Anna Bap Blogs

hi there! this me attempting blogging for my digital communities unit! ENJOY!

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Week 10 - Social media governance

Although being online is mainly a positive experience for some, for others it can be full of hate and harassment. Online harassment is a serious issue, as technology continues to take over the world, harassment, hate and abuse are shaping social media into a bad direction. The list of all kinds and types of online harassment is a long one, sadly. To name a few harassment includes threatening to upload private sexual/pornographic pictures, death threats, impersonation and social shaming. Sometimes the harassment can get so bad individuals being ‘abused’, self-harm or try to be abusive back to their ‘abuser’. Since nowadays, everything and anything is available online, women and men are unprotected as private information is hard to control (Free to Be Online, 2020).

Both men and women can be exposed to online harassment but recently with #MeToo movement allowing more women to speak about their experiences, it can be suggested that females experience online harassment more than men, especially women of colour and queer women. As online harassment continues more and more women are becoming more likely to consider to act in a negative behaviour to the harassment, and as the harassment continues younger women are growing up believing that the harassment is a normal part of being online, when in fact it definitely is not (Marwick and Caplan, 2018).

Once online harassment has been reported, attackers begin to ‘gaslight’ women and their experiences. ‘gaslighting is the psychological manipulation of a person in order to erode their sense of self and sanity.’ (Gleeson, 2018) Gaslighting has been a factor in many violence against women cases and domestic violence relationships, as men believe denying their actions towards women as a method to gain control and power over their partner, saying things like “that never happened” (Gleeson, 2018).

As more stories and experiences are being told, governments are providing new legalisation in order to reduce the harm online harassment cases, to continue raising awareness and advocate for those experiencing harassment currently.

References

2020. Free to Be Online. [ebook] Plan International. Available at: <http://file:///Users/sophiebaptista/Downloads/Plan%20International%20Free-to-Be-Online-2020.pdf> [Accessed 12 May 2021].

Gleeson, J., 2018. Explainer: what does 'gaslighting' mean?. [online] The Conversation. Available at: <https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-gaslighting-mean-107888> [Accessed 12 May 2021].

Marwick, A. and Caplan, R., 2018. Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment. Feminist Media Studies, 18(4), pp.543-559.

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Week 9 - Social media influencers and the slow fashion movement

The global fashion world has seen a rise in the challenges in terms of providing sustainable clothing and social responsibility. As the fast fashion movement being promoted is actually generating a significant carbon footprint and raises numerous social and environmental concerns.

Fashion is one of many industries that is polluting the world, as it requires large amounts of raw materials, creating substantial levels of pollutions and leaves a notable carbon footprint and produces dangerous levels of waste as well (Brewer, 2019).

Fashion is forever changing so quickly, with fast-moving trends and styles. The rapid production, manufacturing and distribution being prioritised so ‘fashionistas’ can show off their new threads while huge brands gain more money in their pockets. In recent years, more designers and brands are beginning to create a more ‘sustainable’ line of clothing for their ethical shoppers. For a brand to be sustainable they must focus on the treatment and well-being of their workers, ensure they are using an increasing amount of environmentally friendly resources, renewable and/or recycled materials (Henninger, Alevizou, Goworek and Ryding, 2017). For concerned shoppers, sustainable fashion has more of a local focus, being able to support small local businesses, like ‘thrift stores’.

Promoting sustainability can be difficult in the world we live in nowadays being concerned with image and social status. This is where social media ‘influencers’ play a role, being paid to support the sustainable businesses to promote their clothing and gain followers and customers. Fans and followers of influencers most if not all want to be like or mirror their influencer of choice, so if their role model is promoting the idea of fair, sustainable (hopefully fair priced) clothing, the chances of them purchasing the products are inevitable.

References

Brewer, M., 2019. Slow Fashion in a Fast Fashion World: Promoting Sustainability and Responsibility. Laws, 8(4), p.24.

Henninger, C., Alevizou, P., Goworek, H. and Ryding, D., 2017. Sustainability in fashion.

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Week 8 - Gaming Communities

The ‘gaming community’ is a perfect example of a digital community, as it is growing so quickly and providing users with a safe environment for their imaginations to run free. The video game industry has been utilised has a proving ground of showing the countless techniques of platformisation as well.

Gaming has transformed from a single player hidden in their parents basement to huge professional esports competitions with millions and millions of viewers. In these competitions players verse one another in a formal setting like any sporting game like AFL, UFC etc. with the prize of enormous amounts of money, whilst fans can sit in stadiums and watch or watch as its being broadcasted globally. COVID - 19 lockdowns saw a rise of live streaming on sites such as Twitch. Live streaming provides professional players and teams with the opportunity to gain a bigger audience, brand and even incomes. (Taylor, 2018).

Live streaming apps such as Twitch aren’t only used to broadcast gaming but also a safe place to share creative content such as cooking, home concerts, tutorials etc. Twitch began as a platform to only support gaming but has expanded to accommodate all content for users, making it a positive and supportive digital community for all. Viewers on the streaming site can range from small audiences of family and friends to hundreds, thousands, even millions of fans/ viewers. (Taylor, 2018).

Live streaming gives us an in depth view into what contemporary networking and media culture will progress into the future for online producers and audiences, in the gaming community.

References

Chia, A., Keogh, B., Leorke, D. and Nicoll, B., 2020. Platformisation in game development. Internet Policy Review, 9(4).

Taylor, T., 2018. Watch Me Play. Princeton University Press.

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Week 7 - Filters

Apps such as Instagram and Snapchat bring forth the idea of filters, but they aren’t the only types of technology that we use to filter content. Algorithms on news feeds allow filters, search engines, texts, photos etc. Now living in a culture being surrounded by algorithms we have far too much data than we need or use (Rettberg, 2016).

Instagram was the first social media site to hype the idea of filters, now they are everywhere with even ‘influencers’ creating and selling presets for ‘fans’ to use. These photos great boosts of confidence as they are able to make selfies/photos look brighter and fit the current trending aesthetics. Snapchat joined the idea of filters in 2015, applying not only change of colours but virtual accessories and editing facial features, incorporating augmented reality technology. Snapchat has received backlash for the filters that promote the idea of body modification, including slimming of the jawline and noses, making eyes and lips appear larger and smoothing the skins complexion (Barker, 2020).

The Western society’s profitable idea of beauty and sex industries are glutting the market with images of females being hyper-sexualised as an image of wealth and desire, these images being highly edited through applications such as Photoshop, Facetune, Perfect365. Making it difficult for females ‘in real life’ to live up to these unrealistic ideals of the ‘perfect woman’, increasing the likeliness of developing “digitized dysmorphia”, falling into the spectrum of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), as females feel enormous amounts of societal pressures to look like those highly filtered images. Sadly in the modern age, what the body cannot be able to achieve, images can with editing and enhancing (Coy-Dibley, 2016). In 2014, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defined the word ‘filter’ in the idea of computing as: “To process or reformat (data) using a filter esp. so as to remove unwanted content.” Instagram filters are not mentioned. (Rettberg, 2016)

References

Barker, J., 2020. Making-up on mobile: The pretty filters and ugly implications of Snapchat. Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, 7(2), pp.207-221.

Coy-Dibley, I., 2016. “Digitized Dysmorphia” of the female body: the re/disfigurement of the image. Palgrave Communications, 2(1).

Rettberg, J., 2016. Seeing ourselves through technology. [Place of publication not identified]: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Week 6 - Body modification and social media

The rise of social media platforms has been linked to the ideal of changing bodies, social media platforms such as Instagram allow the use of bodies to affect other bodies, which makes it vital for algorithmic media platforms that aim to profit of users being self-critical and making judgments towards themselves (Carah and Dobson, 2016). Recent data indicates that more patients are seeking aesthetic surgery to improve their image and appearance on Instagram (Dorfman et al., 2017). From Dorfman’s journal the “2017 statistics from the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 42% of surgeons report that their patients are seeking aesthetic surgery to improve their appearance on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and other social media channels.” (Dorfman et al., 2017).

Young females are influenced more than men, when it comes to body modification through the influence of social media. Unfortunately, posts of “hot” female bodies on social media platforms generate more likes and views and the algorithms within these apps make it easier for “influencers” to be visible and users are able to help provide profit (Carah and Dobson, 2016). “Influencers” fall under the label of ‘microcelebrity’, able to gain attention and followers through showing their everyday lives through short clips and posts on social media, users make judgements towards the influencers social life and whether users feel influenced or enjoy their content they’ll like, comment and tag friends to look at later (Carah and Dobson, 2016). Using influencers to market products on their social media is a multi-billion-dollar industry (Drenten, Gurrieri and Tyler, 2019).

As social media can enhance the idea of body modification for users, plastic surgeons have embarced the use of Instagram and other social media platforms to provide education to patients about the risks and dangers of aesthetic surgery being ‘advertised’ by influencers, and with this surgeons are able to gain followers and bring in more business (Dorfman et al., 2017).

References

Carah, N. and Dobson, A., 2016. Algorithmic Hotness: Young Women’s “Promotion” and “Reconnaissance” Work via Social Media Body Images. Social Media + Society, 2(4), p.205630511667288.

Dorfman, R., Vaca, E., Mahmood, E., Fine, N. and Schierle, C., 2017. Plastic Surgery-Related Hashtag Utilization on Instagram: Implications for Education and Marketing. Aesthetic Surgery Journal, 38(3), pp.332–338.

Drenten, J., Gurrieri, L. and Tyler, M., 2019. Sexualized labour in digital culture: Instagram influencers, porn chic and the monetization of attention. Gender, Work & Organization, 27(1), pp.41-66.

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Week 5 - Digital Citizenship

The universal use of social media in the everyday lives of citizens fosters the development of digital citizenship. “A good digital citizen is a person with the skills and knowledge to effectively use digital technologies in a positive way to participate in society, communicate with others, and create and consume digital content” (Office of the eSafety Commissioner, NSW Department of Education).

Political engagement in advanced democracies has changed, as there has been an increase in citizens’ involvement with their local community, environmental and human rights organisations and online social movements (Vromen, 2017). Most citizens purpose or goal of political engagement can vary, may include easing a “citizen voice to decision-makers, developing individual political efficacy, mobilising community groups or fundamentally changing the values of society and politics.” (Vromen, 2017). Those watching digital citizenship evolve believe that the mass engagement in politics through social media has benefits for politics as democratic institutions and associations improve the civil society. Citizens don’t only have to participate through social media but offline as well such as petitioning, donating money, ad hoc volunteering of time, and boycotting and buycotting consumer items over political concerns. Largely the internet and social media has brought great changes to citizen engagement with politics and changed the practices of mobilisation and organisation in the 21st century (Vromen, 2017).

Since the use of social media to contribute as a digital citizen, new citizen norms and identities have emerged that prefer personalisation and sharing over the traditional, dutiful loyalty to politics (Vromen, 2017). As the use of social media increases every day, well established political organisations are creating and participating in digital forums to keep citizens involved in the political process. Networking, communicating and sharing through social media has changed what political engagement is and what it looks like.

References

Vromen, A., 2017. Digital Citizenship and Political Engagement.

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Week 4 -Reality TV

From Jacquelyn Arcy’s article and Todd Graham’s and Auli Hajru’s article, reality TV is manipulated by producers to make ‘good TV’ and spark up ‘political talk’.

Reality producers rely on the ‘money shot’ – “a televised moment of emotional upheaval” (Arcy, 2018), in order for audiences at home to discuss with their family and friends online. People watching from home love reality TV as it’s a way to escape their own reality, as in secrecy most people enjoy watching other people’s lives and hearing, seeing drama unfold. As the reality stars are also active on social media ‘fans’ are able to interact and further investigate what is shown on the screen. Most celebrities all have a distinct digital presence, reality stars are different in this way because they must obtain their online identity as the character they are revealed as on screen, as it’s portrayed in their contracts (Arcy, 2018). As “reality participants are viewed as expendable celetoids, a celebrity whose fame is brief and constructed by the media” viewers are able to enjoy the show when aired and once finished move on to the next exciting reality TV show. Behind the scenes, audiences are blinded by the fact the characters shown on air are manipulated into sketchy contracts, an extremely competitive working environment with the promise of luxury and fame (Arcy, 2018).

The internet provides a ‘cultivating a public sphere’ (Graham and Hajru, 2011), where users are free to speak their mind equally and hide behind a screen, able to discuss political issues shown/spoken about on reality TV, the show can provoke the citizen in us and make us participate in public discussion (Graham and Hajru, 2011). Pop culture should be understood as part of politics, as individuals live through the culture, and the cultural values operate in politics.

References

Arcy, J., 2018. The digital money shot: Twitter wars,The Real Housewives, and transmedia storytelling. Celebrity Studies, 9(4), pp.487-502.

Graham, T. and Hajru, A., 2011. Reality TV as a trigger of everyday political talk in the net-based public sphere. European Journal of Communication, 26(1), pp.18-32.

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Week 3 - How does Tumblr function as a digital community?

A digital community such as Tumblr allows people from all backgrounds to connect. Many participants relate to each other through the social media platform as the connections they make “can be indirect, short term and anonymous” (Byron et al., 2019). With the wide vast variety of personas, likes and dislikes, anyone and everyone are able to find enjoyment while scrolling, posting, liking, commenting and sharing.

At the age of 20 David Karp CEO and founder of Tumblr, established the microblogging and social networking site in 2007, with the simple layout users were/are able to add text, photo, link, chat, audio and video, it’s primary appeal being “less bloggy than blogger” (Reeve, 2016)

Tumblr as a platform “prioritizes aesthetics, amplified through its allowance of user-customised short-form blogs and reflecting its original positioning as a creative community” (Keller, 2019) making the site popular with Millennials and Gen Z’s.

Unlike apps like Facebook and twitter where you connect with friends and news, Tumblr allows users to “connect over the thing you love the most and you don’t need to be who you are on the outside” (McCracken, 2020). Tumblr has many users talking about social justice issues they are passionate about and are able to empower people “whose voices are otherwise marginalised and given them a place to find their community and build their own kind of world” (McCracken, 2020).

Teenagers are able to freely express issues in their life such as low self-esteem with others that relate, having the confidence no one is judging them when instead they’re relating with them. Teens “revel in anonymity” with the freedom to say whatever they want. (Reeve, 2016).

Tumblr functions as a digital community as it is able to be a safe haven for those that feel abnormal or marginalised from the ‘real world’, as the freedom to express ones deepest thoughts and feelings is highly encouraged and supported.

References

Byron, P., Robards, B., Hanckel, B., Vivenne, S. and Churchill, B., 2019. “Hey, I’m Having These Experiences”: Tumblr Use and Young People’s Queer (Dis)connections. International Journal of Communication, 13, pp.2239–2259.

Keller, J., 2019. “Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms. Social Media + Society, 5(3), p.205630511986744.

McCraken, A., 2020. Chapter 3 ‘Going Down the Rabbit Hole: An Interview with Amanda Brennan, Head of Content Insights and Social, Tumblr’ in a tumblr book: platform and cultures eds. [ebook] University of Michigan Press. Available at: <https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11537055> [Accessed 24 March 2021].

Reeve, E., 2016. The Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens. [online] The New Republic. Available at: <https://newrepublic.com/article/129002/secret-lives-tumblr-teens> [Accessed 24 March 2021].

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