In this weeks flip lecture, we were asked to watch the Four Corners documentary, “Generation Like”, which discusses the phenomena that is social media, and how it can be harnessed by young people, and professionals alike.

The questions we were asked to respond to were:

How does this documentary alter your understanding of the way you use social media?

What ideas does this documentary raise in regards to the event your group is planning and the task of achieving participatory engagement?

One of the most interesting things I took away from this documentary was how social media can be, and is, harnessed by companies and businesses worldwide. The section of this film which I found most interesting was the one with Ian Somerhalder and his social media manager. Getting an insight into how they work and schedule posts and “events” was very interesting. Getting an insight into how much information they are privy to was also very interesting, such as what other companies and products people who like something (such as Ian Somerhalder) also like, and how this can be used to help companies join together and build partnerships.

This documentary helped me develop more ideas in regard to the the event we are planning for this subject. One of the ideas I got from this documentary was creating a schedule or calendar of things we are going to post to social media and when we are going to do it, as well as tracking the response to these posts. By planning in advance, we will allow ourselves to have a clearer idea understanding of both what we are posting and how these are being received by our intended audience.