no choice but to live on the streets as they have nowhere to call home.

So every day for 26 days I posted a picture and said what I was greatful for. Some things had a serious tone such as being grateful for those who fought in the War and for my family, for whom I am so greatful, but there were also more light hearted ones, like if I was grateful for a t-shirt I was wearing on a particular day (I did two Star Wars t-shirt posts, I'm obsessed I can't help it!), or if I had got a new book which I was greatful to have.

I am so happy I did it because it really made me realise how lucky I am and how much I have in my life to be grateful for. Here's a summary of all the posts:

Why not give it a go? If you do decide to give it a go please get in touch and let me know, you can find me across all social media platforms or drop me an email - sam@samwiseonline.com

And...don't forget to follow me on Instagram - @sam_wisesw

Fear of the alternate opinion: Division within a community

Yesterday afternoon I was my usual self, doing the rounds on social media, as someone who engages with politics and always has done this is a normal practice for me, especially as a student of Social Media at post graduate level.

Ever since the Presidential election campaign in the States I have always been very vocal about my views, especially in terms of Donald Trump, therefore I have always received abusive messages from Trump supporters, which I expected if I am perfectly honest. In fact during the weeks running up to the election I was purposely replying to accounts such as that of US political heavyweight Newt Gingrich, perfectly expecting a torrent of abuse from Trump supporters, which I got and I handled. I'm a big boy! (that's not meant to be dirty).

But what I was not prepared for was a torrent of abuse from people within my own community - the LGBT community, which I received last night and it just showed me how divided society is, not just in terms of right wing and left wing but within hard right and left wing political opinion. It seems there is an extremism on both sides, which makes compromise impossible, it makes alternative opinions impossible and this is NOT democracy.

I posted an article yesterday saying I approached Donald Trump's comments on CBS' 60 Minutes with CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM, in that he said he would not touch the same sex marriage decision, made by the Supreme Court last year, which allows same sex couples across the entire United States to get married.

But when I made this point to a number of people within the LGBT community on Twitter I was immediately set upon, told to shut up, told I was a racist, told I was a fascist, told I was transphobic, then the one that took the biscuit, told I was homophobic. All because I simply said in terms of Trump, MAYBE, the key word being MAYBE, it won't be so bad for LGBT people, that's all I said. I didn't start saying "choo choo, all aboard the Trump train" or anything ridiculous like that, just that maybe it would be nice to think that Trump won't be apocalyptic for LGBT people.

My mistake yesterday was daring to have an alternative opinion. I truly believe that some people want him to be apocalyptic for LGBT people to be able to say "I told you so!" - motives which are quite frankly selfish in nature. I would much prefer Trump not to be bad for LGBT, for us to look back in 4 years time and see none of our rights interfered with, is it so bad to have a bit of optimism? Like I said it is optimism which is cautious in nature. It is by no means an endorsement for Trump which some people were accusing me of in nature.

As I have said in previous blog posts some Trump supporters aren't terrible people, some of them are yes, but some of them are just normal people completely fed up with politics as usual. I believe their vote for Trump as a result of those feelings is the wrong way to protest politics as usual, but I can certainly sympathise with them. It was these people last night who thanked me for at least being willing to give the Trump presidency a chance, they weren't wanting me to endorse the man, they just want him to be given a chance. He won the election fairly (as far as we know) and we must accept that. By this I don't mean support him, I just mean have a bit of optimism, try not to wish this apocalyptic nightmare upon us.

A few final points, firstly, what does it say to LGBT youth in America and around the world if we are full of fear and division? Does that help those who are struggling to come out? NO, it pushes them further into the closet. We need HOPE, that is what we need, that is what will get us through 4 years of uncertainty that a Trump Administration undoubtably brings.

And secondly, I believe everyone is entitled to a view unless they're being hateful or abusive to another human being (which I experienced last night), we must embrace alternative opinions and be willing to debate in a civilised manner, otherwise the left will continue to loose political power and we will continue to have to risk our rights on right wing administrations.

LISTEN. LEARN. DEBATE. RESPECT - that is what is needed right now not more FEAR, DIVISION AND HATE, especially among a community which should be UNITED.

-Sam

President Trump: Twitter blackout

As the election aftermath continues, American citizens refusing to accept that their new President Elect is Donald J. Trump, have decided to take visible action on social networking website Twitter.

Users have decided to change their profile pictures, cover photo and background to black.

They've been using the hash tag #TwitterBlackout and some supporters of Hillary Clinton have adopted the hash tag #ImStillWithHer.

And arguably why should they accept the result? After all the latest count of the votes (yes some votes are still being counted) show that Clinton may have got over 1.5 million MORE votes than Donald Trump. But with how the American electoral college system works, the candidate who gets more in the electoral college wins the White House.

The idea is that protesters can band together in unity and show that they will not accept Donald Trump as President. Civil unrest rocked the streets of the United States last night, with thousands protesting the new President Elect, the hash tag #NotMyPresident soon started trending as well.

It seems that minorities in particular are panicked at the prospect of the Trump administration.

Meanwhile Donald Trump himself is meeting with outgoing President Obama at the White House to discuss the transition of power.

From a UK perspective British Prime Minister Theresa May has spoken to Trump on the phone, in which he said he wanted her to visit the US "as soon as possible".

And...UKIP MEP's have said Nigel Farage should become the UK's ambassador to the United States (yes really), see their open letter below...

I think at this point many of us can be excused for thinking the World has gone absolutely mad.

President Trump: Social Media users react

After a long, long night of being strapped to my laptop and other devices I have had a nap and am feeling refreshed. I was hoping that I would wake up and discover that President Trump was just some horrible nightmare, but to my horror, no, it happened, Donald J Trump will be the 45th President of the United States, and I somehow have to just accept it.

This blog post is going to be a bit more light hearted though! Just like after the Brexit vote, I think all of us more left wing, forward thinking people need a bit of cheering up. But I will be posting a more serious, reflection on the nights events in the coming hours, but for the purposes of this post I will look at how social media has reacted to President Elect Trump.

Here are my top five responses...

1, Kevin! Yes that's right Donald Trump was in 'Home Alone 2' and he did more for Kevin than he'll do for the United States.

2, Meanwhile some decided to have their own go at creating a classic Donald Trump, fascist red cap.

3, Meanwhile Democrat Bernie Sanders, who ran against Hillary Clinton in the race to become the Democrat candidate, thought it was the perfect time to cash in. Mr Money in the Bank! (The WWE fans will get it).

4, Others turned to The Simpsons, and how they Predicted a Trump Presidency, showing Lisa Simpson taking over after 4 years of the Donald. The Simpsons always seem to predict these things, more investigation into Matt Groening is required I feel (what else does he know?).

5, Any my personal favourite reaction on social media was from Sebastian from Portland, Oregon, a state which gave all seven of its electoral college votes to Hillary Clinton. Sebastian is LGBT and had an interesting offer for me...

Desperate times in the United States!

For more commentary on the Election follow me on Twitter - @SamWiseSW

Digital Self Harm

This evening I have been studying Chapter 6 of danah boyd’s book on social media use ‘It’s Complicated, the social lives of networked teens’, and came across the following term: “digital self-harm”.

The chapter deals with cyberbullying and the forms it takes online, especially among young American teenagers. It really demonstrates how activity adults may describe as bullying don’t necessarily match with what teenagers perceive to be bullying activity.

In terms of digital self-harm, boyd references Formspring a question and answer website, which allows users to anonymously ask other users questions, if the question is answered the question and answer is then published online.

Despite offensive questions boyd explains that some young people would still respond, even though if they hadn’t responded the question would have never been published online.

danah boyd ‘It’s Complicated, the social lives of networked teens’ (2014) comments “some teens were engaging in acts of digital self-harm to attract attention, support and validation”. Though in a different context, I could actually relate to this!

Via my social media channels, especially Twitter, during the course of the US Election campaign I have been massively vocal in my disdain for Presidential candidate Donald Trump, replying to other users tweets within what I would call “unsafe for Liberals” spaces online.

For example, I would reply with anti-Trump rhetoric to accounts followed primarily by Trump supporters. I am always met with hatred and abusive tweets, but I have been doing this for months, despite the abuse I get I still do it, knowing the response I will get.

In a way this is digital self-harm, I am standing there (metaphorically) as an online punching bag ready to receive the abuse. Why? Well as boyd says, firstly for validation, as I would get a lot of praise from like-minded individuals for the points I would make and it would increase traffic to my social networks.

But secondly, for entertainment, as the views of the Pro-Trump crowd are so laughable. So in a way I am welcoming attacks and abuse – digital self-harm.

This is similar to what boyd describes in the book, in that teenagers crave the validation and attention they would get if their friends or others would see them receiving abuse online.

But as mentioned earlier and as boyd touches on this activity would not be felt to be bullying by teenagers but their parents may have a very different view on their online activity.

This comes down to the definition of bullying. In her book boyd cites Swedish author Dan Olweus who in the 1970’s defined bullying as consisting of three elements being aggression, repetition and imbalance in power. He argues that these three elements must be present for something to be considered bullying.

In this case the Formspring example or my example of the Trump tweets wouldn’t be seen as bullying, particularly because of the power element.

By posting anti-Trump rhetoric in response to pro-Trump accounts I know what I expect and I give as good as I get! So there is no imbalance in power, just like the example from boyd’s book, the teenager decided to reply and therefore publish the Formspring content, it was the teenager’s choice, there was no imbalance of power.

To conclude, from boyd’s chapter on bullying the definition of it and what constitutes bullying online is far from a black and white landscape.

Links:

danah boyd 'It's Complicated: the social lives of networked teens' (2014)

Dan Olweus definition of bullying

Silly But Effective

My previous social media post earlier this week covered Citizenship, an element I didn't touch on was the more silly elements of Citizenship. It's a great time to be looking at this actually, with the US Presidential Election being just around the corner, examples of this are occurring every day, I would go as far as to say hourly in fact.

So what is meant by silly citizenship? To me it is the opposite really of what citizenship was 'expected' to be, it is sometimes political and created to get a point across but does so in a more playful way, in the form of dance videos and spoofs.

A perfect example of this 'silly citizenship' is The Daily Show, a TV show broadcast on prime time American television, on Comedy Central. The show is presented in a news format, right down to the host who sits behind a desk, but the difference is they poke fun at the news of the day, aiming towards a left wing political agenda (that's why I love it).

Here is a recent example from The Daily Show, who "report" on Donald Trump's so called locker room talk, after a video emerged of the Presidential candidate making obscene remarks about women:



This is one of MANY examples which occur during an election cycle, as John Hartley Silly Citizenship (2010 p242) comments "elections are marked by homemade spoofs, parody and stand-up's, some of which out-rate official campaigns".

Hartley makes a very interesting point, that this kind of comedic way of getting the point across can sometimes have an even greater impact, than the actual serious reporting that goes on at election time. And with social media anybody can essentially do it, they don't need big backing, just a way to record video or other content and an idea, which could go viral. 'Ordinary' people can now make even more of an impact on elections and other public opinion.

And this doesn't even need to be a video or image, it could simply be a hash tag, for example social media users began the hash tag #MakeAmericaGropeAgain in reference to the Trump campaign, referencing the leaked video and hijacking Trump's own 'Make America Great Again' slogan. Silly yet effective citizenship in action.

The success, so to speak, of this spoof hash tag (as I have nick named it), was down to the sheer volume of people who interacted with it on Twitter. As Clay Shirky Here Comes Everybody (2008 p48) notes "Our electronic networks are enabling novel forms of collective action", collective action, which many years ago would have only been possible through things such as large protest marches, now this same kind of action is at the fingertips of all citizens.

Links:

Clay Shirky - Here Comes Everybody (2008)

John Hartley - Silly Citizenship (2010)