Research Question

Research Question:
To what extent has social media affected and impacted the global culture positively?

Justification:
Social media is the major method of communication in the modern society, and can
connect people from all over the world together. It also created a widespread of different
cultures, however this carries advantages and disadvantages as well. We will be
exploring the above, and in the end come to a conclusion to how great is the influence of
social media to our global culture.

Action Plan

Date Activity Timescale Modification

31/10/2016 Determining and justifying 1 period
research question
31/10/2016 Create action plan 1 period
03/11/2016 Start basic research 1 period +
homework
04/11/2016 Complete overview of 1 period
topic slide
07/11/2016 Complete explanation of 1 period
research methodology
slide
07/11/2016 Complete results and 1 period
different perspective slide
10/11/2016 Complete conclusion 1 period
11/11/2016 Finishing ppt and script 1 period
References & Bibliography
Fang, Maria, and Shaun Axani. "Whats up with Cultural Appropriation on Social
Media?"Medium. Medium, 03 Jan. 2016. Web. <https://medium.com/@mariafang/what-s-
up-with-cultural-appropriation-on-social-media-be43211c91a7#.mp0x5elbz>.

Fernandez, Maryanne. "How Has Social Media Impacted Our Culture?" Quora. Quora, 26
Nov. 2015. Web. <https://www.quora.com/How-has-social-media-impacted-our-culture>.

Fuchs, Christian. Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media. N.p.: Routledge,
2015.Google Books. Google. Web. <https://books.google.com.hk/books?
id=YnwcBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=social+media+impact+on+social
+culture&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLp-
vf34zQAhVNNbwKHTDzC0oQ6AEIJzAC#v=onepage&q=social%20media%20impact
%20on%20social%20culture&f=false>.

Lekhanya, Lawrence Mpele. Cultural Influence On The Diffusion And Adoption Of Social
Media Technologies By Entrepreneurs In Rural South Africa. 12th ed. Vol. 12. N.p.: n.p.,
2013. International Business & Economics Research Journal. The Clute Institute. The
Clute Institute, Dec. 2013. Web. <http://www.cluteinstitute.com/ojs/index.php/IBER/article/
viewFile/8250/8286>.

Murse, Tom. "Social Media in Politics - Twitter and Facebook as Campaigns

Tools."About.com News & Issues. About.com, 23 Aug. 2016. Web. <http://
uspolitics.about.com/od/CampaignsElections/tp/How-Social-Media-Has-Changed-
Politics.htm>.

Quintos, Regine. "Cultural Appropriation in Social Media." Prezi. Prezi Inc., 1 June 2016.
Web. <https://prezi.com/pmhhiqr9rxld/cultural-appropriation-in-social-media/>.

Raza, Sabahat. "Positives and Negatives of Social Media." Voice of Journalists. Voice of
Journalists, 18 May 2015. Web. <http://www.voiceofjournalists.com/positives-and-
negatives-of-social-media/>.

Sawyer, Rebecca, "The Impact of New Social Media on Intercultural Adaptation" (2011).
Senior Honors Projects. Paper 242. <http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/242>.

"Social Networking Pros and Cons: Do Social Media Make Our Lives Better?" Netivist.org.
Netivist.org, n.d. Web. <https://netivist.org/debate/social-networking-pros-and-cons>.

Ta, Jenny Q. "What Impact Has Social Media Truly Had On Society." Business 2
Community. Business 2 Community, 13 Aug. 2014. Web. <http://
www.business2community.com/social-media/impact-social-media-truly-
society-0974685#zjOr7K6wVomF1Djk.97>.
OPVL Source Evaluation
Video/Lecture - TED Title
- Imports
Origin This secondary source that I have chosen to analyse is a talk by
writer, consultant and teacher Clay Shirky on How social media
can make history. The talk was filmed back in June 2009. The
talk was by a well known organisation,TED. It is a non-profit
organisation that spreads ideas through the form of talks.
Purpose This source was created to educate audiences on the topic of
social media as well as spreading ideas to their viewers. The
author had a talk based on social media because it has made a
great impact on our modern society, this also informs and
persuades the audience that social media can impact anything
whether it is positive or negative. The talk is targeted towards
people from every age and culture that may be interested in the
various methods that social media has affected and impacted our
society both positively and negatively. The speakers opinion is not
biased since instead of taking a side of whether social media has
positively or negatively impacted the world, he insists that social
media is both a advantage and disadvantage based on crafting a
single message.
Value The origin of this source of information is valuable to somebody
researching on the impact of social media on the society because
it is easily accessible online and free for all to watch. Furthermore,
Shirky is a teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet
technologies, which provides more evidence on his talk as he
would have more knowledge and/or experience dealing on this
topic. The talk also provides graphs and diagrams to prove each
point that he lists out.
Limitation This source is somewhat limited as instead of focusing on my
research question it focuses on How social media can make
history, which even though it may both be similar with one
another as it is related to social media, it may not be able to
answer my research question. This is because while the TED talk
focuses more on creating history, my research question focuses
more on social media affecting our modern society positively.
Additionally, the talk was also from 7 years ago, as a result, the
source may not be as reliable as it was 7 years ago. This is
because there may be more information towards the topic I am
looking in to.
Overall Assessment of
your sources:
Evaluation
a) Research Question

In my opinion, I think my group came up with a good research question. This is because our
research questions explores to what extent has social media has affected the global culture
positively , therefore it isnt too broad since it is only focusing on the global culture.
Throughout this process, I have used critical thinking because I have analysed and thought
on whether or not the research question was too broad or narrow. Ive also conducted a
brief research on the topic to be sure there is information provided towards the question.
However, I think the research question could be improved by exploring both positively and
negatively of how social media has affected the global culture, since only researching about
the advantages might have been a little too narrow for the topic.

b) Sources

During the researching process, I think my group spent a decent amount of time on it. This is
because we did manage to follow our action plan, however, I think a few sources that weve looked
into and thought was useful didnt really turn out be to useful which was a main reason to why it
was a drawback, since we had to conduct more research while completing the presentation. At the
end, I think my group had a great amount of sources. The sources that we used were all
appropriate, reliable, and valid, this is because we collected information from variety of media. We
managed to look into videos, websites, online books (papers), and much more, by doing this, it
allowed us to collect information that was not biased since we collected information from more than
just one perspective. Our source evaluation was successful because while we are comparing the
evaluation, the values does outweigh the limitations.

c) Presentation
Our presentation did manage to answer our research question through using the different
perspectives that weve researched such as: minorities and millennial as well as showing the
different factors social media has impacted. In my opinion, I thought that our presentation was
interesting because we attempted to use different ways to showcase our findings. We used both
voiceovers and videos of us presenting which I thought was a creative way of showing our findings.
This is because while using a voiceover will be able to clearly hear the voice of the person
speaking, it may end up being a little boring for the audience which was the main reason behind
the reason as to why we incorporated both audio and video. Throughout the process of creating
our powerpoint, everyone in my group had taken an equal share of work. While we were all
working in different sections of the powerpoint, we all helped edit and add our own opinions and
findings on to each slide. Our presentation included all the slides that were suggested in the
assessment, however did not exactly follow the number of slides, but this was because we did not
end up having enough time to explain every single section in detail. However, I thought that my
group did a great job at balancing the time. This is because we were able to to showcase all of our
findings as well as expressing our opinions on it.

d) Reflection
While completing this project, I learned that social media has taken a huge part in shaping our
society. This could be through different aspects, whether it is economically, politically or socially.
Social media has been a great advantage because of its power to connect people and help them
stay it touch even when their on the other side of the country. It has become a well known method
for family and friends who live distant from one another to keep up with whats going on in each
others lives. On the other hand, social media has also been a negative impact as it drives people
farther away from each other. Even though it helps with communication with those who live far
away from us, it has also started to become a replacement for face-to-face interaction. Aside from
that, because people online are hiding behind a screen, it gave them the opportunity to say or do
something they would not have done in reality.
One thing I would consider changing to improve the project is probably changing the research
question just so my group and I could have done more research on both sides of the question
rather than just positively. While we did talk briefly about the negative impacts, I think it could be a
part of the research question so we could explore more on the negative side of social media as
well.
I think the best part of the work I did was the different perspective. This is because I was able to
think from another perspective which is different from what I normally think. This allowed me to
think outside of the box and rather than just writing down my own opinions, I was able to think from
another point of view which was able to give me more solid and better reasons to each point I
made.