For public figures, engaging with public audiences in a media space can let the public see what they do closer, and there could be less misunderstanding and miscommunication. However, some people might also get chances to abuse social media and send public figures offended messages. Compare to the past, sending offended messages cost less time and money.
Employers can feel free to use social media as a hiring tool, but the potential problem is discrimination. Through a candidate’s social media, employers might know a person’s race, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion and disability (Justia, 2018), and these factors can become reasons employers choose not to hire. In terminate or suspend employees, a company’s human resource has responsibilities to protect its employer’s brand. Employees might be fired by their grievances if they are not engaging the conversation with co-workers, and employees also can be fired by attacks on employers that are unrelated to employment terms and conditions (Bell, 2018).
A notable person uses social media probably more carefully than ordinary individuals. However, social media is still a place for a notable person to make friends, and they could get to know other people who they found interested. The benefit of being in the public eye and having a PLN is that the individual is able to get a larger support network. That is, when unfair and unjust things happen to them, their PLN group could provide them support, and the public eye can help to carry justice.
Verified accounts need to post certain content to make the account remain relevant. The account might set the boundary between personal life and professional life clearer so unauthorized individuals would not be able to know more information than they suppose to. Verified accounts or hybrid accounts would also post different perspectives of their life on different social media platforms as they see fit.
It is difficult to know the news from one’s PLN is reliable because fake news is hard to be identified. We should understand that it is normal to have biases in news, but we can avoid believing the news that is poorly sourced or invalidated from an unreliable news outlet (Hirst, 2019, p 92). When we build a PLN, we should be able to think whether the news is reliable instead of trust any information we see, and we should also increase our digital media literacy and rational thinking capabilities. Those who are storytellers, he or she should do the best to give factual information and minimize their own bias.
References
Bell, J. (2018). What happens online may not stay online. When is it appropriate to discipline employees for their past or present posts?. SHRM. Retrieved from
https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0918/pages/firing-for-online- behavior-.aspx
Hirst, M. (2019). Navigating Social Journalism. New York: Routledge, https://doi- org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.4324/9781315401263
Justia. (2018). Use of Social Media in Hiring. Retrieved from
https://www.justia.com/employment/hiring-employment-contracts/use-of-social- media-in-hiring/
Lui, S. (2020). EDCI 338 A01 – LUI, Sophie. YouTube. Retrieved from