{"id":3408,"date":"2015-11-21T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-21T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thediplomaticenvoy.com\/?p=3408"},"modified":"2021-01-22T18:18:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T23:18:49","slug":"the-new-social-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2015\/11\/21\/the-new-social-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus on Clicktivism: The New \u201cSocial\u201d Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colin Kimberlin<\/a>
\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to international issues of the environment, social media does not come to mind as the first\u00a0policing\u00a0force.\u00a0Yet\u00a0in the past few months, social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter, and Tremr.com,\u00a0as\u00a0well\u00a0as\u00a0their users, have taken it upon themselves to bring the Volkswagen scandal to the forefront of international social media.<\/p>\n

\"tweet3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Volkswagen,\u00a0the second largest car manufacturer in the world,\u00a0has tumbled down the\u00a0rungs of\u00a0environmental social media\u00a0in\u00a0the past month.\u00a0Recently, it has come to the international community\u2019s attention that this European-based\u00a0corporation has been rigging U.S.\u00a0emissions by creating \u201ccheat\u201d software, known as defeat devices, to comply with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.<\/p>\n

After\u00a0Volkswagen\u00a0officially announced the scandal was in fact true, the corporation experienced a plunge\u00a0in\u00a0stock prices\u00a0and\u00a0reputation.\u00a0However,\u00a0that was not all that was in store for\u00a0the company.\u00a0Within\u00a0five hours of the announcement,\u00a0the Volkswagen hashtag\u00a0on Twitter\u00a0accumulated over 3,000 mentions and the brand\u2019s social media following actually grew as a result.<\/p>\n

\"tweet4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet\u00a0according to recent claims on social media, Volkswagen\u00a0programmed their\u00a0model\u00a02009 to 2015\u00a0diesel vehicles\u00a0to\u00a0meet\u00a0United States standards\u00a0of nitrogen oxide emission levels\u00a0during the initial testing for each vehicle. Eventually, when the vehicles were road tested, the EPA noticed the discrepancies;\u00a0driving released 35 times higher emissions than the initial test\u2019s results.<\/p>\n

This illegal programming was classified as a defeat device by the EPA, which\u00a0is\u00a0an infraction\u00a0on\u00a0the U.S.\u00a0Clean Air Act. Over\u00a011\u00a0million cars internationally\u00a0and 500,000 in the United States\u00a0alone\u00a0had been affected by such defeat devices. The original discovery of these test discrepancies stemmed from regional emission studies\u00a0around the country in 2014, which was\u00a0conducted\u00a0by the International Council on Clean Transportation. Again, once the information became public, social media took off.<\/p>\n

Following the information\u2019s debut, it took to Instagram\u00a0under the\u00a0hashtag \u201cdieselgate.\u201d\u00a0By October\u00a02, the hashtag was used more than 1,000 times. This increase\u00a0of social media presence lead to over $7.3\u00a0billion\u00a0in costs\u00a0due to loss\u00a0in\u00a0stock value and\u00a0the price of\u00a0promising to\u00a0refit\u00a0all recalled vehicles with corrected software.<\/p>\n

Although this issue seems to be breaking news, it was discovered\u00a0over a year ago. Back in May of 2014,\u00a0multiple class action lawsuits and numerous regulatory investigations in multiple countries had been placed against Volkswagen. So why\u00a0did the\u00a0issue just become relevant?\u00a0The answer is social media.<\/p>\n

\"tweet5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not only did the users of Instagram and Twitter play a particularly large role in \u201c#dieselgate,\u201d\u00a0but the\u00a0claim\u00a0under which social media has the ability to actively campaign and advocate through an internet-based medium.\u00a0Certain users took to their pages to mock Volkswagen, specifically @fmarciuliano, who wrote, \u201cAll I know is Herbie would never have lied about this emissions test results. You let him down, #Volkswagen.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Social\u00a0media\u00a0is beginning to play\u00a0a larger\u00a0role in\u00a0what constitutes actual \u201cnews.\u201d\u00a0A user speaks, and\u00a0the media\u00a0listens. Rick Miller, Vice President of Customer Insights at\u00a0the\u00a0social media management\u00a0company,\u00a0Network\u00a0Insights, understands this clearly when he\u00a0stated\u00a0on TheStreet.com, \u201cSocial media\u2019s candid nature allows users to be honest, and as a result, express their\u00a0opinions of brands. Knee-jerk or not, consumers\u00a0are talking on social media, and while immediate responses to scandals such as the Volkswagen emissions allegations aren\u2019t the only factors to pay attention to when determining the health of the brand, these conversations are real and should be taken into account.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the next time you gloss over Instagram\u00a0or read a few tweets,\u00a0remember\u00a0that although social media may be creating a distorted realm where emotions begin to blend with fact about precise topics, it does not downplay the value infused within a\u00a0medium that is internationally arching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Volkswagen officially announced the scandal was in fact true, the corporation experienced a plunge in stock prices and reputation. However, that was not all that was in store for the company. Within five hours of the announcement, the Volkswagen hashtag on Twitter accumulated over 3,000 mentions and the brand\u2019s social media following actually grew as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3013,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[604,5,1095],"tags":[496,562,628,629,630,632],"class_list":["post-3408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-november2015","category-focus","category-1095","tag-social-media","tag-twitter","tag-scandal","tag-emissions","tag-volkswagen","tag-clicktivism"],"yoast_head":"\nFocus on Clicktivism: The New \u201cSocial\u201d Environment - The Diplomatic Envoy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/thediplomaticenvoy\/2015\/11\/21\/the-new-social-environment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Focus on Clicktivism: The New \u201cSocial\u201d Environment - The Diplomatic Envoy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After Volkswagen officially announced the scandal was in fact true, the corporation experienced a plunge in stock prices and reputation. 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