MDA20009

[101100859-blog]

https://www.extradigital.co.uk/articles/social-media/social-media-in-china.html

This article explains the diverse range of social media platforms available in China. 

[101100859-blog]

Global Social Media Practice: Case Study China

As someone from a Western country such as Australia, I always used to think that countries in place like Asia would have less progressive social media. However, I remember sitting in a lecture last year and being told that students in Indonesia studying the same degree I am have to have a social media account with 400,000 followers to graduate. I also remember the lecturer saying that they laugh if someone their age has Facebook because that’s what their grandparents use. This information blew me away because it made me realise that I only have a Western perspective on social media and what platforms are commonly used or laughed it. 

Researching social media in China this week definitely made me agree with the claim that “social media is exploding worldwide, and China is leading the way” (Chiu et al 2013, P.1).  This is evident in the number of social media users in China; not only does China have an extremely large population, it has over 600 million social media users (Statista 2018). More importantly than this, China has the highest number of active social media users worldwide, with 91% of people saying they had used a social media account in the last six months (Chiu et al 2013, P.1). This shows that China not only has a large number of social media users, but a large number of active users means people remain up to date with popular platforms and integrate social media in their everyday lives. China is also leading the way with social media platforms such as Qzone, Renren and Kaixin, which all have a variety of uses to appeal to a wide range of people. 

Another example of Chinese social media progressing beyond a Western counterpart in WeChat. WeChat started as a direct copy of WhatsApp, which is blocked on public servers in China. While WhatsApp has stayed a platform that is purely for messaging and calling, WeChat has developed to have online shopping, games and a payment system for goods, among other things (BBC 2017). This is clear evidence that China has progressive social media even behind the Great Firewall. 

It is evident that China has a social media world of its own. With 1/8 of the world’s population living in China, it’s easy to understand this. The need for Chinese developers to create platforms that compete with Western counterparts to provide for a Chinese audience has been hugely successful. This is because, like in the examples above, the Chinese equivalents have often become more innovative than the Western versions. I think this is really surprising because I thought it would be the opposite, and the fact that Western platforms have a larger global span and a more various  audience with less government restrictions would mean they would be more progressive. However, it seems that my attitude was wrong and that it is in fact the Chinese platforms that are leading the way is regards to social media. References

BBC 2017, Social media and censorship in China: how is it different to the West?’, bbc.co.uk, viewed 28 May 2018, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/41398423/social-media-and-censorship-in-china-how-is-it-different-to-the-west>. 

Chiu, C, Lin, D & Silverman, A 2012, ‘China’s Social-Media Boom’, McKinsey and Company. 

Statista 2017, Social Networks in China - Statistics & Facts, viewed 28 May 2018, <https://www.statista.com/topics/1170/social-networks-in-china/>.

[speakupchinese]

[chinamedia-blog]

Social Media in China: The Same, But Different

By Meaghan Murphy

April 10, 2012

As Chinese consumers spend more time online, foreign companies need to start learning more about domestic social media platforms in order to keep up with the developing economy. It is important for businesses to remember that Chinese social media platforms differ from Western platforms in various ways. Companies can take advantage of China’s platforms in order to perform consumer research, launch their own products, manage public relations crises, etc.

Even with the use of censorship, the Internet has granted Chinese citizens access to information they would never have been able to obtain just a few years ago. “Coming from a world where information was pre-filtered by editors and state-run media, China’s Internet is freewheeling by comparison.” Instead of eliminating social media, China’s restrictions on foreign websites caused a rise in “home-grown, state-approved ecosystem in which Chinese-owned properties thrive.” Even though YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are blocked in China, their Chinese equivalents are continuously expanding. In addition, according to a Boston Consulting Group study, Chinese Internet users are online for an average of 2.7 hours per day, which is similar to the usage patters of Internet users in Japan and the United States.

Given these statistics, one might ask what are the factors that help drive the Chinese, more than other populations, to engage in social media? One of the factors is rural-to-urban migration in China, which has separated families. Therefore, families turn to social media in order to connect with the relatives they are distant from. Another factor is a distrust of information from government-controlled media. In addition, the third factor is the loneliness of the one-child generation. Since each family is only allowed to have one child, children look to social media in order to interact with friends and other their age since they do not have siblings to spend their time with. In f act, according to a 2008 survey, young people in China only have more friends online than offline. This suggests that in China, more than in other countries, social media has become deeply integrated into people’s lives and “it is less important to distinguish what happens online from the ‘real world.’”

According to a recent study by OgilvyOne in China, 55% of Chinese Internet users used social media to engage in online discussions about companies. This discovery made it clear that understanding social media was no longer an option for Chinese companies – it was a necessary. “Now, the penetration and impact of social media is such that failing to understand what consumers are saying about a company online has become a business risk.”

In order to understand the China social media platforms better, a series of social media “bulls-eyes” were developed that put international platforms on the outside ring and placed their local equivalents on the inner ring. For example, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook would be on the outside ring while China’s equivalents of Youku, Tudou, and others would be put on the inside ring. Although having this comparison is helpful, it can also be misleading. China’s social media platforms vary in many ways from their international equivalents, however censorship is not the only reason for these differences. “In China, as elsewhere in Asia, local variations of Internet usage are driven by language, culture, levels of economic development, and the underlying digital ecosystem.” Digital ecosystems are known as the platforms that people focus their online communications around, can have major variations between and within countries. For example, Internet users in Japan and South Korea mainly use domestic social media platforms such as FREE and Cyworld rather than internationally known sites.

Understanding different country’s social media usage patterns can reveal a lot about the Internet and the country involved. For example, Chinese Internet users use their equivalent of YouTube to watch longer videos so that it acts more like a television station and they spend up to an hour per day on the site. While American Internet users use YouTube to watch short videos of animals or what-not and spend only less than 15 minutes daily on the site. “In some ways, the sites resemble a variation on US-based television service Hulu more than YouTube. The television-like feel of Youku and Tudou reflects the usage pattern of young Chinese,” saying that they are much more active users than those in the United States. Nowadays, if you ask a group of Chinese students if they have watched local television within the last week, no hands would be raised. But you if you asked how many students had watched a video on Youku or Tudou within the last day, every hand would go up. “This switchover to social media does more than demonstrate the popularity of new media – it affects the whole advertising industry.” As a result, certain Chinese demographics can no longer be reached through television, therefore advertisers and companies must begin to find new ways to reach their demographics through social media. 

[101100859-blog]

Social Gaming: Playing the Crowd

A few months ago, I was with my boyfriend and we were talking about how we socialise and spend time with others. While he does love going out and socialising with his friends, he also spends a lot of time playing games in his room. I said to him that I obviously like hanging out with people more as I’m always out with my friends and with others while he’ll lock himself in his room for days on end. However, he did point out that while he was doing that, he was consistently talking to the people he was playing games with, some of who he considers his closest friends. This really made me think about the online world of gaming in a different way because I had never really thought about it being super social until that moment. 

This is hardly surprising, as there are an estimated 2.2 billion online gamers worldwide (McDonald 2017), meaning it’s a massive global industry. This means a variety of people of different backgrounds, ages and lifestyles. Which is why is makes sense that for online gaming there are both government laws and online regulations. Legal rules are also often made by lawyers in the best interest of the publishers and creators of the games so there are no issues when the game is released and played (de Zwart & Humphreys 2014, P.77). Other rules also include those against harassment or vilification to protect those playing the game (de Zwart & Humphreys 2014, P.80). Online consent is also something that is prevalent as it ties into legalities and ensures online safety (Suzor & Woodford 2013, P.11). I think all of these things are really important for online safety and with the number of people who play online games, particularly a younger age range, being protected online is really important. 

The rules I found surprising however, as someone who is not a gamer, is the idea that there are rules made by the players as games grow and develop. This develops a culture for online games in general and also each individual game itself. If you Google search gaming rules, countless articles explain rules for ‘noobs’ who are new to gaming. This is evidence of all the social rules involved just with playing games online. Breaking the social norms seen as rules in games can cause online hatred or gamer rage (Gilbert 2014). I think this is fascinating as gamers are often seen as social misfits but online rules form characteristics of online games that make the games evolve in their own ways. 

References 

De Zwart & Humphreys 2014, ‘The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online’, Cultural Studies Review, vol.20, no.1, pp.77-99. 

Gilbert, H 2014, ‘The 7 unspoken rules of gaming (finally explained)’, viewed 28 May 2018, <https://www.gamesradar.com/top-7-unspoken-rules-gaming-finally-explained/>. 

McDonald, E 2017, ‘The Global Games Market’, viewed 28 May 2018, <https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/the-global-games-market-will-reach-108-9-billion-in-2017-with-mobile-taking-42/>. 

Suzor, N & Woodford, D 2013, 'Evaluating consent and legitimacy amongst shifting community norms: An EVE Online case study' Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, vol.6, no.3, pp.1-14.

[somenerdthing]

[101100859-blog]

Public Health Campaigns & Communities

Warning: discussion may be triggering for some people. 

  When thinking about social media raising awareness to mental health, I always think back to when I first starting using Tumblr in about 2011. I remember being amazed and terrified by the number of blogs dedicated to depression, self harm or eating disorders. But it wasn’t that people were talking about their issues and supporting each other. The posts essentially seemed to glorify all these things and almost make it aesthetically cool or edgy. Looking at blogs focused on mental health this year, I’m happy to see that mostly things have really changed. People seem to reach out to one another, to interact and receive or offer support. Posts about self love, or coping mechanisms or cartoons of things to do to make you happy that day seem to be most of what I’m seeing. Gone are the posts with fresh scars, flesh and bones and angry, self deprecating quotes. I think this is a really positive shift and overall represents the positivity social media can bring those who search for it. Peer-to-peer communities on platforms such as Tumblr have grown hugely in the last few years (Hayes 2018). Blogs have been especially successful because of its tools for self-expression and networked communication (McCosker 2016). Tumblr itself has embraced being dubbed a mental health forum (Hulpuch 2016) and promotes many mental health awareness campaigns, including Post It Forward during Mental Health Month in May (Cohen 2017). 

  I think this is an excellent example of how people have evolved with social media and found out how to use it to create a positive impact. I think mental health is hugely prevalent because even today it can be quite a taboo topic to talk about. However, someone looking at a screen connecting to someone else halfway across the country and bonding over shared issues has made the discussion a lot more open and acceptable. 

Social media has become part of a majority of people’s everyday lives. Having positive social media platforms and account that encourages people to do their best, offer advice for bad days or just letting someone know they’re not alone is really important. On a darker note, someone who is struggling with mental health and goes online only to find a plethora of blogs relating to self-hate or unhappiness could feed them a lot of negative content. Thankfully these types of accounts or becoming less common or popular and the positive vibes that seem to dominate a platform like Tumblr seems to be the way of the future.

References 

Cohen, D 2017, Tumblr just announced several initiatives for mental health month, viewed 27 May 2018, < https://www.adweek.com/digital/tumblr-mental-health-month/>. 

Heyes, K 2018, Mental Health: the dangers of the social media diagnosis, viewed 27 May 2018, < https://theconversation.com/mental-health-the-dangers-of-the-social-media-diagnosis-90717>. 

 Hulpuch, A 2016, 'I just feel less alone': how Tumblr became a source for mental health care, viewed 27 May 2018, < https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/19/tumblr-mental-health-information-community-disorders-healthcare>. 

 McCosker, A. 2016, 'Digital Mental Health and Visibility: Tagging Depression', in P. Messaris and L. Humphreys, Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication(2nd edn), Peter Lang.  

[minus-the-negative]

You’re only as healthy as your mind says you are.

minusthenegative.com

[selfcarevibes]

Great reminders from @positivelypresent

[101100859-blog]

This blog really exemplifies the good vibes now found on platforms such as Tumblr, promoting the importance of mental health and self care. 

[letsmonika-blog1]

PUBLIC HEALTH:CAMPAIGNS AND COMMUNITIES

Public health issues are serious business, and organizations are increasingly developing effective social media campaigns targeted to their specific audiences. Utilizing various available social networks, government agencies and non-profits are able to combat rumors, encourage behavioral changes, and share information, all while allowing their audiences to engage and share feedback. there have been some great public health campaigns in the past that raised a lot of funds for their respective causes. one of the biggest example is the ALS ice bucket challenge.it started to raise awareness about what ALS was and involved people dumping cold water on themselves and tagging 3 friends. this campaign was one of the most successful in the history of public campaigns and raised over 115 million dollars for the ALS association alone. Scientists were able to fast forward research and promising breakthroughs for the incurable, little-known disease are on the horizon. The level of engagement in the viral campaign is almost unparalleled, with organizations holding world record-breaking challenges, celebrities and other people of notoriety jumping on board to raise awareness and money.there are many ways for organizations to develop campaigns which will resonate with people to raise awareness about something important. social media campaigns around public health are very effective and show strong results. Health practitioners, researchers, and agencies should also consider the potential benefits of using social media for obtaining rapid and timely data about trends and patterns in health. although there is a lot of superficiality in sharing these campaign. A like or a comment on facebook won't affect anyone but actual donations will help. although this can be a big problem with public campaigns, liking and sharing create awareness and the campaign can reach more people and hence more donors.

[101100859-blog]

Talking about the ice bucket challenge definitely brings back memories because i remember it being a massive craze and even doing it myself. It’s amazing how something so simple could be picked up by people online and raise so much attention for a cause via social media.  

[lamb83]

Here's How You Can Help People In Puerto Rico

3.5 million Americans are enduring "apocalyptic" conditions right now because of Hurricane Maria.

[101100859-blog]

An excellent example of online crowdsourcing

[101100859-blog]

Crowdsourcing in Times of Crisis

Crowdsourcing is “the practice of obtaining needed services, idea, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people” (Marchionda c. 2012). In recent years, this has been heavily influenced by social media as it becomes an easy tool for people to use when crowdsourcing.

An example of this is the New Zealand earthquakes in  2011. When the earthquakes occurred, places to gather such as community halls and churches were destroyed or deemed unsafe, so people turned to social media for support and information (Mathewson 2012). Beyond the areas affected, people from other parts of New Zealand or countries such as Australia also offered support, with appeals for donations of money or clothes often popping up on social media platforms. When stories, videos or photos were posted and spread online, those affected received support and empathy from across the globe. The New Zealand earthquakes also show the use of crisis mapping, which when live maps are produced to display a bird’s eye view of an area and contain information that comes from social media platforms, text messages, satellite images or traditional media (Beatson et. al 2011). The Christchurch Recovery Map was a crisis map used in 2011 to help people deal with the aftermath of the natural disaster. This is an excellent example of how social media can be used to convey practical information to those in crisis as well as spreading awareness to others not affected and allow support to be provided for anyone who needs it. The use of social media in this way shows its integral part in the communication following a crisis.

Something I have noticed on Facebook recently is if someone I know is in a city where an incident occurs, such as the Nice and Munich attacks in 2011, I get a notification saying they have marked themselves safe. For both incidences, this was how I found out about the attacks and was my first exposure to them. I think this is an excellent example of a platform such as Facebook developing in a way that allows for information to be spread during a crisis and alert people about the safety of their loved ones.

A part of this week I found interesting is the reading that centres around Ushahidi, which is a platform that began in Kenya in 2007 that allows users to share and report on human rights violations (Radovanovic, D 2014). The platform has won multiple awards and been highly successful, however it’s biggest challenge is the verification of the stories reported. Although all stories get posted on the platform, this means that individuals have to go out and get stories verified for authenticity. This shows that while Ushahidi has proven to be successful, it’s the non-technical intervention required that continues to create challenges for the future (Ford 2012). This is a clear example of technology progressing but being help back by what has to be reflected in the real world. It’s also a clear example of an online reaction to a social issue and creating a new way to address community issues and help overcome them.

References

Beatson, A, Buettner, A & Shirato, T 2014, 'Social Media, Crisis Mapping and the Christchurch Earthquakes of 2011’, Medianz, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 38-53.

Ford, H 2012, ‘Crowd Wisdom’, Index on Censorship, pp 33-39.

Marchionda, M c. 2012, Crowdsourcing spreading like wildfire with social media, viewed 20 May 2018, <http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/web-2.0/crowdsourcing-spreading-like-wildfire-with-social-media>.

Mathewson, N 2012, Social media excel after quakes, viewed 20 May 2018, <http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/7517088/Social-media-excel-after-quakes>.

Radovanovic, D 2014, Bridging the Digital Divide: Mobile and Social Media, viewed 20 May 2018, <https://rising.globalvoices.org/blog/2014/01/17/bridging-the-digital-divide-mobile-and-social-media/>.

[ellysdigitalhub-blog]

Time for a case study: The Ariana Grande Concert 2017 explosion

Crowd sourcing in times of Crises-

I remember when the Ariana Grande concert bombing happened in Manchester last year, an almost live feed to the events unfolded on my social media accounts. I remember a seemingly normal night turning into a storm of instant live video feeds streaming through my social media accounts. What shock me the most is that Snapchat formulated a live story of those at the scenes videos that people at the scene were posting made readily available for public consumption. It felt like I had a microscopic lens on something that I was completely desensitised to as I was not physically experiencing it.  Crowdsourcing of information on crises events has both a positive and negative effect. 

A hashtag #RoomForManchester over twitter went viral as people of the community reached out offering any help for those who were affected in the concert. At the same time news was breaking out as it was happening, creating a lot of false accusations and misinformation as the whole story was yet to be uncovered, creating more panic and fearmongering. 

Facebook after the rise of crises has implemented ‘Crisis Response’ where users can share information about recent crises and can have access to Safety check. This is where users can let their family and friends know that you are safe during a crises situation near you. This is integral for the public to having an easy accessible way to notify their loved ones of their safety.  

Social media platforms have become the hub for crowdsourcing information on crises events around the world. The ABC has identified that social media has the ability to impact immensely on emergency situations (Posetti & Lo, 2012, p. 34). For the first time, people around the world are able to respond to, share information and get alerts on what is happening in real time. This is exampled in the Thailand volcano eruption in November 2018, during the Haiti earthquakes, the Boston bombings and the numerous mass shootings in America such as the Los Vegas shooting in 2017. Giving ordinary people the extraordinary ability to provide much needed information and help during times of need.

[101100859-blog]

This is a really interesting case study as it truly conveys how prevalent social media becomes when a crisis happens and also how it can be used to piece together an event by police or investigators. The impact social media has on crises is becoming more and more influential and even if the people watching the videos on the other side of the world are desensitised to it, they are aware, they are awake and in a lot of circumstances they are ready to help. 

[globalvoices]

Technology experts and activists have for years attempted to bridge the gap between those with access to technology and those without… today, the mobile phone has emerged as a powerful tool for social engagement.

Bridging the Digital Divide: Mobile and Social Media

[101100859-blog]

Related to this week’s reading by H Ford, an interesting view on the power people have when they have access to technology. 

[nonbinarypastels]

[101100859-blog]

This is such an important message to remember because when someone’s online and just looking at a computer screen, they may forget the people they talk to online also exist in real life and have thoughts and feelings too.

[101100859-blog]

Just a few of the options on the Australian government’s eSafety website, which promotes a lot of support but not a lot of online governance. 

[joshua-wright]

She’s gotta catch ‘em all!