Impact of American Media Law
Communication has been made easy and fast by the use of social and digital media. However, the American media law and policy has some aspects which regulate communication through social and digital media. Moving forward with the case of “Landlords Versus Tenants on Defamation, Slander, and Libel”, the American media law provides for the aspect of freedom of speech (Alexis, 2013). A tenant is allowed by the law to post on the social media any information about his or her landlord while the landlord is allowed by the law to sue the tenant if the information posted about him or her interferes with his or her personal reputation.
The case on “Landlords Versus Tenants on Defamation, Slander, and Libel” and its ruling is likely to deter careless use and posting of information in social media. Any information posted in social and digital media can be used as evidence in a court of law (Venezia, 2012). The United States of America media law and court system allows for retrieval of social media information posted about someone or about a company to be used as evidence in court proceedings. Therefore, the case between tenants and landlords is made to deter the use of social and digital media to post unverified information about persons or companies.
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The case on “Landlords Versus Tenants on Defamation, Slander, and Libel” has some ethical implications on the landlord (Goldman, 2013). Tenants are likely to start questioning on the quality of the said apartments before renting them. In adverse cases, some tenants might completely avoid the apartments after reading the post about them on social media. The self-esteem of the landlord is likely to go down as tenants start looking down upon his apartments. The quality and standard of the said apartments is likely to diminish among the general public because of the post made about them on social media. The diminishing of quality and standard of the apartments will negatively affect the normal way of living of the landlord.
Response to Peers
Herger
Hi, I think you have raised a valid point on the issue of the impact of American media law on the case of “Pink Slime”. According to Guitierrez (2011), the case on “Pink Slime” is likely to deter media personalities from posting any information they gather or they come across in the social media without first evaluating it to ascertain its authenticity (Guitierrez, 2011). The Tweet by Avila, “No one said this slime is dangerous. It’s just not what it purports to be. Meat. And if it’s in ground beef it should be labeled” raised a great concern over the quality of meat that Beef Products Inc. sold to its customers (Huffstutter, & Graybow, 2013). As a result, the BPI sales went down and its high reputation went down. Avila was simply exercising his freedom of expression provided for by the American media law but the freedom later on had huge negative impacts on both BPI and ABC.
Edwards
Hello, I concur with your argument on the impact of the American media law on social media and the consequent ethical implications realized. Beef Products was compelled to launch a lawsuit after news by ABC broadcast threatened to tarnish its high reputation. According to Quirk (2013), ABC had to pay BPI $5.7 billion in 2012 as compensation for defamation (Quirk, 2013). The hefty fine paid to BPI by ABC is likely to negatively affect the financial strength of the broadcasting company. Therefore, media houses and personalities will be keener on the authenticity of news and information they post in social media. The title “Pink Slime” which ABC used on its news broadcast cost the BPI a lot of customers (Sanburn, 2013). As a result the sales and good name of the Beef Products Inc. were negatively impacted. There are other foods companies like McDonalds who stopped using beef products from BPI Company, which further affected the economy of BPI negatively.
Needs Analysis and Identification of Topic
Communication among businesses has tremendously changed to incorporate modern means of communication, which mostly involve the use of social media. Choosing a proper and reliable means of communication is vital in keeping a close link with customers (Cavico et al., 2013). Moving forward with my Social Media Plan Course Project, the best communication channels for my course project will be live chat, ticketing, social media, and knowledge base. Live chat form of communication channel involves installation of an application in a website which promotes live online communication between customers and representatives from a business entity. Ticketing is a platform that relies on online form or email to receive a service request which is then processed and sent back to the client. Social media involves communication between clients and service providers through online social media platforms like facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Knowledge base form of communication channel involves a library of stored information about a service or a product, which is able to offer solutions to clients online.
Live chat is suitable for my social media plan course project because it offers a one-on-one interaction forum between the client and business management. The one-on-one live interaction makes it possible for clients to seek clarifications for services and products they do not clearly understand. Several clients can be served simultaneously by one representative, which makes the form of communication channel cost effective (Richards, 2009). Adopting live chat as a form of communication cannel helps a business save on communication costs.
Ticketing form of communication channel utilizes the technology of receiving services request in form of an online form or an email. This form of communication channel is suitable for my project because it does not rely on manual operation and is therefore is cost and time efficient. Ticketing has the capability of creating a ‘paper trail’ for complex service queries, which are easy to monitor their histories and revert them to their senders. Adoption of ticketing will help my project to save on time used to process service queries manually and will also reduce on the time taken to respond to clients.
Social media form of communication channel utilizes social media platforms which are popularly and highly used in the modern day world of technology. Social media will be very reliable to my social media plan course project because it allows for very cost friendly and diverse communication features (Richards, 2009). Messages displayed through social media are likely to reach a large audience within a very short time. Social media also allows for direct communication between clients and services and products providers across the various platforms. Adoption of social media increases sales and interaction between customers and business entities.
Knowledge base is a collection of stored information about a service, product, topic or department that is designed to provide the kind of self-service to customers about any information they may want to know regarding the service, product or department of their choice. Knowledge base is suitable for my social media plan course project because it requires almost zero human input to operate. The knowledge base form of communication channel is also easy to operate and offer friendly features to clients.
Live chat will be used to communicate the kind of services and products we offer verbally to the clients. The project will train representatives who will operate through the live chat form of communication channel to communicate directly to prospective clients. The representatives will verbally outline all the services and products offered by the business and will be in a position to satisfactory serve the clients. Most of the representatives will be females, which raises the chances of winning more male clients for the company. Male clients are more comfortable when served by females, thus, relying on female representatives in the live chat form of communication channel will definitely attract more male clients.
Ticketing form of communication channel will be used to serve customers through the internet. The project will put in place trained personnel who will install the Ticketing programs on the business’ website. All our products and services together with their cost will then be installed alongside the ticketing programs. Clients will be able to order for their preferred goods and services and have them processed by the system then get timely feedbacks. Clear description of our services and clear images of the products we trade on will be displayed on our website for clients to choose from.
Social media will be mostly used for advertisement and promotion of goods and services. New products and services will be posted through social media platforms for prospective customer to view and access them. Both verbal and imagery form of display will be used with the social media form of communication channel. Social media is likely to be faced by ethical implications because of the freedom and ease to access, use and post information (Electronic Frontier Foundation, n.d.). Clients may decide to campaign for or against certain type of goods or services being offered, which in most cases has a negative impact on a business. Legal issues on are prone to arise if the reputation of the project is tarnished by clients or customers.
Knowledge base form of communication channel will operate on the basis of stored information of all the project’s services and products. Clear descriptions on services and products provided by the project will be provided, both in imagery form and in written form. Products and services offered through knowledge base deter violation of ethical standards because the program only responds to what the client demands for and cannot be altered.
References
Alexis, D. (2013). Can a Landlord Sue for Defamation if a Tenant Complains Online? Retrieved October 1, 2019; https://www.rentprep.com/legal/landlords-sue-defamation-tenant-complains/
Cavico, J., Mujtaba, G., Muffler, C., & Samuel, M. (2013). Social Media and Employment-At-Will: Tort Law and Practical Considerations for Employees, Managers and Organizations. New Media and Mass Communication. 11: 25–41.
Electronic Frontier Foundation. (n.d.). Online Defamation Law. Legal Guide for Bloggers. Retrieved June 30, 2014, from https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/defamation
Goldman, E. (2013). Blasting Your Landlord Online? Pick Your Words Wisely. Forbes.Com. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericgoldman/2013/08/12/blasting-your-landlord-online-pick-your-words-wisely/
Gutierrez, E. (2011). Media: The Ethics of Social Networking for Journalists. Global Information Network. Retrieved October 1, 2019; from http://www.ipsnews.net/2011/01/the-ethics-of-social-networking-for-journalists/
Huffstutter, J., & Graybow, M. (2013). Special Report: Did Diane Sawyer Smear Pink Slime? Retrieved October 1, 2019; from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-media-abc-bpi/special-report-did-diane-sawyer-smear-pink-slime-idUSBRE92313R20130304
Quirk, B. (2013). Beef Battle Continues With ‘Pink Slime’ Defamation Lawsuit Headed Back To State Court. Consumerist. Retrieved from https://consumerist.com/2013/06/13/beef-battle-continues-with-pink-slime-defamation-lawsuit-headed-back-to-state-court/
Richards, K. (2009). Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0. East Bay Express. Retrieved from https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-of-extortion-20/Content?oid=1176635
Sanburn, J. (2013). One Year Later, the Makers of ‘Pink Slime’ Are Hanging On, and Fighting Back. Retrieved October 1, 2019; from https://time.com/5978/one-year-later-the-makers-of-pink-slime-are-hanging-on-and-fighting-back/
Venezia, J. (2012). The Interaction of Social Media and the Law and How to Survive the Social Media Revolution. New Hampshire bar Journal. 52(4): 24–32.
