Post #4

The Phenomena of Social Networking as Portrayed by the News and Professional Magazines

Since its inception in 2004, Facebook, a now wildly popular social networking site, has garnered plenty of media attention. Many of the earlier and even some recent media representations of this particular site seem aimed at educating parents about their children’s use of the site and warning those parents against its many dangers. Now, according to Facebook Statistics found at http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics, “[t]he fastest growing demographic [of Facebook users are] those 35 years old and older.” This transformation in the user demographic did not happen overnight, and it did not happen accidently. The media representations of this social networking site and many others have changed dramatically over the past few years. To be clear, I could discuss any of a number of social media including blogs, Twitter, YouTube, or the close friends of Facebook, MySpace or Ning; however, for the purposes of this particular post, I will focus mainly on media representations of Facebook.

Mentioned above, the earlier media representations of sites such as Facebook seemed focused on pointing to the dangers associated with participation in such sites. In 2006 the site welcomed a general audience as opposed to enforcing its prior limitation of restricting use to only students. In 2007 the media was still reporting on the use of the site by sexual predators and stating that the site was doing little to keep its members safe. According to a New York Times article titled “New Scrutiny for Facebook Over Predators” by Brad Stone, “[Facebook] has proposed building a database of names and e-mail addresses for convicted sexual offenders that could be compared to the membership roles of Internet sites. For that approach to work, however, Facebook would have to wait until all 50 states had passed legislation requiring sex-offenders to register their e-mail addresses.” This media attention positions Facebook and its usage as dangerous, potentially harmful, damaging, risky, or worse. The rhetoric assumes that responsible adults would not use the site; rather, those responsible adults should monitor its use by their children. This kind of cautionary and uncertain tone regarding the safety of the site continues to be pervasive, but has shifted somewhat recently. For the full New York Times article follow this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/business/media/30facebook.html.

Now the media messages are mixed. Upon turning on the T.V. for the morning news, one sees WCCO news anchors giving shout-outs to their Facebook friends every ten minutes or so during the “Happy Birthday, Facebook Friends” segments. Usually during these segments various anchors ask viewers to visit their personal Facebook pages and sign up to be their friends. This sends the message that Facebook has gone from being a site used only by reckless kids and teens to one that all responsible morning-news-viewing adults should join. The news anchors go on and on about the photos they have posted, the friends they have made, and the stories they can tell through the use of this site. Now, instead of being a site only for trendy and connected teens, one is simply not a functioning member of society if he or she does not join Facebook. If these middle-aged news anchors can do it, so can the general viewing audience. However, this is not the only attention Facebook receives through the media today. Search the WCCO website and one easily finds a number of articles from various news publications questioning the health risks of using Facebook. One such article titled “Doctor: Social Networking Can Be Harmful to Kids” is from February of this year: http://wcco.com/health/social.networking.childrens.2.943398.html. This article eventually concludes that it is probably not the use of social networking sites that could pose a risk to children, but the absence of other more physically vigorous activities that social networking has replaced. Another current representation of social networking sites such as Facebook is a commercial that has been airing recently depicting a teenage girl who posted a picture of herself on a social networking site and now wonders who will see the picture. It is some sort of public service announcement that points to one of the dangers of inappropriate uses of the site. These later media representations have changed the image of these sites from one that is risky to join because of the dangers presented by others, to one that is potentially hazardous based on one’s own personal choices when using the site.

To summarize, the earlier representations of Facebook by the media portray the site as one for parents to be weary and skeptical of because no one knows who might be lurking there. The value assumption here is that vulnerable children use these sites at the risk of attacks by any number of sexual predators. This positions the user as helpless and in need of rescuing. The representation by the media that the site is completely safe, and everyone should join and become friends with the news anchors, positions the site as harmless and the user as free to post anything at all about him or herself. At the same time that viewers are told to sign up and “friend” the news anchors, commercials are airing warnings to the user about the site. Perhaps this tension in media portrayals of Facebook is appropriate; it is a site people should feel capable of using and competent enough to do so, but all users should exercise caution when choosing to post. The value assumptions made through these various portrayals is that most people do and should use the site, but they should do so with prudence.

So far this post has discussed the media representations of Facebook, and now the focus will turn to another discipline which has recently taken an interest in the social networking phenomena: Planning. The source of this information is Planning: The Magazine of the American Planning Association. In the June 2009 edition, Jan Ferrigan wrote “Improve Your Social Standing: Learn to Love Online Networking.” Ferrigan begins by stating that “[s]ocial networking is the new telephone,” and continues to describe the importance of planners learning to use social networking sites such as Facebook to conduct business. She underscores the values of social networking and describes how it is different than traditional face-to-face meetings: “In some ways, social media are analogous to public meetings, with the planner providing friendly guidance to discussions. However, while attendees of live community meetings may forgive lengthy presentations, online visitors have little tolerance for them. Quick, engaging exchanges are the key to sustaining participation” (Ferrigan). Here she has outlined the ways in which social networking sites can be successfully used by city planners and provides advice for avoiding potential pitfalls.

In general, the tone of this article is that in order to move forward and continue to build successful relationships with community members, planners must learn to use social networking sites. Facebook is positioned as a useful tool, a means to an end, that all planners should at very least become familiar with. The value assumption is that if a planner is not already using social networking sites, he or she is behind and should spend time educating him/herself. These sites are portrayed as friendly and inviting places where the rest of the world already resides. It is the planner’s job to get on board and see how the tool can be used to his or her advantage. This portrayal is similar to the news anchors asking for viewers to “friend” them on Facebook. The news anchors are demonstrating a competence with the technology that the planners are only beginning to show. While nothing is said in the planning article of the aforementioned dangers such as sexual predators on these sites, other types of guidelines are presented to avoid the dangers associated with using these sites: “[. . .] employees should be guided on how to deal with someone who is irate and how to recognize material that should not be responded to” (Ferrigan). This warning, since it would exist for a planner in a face-to-face setting or when using a social networking site, does not position sites as particularly dangerous since the threats are not necessarily new or unique. Therefore, if anything, the recent media supports the message that Facebook and other popular social networking sites are secure and used by many responsible adults. Rather than fearing the sites as earlier media representations asked the general public to do, now many fields, including Planning, are encouraging their exploration and use.