This week, we shall look at how the Instagram of the United Nations at Geneva represents a party that, as the article Information, Communication & Society by Lance Bennett, Alexandra Segerberg & Curd B. Knüpfer (2018), tries to reach across the horizontal spectrum of issues through using technology. This is something that political parties (for example the United States Democratic Party and more, in U.S. terms, liberal parties)(Bennet et al, 2018). What is reaching across the horizontal spectrum? When a person tries to reach across the horizontal spectrum, they are trying to reach as many people as they can, on many different topics. Compared to trying to reach someone in a vertical matter (this is something that the United States Republican party utilized more)(Bennett et al, 2018).

The reason as to why I state that the United Nations at Geneva uses a more of a horizontal platform when regarding issues is because they try to cover a lot of issues. For example in their last post, they quote Ghassan Salamé the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya taking about how in diplomacy, we need to listen to both sides of the arguments (UNGeneva. Photo of Ghassan Salamé Through a Phone. Instagram. 4 Feb, 2020, https://www.instagram.com/p/B8JxerpJXlB/). While in their previous post before that, they quote Mahatma Gandhi, the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, speaking about how if we truly want to live in a non-violent society then we must consider violence on the environment as well (UNGeneva. Video of Mahatma Gandhi. Instagram. 3 Feb. 2020,https://www.instagram.com/p/B8Gker7pNEA/). We can notice two clear different themes in this post. Although they both refer to peace and non-violence in some way, one refers to peace in a diplomatic sense, while the other refers to non-violence in regards to the environment. Two different issues. However they do tend to use this platform to promote peace and non-violence in many different ways.

Personally, I have not seen the United Nations at Geneva (or the U.N. in general) trend this week. I would say it is because in the States we have just started the 2020 cycle of primaries and caucuses. And being in the states, it is unlikely that an international organization during this time would trend. However, the internet is a crazy, unpredictable place so it could trend next week or not at all during this course.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

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