Social Media In Present Day

hearty Media In Present DaySocial media is a compilation of online platforms that allows open to dispense by diametric type of online features. These connective features give the gate be sharing of knowledge and idea, ne dickensrking, online discussion, and other issue of communicating (Heesters, as cited in Schets, 2010, p. 22).The thought of brotherly media just ab out(p) existed ten years ago. except nowadays, fond media atomic number 18 the fastest growing web situations online and usher out be see in that location is a quick and continuing increase in their interview and r all(prenominal). By catching up with this online trends, in that location are change magnitude number of nonprofit organizations are victimization social media as aims to increase outreach, fundraising and recruitment capacity. Nonprofits exploit the online social networks to offer exponential possibilities for developing personal relationships. Once an organization established a good inte r-group colloquy to an individual, that person crapper leverage his or her personal contacts (Tetrick, 2010).Today, there were about half a gazillion tidy sum close to the world deplete Facebook accounts and nearly 200 million receive Twitter accounts. These two social networking sites will be the most popular among internet go forrs worldwide. Statistics elaborated public who are younger, wealthier and better better in demographic segments substance ab ingestion social media to a greater extent(prenominal) than other groups (Beribe, as cited in Berube, 2010, p. 1 ).Social media capable to reach much consumers internationally as it continues to grow, oddly with social networking and microblogging sites. These are the most normally sites used for socialization and connecting with friends, parents, relatives, etc. Among all the Social Netwroking Sites that used by the nonprofits, Facebook and blogging got the most attention from public. at that place were also modern studies indicated that old generations are employ social media frequently. therefore, social media has the potential to widen consultation for nonprofits (Pierce Wood Smith, as cited in Hovey, 2010, p.2).The graph below shews how Schets (2010) illustrated social medias key social platforms.A chart of the key social platforms (Source Adapted from Schets, 2010)The Importance of social mediaThe social media is an unpaid media, it is proved by an individual and conjunction on the internet. (Weber, as cited in Kichatov Mihajlovski, 2010, p. 6). Over last few years, social media has run universal and tear d profess more significance for social networking and content sharing. The emerging of social media has directly affect traditional media and broadcast media as the main promotional in any casels. (Asur Huberman, 2010)The main role of social media in an organization is to facilitate communications either with the organization and with one another, or on their own terms. The communications will only be more effective if the organizations target audience is already comfortable with social media tools (Tetrick, 2010). Social media is believe to has more opportunities than traditional media. For instance, blogs allow two- track dialog between an organization and its public (Seltzer Mitrook, as cited in Hovey, 2010, p.2). Moreover, social media platforms allow organizations to freely take advantage of existing social networks and virally spread their messages.For nonprofit organizations, social media sites, much(prenominal) as blogs and Twitter, provide new shipway to engage publics in, fundraising, activism, and publicity (Kanter, 2007 Mattson Barnes, Waters, Burnett, Lamm Lucas, as cited in Tetrick, 2010, p. 15). Through social media, non profits organizations share the work of publicity and advocacy with volunteers. Their organizational development is open to public too (Cronk, Fine, Waters as cited in Tetrick, 2010, p. 12 ).Undeniable, it can be clearly seen that both the organizational communication and public relations have a rapid change due to todays internet technologies (Curtis, as cited in Tetrick, 2010, p.1). The previous public relations studies indicate that social media is widely being use in public relations sector, espcially the phenomenon of blogging have the potential to bring dramatic changes to many aspects of public relations. However, they do not use it to the fullest mean (Eyrich Padman Sweetser Kent Xifra Huertas, as cited in Hovey, 2010, p. 1)Accoding to the other public relations studies, the role of social media mainly avail the organization to cultivate the relationships with their publics. Moreover, it allows the organizations to react immediately to the problem from their public (Wright Hinson, as cited in Hovey, 2010, p. 2).Furthermore, the internet technologies has become a publicity tool after President Barack Obamas election advertise. By the use of social media, he successfully effec t around $750 million. Not only that, he able to mobilize more than 13 million supporters during his 2008 election (Scearce, as cited in Tetrick, 2010, p. 6).After reviewing the previous research studies, it can be terminate that social media is an essential tool which play the role in facilitating the overall communication process. By using social media, it can gain fresh support for the organization. Morover, by making them more immediate, open an pathway to a new audience, it can strengthen an organizations existing communication attempts.Social Media and YouthIt can be say that young generations today grow up with the internet. Our young generations have the whole globe at the point of their finger tips. The emerging of the social media somehow is shaping and changing the way our young generations is communicating with others. Social media become their daily partner on the internet world. Through social media, youth able to get their relationship, friendship, information, ente rtainment, education, etc. It can be seen clearly that there were an obvious changing pattern of media use among young generation in present day (Jalil Jalil Latiff, 2010).The importance of charity sensationCharity awareness plays a key role in which it will create a desire for people to sustain others. Individual who has charitably aware instigates a sense of fulfilment to those who translate their desire to actions and thus rectify the lives of those who are in need (Soft Power Education Blog, 2008).In this study, the awareness towards charity work refers to the content to have an in-depth knowledge which will educate people more about charity work and kick upstairs more people to be involves in charity work. By having charity awareness, it will indirectly create a desire to aid others. Individual who have charity awareness will try to imagine of ways and means to build bridges to deliver the task. As a consequence, it will reach a certain goal of fulfilment with oneself t hrough the advancement of the lives of those less fortunate people who are the mark of that charitable desire.Link between Social Media Charity Work AwarenessNot surprisingly, all charities associations raise funds and need donations in order to sustain their causes. Without those funds, they will hardly survive in society. in all the money received by charities is used for the cause each charity is committed to. The received funds used to help needy children and families and even protecting animals from human abuse, while a small hail is use for future fundraising activity. It is very significant for charity organizations to invest in fundraising so that it can appeal new supporter and to inform public about the updated events and activities as well as latest information about the campaign. In this study, public who have charity awareness will automatically lent their reach to help those who is in needed.In present day, there were more and more charities use social media to publicize their good cause. Basically, social media is a good promotional tool for charities to increase awareness among public. Many charities use social networking much(prenominal) as Facebook, Twitter and other online platform in promoting their causes. old research shows that by using social media to promote, it can make the campaign to be successful once done in the right way.CASE STUDYWorld vision MalaysiaWorld resource has been established in Malaysia for 14 years. It serves as the support office of World Vision International. It is a charity organization that helpers the poor especially children to help themselves. It will collect fund from public then donate to people that in transposed countries. There are three main programs in World Vision. They are Child Sponsorship program, 30- Hour dearth program and Gifts of Hope program. These programs aim to help child that is in need. Through Child Sponsorship program, public can sponsor needy children by just donate RM50 p er month to provide them education, pabulum and others. For 30- Hour dearth, participants are require fast for food for 30 hours in order to get them experiences the hungriness that those children and families endure everyday. Besides, through Gifts of Hope program, public can sent gifts to the needy children or families that select from the catalogue such as school uniforms, livestock for families and others (World Vision Malaysia, 2006).30-hour dearth30-Hour Famine began in Malaysia since 1997. It is known as a global movement against poverty and hunger worldwide. Its main purpose is to encourage public to donate and help children as well as families in need. The fund which collected will be able to help generate and care for tens of thousands of kids all over the world. Since famine intend to motivate ordinary people to care and assist for those unlucky and needed people, therefore participants will get to experiences hunger for 30 hours through the 30-Hour famine campaign t hat will be conducted once a year. During the fast for 30 hours, participants undertake different activities while culture about some global issues. They also learn what it takes to stop hunger in its tracks. The fast can be done with a group or individually, it is depend on the participants themselves. Due to 30-Hour Famine is supply by World Vision, the donors are not just feeding kids for a day but are helping them overcome poverty for a lifetime.30-Hour Famine HistoryWorld Vision was established in Malaysia in 1997. The outgrowth 30-Hour Famine in Malaysia was organized by The Sin Chew daily. It was successfully raises for around RM2.6 million. Although the crisis strikes was happened on 1999, but the 30-Hour Famine still continue to roll in. During this period, Fish Leong started to link up the Famine and had her first performance. After this, Silvia Chang and Sally Woo become the ambassadors of the Famine at year 2000. The first off- site Famine was held in Penang in this year too. At the following year, HELP University College appeared to be the headquarters of the Famine after the Sin Chew. The Famine was held all together in KL, Johor and Penang. Their sponsor will be E-Excel and Nesh. In 2002, the Famine camp which is with face version was held. Its headquarter, HELP University College is assigned to be the host of both the English and Chinese Famine camping grounds.At 2003, the SARS epidemic is very serious and forced the Famine have to be postponed from May to July. Due to this reason, the Famine was held in Stadium Juara, Bukit Kiara KL for the first time. In order to show their caring to the community, the English campers visited local charities and presented proposals on their causes at 2004. After that, the first Volunteer Training Camp was held. On the other hand, due to campers form Johor began and ended their fast on the train, therefore, the Famine Express was born.In 2006, the Famine camp continue to gain a lot of enthusiastic respon ses from the public, an unprecedented number of newcomers join both the Chinese and English Famine camps. The media also play an important role in promoting the camps. During its tenth year anniversary at 2007, it was reported the Famine has been break the record whereby about 10, 000 sponsors, donors, volunteers and campers took part in its largest camp ever. Furthermore, the Famine stared to spread its wing to East Malaysia for the first time.In 2008, the Do it Yourself (DIY) camps were held across the nation. The Famine was also decentralised in order to widen its reach and empower its supporters. Since the issue of global food crisis is getting serious day by day, therefore, World Vision offices in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Australia decided to focus on the Global Food Crisis. In Malaysia, it gain a good response from public in which there are about 100 DIY camps with the more than 10,000 campers joined the joined the cause of fighting global hunger and raise a wareness on the food crisis among public.Identity30-Hour Famine LogoWorld Visions vision disputationOur vision for every child, life in all its fullnessOur prayer for every heart, the will to make it soWorld Visions mission statementThe mission of World Vision is to follow our Lord and saver Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek legal expert and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God.World Visions tenderness valuesThe World Vision Partnership shares a common understanding bound together by six core values. With these core values, World Vision able to live and work towards because it treat the core values as the complete and guiding principles that determine World Visions actions. The six core values as belowWe are ChristianWe value peopleWe are partnersWe are committed to the poorWe are stewardsWe are responsiveUses and gratifications opening (UG)Uses and Gratification theory is a time-honored media use theory. I t is a theory which is establish on the concept that a person cannot allure by media unless he or she has some use for that media or its messages. (Ruggiero, as cited in Stafford Schkade, 2004, p. 226). Through this theory, it can help to understand consumer motivations for media use.UG theory was started in the 1940s when researchers interested to bump out the reasons why audiences engaged in different types of media behavior (Wimmer Dominick, as cited in Ruggiero, 2000, p. 4). UG Theory illustrate how people alertly seek out specify media and specify content to generate specify gratifications (West Turner, ac cited in Chasse, 2009, p. 2). Furthermore, it worked to explain media need for individual and individual involvement. Beginning in the 1920s and continue on into the 21st century, some media scholars have practised an in-depth understanding of human interaction with mass media, what effects media will on the audiences and how audiences use media. There are strong connec tions between media selection and the gratifications consumers seek. (Bantz, Blumler, McQuail, Mcleod, Becker, Rubin Ruggiero, as cited in Ancu Cozma, 2009, p. 569)There are 5 basic assumptions in UG theory. Firstly, the audience is considered combat-ready. Second, audience uses media with goal-oriented. Not only that, audience have self- awareness to know and understand well the purpose for using certain media. Third, different people own different type of communication behaviours. They are based upon psychological and social factors. Fourth, these two factors will influence how good media can serve and satisfy peoples needs and wants. People will select which media they like the most. Finally, people are sometimes more influential than media. People will chose other media to get information when they were not satisfy with the current media they chose (Rubin, as cited in Pornsakulvanich, 2005, p.14)By view from the psychological perspective, UG basically emphasized the active r ole of individual in choosing media to fulfil their needs. This theory normally focused on to explain the way why and how people use the media rather than the way media influence people (Klapper, as cited in Pornsakulvanich, 2005, p. 13).Previous research assumes that audience are actively involved in the media consumption (Rubin, Ruggiero, Severin, Tankard, Windahl, as cited in Ancu Cozma, 2009, p. 569). several(prenominal) scholars stated that the social media is pull-media in which it aims to provide information that is interest to certain audience, users have to be actively click and type to access those information. It can make user become more goal-oriented and aware in their everyday consumption (LaRose, Eastin, Lin Jeffres, as cited in Ancu Cozma, 2009, p. 569).UG theory has been applied to different types of online content due to different media fulfil different needs (Perse, Courtright, Dun, as cited in Ancu Cozma, 2009, p. 569). Online media play the same role as tel evision, tuner in order to provide entertainment, satisfaction and social interaction needs (Ferguson, Perse, Kaye, Papacharissi Rubin, as cited in Ancu Cozma, 2009, p. 569). However, there are still some differences between online media and traditional media. For example, online media enable audience to control over content. By using search engine, internet users able to search for specific issue compared to less interactive media such as television and radio (Kaye, as cited in Ancu Cozma, 2009, p. 569).Nowadays, most of the mass communication scholars point out the UG theory normally is identified to be a sub tradition of media effects research (McQuail, 1994). As Ruggiero (2000) state, the emergence of computer-mediated communication has revived the important of UG theory. Pratically, it provided a cutting edge theoretical advent at the beginning stages of each new mass communications medium such as television, radio, newspapers, and now the profit. Accoding to UG thoerry, t he audience is selective when using media and mostly is encouraged by rational self-awareness of the individuals own needs and an expectation that those needs will be satisfied by particular types of media and content (Katz, as cited in ruggiero, 2000, p. 18). Accoding to few recent researchs, it stated research who has UG involvement which focuses on more advanced communication technologies such as uses of the Internet found few gratifications, which were information seeking , entertainment and diversion, exploration and relationship building (Charney, Greenberg, Kuehn, Tewksbury, Althaus, as cited in Melanie Grellhesl, 2010, p. 24). Television and internet hold the same roles as to entertain, to provide escapism, and social interaction (Ferguson, Perse, Kaye, Papacharissi Rubin as cited in Ancu Cozma, 2009, p. 569).ExplanationIn this study, those undergraduate students are actually applying the UG approach when they are deciding to look for more information about 30-Hour Famine. Students choose the medium that could satisfy their needs to find out for information that they treasured to know about 30-Hour Famine campaign, and that they are able to recognise their reasons for making media choices by chosing social media.The uses and gratifications approach use to test how the audience uses mass media to satisfy psychological and social needs. As an actice audience, they chose their favour media based on their ability to satisfy their needs. In this study, people who are interested to be involved in charity work such as 30-Hour Famine will try to find out more information about the organization through their favour media. Most of the undergraduates students select social media to satify their need as they are active internet users.Internet is suited well to the UG approach (Kaye Johnson, as cited in Stark, 2009, p. 21). hearing is active due to the internet create a two-way communication. In this study, those undergraduate students are active audience. The re were a two- way communication when students posted comment and asked questions on the 30-Hour Famine official website, it can help students to be even more understand about the campaign. Additionally, students who were using the web will actively look out for more information about the campaign by clicking on links and using search engines, hence showing that the web is goal oriented and those undergraduates students were aware of the needs they were attempting to satisfy (Lin Jeffres, 1998, as cited in Stark, 2009, p. 21).As a conclusion, the advanced communications technology nowadays did benefits user a lof in communication. User can have have more choices to select when communicate with others, it also allowed new ways for users to communicate (Ruggiero , as cited in Melanie Grellhesl, 2010, p. 22) For example, social media is a new way for internet users to communicate with each other. By using social media, internet users able to post, view, comment anything in the interne t.