The Influence of Media on Charities
The media is no doubt a marvel of technological advancement in this day and age. The influence it has on social culture and behavior is one that cannot be compared to many other forms of influence in society and it has grown into an industry in most countries. Charities can embrace social media to make emotional connections. Due to the effectiveness and the efficiency of social media, charity organizations have got a forum to showcase their charitable work as well as connect with the supporters.
Impact of Social Media on UK Charities
Research indicates that UK charitable organizations have a huge following to the extent that some even double their supporters on key social media channels. However, for some charity organizations, the broadness of social media has kept them off without wanting to venture into. It is worthwhile to note that charities do rely on the public support and therefore they have a need of finding new ways to reach out to their supporters, financiers, and even volunteers. This paper seeks to delve into the Clare Foundation and how it uses social media to reach out to the potential subscribers. Its job description entails, developing an appropriate approach on encouraging charitable organizations to come up with well-designed commercial methods, business expertise, as well as entrepreneurism to the voluntarily sector.
Analog and Digital Communication in Media
The media is no doubt a marvel of technological advancement in this day and age. The influence it has on social culture and behavior is one that cannot be compared to many other forms of influence in society and it has grown into an industry in most countries. There are millions of people employed in the industry and are its stakeholders. There exist forms of communication within the media that enable whatever is being transmitted to go to the listener or recipient of information. These are analog and digital communication. Analog communication in media refers to the method of transmitting data in a way that uses continuous signals to transmit. The data transmitted includes voice or audio, video, images, and electrons. It includes conventional radio as we know it, telephonic and old television transmissions. The analog signal is usually a variable signal that does not stop at whatever time. It is also continuous in amplitude and is carried by the involvement of modulation.
Utilizing Social Media for Charities
Charities need to utilize social media in order to catch up with commercial businesses. Given its diverse following, social media provides an effective medium for the charities to build their support base, to boost their donations through getting financiers, sharing of the success stories, networking with the like-minded organizations and even come up with a better working relations, it offers a platform to recruit new volunteers, encouragement of new members to sign-up for the campaigns, and finally it can serve to showcase the impact of their work in the contemporary world. Utilization of platforms like Facebook and Twitter will go a long way in reaching the youthful generations that form the largest number of the followers. There is 80% of the 18-24-year-olds and 73% 25-34-year-olds using Facebook and Twitter respectively.
Choosing the Right Social Media Platform
The choice of a social media platform is informed by the intention of the charity. For instance, LinkedIn normally serves the professional groups whereas Facebook tends to target the younger generation on a large-scale and does not have a limitation. Nevertheless, charities should not restrain themselves to only using social media and avoiding the traditional methods of conveying their message, platforms like print, magazines, and even direct mails play a vital role in not only reaching their supporters, but also increasing the support base to even the age group that is not active on Facebook and Twitter. For charities to operate well in this platform, they must be privy to the following, for them to establish a formidable campaigning strategy, they must be well aware that most of the youths like connecting with their peers. Therefore, they must design their campaigns based on age groups using the language that appeals to them. Social media accounts for the charities must be active since no one will be willing to follow an account that is dormant. The charities should be in a position to disseminate news content, stay active, and should update the information on a regular basis.
The Impact of Media on Education
Charities need to understand the impact of the media on social aspects such as politics, education, and economics. Organizations specialized on a certain field need to be fully-aware of what kind of media to embrace. For instance, the radio is a tool that is used to disseminate useful information as regards education and entertainment among other news. On entertainment, the media can inform a consumer that a certain classy phone has been released to the market and this would prompt the buyer to go look for it. At the same time, the media shines an exposing light on for example someone who wants to hold a position of influence in the school or its board, they can also do an expose or an investigative story of how funds are being run at the school and at the same tells the public at times on the best way forward as regards the same. It is no secret that in most cases what people hear or see in the media is believed to be true no matter what the reality is. People get offended when the media gives misleading information and during the times it highlights wrongs of the education sector.it also reports on the high performers in every field of education, from televising graduation ceremonies and speeches at times and placing adverts to entice new students into joining the educational institutions. these are all positions of influence of the media on education and its policies.
Engaging with Supporters through Social Media
In addition, social media offers charity organizations a platform to enter into a two-way communication and it is easy now to engage with a large group of people within a very short period of time. For instance, the Clare foundation Twitter account is able to highlight the benefits that the residents can reap through the engagements they get from the potential tenants. Through these engagements, they get to sign up new charity organizations that they could not even think of reaching. Notably, a text, on the page of any charitable organization can rely information, however, posting of a picture or a video-clip can bring out the human reactions and in return keeping the charity alive. The choice of language and the medium therefore plays a vital role in showcasing any charity. The rationale of language and mass media is that it prepares the students to be innovative, to analyze and make sense of the content being disseminated, as well as becoming more informed and critical thinkers.
