Digital Communities Blogs

[digicommwriting-blog1]

Week 10: Problems with Online Gaming

MMORPGs are a contracted space where users have to obey an end user licence agreement (EULA) in order to access the online community (de Zwart & Humphreys 2014). Despite this, most platform providers don’t get involved in user-player conflicts that can arise in the online space. There are external laws that can get a player banned, including abusing other players, as well as racial and sexual harassment.

This does not mean that harassment and abuse does not occur in online gaming communities. There have been recent stories in the public space regarding sexual harassment and sexism in formerly patriarchal spaces (Newitz 2012).

A website titled ‘Not in the Kitchen Anymore’ is the account of female gamer Jenny Haniver’s experiences with online gaming and audio of other player’s comments to her (2016). Transcripts are logged on her main page with recordings, and she is called a ‘skank’, ‘slut’, asked inappropriate sexual questions and stalked on her other social media profiles by what she calls ‘Random Male Players’ online.

http://www.notinthekitchenanymore.com/

It is not just women who are marginalised on these online gaming communities either; racism is a prominent issue in these spaces. In an article published by News One (2010), it was mentioned that violent, racial slurs are commonplace between users on the PlayStation, Blizzard Entertainment and Xbox online communities.

Thankfully, there is hope for the future of gaming as more and more websites are rallying against the hate comments. Twitter account The Bigot Gamer “exposes Bigot Gamers one link at a time” (TBG 2016); through posting links to photos, videos and comments with the usernames of those making sexist, homophobic and racist comments.

https://twitter.com/thebigotgamer

GayGamer.net is another example, however as opposed to calling out hateful comments online, it provides a safe space for homosexual gamers to interact about video games (2016). There are forums for users of several different nationalities, non-gamer related discussions and contests for users to be involved in. The forum’s FAQ has advice on how to deal with offensive users and provides ‘report’ buttons to flag items one considers offensive or illegal (GayGamer.net).

Overall, there are issues with the online gaming community but there are also sites out there that seek to call out people on their behaviour and support marginalised groups by providing a safe space for them to interact about video games.

References

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

GayGamer.net 2016a, Gaygamer, GayGamer.net, viewed 25 January 2016, <http://gaygamer.net/>.

GayGamer.net 2016b, The GayGamer.net Forums FAQ, GayGamer.net, viewed 25 January 2016, <http://gaygamer.net/forum/faq.php?faq=vb3_board_usage#faq_vb3_troublesome_users>.

GayGamer.net 2016b, ‘GayGamer.net’ [image], GayGamer.net, GayGamer.net, viewed 25 January 2016, <http://gaygamer.net/>.

Haniver, J 2016, Not in the Kitchen Anymore, NKA, viewed 25 January 2016, <http://www.notinthekitchenanymore.com/>.

Haniver, J 2016, ‘Not in the Kitchen Anymore’ [image], at Not in the Kitchen Anymore About page, NKA.com, viewed  25 January 2016, <http://www.notinthekitchenanymore.com/about/>.

Newitz, A 2012 ‘The great geek sexism debate’, io9 Gizmodo, 9 August, viewed 25 January 2016, <http://io9.gizmodo.com/5938698/the-great-geek-sexism-debate>.

NewsOne Staff 2010 ‘Racism is a big player in online video games’, viewed 25 January 2016, <http://newsone.com/488682/racism-is-a-big-player-in-online-video-games/>.

The Bigot Gamer 2016, The Bigot Gamer, Twitter, viewed 25 January 2016, <https://twitter.com/thebigotgamer>.

  Gifs from tumblr.com

[aleksnajd-blog]

There is a lot of conflict in game chat. One can not simply go in a game online, and not hear any hateful remarks. I myself play games, and I always here a group of people just messing around with younger kids. I’ve heard in the past of people saying death threats, tracking their IP, and being sexual towards girls online. It’s all just talk. I think its easy to be ignored, although for some its hard. In the online gaming world, there will always be people like that, and nothing that can be done because they are behind their screens, and they know they can’t get in trouble. What a world we live in. 

[sammmiemc50]

Blog # 5 (Week 7) Digital Communities ‘Drama’ and understanding online bullying

In the previous weeks, the units explored the impact of social media and networked communities within the contexts of personal use, the increasingly employment of social media platforms for political campaigning, and activism and protest through digital means (Blackboard 2015). The unit moved to focussing on the contested concept of online interpersonal conflict and exploring further how we manage our identity socially online: ‘trolling’, cyber-bullying and recognising some positive opportunities exist to ‘help’ the bullies themselves whose intention is to expose and embarrass others through social media platforms (Wilken & McCosker 2014).

Bullying - Divergent Conceptions

According to danah boyd (2014, p.130), the concerns about teenage online conflicts and perceived public shaming and harassment have resulted in a ‘national obsession’ with cyber-bullying - interactions that are largely misconstrued by adults.  Boyd’s perspective is based on a definition of bullying drawn from the work of Dan Olweus that identifies three components that are required to meet the threshold of bullying

agresssion

repitition

imbalance of power

Personal accounts obtained from teenagers by boyd do not support that most online conflict contains the element of ‘imbalance of power’: rather the interactions are entered into wilfully and knowingly and are often initiated for ‘drama’ - “perfomative, interpersonal conflict that takes place in front of an active, engaged audience, often on social media” (boyd, 2014, p.138).

Given the absence of an imbalance of power, many examples of perceived cyber-bullying are no more than a form of entertainment, or a means to alleviate boredom.

This perspective can be contested. “Social Norms Theory” (Perkins and Berkowtitz, 1986), proposes that an individuals’ interpretation of social norms, “those beliefs about the attitudes and behaviours that are normal, acceptable, and even expected, in a particular social context” and that influence behaviour, can be misinterpreted to conceive that an attitude or behaviour is more common (or less common) than they perceive it to be: thereby the person engages with ‘false norms’ (Anti-Defamation League). In the social media context, such false norms can lead to someone to engage in behaviour - online rumours, cruel taunts, deliberately embarrassing someone - thinking that it is acceptable to their peers, with the intention of conforming to expectations, driving behaviour in engaging in cyber-bullying.  The perception can be that non-participation may lead to being ostracised from the group - and potentially become a victim themselves (Berkowitz 2015).

As a parent of teenager who is in the cohort of being susceptible to both being bully or victim, the changes in legislation that has recently been implemented is of particular interest.  One only needs to become aware of one tragic example of how cruel online persecution can lead to the death of a young person to be persuaded that perceived violation of civil liberties (i.e. freedom of speech) measured against regulation to prevent such behaviours, supports that a regulatory framework is justified (Begg 2015).

Text messages, Facebook posts - and tragedy

On Easter Saturday 2014, 19-year-old Jessica Cleland suicided having been cyber-bullied by two teenage boys “she considered friends”: she had no history of mental illness.  The Coroner’s finding stated that “although it is not possible to identify, with any degree of certainty, the factors contributing to a person’s decision to take their own life, it is evident that messages received by Jessica online proximate to her death … were precipitating factors. I am satisfied that Faceboook and text messaging were problematic for Jessica: easy access to the Internet on her phone meant that she was exposed to potentially upsetting communications 24 hours a day: and she was able to return to, and re-read, the upsetting messages .. and ruminate about them” (The Drum 2015). Jessica’s Facebook account had been flooded with “horrible sentiments before she died” by the two boys, who had publicly stated that they hated her and that she was “a f**cking woos” and “useless” (Ford 2015: McNab 2015).

Under new legislation, the two boys in the Cleland case could be sentenced to 10 years in prison.  With the function of promoting online safety of children, The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commission provides education and resources for young people, parents, teachers, and anyone concerned about cyber-bullying stating the Commission’s vision “is to encourage behavioural change where Australian children and young people act responsibly online, just as they would offline to create an environment where cyberbullying behaviour is just unacceptable” (Office of the Children’s eSafety Commission 2015).

References

Begg, M 2015, ‘New cyber-bullying commissioner takes nanny state too far’, The Australian, freedomwatch.ipa.org.au/tag/childrens-e-safety-commissioner/

Berkowitz, A 2013, Social Norms Approach, Education Development Centre’s Higher Education Centre, www.ou.edu/judicial/pae/pdt/iv/b/IVBiiSocialNormingTheory.pdf

boyd, D 2014, ‘Bullying: is social media amplifying meanness and cruetly?’, It’s complicated: the social lives of networked teens, Yale University Press, New Haven

Blackboard 2015, Digital Communities, https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-5190912-dt-content-rid-26655217_2/courses/2015-SO3-MDA20009-210404/UnitLearningMaterials/week-07.html

Wilken, R and McCosker, R 2014, ‘Social Selves’, The media and communications in Australia, 4th edn., Allen and Unwin, Sydney

[aleksnajd-blog]

It really is unfair for those who get bullied online. There are always trolls on the internet, no matter where you go. People like that will want to see a reaction from people, mainly younger children. This is because they are a easy target. The only thing you can do is just ignore and don’t “feed the trolls”. 

[shivaniielizabeth-blog]

The World of Online Gaming

I come from a bit of a gaming world – I wouldn’t call myself a gamer, but my brother is a gamer, and my partner is a gamer, as well as most of his friends. Now, because of this world that the people I love are so heavily involved in, it is practically impossible for me to not be able to pick up terminology or story lines and even get a little bit involved in these online worlds.

Over 50 million people play an MMORPG (Second Skin, 2008), and I can see why. World of Warcraft has over 10 million players worldwide (Atlay, 2015), all part of this virtual reality world. I remember once my partner was playing World of Warcraft, and he asked me to play a bit so that I could understand what he was talking about when he explained what was going on in his games. All I did was run around and kill things with lasers coming out of my eyes… and I only played for about 40 minutes before I said that it wasn’t for me. That being said, I did get really into it! I yelled when someone ran in front of me to kill the tree-monster (sorry if you play WOW, I don’t remember the exact character name) I was trying to kill. It was a lot of fun, but I don’t think I really was able to get into the virtual world side of the game with less than an hour of play time.

The documentary Second Skin (2008) focuses on the relationships that gamers have with their virtual worlds and their fellow gamers. So many people have used these games as a form of socialising. People play these games for more than 10 hours a day… couple that with approximately 8 hours a day for work, attempting to factor in 4 hours for sleep, that leaves 1 hour left in a day for EVERYTHING else, including eating, bathing, cleaning, exercising, socialising (Second Skin, 2008). Half of MMORPG players say that they are addicted to this virtual worlds and 1 in 5 say that they are residents of a virtual world (Second Skin, 2008). It can be an online dating tool, with 1 in 3 gamers date someone from a virtual world (Second Skin, 2008).

There is a dark side though, especially for females. Many can experience cyber bullying. John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight, dedicated a segment to the online harassment (2015). He focused on the “veritable cornucopia of horrifying messages” that women can receive online, including rape threats and death threats. It also focuses on how the law in America hasn’t progressed to be able to help these women the way the really should be able to.

I personally think that the gaming world gets a bad rap for being an ‘unhealthy’ virtual world. To me, I don’t really see the difference between my partner wanting to log into his game as soon as he gets home and me checking my Facebook newsfeed. Virtual worlds can be addictive, and for all the reasons we have discussed – they provide you with the ability to escape, and communicate and even to become the person you WISH you could be. There probably is something inherently wrong with all of this, but I also don’t believe in digital duality (Herrman, 2014) and the real and virtual are going to become synonymous, and I really do think that this is something that we need to embrace, rather than reject.

References:

Atlay, O 2015, ‘Most Popular MMORPGs in the World’, MMOs.com, viewed 17 January 2016, < http://mmos.com/editorials/most-popular-mmorpgs-world>

Herrman, J 2014, ‘Meet the Man Who Got Inside Snapchat’s Head’, BuzzFeed, 28 January, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/meet-the-unlikely-academic-behind-snapchats-new-pitch#3dlvjg2>

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver 2015 [television program], HBO, 21 June.

Second Skin 2008 [Presto], Brauer & Escoriaza, USA.

[aleksnajd-blog]

Its amazing how many people do play games. I consider myself a gamer, I do enjoy playing games with friends. Its a really good place when you want to escape reality for a few hours, and just have some fun. Even if people don’t play games, but have their friends play games, one will always be curious and have a shot. 

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 10: Social gaming: playing the crowd

Social gaming today is more than just a game. It is a reality with endless possibilities customization and connection to real people in real time.   Entertainment has always been a major attraction for individuals of all ages. Social gaming is another very popular form of entertainment.

MMORPG:

MMORPG is an abbreviation for Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game where thousands of people play together in an ongoing online world. With the games, a player would start at a low level and then would progress until the player had reached the maximum level.   Players gain new expertise, better gear, skills and excellent access areas in the game that often would require a group of people to help raid to complete (Computer Hope, 2015).

World of Warcraft has over 12 million subscribers, this is because of its social capabilities. So instead of fighting monsters or leveling up a character by yourself, you get to do it with thousands of people and interact with them in many different ways with personal emails to public chats across the whole wide world. World of Warcraft allows you to live in a veritable second life, where boys can pretend to be girls and girls can pretend to be boys. You can make enemies and friends, form relationships and even take a different persona (Jason Schreier, 2011).

In Halo, players take on a first person perspective of a highly equipped super soldier. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of the aliens known as the Covenant. The Covenant is led by their religious leaders that are called the Prophets, worship an ancient civilization known as the Forerunners, who perished in combat with the parasitic Flood. The main focus on this franchise is the person who plays Mater Chief John-117, one of a group of super soldiers condemned Spartans, and his artificial intelligence (AI) companion named Cortana (Wikipedia, 2015). Players can play either single player or the multiplayer.

Video Gaming Culture:

People mainly engage with playing video games because it is their medium of entertainment. Many gamers are happy by a storyline or the multiplayer that engages gamer’s emotional and mental buttons, perhaps it is the shooting and eliminating opponents that then attracts and holds the attention to gamers. Gaming nowadays has become a thing we do and a way of life.

Video gaming culture is a way of relating to the world in either an ideal way that some escape the disappointments and responsibilities of real life. It is possible that video games have effects on people but many participants feel like they do not care and continue playing (Addiction blog, 2011).

Examples, why do people play video games:

1. To have Challenges.

2. Entertainment and have fun.

3. Escapism! With video games, people can escape the real world and become anything we want to be.

4. Practice or learn life skills. To create content, make new friends, make hard choices and feel empathy.

5. Stress relief.

6. Difficulties are making friends IRL (In real life).

7. It helps players manage their moods.

References:

Addiction Blog, April 18th, 2011, why people play video games: Top 10 reasons. [Weblog]. Retrieved 26 December 2015, from http://internet.addictionblog.org/why-people-play-video-games-top-10-reasons

Wikipedia, 2015, Halo (series), Retrieved 26 December, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(series)

Computer Hope, 2015, MMORPG, Retrieved 26th December 2015, from http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/m/mmorpg.htm

Jason Schreier, February 16th 2011, 5 Top Social Games and Why They're So Successful. [Weblog]. Retrieved 26 December 2015, from http://mashable.com/2011/02/15/top-social-games/

World of Warcraft: http://us.blizzard.com/static/_images/games/wrath/wallpapers/wall1/wall1-1600x1200.jpg

Halo: https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_g8Ezg1DbGIskFhf7S0vWKw4kP0=/0x0:1920x1080/1600x900/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46549364/h5-guardians-fp-warzone-arc-blast-zone-3dba1a9341134af9ba98b11d15d2e9e7.0.0.jpg

Keep calm and play video games: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/6e/14/d4/6e14d4d8c99a4c998838d1e0ffb45045.jpg

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 9: Visual communities and social imaging.

In visual communities and social imaging, there are different ways which we can view visual aspects of people own identifications whether it being on Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr. People use it to engage with others through a way that they can share images to those they choose to connect with (Urban Dictionary, 2016).

In my own experiences, I enjoy tagging photos on social platforms whether it being my trips to Europe or when I am with friends, I like to look back to it as a memory so I don’t forget the good times. It is important to be careful what you post online, because once its uploaded, it’s out there on the web, and there is nothing you can do. Some people aren’t always up to date with social media, and this is smart because they prefer to keep things hidden from people. I have friends on Facebook that have a restriction to what people can post on their walls in case it being inappropriate.

Snapchat is an app on smart phones where you can send images to friends, giving you the ability to write a short message as well as a photo of your surroundings. I myself used it as another means of communications with my friends where you would send random photos or just send a short message to each other. Snapchat is really interesting, although you have to be careful when using it, because photos can be screenshotted and saved on your phone. People that send nude photos can have photos saved through the screenshot function on your phones and it can give the receiver the ability to share this with other people. So be mindful what kind of photos you are sending, it can easily backfire (Elyse betters, 2015).

The first self-portrait to ever been  taken was by Robert Cornelius in 1839 where he took the images by removing the lens cap and then running it into frame where he sat for a minute before covering up the lens again. On the back of the image he wrote, “The first light picture ever taken, 1893” (Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, 2016).

References:

Urban Dictionary, 2016, social-imaging, Retrieved 5 January, 2016, from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=social-imaging

Elyse betters, 26th December 2015, what's the point of Snapchat and how does it work? Retrieved 5 January, 2016, from http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/131313-what-s-the-point-of-snapchat-and-how-does-it-work

Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, 2016, Selfie, Retrieved 5 January, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfie

Robert Cornelius, http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/12/robertcornelius.jpg

Snapchat, http://musically.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Snapchat_logo-2.png

Sexting, http://31.media.tumblr.com/00fc39b8f394059e747e3e2bd5f2693a/tumblr_inline_niryggP8QI1t4xvfm.jpg

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 8: Crowdsourcing in times of crisis.

What is crowdsourcing? It’s a process of getting funding or work, which is usually online from a crowd of people. The combination of these two words ‘crowd’ and ‘outsourcing’ is the idea to take work and outsource it to the crowd of workers (David Bratvold, 2014).

Crowdfunding involves in asking a crowd of people to donate money towards your project. So let’s say if you want to raise $15,000 to produce a game, crowdfunding can help you raise that money. So you find a crowdfunding platform, set a goal amount, then a deadline and any rewards to donors. You must be committed that this will raise 100% of your goal before the deadline, or all the donations that was given to you will be returned to the donors (David Bratvold, 2014).

Reason that crowdsourcing works during a crisis. One solutions is that business that consider including in a disaster plan is crowdsourcing, which works during a crisis because individuals handing the work have nothing to do with the disaster plan. So in a natural disaster such as a hurricane, employees at the business location would be dealing with their own crises. This way expanding operations to workers across the globe especially for repetitive functions such as data categorizations that helps speed up recovery efforts (Brittany Comers, 2014).

Pros & Cons

The biggest benefit of crowdsourcing is the ability to receive better quality results since several people offer ideas, skills and resources. It will allow you to select the best result from a sea of best entries, as opposed to receive the best entry from a single provider. Results can be delivered quicker than traditional methods, since crowdsourcing is a form of freelancing (David Bratvold, 2014).

Clear instructions are very important when undertaking crowdsourcing. You can search through thousands of possible ideas, which can then be painstaking, or even complicated, if the instructions are not clearly understood. Quality can be sometimes difficult at times because proper expectations are not clearly stated (David Bratvold, 2014).

The challenges of crowdsourcing.

Crowding does bring a number of challenges that can require certain compromises and as the concept matures it is important for business looking to use crowdsourcing platforms to be aware of the issues that come along and so that they can manage them right (Tim Fung, 2013).

Cost of management, crowdsourcing means that outsources need to deal with workers directly, which can then result in the buyer of services needing to spend time and money so that they can manage their resources effectively. Quality control, by creating an online environment, people can engage with each other directly, safe and trust as well as quality control that can be high challenging and that the base expectations for most users need to be managed well from the outset (Tim Fung, 2013).

References:

David Bratvold, 2014, what is crowdsourcing? [Weblog]. Retrieved 30 December 2015, from http://dailycrowdsource.com/training/crowdsourcing/what-is-crowdsourcing

Brittany Comers, August 21st 2014, Crowdsourcing's Role in Disaster Management. [Weblog]. Retrieved 30 December 2015, from http://www.crowdsource.com/blog/2014/08/crowdsourcings-role-disaster-management/

Tim Fung, 10th July 2013, the pros and cons of crowdsourcing. [Weblog]. Retrieved 30 December 2015, from http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/7/10/technology/pros-and-cons-crowdsourcing

The disruptive force of crowdsourcing, https://iitaablogs.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/crowdsourcing.jpg

Ideas being shared, http://www.socialbrite.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/crowdsourcing-525x350.jpg

Crowdsourcing, helping hand: http://128.199.206.56:777/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/nextgov-medium.jpg

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 7: Digital citizenship 3: Trolling and social media conflict.

What is a troll? A troll is someone of the internet community who would posts offensive, divisive and controversial comments. Trolls would make it obvious and inflammatory statements that are meant to find weak users (newbies) into reacting. Despite multiple attempts at trying to limit trolling across the internet, it is still widespread in social networks, comment sections and pretty much everywhere else where users can post anonymous (Techopedia, 2010).

Where would you usually find these internet trolls? Trolls over the internet are very common to come by. They can be pretty much found anywhere online. They will try to abuse others in blogs, forums, political discussion, Facebook pages, online game chat and torrent sites threads. Trolls nowadays have become common in new sites. Many of the online news sources now avoid people using the comment section due to so many internet trolls would use this to post hate comments on news articles (Paul Gill, 2015).

Why do people enjoy being internet trolls? It is basically a power rush to be a troll. Being online is like the atmosphere, because it is largely free of perceived consequences, a person can feel like they have the power online, without ever having to meet the person they are trolling face to face. The internet being a world of fantasy and imagination for some, users can forge an alter ego for themselves, and act out their feelings of adequacy and anger. It’s sad to say that it is quite unfortunate that our advanced communication also can bring out the darker side of many people. What makes trolling so easy, is that anyone can do it, and it can be done anonymously. Trolls hide behind their computer screen, and after they are done, they carry on with their lives without facing any real life consequences (Paul Gill, 2015).

The truth behind internet trolls:

1: Trolls are pretty much immune to criticism and logical arguments. They cannot be reasoned with, they are trying to get a reaction from you.

2: Trolls do not feel any remorse. They have a sociopathic tendencies, and accordingly, they delight in other people having hurt feelings.

3: Trolls consider themselves about social responsibility.

4: Trolls gain energy when they insult you, and when you get angry.

Terrible people exists all over the world. It’s really a sad fact of life. Some people feel like they can say whatever they want on the internet, because in reality trolls don’t have to deal with the immediate consequences of mistreating another person. So if you ever find yourself a target on social media, remember this advice: don’t feed the trolls.

References:

Techopedia, 2010, definition – what does a troll mean? Retrieved 22 December, 2015, from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/429/troll

Paul Gill, 2015, What Is an Internet 'Troll'? How Should I Deal With Trolls? [Weblog]. Retrieved 22 December 2015, from http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/weirdwebculture/f/what-is-an-internet-troll.htm

Troll make internet mad: https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/p/2/005/078/212/3c36c7f.jpg

Don’t feed the trolls: http://losergurl.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/388554_828866265134_193305984_37095493_1647424391_n.jpg

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 6: Digital citizenship 2 - Activism and protest.

What is Digital Citizenship? Digital citizenship is used to refer the potential benefit for society as a whole that comes from new digital and social media tools and their ability to ‘facilitate the membership and participation of individuals within society’ (Mossberger, 2008, p. 1). It helps technology leaders, teachers and parents to understand what children/students/technology users should know how to use technology in the appropriate way. It is more than just a teaching tool, it was a way to prepare users for a society full of technology (Mike Ribble, 2015).

The cyber activists who want to shut down ISIS:

In August 2014, a Twitter account that was affiliated with the hacker group Anonymous, declared a full scale cyber war against ISIS. Anonymous will do its part in combating ISIS’s influence in social media and shut them down (Simon Cottee, 2015).

Anonymous is believed to be setting up protest in a number of major cities across the globe for masked members to show unity against the Islamic State.

When the terrorist attacks happened in Paris, a group that were associated with the hackers’ known as Anonymous had announced #OpParis, a social media campaign against ISIS (Brian Mastroianni, 2015).

"This is only the beginning, ISIS. We will hunt you, take down your sites, accounts, emails and expose you ... You will be treated like a virus and we are the cure," stated a masked activist in a video posted on YouTube. "We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. ISIS, it is too late to expect us" (Brian Mastroianni, 2015).

While French, Russia and the United States bombers are targeting Islamic Sate areas from the sky, Anonymous are making their own devastating campaign against the terrorist origination. They are using computer codes rather than a high-powered weapons and say that the hacktivist group has built tools that might be a better approach than the world governments tool to combat ISIS (The Daily Sheeple, 2015).

In a YouTube video by Anonymous, the group had said: “More than 20,000 Twitter account belonging to ISIS were taken down by Anonymous.” They have provided a whole list of accounts that have been taken down (The Daily Sheeple, 2015). But answer this, how effective has the web-based operation really been counteracting the terrorist group effective reach?  

References:

Mike Ribble, 2015, Digital citizenship, using technology appropriately, Retrieved 8 December, 2015, from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/

Mossberger, K., Tolbert, C., & McNeal, R 2008, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Simon Cottee, October 8th 2015, Can Cyber Activists Chase ISIS off Twitter? [Weblog], Retrieved 8 December 2015, from http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/anonymous-activists-isis-twitter/409312/

Brian Mastroianni, November 24th 2015, Anonymous vs ISIS: Who has the upper hand in social media war? [Weblog], Retrieved 8 December 2015, from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anonymous-vs-isis-social-media-war/

The Daily Sheeple, 2015, YOU’RE A VIRUS, WE’RE THE CURE’: ANONYMOUS TAKES DOWN 20,000 ISIS TWITTER ACCOUNTS. [Weblog]. Retrieved 8 December 2015, from http://www.thedailysheeple.com/youre-a-virus-were-the-cure-anonymous-takes-down-20000-isis-twitter-accounts_112015

Anonymous protest: http://blogs.ft.com/photo-diary/files/2013/11/anonymous.jpg

Keep calm: http://data.whicdn.com/images/64595778/large.png

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 5: Digital citizenship 1 - Politics and civic cultures.

A civic political culture or civic culture is a political culture that is characterized by the authority of the state in participation in civic duties (Wikipedia, 2015).

Politicians in today’s society have start to look for new innovative to promote and advertise their campaigns. Political parties does not only try to reach a larger audience, but also they try to reach out to younger audiences. There are huge interest for the emerging technologies and how this impact the government and political space. Politicians have a much greater opportunity for options like mobile tools to enhance and improve their campaign, such as fund-raising, communication and this leading to engage communities of supporters (Hearts alike, 2010).

When Australian Kevin Rudd was Prime Minster, he used Twitter to announce policies as well as his engagement of his son. He has over one million followers, while he follows over 400,000. Mr Rudd explains that if social media is used within a positive way, you will have the attention of when it comes to appealing to voters younger than 30 years of age. He has own website: http://www.pm.gov.au/ where he talks about why he uses social media to target his audience. Keven Rudd creates an opportunity for the community to provide comments and engage in such relations to policy initiatives in the discussion board. Mr Rudd found a higher engagement for the public through his Twitter profile, Facebook page and YouTube channel (Hearts alike, 2010).

In the year 2008, Barack Obama Presidential campaign made history. In 2008 sending out voting reminders on Twitter and interacting with people on Facebook at the time was a big deal. When Obama had announced his role to be president back in 2007, Twitter had just started, and there was not even an iPhone at the time. Not only was he the first African American to be elected president, but he was also the first presidential to effectively use social media as a campaign strategy (Dr. Pamela Rutledge, 2013). After a few years later, the media landscape looks much different than ever before. There are increasing numbers of social media tools and a rapidly growing user’s base across all demographics. Barack Obama famous campaign, ‘Let’s bring the change’ proved to be successful in changing the way that internet is being used for politicians. Many politicians have begun using the internet to interact and communicate making their presence felt in the World Wide Web (Hearts alike, 2010).

Because of a new generation, young people have a habit on passing interesting news and videos among themselves online. It doesn’t mean that people are not reading newspapers nowadays, it’s just because for a new generation there is a tendency to go above and beyond to look at more than just one source. Personality, if there was any news of interest, I would simply look it up online. I barely watch TV, and I can find exactly what I want with a simple click of a mouse.  

References:

Hearts alike, May 5th 2010, the politics of social media. [Weblog]. Retrieved 1 December 2015, from http://karmaave.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/politics-of-social-media.html

Dr. Pamela Rutledge, January 25th 2013, How Obama Won the Social Media Battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign. [Weblog]. Retrieved 1 December 2015, from http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/how-obama-won-the-social-media-battle-in-the-2012-presidential-campaign/

Wikipedia, 2015, Civic political culture, retrieved 1 December, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_political_culture

Kevin Rudd on Twitter: https://stilgherrian.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/kevinruddpm_600w.jpg

Digital campaign spending: http://bearingdrift.com/wp-content/uploads/2012-social-media-spending.png

Yes, we can twitter: http://www.anorak.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/barack-obama-twitter1.jpg

[elliotconte-blog]

Week 1-3 Blogs

Week 1:

To begin week 1 of Digital Communities I viewed the video ‘The Social Media Revolution” which showed a large amount of statistics of social media and how society is using it for almost everything. If I stated all the statistics I would be here all day so I will just share a few of them.

-       1 in 8 couples married in the U.S met via social media

-       If Facebook was a country it would be the third largest

-       80% of companies use social media for recruitment

-       Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the U.S

The next video I watched was from the social media website YouTube; as you can tell these social media websites are now being used in our education system, even the social media website Tumblr is being used for our weekly blogs. Anyway, this video was on TED-Ed called ‘Connected, but Alone’ with Sherry Turkle.

Sherry explains how powerful social networking is in todays society. She shows a picture of her daughter and two friends as they hang out together in the living room one day, they all have their heads down looking at their mobile phones.  

Sherry makes some very valid points about how we don’t go looking for news in todays society, the news finds us. This is through various Facebook pages that post totally irrelevant content than what the page is supposed to be.

I do my own research through ‘Surveillance, big data and democracy’ which stated that the internet stores your search history and uses it as advertising while you use various social media websites. For example the other day I was searching some protein powder on eBay. I then logged into Facebook later that night and up came advertising for not only protein powder but also gym equipment, pre workout power, and various other supplements.

(De Zwart, M, Humphreys, S & Van Dissel B 2014)

References:

Buzzz Social Media 2011, The Social Media Revolution 2014, 23 October, viewed 26 August 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs>.

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 26 August 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

De Zwart, M, Humphreys, S & Van Dissel B 2014 ‘Surveillance, big data and democracy: Lessons for Australia from the US and UK, UNSW Law Journal viewed 20 September 2014

  Week 2:

For my blog this week I have decided to focus on Eugenia’s reading ‘Socialities and Social Media. I really enjoyed this read as it opened up my eyes to a lot about social networking and our communication with one another. In todays society a lot of people have hundreds and thousands of friends on Facebook, Twitter followers etc, but they’re not really their friends, they’re just Facebook associates or Twitter followers. Just a few years ago the world of communication was majorly different; people would meet and hangout due to their environments such as suburbs or schools, or sporting groups. Relationships were built and sustained by face to face communication and telephone calls (posting letters were also used to keep in contact with friends or family living elsewhere) rather than messaging one another on your smart phone.  Although these are mostly negatives, there are also positives of this recent digitalised world; Video calling programs such as Skype are used for business calls to save companies sending clients all over the country or world to discuss business. Social media allows others to share pictures and videos or their travelling or even day to day lives to the friends and family they choose (this would save time on your holidays from having to call individual friends and family to let them know your safe or what you are doing etc)

References:

Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Introduction to New Media, Sage, London, pp 191-208.

Week 3:

This weeks discussion is on comparing Reddit and Twitter. Both these social media platforms I do not use so I have had to do a fair bit of research. I’ve always had Facebook so I don’t see the point of getting Twitter as I don’t have any celebrities or idols in my that I care what they are doing and posting.  Ill explain Reddit in some detail.

Reddit, other known as ‘the front page of the interent’ when you search it on google, is a popular website where anonymity is encouraged. The main goal of Reddit is to post links to various news websites, or other exciting content that would amuse the users. The posts get up votes by the public that enjoyed it, or down votes by the public that did disliked the post. All the posts, up votes and down votes are kept anonymous, this is to keep a save place for open discussion. Various subreddits are posted on the site such as ‘r/gonewild’ which is where ‘males rank and comment on female bodies’ (Nagel, Frith, 2015). The posts with the most up votes will be places on the front page of the site generating for views, giving the users what they want the second they open the website.

Having a place to discuss varies issues and categories anonymously is positive. People discussing their sexuality and how they express themselves without having to reveal their identity for various reasons is acceptable. However, people abuse their power and use it in cruel and disloyal ways.

The subreddit r/gonewild is purposely for people to upload self-pornographic images. As the users are uploading anonymously you are uncertain whether it is a female expressing her body or an ex boyfriend leaking private photos.

Twitter is very similar to Facebook as you create your own account with your name, photo and bio of information, and then begin to follow other people. When tweeting you have a limited character count that you can post. Twitter is mainly used to see what celebrities are doing in their lives; then you re-tweet their posts and show to your friends who are following you that you saw their post and find it interesting. Basically all you are doing is sharing other people’s information. In my opinion, Twitter overall is a better information distributor than Reddit is.

References:

van der Negal 2013, 'Faceless Bodies: Negotiating Technological and Cultural Codes on reddit gonewild’, Scan Journal of Media Arts Culture, vol. 10, no. 2, Macquarie University.

Emily van der Nagel and Jordan Frith. “Anonymity, pseudonymity, and the agency of online identity: Examining the social practices of r/Gonewild”

[aleksnajd-blog]

Yeah I don’t use Twitter. If I need to follow someone famous or things I like, I would just follow them on Facebook. I do use Reddit, it is an interesting place to see anything, from random pictures and people telling random weird/stories. 

[heyscubasteve]

Week 1 – Introduction to Digital Communities and Social Media Platforms

Week one of digital communities covered a lot of ground right away. To kick things off, we got to see a video of a whole lot of statistics in regards to Social Media and the impact it has on every day life.

I’m not going to post every single statistic, you can find the video in question on YouTube, here.

In Week 1, we also got a rundown of key terms we will be using throughout the duration of our Digital Communities learning, that I thought I knew what they meant, but actually meant something completely different;

Virtual communities

Digital communities

Social media

Social networks

Smart mobs

Digital society

Networked publics, and online publics.

One analytical video I really enjoyed form week one was a video by Sherry Turkle. 

She talked about how we (Millennials) spend more time on social media/networking, and looking down at our phones than actually socialising with someone that is right in front of us, whether that is a loved one, or even a friend, partner, or a member of the family:

I did a little bit of research, in regards to Millennials and social media, I found that Millennials (well, a large percentage of them) don’t watch the news. According to American Press Institute: 

Fully 88 percent of those surveyed get news from Facebook at least occasionally, 83 percent from YouTube, and 50 percent from Instagram.

88%of Millennials get news from Facebook

Sizable minorities of Millennials also report getting news from Pinterest (36 percent), Twitter (33 percent), Reddit (23 percent), and Tumblr (21 percent). And while these numbers are smaller, they represent quite large percentages of those who use these social media platforms at all.

I have to be honest, I like to get my news from actual websites, rather than a social network website. I.e. news.com.au - and specifically Reddit, so, I guess you could say I am in that 23% group.

However, that’s not to say I don’t get my news the regular way by watching the nightly news, which I do. I try to catch the 6PM news daily, but, in a world of streaming, and have a device, I am always able to watch the news.

Do end week 1′s blog, I wanted to share something I really liked, and recently found out, it was this real-time integration of current social media and networking websites (well, mostly the major players):

I think it really shows how different each social platform is. And also how active a social media platform is. Especially all the data being used! 

References:

1. TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 26 August 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

2. Buzzz Social Media 2011, The Social Media Revolution 2014, 23 October, viewed 28 October 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs>. 

3. Marwa, 2015, How Millennials use and control social media, American Press Institute, viewed 21 November 2015, <http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/millennials-social-media/>.

4. ‘The Internet in Real-Time’ 2014 [image], PennyStocks.la, viewed 26 August 2014, <http://pennystocks.la/internet-in-real-time>.

[aleksnajd-blog]

I also enjoyed the video connected, but alone by Sherry Turkle. I do think people spend way to much on social media. People have isolated themselves with social networking. It’s like for example, people have to check something on Facebook before going to bed, or even when waking up the first thing you do is check Facebook, before doing anything else. People have forgot the way on social interacting with one another these days. People always have to be connected through phone, tablet, or other devices. What a world we live in now. 

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 4: Blogging practices and cases.

What is a blogs? A blog is mainly an updated journal. It is a place where anyone can express themselves to the world. A place where you share your thoughts and your interest. Blogs emerged in the late 1990’s as it allowed internet users to share information all over the internet.

Blogs have had a significant influence on purchase decisions: Blogs are one of the top online services to influence a purchase. You can see that consumers rank blogs third behind retail and brand sites (Jeff Bullas, 2013).

Why are blogs so influential? This is because that bloggers are honest in their reviews of services and products. They talk about the positive and negative aspect of a brand, and because of this they become a trusted source of information. “Trust drives auction, and thus consumers look to bloggers before they buy” (Patricia Redsicker, 2013).

You can see on this chart that blogging dominates on influencers blogs. Despite the large rise in multimedia use, it looks like text will always be the main communication (Jeff Bullas, 2013).  

When blogging had first started over the internet, it was mainly text and some images. But blogging has evolved, and is the primary tool of social media. Bloggers influencers operate on a number of platforms, such as Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube to engage a new generation of users.  

Blogs are an essential tool for business, political, professionals and organizations. It’s a foundation influence for social media. So by producing quality and relevant content, it can bring value to the community, because it will gain credibility and trust (Raymond Morin, 2015). Business blogging is an effective way for markets to consistently deliver content to their audiences. As business start investing more in their content creation, thus publish more, the content discovery will become a bigger propriety. Business blogs have attracted a lot of new visitors through channels like social networks and search engines (Pamela Vaughan, 2015). For political leaders, they use their blog platform that becomes the basic of foundation of their own personal branding, on which they try and build their online credibility and reputation. So leaders will try and emphasize collaboration that allows them to add value to their blogs, and increase their authority to try and influence their communities (Raymond Morin, 2015).

References:

Patricia Redsicker, March 6th 2013, blogs outrank social networks for consumer influence: New Research, Retrieved 24th November 2015, from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/blogs-outrank-social-networks-for-consumer-influence-new-research/

Jeff Bullas, 2013, Insights on social media and blogging influence: New Research, Retrieved 24th November 2015, from http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/03/11/10-insights-on-social-media-and-blogging-influence-new-research/

Pamela Vaughan, May 23rd 2015, What the Future Holds for Business Blogging. [Weblog]. Retrieved 23 November 2015, from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/future-of-business-blogging

Raymond Morin, 21st May 2015, Social Media Influence Marketing: Why Blogs Matter. [Weblog], Retrieved 25 November 2015, from http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/social-media-influence-marketing-include-blogs-18886/

Online services most likely to influence a purchase: http://www.jeffbullas.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Online-services-nost-likely-to-influence-a-purchase.jpg

How influencers post: http://www.jeffbullas.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Text-dominates-influencers-media-choices1.jpg

Tap, Tap & Tap: http://blogcritics.org/wp-content/uploads/bcimages/2013/07/Blogging-Addiction.jpg

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 3: Platform case study.

Analyzing Social Affordances:

In analyzing the social affordances of a media platform like LinkedIn and Facebook, it’s all about how well you know their features, social structures, culture and history of each and see how you may use these platforms in a way of their unique characteristics.

Let’s see the different types of comparisons that Facebook and LinkedIn have. Both platforms allow you to create a profile and interact and connect with other people and groups. When you see the functionalities of the two platforms they may not seem all that different, although they are both used differently to each other (Baymard, 2013).

You can see how the culture and language of these two platforms are different. On Facebook, you connect with friends and family, whereas on LinkedIn you create connections with contracts. So you can see that these two are fairly different in norms for the type of content that you share and the type of people you connect with. On Facebook you’re encouraged to find and reconnect with old friends. On LinkedIn you’re encouraged to expand on your CV and give recommendations of people. So you can see the differences in history and culture in these two, as well as that there are implications for when people are using these platforms. Let’s say for example, it is more acceptable to use LinkedIn during work time than Facebook, because of how the two platforms have shaped over time (Baymard, 2013).

On Facebook your profile is personal, while on LinkedIn it’s professional. People want to build professional identity on LinkedIn and will join groups that can further their career and participate in threads to expand their professional network and present their work to companies. On Facebook, people are mainly looking to portray a very different type of identity and may ‘like’ a page simply because it’s fun or share an article that has been posted by somebody else. (Baymard, 2013).

So you can see, Facebook and LinkedIn are both used in different ways for different purposes. So identifying these types of social affordances will allow you to better understand how to use both platforms and how to make the most out of your presence on them.

References:

Baymard, 8th January 2013, Social Media: Analyze Affordances, Not Features. [Weblog]. Retrieved 10 November 2015, from http://baymard.com/blog/analyzing-social-affordances

Social Media Networks: https://lordhamanaofwinterfell.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/social-media-networks.png

Facebook vs LinkedIn: https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAOUAAAAJGZlMWI4NjA5LTI1NDItNDUzZi1iZGE5LTgyYzM2NDc4MGJkYQ.jpg

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 2: Social theory and social media.

What is holding society together? David Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist, philosopher and a social psychologist. Emile Durkheim had suggested that the modernism, or to be more accurate that urbanism was causing a major shift “what holds society together.” That the industrial revolution changed our very social makeup. It sparked in a mass moment of people from rural towns to large cities, but in the process, it had redefined that social forces brings us together form a society. (Matt, 2012). In the modern society, it is the political economy that ultimately holds society together through their laws. The cultural bases of the political power is primarily through the media that persuades us that our freedom as an individual is primarily gained by buying new products.

Functionalism: Durkheim (David Émile, 2015) argued that the basis of social solidarity charged with modernisation. In the pre-modern society it was the similarity of people’s way of life, and most were agricultural workers who interacted with each other in their local community, at work, church, etc. In modern urban industrial life when people live in cities and interact only at work and when the work takes many forms with people mainly working in a variety of jobs throughout their lifetime, this solidarity based on similarity is lost. Durkheim argued that the way form of solidarity is based on our own interdependence on each other, an example is, a manager in a supermarkets depends on the employees to stock the shelf with products to provide for the customers. So basically this modern basis of solidarity is much looser so we are able to develop a variety of ways of living and the different types of belief systems. This freer society is based on interdependence that is held together by our common values of privileging ‘individualism’ and ‘independence’ and it is the social institutions of family and education that are the main bases of this being a fragile form of solidarity (David Émile Durkheim, 2015).

We are socialized to conform to our own common sets of values about how the world works, and how we should behave as individuals through socialisation: education, family, co-workers, media and the justice system.

References:

David Émile Durkheim, 2015, Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, viewed 6th November 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émile_Durkheim

Matt, January 31st 2012, The Moral Mindfield, viewed 6th November, 2015, from https://moralmindfield.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/of-durkheim-and-facebook-social-forces-and-social-media/

Émile Durkheim: http://d2hej51cni6o0x.cloudfront.net/images/magill/ph_0111207226-Durkheim.jpg

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 1: Introduction to digital communities and social media platforms.

What is social media? Social media is a computer mediated tool that enables users to create, share or exchange information online through ideas, and picture in virtual communities and network (Social Media, 2015).

In week 1 we got to know the main key terms we will be using throughout our time in ‘Digital Communities’.

Virtual communities.

Digital communities.

Networked publics.

Smart mobs.

Digital society.

Turkle (Sherry, 2013) describes in her video that we use technology to define ourselves by sharing our thoughts and feelings, even as we’re having them. The impact with this regime, “I share therefore I am” is that if we don’t have any sorts of connect, we don’t feel ourselves. So what happens? People keep on connecting more and more, but in the process we set ourselves to become isolated through all this.

By now, we are all aware that social media has a major impact on our world. Websites on social media are the most popular haunts out there on the internet. It has revolutionized the ways how people socialize and communicate on the world web. Ask yourself this, what are some of the real impacts that social media has had on our society through positive and negative?

Castells (Manuel, 2014) mentions that time spend on social networking sites surpassed time spent on emails in November 2007. Today, social networking sites are the favorite platforms for all kinds of activities, personal, sociability and has such a dramatically increased, but it is a different kind of sociability. Most Facebook users visit the site on a daily basis, and they connect on multiple dimension, but only the types of dimensions they choose. The virtual life of today is becoming more social, than physical life.

Social networks is an amazing opportunity for people to re-connect with their old friends, distant relatives, make new friends, share content and picture, and other activities. You can even learn about the different types of societies and cultures by connecting with people in other countries. Unfortunately, there are downsides to social media, many users place way too much emphasis on virtual interaction and they ignore the real world outside.

References:

Sherry Turkle, 19 April, TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone? Viewed 6th November 2015, >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c<.

Social Media, 2015, Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, viewed 6th November 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

Manuel Castells, September 8th 2014, Chair Professor of Communication Technology and society, MIT Technology Review, viewed 6th November 2015, from http://www.technologyreview.com/view/530566/the-impact-of-the-internet-on-society-a-global-perspective/

Infographics Archive, 2015, are you addicted to social media? [Image] viewed 10th November 2015, from <http://www.infographicsarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/smad-health.jpg>.