Ideology in My Controversy

Impacts of Social Media on Society

Sofiaperosa "social-media-for-public-relations-1" (7/2/2012) via Wikimedia Commons
Attribution - Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

In this post, I will be analyzing the ideology behind my controversy. I will explain what groups are involved, positions they can take, and how they interact with each other.


Who is involved in this controversy?
Individuals, governments, scholars, social media companies, and businesses are involved in the impact of social media on society.

Who are some of the major speakers / writers within these groups?
Among academics, Hsuan-Ting Chen, Sun Ping, and Gan Chen are prominent writers and speakers in the field of eSociety research. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all major social networks. A prominent individual that speaks out against our technology - driven world through social media is Gary Turk. The U.S. government plays a large role in social media policy, and in how social media data can be used. Businesses such as Amazon depend on the advertising and publicity that come with social media use.

What kind of power do these groups have?
Individuals have power through social media, governments have political power, social media companies have economic and big data power, scholars have educational power, and businesses have economic power.

What resources are available to different positions?
Both positions seem to use similar resources and have access to most of the same materials.

What does each group value?
Academics value studies, social media networks value chatter on social media and profits, individuals value stimulating opinions, governments value political participation, and businesses value profits.

What counts as evidence for the different positions?
Both positions use evidence from studies, scholarly materials, and news articles.

Is there a power differential between these groups?
There is a power differential, those who promote the positive effects of social media believe that they have more power due to social media, while those who denounce social media as being negative towards society believe that they have more power due to studies on human behavior in social media.

Is there any acknowledged common ground?
There is acknowledged common ground hat social media has become prolific in today's society.

Is there any unacknowledged common ground?
The unacknowledged common ground is that all of these groups use social media in some way, shape, or form to promote their views.

Do these groups listen to or interact with each other?
These groups tend to interact in news interviews, and in daily functions of society. They do tend to listen more to like-minded groups than to each other, but it does happen on occasion.