Wednesday, April 3, 2019

7# - Social Media

Social media like twitter is incredibly popular in that almost everyone uses it from the lowest retail
employee to the President of the United States and it does not show any sign of stopping. Since all of the people have congregated on social media then it is only a matter of time before companies show up and try to sell something to you. This is not in any way surprising but, what is interesting is that these companies like Wendy's or McDonald's focus on the "clout game" that is social media. Instead of showing you an ad of the new product they will instead have a snarky conversation with some random person on twitter, so that they will be seen as in touch with current culture and you will have a more favorable view of them. However, the "funny" social media accounts of companies don't interest me that much as all they are is new way to accomplish an old goal of getting you to buy there product.





What is interesting to me is the social media presence of movie stare John Wayne and the most well known film critic Roger Ebert who last time I checked were both very dead. John Wayne's twitter account serves mostly as a fan page to him showing behind the scenes photos of himself, director John Ford, and many others on various different projects in his career. This twitter account is owned and operated by the John Wayne Enterprises website that among that various articles about Marion Morrison's career offer a large catalog of John Wayne branded items. From t-shirts, to coffee mugs, trucker caps, hatchets, and even leather goods which honestly seem like something that they should sell. John Wayne Enterprises is doing what anyone would do with a name recognition like that, but I think the time is fast approaching when that name wont mean much as I really dont think many people have any connection to John Wayne. Roger Ebert's twitter account on the other hand is very different in that he was alive when it was created and he maintained it up until the point that he couldn't any longer. It is unlike the John Wayne account in that it serves both as memorial and a place that his archives of all of the work that he did over his long career. It also serves as a gateway to his website where his work still exists and where other people still write articles and review movies for.




Like the John Wayne and Roger Ebert accounts Stan Lee the Marvel Comics mastermind and figurehead also had a twitter account that he ran until his death in late 2018. His twitter account is filled with photos from Stan Lee's life and his involvement with the comics industry. It also serves like Ebert's as a gateway to his website where people still write articles which are all essentially just puff pieces that promote current Marvel media. This is essentially what Stan Lee's twitter has become even promoting the upcoming Captain Marvel film but this was not always the case and only after his death has the promotion of current media become a main focus. I find this to be a bit unethical but not unexpected, what I do have a problem with though is that to me some time when I look at the twitter it appears like Stan Lee is not actually dead. My main piece of evidence is the constant articles constantly talking about all of the things that Stan Lee liked to do and the fact that the pinned tweet is about the outpouring of support that he received when he got sick. Maybe this is me jumping to conclusions but I would not put it past people to at some point in the future to try and keep the idea that Stan Lee is actually dead out of people's minds. That being said that common theme from all of these twitter accounts is that people can still in someways appear to be active online and their name can be used for positives like Ebert's and questionably like Lee's and Wayne's.

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