- What is media discourse in social media?
“Social media discourse covers a range of frames constructed by officials, organisations and individuals. These frames appear to be shaped by participants who are not only consumers of the discourse but also participate in creating and shaping it.”
Unlike traditional media discourse, social media discourse allows users to publish and discuss their own “discourse”. Social media discourse blurs the relationship between the creator and the viewer. Everyone has perspectives and their own discourse.
Social media encourages users to be spontaneous by commenting, liking and sharing their own content in exchange for others. This creates a peaceful community where everyone can participate and discuss.
Social media discourse generates real-time information content that spreads quickly so that people around the world are immediately aware of the newest information, as well as the positive and negative impacts of that information. Posting comments and sharing own opinions or even battle with people who think differently are ways of expressing social media discourse.
Even social media discourse can be published through “post tags”, where users can create a thing to be published using some trending hashtags or self-created tags. Users can create a post about something using some trending hashtags or create their own hashtags, or create them because they want other people to post about it with those hashtags attached, discussing what they want them to.
On the other hand, social media discourse can sometimes be “fake news”. Since every user is free to speak their mind, subjective ideas may arise that are false and misleading. This happens in the social media discourse, where people are often confused or misinformed about the true outcome of an event because of what is said on social media.
For example, the COVID-19 pandemic was previously the focus of national and international media. As concern about the pandemic grows, COVID-19 fake news is also going viral online . Among other things, the media created a number of very watchable stories, but many of the stories, while tantalising, were clearly false. Whether it’s the official media or private users, many are tempted to use seemingly real news structures to spread disinformation without intent. In the case of COVID-19, many people use the language of the media to spread news that is false, such as spreading viruses that blame racial groups, illegal immigrants, or even the government.
Why are we so susceptible to media discourse?
The truth is that what is viewed on social media is usually not entirely true for users or people. But few people realise that it is possible to be intrigued by media discourse (e.g. some believable statements, some very real frames for depicting information, or some graphic articles) and begin to believe in its authenticity. It is for this reason that users or the general public are usually not good at spotting disinformation, and it is because through media discourse, any content on social media looks like it is real – in addition to the fact that we believe that we have picked up on some of the “real things.”
Reference
A, A.M. (2023) The role of social media in shaping public discourse, Martech360. Available at: https://martech360.com/social-media-technology/social-media-monitoring/the-role-of-social-media-in-shaping-public-discourse/
Language and discourse in Social Media Relational Dynamics: A … Available at: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/download/4576/1757
Nyilasy, D.G. (no date) Fake news in the age of covid-19, Faculty of Business and Economics. Available at: https://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/fake-news-in-the-age-of-covid-19
From this article, I can sense that the author has clearly reviewed the inherent advantages and challenges of the digital landscape. Through an in-depth discussion of social media discourse, it emphasizes its dynamic nature and the positive role that users play in shaping social media discourse. In addition, the article mentions “post tags” and the rapid spread of real-time information, highlighting the unique characteristics of social media discourse. But it is suggested that authors might consider providing some more specific examples, such as showing successful efforts to combat fake news on social media and showing how users and platforms work together to improve accuracy and credibility, which can better enhance the article.