Module 3-Written Assignment During this module, you were to do an experiment using your own social media (Module 03 Activity). Looking back at your social media experiment from the week, how did your

Material/Class Lesson Content & Rubric

Module 03 Activity

Are stereotyped depictions of groups of people in social media just a common part of our culture? Do videos, blogs, and news forums need to depict individuals of Middle Eastern, Asian, Black, White, or foreign one way? Does mental illness need to be depicted only as a vehicle for violent behavior?

This week's activity is using personal social media to look at stereotypes, cultural issues and norms, and global norms. We're going to do that by using your personal social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, a blog, etc. Look at what people are posting and see what stereotypes and cultural assumptions are there. Check out the ads along the sides as well.

Now try posting something on social media asking about cultural assumptions, stereotypes, race, etc. (see some possibilities below) and see how the responses go. Did people jump to tell things they notice or were people a little reticent to share? So people agree that stereotypes are rampant, or did they not notice them. Did you open anyone's eyes? Did friends in different countries share similar beliefs? Why do you think?

Possible posts could be something like one or more of these:

I'm studying stereotypes and cultural norms on social media.

• Have you seen stereotypes on social media?

• Do your friends and contacts share some social norms that you notice?

• What do your ads tell you - any stereotypes there?

• Can you share your thoughts on any of these with me?

Be sure to do this early enough in the week so you can gauge the responses. We'll use the discussion board and your assignment to further analyze this activity.

Theories

Cultivation Theory

Cultivation theory explains that regular and frequent exposure to certain types of social media information have an effect on a person's attitudes and behavior. Cultivation theorists believe that social media has effects that are small, gradual, indirect, and cumulative - they add up over time to change a person's attitudes and behaviors, kind of like a stalagmite building up on a cave floor over the years.

Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory explains that we learn through observation. According to social learning theory, the three pieces of this puzzle are the person, the modeled behavior, and the environment. We form a model of behaviors without needing to actually do it ourselves - we can see someone almost being hit by a car in the street and know that we need to be very careful in the street without being (nearly) hit ourselves. We can watch a YouTube video on makeup application or car repair and then go on to try the process in real life.

Agenda Setting Theory

Agenda setting theory explains that social media influences people regarding what to think about rather than what to think. This theory holds that social media influences and amplifies our existing beliefs, and that people are willing to look to social media to cue us as to where we should focus our attention. You might see this as waves of people on your social media sites tend to post about similar issues, which gets you (and them) thinking about them more and leads to more posting for a while. Then the attention goes somewhere else. For example, for a while, the gold and white / blue and black dress was lighting up social media sites (google it if you don't know), which led to a lot of discussions on visual processing and the work our brains do. Then along came the next big item on the agenda.

Uses and Gratification Theory

Uses and gratification theory identifies that people look to social media to escape from challenges or be entertained. This theory assumes that people are not passive, but are actively searching out and using the information they are consuming from social media sites.

Schemas

Schemas are ways of organizing our world. We all have stereotypes that help us classify people and things. Schemas are not a theory, per se, but an explanation on how our memory organizes information. Jean Piaget developed the use of schemas to explain not only how we categorize our knowledge, but how we utilize that knowledge as well.

For example, if someone asks you to describe a Republican or a Democrat, how would you do that? You may have a particular schema of a person belonging to one or the other political party. Your information on political parties may be extensive or limited, so how you explain a person from each party will reflect that level of expertise. If you were someone who routinely watches a particular 24-hour news network, your schema may change toward a particular party as you assimilate the new information into your original framework (schema) of that political party.

In the same light, viewing the social media networks may alter or accommodate your existing schema to fit the new information.

Module 03 Written Assignment - Experiment

Scoring Rubric:

Please apply the Module 3 Activity to the Discussion Post and the Written Assignment-Experiment. The social media that I use the most is LinkedIn. Also, make sure you apply the rubric above to the assignment.