Blog Post #7 – Jody Vance

After reviewing Jessie’s interview with Jody Vance, who is the first woman sports broadcaster in primetime in Canadian history, her stories are really encouraging. She spreads positive attitude through inspiring females to search for opportunities in social related workplace and to maintain self characteristics whenever you are, as a veteran storyteller. She seized opportunities to expand her personal learning network (PLN) and recognized Larry Gifford, who brought her into the broadcast area. Even though her mother told her “the sky is limit”, she still climbed up to realize her dream and became the first woman to host a sports show in Canada. She spoke about the benefit of constructing a PLN which provides connections to finding a career. As my HINF professor says, she encourages us to use LinkedIn, which is an employment-oriented online service, and to chat with the corporation’s manager about the latest career information and self plan to seek for more co-op positions. That’s the value of building PLN, besides gaining more educational knowledge. 

The basic function of PLN is to connect others and expand one’s knowledge and network through interactions. Even though notable individuals utilize PLN much in the same way ordinary ones would use it, their advantages are apparent. As many benefits of using social media, notable individuals should always mention their tone of voice and attitude. It can help them to promote social influence, grow business, and connect individuals in different fields. Since notable individuals have been under public attention, their claims and behaviors are more influential and could reach out to a large group of audience. I would argue that though supposedly they are fully responsible for their personal social media accounts, I consider these accounts public. These personal accounts are often used to promote personal and corporate interests for commercial and political reasons. Taking the example of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is famous for ‘tweeting’. He used twitter to deliver political messages, from a wide range of domestic political events to diplomatic relationships, In Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism, Hirst states that traditional forms of media suffer a declination as the new media emerges. Trump’s use of twitter maintained public focus and benefited himself in achieving political goals. However, Hirst also mentions that new media faces the problem of credibility because of the freedom granted to it. When Trump used Twitter to denounce his political enemy, the public should really reconsider his claim and testify its credibility. 

Reference:

Hirst, M. (2018). Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism (1st ed.). Routledge. Retrive from https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.4324/9781315401263