Week 6 Assignment: Social Media & Prejudice
Scan social media websites to find 3 posts that reflect negative stereotypes and/or prejudiced attitudes. In addition, be sure to review the article on the Facebook study and the articles on the frequency and illusory truth effects before beginning your submission.
After choosing and reviewing your social media posts, develop your paper addressing each of the bullets below for each post you include:
What platform(s) did you choose for your search and why? What are the demographics for the platform(s) you chose? What keywords did you use to search and why did you choose them? How easy or difficult was it to find posts using those keywords? How might the posts you were able to retrieve have been affected by the demographics of the platform(s) you used?
What beliefs or attitudes do you think are held by the individual posting on the platform? What are 2 psychological theories that could explain the individual’s belief? What information specifically led you to determine those attitudes and/or beliefs were present? How might the demographics of the platform affect the individual’s decision to post on the platform?
Do you think the posters would say the same thing in the same way if they were having a face-to-face discussion on this topic, why or why not? Does it matter? Did the individuals in the chosen posts use their name and/or photo or did they use a pseudonym with no photo or a photo of something other than themselves? How do you think this affected the tone or content of the post? What is a psychological theory that discusses the effect of hidden identities on public actions and deeds and how is it reflected in the post(s) you chose?
What message does the individual’s posting want the reader to come away believing about different social groups? What are 2 psychological theories that explain the individual’s desire for the reader/viewer to have that belief (theories may not be the same as those chosen previously in the paper)?
Based on the information contained in the Facebook study article and other scholarly sources discussing social media, how do algorithms affect the way that posts appear in a person’s social media feed? How does that affect who might see the posts you have chosen and other similar posts? What are some of the dangers of algorithms controlling your social media feeds in relation to the psychological concepts of frequency effect and illusory truth and the conclusions individuals might incorrectly draw?
Work should be submitted in a Word document (doc. or docx.) or other compatible word processing document (.rtf), and be 3 to 4 pages in length, excluding the required title, and abstract, reference pages, and the appendices for the copies of the social media posts.
Scholarly sources should be cited both in-text and on the reference page of the submission. A minimum of 8 academic, scholarly sources are required to be cited in the work, 6 of which MUST be peer-reviewed journal articles. Course materials may not be used to meet the peer-reviewed journal article requirement.
Submissions should be formatted per APA standards. Headings are required throughout the submission. For assistance and resources on APA formatting style, refer to the APA manual, and you may also contact the APUS library and/or the APUS writing center. *Note: the APA manual is the definitive source and guide for APA style; you may consult other sources, but that will not necessarily prevent a loss of points for incorrect/missing APA requirements.
The basic parts of a paper should be included and clearly identifiable as listed below:
A title page
An abstract that succinctly summarizes your paper
An introduction section (with a precise thesis statement whose layout is followed throughout the rest of the paper)
A paper body with clear, discernable headings
A conclusion that restates the thesis and summarizes the major points of the entire paper
A reference page
Appendices with screenshots of each of the social media posts used in the submission