Hi! I'm Chloe and I am a 2nd year Media and Comms student passionate about all things social. This blog will cover a range of topics, including social media and advancing technology, to how we view ourselves as digital citizens.
The Great Firewall of China, officially know as the “Golden Shield Project”, is an internet censorship and surveillance project operated by the government. This so-called ‘project’ monitors and censors the web within the country and restricts Chinese citizens from access to things such as politically sensitive content, pornographic content and anything that the government deems inappropriate (Synthesio 2013, p. 4).
Despite this heavy content ban, there are still a large number of social media users in China, and it is estimated that China will have 725 million social network users by 2022. Chinese citizens, mainly millennials, are not only increasingly aware of this government censorship but are actively finding ways around it. Subversive lexicons such as the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon “have been developed by Chinese bloggers as a way to express opinions about the government without falling foul of the censors” (Synthesio 2013, p. 5), and it is clear that though new means of technology, citizens continue to adapt and challenge this Golden Shield Project. However, it is important to ask ourselves the following: Will China have a social media revolution? What does this mean for the future Chinese media censorship?
Found here.
History of Chinese Internet
According to Fischer-Schreiber (2012), the history of the Chinese internet can be divided into four phases:
1986 until 1992, when Internet applications were limited to the use of emails among a handful of computer research labs in China.
1992 to 1995, where the Chinese government proposed several large-scale network projects and built up a national information network infrastructure.
1995 to 1997, when the Chinese government stepped up its effort in building the information network infrastructure, hoping that the IT industry would yield significant benefits to the Chinese nation's economy. Meanwhile, the government started to implement a variety of technological and policy control mechanisms to regulate the safety of the information on the Internet.
1998 to the present day, during which time the Internet has become a powerful medium in Chinese society. The main drivers of this expansion are affordable broadband Internet; a generation of digital natives without siblings; separation of families (rural/city; China/overseas); control and censorship of print media and TV.
It was in 2000 when the Chinese government launched their Golden Shield Project in order to promote the “adoption of advanced information and communication technology to strengthen central police control, responsiveness and crime combating capacity, so as to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of police work (Walton 2001, p. 15). Although seemingly marketed towards “protecting” the Chinese population from unlawful acts, the Golden Shield Project ultimately has become a government filter, restricting the Chinese from anything they do not like. Despite this, Chinese internet users spend more time on social media sites than any other sites (Chiu et al. 2012, p. 3), using their social media equivalents such as Ren Ren, Webio, WeChat, and Youko.
What is the social media landscape like now?
The following infographic gives insight into how social media is used in China as of 2015.
Recently. the Chinese have adopted live streaming as a form of new media - and the industry surrounding it is booming. Whilst it began as a way to connect Chinese families living in rural and city areas with a Western app in 2015, the trend rapidly grew into a niche market that Chinese apps began to fill (Marszałek 2018). The Chinese population relished in the idea of transparency in their media - while all other forms of social interaction are heavily filtered and censored, it is much more difficult for the government to regulate events happening in real time (Marszałek 2018). The following quote and YouTube video highlights live streaming in China and explains in-depth the booming industry surrounding it.
“In mainland China, where more than 95 percent of internet users are on mobile devices, live streaming, like social media, is seen as one way to interact with people who have similar interests and also be entertained without paying for it. But there are growing concerns among authorities over the type of content being produced in a new industry where top earners can make up to 40 million yuan a year” - (Lee 2018).
This live stream transparency, along with the increasing attempts to dodge Chinese internet censors, spark fears in the government, but a fire in the people. It is clear that Chinese citizens are acutely aware of the censorship they are subject to, and maybe it’s time for the Chinese government to acknowledge this.
or for some entirely different reason ? Or are you the type who would not get #caughtdead #doing #hashtag #anything ??
Personally, if i were to use a hashtag (and yes i may have once or twice on insta!!!) It would be in someway related to my post. For example if my friends and I went on a day trip and i decided to commemorate the day by posting a picture to my instagram, an example of a hashtag I may use in this situation would be the location… e.g. #Sydney, #BondiBeach etc. I’m definitely not the type of person to hashtag #likeforlike or #f4f (follow for follow) !!!
The main conflict in the social gaming community can be found under the hashtag #gamergate. The #gamergate controversy is an online movement concerned with ethics in game journalism protecting the "gamer" identity (Hathaway 2014). Gamergate began as an attack on female game developer Zoe Quinn - and her sex life. Quinn had been the victim of death threats and harassment since she began trying to publish Depression Quest, a text-based game partially based on her own experience with depression, in 2013. In September 2014, the New Yorker attempted to explain why Quinn and her game inspired such outrage among gamers —Depression Quest is not a "real game," it's "just words," its portrayal of depression is too personal to be relatable—however, the chatter in the gaming community did not seem to be so concerned with the content of the game, as much as they were concerned with the fact that Zoe Quinn is a woman (Parkin 2014).
In 2018, Digital Australia published a gaming report, showing that 46% of video game players are actually female. This is almost identical to the statistics in 2014. It is clear that there have always been a large number of females in the gaming community, however, it seems that there is still a layer of misogyny that underpins the gamer identity, made obvious through the #gamergate hashtag in 2014. It is important to ask ourselves, is this hashtag still relevant today? Even more importantly, how can we change it?
The harassment against Quinn reached its height in August 2014 after her ex-boyfriend, Eron Gjoni, wrote a series of blog posts alleging that Quinn had cheated on him with five other men, some of whom worked in games or games journalism (Pearl 2014). The gaming community at the time immediately used this as ammunition to assault and harras Quinn, stating she had definitely slept with those five people and only did so to get publicity for her games. Her address and phone number were made public shortly afterward, and the threats against her became so intense that she left her house and started couch-surfing.
Zoe Quinn, image found here
This conflict revealed many underlying issues with the misogyny that underpins the gaming community, and specifically, the word “gamer”. Many supporters of Gamergate oppose what they view as the increasing influence of feminism on video game culture; as a result, Gamergate is often viewed as a right-wing backlash against progressivism. An article penned by Keza MacDonald at the start of 2018 states that the video game industry has not yet had it’s #MeToo movement, and that is largely due to the consequences of bad reporting on the subject, as well as how little women there are in the gaming industry (MacDonald 2018) - it makes it virtually impossible to remain anonymous, and opens up the victims for a flurry of threats and abuse, just like Zoe Quinn.
It is obvious that the #gamergate hashtag was more than what “gamergaters” made it out to be - it was certainly not just a take on ethics of game journalism, nor was it about protecting the “gamer” identity. #gamergate was and still is, an attack on women in the gamer community. As Nicole from Black Girl Gaming put it:
“Gamergate is a difficult phenomenon to explain, in short, with a convoluted, confusing web of people saying disparate shit over the course of years with quite a bit of trying to hide the group's cruel, dangerous nature”.
Gamergate was shoved back into the spotlight with the film release of Ready Player One. Spielberg’s film, based on the 2011 novel, came under fire due to the Gamergate controversy. Aimed to be a lighthearted and fun ode to gaming and 80s and 90s pop culture (mainly understood by white men - no Jen and the Holograms references there) turned into an important conversation about the role of women in gaming - not merely as trophies, but as strong gamers and game developers. The dark underbelly of Gamergate has become all too apparent in this modern context, and the movie ultimately presented many issues with the way women are viewed in the gaming world.
So where are we now? The number of females who play games have been the same for nearly 4 years, and they remain steady, if not increasing. The gaming community might not yet have had their #MeToo movement, but as more women take charge to develop their games and be respected as serious gamers, it is important for women to be treated as such. “The New York Times investigation into Harvey Weinstein represented over a year of work and trust-building” and women must stop “being approached as potential leads rather than as people who might have been through something horrible” (MacDonald 2018).
Gamergate is still relevant in 2018 - however, it is no longer about attacking women, but revealing how they are treated in the gaming community and how we can change this.
Okay, so I might have lied in the title - I don’t actually have a doctorate. What I do have, however, is a decent internet connection and the tendency to google my symptoms every time I feel a new pain or have a runny nose.
I know that I’m not the only one.
This consistent worry about the state of health is called being a hypochondriac - or, with the development of online technologies and sites such as WebMD - being a cyberchondriac. The rise of digital technologies to support a new dimension of healthcare involves “the sharing and curation of health information content through social channels” (McCosker 2015, pp. 1). But what does this mean for those of us with the tendency to consult Doctor Google?
To WebMD or not to WebMD?
Between 2005 - 2013, there was a vast amount of research done into Online Health Publics and digital health statistics, coinciding with the development of various social media platforms (Farrell 2018). Research shows that 59% of the adult population looks up health information online (Castillo 2013). But, it is important to ask ourselves whether or not this information is accurate, and whether we can truly believe everything we see, read and hear.
Case Study: Ashley Kirilow
Almost everybody has heard of the infamous Belle Gibson, who survived a fake brain cancer using herbal remedies and a healthy lifestyle (Rojek 2017). However, her fraud is not an isolated case. Ashley Anne Kirilow is a 31-year old woman from Ontario who faked having cancer at age 23 in order to raise money (Kennedy 2010). In 2008, Kirilow found a lump in her breast, and after being told by doctors it was benign, she told people that she had cancer (Byrne 2010). Kirilow even went as far as to shave her head and eyebrows, as well as pluck her eyelashes and starve herself, to appear as if she had been going through chemotherapy (Kennedy 2010) (Byrne 2010). Kirilow told courts that she had “enjoyed the attention” that was given to her in her media flurry, and that she had only faked cancer to “be noticed” (Kennedy 2010).
It is instances such as these that question the legitimacy of online health publics - how can we be sure that those who are blogging or sharing their stories of illness through social media are truthful? Nonetheless, blogging has become an integral part of the public health experience - especially in regards to mental health (McCosker 2015).
Picture of Ashley Kirilow, found here.
Mental illness and social media
“The pairing of mental health issues and social media use has crossed between popular moral panic and clinical or public health concern” (McCosker 2015). There is a current, rather negative, stigma between social media and mental health, mainly due to FOMO, or the ‘fear of missing out’, as a contributor to anxiety and depression among young users of social media (Schroeder 2015). The following TED Talk by Bailey Parnell nicely describes some of the reasoning and mentality behind this.
However, these studies and talks seem to ignore the rise of social media to be able to connect with other people who may share the same or similar illnesses as you, as well as being able to share common thoughts and feelings with people who may be more understanding than those you know in person. The use of hashtags such as #anxiety or #depression work “as one tag among many others that segments mental health and illness experiences and enables connectivity and visibility” (McCosker 2015). Speaking from personal experience, I have often found that strangers online are more understanding and sympathetic when discussing issues such as mental health, and there are a variety of online resources such as The Quiet Place Project to support people throughout these journeys.
We’re not doctors. The internet is not a healthcare professional. However, the web can often be a helpful tool to search for information about an illness you think you might have, an illness you do have (AFTER consulting a professional. Looking at you guys, Ashley Kirilow and Belle Gibson) or to be part of support groups with likeminded people suffering through the same things as you. Overall, the generation of online health publics is a useful tool - you just have to be careful of how you use it.
Open/closed
More graphics for everyone! Feel free to share, download, whatever! Hope you enjoy!
Image description 1:
Graphic of an open sign in red that says: “Come in, We’re open minded”
Words are in white. The word come in is in script, the rest is in capitalized type.
Theres a brain icon in red overlapping the o and p of the word open.
Image description 2:
Graphic of a brown closed sign that says “Sorry! We’re closed to hate & trolls”
The word sorry is in white script, and the rest is all in white capitalized type except for closed, which is in red capitalized type.
Crowdsourcing is a great way to approach creation because in any given point there’s always somebody on the Internet who knows something better than you do
Have you ever supported a GoFundMe page, or paid a small fee to help keep a free website running? Have you ever helped spread information about a particular event? If so, you have participated in crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is where “participants construct knowledge, shape memories, apportion praise and blame, make transient and opportunistic connections, and perform identities.” (Horbury & Hughes 2010, p 144). This goes hand in hand with rapidly evolving social networking sites, as social media has become integral for communication and response to disasters (Farrell 2018).
Social media crowdsourcing helps to make sense of disaster and deal with trauma. “Like media, SNS can be understood as sites at which individuals and groups make sense of events and experiences” as “participants construct knowledge, shape memories, apportion praise and blame, make transient and opportunistic connections, and perform identities”. (Horbury & Hughes 2010, p. 144). SNS offers us the ability to become resources for news in times of crises. In real time, whoever is physically present during a crisis are able to update others immediately - and just at the touch of their fingertips. However, there is no one way of “crowdsourcing” - the type of crowdsourcing is largely dependent on the network we are attempting to target.
Types of Crowdsourcing
Types of crowdsourcing can be split into three networked audiences: Centralised Networks, Decentralised Networks or Distributed Networks. A Centralised Network is where a single source is distributing information out to the people - similarly to how the QLD Police distributed information to the public about the QLD Floods. A Decentralised Network is similar to this, but with multiple main information points as opposed to one central information source. However, we are most interested in the Distributed Network, as this is the most similar network to display crowdsourcing. A Distributed Network has no central information source - instead, this kind of network relies on the public being able to spread and share information amongst themselves. Typically when discussing crowdsourcing, it is more common for Distributed Networks to be the main form - especially when considering the integration of SNS with disaster services.
Where’s SNS in all this?
The integration of SNS and emergency services is an important tool in today’s digital society, for they are seen as integral to the way information about disastrous events has come to ‘break’ and circulate. Disasters such as the QLD Floods and more recently the 2015 Paris terror attacks highlight how integral SNS has become in times of crisis. For Paris specifically, social media platforms were used to update and inform the public of the attacks as they happened in real time. Parisians reached out to offer refuge to those who were struck with nowhere to go in the chaos, by using the hashtag #PorteOuverte, meaning ‘open door’ (Ross 2015).
However, that is not to say that technology has perfectly integrated to deal with crisis just yet. On January 13th 2018, a false inbound missile alert was sent to residents of Hawaii. Recipients of this message flocked to social media to share and warn others of the crisis and seek shelter - unknowingly spreading a false message and causing panic not only for Hawaiian locals, but other parts of the globe (Travers 2018). Although it was a mistake, it is clear how SNS helped to spread the message globally and exemplifies the importance of SNS in times of crisis.
We’ve not perfectly mastered the art yet, but we have become increasingly reliant on social media and crowdsourcing to stay informed and aware of global issues. Thanks to them, we are able to not only spread information, but we are able to assist others from all over the world.
