Social Media-History in Real Time [In the Classroom]

In April, I was a guest lecturer in two separate Political Science classes at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The topic of this round of lectures was, "Social Media-History in Real Time."  This presentation takes the student through a variety of events that took place in Wisconsin beginning in the spring of 2011. Footage, stills, and narratives were featured and discussed.  The students saw first-hand how messages distributed through social media can reinforce, change, or manipulate the message.  The intent of the lecture is to challenge students to watch both sides of an issue, from multiple news and media outlets.  In the end, students gained a deeper understanding of how quickly social media can be disseminated, how to learn to discern fact vs. fiction, and to learn of the dangers of social media.  This class and several classes in December of 2011 were surveyed to ascertain how they interpret social media. 

UW-La Crosse Political Science Class- Professor Jeremy Arney

Some key statistics include:


More than 70% of the students use social media every day.
Nearly 90% use Facebook.
In 2011 28% of the students used social media daily/weekly for academic work.  In 2012, that percentage jumped to 44%.
Over 62% of the students feel FOX news is biased, while about 47% of the students feel CNN is the least biased.
About 50% of the students feel that social media is very effective, effective, and somewhat effective in changing people's opinion.