Draft Abstract and Bibs

Social media, is it a fad? Or can you really prove that social media is changing the way that we communicate with each other and how it is evolving and consuming our daily lives. Media before was very simple: newspapers, radio, and television. Today, news is updated constantly and through several media outlets. If the news isn’t updated constantly the minute it happens, the public reacts disapprovingly. That’s how our society has evolved. We have grown so accustomed to having news, information, and facts at the touch of a button (literally) that when we have to wait for an update to occur we don’t know how to react. Imagine if media releases were still has slow as they were decades ago?

Media today has drastically changed with not only each other but how we receive important information regarding daily news. Social media has adapted into our daily lives by quickly changing the way we view and use various media outlets. If we wanted to voice our opinions years ago we would write a letter to a company or hold a protest. The chances of the company’s CEO ever reading that letter would rarely ever happen. Now all you have to do is Tweet at the company’s CEO and chances are they will read it and take into consideration what you are posting if it of constructive criticism value toward their company. Social media today allows for a more “open” approach for the public to voice their opinion to be publicized.

1. Herron, Ken. "Why is Social Media Important?." Social Grow. SocialGrow Inc., 07 06 2010. Web. 6 Oct 2011. .

This website discusses the importance of social media in general. It’s almost like an opinion column where the public is allowed to write to the author to discus their major concerns with social media and its effectiveness; and the author replies to specific e-mails that will benefit her public audience. This website is useful for my overall project and helps define my abstract because it defines what social media is. Although there is no clean cut definition of what social media is, it allows readers to grasp a better understanding of what to expect what using social media outlets.

2. "Social Media Dashboard." HootSuite. HootSuite, 10 06 2011. Web. 6 Oct 2011. .
This website is a vital tool for social media. It allows users who frequently update their Twitter accounts to set up their Tweets in advance to be timed and post at a certain time frame.