PETA vs social media

As technology grows, our ability to communicate with one another grows. Text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Skype - all are relatively new ways in which we can contact each other without face-to-face interaction, via chats, videos, and updates. We learned all of this from the poster presentation, but it is not an unfamiliar issue to all of us. It is simply the way things are, it the way we read and understand our world.

Companies and organizations capitalize and take advantage of our dependance on digital communication. PETA is no different, and they shamelessly promote themselves through these social media outlets: they have their own Facebook page, their own Twitter handle, a Youtube account, as well as interactive games and e-cards for entertainment. In my opinion, they NEED to do all of this in order to be present and active, in order to be seen and heard, and also to be modern. Without a place in the digital media that is now, PETA would be non-existant and unheard. The extreme stance on animal rights would be disregarded as old-school or even unimportant. Most successful organizations and campaigns use all of these media to network, promote, and communicate their ideas- PETA is no different.

What is interesting is the extremist niche that is PETA has been further established with YouTube especially, as well as their interactive gaming. The Youtube page includes informational videos, celebrity endorsements, commercials, and persuasive videos. Many of these can only be viewed on the YouTube site, probably because some of them are pretty explicit and graphic. A few barely acknowledge the actual cause and instead focus on sexy women and pop culture. Youtube is used here to appeal to the mass audience of viewers, whose intelligence on many animal rights activities and campaigns is low or whose attention span is fairly short. Video playlists include celebrity videos, sexy celebrity videos, undercover investigations, take action videos, and the Roost series to give you a feel. The page still exudes that extremist attitude, but towards a younger, hipper, more tech-savvy audience.

http://www.youtube.com/user/officialpeta?feature=sub_widget_1

The interactive gaming offered on the website is most damaging to the cause, in my opinion. Games like Cooking Mama and Dress Up the Trollsens seem immature and unnecessary, taking away from the actual animal rights message and goal. They serve no purpose in promoting the cause and instead focus on attacking the "opposition." These games do provide any information on how to help the organization, on how to become an animal-rights activist, on how to live a vegetarian lifestyle, etc.