As the temperatures continue to fall and Covid cases continue to rise, we find safety and security within our homes or dorms. We are continuing our resiliency and able to enjoy the fourth week of Broadcast, Advertise and Audiences through our weekly Zoom discussion.The Public Service Announcements (PSA) were thoroughly presented and demonstrated our cohesiveness as a group. My group (Group 2) represented the Department of Natural Resources in a clever, commercial manner. Every group displayed their individual intelligence in a creative manner.

We were introduced to M*A*S*H – 30th Reunion Special, M.A.S.H. Remains One of the Most Influential Sitcoms of All Time and chapter 3 of Television and American Culture. M*A*S*H was a beautiful and iconic sitcom that resonated deeply with our nation. The television series followed the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, a team of doctors stationed in South Korea during the Korean War. The 20th century Fox production illuminated controversial hardships surrounding the Vietnam War. The 2002 production celebrated the 30th anniversary of the M*A*S*H series. The documentary featured interviews with writers, producers and past cast members.

The creation of M*A*S*H used humor to escape the depression and horrors of the Vietnam war. The series highlighted social issues and delivered gut wrenching truths surrounding the Vietnam war. The country was unsettled and struggled to act accordingly. M*A*S*H was able to incorporate that frustration and display it for the entire world. Their ratings after the first year were extremely low, but would begin to climb the ladder of CBS and flourish after a couple seasons. The producers of M*A*S*H realized the power and stories they could depict to the American public. The sitcom was relatable to audiences and developed a unique relationship for over a decade. The final episode was unprecedented and an audience of 23 million people tuned in to watch the show air. It was difficult for the producers to understand the size of the emotional response that the series had created. Although I viewed the re-runs long after the finale and at a fairly young age, I still valued its presence. I feel shows such as Jeopardy and M*A*S*H were at the cornerstones of my child, and I will never forget that time spent with my family. I hope television can return to a time and place where quality comes before quantity. M*A*S*H was a remarkable series that touched the hearts of millions. The show and cast will be missed, but never forgotten.

Chapter 3 of Television and American Culture dives into the importance of Public Interest. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is the chief regulator and overseer of the framework of television. An excerpt from the textbook stated “The core responsibility of the FCC is to issue broadcast licenses to radio and television stations, providing them exclusive rights to use the public airwaves…”(Page 101). The FCC is concerned with the ownership of these airwaves and the power they hold over an audience. The structure and system of broadcasting may be complex, but is invaluable to the regulation and production of this industry.

Published by: Samuel Erickson

For this week’s class we talked about the election and I presented my book Frenemies: How Social Media Polarizes America, by Jaime Settle. Also we viewed and discussed The Newsroom “Boston” episode, where they recreated the awful events about what happened on April 15th, 2013 and the following days that transpired in Boston Massachusetts.

For my presentation I read Frenemies: How Social Media Polarizes America, I thought it was very interesting and especially relevant to what is transpiring in our country right now. The book talks about how social media can create a divide between people and how many people are actually posting political content on these platforms. Jaime Settle explains how people that post this content would be people that are supporters of a certain view or those who want their ideas to be heard and they tend to be extreme to get more views and followers , but also to stir up the pot. There are also other people that are posting something and aren’t trying to be political, others can interpret and perceive those as political posts. I thought this was the most interesting part of the book because ever since I read it all the posts I see now I look at them and try to see why others may think it could be political content. Especially with the election at hand people are on edge and taking every post very serious and it is almost like the people commenting and taking it to be a political post are just trying to pick a fight it seems. She also says that how people are to exposed to social media and rely on it too much to get their news, not even caring what is real or fake. She also goes on to say that we should leave political reporting by trusted news organizations and other articles for political issues. I couldn’t agree more with Settle, after seeing something on social media people tend to blow up and they repost without researching it. This makes the news feed have a bunch of posts which can trick people into thinking it is real because so many people reposted it. I believe if people got their news from trusted sites, then there would be less hate and things would become more and more clearer for us to see real political issues. I would definitely recommend this book to gain insights on social media and how it can affect you and others, also it is very relevant because it covers the 2016 election so it can help us with this election as well.

The Newsroom “Boston” episode features the Boston Marathon and at the start we see the newsroom seeing the explosion at the Marathon. They are absolutely shaken about what just happened, but still they have to try to get the story together and is able to find out about two bombs and their detonations. They then send reporters into the field in Boston, while Will McAvoy reports the events that just took place and still trying to uncover and investigate the terrorist attack. After multiple days pass the ACN addresses the false accusations against two men, and one police officer at MIT had been killed in a shootout. After one of the two bombing suspects had been shot and killed. Then the city of Boston does nothing but search for the other suspect and the media is investigating any new leads regardless if the information is true or misleading. At the end of the episode they were able to find information that the second suspect was hiding in someone’s backyard.

News Article: It’s Hard to Escape Facebook’s Vortex of Polarization

This article explains Facebook’s ability to create filter bubbles and increase political polarization. I think this article pairs well with the book because of how Settle talks about these filter bubble social media uses.

https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-vortex-political-polarization/

Hello my name is Eddie Walser, and I am junior from Syracuse, New York. I am majoring in business marketing, nice to meet everyone!

Hello my name is Eddie Walser, I am a junior from Syracuse, New York and am currently majoring in business marketing. Nice to meet everyone!

I wanted to start off this post by talking a little bit about how technology has kept me sane during this quarantine for the COVID-19 virus. To be honest I haven’t been on social media that often. Tik tok and Instagram is probably something I used more before the quarantine. I have been playing a whole lot of xbox with friends, especially friend whom I’ve quarantined do to vacation trips and stuff like that. This whole being stranded in my house has honestly put be off to technology and in the last couple days I’ve spent more time to myself listening to music than playing xbox or talking on my phone. I’ve also been watching a lot of YouTube. What I have done a lot more recently is gone outside! It’s healthy for the mind to get outside and get some fresh air and walk around. This exercise in my mind even though small is very beneficial in keeping a healthy immune system and a healthy mind. I do go on walks or go frolfing with friends but we stay a little far away from each other and I also make sure they haven’t done anything recently that could cause them to have any opportunity of a run in with the COVID-19 virus. Right now i think social media is important for people to stay in touch with one another with everything going on. I believe the social media is providing the social aspects of everyday life with out leaving your house. Which in some cases for people whole are very extroverted this could be beneficial right now for the mind.

Growing up I had a lot of technology in the house. I didn’t get my first iphone until middle school but I have a keyboard phone in elementary around fourth grade. In the house we had gaming counsels like the PS1, PS2, and the Xbox not to mention my brothers and I would play World of Warcraft on the computer. When I was younger I was outside a lot but overtime the friends I had in my neighborhood either moved to a different one or we fell out of touch. On occasions I would try to reconnct but they were usually hanging around with kids in the neighborhood who didn’t really like me because I was kind of weird. I wonder if the technology in my life has impacted the social aspect of my life, in real life person to person interactions. Which is something that I got a lot better with over time. I still remember when everyone started using snapchat and instagram and the start of twitter. Those were like apps to be on in high school and they were nice because I could be in contact with people everyone. I believe social media like this could help people be more social and make more friends. Social media give people control of what everyone gets to learn about you and growing up that could be really nice. It give someone a place in the world where as back in the day kids may not have had this opportunity. But something that’s important to know about social media is that not everyone is a nice person. A lot of people can be very negative just like a couple weeks ago when we talked about Call of Duty Game lobbies.

When it comes to social media and social platforms i’d like to highlight the negatives because to me in some cases the negatives out weigh the positives. I saw a whatever happened to video of a kid who was considered the most hated YouTuber. Me thinking to myself what did he do to be so hated within this community. I just want to say before I go on that yes social media gives people a place to become their own individual and share their opinions and be who they want to be. That’s awesome but this same opportunity can be taken to demoralize someone because they don’t agree, it can give someone a place to be a bully with out repercussions. So this YouTubers name was pruane2 and pruane2forever, and he was one of the first e-celebrities on the YouTube site. He was noticed by celebrities like 50 cent and he was on some talk shows. But his fame is rooted in negativity. Just to give you an idea of how viscous the YouTube community is, Pruane2 posted his first video when he was 12 years old in 2007 and he did a lot of reviews, rants, and vlogs. They would be criticisms of public figures, video games, films, and popular celebrities. From the start of his channel (keep in mind, 12 year old boy) he was getting bullied by comments talking about his appearance, saying he’s ugly and people making fun of his teeth and his voice. That age,12, 13 this is a time where teens struggle with self-esteem and their personal appearance. If i was ridiculed to this boys extent on how fat I was my self-esteem would be non existent. Words can cut like a hot knife through butter and this is something I feel like people don’t think about before they comment it. He earned the nickname jawsus because of the way his teeth and mouth looked. One of his most popular videos was called “Screw You Porn Addicts” and this was about people spamming porn ads in the comment section of YouTube videos. He said some things that the community didn’t agree with and because of this the video went viral and blew up in negativity. At the time as well on YouTube there was a separate side bar under the video that shows all of the response videos to his video. This was weaponized against Pruane2 with videos just making fun of using words like “virgin”, “faggot”, and overall making fun of his appearance and opinion on porn. Keep in mind he’s still 12 years old at this time. This video got on national television boosting his appearance. Following this the wave was too much for him and he ended up disabling his YouTube account. Just think about that for a second, an innocent 12 year old kid, bullied off of YouTube by society…After this though the executive producer of the show made a video for the negative people talking about how people don’t understand his and that he’s a genius (finally some positives). In 2008 Pruane came back as Pruane2forever. He talks a little about why he deleted his channel and it was because of all the hate mail and death threats…of a 12 year old boy. This channel got a lot a views but in the video he said that he became the YouTube everyone loved to hate so they would toon in because they had to see what he’s up to. Anyways on not going to give the whole summary of the video ill put a link at the end so you could see how it all ends.

The reason why I wanted to talk about his YouTuber is because it’s a perfect example of an extreme negative to putting yourself out onto social media or social media platforms. For some it’s an amazing experience and for other it’s a nightmare. This Show someone who was initially defeated by this hate but turns this around and pushes through that hate because it’s something he loves to do. This video also I think shows just how ruthless people can be and the boundaries that no one seems to have. This was a 12 year old boy at the peak of his hate and continues to receive hate until his videos came to an end in the year 2016 i believe. If you do the math that’s a nine year run of hateful comments.

the link the the Pruane2/Pruane2forever video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gYfSaHpLFs

Now i’d like to answer the questions from the presentation in class

1.) I do believe that teens for self sensor especially on more open social media platforms like youtube. Before moving forward with what they want to do they should learn the dangers of putting themselves and their opinions out there before decide if they want to censor themselves or not. After all the online is an open place therefore people should do what they want to do but they should know what they could possibly get themselves into. I’m sure Pruane didn’t know he was going to get a storm of hate when making his account.

2.) I feel like social media platforms can help people find a sense of belonging in the place where they don’t have it in the real world. For example online forums for hobbies people love they might not otherwise find in the real world. Or for people who tend to be more anti-social, in game like World of Warcraft you can become a part of a guild that could give you a sense of belonging. To give you a sense of how powerful this connection through a game can be often times the more hardcore guild members could end up meeting in real life and become great friends, some guilds do raffles and give out t-shirts. Believe it or not my aunt left her husband for a guy she met over World of Warcraft…talk about powerful.

3.) As a very social person who gets lonely fairly easily I can say that social media and xbox has helped me a lot during this quarantine but I can’t stress enough that staying inside on your phone or xbox all day for people like me at least is semi damaging to the mind. Sometimes I feel the need to leave my house and going for walks is a perfectly safe way to go outside. Just don’t get close to people and don’t touch your face. I feel like both sides (people who have prominent social media accounts and people who have more prominent in person social lives) are both dealing with the quarantine in healthy ways. It’s just the way the two groups go about it is different.

A article on Apple working with the CDC to make an app that screens for COVID-19: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/27/tech/apple-coronavirus-website/index.html

I wanted to start off this post by talking a little bit about how technology has kept me sane during this quarantine for the COVID-19 virus. To be honest I haven’t been on social media that often. Tik tok and Instagram is probably something I used more before the quarantine. I have been playing a whole lot of xbox with friends, especially friend whom I’ve quarantined do to vacation trips and stuff like that. This whole being stranded in my house has honestly put be off to technology and in the last couple days I’ve spent more time to myself listening to music than playing xbox or talking on my phone. I’ve also been watching a lot of YouTube. What I have done a lot more recently is gone outside! It’s healthy for the mind to get outside and get some fresh air and walk around. This exercise in my mind even though small is very beneficial in keeping a healthy immune system and a healthy mind. I do go on walks or go frolfing with friends but we stay a little far away from each other and I also make sure they haven’t done anything recently that could cause them to have any opportunity of a run in with the COVID-19 virus. Right now i think social media is important for people to stay in touch with one another with everything going on. I believe the social media is providing the social aspects of everyday life with out leaving your house. Which in some cases for people whole are very extroverted this could be beneficial right now for the mind.

Growing up I had a lot of technology in the house. I didn’t get my first iphone until middle school but I have a keyboard phone in elementary around fourth grade. In the house we had gaming counsels like the PS1, PS2, and the Xbox not to mention my brothers and I woukd play World of Warcraft on the computer. When I was younger I was outside a lot but overtime the friends I had in my neighborhood either moved to a different one or we fell out of touch. On occasions I would try to reconnct but they were usually hanging around with kids in the neighborhood who didn’t really like me because I was kind of weird. I wonder if the technology in my life has impacted the social aspect of my life, in real life person to person interactions. Which is something that I got a lot better with over time. I still remember when everyone started using snapchat and instagram and the start of twitter. Those were like apps to be on in high school and they were nice because I could be in contact with people everyone. I believe social media like this could help people be more social and make more friends. Social media give people control of what everyone gets to learn about you and growing up that could be really nice. It give someone a place in the world where as back in the day kids may not have had this opportunity. But something that’s important to know about social media is that not everyone is a nice person. A lot of people can be very negative just like a couple weeks ago when we talked about Call of Duty Game lobbies.

When it comes to social media and social platforms i’d like to highlight the negatives because to me in some cases the negatives out weigh the positives. I saw a whatever happened to video of a kid who was considered the most hated YouTuber. Me thinking to myself what did he do to be so hated within this community. I just want to say before I go on that yes social media gives people a place to become their own individual and share their opinions and be who they want to be. That’s awesome but this same opportunity can be taken to demoralize someone because they don’t agree, it can give someone a place to be a bully with out repercussions. So this YouTubers name was pruane2 and pruane2forever, and he was one of the first e-celebrities on the YouTube site. He was noticed by celebrities like 50 cent and he was on some talk shows. But his fame is rooted in negativity. Just to give you an idea of how viscous the YouTube community is, Pruane2 posted his first video when he was 12 years old in 2007 and he did a lot of reviews, rants, and vlogs. They would be criticisms of public figures, video games, films, and popular celebrities. From the start of his channel (keep in mind, 12 year old boy) he was getting bullied by comments talking about his appearance, saying he’s ugly and people making fun of his teeth and his voice. That age,12, 13 this is a time where teens struggle with self-esteem and their personal appearance. If i was ridiculed to this boys extent on how fat I was my self-esteem would be non existent. Words can cut like a hot knife through butter and this is something I feel like people don’t think about before they comment it. He earned the nickname jawsus because of the way his teeth and mouth looked. One of his most popular videos was called “Screw You Porn Addicts” and this was about people spamming porn ads in the comment section of YouTube videos. He said some things that the community didn’t agree with and because of this the video went viral and blew up in negativity. At the time as well on YouTube there was a separate side bar under the video that shows all of the response videos to his video. This was weaponized against Pruane2 with videos just making fun of using words like “virgin”, “faggot”, and overall making fun of his appearance and opinion on porn. Keep in mind he’s still 12 years old at this time. This video got on national television boosting his appearance. Following this the wave was too much for him and he ended up disabling his YouTube account. Just think about that for a second, an innocent 12 year old kid, bullied off of YouTube by society…After this though the executive producer of the show made a video for the negative people talking about how people don’t understand his and that he’s a genius (finally some positives). In 2008 Pruane came back as Pruane2forever. He talks a little about why he deleted his channel and it was because of all the hate mail and death threats…of a 12 year old boy. This channel got a lot a views but in the video he said that he became the YouTube everyone loved to hate so they would toon in because they had to see what he’s up to. Anyways on not going to give the whole summary of the video ill put a link at the end so you could see how it all ends.

The reason why I wanted to talk about his YouTuber is because it’s a perfect example of an extreme negative to putting yourself out onto social media or social media platforms. For some it’s an amazing experience and for other it’s a nightmare. This Show someone who was initially defeated by this hate but turns this around and pushes through that hate because it’s something he loves to do. This video also I think shows just how ruthless people can be and the boundaries that no one seems to have. This was a 12 year old boy at the peak of his hate and continues to receive hate until his videos came to an end in the year 2016 i believe. If you do the math that’s a nine year run of hateful comments.

the link the the Pruane2/Pruane2forever video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gYfSaHpLFs

Now i’d like to answer the questions from the presentation in class

1.) I do believe that teens for self sensor especially on more open social media platforms like youtube. Before moving forward with what they want to do they should learn the dangers of putting themselves and their opinions out there before decide if they want to censor themselves or not. After all the online is an open place therefore people should do what they want to do but they should know what they could possibly get themselves into. I’m sure Pruane didn’t know he was going to get a storm of hate when making his account.

2.) I feel like social media platforms can help people find a sense of belonging in the place where they don’t have it in the real world. For example online forums for hobbies people love they might not otherwise find in the real world. Or for people who tend to be more anti-social, in game like World of Warcraft you can become a part of a guild that could give you a sense of belonging. To give you a sense of how powerful this connection through a game can be often times the more hardcore guild members could end up meeting in real life and become great friends, some guilds do raffles and give out t-shirts. Believe it or not my aunt left her husband for a guy she met over World of Warcraft…talk about powerful.

3.) As a very social person who gets lonely fairly easily I can say that social media and xbox has helped me a lot during this quarantine but I can’t stress enough that staying inside on your phone or xbox all day for people like me at least is semi damaging to the mind. Sometimes I feel the need to leave my house and going for walks is a perfectly safe way to go outside. Just don’t get close to people and don’t touch your face. I feel like both sides (people who have prominent social media accounts and people who have more prominent in person social lives) are both dealing with the quarantine in healthy ways. It’s just the way the two groups go about it is different.

A article on Apple working with the CDC to make an app that screens for COVID-19: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/27/tech/apple-coronavirus-website/index.html

In the last class of the semester we talked about social media and a concept called the “Spiral of Silence”. As a young adult in this generation I never hear the end about social media from either older generations complaining about it, to the ridiculous things I see myself when using it. I’ve had social media since I was 12, towards the end of 6th grade when I first made a Facebook account because all my friends did it. Facebook was my only source of social media until about 9th grade, then I made an Instagram, and eventually Snapchat as well as twitter but I hardly use that one. The point is I’ve always been active and enjoyed social media, but about 2-3 years ago, I kinda just started hating it and realizing how false and engulfing it is. We talked about how some refer to us as “Generation Like”, which is exactly the thing that made me realize how stupid it is. Likes are like the main form of validation nowadays, and most people even equate them to how much money you have! I pretty much stopped using Facebook about a year ago, it was always my main one until then. In all honesty, I want to delete all my social media. The only thing keeping me on is the fact that I’m a music artist and that’s the main way to promote yourself. I’m over the false reality that it’s become so I try to limit my feeds to just things music related, with the occasional memes I find funny. I have to pretend to like and care about how much people double tap on my photos, which sucks but I guess I have to make some sacrifices for the love for music.

As for the Spiral of Silence, I think it hits the head right on the nail with the points it makes. This is the idea that human beings naturally keep their opinions to themselves if it’s controversial or not in the majority of the group they’re in. I think this concept is most applicable in public situations with people you don’t know, people tend to try not to disagree with random people to avoid unknown conflict. However if you’re with your friends or people you’re comfortable with, you’re probably more likely to be the odd one out because you know they won’t judge you as much for it. I’ve definitely had this feeling before, especially around new friend groups I don’t really point out things that might stir them up or look at me weird. I’m not terrified of a negative opinion, but I guess I just like to avoid unnecessary awkward situations.

I think this last picture is really important to understand, that the acceptance of others and doing things just to please people isn’t what life is about, and there’s no way to be successful if that’s what you’re thinking about. Society has come so far recently, just imagine what we could do if we actually decided to live in it.

This was our last week of class and I can honestly say that I really enjoyed this class and every week was a different learning experience. For this week’s class, we watched dateline’s Generation Like. At face value, ‘Generation Like’ didn’t hold any surprises. Pretty much everyone knows that the Internet, in its current form, is all about likes, clicks, what you have. I mean, that’s common knowledge. But digging a little deeper, that’s where things get scary. The primary focus here is this: it’s not the technology, but what companies are doing to kids through technology. Specifically, marketing. The younger age group knows that the goal with social media is to be your own media network, and it’s a generation that is willing to do the work of the marketing department just for more likes. Selling out isn’t selling out anymore, it’s the brass ring. Sponsorship is the prize. 

Just like the rest of the millennials of this generation I too am always on my phone, except I do not spend as much time on social media as much as I used to. I usually just scroll through all my feed and not really post anything. When it comes to posting I don’t really care what I say because everyone can voice their opinions. I just wouldn’t post a threat online, even if it were a joke which is how many people get caught up. I also would never post anything personal about my life. However, some people may. Social media can be a stress reliever for some, where they can talk to people they never even met about their personal lives. But I will never forget that whatever is said online will be there forever and can come back to bite you in the ass. Many celebrities have experienced this, where before they were famous or when they were on the rise have said something online that to them was just a joke might have been hurtful to others. There are people out there who go deep into ones feed just to find something negative in order to blast them for it. I also don’t care about likes the way I used to. It is true that many people only care about likes. Some are very self conscious and feel the need to get a certain amount of likes will make them feel better about themselves. All these social media sites like Facebook and Instagram are all about likes and the public can see all of that. Even Snapchat has gotten to the point where people care how many views they are getting even when the user is the only one who can get this information. I really do believe that social media can boost ones ego up. I can’t lie, when I get a certain number of likes it does make me feel good about myself. This is really a topic that I can go on for days, but I’ll just have to save the rest for social media and society.

On Wednesday, we discussed the Spiral of Silence Theory, Outrage in media, and went full circle from Rushkoff’s Merchant’s of Cool to Generation Like.

Elisabeth Noelle – Neumann developed the Spiral of Silence Theory.

This Theory suggests that people tend to keep their opinions to themselves when they think they’re in the minority or of the unpopular opinion group. I know people who haven’t shared their opinion because of this and I know there have been plenty of times where I have stayed quiet because I was not thinking the way everyone else has. Other times I have stood up and spoke my opinions when I was in the leadership position of that group. The examples I am thinking of are when I was the captain of a sports team growing up, and then like we discussed in class, on social media, there are so many debates on morally charged issues that bring a lot of controversy. I do not partake in those because it really is not needed to on social media, and because I do not want to get attacked online. Despite this, I agree with the theory because it happens probably millions of times a day.

We then watched a clip on Youtube called the outrage machine by RetroReport. This brought to attention how “Trash TV” was what the public responded to most. Shows such as Jerry Springer got a lot of attention and love because the audience was able to comment on somebody else’s issue and say whatever they wanted. One quote that I took away from the video is that:

“The loudest and angriest opinions get the most attention. Not everyone knows all the facts, they just form opinions all too quickly”

This quote speaks for our world back in the 90’s and still today.

We then went full circle in the semester and watched David Rushkoff’s “Generation Like” and compared it to the first day of classes when we watched “Merchants of Cool” THe biggest difference between the two documentaries is that in Merchants of Cool, companies would try to sell back what was cool to teens, and in Generation Like, teens just put themselves out there because they want the validation to seem cool to others.

The amount of ‘likes’ someone has these days, determine how “cool” they are and that is all people care about anymore. I know that when I was 14-15 years old I would try to get the most likes on everything I posted by making sure it was at the right time, that my caption was good enough and a lot of other bullsh*t. Looking back I hate that cared so much about things like that, because society made it seem as though I was not good enough if I did not have a certain amount of likes on a picture that I posted.

This week, we meanly discussed the Spiral Silence, which is a theory about when your opinion is different than most of the others, you maybe will not say your opinion out loud,  especially when media get involved. In order to win audiences’ attention, usually, the media will ignore the voice of vulnerable groups and exaggerate the voice of powerful groups. This situation makes one of the human nature pop up, human being afraid of being isolated because we are a social animal. 

Because of the Spiral Silence, the media always show unified information, when people who know nothing about what’s going on watch the news, they might not get the chance to get the complete information so they can’t judge by themselves. In China, there is an app called Weibo, it’s like the combination of Twitter and Instagram. On Weibo, some stars will hire a “water army” to help them to flood the screen with an exaggerated compliment in order to gain popularity and attention from people. Another situation is that when the paparazzi exposes scandal, the main character of the sandal might hire the ”water army” as well, they will let the “water army” control the crowd’s discussion in order to whitewash the person or shift topic. Because of the “water army” people who didn’t track the story from the beginning will be easily cheated. And if there is somebody wants to say their own opinion, the ”water army” might use really ugly language to attack them. I think that makes the Spiral Silence more serious. This situation actually already infects the media industry in China right now. The stars are all fighting for people’s attention on media, fewer people care about the quality of the film or TV shows. And the real thoughts from people can’t be conveyed because of the “water army”. This makes people afraid to speak more because they know they will be attacked.

Actually, for me, the Spiral Silence is all about courage and confidence. Do you have the courage to say your thoughts out loud and do you have the confidence that people will agree with you. And it also relates to the content of your comments. For me, I feel pretty free to talk about my feeling online, because I will control my language and only speak what I think is reasonable and I can find support for that. I will restrict my language because I still believe there’s order about the internet and most people are rational.