Research Podcast

 I listened to a podcast called "interviewing a Facebook user" this podcast talked about how members of a military branch used facebook to generate hate and violence against muslims. He talks about how influential facebook is specifically. This caused one of the worlds largest human migration all due to misinformation on Facebook. This podcast I think really focuses on the chapter that we read in class for the week "Agenda-Setting Theory" It is alarming knowing that people and myself can be influenced by social media without even knowing that we are being influenced. This can be detrimental to people because news, posts, and comments can influence how people live their lives. Based on the information in the class book, Online Communication, this podcast addresses the levels of the theory. The agenda-setting theory states that media agenda shapes the public agenda. This theory can be broken into three different levels. The story that the podcast discussed highlights the first level of the agenda-setting theory which is what I will be discussing today. 

Level 1 states that the media tells us what to think about. Just like in the podcast certain members of the army created fake facebook user accounts and started following celebrities and posting about the Muslim community to upset the public and to generate hate and racism around the muslim community. This is a first hand example of how the media can influence what we think and believe. It is sad to see that not in just this situation but other posts and beliefs fall short of what is actually true. Many times social media leads people to false information and stories that lead them to make judgments about things that they either do not understand or have just not experienced.  Today's world we are bombarded with so much false information or information with truth but not the whole truth. It has become hard to believe what people say or even what some articles write about in the news or on websites. One must take a whole day to research something that they may or may not know all ready but they are doubting what they believe based off of social media profiles. 

Dangers of Social Media . (2020). Apple Podcasts. Retrieved May 12, 2022, from https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/interviewing-a-facebook-user/id1537281963?i=1000495951688. 

Green, J. M. (2017). Agenda-Setting Theory. In Communicating online (pp. 144–156). essay, McGraw Hill Education Create.