Privacy issues in public social media Research Paper

Students will write a 750-1000 word reflection paper (excluding title page and references) on key critical issues (ethics, surveillance, privacy, etc.) and concerns involving social media. Students will also describe some of the ethical dilemmas and/or contradictions they might encounter when pursuing “social good” online via their social media campaign assignments, as well as how they might navigate them.
Students must use at least one (1) class reading and at least one (1) external scholarly source (book, book chapter, journal article, scholarly web article do not use newspaper articles/encyclopedia entries or any other non-academic sources). The paper will be written using 12 point font and 1” margins. Citations, bibliography and title page should be in APA 6 th edition format. A word count must be listed at the end of the paper.
For this written assignment, higher marks are awarded to students who:
• use definitions and terms correctly
• develop their own thoughtful insight into the course material
• back up arguments with compelling evidence
• write clearly, concisely, and in a logical fashion
• make no grammatical errors or spelling mistakes
• properly reference their work (using APA 6 Ed. style)

Communication and Social Media Sibo Chen | Assistant Professor School of Professional Communication Week 6: Privacy Key Points From Last Week • Social identity and stereotype • The expression of gendered and racialized identities via memes • Imagined audience is constructed by an individual in order to present themselves appropriately, based on technological affordances and immediate social contexts. • The ideology of publicity: the constant pressure for pursuing publicity, often via tropes of consumer culture. Daily Goals • Social media and norms concerning online identities • Privacy and “real names” • Digital serfdom • Critiques on “cyber flâneur (stroller)” • The multiplicity of “imagined audiences” • Critical reflection paper & midterm Do you use your real name on Instagram? February 14, 2020 | 4 Do you have multiple accounts on Instagram? February 14, 2020 | 5 Norms, Values, and Enforcement on Social Media • Anonymity: the quality of being unknown or unacknowledged • A right, even as a necessity for the preservation of free speech (historically, writers and artists have published anonymously) • A concept with a dark, destructive side February 14, 2020 | 6 Privacy February 14, 2020 | 7 • Anonymity vs. privacy: whether a limited social contract is involved. • Each social media has its own norms, values, and enforcement concerning privacy. Crucially, norms and values are heavily influenced by users • Facebook vs. Google+: the fight to become an identity service Rank the following social media products based on your comfortableness of sharing private information February 14, 2020 | 8 Implicit assumptions about “real names” • “The practice of sharing one’s name is embedded in rituals of relationship building” • Even in real life, we have a variety of strategies to control our sharing of real names (consider in the case of ordering at Starbucks) • Names are beyond an identifier online given the private information associated with it. • Although real names could lead to better accountability, people want to have control of when and how to share their personal information, which goes against the logic of big data commodity. February 14, 2020 | 9 Interpersonal Skills February 14, 2020 | 10 Let’s Take a 10-Minute Break “Cyber Nation-State” • Social media’s ambitious plan to redefine citizenship by prioritizing connectivity and taking more public responsibilities. • Internet companies’ push for deregulation • Do they advocate this for better humanity or expanding capital accumulation? Can we trust them? February 14, 2020 | 11 Digital Sublime • Definition: the mythologization of the impact of computers and cyberspace on human experiences of time, space and power. • “Users are guests of the benevolent technocratic elite, the digital overlords creating our brave new future and allowing us to visit and enjoy the view for the price of privacy and personal data • Myth and power about the Cyberspace February 14, 2020 | 12 “Libertarian” Cyberspace? February 14, 2020 | 13 • In reality, the Internet was a public product construction project, a government-funded initiative. • “The notion of an independent Internet, free from terrestrial concerns, has allowed companies to insert themselves as the sovereign authorizes of cyberspace. ARPANET Content Farmers • Our anxiety of controlling our digital environment • The more we produce, the more we are trapped in the prosumer logic • Prosumer activities on platforms • The knowledge economy: extracting maximum information and data from users at minimum cost February 14, 2020 | 14 Against “Cyber Flâneur” • Flâneurs as the ultimate aesthetes • “The cyber-flaneur can’t browase for the sake of browsing because he can never be alone. • “Surveillance, tracking, advertising, the inability to take our idea with us have killed the cyber-flâneurs. • We lost control of the exist path February 14, 2020 | 15 Critical Reflection Paper February 14, 2020 | 16 Sample Midterm Question February 14, 2020 | 17

CMN 288 Critical Reflection Paper Assignment Description: Students will write a 750-1000 word reflection paper (excluding title page and references) on key critical issues and concerns (e.g. cultural branding, prosumer, privacy, surveillance, etc.) involving social media. You may choose to (1) write a traditional review essay or (2) describe some of the ethical dilemmas and/or contradictions they might encounter when pursuing “social good” online via their social media campaign assignments, as well as how they might navigate them. Minimum Reference Requirement: Students must use at least one (1) class reading and at least one (1) external scholarly source (book, book chapter, journal article, scholarly web article do not use newspaper articles/encyclopedia entries or any other nonacademic sources). Formats: the paper will be written using 12 point (either Times New Roman or Arial) and 1” margins. Citations, bibliography and title page should be in APA 6th edition format. A word count must be listed at the end of the paper. General Criteria for consideration: For this written assignment, higher marks are awarded to students who: § Use definitions and terms correctly § Develop their own thoughtful insight into the course material § Back up arguments with compelling evidence § Write clearly, concisely, and in a logical fashion § Make minimal grammatical errors or spelling mistakes § Properly reference their work (using APA 6 Ed. style) Grading Criteria: § Overall Quality of Argument(s) 10 pts § Analytical Depth/Use of academic sources 5 pts § Overall Quality of Writing 5 pts § Organization/Citation Formats 5 pts Potential Topics The following list of research topics is illustrative and exemplary, not exhaustive: it is only intended to give you some examples of potential topics and themes in order to help you to formulate and develop your own specific research interests. The following four prompts represent a broad mix of subject areas and methodologies. Feel free to adopt, adapt, modify, combine or reject to fit your own needs and interests. 1. How have social media giants like Facebook and Twitter responded to rising public concern over privacy and surveillance? How do conceptions such as algorithmic biases, predictive policing, and surveillance address the relationship between social media platforms and their users? What contributions does critical insights into social media and surveillance make to broader public conversations over big data and society? This could involve a more theoretical discussion or a case study of surveillance and privacy on social media. 2. Explore the opportunities and limits of social media marketing through a critical analysis of one (or more) product, brand or corporate image campaigns. How do course concepts and ideas enable a critical perspective on such marketing that links to critiques of consumer culture? Critically review the public discourse surrounding social media would be a possible entry to the topic. 3. Drawing upon concepts you have learnt from the course to critically analyze a social media campaign or communication strategies of one or more organizations online. You may choose to focus on a corporation, an industry association, a NGO, a government agency, a think-tank, a political party, etc. In addition to outline the goals of these communications, you need to explicitly discuss how theories from the course provide new ways of analyzing them. I highly recommend reviewing primary material from the campaign, as well as relevant media coverage. This could be further expanded to connect with your group’s ongoing social campaign project. 4. Explore and assess different strategies for promoting consumerism on social media. What role does culture play in such communication? What about images and narratives of “generation like”? How does the involvement of influencers shape social media communications? How can/should ethical considerations be communicated more effectively on social media?