Follow the Leader Activity Worksheet
Analyse, respond, react, and reflect on 3 social media case studies using this worksheet. There are two steps to this assignment.
Step 1: The Case Studies
There are five case studies below. Choose three of these case studies to look at for this activity. There is a choice of the following studies:
- Jake
- Deon
- Anna
- Maria
- Sarah
| Selected Case Studies | List your three selected case studies here: 1. Jake 2. Maria 3. Sarah |
Step 2: React, Reflect, Respond
Identify the 3 case studies that you have chosen. Look at the prompts related to your chosen case studies; enter your answers in the space next to the prompt. Be careful, there are to be 2-3 complete sentences as a response to each of the prompts.
| Case | Studies and Prompts (Pick 3) | Your Responses (In 2-3 complete sentences each) |
| Jake | Jake is a high school student who likes to follow his favorite athletes and sports teams using multiple types of social media. He loves to keep abreast of the latest news, scores, and highlights. He recently noticed that about his favourite sports, there have been a lot of sensational headlines and clickbait articles in his feeds. These headlines try to imply that the story they contain is unique, there is some drama, or a controversial take on a player’s performance. Clicking into these articles, he frequently finds that there is little content in the articles and that they are created for the purposes of clicks and shares. As a result, he is more and more skeptical of the sports news he sees in his feeds. 1. What are some red flags that might make you think that algorithms might be skewing sports information on social media and sports news sites toward sensational or misleading reports? 2. What could the impact of this (over)emphasis on sensationalism in sports reporting be upon Jake’s trust of the information he was consuming and his sports experience overall? 3. Consider how the algorithms can be used to influence the dissemination of sensational sporting news content and the consequences of this on the spread of false information and fans’ understanding of the sports world. | Jake has several different clickbait instances that can be indicators. Those particular articles do not provide a great deal of information about his most preferred sporting activities.Clickbait articles emphasize sensationalism, which doesn’t necessarily relate to the work ethic of the players. He develops a new attitude of skepticism, which enables him to critically evaluate these articles.Due to the algorithm he is currently using, Jake communicated less with those sources because of his attitude. Constantly putting unnecessary spin and false information in headlines, those who have a real passion for this game lose interest. |
| Deon | FitFusion is an online community in which students (such as Deon) who are very serious about fitness can talk with and learn from other students who share their workout philosophies. There is a group of students within FitFusion who believe in hardcore exercises, strict diets, and certain fitness supplements. They often share their intense workout routines, their favorite protein powder, or transformation photos before and after. Balanced fitness ideas are rejected as less effective; discussions of “intuitive eating” are also rejected. However, Deon soon discovered that certain members of FitFusion were simply affirming one another in their fitness notions and were dismissive of other suggestions. They rarely interact with material that questions their approach and thus have a false idea of consensus within the group. Identify evidence in FitFusion that shows that it has become an echo chamber of like-minded students talking about fitness and exercise. 2. In what ways could the echo chamber dynamic of this online fitness community impact the attitudes of students towards forms of fitness and exercise? 3. What are some benefits and drawbacks that may be associated with echo chambers in the fitness/exercise/personal health conversation? | 1. 2. 3. |
| Anna | A viral hashtag campaign #SaveOurPark is being used and attracting a lot of attention on social media. The campaign seems to be a grassroots effort, with individuals of different backgrounds voicing their concerns for the preservation of a local park. High school student Anna enthusiastically participates in the campaign and tells all of her friends to do the same. One day, though, she gets a personal message from what she assumes is the organizer of the campaign. The message requests Anna to share certain content and use certain hashtags “to boost the campaign”. The campaign piques Anna’s suspicions, and she begins to suspect that it is not a grassroots movement at all but rather an organized campaign to sway public opinion. What social media manipulation technique do you believe is used here, when the #SaveOurPark is suddenly popular, and actions are being implored? 2. What might be some of the reasons for employing this tactic? 3. How might this tactic impact the authenticity of the campaign’s message? | I would define the social media manipulation tactic as Astroturfing, because it has just recently been a popular #SaveOurPark campaign. This is a particular technique that includes a random account, a non-original link to an author, which can be used to attract people with similar thoughts.It is a strategy that is normally motivated by the need to curb or influence the opinions of others. In this particular instance, it was utilized to “bolster the campaign”.By doing this, it could, in turn, damage the campaign’s true purpose and meaning to the public. It might lead to the question of whether it was a genuine movement at all. |
| Maria | Maria is a high school student with a love of photography. She shares her pictures on a popular photo-sharing website, FotoFlick. In recent times, she noticed that her photos began to get an unusually high amount of likes. Some of these likes are from accounts that do not have profile pictures and have generic names. Maria’s excitement over the increase in likes stems from a suspicious reaction by her friend Carlos. He investigates and finds that many of the accounts that like Maria’s photos follow thousands of accounts with no posts on their own accounts. But Carlos suspects there may be more to this apparent popularity boost. So, what do you think this social media manipulation tactic is here, seeing as how they get a lot of likes from seemingly “bot” accounts with no real posts of their own? 2. What might be FotoFlick’s reasons for doing this? 3. What might cause Maria to think that she is popular online with students? | I would guess that bots have been drawn to Maria’s FotoFlick account as it has gained an abundance of followers from odd pages. That may have been a result of an account she added, and others joined her.FotoFlick might be incentivizing people to interact with the app by using bots. But they needed to have an impression of there being lots of activity on the app, and they had to make some.By paying attention to this, Maria could feel as though the interactions that she receives aren’t real. This might make her not want to use this particular App in the future. |
| Sarah | ConnectHub is a well-liked social media platform that high school students feel is the most popular platform. The platform makes use of a personalized recommendation algorithm called “NicheExplorer” suggests influencers dependent on a person’s present followers and engagement. Sarah is a high school student. junior with a passion for gaming. She is following some gaming influencers on ConnectHub is keen on getting the latest Keep her updated on her favourite games. Over time, Sarah sees a huge increase in her feeding. Now it is packed with video games-related content, such as video game reviews, gaming occasions, and gaming tips. She spends all her time scrolling and playing games. When her friend Emily, who is a fan of fashion influencers, invites her to lunch, they both notice something strange – Emily’s feed is filled with fashion outfits, runway styles, and makeup tutorials. They talk about how their feed has turned into an echo chamber, with content from their first influencer selections. Sarah hardly ever sees anything that is not gaming, and when it comes to Emily, fashion seems to be all that exists. They ask themselves if this is the same for other people on ConnectHub. As seen in Sarah and Emily’s experiences, how does the “NicheExplorer” algorithm on ConnectHub help to create influencer filter bubbles? 2. Consider the implications of high school students being exposed mostly to content within their ‘influencer niche’ content. 3. How might this affect their sense of differing views and values? | 1. 2. 3. |