The Benefits Of Social Media And Television

Media, it is both old and new in its broad spectrum. Media contains many different formats that range from simplistic to advance. Today in age types of media include the television, film, and radio. On top of these media reigns social media. Social media is both new and contains many different sub platforms within itself, like Twitter and Facebook. All these types of media come together to host a plethora of unique information. Information that are shown through media can be consumed in many ways, like watching television or listening to the radio. Each have their unique styles. Each are better suited than others for various reasons. In both articles, “The Matter of Black Lives” by Jelani Cobb and “Small Change” by Malcom Gladwell, they elaborate on media and their opinions on how it changes society, for the better or the worst. When it comes to social evolution, Social broadcasting and television reign supreme. Social broadcasting and television that allow different ideals with an overarching viewership are the most efficient when it comes to the ability to influence society, the ability to organize events, and the inspiration of their consumers.

Social broadcasting has the upper hand when it comes down to influencing society. This type of media reign in their size of their userbase. Devices like computers and phones, can be found commonly placed in a household, public spaces, and even the pockets of people. With these devices’ sprawling population, information and ideals can spread like wildfire. For instance, the ability to have hundreds of thousands of people listening to a post that took a single minute to create and post is a must with social changes. With Cobb, he states “[Mckesson] has more than three hundred thousand followers” (2016). Because of the sheer number of people that listen or “follow” Mckesson, he can push movements forward to a crowd larger than some countries. And because the of the platform he gathered his followers he is pushing this around the nation, and even the globe of people he does not know, Gladwell explains, “Twitter is a way of following (or being followed by) people you may never have met” (2010). Simply put, social media is a place where you can influence everyday humans without being in contact or have ever been in contact with them. By mentioning an ideal to these many people, this can cause a huge change, or at least fluctuation, in society.

Not only is Social Broadcasting the better use case for media, but assisted by television, they both have the upper hand. Since television has a tremendous viewership count that are also commonly placed while containing news channels that report on current situations, having a large following could bring in the attention of these news channels reaching more unique audiences. With these style of spreading, change can happen faster and more efficiently. Gladwell goes into detail about a similar situation. A person in need, Evan, posted his problem online and after it ran through his local social network, Gladwell states, “dozens of mainstream news outlets had covered the story” (2010). In other words, this type of spread, from a single user event to a nationwide event would not have been possible without the vast usage of social media and television. Having a large userbase is just a part of the reasoning. The other is the ability to organize people together for protesting or fighting for a common cause. Television and social broadcasting show their strengths in this area. Everyday social broadcasting makes it easier for people to host events and invite people not only in their local network, but globally. These are strong tools that can be used to push for a cause not only online in the web, but also in real life in physical form. Hashtags are one of these strong tools. Being able to join a movement just by typing a phrase creates a lower barrier to enter. A specific hashtag that resonated throughout the internet when tragedy struck, Cobb explains “Black Lives Matter didn’t reach a wider public until the following summer, when a police officer named Darren Wilson shot and killed eighteen-year-old Michael Brown” (2016). Because of this event, the cause to fight back against police brutality was pushed onto the internet and funneled through the hashtag “BlackLivesMatter”. With the efforts happening in the physical world, combined with the huge following of this hashtag, “hundreds of people who had never participated in organized protest took to the streets” (Cobb 2016).

The tool of social broadcasting helped push this movement forward further. This same scenario happened with twitter and Moldova, Gladwell states, “When ten thousand protesters took to the streets in Moldova in the spring of 2009 to protest. . . was dubbed the Twitter Revolution, because of [how] the demonstrators had been brought together” (2010). Otherwise saying that a website, that is based on the usage of hashtags to communicate, brought together many people to organize a protest. Along sides of social broadcasting, is television. Television is also another effective weapon when it comes to organizing huge gathers or protests. Because organizing people to come to events also relies on the spread of information to grab more participants, television is one of the better options. It’s consumer base is huge. Almost every household has a television and a good number of people still watch television. Having access to almost every household in the nation, is the best way to advertise events. Both combined creates a strong system for a place to organize protests and gatherings. Gladwell backs up this type of organization by explaining, “making it easier for the powerless to collaborate, [coordinate], and give voice to their concerns” (2010).

Another prerequisite for social change to occur, is the motivation of the people that are pushing forward the change. If people are not motivated, then they have less push to go forward and show their support. This is fixed again with social broadcasting. Because it allows many different people to communicate and many different systems, it provides a place where like-minded people could communicate with each other. Since users can be part of a network that supports ideals their own causes, it provides a place where users can feed off each other’s energy and build pride in a group. Having these new forms of support, it provides a boost to the motivation for the cause. Cobb explains, “we can catalyze a movement in our own community” (2016). By motivating communities to fight for a common cause, can cause a train of motivation. The motivation that is pushed from one person to another, is than continued forward with more incoming participants. The platform that enables its users to do such a thing is social broadcasting. With it, users are not just limited by their local area, but instead have access to a community that spans bigger than a nation. By combining this new style of reach for other participants, it also allows greater ideas and information to bounce around all over the internet spreading more motivation. The best way for new information and ideas to spawn is by meeting new participants that join your cause, Gladwell backs this up by stating, “Our acquaintances … are our greatest source of new ideas and information” (2010). Having a crowd with different individual mindset helps the cause creating ideas that would expand and reinforce cause for a movement.

By using social broadcasting and television to their fullest extent, being able to change society has never been easier. The outreach that these two types of media have, combined, is enormous, reaching across the nation and further. Having the ability to reach so many by spreading ideals and information, and even having conversations, online, with non-local people is a fantastic tool to be able to use. Therefore, social broadcasting and television is better suited to influence the whole society when it comes to outreach and getting the community involved.