Filtering by
- All Subjects: Social Media
- Creators: School of International Letters and Cultures
- Status: Published
Keywords: event planning, social media, music
The Charlie Hebdo attacks fueled an online debate over freedom of expression and religion, whereas the purpose of social media evolved into a humanitarian one following the November 13 attacks in Paris. This research looks into the individual evolutions of the related hashtags that surfaced in 2015, including #JeSuisCharlie (and its opposites, such as #JeNeSuisPasCharlie), #DonDuSang, #PorteOuverte and #RechercheParis, among others. Another research point was with the September 11 attacks—with the 9/11 attacks against the United States, few to no channels were available for the kind of immediate discussions and support seen after the Paris attacks. After spending time in Paris during the spring 2015 semester and researching the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the history of the publication, the conclusion rests on the idea that the online discussions perpetuated by both supporters and dissenters of the magazine contribute to a more robust, open democracy supported by these social media platforms.
A portion of this thesis also delves into the parallels and differences between the American First Amendment and the French free speech laws—all of which pertain to the Charlie Hebdo content and the online responses to the 2015 Paris attacks.
The interviews conducted include a French art history professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris, two creators of the “Je Suis Charlie” Facebook page, an American journalist living in Paris who covered the Charlie Hebdo attack and who was present during the November attacks, and a Muslim-American doctor in Phoenix who founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. The ideas surrounding free speech, the value of art such as that found within the pages of Charlie Hebdo, the media’s treatment of religion, traditional democratic freedoms and ties to social media revolutions are all components of this research thesis.
Social media today is a major source of not only communication, but also news and entertainment. This year, people everywhere have had to embrace virtual environments as their main sources of communication. For students, especially, the move to virtual schoolwork in 2020 has increased the amount of time spent on technology. This observational study examined, through an anonymous online survey, how college students spend their time on social media and how it affects their mental health. The 25-question survey was open to current ASU students as of 2021, and 2020 ASU graduates. Respondents’ results concluded that while students actively use social media for communication and entertainment, it can present a burden on their mental health and their productivity.
A reflection on my diverse educational experience as a sports journalism student, key lessons I learned about specific forms of communication and content creation within social media, written reporting and radio/podcasting and the demand for versatility among all modern journalists.
Social media is a tool widely used by many organizations for purposes of spreading ideas, influencing users politically, and promoting products for purchase. Among the ideas spread on social media is religious belief, a task undertaken by religious officials and members alike, in both widespread and personal communication. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has promoted its religion online for years through official webpages and the testimonies of members, but now seeks to spread knowledge of its beliefs and increase membership by involving its full-time missionaries on Facebook and Instagram. The initiative to add online-proselytizing to a missionary’s list of duties began in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been through multiple changes to arrive at the present function of social media in full-time missionary work. Despite these positive changes, missionaries still feel that they lack the necessary knowledge and skills to conduct productive conversations online that lead to opportunities to share their message. Two separate missions are analyzed through Bolman & Deal’s Four Frames to gain a complete perspective of missionary work through social media and how it can be improved. By implementing visual symbols that relate to the importance of social media missionary work and increasing the social media training that missionaries receive, they would feel better prepared to host conversations on online platforms and share their messages. Additionally, by updating the leadership position associated with social media in a mission, more missionaries would ultimately gain expertise in this skill and better fulfill their purpose as missionaries.
With the dissolution of the old forms of power has come a new heteronomy: that of the screen. The individual is in stasis, caught between the old forms of control and the new, but unable to imagine a better, liberated future. What is responsible for this interregnum? The answer lies in analyzing these new forms of control, their effects on the subject, and the material, historical processes behind them. This paper looks specifically at social media and how it has come to limit autonomy and commodify human experience and personhood. Drawing from Theodor Adorno’s Theory of Pseudo Culture, it seeks to describe the ways in which social media both erodes and administers subjectivity. Culture, now subject to the economic imperatives of capitalism, no longer contributes to the development of individuality. By referencing Karl Marx’s Capital and C. Wright Mill’s “The Competitive Personality”, this paper describes how social media expands commercial imperatives outside of the bounds of the workplace and into everyday life. The paper concludes by drawing on Herbert Marcuse’s One Dimensional Man in order to describe how social media neutralizes oppositional sentiments. Even the seemingly spontaneous expressions of dissent found on social media become a conservative force, stymieing real world organization through the repressive desublimation of revolt. In addition to understanding the dominating effects of the screen, this paper seeks to map the contours of neoliberal subjectivity.