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Final Research Paper GEN499

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Final Research Paper GEN499
Final Research Paper
Barry Hirstius
GEN499
Doctor Shehadeh
August 25, 2014

Social Media has become so powerful and influential within modern culture and society, that it has the ability to affect people’s lives in all aspects, including both financial and social status. Quite simply, it can either “build you up or break you down”; and only those that knowingly can utilize its services in a skillful manner are the ones able to succeed.

Most fortunately for me, I am one of those people; as I have successfully within a year and a half of time, have gone from living in obscurity to becoming a well-respected (and often-read) sports writer and radio talk show co-host. With the millions of apps, websites and other platforms for people to communicate through media that are all over the Internet these days, this is truly the age of social media. (Foth, 2011)

As someone who would be considered to be ‘old school’ by the members of today’s “Digital Age”, I have assimilated / adapted and learned how to take full advantage of the opportunities that have been presented to me. Nowadays, thanks to social media, anyone who has the desire, can have a voice. Social media has become an integral part of our everyday lives. We find and share our new favorite clothing and food brands on blogs; we meet people with similar interests on Facebook; we get our news in one sentence on Twitter; we share a picture of that fabulous crawfish etoufee we had at a restaurant while visiting New Orleans during our vacation on Instagram; and we can even find our future husband or wife on dating sites. We have an amazing ability to be connected, stay in-the-know and share our own interests, ideas and opinions on just about everything.

Our world has RADICALLY changed within the last 30 years. In this “new dawn of an era”, people are shifting from traditional media such as newspapers and television to using the Internet and social media to find news, but the way that we receive news



References: Rohrs, J.K. (2013) Audience: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans and Followers; JohnWiley and Sons Publishing Kovacs, H Singh, R.K. (2010) Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of News Writing Reporting and Production; Mangalam Publishers . Gerbaudo, P. (2012) Tweets and the Streets : Social Media and Contemporary Activism; Pluto Press Marichal, J Evans, D. and Bratton, S. (2012) Social Media Marketing : An Hour a Day (2nd Edition); John Wiley and Sons Publishing Lovett, J Kuhlmann, M. (2012) Social Media for WordPress : Build Communities, Engage Members and Promote Your Site; Pact Publishing, Inc. Oatway , J. (2012) Mastering Story, Community and Influence : How to Use Social Media to Become a Social Leader; John Wiley and Sons. Publishing Trotter, D

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