Back Issues


Politics and Ethics in Social Media


31 [2]



The impact of Social Media in our lives is all pervasive: you can create, collaborate, politically campaign, entertain,be entertained, review a product, chat with and find new friends, upload photographs and music; the possibilitiesare endless. However, there are ethical and social issues, surrounding the social media shift. There is the risk ofpersonal, reputational, strategic, and governance issues resulting from the new ways people are interactingthrough the Internet. Social media sites and their functionalities are rapidly emerging at an unprecedented pace,particularly how government agencies now engage and convey information to the community. However, the useof social media also presents certain risks and carries with it certain responsibilities. Ultimately, it is the author’ssole responsible for what they post online, which could include inappropriate postings such as discriminatoryremarks, harassment, and threats of violence or similar inappropriate or unlawful conduct.For this issue cover concept, the idea is to present online social media and the ubiquitous Google as vehiclesrather than entities; they are fundamentally just a brand, an empty template waiting to be filled. Whilst socialnetworks, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google are extremely popular it is the online community thatactivate their existence. And the activation of Social Media is now intrinsic to contemporary life. As ThomasAmbrose puts it, ‘While social media is not as essential for survival as traditional public utilities such as electricity,water, and natural gas, many people believe it has become vital for living in an interconnected world and withoutit, living a successful life would be difficult’ (2010).



If you already have an account, please log in here.