Speaking Outline

ANNA DAVIS

Social Media, Social Identity, and Social Causes

General Purpose: To inform

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience members about how social media sites help shape their sense of identity.

Thesis Statement: Today I’d like to share with you how social media is being used, not only to help students connect, but also as a powerful tool to advance social causes and motivate us to act on their behalf.

Introduction

  1. Attention Getter: How I learned about my roommate via Facebook/Twitter
  2. School-sponsored online forums helped me connect with like-minded others.
  3. “These online connections and groups helped my college friendships develop quickly and meaningfully, and gave me a sense of belonging on campus before I even arrived.”
  4. Speech Thesis: Today I’d like to share with you how social media is being used, not only to help students connect, but also as a powerful tool to advance social causes and motivate us to act on their behalf.
    1. Preview main points
    2. Social identity theory
    3. Popularity of social media
    4. How activists harness social media

Body

  1. Social identity theory drives us to connect with others.
    1. Definition: Social identity refers to how you understand yourself in relation to your group memberships.
      1. Michael Hogg, a professor of social psychology at Claremont University
      2. Group affiliations provide us with an important source of identity, and we therefore want our groups to be valued positively in relation to other groups.
    2. Social psychologist Henry Tajfel. Group affiliations help answer the question, Who am I?
      1. Tajfel’s 1979 book The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. We associate with certain groups to help resolve the anxiety brought about by the question of identity.
    3. Social media sites provide a platform for social identity formation.
      1. “Friending” people, groups, and even brands and “liking” certain posts
      2. It’s not official until it’s “Facebook official.”
    4. Social media sites let us proclaim to the world, “This is who I am.”

Transition: Even so, rate of growth surprising.

  1. Growth rate of social media sites is astronomical.
    1. [Show slides] Marcia Clemmit’s 2010 CQ Researcher article on social networking, Facebook had over one million members in 2005—just one year after its launch.
      1. Associated Press May 2013 article put the number of active Facebook users at over 1.16 billion members. Four times the population of the United States.
    2. Shea Bennett, editor of the Mediabistro blog AllTwitter, in an October 2013 article, listed Twitter at 218 million active users in June 2013.
    3. People around the world define themselves socially and answer the question, “Who am I?” on social media sites.

Transition: Social movement organizations have taken note.

  1. Organizations of all kinds use social media to get their messages across to global consumers and spur their members into action.
    1. Princeton.edu defines social movements as “a group of people with a common ideology who try together to achieve certain general goals.”
    2. Consider Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party.
      1. Both communicate their messages and build support through social media sites, for example, link to petitions.
      2. Nonprofit organization Social Movement Technologies helps individual social movement organizations get out their message.
    3. Activists use social media to motivate like-minded people to get into the fight.
    4. Example: Austin Lee, seventeen-year-old skateboarder from St. Cloud, Minnesota, wanted a skate park.
      1. Facebook posting gathered 1,085 members to group, some even went to city council meetings.
      2. David Unze of USA Today reported that Lee won the approval—and $500,000—for his skate park (2010).

Transition/Internal Summary: Today hope I’ve shown you skyrocketing use no accident.

Conclusion

  1. Positive sense of social identity through group affiliation drives popularity of social media sites.
  2. Social media sites allow us to communicate, express, and identify with one another in ways that encourage affiliation as well as action.
  3. Remember the impact of group affiliations when you post online.

BACK TO

Neil deGrasse Tyson

image At the beginning of this chapter, we read about astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is widely respected not only as one of the foremost researchers on space but also as one of science’s most competent and enthusiastic communicators. Let’s consider how his informative presentations measure up to the concepts outlined in this chapter:

  • Tyson knows his listeners. He understands that while they are not well versed in astrophysics, they are curious about it. He makes abstract topics tangible by using familiar metaphors and examples. When speaking to an audience of fellow astrophysicists, he would not have to take such measures.
  • Tyson uses effective nonverbal communication in his presentations. He uses appropriate gestures, laughs heartily at his own jokes, moves around the stage rather than gluing himself to a podium, and uses a tone of voice that generates a casual atmosphere. His trademark vests—embroidered with images of the cosmos—indicate his enthusiasm for the subject.
  • Like everyone, Tyson has personal opinions and beliefs. But when he is speaking informatively, he limits his discussions to facts. In his discussion of the universe noted at the beginning of this chapter, for example, Tyson explains, “None of this is about ‘belief.’ It’s about ‘what does the evidence show’?” (Tyson, 2009).