Blog #5

Identify the risks and benefits of engaging with a public audience in a media space

Engaging a public audience in a media space can come with benefit’s and setbacks. Some of the benefits that can be expected includes the growing of ones network.  Jody Vance states that media space can allow for connections with one’s audience and get support from other colleagues. The interaction also opens the doors of professional opportunities from employers. The challenges that stem from this are also to be considered, however. The first of which is the when you share your life, and opinions to the public, this opens the door to criticism and internet trolls who try to make the life of other harder. This usually effects individuals in their daily lives, as it demotivates them, opens the door for depression and mental health issues. Another challenge I’ve noticed is that individuals have to usually be artificial to achieve the affirmation from he public. They must portray their live as perfect, not slip up, or show any weakness or else they’ll lose their likeability.

What are the risks for a public figure or person in a position of trust (educator, lawyer, government official)?

Public figures usually have i the worst in my opinion. Any photo they post or anything they say even from years back can be dug up at anytime and be used against them. A good example of this is Kevin Hart’s comments regarding the LGBTQ community. Although the comment was made on twitter when he was at a young age and the LGBTQ movement wasn’t strong at that time, the comment was dug up and went viral recently when he was nominated for a Grammy award. This stirred up drama and had the award revoked from him.

How to best address negative replies and critiques reflective of your personal values and employer social media policy?

Criticism and negativity is inevitable when you put yourself in the public’s eye. No matter how good of a work you do, someone will always find a problem with what your doing. The best reply or action to take is to just ignore it. When someone is confident and proud of their work, people’s opinions won’t really matter, so make sure the work you put out to the public is your best work and you are very confident in it. That wll make ignoring the negativity a lot easier.

How do notable individuals use social media?

Notable individuals use social media to their advantage. Actors and musicians for example market their movies or their music to their fans such that they can make money. They also use it to strengthen their fans’ loyalty by interacting with them and sharing their personal life. Politicians use it to bring awareness to themselves and their ideologies to gain supporters.. But for the most part, most notable individuals use social media to promote themselves.


What are the benefits of being in the public eye and having a PLN?

Being in the public’s eye and having a PLN can carry many benefits. This includes marketing and promoting one’s work to gain more support. It also opens the door for opportunity, Where individuals with similar work or ambitions can reach out to each other to collaborate and give feedback on each other’s work. Another benefit is that with large followings awareness can be raised for issues around the world such as the stay at home movement during the pandemic to help decrease the number of COVID 19 cases.

Building community with online tools provided by the employer can be limiting, what are the perceived
restrictions and benefits?

Benefits of building a community using online tools provided by an employer can include enabling communication amongst individuals in the organization to get work done faster and in a timely fashion. Another benefit would be the ability to raise awareness for upcoming delaines and important dates. From experience a limitation to this is sometimes information or sharing can get too much causing an overload in work to be done by an individual.


Delivering information in a connected society requires verifiable resources, how to build a PLN to rely on?

In the case of building a reliable PLN, it i important to share information without any prejudice or biases. It is also important to assure that the information shared is backed up by a reliable source. For example if I’m making a statement that most Canadians today spend a lot of time on their phones, I would have to support this statement with a study of some sort that back up my statement with statistics. This is how your reputation is built and you begin to gain people’s trust.


How do those, who are veteran storytellers, minimize risk in sharing misinformation?

The best way for veteran storytellers to avoid falling in the trap of misinformation is by reviewing the information they share, and verifying it with trusted sources prior to sharing with the public.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *