For Part 2 of my online journal assessment in INF506, I will focus on exploring, explaining, and analysing social media and cultural diversity among information organisations, specifically school libraries. For this journal entry, social media refers to various platforms and sites that allow people to create and share content for a particular audience (Rhee et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2016). Cultural diversity among social media platforms refers to the representation of diverse groups, including gender, sexuality and background (Clapperton, 2021). With these definitions in mind, I have concluded that cultural diversity among social media platforms ensures a broad representation of the community and target audience.

Within today’s ever-changing political and cultural climate, I wanted to explore social media and cultural diversity by first looking at information organisations that I follow and am familiar with. As a primary school teacher librarian, I first explored various Sydney metropolitan school library social media accounts. A common theme present among all is the representation of their clientele. For example, those school’s in the south-western part of Sydney, with an extensive school population of students from different backgrounds, all displayed content that represented and related to those students’ backgrounds. In contrast, schools that did not have such a large population of students from different backgrounds had posts about other cultural representations, such as queer identity and cultural movements. It was interesting to see that even though several school libraries use different platforms, primarily Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, all schools had some form of cultural diversity and representation in their feeds.

As a person who identifies as an Indigenous Aboriginal Australian, one main focus of exploring social media and cultural diversity was how school libraries represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. The study by Carlson & Kennedy (2021) highlights that it is pretty common for Indigenous Australians to be portrayed negatively on social media platforms, and as a result, stereotyping and hate speech become prevalent. Exploring various NSW school library social media platforms, I did not encounter culturally insensitive content. Instead, I found most content posted informed the school community about Indigenous literature and school-wide events, celebrations and priorities. It was evident amongst most school social media accounts that Indigenous education was forefront and was widely represented across their school. I was particularly glad to see schools with only a minimal number of Indigenous students enrolled still represent the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities extensively on their social media platforms.

As I further explored social media and cultural diversity among school libraries, I saw a pattern developing. Most of the content posted was visual and celebratory. This included photos of children engaging with literature, children dressing up, staff and students delivering cultural lessons and culturally inclusive student work samples. It did not seem to matter what the social media platform was. Although the three most common were Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, almost all cultural diversity related posts were photos or videos. These were great and engaging to see, but they became predictable and less engaging after a while. A study conducted by Koc-Damgaci & Aydin (2017) about multiculturalism and social media in schools highlighted the importance of using social media as a multicultural teaching tool. This study stood out to me as mentioned above, schools are mainly just using their social media platforms as celebratory and not educative. I think it is important that schools utilise their social media platforms to educate and inform their target audiences about cultural diversity and inclusion and celebrate that diversity in the community.

Analysing cultural diversity in social media is important, as suggested by Al-Basam (n.d), as it allows you to see whether you provide your audience with various perspectives and whether your audience is getting the whole picture or just a slice of the pie. Furthermore, by ensuring your social media platforms are culturally diverse, you allow the school community to see themselves as part of the information organisation. Al-Basam (n.d) emphasises the importance of this as the community can see the school’s reflection of them and their engagement.

The NSW Department of Education (2022) highlights the importance of students and staff developing an understanding of culture and diversity. Public school libraries are information organisations that work side-by-side with schools and the community to ensure this goal is achieved. Using social media platforms to promote culture and diversity is an effective way to continue that journey of development and understanding. Posting content that is culturally representative and diverse allows the community to see and feel included and develop a sense that their cultures and beliefs are respected and represented.

References

Al-Basam, S. (n.d.). How to focus on cultural diversity in your content marketing. https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/media/blog/how-to-focus-on-cultural-diversity-in-your-content-marketing

Carlson, B. & Kennedy, T. (2021). Us mob online: The perils of identifying as Indigenous on social media. Geneaology, 5(2), 52.

Clapperton, H. (2021, October 18). The importance of diversity in social media advertising. https://prohibitionpr.co.uk/digital-marketing/social-media/social-media-advertising/the-importance-of-diversity-in-social-media-advertising/

Koc-Damgaci, F. & Aydin, H. (2017). Social media and its potential impacts on multicultural education. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(3), 797-810.

NSW Department of Education. (2022). Multicultural Education: Culture and Diversity. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/multicultural-education/culture-and-diversity

Rhee, L., Bayer, J. B., Lee, D. S. & Kuru, O. (2021). Social by definition: How users define social platforms and why it matters. Telematics and Informatics, 59(1), 1-16.

Zhao, X., Lampe, C. & Ellison, N. B. (2016). The social media ecology: User perceptions, strategies and challenges. Front stage on Social Media, 89-100.