IMC Hawks Blog

Category: Rhetoric

  • THIS IS FAKE NEWS! NOPE… IT’S REAL

    Would you know fake news if you saw it? How often have you come across fake news during your time on social media? I’m betting more than once. Believe it or not, in the past few years, platforms created algorithms to reduce the amount of fake news flooding your stream. But how well has that worked?

    Hunt Allcott and others found specific trends in the diffusion of misinformation in social media. They gathered thousands of pieces of content and stories from over 100 fake news websites and their level of engagement with Facebook and Twitter and reviewed the trends of their diffusion from 2015 to 2018. Using various web trafficking methods such as BuzzSumo and Alexa, they reviewed the volume of user interactions and recorded browsing data. Yeah, they can do that.

    Allcott’s research also measured the outcomes for not only major sites, but small business and culture sites, and small news sites not identified as producing misinformation (Allcott, 2019). But those sites followed a stable trend in comparison to Facebook. Even so, some of the fake news sites also contain true news and clickbait to misleading content. Because of that reason, the researchers also compiled a list from Snopes.com that fact checked the content they deemed false. That gave them still a whopping 9,540 false stories! Later described in the article, the data could be misconstrued because of the sites these programs don’t account for.

    The amount of misinformation leading up to the 2016 election is alarming and fake news on social media is argued to play a major role in the results. Because of the increased volume of fake news, Facebook and other platforms created an algorithm to flag false content in order to prevent the spread of misinformation and improve its quality. The amount of decline within the past 2 years has suggested that Facebook’s algorithm may have something to do with it (Allcott, 2019). But, it’s nearly impossible to control the amount of misinformation people put out into the world.

    The results suggest that since the end of 2016, Facebook has had a decline in fake news since its peak while Twitter is still rising (Allcott, 2019). This change in the continuous rise after the election could have something to do with the President’s recent engagements on Twitter. The results from Facebook show relationship to major news and fake news sites engagement through the same periods of time. While Twitter engagements are on a continuous rise through the entire study due to the president’s active account and rising millenial use.

    This study seeks out to share the importance of knowing the decline is visible but the amount of misinformation still being consumed by viewers is large and alarming (Allcott, 2019). That’s mainly referring to Twitter and Facebook. Though Facebook’s fake news has declined from 160 million to 60 million engagements per month, the number is still high. And that’s just from one social media platform! Imagine the generations who get their news from major news sites that also carry false content not in this study. That just adds to the number of people exposed to things that can persuade one’s decisions.

    As communicators in the IMC world, it is our job to persuade and influence, however, in an ethical and approachable manner. Seeing this research has only solidified the fact that people are aware of the content put on social media. What is said online is shared and impacts society more than it seems. Allcott (2019) concludes that the diffusion of misinformation through social media is a potential threat to democracy and broader society. As a young generation of communication students, it is our responsibility to create content that is honest and thought-provoking in an ethical way.

    We remember the social media chaos that surrounded the 2016 Trump election but it makes you wonder about the effect a continuous amount of misinformation would have on a society and future elections. The research suggests there was a decline, however, there is still a problem. We, as marketers, need to keep in mind ethical values and the content we create and post- whether it be personal or business related. The fact is, on the internet, the information you share will be seen by someone out there, so don’t be fake, be real.

    Allcott, H., Gentzkow, M., & Yu, C. (2019). Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on

    social media. Research & Politics, 6(2), 205316801984855. doi: 10.1177/2053168019848554

    -Annie Cline

    Annie is happy to bring her creative writing skills into her studies with IMC. She has a passion for communication and cannot wait for graduation to put her skills into action in the real world.

     

  • Elections are overwhelming, but not as overwhelming as bad public officials!

    Elections are overwhelming, but not as overwhelming as bad public officials!

    It should be no surprise that the midterm elections are around the corner. I’m sure we’ve all seen the plethora of ads and commercials that have taken up every inch of public space recently. Multichannel marketing is a sure-fire way to make certain your targeted audience doesn’t miss your message and the candidates this season knew what they were doing. They were all over your mail, your street signs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Even if you didn’t know their message, you knew their name. tenor

          Both tragically and thankfully, this election season is nearly over, however there is still plenty of time to get educated and get to the polls! Don’t let the rhetoric and oversaturated market you’re seeing scare you away!

    I understand how it could feel overwhelming with how intense our political climate seems to be nowadays. New policies and claims appear to be made daily that threaten the lives of minorities, women, the LGBT+ community, and many others. From DACA to birth control to trans livelihoods to gun control, there seems to always be something new and confusing to comprehend in the political sector.

    64b814bd-9f6f-496f-83f9-6f0ba3d07703       The issues lie with all the campaign ads you see, and the crazy claims being made by publications and political groups. Don’t let all the talk freak you out. This is an exciting and promising time in politics-we can make a real change. Take all the advertising you see with a grain of salt. We know to be responsible communicators and go into the world with honesty and transparency, and to do good. Unfortunately, not everyone communicates in this way and it’s important to keep that in mind. So, when the opportunity presents itself to make a difference about who gets to represent you in Washington, you need to take it.
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     Here’s five steps you can take to tackle this as educated as possible!

    1. Register
      Several states allow voters to register on election day! If you’re lucky enough to live in those few states, congratulations! If you’re a resident of NC I hope you planned and registered ahead of time, because the deadline has unfortunately passed. Registering to vote is the first step in our voting process and if the number of ads we see to encourage registration is anything to go by, it might be the most important. What can you do if you aren’t registered? If you missed the deadline this time around, don’t worry. There is a lot you can do to help the candidates you support. The rest of this list won’t be too useful for a while but feel free to continue reading anyways and share it! You never know who could need a little push in the right direction.
      2. Think
      You know what’s important to you and what values you want upheld. Really think of how you believe those values should be fought for in office. What do you want your candidates to stand for? Guide yourself by the issues you see discussed on the news, online, in your classes. How do you feel about gun control, abortion, education, universal healthcare? While I do believe the information we see is highly polarized and a lot of times dramatized, those are issues that matter. There are so many policies to have opinions on and the more you understand your own, the better you can decide who should stand up for you in government.
      3. Search
      Looking up a sample ballot for your address is the easiest way to conduct a search about the candidates you need to learn about. It’s not very helpful to distract yourself with all the political discussions when you don’t even know who’s running in your district.
      4. Check
      Read up and check on the candidates now! See who fits best with what you want to see in government. Once you’ve researched your ballot, spreading out and looking at other districts and states could be helpful to see whom the candidates associate with and endorse. We know the candidates in different levels of government will often associate publicly and belong to the same public groups to spread their message. Association is a powerful force when marketing and that sort of branding doesn’t come easy. Reputations matter, both in politics and in marketing.
      5. Vote!
      This is my favorite step. Go out to your voting place and fill in your ballot. Don’t forget to grab a sticker and share it online!

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    -Rachel Montesinos Jorro

  • The Lesser Known Appeal

    At this point we’ve all heard of Aristotle’s four appeals. There’s Logos, which deals with logic and reasons, Pathos, the appeal to emotion, and Ethos, which relies on the credibility of oneself and others. But wait, that leaves on more, right? What is it? Give me a moment… It’ll come to me in time…

    Oh yeah. That’s right. It’s Kairos!

    In English: Timing.

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    The ancient Greeks had two words for time. The first was chronos, which deals with the kind of sequential, quantitative time we are all being shoved through. The second was kairos, the qualitative  contextual sort of time that rhetoric is built on. See, of Aristotle’s appeals, kairos is easily the most important. If you are a master logician but spew facts at a funeral, you won’t make much headway with your audience. If you are the most emotional speaker to ever walk the face of the Earth but your crowd hungers for facts to back your claims, you might find yourself stuck in a rut. Even comedy relies heavily on timing, with many famous comedians citing that the delivery and timing of content is just as, if not more, important than the content itself. You have to know when to deliver your appeals, your presentations, your resumes even, to ensure that you presenting the best possible argument for yourself. Timing is to rhetoric as nutrition is to food; though they are less readily apparent, both timing and nutrition determine whether you’re going to feel bad about yourself later.

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    Timing can make or break you. Bad timing can ruin even the most amazing presentation. We’ve talked a lot this week about how to succeed with that new internship and how to get to that next step. Timing is key in this area too, so here’s a few tips to improve your own timing.

    NEVER. BE. LATE. As my Scoutmaster always loved to say, “early is on time, on time is late, late is unacceptable.” Being late is a huge turn off, whether it’s to your interview or your daily grind. You could have every other piece of the process perfect, but don’t be surprised when someone rejects you simply because you were late.

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    But also don’t be too early. Excessive earliness can translate to desperation. It can also tell the person you are trying to impress that you have no other projects, obligations, or concerns, which can make you seem lazy and unmotivated.

    Don’t rush it. People can tell when you are rushing an interaction with them. If you are in a rush, evaluate whether or not this interaction is truly now or never. Could you get a greater effect at a different time? Is this or your other obligation more important? Is the situation now or never, or is a now going to ensure a never? Remember that your time is precious, but the time of the person you are trying to impress is even more so.

    If you’re in the right place, find the right time. You’re at that networking event or the internship and you see an opportunity arise. Always ask yourself if now is the best time. If that person is drowning in a sea of people or seems put off by something else, be patient. You don’t want to get lost in a sea of faces and names, or get rejected by someone having a bad time. It’s amazing what a few moments can do. Find a time that will maximize your impact and memorability.

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    But don’t wait too long! Remember that all things in life are time-sensitive. Don’t be timid and let the opportunity slip, and certainly don’t wait for things to happen to you. Make your own good fortune by reading and understanding the situation.

    To tie it all together, remember that patience and situational awareness are key.

    For example, some of our regular readers may have noticed that this particular post came after noon today. Why is that? Well, to quote a very famous Mr. Gray:

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    Timing is everything. The best gift you can give someone is your time. Make sure that it’s a good one.

    -Lane, Austin, and Allen