Almost two years later, Twitter has incorporated hashtags into their app. As a result of hashtag popularity Twitter introduced “trending topics” which displayed the most recent and popular hashtags. Now eight years on, media audiences can also hashtag on sites and apps such as Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Tumblr.
A hashtag is a simple way for people using social media to search for a tweet on Twitter or a photo on Instagram. Gigi Hadid is a world famous supermodel. …show more content…
Searching the hashtag #beach will display photos of the beach that people have hashtagged. In this sense the positive use of hashtags allows audiences to view content for a particular area of interest or event in one place. This could be seen as similar to conducting a Google search on an Internet browser. In addition this demonstrates how media audiences influence content on social media sites. Without the end users utilizing the use of specific hashtags the ‘search’ would return minimal or no results.
The use of hashtags on social media is an important media tool often used to bring an issue to the surface and often causing debate and dividing media audiences on an issue. In April 2015 the #prayfornepal hashtag was used on social media after the Nepal earthquake killed thousands of people and destroyed half a million homes. Similar to the hashtag of 2013 hashtag #prayforboston the Nepal hashtag on social media created awareness of the crisis in …show more content…
One positive element is because it raises awareness of issues around the world and can encourage audiences to act and make a change. A negative impact could be because it can cause controversy about what audiences believe is right and wrong. Hashtags have the power to divide audiences and make them become more bias towards a topic. The content that is attached to hashtags is not controlled by the media organization (such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) but rather is powered solely by the media audience – meaning that the content is not monitored or regulated in any way. Hashtags can be used to generate discussion about topics and can make social media users become more aware of issues around the