Group+5B

Social Media Impacts Global Causes **Group 5B: Claudia Huizar, Stephanie Lacsa, Muriel Magadia, Miranda May, Jacqulyn Ruiz, Deidre Weight**

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
**Natural Disasters** by Claudia Huizar **Environmental Concerns** by Stephanie Lacsa **Human Rights** by Muriel Magadia **Economy: Commerce** by Miranda May **Health Issues** by Jacqulyn Ruiz **Poverty** by Deidre Weight

=Natural Disasters = By Claudia Huizar

Social media is a platform for social interaction and it also allows individuals to compile his or her own knowledge through tools such as Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. According to Smith social media can act as a “two-way form of media through which users construct personal identities through self-presentation and dialogue.”

On January 12, 2010 the Haitian capital was struck with a 7.0 earthquake. Only moments after there were multiple “tweets” shared on Twitter by non-organizations. This is a perfect example of non-organizations sharing news, which is a job usually delegated to media organizations. Social media opened an outlet for people to dialogue about Haitian recovery. These continuously updated messages influenced and encouraged high profile organizations to get involved in recovery (Smith 2010.) For instance, someone tweeted “Finally donated to Haiti relief thru company matching donations,” Meaning organizations were taking notice of people’s individuals efforts.

Social media can bring information to an individual level in important situations such as natural disasters. For example, people were able to tweet personal messages such as “Made another donation to Haiti today! Feels good to do my good deeds!!” During natural disasters such as the Haitian earthquake a lot is unprecedented but the use of social media can change the level of awareness by allowing people to share with others his or her active participation.

The news about Haiti spread virally on Twitter and even became a “trending topic.” Participating organizations were able to provide “real –time” information to groups and people who are interested in a common cause (Smith 2010.)

Smith, B. (2010). Socially distributing public relations: Twitter, Haiti, and interactivity in social media.//Public Relations Review//, //36//(4), 329-335. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2010.08.005.

=Environmental Concerns =  By Stephanie Lacsa 

 The reasons for using social networking sites online differ, but because of social media, certain topics are reaching a wide audience and being discussed, that may not have been taken seriously otherwise.

One topic, global warming has been the topic of discussion and debate for years now. Whether or not you believe it is true or that it is a completely fabricated scare, is up to you to decide. However, without social media, the questions or opinions you may have regarding global warming would not be able to be discussed and debated on the grand level that it is. “From December 7-11, 2009, more than half (52%) of the news links in blogs were about global warming, according to the [|New Media Index] from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism” (PEJ, 2009). Not only was global warming a hot topic for discussion on news blogs, “it was also prominent on Twitter last week, registering as the No. 3 topic with 14% of the news links” (PEJ, 2009).

Global warming is a hot topic for discussion, but why does this even matter? It matters because, suppose global warming is real and will potentially affect every living thing on the planet earth. Through social media, the discussion is bringing awareness to environmental concerns. This can in turn bring about positive changes to help minimize negative effects that global warming may or may not bring about. “But there was a noticeable change in the social media debate last week as those who believe in the dangers of global warming increased their presence. These supporters criticized the emphasis placed on "Climate-gate" and applauded the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to regulate greenhouse gases” (PEJ, 2009). Those who believe in global warming and its negative effects are taking action through social media are reaching others. The fact that social media is a key factor in discussing, debating, and helping bring awareness to the world about environmental concerns I believe is an extremely positive thing.

Charts: Global warming dominates blog discussions and is ranked 3rd in discussion for the traditional press and Twitter.

Reference:  PEJ (2009, Dec 7-11). 2009 Global Warming Debate Rages On In Social Media. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from http://www.journalism.org/index_report/global_warming_debate_rages_social_media

= Human Rights = By Muriel Magadia

**__The Hub__** Launch November 2007, [|The Hub] is a participatory media site for human rights individual activists and human rights organizations. They use video and other online technologies to make the public aware of human rights abuses and hopefully find away to stop them (Morse, 2009).

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This media site is a project of an independent, nonprofit human rights organization called WITNESS. They utilize videos to focus the public’s attention on human rights violations and how to help stop human rights abuses all over the globe (Morse, 2009).

The Hub is an interactive community where people can upload videos, audios, and photos. They can also just watch, comment, and share what is uploaded on The Hub.

Sameer Padania, manager of The Hub, has stated that “human rights news came to the public ‘filtered’ by the news organizations and others.’” This website offers people a place where they can upload both raw videos and professionally made documentaries. The purpose for people to express themselves about the abuses they have faced or witnessed (Morse, 2009).

Not every country value “freedom of the press” as much as the United States does. Some nations make it illegal for news organizations to talk about the government in a negative light. Through social media, some people living in these countries risk their lives to report on the social injustice that is happening around them.

The one of the greatest example of how powerful a video is when it comes to the fight for human rights is the cell phone video of Neda Agha-Soltan. This woman was shot and killed during an anti-government demonstration in Iran. This video was spread very fast all over the world through social media such as Facebook and YouTube (Morse, 2009).

President Obama also saw this video and mentioned it in a [|White House press conference in June 23, 2009].

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Videos posted on The Hub, allow the public to be informed of what is going on around the world when it comes to human rights. Once they are informed, they will most likely take action. Ignorance is not bliss.

The Hub currently has 30,000 participants. It is also translated to French and Spanish. They are also working on translating the website to Arabic, Chinese and Russian. The more people the videos reach, the more people are aware (Morse, 2009).

Today, The Hub has shifted to an archive of human rights-related media uploaded to the site. All its content is still accessible, but the uploading and commenting functionality is currently turned off. The website redirects its users to WITNESS where they will still be able to help “use video to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations" (The Hub, 2010).

=Economy: Commerce = by Miranda May media type="youtube" key="4zbqeMf2uOI" width="425" height="350"  // Above: Erik Qualman, author of "Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms // // the Way we Live and Do Business.", shares his views on Social Commerce at // // a TED Talk at Western Michigan University Lansing //

**__Social Commerce__**
Social media has drastically changed the retail industry throughout the world. Through this growth in social media, a new term has emerged: “social commerce”. Building a truly interactive social media community within an e-commerce platform is important as it creates a more efficient retail environment where customer opinions, relevant content and product information are freely distributed. It is only then that “social commerce” can happen (Dennison, 2010). Many active internet users are using at least one social media tool to keep up to date with social social trends. Below is a visual from the world's biggest and longest running annual social media tracker survey "Wave". Published by ad agency Universal McCann, it reached 37,600 internet users in 54 countries. Below shows the percentage of active Net users who manage a profile on at least one social network. Globally, around 61.4% do so (Marsden, 2010).



__A Leader in Social Commerce__
To accomplish "social commerce", retailers must be able to integrate social media elements and user generated platforms into their commerce environments.

[|Alvenda] is the leading company in "social commerce". Mer­chants are able to part­ner with Alvenda to cre­ate a social com­merce chan­nel on Face­book and thou­sands of other web­sites.

Alvenda’s inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­ogy plat­form, Alvenda Store­Cast™, enables the con­ver­gence of social net­work­ing, ecom­merce, and adver­tis­ing. Alvenda opens mil­lions of in-stream shop­ping expe­ri­ences that include a quick check­out fea­ture inside Facebook’s news feed, fan pages, and inside ban­ner ads on pub­lisher web­sites. The clothing company [|HauteLook] has recently used Alvenda to launch a commerce channel that enables over 3.5 million members and friends to shop via Facebook. Mem­bers that " LIKE" HauteLook or the brands on sale at HauteLook can now shop offers that appear in their Face­book news feed.

According to the Morpace "Omnibus Report" (2010), peo­ple are spend­ing more time on Face­book at the expense of other sites, email, and instant mes­sag­ing. In fact, in the U.S. Face­book users now spend 1/3 of their online time on Facebook. Click rates of email mar­ket­ing have declined year after year as many have replaced email with Face­book as their pre­ferred way to con­nect online. Use of email declined by an astound­ing 28% last year while social media use grew by 43% (Gerten, 2010).



=Health Issues = By: Jacqulyn Ruiz

 It is no question that social media is taking over time spent on the Internet. Though there have been controversies about people being consumed by the Internet (which is said to negatively effect health), there are ways that people are using social media to educate themselves on global health issues and ailments of their own. According to John Sharp there a few things to watch when it comes to social media and healthcare.



// Managing a conversation is one of the first trends to watch. Many healthcare organizations are making online chat rooms available between doctors and patients to discuss just about anything. Even those that aren't patients can meet with doctors to compare diagnoses and symptoms. SHARP Healthcare offers voice messages from doctors to anyone who views their site - no login required. Then users, whether patients or not, can email responses and view other opinions. This is definitely impacting the health field. By letting people hear more than just what their doctor has to say, consumers of health media are educating themselves. // Engaging e-patients is another upcoming trend in social media and healthcare. Though it’s not necessarily online patients, text4baby.com is using social media by sending text messages to expectant mothers to help them through their pregnancies and the first year of the child’s life (text4baby.com). Through this system, women who can’t necessarily afford healthcare during their pregnancy. This program is exceptionally beneficial to advancing healthcare for those who may not be able to afford it. Appropriate prenatal care is important for every developing fetus, no matter how much the parents make. // Healthcare is making some leaps and bounds through social media, not only in this country but around the world. A great site to look at is the Global Health Council. // // ﻿ // //

// //<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0pt;"> Poverty // // // // ** There are numerous people who have made social media a key source in showing the world that poverty is a global issue. Through social networking, Youtube videos, and other social media, it is clear that poverty is an issue that several people want to make aware and change in hope for a more stable society. ** // //  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> // // ** The Global Poverty Project is an organization created by a team of people who are using their social networking site to bring people together to stop global poverty. Over 20,000 people have already joined in the site to help. This site advertises thier campaigns, their actions, partners and ways you can help or help make this issue known. ** // // // // "1.4 billion people on our planet live in extreme poverty. The Global Poverty Project seeks to invigorate the global movement to take effective concerted action on poverty through the presentation //1.4 billion reasons//."// // // // [] // // // // ** [] ** // // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> // // ** Young Reporters Against Poverty is an example of a Facebook page created to inform people about this issue. Since Facebook has gone viral, friends of friends would eventually see this page and could click "Like" on thier page which would probably give people a motive to also click on the page. On thier Facebook page, they have also given links to their website and Twitter account. ** // // // // ** [] ** // // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> // // ** Twitter is another form of social media where the global issue of poverty is made aware. ** // // // // ** "We Can End Poverty 2015" is a Twitter page created by the United Nations. With over 10,000 followers, it is obvious that this message is being spread around the world easily through social media. ** // // // // ** [] ** // // // // ** [] ** // // // // ** YOUTUBE ** // // // // ** This video on YouTube is another example of social media exploiting poverty to the world. ** // // //  // ** [] ** // // //