Social Media Story — Campus opinion on mass shooting solutions

In the wake of the most recent school shooting at a high school in Florida, there has been much debate and tension between lawmakers and students about the issue of gun control. This shooting is one of many and the gun control debate has been ongoing for years, but this time, there seems to be more fervor and determination than ever especially in schools and on campuses around the country. I’m interested in tapping into the various opinions about solutions to mass shootings among students on University of Colorado’s campus as well as find insight from political and law experts.

Last year, I conducted a similar project where I interviewed a couple of students and the head of the political science department about their take on the Republican tax plan that was about to be introduced. I was inspired by the students’ awareness and engagement with current events and their nuanced opinions. I’m hoping to find similar inspiration with my Social Media story project.

For the interviews I will be conducting, I will be reaching out to CU Boulder’s College Democrats and College Republicans club as well as the Political Science Club to try and interview students with differing views. As suggested by one of my peers, I will also reach out to the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice center to get a local take on the issue. I will also try to interview the head of CU’s Political Science department, who I was able to interview for my last project.

For the live element of my project, I have decided to use live Facebook video. I plan on attending the March for our Lives at the Colorado State Capitol where I will be taking live video of events. I could also use live video during an interview. The story element of my project will be told through Snapchat. A series of short videos and updates on my project will be shown in my story. For the experimental platform element of my project, I hope to use Twitter polls. I am not a regular user of Twitter, nor have I ever utilized the poll function, but I think it would be valuable to open up this project to different Twitter users and to hear their opinions.

I’m hopeful that my project will highlight the various opinions on CU Boulder’s campus as well as find out about the solutions suggested by students and experts in Boulder. I believe that the utilization of various social media platforms will enable me to give my story a larger audience and more substance.