HKU SPACE Community College

Associate Degree/Higher Diploma Programme

First Semester 20xx

Introduction to Academic English

Assignment 2: Expository Essay

Examining the Role of Social Media on Public Opinion

To: (The name of your lecturer)

From: (Your name)

Class: xxxx

Submission Date: xx-xx-xx

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 The use of social media has transformed the ways that people share information and

express their opinions. According to Dixon (2024) close to 5 billion people are using social

media platforms, a number which is projected to increase to over 6 billion by 2028. As of 2024,

Facebook ranks among the most popular social media platform with over 5.6 billion active users

worldwide (Larson, 2024). Such, makes social media a powerful tool for influencing public

discourse. According to Fazil et al. (2024), social media enables individuals from several

different backgrounds to express their views on social, economic, and cultural issues which

encourages a dynamic exchange of ideas. As such, this essay examines how social media

influence public opinion on key issues in health, culture, and the environment; thus,

demonstrating its significant impact in shaping societal views.

Firstly, social media has emerged as a primary area of concern in the dissemination of

health information. Although, communication through social media provides wide coverage, on

the other hand, it allows the distribution of fake news and unproven information (Muhammed &

Mathew, 2022). This is especially so because fast spread of wrong health tips, falsehoods or

myth cures, conspiracy theories can often lead to confusion, suspicion, and undesirable

outcomes. For example, in the course of a health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, there

was fake news sharing on social platforms such as Facebook that even at times distracted the

campaigns for vaccination and sparked fear amongst the public. As asserted by Caceres et al.

(2022), the misleading information about the COVID-19 vaccine, in social media, such as the

presence of microchip, led to the avoidance of the vaccine. As it is the case, social media

algorithms tend to update and make it difficult for users to distinguish between reliable sources

and fake news. This, therefore, raises major questions concerning social media influencing public

health policies and personal lives of citizens.

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 Secondly, social media has played a pivotal role in raising global awareness about

environmental issues. By providing people with a platform for sharing information, mobilizing

communities, and advocating for change, social media has played a crucial role in raising global

awareness. As Pearson (2016) postulates, people have learnt matters related to critical topics

such as climate change, deforestation, pollution, and biodiversity loss through viral campaigns,

hashtags, and viral videos, social media. For instance, a viral TikTok video by Paul Cuffaro

showing the devastating effects of a red tide on marine life in Florida went viral, reached over

5.8 million viewers (Puentes, 2021). Also, through aesthetics, social media has supported the

grassroots movement of people organizing a global demonstration such as; Fridays for Future &

Extinction Rebellion to show how Digital Media influences environmental activism and policy

issues (Mede & Schoeder, 2024). Therefore, social media has played a major role in influencing

opinion in as much as environmental factors are concerned.

Lastly, although social media facilitates cultural integration as it connects people from

different culture, it also has negative effects on culture. Puri et al. (2022) explore the challenges

of cultural misunderstandings that are caused by differences in language, norms, and

expectations. For example, viral trends like traditional dance videos or local recipes always bring

many opinions from the whole world and this encourages the users to explore and engage with

other cultures. However, some people lack of cultural sensitivity make some opinions in social

media which can sometimes perpetuate disputes or stereotypes (Elias & Gurbanova, 2018).

Companies help to solve this through adopting glocalization which harmonizes global outreach

and it recognizes the local preferences and needs. Therefore, social media enables societies to

embrace diversity by sharing ideas and promoting dialogue thus promoting a sense of unity and

mutual respect which helps in reducing the cultural barriers.

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 In conclusion, social media is a powerful tool in shaping public opinion with regard to

health, cultural and environmental issues. While social media can be a useful tool for increasing

people’s awareness and uniting them in terms of sharing ideas and making connections globally,

its negative impact is equally crippling when it comes to sharing fake news, and particularly in

such sensitive fields as health. On the one hand, although social media contributes to the

inclusiveness of culture and give people an opportunity to express their opinions, on the other

hand, social networking brings stereotypes and prejudices. Similarly, its role as a support for

environmental activities has been crucial helping to launch campaigns and spread vital calls in

the society, which makes social media a powerful yet complex tool.

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 References

Elias, S., & Gurbanova, N. (2018, July). Relocating gender stereotypes online: Critical analysis

of sexist hate speech in selected social media. In International Conference on Language

Phenomena in Multimodal Communication (KLUA 2018) (pp. 272-277). Atlantis Press.

https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/25900116.pdf

Fazil, A. W., Hakimi, M., Akrami, K., Akrami, M., & Akrami, F. (2024). Exploring the Role of

Social Media in Bridging Gaps and Facilitating Global Communication. Studies in

Media, Journalism and Communications, 2(1), 13-21.

http://dx.doi.org/10.32996/smjc.2024.2.1.2

Puentes, C. (2021). Social Media and Environmental Activism: An Evolving Relationship.

School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. https://smea.uw.edu/currents/social-media-

and-environmental-activism-an-evolving-relationship/

Puri, S., Rathod, D. S., & Jain, R. (2022). Cross-Cultural Communication Through Social Media.

Communication & Journalism Research, 11(1), 17-30.

https://cjrjournal.in/Uploads/Files/CJR%20JAN-JUNE%202022.pdf#page=25

Dixon, S.J. (2024). Number of global social network users 2017-2028. Statista.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/

Muhammed T, S., & Mathew, S. K. (2022). The disaster of misinformation: a review of research

in social media. International Journal Of Data Science And Analytics, 13(4), 271-285.

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Pearson, E., Tindle, H., Ferguson, M., Ryan, J., & Litchfield, C. (2016). Can we tweet, post, and

share our way to a more sustainable society? A review of the current contributions and

future potential of# socialmediaforsustainability. Annual Review of Environment and

Resources, 41(1), 363-397.

Caceres, M. M. F., Sosa, J. P., Lawrence, J. A., Sestacovschi, C., Tidd-Johnson, A., Rasool, M. H.

U., ... & Fernandez, J. P. (2022). The impact of misinformation on the COVID-19

pandemic. AIMS Public Health, 9(2), 262.

Mede, N. G., & Schroeder, R. (2024). The “Greta effect” on social media: A systematic review of

research on Thunberg’s impact on digital climate change communication. Environmental

Communication, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2024.2314028

Larson, S. (2024). Social Media Users 2024 (Global Data & Statistics). Priori Data.

https://prioridata.com/data/social-media-usage/