Mark Zuckerberg and the Creation of Facebook

Last Updated: 31 Mar 2023
Pages: 24 Views: 68
Table of contents

Introduction

“When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. So, what we view our role as, is giving people that power.” Said by Mark Zuckerberg.

The above quotes is said by the founder of facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, an American computer scientist, software developer and philanthropist best know for creating the social networking site- Facebook.(Kroll, 2008) Despite his young age of 26, he is already a billionaire and had awarded the Time Person of The Year 2010.(Grossman, 2010)

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Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004 and operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc.(PenNameEM, 2011). It initially targeted Harvard students, but was later opened to other universities and then high schools. The website’s membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area.

It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. In 2006, Facebook allowed everyone to join and also added a News Feed feature that would broadcast changes in members’ pages to all Facebook users identified in their personal network of friends. It turned Facebook into a personalized social news service (Farlex, 2010).

Facebook has a lot of features, (Social Media Boomer, 2009) like for example; people can add friends and send the messages, messages can be sent privately or publicly. A wall which allows friends to post messages for the user to see and use can tell what he/she up to by updating his/her status update. The news feed publishes updates on every user’s homepage and computer seen by the friends of the user. Facebook notes is a blogging feature that allows text and images and some blogs can be imported and Facebook. Facebook has a chat feature which allows instant messaging to friends.

Mark Zuckerberg knew the power of social network more than anyone else and thus had created Facebook which had evolved to an essential-must-visit-site-each-day to many people all around the globe. The successful of Facebook had well enough to convey the importance of social network and had attracted a number of business people to venture the field.

As Mark Zuckerberg said, “the web is at a really important turning point right now.” More and more people had engaged in social networking, resulting with a common norm in voicing out your opinion at the website instead of in front of the public, making friends blindly and deviatory exposing your whereabouts which in terms making the individual becomes more fragile to various danger .

While on the bright side, social networking do have several advantage, It helps people to keep in touch despite geographical distances and it’s a much cheaper medium compare with the others. In short, facebook have its pros and cons, people have to aware the impact, be a smart user and not to fall prey on the downfall.

Background

Studies shows that facebook users had tremendously increase globally and how serious people get addicted to facebook.(Foster, 2010) This phenomenon had brought up both positive and negative issues. People start to realize the power of facebook politically, economically and nevertheless socially. A lot of investments from well-known people had made to the facebook company. Thus, facebook had been upgraded and had expanded to all its potential direction, and yet meets no limitations.

The website currently has more than 400 million active users worldwide. It is undeniable a huge phenomena and had affected other social website as well. At January 2009 Facebook has defeated MySpace. (TechCrunch. 2010)

Since people are become more and more attach to this particular social networking website, it somehow had stirred up some important issue to the society. Facebook has somehow crush with some rules and regulations and has been banned in some countries including Pakistan(Aljazeera,2010), Syria(Global Voices, 2010),China(Youth Radio, 2010),Vietnam (CNN. 2010), and Iran( Telegraph Media Group, 2010).It has also been banned at many places of work to discourage employees from wasting time using the service. (Facebook. 2010)

Facebook settled a lawsuit regarding claims over source code and intellectual property. The site has also been involved in controversy over the sale of fans and friends. Privacy issue had been hotly debated among the people.(Facebook. 2010) Single status updated in facebook will allow the whole network friends knew what you are up to. Nevertheless the photo album posted, strangers may happen to approach to you on the street despite the fact that you do not even know them. Stalkers issue is also a triggering phenomenon.

On the other hand, facebook had its positive side. It had been seen as a wide, rewarding potential market to the investors. Since it was a global phenomenon, international marketers utilize this fact and met its satisfying result. Advertise in facebook is also an effective way to reach target audience.

Facebook has undeniable brings double edge effect to the life of many, and thus the studies of awareness of public both positive and negative impact of Facebook will be further examined by the researcher.

Problem statement

“With the creation of Facebook in 2004, colleges and universities across the United States have been playing catch-up with students. This new technology carries much weight as a new medium for students to build social connections and grow as members of their institutions. However, this new technology also brings negative implications such as lowered GPAs when with greater use,” proclaimed by Boogart. (2004)

People may not aware of the double-sided impact of facebook in their lives. They only realize how social networking crushes them at the point where they had become the victim of social networking.

Addiction to facebook will cause a lot of problem in our lives, such as widen the gap between friends and family as one willing to stick on the computer screen rather than socializing with people around. Seriously attach to facebook will also be an obstacle in performances. One may affect productivity during office hour due to the overly attached to facebook, student’s grades may fall due to this too.

On the other hand, facebook was undeniable a convenient place to socialize and keep in touch. Do the public realize both the positive and negative impact of facebook to the society and are they the smart user or blind user of Facebook?

Objectives

The main purpose of this research is to determine the level of awareness among Malaysians regarding the impact of facebook in the life. Besides, it is also designed to identify media preference and consumption patterns of the public. Those findings will help in further effective message creations. The researcher strongly agrees that the public should have a better understanding of the double-edged impact of facebook, how it will affect their life and the potential direction/growth of facebook in the future

Research Questions

What is the role of media in creating awareness
What is the use of Facebook
What is the impact of Facebook

Significance

Social networking had been a big hit all around the world, and has undeniable becomes a necessity for people all around the world. Most of us have limited knowledge about the pros and cons of social networking and are one of the blind users who use the site for granted. Majority of the people do not dwell much on the core meaning of social networking and thus had neglected many important issues which then had cause some serious agitation both positively and negatively.

Upon all of the incidents that had happened all around facebook, it is necessary to alert the public about the double-sided effect of facebook. By listing all of the advantage and disadvantage of the impact of Facebook, It will aid in creating public’s awareness in personal security issue, social networking fraud and etc, such effort will certainly minimize the potential harm and also to brighten the horizon of the people about the emerging possibilities of facebook in various field.

Limitation

The first obstacle face during the research will be the individual’s bias. As the research is about the double edge impact of Facebook, predictable and unavoidable incidents such as intensive individuals will hold tight with their own perspective and will defy the oppositional view of it. For example, a Facebook supporter will always stand on his/her ground and strongly oppose the negative sides of Facebook, and oppositional, Facebook hater will always discriminates Facebook despite the advantages it brings. Fair and just opinion from both oppositional sides is critical in aiding the accuracy of the research.

The next obstacle will be the sampling issue. Although everyone seems to be able to access to the Internet, there will still be minority of them whom are not familiar with the site. Have to be assure that the target sample is in alignment with the objective. Age range is important too due to the perspective and values holds are different along with age growth. Penetrating observation and estimation of the target sampling is essential in order to obtain accurate outcome of the research.

Besides, another problem that has to be deal is the potential fraud/dishonesty responses from the target audience. They might want to please the researcher and distort their very own opinion or are afraid to voice their perspective out. Therefore, it is crucial to explain to them that the above survey is highly confidential and for educational purpose only before spreading out the questionnaire to them.

Literature Review

The Role of Media

According to the journal “Role of media to engage the masses in water debates and Practices” by Shahzad (2008, p.2), the media is crucial in disseminating news, development facilitator and the agent of change in today’s times. Mass media is essential in creating awareness of various issues as to shape publics’ perception and opinion, particularly with reference to environment issue. Public escalating attachment to the information technologies had aid the growth of the importance of mass media. (Shahzad and Paquistani, 2008, p.2)

Media coverage does influence social flow. Shahzad and Paquistani (2008, p. 5) argue that in their recent coverage of the poor quality of water and sanitation facilities in public hospitals of twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, they are able to attract federal health minister and the NGO to take action and had solved the above problem. Their media coverage had inspired and moved the authorities to install the filtration plant. It shows that media is playing a crucial role in conveying the message to various parties and inspire changes.

Dorji (n.d, p.1) claim that communication is always the primary elements in society, especially in this era called “satellite communication”; mass media has indeed a necessity in human existence. Information and knowledge is being exchange through communication and with the advance technology, distance and other boundaries had been overcome. Various mass media had aid in communication among people all around the world, so as to globalization.

According to Menon (1981) (cited by Alahari, 1997) in the journal “Attitude towards Mass Media and its role in promoting Environment Consciousness” by Tshering Dorji , the function of mass media had been upgraded to serve a wider coverage at a faster pace worldwide. This indeed has helped the media to reach a wider audience. Moreover, media assists people all around to world to interact and connect with each other. (Dorji, n.d)

According to the journal “Attitude towards Mass Media and its role in promoting Environment Consciousness” by Tshering Dorji, it had provided evidence that the media did influence in peoples’ decision making. The more one’s expose to media, the more he/she will be affected by the media. According to the above case study, it stated that mass media has a potential power in fostering a kinship for environmentalism. For instances, mass media had reinforced the links between the environment preservation and culture heritage in Bhutan

Characteristic of Social networking Sites

According to the report ‘Social Computing: Study on the Use and Impact of Online Social Networking’ by Romina Cachia, there are generally 6 characteristics of SNS, which are (1)presentation of oneself: a profile page; (2)externalization of date: viewing and sharing information; (3) new ways for community formation: communicate through various digital objects; (4) Bottom-up activities: idea platform for user to gathered; (5) ease of use: homepages are easy to create and development; and lastly (6) reorganization of Internet geography: removed geographic barrier. Nevertheless, SNS has drastically changes our way of communication.

Differences between Social Networking Sites

Different website serves different people and attracts different types of users despite their similarity of SNS. Like for example, ‘MySpace’ was generally used by musician; YouTube links people through videos; Flickr links people through pictures and etc. (Cachia, 2008)

While on the other hand, Friendster was been utilized to get in touch with old friends and had attracted many youth due to its innovation. MySpace too was created based on that platform but had soon evolved into more of a music platform. On 2004, Flickr which had became known for its dynamic platform for sharing photos was emerged due to the popularity of SNS photo sharing. (Cachia, 2008) And up to date, Facebook with its massive of active users is the one most successful SNS.

Cachia argues that the simplicity and ordered profiles has contributed to Facebook’s successfulness. The vast number of application too has added in fun aspect to Facebook users. The ‘wall’ which allow user to post pictures, comment and link is also another factor that lead its popularity among the public.

Use of Facebook

Boogart (2004) argues that majority use Facebook to stay in touch with high school friends. He founds out only 21.1% of people use Facebook to connect to college peers. Boogart (2004) also states that demographic play a role in defining the user and usage. Women and students are two large populations whom are the active Facebook users. According to him, one will feel more connected to people if he/she use Facebook more frequently. These trends had further extended the addiction of students towards Facebook. Simply put, the more one engages on Facebook the more addicted one would perceive themselves to be.

According to the findings by Joinson (2008), he generally found out that people use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, social surveillance, re-acquiring lost contacts, to communicate by writing on wall or private message, sharing pictures, perpetual contact meaning just to find out people’s status, making new friends and simply because it is easy to use.

Besides, according to Joinson (2008), social network serves as social an emotional support, information resources and ties to some people. Lampe et al. (2006) (cited by Joinson, 2008) states that there’s a differences in ‘social searching’ and ‘social browsing’ in Facebook. Social searching is to find out more information about someone offline while social browsing is an act uses Facebook to further develop a relationship.

Lampe et al. (2006) (cited by Joinson, 2008) also notes social networking sites such as Facebook serves as a surveillance function, where by user is constantly updated about their friends and family, the groups where they belonged.

Impact of Facebook (Positive and Negative)

Positive Impact

According to the journal “Lessons from Facebook: The Effect of Social Network Sites on College Students’ Social Capital” by Kee, Park and Valenzuela (2008), Facebook can aid in unify the community. For example, collective action can be called up common interests groups. Facebook can aid in fostering trust and norms by constantly exchanging opinions and views among users.

Boogart (2004) indicates that Facebook had help to university administrators to connect with students in Campus. It helps them to feel ‘less stranger’ on the school ground and constantly help them to keep in touch with one another and school activities as well.

According to Merritt (2008) (cited by Kee et al., 2008) Facebook no doubt is a social network sites that allow the users to deliver shared, relevant information, a place for exchanging ideas and thus had fulfill many of the promises of civic journalism.

Besides, it is crucial for the media to help citizens to stay connected with the society especially in the time of damaged credibility in public institutions according to Rutigliano (2007) (cited by Kee et al., 2008). Ultimately, it had assist journalist and traditional news organizations in gaining lessons on how to reach individuals, especially young adults from the social network.

Social networking can reduce relationships’ gap for those who are being apart by distances according to Thompson (2009). It brings them together despite the physical separation.

According to Vocus (n.d), it stated that one have to understand the potential of social media can bring. Social media had removed the possible barriers one company has towards its audience, it aid in spreading the intended information, generate sales leads, gauge customers satisfaction and increase brand recognition. The social media has indeed provides the tools and tactics for a company and prove its value.

Facebook help in creating social awareness among people, Facebook users will ultimately been updated by various news posted by their friends, making them aware of the incidents that had recently occurred and as well provide them a better understanding of things (Sagi, 2011) Facebook has help in increasing environment sensitivity among the user despite their hectic lifestyle.

Negative Impact

According to the thesis “Uncovering the Social Impacts of Facebook on a College Campus” by Boogart (2004), there is a significance relationship between heavy use of Facebook and lower GPA among students.

Although Facebook was created to have a positive impact in person to person communication, studies show that it could have a harmful effect according to Thompson (2009). Facebook was first been used as a way for liked minded students to share their life experiences and keep in touch. But it too had reduced the real connection in reality, the interpersonal connection between people. It is like an escapist experience and had displaced the real interaction to an alternative cyber world.

According to the journal “Facebook Games by Design have a Negative Social Impact” (The University of Melbourne, 2010), Facebook games had causes problems such as addiction to internet, decreasing sociability, mis-education to children and fall in productivity among people. Facebook games can lead players distracted and addicted as well. The addiction should be categorized as mental disorder to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders according to Block J. (2008) (cited by The University of Melbourne, 2010), an American Journal of Psychiatry editorial writer.

In addition, Facebook games are easy to be accessible in nature. It runs almost in every modern computer which allows nearly everyone to be able to play them. The game itself is designed to be addictive too; the in-game award system had leaded the players to further enhance their desire to accomplish the goal of the game (The University of Melbourne, 2010). Besides the game have a negative impact on the young. Facebook games such as Texas Poker has indeed encouraged the young user to be involved in gambling.

Moreover, according to the journal “Facebook Games by Design have a Negative Social Impact” (The University of Melbourne, 2010), it stated that Facebook games causes degradation in academic achievement among the students. Students spend more time on Facebook rather than revising their works. Besides, it lowers the work productivity of office workers as well.

Williams and Gulati (2008) argue that using Facebook to hold an online campaign is a non-significant, near zero impact on vote share only due to those candidates who made little effort to cultivate a social network presence and put together it into their campaign strategy. Additionally, campaign supporter in Facebook is hardly to be defined. The amount of the supporter is either the real things or just a hoax created by the candidates themselves.

Theory Applied

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Uses and Gratifications Theory applied in this research. As cited in Chasse and Jenkins (n.d, p2), West and Turner (2005) stated that Uses and Gratifications Theory implies that “people actively seek out specific media and specific content to generate specific gratifications” and also to explain people’s involvement and need for media. According to the article “The role of theories in Uses and Gratifications studies (1979)”, by Blumer, there are six types of audience activity (Bulmer, 1979)

Firstly, people tend to use media to accomplish their task, like for example in this case; most of our respondents use Facebook to connect to their long lost friends.

The second type is intentionality, where use of media is decided by the motive. Respondents’ use of Facebook was difference from one another; their intention behind their impulse can be listed from the purpose of entertainment to socialize as well as other reason.

Thirdly, selectivity, whereby the choice of media reflects the existing interest. People can always choose other media besides Facebook to stay in connect with their friends, there must be significance behind every action they did. The attachment of public towards Facebook too has its own explanation.

Fourthly is to influence, whereby people create own meaning from media content. Different media serve different purposes and effect and people in return decide what to absorb from the media and how the media will influence them. Facebook is convenient in every ways, whether to connect friends from a thousand miles away or to exchange pictures taken shortly ago. The beneficial of Facebook ultimately will have its own meaning to different individuals.

Fifthly, fifth is activity, which means what people use media for. Like for instance, people listens to radio for the timeliness news and hits music, watch television for TV drama, and etc.

Lastly, the activeness, meaning the freedom of the audience in involving. Public involved themselves more in forum or chat room that is found in the internet for the reason that the amount of freedom of participating in such activity is being granted.

Media System Dependency Theory

According to Maxian (2009), Media System Dependency theory in microscopic level is defined as “a relationship in which the capacity of individuals to attain their goals is contingent upon the information resources of the media system.” Those information resources can be categorized as the ability to create and gather, process, and disseminate information.

While in the macro level, the theory is define as the social perspective if the greater increasing people become more dependent on the media, the impact of the media will rise and role of media in society will become more central. Facebook had already been globalization and many of us have been active users itself. The impact of Facebook in our lives can be seen in many prospects. Maxian also proposed that the media is very powerful as it controls every information or resources that needed by the people to achieve their informational goals.

As cited in Maxian (2009), Ball-Rokeach (1998) described that individuals are assumed to function along three main dimensions in the relation between individual and media dependency; which are goal, referent, and intensity.

The goal dimension refers to the motivation of people to achieve their informational goals through the information that provided by the media. For example, people will seek information from media to reduce their stress, entertainment, as well as for self and social understanding. They also use media information as a guide on their daily interaction and situation faced. Facebook serves as many purposes for the public. Many of them claimed that they use Facebook for entertainment, to socialize, to kill times and to escape reality. Those intentions will further push the user to continue to stick on Facebook.

Next will be the referent. The referent dimension refers to the number of media that the people used at once to accomplish his/her goal. For example, a person who is seeking information for his/her assignment will use various media such as newspapers, television, Internet and etc to complete his/her task.

Finally, the intensity dimension refers to the extent of intensity of media used by an individual to achieve informational goal. For instances, if a media source such as the Internet provide the most and best information for people, the dependency of the Internet will be more intense in terms or achieving that informational goal. This can be explained the phenomenon of the addiction towards Facebook by the majority. People had found out what they can do in Facebook and how it had satisfied them in serving their own purpose, thus had strengthen their independency towards Facebook.

Research Design

Quantitative research method will be employed in this study. There are two major types of surveys, descriptive and analytical (Wimmer & Dominick, 2006) a descriptive survey is to explain current conditions and attitudes at the moment, while the analytical survey is to explain why the situation exists. Apparently, descriptive survey will be fully utilized in this study to check on the awareness of the public about the double-edged effect of Facebook.

The reason Quantitative research method is being employed in this study is because it is handy in every aspects to the researcher. Firstly, it helps the researchers to determine the exact situation; roots of the problem and behavior pattern can be defined. Usage of Facebook and public opinion on it can be well evaluated through quantitative research.

Secondly, its economic friendly since the researcher do not have the sufficient amount of money to conduct other research method. Since this is a University assignment, researcher had no financial support to conduct the research. As such, quantitative is the most convenient and cost effective way to help the researcher her findings.

Thirdly, quantitative research method is able to provide a better insight of the situation examined, again, usage of Facebook, media preferences of the public, demographics etc can be collected too.

Fourthly, it is convenient and flexible; it can be conduct everywhere within the target compound. The researcher does not have to undergo complicated situation yet still able to get the accurate outcome.

And lastly, there is numerous information that had already exist available for the researcher to use as primary sources or secondary sources. The positive and negative of social network had been hotly debated by various journalist on the past decade, this as well had save the researcher a lot time and had provide the researcher a better guidelines to finish the assignment.

Population and Sampling

According to Wimmer & Dominick (2006), population is a group of subjects, variables, concepts, or phenomena; an entire class or group is investigated in some cases. The population is this study will be the staff and students of Utar Kampar.

It is impossible to cover the whole population of Utar Kampar, thus a sample will be selected. Sample is a subset of the population that is representative of the entire population (Wimmer & Dominick, 2006). Through this study, 100 respondents age 18 and above will be randomly selected to complete the questionnaires. Location will be targeted at several hotspots in Utar: Block C, Block G, Cafeteria and other crowded places, not to forget via online too.

The reason staff and students are being chosen as the targeted respondents is because they are familiar with the social networking site, Facebook and their lifestyle, media consumption are aligned with the study. Thus, by choosing the right criteria, the researcher believes that it will aid in finding the accurate outcomes of this study.

Instrumentation

Questionnaire will be utilized in this study by the researcher due to the excessive amount of questions can be asked and answer can be obtained on spot from a huge sample.

The survey in this case study consists of three types of questions: (1) open-ended questions, which require the respondents to voice out their own opinion, give them freedom in answering questions and an opportunity to provide in-depth responses; (2) close-ended questions, a list of answer will be provided in which respondents can choose from; (3) likert-scale question, where by the respondent can be able to choose their answer based on the extent of their opinion, for example “strongly agree”, “neutral”, or “disagree.”

Overall, the survey consists of five parts. The first part will be the demographic part in which require the respondents to answer some basic information such as gender, age and education background.

The second part will be answering the research question: what is the role of media in creating awareness on the impact if Facebook, where by the researcher can get in-depth information about the respondents’ perception of media.

The third part is to investigate the reason people attached to Facebook and will also question them about the impact of Facebook brings.

The forth part consists of two sections, each of them study about positive impact and negative impact of Facebook. Respondents who agreed with the statement that there’s a double sided effect of Facebook in our lives will have to answer both section, and those who choose either one of the impact will be responsible solely to the chosen section. By categorizing the respondents in such ways, the researcher will have a better understanding of the perceptions of the majority towards the impacts of Facebook in their lives.

The fifth part will be asking the respondents about their opinion alerting the public about the impact of Facebook and which media will yield the wildest effect in creating public’s awareness of the relative issues.

Data Collection

Survey will be collected at once after the respondents had completed it. There will be a direct interaction between the interviewer and interviewee. As such, the interviewer can be able to help the respondents if they do no understand the survey.

The researcher will be using two kinds of methods to collect the surveys, mall interviews (on-spot interviews) and internet surveys. Mall interviews are a quick and inexpensive way to collect personal information (Wimmer & Dominick, 2006). And of course the mall mentioned is referring to the crowded places found within the University’s compound during peak hours.

The second method is the Internet surveys. According to Wimmer & Dominick (2006), the process of internet survey is very simple, surveys will send out and completed via email. This method undeniable saves cost and is environment friendly.

The survey had been completed in one week time, starting from 14th March 2011 to 20th March 2011.

Data Analysis

According to Wimmer & Dominick (2006), statistics are mathematical methods to collect, organize, summarize, and analyze data. The researcher will use descriptive statistics to convert the huge amount of data into a much understandable and meaningful method. The researcher will present the data by using pie chart and bar chart, together with details description and explanation.

Figure 2.8 denotes that 85% of respondents stated that the information/news from the media will certainly affect their attitude and behavior and had given their reason about it. They said it was because the message media brings is very persuasive and always is the truth of fact. Moreover, the media helped them to gain a better insight of things and lead them to wider perceptions of seeing things.

Besides, the succeed of Shahzad and Paquistani (2008) using media to influence the attitude of the authority has it solid astand for the above statement.

The remaining 15% of respondents’ behavior or attitude will not change by the media was because they found out the media is not a reliable source and some of them actually did not care about it.

In sum, A lot of the information gained from the media inevitably will influence publics’ behavior.

According to figure 3.0, 24% of respondents used facebook for both entertainment purpose and socialize. Another 21% claimed that the reason they used Facebook was because of the peer’s pressure while 16% was to kill times. Remaining 15% of the respondents affirmed that they were merely following the trend.

West and Turner (2005) (cited by Chasse and Jenkins, n.d,) stated that Uses and Gratifications Theory implies that “people actively seek out specific media and specific content to generate specific gratifications” and also to explain people’s involvement and need for media. Facebook served different purpose for different people.

Majority of the respondents had claimed that they used Facebook mainly for entertainment and to socialize. Again, the hectic lifestyle had make Facebook as an entertainment spread like a wildfire among the public. Insufficient time to socialize with one another can now be solved through Facebook.

Discussion and Conclusion

Discussion

The researcher has been able to identify RQ1: the role of media in creating awareness. By referring to the findings (Q4), it can be presumed that most people use media for the purpose of entertainment, followed by surveillance. This is quite a norm to the society as people nowadays are busy in fulfilling their material life and thus do not have the ample time to do other things. Media, in such way has provided the public the best solution to be entertained and so as to be updated on various things. As such, people are gradually influenced by the media (Shahzad and Paquistani, 2008, p5).

According to the findings of question 5, the role of media in creating awareness can be by constantly educating the public about relative issues, in this case is about the awareness of the public on the double sided effect of Facebook, is believes to have the widest effect in alerting the public. This shows that media have the power to influence and shape the public opinion. Shahzad and Paquistani (2008, p.2), also argue that media is essential in creating awareness to shape publics’ perception and opinion.

Covering relative news to aware the public is also another way for the media to influence public. Truth fact is most likely credible and thus will motivate public to change. As stated by Shahzad and Paquistani (2008, p. 5), media coverage does influence social flow. Their coverage of the poor quality of water and sanitation facilities in public hospitals of twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are able to attract federal health minister and the NGO to take action and had solved the above problem.

Findings from question 6 states that most people found news from media is trustworthy and are aware of the latest issues broadcasted by the media (Q8). Such dependence to the media had prove that media plays an important role in them. Media has indeed become an necessity in the society (Dorji ,n.d, p.1).

The level of public’s dependency towards media and the effect of it to the society found in research question 11, which is high in dependency has nevertheless establishes the claims of media dependency theory. The level of dependency of media will directly affect the role of the media in the society, the greater they rely on it, the superior media will be (Maxian , 2009).

Next, the researcher is able to classify answers of RQII: What is the use of Facebook in part III of the questionnaire. People used Facebook for different purposes, such as ranking from the highest to the lowest according to the findings of question 13: entertainment, to socialize, to blend in the society’s trend and etc. User and gratification theory states that people seek specific media to generate specific gratification and thus explain their use and need for media (Chasse and Jenkins, n.d, p.2).

Majority agree that Facebook has become a necessity in peoples’ lives (Q5). Again, media dependency theory stated that the superior the media get, the powerful it will have its impact on the society (Maxian, 2009), which had been aligned with the findings. Many had agreed with the statement that there’s a double sided effect of facebook in our lives (Q18).

Part IV of the questionnaire is been designed to find out the answer for RQIII: What is the impact of Facebook. Both positive and negative impact will be scrutinized thoroughly. The potential of social media can bring is wide and effective in publicity according to Vocus (n.d), hence it is in line with the researcher’s findings which the respondents agree that Facebook aid in publicity (Q21). Facebook is able to reach a larger market regardless the location and financial. It is the most cost-effective to promote one’s company or product.

Many had agreed that Facebook help them to keep in touch with friends (Q20). According to Thompson (2009), social networking can help in reducing the gap between relationships, whereby many of the respondents agreed as well. Constantly keep in touch with friends and families that are being apart help smoothen a relationships and will perhaps diminish the potential conflict between them.

In addition, on the negative sides, many had agreed that Facebook causes degradation of studies (Q23). Boogart (2004) also stated that there is a significance relationship between heavy use of Facebook and lower GPA among students. Students had spent most of their time playing Facebook and therefore had neglected their studies. The Facebook game too had contributed to the above matters (The University of Melbourne, 2010).

Moreover, most of the respondents states that Facebook will induce lower work productivity (Q23). The University of Melbourne (2010) do suggest that addiction to internet, decreasing sociability will aid in the fall in productivity among people.

As for people busying building and maintaining their relationship via cyber world, the real relationship and interaction in the reality consequently will be hinder. About 22% of the respondents are consent of it (Q23). Thompson (2009) asserts that many had displaced the real interaction to an alternative cyber world.

Based on the findings in question 24, faked Id, online fraud and hacker issues had been also hotly debated by the public. People no longer feel secure while online because they never know the source of their information. Online campaign is been categorized as a non-significant compare to the real campaign (Williams and Gulati, 2008). The information and the amount of the supporters are impossible to be defined.

Majority of the respondents strongly agree that media should aware the public of the double sided effect Facebook brings. They knew the how Facebook can help in one life and to destroy one’s as well. Therefore, media such as newspaper, TV, radio, Internet campaign, etc must play their role to alert the public.

Conclusion

Assessing the importance of media in raising public’s awareness on the double-edged of Facebook is the primary objective in this study. This research also aims to determine the media role in society as well as to understand the impacts Facebook has towards the society. A total of 28 survey questions regarding public perception towards the importance of media role and the impacts of Facebook were studied. Research has shown that media is mainly serve as an entertainment, followed by surveillance, social interaction and personal identity.

Researcher found out most of the respondents agree that media is a trustworthy source and had strongly relied on them. They trusted information from the internet more than news from newspaper as they believe that newspaper was in favor of the politicians. News and information from media poses a great power since they had the ability to alter, shape and influence public decision making.

In addition, researcher is acknowledged that most of the respondents are active Facebook user and they agree that Facebook has become a necessity in peoples’ lives. They do aware of the double sided effect Facebook brings.

The researcher had obtained the percentage of various positive and negative impacts facebook had from the survey questionnaires in which had provide the researcher about the perceptions of the public towards Facebook.

Meanwhile, the researcher found out the negative news of Facebook will affect the use of Facebook among Facebook user. This shows that majority of Facebook user is still a smart user rather than a blind user.

Lastly, researcher also gained an understanding about public opinion on whether the media should alert the public about the double sided effect of Facebook. Public has come in agreement that media plays an extremely important role in creating awareness. Internet has the best effect in alerting according to the findings.

In short, this study is helpful in conveying important information on the impacts of Facebook. As a result, it has provided the researcher with a clearer understanding on the importance of media in creating awareness.

Cite this Page

Mark Zuckerberg and the Creation of Facebook. (2019, Apr 05). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/mark-zuckerberg-an-american-computer-scientist-software-developer-and-philanthropist/

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