Digital Communities

Welcome

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When you live in Melbourne

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Post #8: Does Social Media have a ‘Place’?

It is a common assumption that social media has no defining location. That we are in a unique universe within the Internet – ‘cyberspace’. When my family travelled to New Zealand in the Summer I was able to contact my friends at home. I was able to know exactly what was happening in Australia. I could keep up-to-date with the Australian footy scores, politics and big news events. But it is too simple to say that social media is ‘placeless’.

Have you ever taken a good look at your own social media network? You might have your high school friends, your work friends, your university friends, friends from sport and activities etc. Most of these people reside around where someone lives. While I certainly have friends from overseas or out of state, the majority of my network clusters live nearby me (Mishra et. al 2007, p. 56). These close networks are the people I continue to associate with more frequently and therefore provide a larger influence over me.

Additionally, the Internet relies on our regional location, often without us realising. Certain marketing uses location to target key audiences (Agarwal 2011, p. 120). Melbourne fashion week ads would not likely be targeted to someone living in Asia. Websites or apps like Zomato, Trip Advisor and Tinder look at what people are like or doing in a specific area. For example, Zomato looks at what type of restaurant people like in a certain region and uses this information to make recommendations (Zomato 2016).  

The Internet allows for exposure to diverse ideas and cultures (Pew Research Centre 2014). Therefore, it allows people to expand their ways of thinking and become more educated in a global sense. My Thai friends often post on Facebook large Thai events, food and other key parts of their culture. This ‘global’ connectivity allows me to be more informed of their culture.

But it is too soon to confirm that the Internet has created a ‘global community’. The way I behave is much more largely tied down to my physical location, living as a ‘Melbournian’. I catch up with friends regularly for coffee. I visit the MCG to watch the AFL. I got down to Phillip Island in the summer. The way I behave, act and do is shaped by my physical surrounding and what is considered here is Melbourne.

References:

Agarwal, A, Hosanagar, K & Smith, M D 2011, ‘Location, Location, Location: An Analysis of Profitability of Position in Online Advertising Markets’, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 1057-1073.

Anderson, J & Rainie, L 2014, Digital Life in 2025, Pew Research Centre, viewed 20 May, 2016, <http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/03/11/digital-life-in-2025/>.

Mishra, N, Schreiber, RR, Stanton, I & Tarjan, R E 2007, ‘Clustering Social Network’, In Workshop on Algorithims and Models for the Web-Graph, pp. 56-667.

Zomato 2016, Find the best restaurants, cafes and bars in Melbourne, Zomato, viewed 20 May 2016, <https://www.zomato.com/>.

[alexandratrushell-blog]

Post #7 Social Gaming and Classification

The 1st January 2013 was a big deal for Australian Gamers. R18+ video games were finally made legal to buy and sell within Australia (Australian Government, 2012).

So why were R18+ classified video games banned in Australia in the first place? Many studies have looked into the influences of graphic media content. This was especially looked at around introduction of the television. While some media theorists believe there is no effect at all, others disagree.

One famous study by psychologist Albert Bandura suggested that children imitated behaviour they saw on television. His experiment using a bobo doll found that when children watched an adult hit a bobo doll on television they would often imitate it (McLeod 2014).

We imitate what we see. It is this idea that explains why the ban on R-rated video games was enforced in the first place. In some extreme instances there has been copycat murders of video games such as the very violent Grand Theft Auto. This even led to the ban of the video game in Thailand (The Telegraph 2008).

Despite such events, many people believe that banning such content is an invasion of freedom. When other countries can access the content, why can’t we?

With the ban on R18+ video games, gamers formed a strong community. There was an aim to impose political movement on the policy. Some of the political activity was even taken to the extreme. In 2010, the South Australian Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson stated he received threats from gamers regularly and was left hate notes at his door (Good Game, 2010).

The labour politician was responsible for the blocking of many of the video games. After he openly spoke to the media about such extreme activism, this sparked a public consultation period. This received 60,000 submissions (Serrels 2010). Such a huge number of submissions truly emphasized the substantial public involvement. Of these submissions, 98% were in favour of legalising the R18+ rating (Pauli 2010). A petition also obtained 89,000 signatures making it the largest in Australian history (Serrels 2010).

This social movement gave the push for freedom. Now Australian’s who are over 18 years old can access such content legally. However, just because there is an age restriction does not mean that this is correctly adhered to. This prompts Australia with a new problem, similar to R18+ ratings on films: how do we stop such graphic content falling into the hands of minors? As well as, how do we stop the monkey-see-monkey-do human trait as found by Bandura?

References:

Australian Government 2012, Australian Classification, Australian Government, viewed 13 May 2016 <http://www.classification.gov.au/News/Pages/1January2013R18classificationforcomputergamesstarts1January2013.aspx>.

Pauli, D 2010, ‘SCAG lags on R18+ games’, Computer World, 13 May 2016, <http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/346581/scag_lags_r18_games/>.

McLeod, S 2014, Bobo Doll Experiment, Simply Psychology, viewed 13 May 2016, <http://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html>.

Serrels, M 2010, ‘READY: Grow Up Australia’, Kotaku, viewed 13 May 2016, <http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/11/ready-grow-up-australia/>.

The Telegraph 2008, ‘Thailand bans Grand Theft Auto after copycat murder’, The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/2504016/Thailand-bans-Grand-Theft-Auto-after-copycat-murder.html

[alexandratrushell-blog]

Post #6: Social Media and Health Promotion

A key feature of social media is that it actively seeks to inform passive audiences. Whereas, information on displayed on websites is waiting for those pursuing the information to stumble across it (Currie 2009). Thereby, social media has become an integral tool to the promotion and campaigning of good health and wellbeing.

Here are just a few of the affordances that promoting health on social media enables:

1. Firstly there is the obvious engagement that social media provides. A study by Pew Research found that 59-precent of US adults who use the internet said that they look online for health information (Pew Research Centre 2013). Through social media, many people can be targeted and reached at once. There is the ‘connectivity’ aspect of social media where people can find likeminded people to discuss health topics.

2. Multiple of different platforms can be selected to best target key audiences. Platforms can be chosen by looking at which best suits a key demographic. For example, there is a trend of photo-sharing growth in African, America and Hispanic demographic. So in this case, Instagram might be a good choise for this target audience (Pew Research Centre 2015).

3. Organisations can listen to their audience and collect feedback to better their communication of information. One way of doing this is looking at conversation, especially heated discussions where extreme opinions are given. There are even social media tools that allow for the monitoring of this (Heldman et. al 2013 p. 4). Such tools can also provide insight into what health information may be important or interesting to users. The ‘real’ time aspect of social media is a really important, as it can ensure information is current, relevant and useful to audiences.

But there are some concerns with public health promotion via social media. It can mean organisations lose control of their message. Negative conversation that goes against the organisation’s message becomes out of the organisation’s control. Additionally, some people fear the information on social media sites is not fact. Therefore organisations really need to work at actively maintaining a strong relationship with their audience to develop a name as a credible source.

We have always been bombarded with health messages before the development of social media, whether it be the ‘slip slop slap’ cancer council campaign or the amount of fruit and vegetables we need in our diet. Today, in 2016, we can open up our iPhone’s and receive an array of health information. Whether it be current health epidemics, finding people in similar situations or better understanding an illness.

References:

Currie, D 2009, ‘Public Health Leaders Using Social Media to Convey Emergencies: New Tools a Boon’, Medscape, viewed 27 April 2016, <http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/710011>.

Heldman, A B, Schindelar, J & Weaver. J B 2013, ‘Social Media Engagement and Public Health Communication: Implications for Public Health Organizations Being Truly “Social”’, Public Health Reviews, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 1-18.

Pew Research Centre 2012, Health Fact Sheet, Pew Research Centre, viewed 3 May 2016, <http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/health-fact-sheet/>.

Pew Research Centre 2015, Social media preferences vary by race and ethnicity, Pew Research Centre, viewed 3 May 2016, <http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/03/social-media-preferences-vary-by-race-and-ethnicity/>.

[alexandratrushell-blog]

Post #5: Crowdsourcing - Facebook’s ‘Safety Check’ Function

In times of disaster, communication becomes critical to discovering the condition and whereabouts of loved ones. Think back to pre-internet and mobile phones days and just how difficult this communication would have been when earthquakes, fire and other disasters strike. 

Now, Facebook have established a new function to provide connectivity in natural disasters. This new affordance is called ‘safety check’. Mark Zuckerberg announced it release in 2014, stating he was “inspired” by the “Tokyo” “earthquake and tsunami” in 2011 (Zuckerberg, M 2014). This added feature was designed to simplify the crowdsourcing difficulties in time of crisis. It uses the GPS location of a person in a disaster area and gives them the ability to flag themselves ‘safe’ to inform all friends and family on Facebook.

The safety check function was first used in the 2015 Nepal earthquake. As I personally have a friend from Nepal, it was satisfying to know that when I saw he marked himself safe that he was alive and well. It was reported that millions of people made use of the tool in the disaster and successfully informed their family and friends that they were okay (Southasia.com.au 2015). However, there was backlash, as a bug allowed several people who were not in the Nepal area to access the function (Campbell, S 2015). Many were offended at those users outside the affected area marking themselves safe, deeming it insensitive.

However this bug has now been fixed, and functions as it is supposed to. However there are other concerns of the technology. It is questionable to why it was deemed necessary to activate the function during the Paris terrorist attacks and not in the Lebanon bombings. 

It appears that this function is only available for certain disasters that Facebook deems ‘necessary’. But why is any disaster any more deserving of the function than another? Hopefully in future the function will be made available for all disasters, as Zuckerberg replied to a comment on Facebook announcing he would like to expand the the safety check further than just disasters and be available for all emergency cases (Zuckerberg, M 2014).

References

Campbell, S 2015, ‘Facebook Safety Check: Fury as users who aren’t in Nepal mark themselves safe from quake’, Express, 13 May, viewed 26 April 2016, <http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/576844/Facebook-Safety-Check-Nepal-earthquake-marked-declared-quake>.

Southasia.com.au 2015, ‘Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants more tools like Nepal earthquake safety check’, Southasia.com.au, 12 June, viewed 26 April 2016, <http://www.southasia.com.au/2015/06/12/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-wants-more-tools-like-nepal-earthquake-safety-check/>.

Zuckerberg, M 2014, Introducing Safety Check, 16 October, viewed 26 April 2016, <https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101699265809491>.

[softlysaygoodbye]

[alexandratrushell-blog]

And social media can make the bullying harder to escape

[alexandratrushell-blog]

Post #4: Trolling & Bullying online

Does the idea of being an ‘anonymous’ user or a ‘real name’ user embolden trolling online? Anonymity allows people to say things they might not feel comfortable saying with their name attached. However, using real names on social media faces other issues.

With social network platforms that require real usernames like Facebook, Google+ and Myspace there opens issues of stalking, harassment and the targeting of vulnerable people. When MySpace peaked from 2005 to 2008 as the worlds largest social network site, cyber-bullying issues began to arise (World Heritage Encyclopaedia 2012).

Megan Miere sadly was one vulnerable person targeted. In 2006 Megan began talking to a “cute” boy, Josh Evans, on MySpace (Megan Miere Foundation 2007). She took a romantic interest to him and she believed he felt the same. Her mum closely monitored the account to keep an eye on things.

Suddenly, Josh turned nasty. He began writing comments such as “the world would be a better place without you” (Megan Miere Foundation 2007). Megan found people in school were beginning to post nasty comments about her too. Shortly after, her parents found she had committed suicide.

It was later discovered that Josh Evens was a fake account. In the previous year, Megan had a falling out with a friend. The parents of her previous friend had created the account. They wanted to make fun of and expose Megan. The information Megan gave to ‘Josh’ was spread around her school and used to bully her.

This is the story of what gave rise to the Megan Miere’s Foundation. The foundation was built to “promote awareness, education, and positive change in response to the issues surrounding bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide” (Megan Miere Foundation 2007).

The truth is, with 70% of 18-24 year olds witnessing online harassment, this is not an uncommon situation (Duggan 2014, p. 3). Social media, whether it is anonymous or not, allows for the exposure of behaviours that would be less likely to occur in real life. So how do we prevent situations like Megan’s happening?

The social media platforms themselves often do little to prevent this behaviour – why would they? Users and comments are a good thing for them, right? With many social media websites residing overseas it becomes very difficult for the Government to have power in these situations. Control and mediation of content is often out of arms reach for the Government. However, Governments have been able to put some policies in place to help.

No criminal code for cyber bullying was yet introduced in 2006-2007. Sadly, this meant no charges could be pressed against Megan’s bullies. Now Australia and the US have criminal laws against bullying online (Lawstuff 2015). The Government also initiated education programs in schools, which operates similar to the Megan Miere’s Foundation. The “eSmart” program looks at educating children on how to avoid bullying online and what do if you are a victim of cyber bullying (eSmart 2010).

The Government has certainly attempted to move forward with the way we have adapted to interacting and socialising online. Unfortunately, online bullying and trolling is still prevalent in society today. We need to look towards a way of establishing an online environment that closely resembles the way people interact in real life. You wouldn’t tell someone they are ugly or that you hate them in real life would you?

References

Duggan, M 2014, Online Harassment, Pew Research Centre, viewed 20 April 2016, <http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2014/10/PI_OnlineHarassment_102214_pdf1.pdf>.

eSmart 2010, About eSmart Schools, eSmart, viewed 20 April 2016, <https://www.esmartschools.org.au/Pages/About.aspx>.

Lawstuff 2015, Cyber Bullying, Lawstuff, viewed 20 April 2016, <http://www.lawstuff.org.au/vic_law/topics/bullying/cyber-bullying>.

Megan Miere Foundation 2007, Megan’s Story, Megan Meier Foundation, viewed 20 April 2016, <http://www.meganmeierfoundation.org/megans-story.html>.

Megan Miere Foundation 2007, Our Mission, Megan Meier Foundation, viewed 20 April 2016, <http://www.meganmeierfoundation.org/our-mission.html>.

World Heritage Encyclopaedia 2012, Myspace, World Heritage Encyclopaedia, World eBook Library, <http://www.ebooklibrary.org/articles/myspace>.

[alexandratrushell-blog]

Post #3: Social Media & Activism

In early history it would have been absurd to question the monarchy and it’s rulings. Those found guilty might have found themselves hung in the centre of town with a face covered in tomatoes. Times have certainly changed. In modern day Australia we have the ability to pretty much say whatever we like. We poke fun at our political leaders through newspaper cartoons and sharing memes. However, lese-majeste, or violating the dignity of a ruler, can still be considered a crime in some countries. In Morocco, the minimum punishment for public comments deemed offensive towards the King is one year in prison (Ranger 2015). In 2012, 18 year-old Walid Bahomane was convicted to one year in prison for “posting remarks and a caricature of King Mohammed VI deemed offensive to his dignity on a Facebook page” (Human Rights Watch 2013). It is these stories that we realise we often take for granted the freedom of speech we have here in Australian. In some countries it is extremely important that a person thinks twice before posting something online about their leaders.

Before social media came along, how did people attempt to create change? Activists have always utilised media from their time period, including phone calls, pamphlets and posters. It was the 1960’s we began to see strong political messages through music. A large number of musicians were singing anti-war songs including Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Pete Seeger (Lindsay 2015). Still today, activism is seen through such platforms. But we aren’t all famous musicians and we don’t all have the time to stand on the street handing out flyers. The way social media connects similar people provides an ideal platform for getting a message to multiple people. When the government decided to enforce visa checks throughout Melbourne’s CBD there was backlash from the public. Through the use of the hashtag ‘borderforce’ and Facebook events, there were streets filled with placards and protesters that led to the shut down of the idea. Think back to the 1970’s feminism strikes. You can only imagine how hard it would have been for people such as Betty Friedan to organise feminism protests without social media (Napikoski 2016).

However there are many people hesitant to label social media and it’s role in activism as any kind of ‘revolution’. Critics have said “social media” is “inconsequential” in “real activism” (Ingram 2011). Yet it certainly cynical to say social media plays absolutely no role at all in the dynamics of activism at all. If we think about the ASL ice bucket challenge back in 2014, we can see that while this cause was already in existence, the Facebook platform certainly did help give it the momentum to raise $115 million in six weeks (Kristof 2015).

References:

Ranger, W 2015, ‘Lese-majeste around the World’, Leftie Soapbox, 30 August, viewed 13 April 2016, <https://leftiesoapbox.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/lese-majeste-around-the-world/>.

Human Rights Watch 2013, ‘Morocco: Free Student Imprisoned for ‘Insulting’ King’, Human Rights Watch, 16 July, viewed 13 April 2016, <https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/07/16/morocco-free-student-imprisoned-insulting-king>.

Lindsay, J 2015, ‘The Twenty Best Vietnam Protest Songs’, Council on Foreign Relations, 5 March, viewed April 2013, <http://blogs.cfr.org/lindsay/2015/03/05/the-twenty-best-vietnam-protest-songs/>.

Napikoski, L 2016, Women’s Strike for Equality, About Education, viewed 13 April 2016, <http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/a/strike_for_equality.htm>.

Ingram, M 2011, ‘Gladwell Still Missing the Point About Social Media and Activism’, 3 February, viewed 13 April 2016, <https://gigaom.com/2011/02/03/gladwell-still-missing-the-point-about-social-media-and-activism/>.

Kristof, N 2015, ‘Armchair activism pays off in ice bucket challenge’, 3 September, viewed 13 April, <http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/armchair-activism-pays-off-in-ice-bucket-challenge/>.

[gifsdownmypants]

trumpline bling

[itsminlew-blog]

A perfect example of politics on Tumblr ;) 

[remyarena-blog]

A classic Donald Trump/ Drake meme, thanks for sharing Min!

[alexandratrushell-blog]

When politics meets social media

[alexandratrushell-blog]

Post #2: Social Media & Politics

Political Engagement The 2008 USA presidential election was huge. Not ONLY because Obama was the first African American to be elected as President AND because he raised the level of voters in the United States… it was also because he was the first elected president to utilise a highly thought out and effective social media strategy (Smith 2009). Ever since his monumental success, politicians have been scrambling to their computers to divvy up their own online profile. 

Donald Trump is the perfect example of someone who has done so. Certainly Trump has taken to the ‘all publicity is good publicity’ mentality. He has built his online profile around the idea that he says whatever he wants, when he wants. He has made several jaw-dropping Tweets, including one that proclaimed those women who get abortions should be punished. The tweet generated over 47,000 comments (Trump 2015). Trump uses unsophisticated and simple language to connect with people online. This is different to usual way a politician may talk. The Trump memes, parodies and other humorous content that are overloading our newsfeed at the moment are part of a strategic political campaign. Those who have no political interest now sudden know all about who he is. 

Here is a chart showing how often ‘Donald Trump’ is put into a Google search. With the emergence of the election it is clear that he has generated a high interest by creating himself a strong online personality. 

A social media campaign is the perfect way to persuade modern day undecided voters. In America, the challenge is for politicians to get the public to vote for them at all. While with compulsory voting in Australia, the challenge is for politicians to get the public to vote for them and not the opposition. I must admit I am not one to follow politics in my own time. But thanks to social media, even I know a little more than I normally would. It seems during election time I cannot escape the inevitable political quotes, memes and articles being shared around. With the way the world has taken to social media, it is no surprise that social media has changed the way politicians play the politics ‘game’. Just imagine how flooded with politics our newsfeeds will be in a few months time! 

References: 

Google Trend 2015, Google Trends, Google, viewed 10 April 2016, <https://www.google.com.au/trends/explore#q=donald%20trump>.

McCoy, A 2015, ‘Topic 5’ [image], 53 Historians Weigh In On Barak Obama’s Legacy, viewed 10 April 216, <http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/53-historians-on-obamas-legacy.html>. 

Smith, A 2009, ‘The Internet’s Role in Campaign 2008’, Pew Research Centre, 15 April, viewed 10 April 2016, <http://www.pewinternet.org/2009/04/15/the-internets-role-in-campaign-2008/>. 

Trump, D 2015, Women who get abortions should be punished, viewed 10 April 2016. 

[theflyingarrowau-blog]

Well, this is exactly what you want to come across when about to write a post explaining Tumblr !

[itsminlew-blog]

Thought this was a funny one from @theflyingarrowau ! Definitely described Tumblr in a nutshell ;)

[alexandratrushell-blog]

Post #1: The Tumblr Debate

Is Tumblr a blog or is it a social network site? This is the question that has sparked the “great tumblr debate” (Stringfellow 2013).

First thing’s first... What is a blog? What is a social network site? Is there even a difference?

A blog is “those individual, idiosyncratic commentaries, usually written by one person or a group” (Cross 2011, p. 37). Blogs allows for opinions, self expression and aim to inform. We can have blogs about food, blogs about fashion, blogs about politics... we even have blogs about cats using cat hammocks. Feel free to have a look at: https://kittybloger.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/woozy-the-multifunctional-hammockbed-for-cats/.

A social network site is a “web-based services that allow individuals to construct a [profile] within a bounded system”, make connections with other users and “view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (Boyd & Ellison 2007, p. 211). We all know Facebook is a social networking site, but other networking site include Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr, Reddit and Linked In.

Funny how both a blog and a social network site describe how we use Tumblr. This is because Tumblr combines them both! The term ‘microblog’ was coined to describe this as ‘social networks for broadcasting news have a very shorts character limit in the vein of text messaging” (Murphy 2008, p. 375) . While Tumblr does not specifically have a word limit, it is not used often for huge amounts of writing, usually shorts engaging sentences. At last the debate can be put to rest! 

So what kind of affordances does this ‘microblogging’ service offer?

1. Tumblr plays on the idea of being visually stimulating. Users have options to use text, videos and photos. Users are given freedom with their layout as they are able to customise the the appearance of their layout to provide a personal touch to their blog. Tumblr even allows for multiple blogs to be made under one user account.

2. Tumblr relies on the idea of ‘reblogging’ as it encourages users to find content that is of interest and then share it. This is why recently businesses took to Tumblr as a marketing strategy; the sharing functionality means half the work is done for them. As Gabriela Taylor writes in her book Tumblr for Business: The Ultimate Guide, “if pictures are worth a thousand words, Tumblr is worth a weight in gold” (Taylor 2012, p. 15).

3. Tumblr sites can be integrated with other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. By sharing the Tumblr URL on other networking platforms it is easy to access and gain connections with other users.

4. Tumblr is free and easy to use. There are no fees involved and it has a simple user interface. You don’t need a degree in social media to use it. Pretty much any person can pull up their computer and start using it. 

So you will be doing none of this… 

And you’ll be more like this…

References:

Boyd & Ellison 2007, ‘Social Network Sites: Definition, History and Scholarship’, Journal of Computer - Mediated Communication, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 210–230.

Cross, M 2011, ‘Got Blog’ in Bloggerati, Twitterati: how blogs and twitter are transforming popular culture, Praeger, EBL eBook Library, pp. 37-50.

Kittybloger 2014, ‘WOOZY the multifunctional hammock/bed for Cats’ Kitty Bloger, 2 October, viewed 3 April 2016, <https://kittybloger.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/woozy-the-multifunctional-hammockbed-for-cats/>.

Murphy, J 2008, ‘Micro‐Blogging for Science and Technology Libraries’, Science & Technology Libraries, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 375-378.

Stingfellow, K 2013, ‘The Great Tumblr Debate: Blogging Platform Or Social Network?’ American Express Open Forum, 27 December, viewed 3 April 2016, <https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/the-great-tumblr-debate-blogging-platform-or-social-network/>.

Taylor, G 2012, TUMBLR FOR BUSINESS: The Ultimate Guide, Global & Digital, Google eBook Library.