Social media campaign
The purpose of the Social Media Campaign is to research an advocacy issue and gather knowledge on organizations, issues, and solutions. The species I chose are chickens and the issue is Factory Farms. Throughout this campaign, our goal is to research statistics and facts related to our species and issue. In this campaign every day I tweeted organizations, issues, solutions, and an infographic to raise awareness on chicken's treatment in factory farms. You can click on this link to view the Day-by-Day plan.
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Social Media, specifically Twitter, is extremely useful for research, education, and advocacy. For research and education, Twitter is effective because the platform allows you to easily provide links to credible sources such as journal articles and news articles. In addition, if you follow accounts that are related to your research topic you will constantly find tweets on your feed that are interesting and compelling towards your research. Lastly, because Twitter is an online platform it is easier for individuals to come together and spread awareness to advocate for a specific issue or problem. Overall, I have found Twitter to be helpful in all aspects of research, education, and advocacy.
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You can click on the Twitter icon to view all my tweets.
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Best Tweets
The following tweets are the ones that received the most liked and retweeted. The first one is a thread that shares a link to a Literature Review by Lori Marino. Below the first tweet, I shared an article that claimed that chickens were capable of numerous social and cognitive abilities. You can click on the tweet to view the thread.
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This tweet is another successful tweet I created during this course. While researching chicken intelligence I came across an interesting statistic which claimed that chickens can distinguish more than 100 faces. I was surprised as were many of my classmates.
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Organizations
The two organizations I chose were Mercy for Animals and Farm Sanctuary. Mercy For Animals carries out undercover investigations to expose the unethical treatment of animals in factory farms. The first tweet shows an example of one of the investigations carried out by Mercy For Animals. The tweet also raises awareness that big corporations like Costco and KFC exploit the treatment of chickens and other animals to increase production. The tweet also provides a link to the article which shows video footage from the investigation.
Farm Sanctuary is an organization that rescues and advocates for many farm animals, including chickens. You can click on this link from Farm Sanctuary if you are interested in learning more about chicken's lives in factory farms.
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Problems
The purpose of this tweet is to show how factory farms affect the well-being of chickens. I chose this image because it shows a comparison of the life expectancy between chickens in the wild and chickens grown in factory farms. The image shows the significant gap in life expectancy which shows emphasizes how chickens in factory farms are not treated with care.
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Another issue with factory farms is that chickens are genetically breeder to grow faster. This often comes at a cost because chickens often experience physical conditions. The image included in the tweet gives a summary of the major implications such as overworked lungs, stressed heart, weak joints, and weak legs.
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Solutions
I wrote this tweet because I know that stopping meat consumption altogether is unlikely. However, this solution offers an alternative where consumers can support farms that treat animals with care. These farms often encourage normal chicken behavior that would not be possible in a factory farm. As you may see in the image the chickens are allowed to free-range.
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I wrote this tweet because it shows how little is done within our government to protect and regulate chickens in factory farms. However, if we raise awareness and attempt to pass and support legislation that places restrictions on factory farming it will be a step in the right direction.
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MY infographic
My infographic includes statistics and issues on factory farming. The purpose of this infographic is to raise awareness on an issue that usually does not receive much attention.