Month: June 2022

A couple months ago my teacher announced we were going to a capstone project. As you know from my last blog post I need to start writing an essay to answer my main inquiry question. Just in case you forgot, my main inquiry question is: What are the top 3 benefits of using social media during wartime?

 

After looking over my research I came to the conclusion that the top 3 benefits are: Fundraising, Winning Public Opinion, and Spreading Information. I was thinking of doing information instead of disinformation, but my Mom told me disinformation is stronger and has more evidence.

 

Writing my essay was tough because I was sick, and had to do it at home. Luckily my Mom was always there to help, just in case, I needed it. When I came back to school my teacher, helped me a lot, and I was happy with the final product.

 

Finding evidence wasn’t too hard. I had a lot of evidence in my research which was really helpful. My interviewee also taught me a lot about Fundraising on Facebook which was critical information that I needed.

 

Winning Public opinion was probably the easiest part of writing my essay. I had tons of supporting evidence which allowed me to form the paragraph.

 

Spreading Disinformation was probably the hardest part. I didn’t have too much research on it. But my mom saved me, she gave me a bunch of websites with a lot of evidence.

 

I spent all weekend finishing and revising my essay. After a lot of work, my teacher reviewed my essay and confirmed that I could start my script.

 

The script wasn’t too hard because I mainly based it on my essay. I did add some things from time to time just to make it more clear when talking to an audience.

 

Unfortunately when I timed it was a bit over, so I took out some things and talked a little bit faster.

 

Working on my slideshow was definitely harder than working on my script. I needed to find good-quality images in the correct size range. Not many photos on my topic were very big, but in the end, I found some.

 

Memorizing was not too hard, but once I memorized I sometimes forgot what I had to say, and kept looking up. Luckily I practiced a lot at home and I fixed my problem. 

 

Overall capstone was really fun, I hope I do another project like this in middle school.

After finishing my main inquiry question and my sub-questions, I started to think about who I am going to interview. 

 

I wasn’t sure who I would interview. I went to my Mom for advice, and she suggested I interview an editor on Facebook. At first, I was skeptical, but then I decided it would be a good idea. She emailed them. I recieved great news, I could interview him!

 

I was really happy but first I needed to get my interview questions finished. Writing my interview question wasn’t too hard, but sometimes I was unsure of how to phrase something. Luckily my teacher helped me out and everything was fine.

 

On the day of my interview, I was pretty nervous, but I knew I would be fine. My interview was in person. When I got to the man’s house my nerves died down a little, the interview took about an hour, and it was really cool to hear from an expert. 

 

The next time I ever interview someone I know that I shouldn’t be nervous. I am really excited to start writing my essay.

Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram are social media platforms we all know and love. These platforms are used for sharing, connecting, creating webs, and more. Social media is used in many ways by many different kinds of people, by governments, and by people every single day. But social media can be used for much more serious matters, one of them being social being used in war. Not many people have thought about social media being used in war, which was brought to my attention. I researched three benefits of using social media during wartime and came up with a conclusion. Three chief benefits of using social media during wartime are, Fundraising, opportunities to win public opinion, and the last is spreading disinformation.

 

My first chief benefit of using social media during wartime is fundraising. Wars are ruinously expensive. Wars typically require a lot of weapons and ammunition, as well as food supplies, living equipment, and transportation. Moreover, the invaded country would have many desperate civilians trapped in besieged cities, and displaced around the country. You would need lots of money to cover the added up cost. To help with this, you could set up a fundraiser. For example, Ukraine spends 10 billion dollars a month to keep its army going. On top of this, much more money is needed for food, medicine, and shelter for Ukrainian civilians. But what if the country doesn’t have that money? That is where fundraising comes into play. Large charities use their websites, email distribution, and various social media platforms to ask for donations. For example, the American Red Cross collected $44.3 million dollars for Ukrainian relief. UNICEF, another charity organization, which works in over 190 countries and territories saving children’s lives, collected $276 million for immediate needs within Ukraine. Such companies run extensive advertising campaigns to achieve successful fundraising. Individuals can also run personal fundraising campaigns. Brian Rosenthal, news editor and engineer working for Facebook, described a Facebook donation product. There are two mechanisms: charity organizations can collect donations through their nonprofit Facebook page, as well as Facebook users can create a page asking their supporters to donate to a particular charity organization. The best part about this is creating a Fundraiser is completely free, so you can raise money at no cost. Facebook fundraising campaigns are successful because over 2 billion people use this social platform globally. People get encouraged to donate when they see large participation, which makes them feel being part of something important. Another well-known social media platform that is available to private individuals for fundraising is called “GoFundMe”. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, hundreds if not thousands of fundraising accounts had been used to collect money for the war relief in Ukraine.

 

My second chief benefit of using social media during wartime is an opportunity to win Public opinion. Fundraising is really important, but to get people on your side, you need to win Public Opinion. In reality, the more people on your side the more money you collect. But how can one attract people to share your views with the help of social media? If you are a country that is defending itself, social media can be used to widely share pictures of destruction, wounded and dead people, as well as those seeking refuge. This information clearly documents the atrocities of an enemy, which sends a strong message that war needs to be stopped. An example of this happening is the war in Ukraine. According to an article in the Washington Post, the Russian Government claims that “no strikes are being made on civilian infrastructure.” In Russia where free press is not allowed, Russian people believe that the Russian army does not harm civilians. However, many photographs from war zones in Ukraine tell us a different story. CNN compiled an article called “The Photos That Have Defined the War in Ukraine” citing many photographs of destruction, and devastation amongst civilians. These pictures clearly show that Putin is lying, while countless pieces of evidence point to the fact that civilian homes are being shelled causing civilian casualties. These and many similar photographs are constantly being circulated on many social media platforms making billions of people aware of the true horror of the war, and helping to shape public opinion against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The clear result of American public opinion in support of Ukraine fighting for its freedom is demonstrated by the approval of a new 40 billion aid package by the Senate on May 19th. The article in The New Times stated that “The momentum behind the bill showed how the searing images of suffering in Ukraine, coupled with fears about Russian aggression spreading beyond Ukrainian borders’ ‘. As a result, public opinion is important in wars, and social media can help change the way people think.

 

My third chief benefit of using social media during wartime is spreading disinformation. Both Russia and Ukraine are using social media to rally support and share information, and arguably Russia’s state-paid TV and social media outlets spread disinformation particularly well. Even more so, Russian authorities blocked access to all foreign media outlets and closed all ‘free speaking’ publications and media platforms. The Russian parliament passed a law criminalizing the spread of information that criticizes war in Ukraine. Russians could face prison sentences of up to 15 years for spreading information that goes against the Russian government’s position on the war in Ukraine. Russian authorities insist that the Russian army does not target civilians. Any photographs or videos of dead or injured people are explained as being staged or explosions were set up by the Ukrainians themselves. For example, BBC had published an article describing how a school survivor became a target of Russian disinformation. Tania was caught up in an airstrike that hit a school in one of the towns in Ukraine, leaving nine people dead and many injured. She posted a video on Instagram, showing her face covered in blood. However soon Tania’s video was shared on Russian information channels claiming that the video is a fabrication. Russian media said the wound on her face was not real, and that the blood on her face did not look natural, adding that she was behaving too “normally” for a person who had just survived a bombing. Even the most horrendous atrocities by the Russian army the Russian state media claim to be fake news. BBC reported how In the northern part of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, a small town called Bucha, many dead bodies were discovered after the Russian army retreated. However, in detailed broadcasts to millions of viewers, correspondents, and hosts of Russian state TV channels and social media the photo and video evidence of the killings were fake while others showed that Ukrainians were responsible for the bloodshed. Russia gets support from spreading information, about their country, and others sided with Russia.

 

So, in conclusion, using social media is a huge benefit to using it during the war, you can fundraise, you can win public opinion, and finally, you can spread disinformation to your advantage. So remember during any conflict, when you take your side, you can use social media to help.