These academic, peer-reviewed sources and popular sources dive deeper into the various positions covered in the online forum. These sources are also hyperlinked in each position's section of the forum.
Stop the Fake News
Academic Source:
Awan, Imran. “Cyber-Extremism: Isis and the Power of Social Media.” Society, vol. 54, no. 2, 2017, pp. 138–149., doi:10.1007/s12115-017-0114-0.
This source has in-depth information about how specifically ISIS has used Social Media in several forms to attempt to radicalize people online. It also details how they have been successful to some extent in convincing people to commit acts of terror and violence by luring them in with their social media propaganda. This is a good example of a granular view of the negative consequences of social media enabled activism.
Popular Source:
Wendling, Mike. “The (Almost) Complete History of 'Fake News'.” BBC News, BBC, 22 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42724320.
This source is a great resource for analyzing how "Fake News" has existed for a long time in many forms, and it shows how the "Fake News" currently being spread on social media platforms in fundamentally different and more effective than its previous forms. This source also gives a good chronology of how specific fake news stories develop from start to finish.
Spread the Love
Academic Sources:
Berryman, Chloe, et al. “Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults.” Psychiatric Quarterly, vol. 89, no. 2, 2018, pp. 307– 314., doi:10.1007/s11126-017-9535-6.
This source looked into the various concerns of potential negative effects of social media by longitudinally studying individuals who used social media at different rates. This study was able to conclude that many of the fears of the negative consequences of social media, specifically with activism and forming options, may be misplaced. It is a good way to look into scientific facts that oppose the views of those who think social media is a net negative influence.
Hwang, Hyesun, and Kee-Ok Kim. “Social Media as a Tool for Social Movements: The Effect of Social Media Use and Social Capital on Intention to Participate in Social Movements.” International Journal of Consumer Studies, vol. 39, no. 5, 2015, pp. 478–488., doi:10.1111/ijcs.12221.
This was a very in-depth study that looked at several motivational factors of individuals and how they relate to social media. By studying the effects of social media on motivation to participate or follow a given social movement, this study was able to analyze how social media enabled activism influenced people's views and participation in actual physical activism.
Popular Source:
Smart Social. “10 Examples on the Positive Impact of Social Media.” Smart Social, Media Leaders LLC, 17 Oct. 2018, smartsocial.com/positive- impact-of-social-media/.
This source gave ten examples of various positive impacts that social media can have, one of which was on online activism. This serves as a good reference of the various positive consequences for social media activism and social media as a whole. It as discusses various hashtag movements and the positive outcomes of them, such as the successes with bringing justice with the #MeToo movement.
Everything is Just Fine
Academic Source:
Almeida, Virgilio A. F, et al. “Whither Social Media Governance?” Ieee Internet Computing, vol. 20, no. 2, 2016, doi:10.1109/MIC.2016.32.
This study looked at different social media platforms' systems of self-governance and control of content, as well as these platforms' users' abilities to self-govern what content they shared and received. This study gave special attention to how social norms play a role in users' behavior on different social media platforms, and it suggested that social media platforms combined with their users can effectively self-govern themselves and their content without external influence.
Popular Source:
eMarketer. “Number of Social Media Users Worldwide 2010-2021.” Statista, Statista, July 2017, www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social- network-users/.
This study provided statistics on the number of people who use social media. By looking at global trends in the growth of different social media platforms, it was also able to predict the number of social media users in the coming years. This is useful for analyzing how popular social media around the world is, and the data suggests that people like social media the way it is because millions of people continue to join social media.