Discussion Questions

1) Today many TV shows and advertisements try to look amateurish or "homegrown" to emulate what is often seen on the Web. Do you think professional production values will continue to drop, or do you think amateur user-generated content will get better over time? WHY??


I believe that the quality of amateur user-generated content will improve over time. It seems already that the amateur user-generated content is trying to emulate certain types of "homegrown" TV shows. For example, if you look at the link posted, you can see a very similar camera style and even plot similarity between the video and the TV show The Office. It just makes sense that the quality of content the amateurs put out would try to be as well developed as possible so as to attract a wider audience. As for the shows that are looking at producing "homegrown" shots, it is only a matter of time before they die out. There is only so much you can do with that type of filming. This shooting style is only truly effective for comedy. There is still going to be a huge call for the professional looking content.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0Ny4hh-OW8


2) What social media sites do you find yourself using the most, and why? In your opinion why is Facebook so much more successful than MySpace, and do you think Facebook is "here to stay" for the long term.

I use Facebook more than anything. I may not look at it all the time, but it is always open in a tab on my Internet. I feel like Facebook is seen as better than MySpace because of the whole scandals with MySpace and everyone worrying about online predators. As for Facebook, there is a lot more privacy options and is just seen as safer to be on. The main reason I have a Facebook instead of MySpace is that when I had a MySpace, I went to log in and next thing I know, there is a Trojan virus on my computer. That was the last time I used MySpace. As far as Facebook's continued success goes, I believe it is here to stay. Every few months, Facebook updates, changes, and gets more advanced. Because of this, there is more offered to the users of Facebook.

3) Why is transparency such an important concept in the Social Media world? Is it MORE or LESS important in the offline world? Why?

Transparency reveals motives. Although everyone likes to believe that they do things for others, there is still a small part of them that does it out of selfish desires. This is just human nature. I believe it is just as important in the online world as it is off-line. If someone is paid to say something on or off-line people tend to pass judgement on those who provided whatever information to an audience. Being paid off to show someone else in a better light (whether they whole-heartedly believe it or not) still looks bad. Everywhere you go though, you are going to find bias and this is just the result of education. Their motives may be monetary or something to that nature and in the eyes of the audience, that is skewing their opinion, or at least the opinion they are portraying.