Exmouth House Social

Having been given the opportunity to have work experience in Social Media at Specialmoves, Tempero and Mint, I didn’t know what to expect; Social Media is a broad topic which looks at various aspects such as social networks and newspaper articles. Before I knew so little but now I know so much.

The week mainly consisted of workshops educating us on how social media is managed; that’s how I became more familiar with the term “moderation” in terms of media. Other than setting up rooms for workshops and helping to clear up with Emma and Lindsay (which I strangely enjoyed) I learnt how forums are kept under control and what skills moderators much have to successfully control them. It’s something that people, especially young people, don’t take much notice of; so much hard work is put into managing social networks (in particular) and keeping everyone safe that people don’t realise how vital it is to stick to the guidelines – only making moderators jobs harder.

Despite this, I see their job as something exciting, a chance to see people’s opinions and how the general public react to major events; such as deaths of celebrities. It can be a very emotional job but something to look forward to.

I saw just how controversial issues on Social Media bring complications to managing Social Networks; things like sexism can cause so much traffic. I went to the “women in a room” event, which looked at how women are seen on the Internet”: opinions that are not respected but downgraded, according to Laurie Penny. This got me thinking; I have never experienced a situation like that (and hopefully I won’t) but it opened my eyes. So much goes on, on the Internet that I couldn’t possibly imagine. I didn’t think that women could still be degraded and face abuse (possibly due to my naivety). It was a shocking realisation but it is reality.

I gained so much out of the week that I didn’t expect I would – it was far more enjoyable than I thought it would be. It’s got me excited about Social Media in general and could be a possible career choice! I especially had fun experimenting with the visual parts of  writing this blog!