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[aaronting99]

VII】 What could be the fusion of 🎮 and 🎶?

Nowadays, games are much more than what they used to be. Gaming is not just about playing, nor wasting time. It represents a journey filled with entertainment, which could either be short or long. Since it’s about entertainment, games have crossed boundaries and entered the world of pop music. Here goes the best example, League of Legends by Riot Games.

The second music group in LoL, True Damage

True Damage, a newly debuted hip-hop group for League of Legends recently released its first single “Giants”, featuring artists Keke Palmer, Becky G, Soyeon from the KPOP group (G)I-DLE, Duckwrth and Thutmose. Each of them impersonates and provides the vocals for some of the most popular characters from League of Legends, Keke as Senna (the freshly unveiled character), Becky as Qiyana, Soyeon as Akali, both Thutmose and Duckwrth as Ekko, while Yasuo plays the silent DJ role. The artists took it to the stage in Paris’ AccorHotels Arena during the 2019 World Championship Finals Opening Ceremony, completed the performance with augmented reality and holographic for the fans. The project was not only aim to promote a new set of in-game skins and a partnership with Louis Vuitton, but also to portray the ever-expanding foothold of Riot Games in the broader entertainment landscape (Pei 2019) .

True Damage was actually consecutive to last year’s finals when Riot Games created a KPOP group called K/DA and revealed in Incheon’s Munhak Stadium in South Korea (Pei 2019) . The animated music video of their song “POP/STARS” has reached 13 million views after releasing for only 2 days. It was an enormous hit immediately after its debut, even leading a huge amount of non-gamers to check it out. The music video currently sits at 284 million views on YouTube, which is more than most mainstream KPOP songs (Mickunas 2019).

The figures on YouTube

Like “POP/STARS”, the early success of “Giants” puts it more in line with mainstream music than a video game promotion. The music video, released on 10th Nov, has reached 6.9 million views the next day on the official League of Legends YouTube channel. It received an overall positive feedback, counting over 400,000 likes. The live performance video of “Giants” itself has reached 1.4 million views as well (Mickunas 2019). With that, League of Legends have already created high presence on social networking sites, especially YouTube.

In summary...

League of Legends have shown the world how far a game could go. Their target is no longer merely gamers, but also other online communities as they are creating more varieties of entertainment.

[aaronting99]

VI】 Underestimated yet so formidable — fans of the Asian Pop King👑

In this era where entertainments such as movies, music, sports and games are a portion of our lives, most of us would have experiences of being a fan, that either supports an actor, a singer, or a sport team. The power of fandom is known to be greatly influential from their attitude to behaviour.

The Old vs The New

An Internet data traffic war between fans of the middle-aged singer, Jay Chou and the new generation idol Cai Xukun was kindled from bewilderment over difficulty of getting Chou’s concert tickets though his online presence not quite registers.

Chou is a 40-year-old Taiwanese singer and songwriter. His debut album, Jay was released in 2000. His music was recognized throughout Asia from then on, with more than 30 million albums sold and received various awards. However, he did not release any album for three years from 2016 and does not even own a Weibo account.

His 21-year-old “opponent” Cai is one of the debuted contestants from Internet talent show “Idol Producer” in 2018. As a typical social media celebrity, he has long been on the top of Weibo’s Chaohua (super topics) where stars are ranked based on their “influence.” The more active fans are, the bigger the influence of their idol is assumed to be, an utterly modern metric (Xu 2019).

The battle on the list

In the contemporary world, Internet traffic is the standard of a celebrity’s popularity. Thus, for the most part, the fans are willingly to take part in boosting these figures.

The Internet “battle” of the two stars commenced on July 16 when a post on social networking site Douban questioned about Chou’s tickets being difficult to get even when he seemed to have a little fans. Soon after, the doubt has ruffled the feathers of Chou’s loyal fans. They denied taking such a provocation in stride, even if it was issued by a random person. Many wished to defy it by boosting Chou’s place on Weibo’s super topics, a contribution that can be pulled off with adequate posts as well as other activities on the platform. This, in turn, had the top-ranked Cai aiming by Chou’s fans. Therefore, Cai’s fans have strived to defend their idol’s place.

At 12 am of 21 July, efforts of Chou’s fans made him surpass Cai to reach the top of the list with an "influence" of 100 million, which is nearly twice of Cai’s. The incredible victory of the campaign has inspired jubilation among Chou’s fans, with declaration of fulfilment by famous public figures who support the Taiwanese musician at outdistancing the brash young star Cai (Liang 2019).

“You can’t say Chou got no fans just because we don’t show up in data chart!”

Through this incident...

It can be seen that the power of fandom is truly astonishing. However, it is also the affordances of social media that allow them to exhibit their enthusiasm towards their idols, narrowing the gap between celebrities and fans.

[aaronting99]

V】 Next level of esports: Crowdfunding💰

Crowdfunding is an approach to raise capital by collecting effort from friends, family, consumers, and individual investors. This method taps into a huge group of individuals’ collective efforts—primarily online via social networking sites and crowdfunding platforms—and their networks are leveraged for greater reach and publicity (Fundable 2019). But do you know that crowdfunding can be done in a gaming site?

The relationship between esports and crowdfunding

In this age, many teams and events of esports are now sponsored by big labels like Mountain Dew, Red Bull, Amazon, and Brisk, but these are insufficient sometimes, especially for lower-tier esports. Here comes crowdfunding. The evolution of esports has reformed the concept of prize pools and community involvement. With the adoption of crowdfunding, the game communities continue to foster the esports (Mitrevski 2017).

In 2016, the developer of the largest MOBA game, League of Legends—Riot Games has added crowdfunding to the prize pool for the annual World Championship to increase revenue for the competitive teams and support the long-term health of the esports. The crowdfunding for the World Championships was introduced by in-game purchases of cosmetic items. Starting with 2016’s tournament, 25% of all Championship skin and Championship Ward (in-game items) sales contribute to the prize pool. Precisely, that is $2.015 million from the Championship Zed (one of the game characters) and Ward sales and $2.13 million from the original prize pool, so it is almost doubled. In 2017, the base prize pool offered by Riot Games was $2.25 million while in-game purchases have boosted it to $4.6 million. Instead of the winner receiving all the extra crowdfunded money, the fund will be divided to every team in the tournament (Volk 2016). Furthermore, Riot have donated 25% of all Championship Ashe sales during Worlds 2017 to three worldwide charities (Wolmarans 2017).

Championship Zed & Championship Ward

In addition, the World Championship’s winner will obtain 25% of revenue from sales of the Team Championship skins they earn for winning Worlds right after they are released. Teams that have won (Fnatic, TPA, SKT T1, SSW, SSG, IG) will receive revenue shares on their formerly released skins (Cocke 2016). This indicates that fans are willing to take part in the crowdfunding since they can get a skin and support their favourite teams at the same time, it’s a win-win situation.

SKT T1 2016 Team Championship skins

Undoubtedly...

Gaming is rapidly growing and even the most well-known games are all outcome of community driven efforts. Since esports is so community driven, crowdfunding acts an essential impetus to it. With the virtually universal system, what could be the limit for crowdfunding?

[aaronting99]

IV】 The lethality of cyberbullying💀

Cyberbullying (online bullying) – the action where Internet, particularly social media sites are used by an individual or group to deride, intimidate, or endanger another person is generally known in the online world for the past decade (Techopedia 2019). Victims could experience lower self-esteem, increased suicidal thoughts, and several types of negative emotional responses, such as being scared, frustrated, angry, and depressed (Hinduja & Patchin 2014). You might not have experienced cyberbullying, but you most probably have heard about certain cases of how severe cyberbullying is. Not only it happens to young teenagers or students, celebrities in the K-pop world tend to face cyberbullying more often from the online haters. The most recent tragedy that had caused an uproar in the industry — Sulli’s death clearly reflects the awfulness of cyberbullying.

It took her life

Sulli, the South Korean singer-actress who was found dead on 14th October 2019, was a extraordinary veto-breaker in a world where every move of K-pop stars is rigidly controlled by their management. Her death has revealed the dark side of the industry that sparked a global fad. She disclosed her relationship with rapper Choiza at the crest of her career as a member of one of the top girl group, f(x) and was outspoken about bra-less, opposing both the K-pop industry’s attentive brand management and conservative social attitudes towards young women which caused a stream of online denunciation.

Before her death at age 25, Sulli, who suffered from serious depression due to the vicious and obnoxious comments she received on social media, voiced out greatly against cyberbullying. According to colleagues and experts, her death has highlighted the constant salvo of spiteful online comments faced by young female artists in the limelight. The most recent public appearance of Sulli was in a television programme in which K-pop stars talked about their experiences with malignant online postings (Reuters 2019).

“A precious person has left us again. Online haters, you are cowardly and faceless murderers,” said actor Shin Hyun-joon, lashing out at online haters.

Fans’ actions

In pace with Sulli’s death, the website of the presidential Blue House was congregated by fans for the filing of a petition advocating the adoption of a real-name online comment system. A series of related bills has for years been pending in parliament in the middle of acrimonious debate (Reuters 2019).

In efforts to commemorate Sulli in the most positive and amiable ways possible, a movement has been urged by Korean netizens to change the relevant search words that are recommended when searching Sulli’s name in online portals, such as NAVER. Thus, netizens have started to search terms such as “We love you, Sulli” in order to eliminate any negative search words that used to pop up (Koreaboo 2019).

As we can see...

Cyberbullying is indeed lethal and has taken many lives ruthlessly. It may be occurring in the online world, but it could cause even more damage than bullying to the victims. Seeing what Sulli, a merely 25-year-old female artist had faced all over the social media is truly tragic. Not to mention, social media was never meant to be invented to create these negative impacts. So please, say NO to cyberbullying. Spread love, not hate.

[aaronting99]

III】 If you were “them”, would you rather be pro-Beijing or pro-democracy?🏳️

It has been 4 months since the 2019 Hong Kong protests (Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement) sparked with wrath around different areas in the city and in fact, it is still ongoing. In the wake of the protests, numerous Hong Kong celebrities have shown their political stances, either in real life or social media platforms. Assuredly, some chose to side with their own hometown while some otherwise.

The Icon of pro-democracy

Denice Ho, one of the most well-known Hong Kong pop stars stood up for her city. She has voiced out at demonstrations, distributed voter registration forms at marches and went to the battlefield with protesters, persuading the riot police not to assault. Ho has always been extraordinary among the celebrities when it comes to political issues. She was involved in a protest movement in Hong Kong that asked for freer elections in the semi-autonomous land.

As a result, she was banned by The Chinese government from performing in China and her music were removed from the playlists of streaming websites. Her manager claimed that the blacklisting diminished around US$120,000 from her annual income (New York Times 2019).

However, the ban only spurred Ho to defend the freedom of speech as well as other civil liberties that isolate Hong Kong from the rest of China.

“For me, it is always about the people, for the people to be empowered and for them to believe that we can control our destiny.”

The pro-Beijing Man

To the contrary, the Hong Kong-born Kung Fu star, Jackie Chan showed his support for China on social media.

After protesters removed and dumped China’s national flag into the sea (August 3), CCTV, China’s state broadcaster initiated a trend on Weibo declaring that “The five-starred red flag has 1.4 billion guardians.” The hashtag was viewed over 2.9 billion times and has nearly 10 million shares. Soon after, Jackie Chan has proclaimed his pro-Beijing stance by sharing the post and affirmed “I am a flag bearer.”

Unsurprisingly, it infuriated the Hong Kong netizens and he has received tons of hate comments. Jackie Chan has long been criticised in Hong Kong for his pro-Beijing view. The actor always sings out China’s praises boldly, simply doing so at two straight CCTV Spring Festival Galas. In May, he was one of 200 of Hong Kong’s elite who took part to sing the Chinese national anthem in a “flash mob” propaganda video (Linder 2019).

In response to those criticism, he clarified that seeing how China is rapidly developing, he feels very proud to be Chinese. The Chinese flag makes him feel safe, stable and peaceful. He said Hong Kong is his hometown while China is his country. He loves Hong Kong and hopes it can be peaceful again (Fam 2019).

Thoughts...

Celebrities can create great impact from proclaiming their political stances even by just sharing a post on social media. However, either point of views might worsen the situation of protests. It is also understandable to see Hong Kong celebrities supporting China. Seeing how severe the punishment towards Denise Ho was and comparing the 1.4 billion with 7.5 million of population, China’s market is just way too enormous for them. So, if you were them, would you rather risk your career to stand up for your hometown or choose to play safe?

[aaronting99]

II】 A new stage for politicians to perform themselves🎙️

Needless to say, politicians nowadays love social media as much as we do. Just like other elements of modern life, the Internet has been swiftly interweaving with political campaigns that developed a new structure of “smart” politics. However, it is not seamless to adopt the Internet hastily as the rules and norms for the online existence of campaigns’ have not yet been broadly regulated (Hollinger 2018). 

This time, we will take a look on the “performance” of the president of United States, Donald Trump on social media.

The upsides of intertwining politics with social media

One of the essential steps for the accomplishment of Trump’s campaign is the globalization of ideas. Its capability to swiftly and continually connect with the American public is the most crucial reason that made him popular and successful. In fact, the rapid growth of Trump’s fame and public influence is by the political essence of social media sites through the budding Internet Democracy.

Through the hyper-active social media appearance of Trump, a unique political relationship can be seen between Trump and his followers. With the sheer nature of social media, a post’s visibility is naturally linked to popularity, to the number of likes, retweets, and views. Thus, we can see the inception of a new, perhaps more "democratic" style of political propagation as a result of the close connection between public acceptance and the presence of Trump's medium of selection. Trump's campaign is genuinely innovative as his 2016 campaign has built the way for a more complementary pattern of democracy, which every politician should be considering in this modern age (Hollinger 2018).

The abuse of power

As many have mentioned, Trump often makes improper declarations on social media, and has created other, similar threats. His presidency accentuated how politicians nowadays have access to the community without any kind of filter in the form of journalistic commentary, fact-checking, context, or scrutinizing by staff via social media (O’kane 2019).

On the 29th of September, Donald Trump quoted Pastor Robert Jeffress, a Fox News contributor and host, with a tweet that if he is being impeached and removed from office, a "civil war" might flare up in the United States.

To much denunciation, the policy of Twitter has been allowing politicians to say whatever they wish on the platform for years, under the camouflage of “newsworthiness.” In June, it formalized the rule, although with a significant refinement: politicians’ tweets that go against these policies would get hidden and labelled. The company also claimed it would assure that these tweets would not get algorithmically uplifted, all in an intention to “to strike the right balance between enabling free expression, fostering accountability, and reducing the potential harm caused by these Tweets.” But that, arguably does not focus on the core of the problem that Twitter created, which hate speech and misinformation are allowed to flow around for years (Kozlowska 2019).

Last word...

The connection between politics and social media will not be ruptured, instead it will become even stronger in the future, I believe. Despite of the uncertainties on social media, people in open democracies still hold the rights to elect their president. Therefore, it is their responsibility to judge what politicians say themselves to determine the best leader for their motherland.

[aaronting99]

I】 Tumblr = blog / social network site?🤔

Unlike most other social media platforms, there is a common question that goes: “Is Tumblr a blog or a social network site?” as sometimes people get confused about its one-of-a-kind features. Since I am going to use this particular platform throughout the semester for this unit, I guess it is time for me to “seek the truth”.

First, let’s talk about the differences between a blog and a social network site.

Blogs (which I am not familiar with), are usually ones’ autobiographies that consist of wording, pictures, video, as well as links to different sites. Their disposition of instantaneous, interactive, and low-cost caused them to become a major source for news, marketing, and media. Therefore, it was very prominent and common in the early 2000s (Helicon 2018). On the other hand, Social Network Sites (SNS, literally our daily need), are digital communities where the online publics are allowed to reach out and link with each other through creating profiles as well as uploading and sharing personal photos or information. SNS are not merely used because of the trend, but it is already a substantial portion of every person’s life. This can be proved by the billions of users on SNS, and the number is growing as the days go by (Waheed, Anjum, Rehman, & Khawaja 2017).

Back to the topic, so what is Tumblr?

Tumblr is a microblogging platform that has been outstanding ever since it was launched in 2007 and it became the closest competitor to Twitter (A History of Tumblr 2012). It allows you to make and post your original content. Besides, all those written entries, photos, videos or links to other sites can be shared with your friends and followers. You can also follow as many other users' blogs as you like, which will be showed up on the user's feed or Dashboard (Boone 2012). However, there is an essential feature of Tumblr culture, which is reblogging that allows anyone to repost any other blogs’ content and add their own comments or “like” it. These will give “notes” to the original post as it roams over the network’s feed (Reeve 2016).

In that sense, we can say that Tumblr is both a blog and a social network site. Not only it allows user to become a blogger, those who have similar interests can also follow each other to share their blogs. Although Tumblr users are no longer making the longer diary style entries seen in most traditional blogs, its microblogging feature let people post short paragraphs or photos on a daily basis. Moreover, it has the characteristics of social network sites as it connects people with interactions and socialization.

To sum up...

Tumblr is an evolution that retains the trait of blogging, but also brings the online publics to the realm of social network sites, one of a kind.

[aaronting99]

it’s Ay Ay Ron.