Social Media and Information Literacy

Information has value. This value could be proprietary, or it could pertain to what information is being conveyed and how it's disseminated. If content online gets enough traction, or goes viral, there can be monetary value associated with its popularity. Ownership is contentious in a digital space because of the collaborative nature of the internet, and because of the policies initiated by many social media platforms regarding intellectual property. Frequently, smaller content creators can have their ideas or creations essentially stolen by those with a larger audience and are never credited. When it comes to how we value digital information, we should always consider original ownership, the production value, who collaborated to create the content, and whose contributions may not be recognized. 

You own the creative content you publish online according to copyright law (www.dmlp.org), however, if that's published online you may not have rights as to how that content is distributed. Many social media platforms have distribution rights written into their policies when it comes to digital intellectual property. Alongside, content distribution, many social media platforms use demographics provided by users to create targeted ads. 

Explore the resources below to learn how information online has value digitally through the creation of new, original, content, and how social media uses the information we provide about ourselves.  

Freebooting: Freebooting is the act of downloading copyrighted content from one creator, or platform, and uploading it to another account where it's presented as original content. This is different than simply sharing the content to your account, because it is redistributed without the creator's permission and for the Freebooter's personal gain. 

Privilege: Creators with large audiences typically gain more recognition than those with smaller ones. Because of this, viral content can often be attributed to larger creators, rather than the smaller ones that actually came up with the concept themselves. Usually, this is not done with malice, however, smaller content creators must advocate for themselves and their creative rights. 

• Understand that information, in multiple formats, is valuable for what it conveys and how it is disseminated. 
• Understand the importance of giving recognition to original creators.
• Understand that privilege affects smaller creators, and can impact who we give credit and authority to online. 
• Understand that, even though, the internet is collaborative it is important to ask for permission to use copyrighted materials from original creators. 
• Value the skills, time, and effort needed to produce information and content online. 
• Determine where, and what platforms, your information and content should be published on.