September 2015 – Ariel Liu's Blog

This Sunday, the moon will be ‘encapsulated in a total lunar eclipse’ from 8PM with the eclipse peaking at 10PM. The annual supermoon will appear to be 14% larger and 30% brighter before it is engulfed by the eclipse, a rare sighting that will not occur again until 2033 according to NASA.

An occurrence like this wouldn’t be complete without social media. The supermoon will be visible from North and South America as well as Europe, Africa, parts of West Asia and the eastern Pacific. We should be able to have a perfect view of the event here in Vancouver but there are options available to watch it free online. NASA will be streaming a video on NASA TV with a live feed from the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and observers can ask questions directly to NASA experts using the hashtag #AskNASA on Twitter. The usage of social media has provided greater access for people who are restricted geographically or otherwise from participating in this global event.

Following the event, we can expect social media platforms to be abuzz with photos and videos of the blood moon as can be seen from reactions to past supermoons. To see if your region will be able to see the eclipse, take a look at the diagram below. This kind of lunar eclipse doesn’t happen very often so it’s definitely well worth staying up late this Sunday night to witness this spectacle.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/23/world/supermoon-eclipse-irpt/index.html?sr=fb092515supermooneclipse230pVODtopVideo

Since Twitter is a platform that we’ll be using to communicate with peers and professors in our COMM 464 course, I thought it would be fitting to do my first blog post on how influential celebrities can be through this medium. I was scrolling through my daily dose of Buzzfeed when I came across a post about Zach Goudie, a CBC journalist, that had written an article on the CBC website detailing his experience of being retweeted by Taylor Swift.

While the pop sensation is well-known for her feel-good female empowerment tracks and relatable lyrics of love, she is actually also a social media guru. She has the fourth most followed Twitter account behind Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Barack Obama. Backed by her army of 63.6 million followers, the poor CBC journalist was unprepared for the effect that a simple retweet from Tay-tay could bring upon him.

“With a single touch of Swift’s finger, the audience for my tweet increased by orders of magnitude,” wrote Goudie in his article. He mentions how he generally averages between 1,000 to 2,000 impressions but after Taylor’s retweet this number shot up to more than 1.5 million. This alone reflects the power that celebrities like T-Swift wield through the click of a button. Not only do they have the ability to communicate with millions of people at a time, they can also divert their followers’ attention to certain issues, educate them and be a hub of information. It is certainly remarkable how social media has magnified the impact that celebrities are able to have on the general public with this article being a prime example.

If you’re trying to grow your Twitter platform, getting retweeted by a celebrity may just be the boost you need. So how do you make your tweet stand out? Goudie provides a couple of tips. He suggests always including the Twitter handle of the person mentioned, being a quick distributor of timely information and word your tweet in a clear and concise manner. Try it out and let me know if any of you get retweeted by a Twitter influencer like T-Swizzle.

Check out Zach’s article here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/taylor-swift-effect-zach-goudie-s-digital-brush-with-the-world-s-biggest-pop-star-1.3235865

Ariel Liu's Blog

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Monthly Archives: September 2015

Sunday’s Rare Supermoon Eclipse