Running head: SKILL SETS

! ! !
Skill Sets Richard Groner Southern New Hampshire University

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

SKILL SETS

!2

!
Skill Sets Introduction The advent of the digital age has brought with it a need to change our approach to spreading messages across a multi-national, multi-cultural audience. Gone are the days where a long essay or book, available in print, or a television infomercial or documentary were one of the only options to spread a message globally. Those vehicles depended on people willing to spread and display those messages across the span of the globe. Today, with the rise in use of social media platforms, a message can be typed and/or posted and spread around the world almost instantly. Something posted in Bloomington, Indiana can be seen in Mumbai, India seconds after it is posted. Along with this ability to reach the world with one message lies a need to develop messages that can be understood equally regardless of cultural or national background. Several skills can be utilized to achieve this need and they will be discussed in the paper. A scenario will also be presented which models the use of these skills to reach the global audience. Skills In general, the universal language of the internet is English, though there is no officially designated language. English is used for approximately 55% of all web sites in the world (W3Techs, 2014). Despite this common language use, the possibility of messages being misinterpreted around the world is great due to differences in culture and nationality. For example, in Greece when children lose their teeth, they throw them on the roof instead of putting them under a pillow. In Norway, people eat hamburgers with a knife and fork instead of picking them up as Americans do. In England, you are actually flipping someone off if you give them

SKILL SETS

!3

the American peace sign backwards (Strutner, 2013). Because of these differences in culture, it is possible to inadvertently offend someone through a post on the internet. 93% of communication is nonverbal, as demonstrated by Psychologist Albert Mehrabian. Studies find that the human brain deciphers image elements simultaneously, while language is decoded in a linear, sequential manner taking more time to process (Parkinson, 2012). Since verbal communication is only 7% of our overall communication, and since verbal/written communication can be misinterpreted due to cultural differences, one would begin to lean toward nonverbal tools as a way to communicate. Therefore, the use of visual images is a skill which helps to create an open culture in digital communication. A common saying, at least in the U.S., is that a picture is worth a thousand words. That is especially true if the words are not the natural language of the reader and can be misinterpreted. People think using pictures. John Berger, media theorist, writes in his book Ways of Seeing, "Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. (Parkinson, 2012). Thus, while words can easily be misinterpreted, pictures express a more universal meaning. One can look to the rise in use of the social media sites Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram to support that the digital world favors the use of images to spread messages. Scanning a Facebook timeline also reveals a high use of imagery to covey messages. Photographs then are a good way to create an open culture since they have a wider chance of being interpreted the same across multiple cultures. In much the same way that photographs can convey messages, so too can video. YouTube has seen a huge rise in use. More video was uploaded to YouTube in August and September of 2009 than if the three major television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, had been airing new content continuously from 1948 until October of 2009 (Gliktch, 2009). Vine, a

SKILL SETS

!4

mobile social media video web site that allows six seconds of video to be posted, has seen a large increase in use recently with links to Vine videos being spread through Twitter and Tumblr postings. Instagram recently launched video capabilities as well, allowing it to compete with Vine as a video social media outlet (Patel, 2013). Again, since nonverbal communication makes up 93% of all communication, video is an excellent means to cross cultures and open a universal dialog. With the shorter video content on Vine and Instagram, messages can be combined with short Twitter posts so that some verbal and nonverbal messaging can be combined into the same message. Some messages cannot be conveyed by visual means alone, such as messages involving data. In 2013, one of the largest idea trends was big data. The problem with data was to find an avenue to present a wealth of data simply and effectively while also making it engaging and informative. One popular answer is the use of infographics (Futterman, 2013). Infographics are graphical visual representations of data that can present complex information quickly and clearly (Futterman, 2013). Since nonverbal communication is such a major contributor of messaging, infographics allow for the combination of visual, nonverbal means with data information that is still easy to understand and will translate across cultures. Infographs are still visual and pleasing to the eye. They offer the ability to capture the audience and convey messages using shapes, color, graphics, and data all in once easy package. Another skill that allows for an open culture is through digital messaging such as Facebook, Twitter, group dialog via LinkedIn groups, etc. Among adult internet users, Facebook is utilized by 71% on online users (Brenner, 2013). Facebook allows for messaging through text, photographs, infographics and video. Posts on Facebook may be truncated for longer text posts,

SKILL SETS

!5

and links are utilized for video and multiple photograph posts, but the social media site reaches a significant audience while allowing multiple messaging vehicles. Twitter allows for easy messaging while only allowing 140 character text. It does allow for links to photographs and videos however, so it is a good vehicle for messaging. Along the same lines, Tumblr allows for easy posting of photographs and video along with text to convey a message. LinkedIn offers the user a chance to create and participate in groups created around specific topics. Members of those groups come from all areas of the world and there is no limit on post length. While the risk of culture related misinterpretation does exist, in the authors experience, users create posts that are very thoughtful of cultural differences and strive for clarity. The author has found a very encouraging and open climate in LinkedIn group conversation and all opinions seem to be appreciated and acknowledged. One of the best practices when conveying a message via text posting, is to write in a clear, concise manner using plain English (Murray, 2013). Even though English is the highest used language by websites on the internet, there are many variations of the language. English on the internet is actually a vague collection of languages called English because the common origin of the language is English as spoken in England. The language has spread around the world and has taken on many variants such as American English, Australian English, Indian English, etc (Korpela, 2003). While people use English on the internet, for many it is not their native tongue and is known as a spoken language. As a result, they may not understand how to spell difficult words and when syntax is taken into account, the words may be in the wrong order for native English speakers and the message is jumbled or lost. As a result, while English may

SKILL SETS

!6

be the universal language of the internet, it is a clumsy, coarse and misspelled version of English which can lead to misinterpretation. Scenario There is already a very good example of the use of the skills discussed above to spread a global message and create an open culture. The movement is called Playing For Change and is a multimedia movement to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music (Playing For Change, 2014). The organization uses its own website as well as Facebook for text, photograph, and video messaging, and also uses YouTube for video messaging. The organization is made up of musicians and media technicians from all around the world. They create engaging music videos that incorporate musicians from around the world singing the same song at the same time. They have 438,213 likes on Facebook at the time of this papers writing and their YouTube channel has 383,186 subscribers. Another scenario that could utilize the skills discussed above would be a multimedia campaign to raise awareness for homeless around the world. In creating this campaign, photographs and stories could be researched world-wide and could be combined and presented via Facebook to spread the message. Text style dialog could also be spread through the use of Twitter utilizing hashtags with video and photograph links as well as short text messages and facts. The messages could be as short as stating the number of homeless in the world and similar facts. Pinterest could be utilized to spread the word via photographs of homeless people on the streets. With nonverbal communication being 93% over overall communication, photograph montages on Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram could spread the message regardless of language or culture of the viewer. In addition, a group could be created on LinkedIn which discusses the

SKILL SETS

!7

topic of the homeless and how to help them. LinkedIn has a large, global audience and has the ability to generate a buzz on the topic among its users. Infographics could also be created that would communicate many of the facts of the homeless while still being easy to understand and through good design practices, they could draw attention of viewers. The inforgraphics could be presented on all social media sites. Of course, an individual website could also be created, similar to the one for Playing For Change that could help spread the message and utilize SEO for increased activity through search engines. A new platform that helps combine the various social media sites is called TINT (TINT, 2014). TINT allows for the users to display any social media feeds together on any marketing channel or website. TINT will combine any social media sites that a user has and will aggregate the content into a single page. This ability allows for one page to show all social media sites activity at once and it allows a viewer to select a site and engage in the conversation. It allows for a multimedia campaign to be seen all at once in a live snapshot. This can open up multicultural dialog because a user can select the social media platform of their choice and engage in the way that best fits them. Since different users absorb knowledge in different ways, TINT offers a grocery market type of social media new selection on a given topic. Conclusion While there are many skills available to create an open culture in the digital information exchange, this paper has discussed four skills; photographs, video, infographics, and digital text messaging. Combined, the four skills can convey a very powerful message that can be understood by many different cultures and nationalities. These skills can be utilized through various social media avenues offering the ability to reach audiences through their preferred

SKILL SETS means, whether it is visual, text, data, or some combination. These skills can also be used to open a world wide dialog aimed at spreading a message or cause. The creation of TINT as a website tool allows for combining the various social media sites into one visual page which

!8

provides a supermarket type approach to the overall message campaign. Groups such as Playing For Change have utilized this approach to spread a message of peace worldwide and a scenario was presented for utilizing the skills and social media sites to create a campaign for the homeless. Digital communication has brought with it the ability to reach a worldwide audience in a fast, easy way. It allows for interaction between people who could not communicate with each other easily before the internet. Through social media sites, the world has become a smaller place where real, effective communication can take place by all.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

SKILL SETS References

!9

W3Techs, (2014) Usage of content languages for websites Retrieved from http://w3techs.com/ technologies/overview/content_language/all Strutner, S. (2013) 8 Cultural Differences Between America And Other Countries Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/14/weird-cultural-differences_n_3875360.html Parkinson, M. (2012) The Power of Visual Communication Retrieved from http:// www.billiondollargraphics.com/infographics.html Gliktch, (2009) Did You Know? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=rbdo2vbPYu0 Patel, A. (2013) When to use Vine and when to use Instagram Retrieved from http:// venturebeat.com/2013/08/12/when-to-use-vine-and-when-to-use-instagram/ Futterman, E. (2013) 10 Ways to use inforgraphics Retrieved from http://thenextweb.com/dd/ 2013/10/16/10-ways-use-infographics/#!thl0u Brenner, J. (2013) Pew Internet: Social Networking: Full Detail Retrieved from http:// pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-Social-Networking-full-detail.aspx Murray, M. (2013) 36 Skills and Abilities for Digital Comms People Retrieved from http:// www.commsgodigital.com.au/2013/10/36-skills-for-digital-comms-people/ Korpela, J. (2003) English - the universal language of the Internet? Retrieved from http:// www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/lingua-franca.html Playing For Change (2014) Connecting the World Through Music Retrieved from http:// www.playingforchange.com/series/band/ TINT, (2014) Display Social Feeds on your Website Retrieved from http://www.tintup.com