Social Media

• How has the online landscape transformed the dynamics of public opinion formation and communication strategies? 

The online landscape has transformed the dynamics of public opinion formation by using these platforms for the exchange of quick information, sharing of opinions, creating debates or arguments, and sharing experiences. Seeing photos, posts, and articles give us the information and the online landscape affects and sometimes decides how we see and who sees it. Algorithms play a large role in the information we see. Our communication strategies are transformed due to the style of social media. In person someone could have a lengthy and fair debate, but online and on a social media post, someone could just post a one sided comment somewhat anonymously, leading to conflicts.

In my experience, I try to stay informed about what is going on in the world, scientific discoveries, or even essential funny animal videos and usually seek out someone from my generation, or from other women in STEM fields. This is easier to navigate online, as I can search for specific people and subjects. Factors like this could have a large impact in how public opinions are formed. 

• How do the Narrative Paradigm and Gatekeeping theories apply to these platforms?

Narrative Paradigm is a theory that humans are storytellers, and relate to the world around them communication is based on storytelling. They use past experiences to make sense of the world.

Gatekeeping theory involves that information is filtered and selected information is shared with selected people. 

These two theories apply to the platforms of social media greatly. The Narrative Paradigm is apparent, since many posts are someone's opinion, experience, and story. Also, with gatekeeping, the algorithms from social media only show selected information. Once I watch many funny cat videos, then they show up constantly on my feed. These theories control the information flow because everyone is affected and certain groups will see specific posts and videos, while another group will see an entirely different post or video. 

Example: I always bring up how funny the video of Forrest Gump waving while he is on boat, it cuts over to Pennywise the Clown waving back with a severed arm. Hardly anyone knows what I am talking about and I see this video almost weekly.