Conclusion

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CONCLUSION CONCLUSION

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CONCLUSION

The popularity of social media has significantly increased over recent years, due to notable advancements in technology and the extension of functions these online platforms provide for not only young individuals but for a wider range of age groups, such as for entertainment, social/political, retail and educational purposes. Due to social media being a prominent trend within current societal norms the way in which individuals engage with content is required to be critically reviewed and key trends acknowledged to effectively uncover behavioural patterns and specific monitory options that are available. Whereby, the overall purpose of the implemented consultation strategy was to gain a greater understanding into these rapidly evolving trends and further assess the process and purpose of regulation by the social media platforms. This was successfully achieved via a rigorous engagement process that included initial secondary research via a Communication Collateral data set, “retweeting” related posts on Twitter and additionally collating primary data through the execution of a questionnaire and online in-depth interviews. The overall purpose and conclusions of each method are summarised below:

Twitter: Collectively we were tasked with exploring the content that is available on Twitter that specifically related to our area of study. A vast pool of articles, videos and general posts that were primarily opinion based were uncovered. The collation of content thus enabled the assessment of varying opinions both locally and internationally regarding the current debate surrounding social media censorship, freedom of speech and fake news. This was an effective exercise as it allowed us to assess varying perspectives on this controversial discussion and further compare these statements and judgements against the primary data that was later compiled through the engagement process.

Questionnaire: A total of 100 questionnaires were collected as a means to uncover the community’s view on social media censorship. This was achieved by a series of nine targeted questions that sought to reveal one’s personal experiences with interacting with social media platforms and their expectations/views on how and who should be responsible for monitoring these online applications in the future. For example, the data revealed that 90% of surveyed participants were not aware of who actually regulated and monitored the content that is displayed on such platforms. This is identified as being a really concerning number as it suggests that many have a limited understanding on the governing procedures behind the content that is presented on social media.

In-Depth Interviews: Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted on the 14th December 2021 and unlike the circulated questionnaires the interviews were deliberately designed to extract key insights and opinions in regards to social media censorship and encourage one to elaborate on their specific concerns in relation to the operation and regulation of these online platforms. Whereby, the interviews were strategically structured to uncover their behavioural patterns when using social media, their attitude and opinions and finally their overall knowledge. The data that was collected from their twelve thirty-minute interviews were rich with insight and were a valuable asset that were utilised to achieve the overarching aim and purpose of the consultation strategy. For example one of the major themes that surfaced during the evaluation of the interview content was that many of the participants were of the opinion that there are many unnecessary reporting instances currently evolving online which is significantly hindering our freedom of speech.

Furthermore, following the completion of the above data collection methods it is believed that an in-depth understanding of the existence and one’s interaction with censorship on social media platforms was successfully attained. While the collated information has identified themes that require further investigation, as a whole the engagement process is acknowledged as appropriately responding to the underlying objectives of the report.