Artefact 3 Evaluation

After much research into Leicester Police and how they have adapted to social media sites to allow them to interact with the public I have come to the conclusions that Facebook and Twitter are used by all age groups, but a largely within the 16-25 year old age bracket. The use of the police using social networking sites means that although this group is probably the hardest to communicate with to enforce the law, the force can now have communication and dialogue with teens and understand them more now they have more interaction. Looking through the followers @leicespolice have a large number of them are from the younger generation, who may not want to read local newspapers to find out what's happening in the community but can easily access it from social networking.

Social media is also an helpful tool for educating the public. Tweets I saw covered topics from crime reports to tips, traffic updates, and even weather updates. This is now spread to the public quickly and efficiently. Crisis communications can also reach community members quickly and efficiently. There may be a missing person, and these social networking sites become an active way to get information out within seconds. Times have moved on from having to update the homepage on the website. Although this is still done it also provides information about the police, what to do in emergencies whereas the social networking side covers incidents all day every day.

In terms of my research project this has allowed me to see not only local businesses reactions to the growth of digital media but how it can effect the community, I feel for my next artefact I really want to focus on the consumer/customers point of views on how the opportunities of technology have effected them in terms of businesses they use. Obviously I know it will differ within g generations but to what degree will this be?