User:Thesubtleart/sandbox

Article evaluation

Talk:Public opinion on gun control in the United States

• Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
  • Not really. This article appears to be more positioned to heavier gun control policy.
• Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
  • Most listed gun control policies are over-representing Democratic opinions.
• Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
  • Releasing press, including CNN, NPR and The Washington Post. Can be biased.
• Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
  • Not out of date but needs to include more Republican or Third Party's opinions.

Possible articles to work on

Public opinion on gun control in the United States

• Areas that can improve
  • Content: The article only consists of a timeline of social discussions related to gun control that jumps from the 1990s to the year 2012. Though the content is most relevant to the topic, there is still room for improvement. For example, we could add the decade of 2000-2010, making the whole article more fluent. Or we could replenish more different opinions and categorize them in terms of race, gender, and age.
  • Tone: It is written mostly neutrally, but when I look through the source I've found that in fact, some of the references are not appropriate or reliable in Wikipedia. A lot of polling data come from the biased releasing press, including CNN, NPR, CBS, ABC, and The Washington Post. For example, Cable News Network (CNN), which is owned by AT&T, is notorious for its opposite standpoints against President Trump; National Public Radio (NPR) is established by an act of Congress and owned by American government entities. Any information drew from these presses could be biased. My suggestion is that we could add more Republican or Third Party's opinions.

Mass shootings in the United States

• Areas that can improve
  • Content: The article has a rough definition, an introduction and an incomplete list of the mass shooting, and weapons used since 1949 in the U.S. I believe we could work on expanding the list by adding more details or more information about unlisted mass shootings. The Wikipedians who have been working on this article have already started a good discussion about the mass shooting that our group hopes to continue. The original authors have been thinking critically of the cause of the mass shooting and various factors were enumerated. On the other hand, in the Talk page, I've seen some passionate discussions are taking place about the neutrality of point of view, which I believe should be a focus of this article when editing it.
  • Tone: Although the article has a section talking about differing sources, most references are not appropriate in Wikipedia. Some arguments are supported by USA Today, Bloomberg or The Washington Post. Those claims could be biased due to the complicated ownership of these releasing press. The article has also touched the controversial claims concerning race which implies that most mass shooters are white males. Though the claims are supported by a reliable source, I believe it requires good development to make it seem less biased.

What to add in the assigned article

We are going to expand upon the section to do with Media Marketing Strategies and how social network platforms are leveraged to gain more supporters etc.

First Draft

Originally, protest happened for multiple shootings across the nation, such as for the Charleston Shooting, but never reached past hundreds. With social media, more information was relayed to a larger audience in quicker time, giving more people awareness of what was happening across the nation. (1) By National Walkout Day on April 20, 2018, the social medias had followings over 1.3 million people and in Washington D.C. alone, 200,000 people attended the March For Our Lives protest, whom many younger adults attributed to the big social media presence. (2) The hashtag #MarchForOurLives was used 3.6 million times, and over 7.5 thousand tweets were directed at the NRA social media account.

The March For Our Lives Twitter started in February of 2018, with the Twitter handle, @AMarch4OurLives. Up to date, the Twitter account has 450,000 followers and are a student-run organization with a large social media presence. (3) The March For Our Lives Twitter has real time, up to date tweets about the movement. It includes tweets about the red flag bill being signed in from other March For Our Lives accounts based in different locations, such as NYC. (4) In addition, the March For Our Lives Twitter account also alerts their followers about the events that are happening, such as meetings at Town Halls or when certain protests are happening. (5) All of their posts follow certain guidelines and relevance, and they also continue to retweet their own tweets too.

Celebrities and politicians have traditionally dominated policy discussion on social media. Selena Gomez, in March 2018 shared the march's hashtag #MarchForOurLives with the message: "Protect kids, not guns! and this post had received 2 millions likes.^[1] Lady Gaga also documented the march releasing a series of Instagram videos calling for action from politicians to enforce stricter gun laws.^[2] The march has drawn support from Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande, and their pledging to join and perform at the march.^[3]

But following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, the students who survived and millions of students worldwide participated in March for Our Lives, emerging as more and more influential on Instagram and Twitter than celebrities on the gun control.^[4] One of the tools they used was the hashtags. Top hashtag such as #MarchForOurLives #NeverAgain, #GunControlNow, and #EnoughIsEnough are used to spread out the word and call on public’s attention. ^[5] Besides, students collaborate with BBH L.A to create first Instagram coloring book. BBH L.A. executive creative director Zach Hilder said “We wanted to give them tools to elevate their voices, create a way to unify their message and allow everyone to participate in the march. That’s the inspiration for Color For Our Lives.”

Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd, James Lannigan, and Dr. Kevin Quigley in their study analyzed the cross-platform communication performed in civic organization, "‘informal’ narrative platform that promoted a clicktivist type of responses from the audience, whereas Twitter was a more ‘formal’ news platform that supported greater two-way communication between the organization and the audience". ^[6] #MarchforOurLives hashtag ignited much-needed America’s gun conversation, where people protesting against the epidemic of gun violence and the country needs to change.^[7][8]

The March For Our Lives movement employs Facebook as another social media platform to spread awareness of its campaigns and messages to people around the world. As of March 5th 2019, the MFOL Facebook page has garnered more than 300,000 followers. The page is mainly used to provide updates on national policies regarding gun laws, as well as coverage of various politicians who advocate for more gun safety. Similar to other media platforms, the Facebook page frequently employs popular hashtags such as #MarchForOurLives and #NeverAgain in its posts. Although other social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram often make posts to increase awareness, Facebook is more often used to organize people in nearby marches or demonstrations.

The March For Our Lives movement leveraged

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