WEEKLY DIGITAL COMMUNITIES

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Western Misconception - Chinas social media world

It is so common for our western society to assume that when something does not aline with our social norms that it does not exist. Therefore it is not hard for us to believe that because China do not have access to what we deem to be social media they do not have access at all. From the learnings in this weeks lecture it has been made clear that this is a true misrepresentation of Chinas online activity. I admittedly until this week was a person with this misinformed view.

This semester we have discussed a myriad of digital communities, many of which involve the social media sites we all know so well such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube; however this week we have stepped into the unknown territory that is China’s social media sphere. It has been reported that China has the worlds most active social media environment with the total number of active users reaching “the combined population of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom” (Chiu, Ip & Silverman 2012). Rather than the restrictions eliminating social media, China have created their own large and dynamic online community inventing sites such as QQ, Renren and Sina Weibo.

For every Chinese social media site there appears to be a western counter part. For example Weibo is one of the most popular sites in China, it is a microblogging website with a reported 30% of China’s internet users are linked in to the site. There has been large comparisons drawn between Weibo and Twitter, both have a cap of 140 characters per message and use the forum to follow friends and other users they find interesting. Then there is Renren, a site predominantly utilised by students to communicate with past and present classmates, although it does not have as wide of a demographic in terms of users it is formatted like Facebook allowing individuals to post videos, photos, etc.

It could be said that although China’s population is well and truely connected, the connection is within the confines of their self created sites and has limited outside user base. Their connection with news, current events, and relationships globally appears restricted. Although it is statistically clear China have arguably the largest digital community in the world, it does not appear to be connected on a global scale in ways that other sites have afforded a large proportion of the worlds population.

Reference - 

Chiu. C, Ip. C, Silverman. A, 2012, ‘Understanding social media in China’, McKinsey&Company, April, viewed 18/05/2016 http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/understanding-social-media-in-china

Crampton, T, 2011, ‘Social Media in China: The Same, but Different’, China Business Review, January 1st, viewed 18/05/2016 http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/social-media-in-china-the-same-but-different/

[fallontonight]

Happy Birthday to our favorite (former) Farmville addict, Emma Stone!

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Gaming effects everyone! Even the famous 

[wtf-fun-factss]

How video games saved these people’s life - WTF fun facts

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#gaming saves lives 

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Gaming Anti or Social

This weeks topic of social gaming is not something that I am familiar with and to say the topic and terms have gone over my head would be an understatement, but it is the second last blog so we are on the home stretch and I will give it a good shot. To put it simply I am a ’newb’ the only exposure I have had to gaming up until joining Facebook would be watching my brother play multiplay sonic heroes and Mario cart. This habitual gathering in itself shows gamings ability to be a social forum, but of course being in the twenty-first century, gaming has come a long way since the days of two chord connected controllers on the Nintendo 64.

We all know the feeling of pure frustration when that one friend on Facebook sends an endless stream of FarmVille, Candy Crush or Hearts of Vegas requests to play or asking for gaming lives and money. These invitations are a clear indicator of the addiction that is online gaming, even people you wouldn't expect to be playing online games such as your 76 year old great aunt sends requests on the daily, showing that no one is completely immune to the social phenomenon.  Although these invitations for many can be deemed anti-social and a turn off on gaming, gaming through social media sites such as Facebook can be a social and connecting experience for many across the globe.

Shervin Pishevar is the co-founder and CEO of the Social Gaming Network that is responsible for the building of games online for both Facebook and the iPhone, he was asked the question what is next for social gaming? He proclaimed that he had a great passion for “the palpable joy associated with playing games with your friends” also claiming games are “inherently social with the definition of social changing before our eyes”. The possibilities for what is next are “truely limitless” (Pishevar, 2008).

It can be said that gaming as an online social forum is driving this change because it is a new way for people to build links and connections rather then physically in an online space, it is defying distance. Programs such as Facebook connect are defined as fundamental as it allows you to do what makes gaming social and that is find friends both known and unknown to play against and with. All these elements allow a whole new way to experience time with your friends, so for those who embrace the gaming industry it is truely a tight knit and yet very vast digital community.

Reference -

Chan, H, K, 2008, ‘Whats Next for Social Gaming?’, Facebook, Wednesday November 19th, viewed 13/05/2016. https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook/whats-next-for-social-gaming/39379232130/ newbfacebookgamingfarmville ​

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Public engagement with mental illness

Public engagement with mental illness has grown in the last decade as the stigma of mental illness has dissipated and the support has grown. This can be partially attributed to the growing of social media and therefore the ability for the public to engage more openly and freely due to the accessibility.

As discussed in this weeks reading “To Write Love through the indie imaginary” It tells the story of a self proclaimed “indie” non-for-profit movement aimed at addressing issues such as suicide, depression and addiction in youth and advocating for public engagement in these issues. However it did not begin on such a large scale. To Write Love On Her Arms started when Jamie Tworkowski decided to sell t-shirts through a big social media platform of its time Myspace. Jamie did this as a way to raise money to fund a friends substance rehabilitation. Along with the t-shirts Jamie wrote a narrative on Myspace describing his experience with a friend while she was suffering from substance abuse and they were biding time for her to be deemed acceptable to be admitted for rehabilitation.

It now not only sells t-shirts to engage the public for the profit of rehabilitation clinics and suicide hotlines but the TWLOHA movement has expanded from its day of just Myspace and is shared on a myriad of social media sites. Its band of followers share posts, comments, hashtags, blog replies and images across the internet in their fight for engagement in what they believe is immeasurably important cause. They strongly advocate for engagement across the media sphere but specifically online through its many followers; mainly students. TWLOHA also holds a number of conferences and concerts across America to promote, advocate and inform.

The article, as well as telling the story analyses TWLOHA’s argument for engagement and plays close attention to the beginning with a narrative, a story that resinates throughout the entire movement. The founder has been quoted as saying “I think its a cool thing” that it started with a story and this is the case for all the people that it is attempting to help too, each has a story. The story that started with Myspace and a few t-shirts to help one person has grown into a National online fight to help thousands and engage thousands more in the important issue of mental illness in our youths. It is a key example of public engagement with mental illness and illustrates the way in which online communication can personify a message and bring many with a common cause together.

Reference -

Milner, R. M. (2012) ‘To Write Love Through the Indie Imaginary: The Narrative Argument of a Mediated Movement’, Continuum, 26:3, 423-435

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Australian Natural Disasters And The Power Of Social Media

Over the last decade the Australian weather has tried our country and its people with multiple floods, fires and other natural disasters. Due to natural disasters knocking out many forms of communication such as phone lines and the ability to transport yourself to the authorities, as well as the issue of the authorities having no means to contact mass amounts of people other ideas needed to be tried and tested. During the many tragedies it has become paramount that the way in which we alert those who may be immediately affected becomes faster and more efficient and in turn there is a hope that more lives can be saved.

With every natural disaster we have endured in states and towns all over the country social media has played an increasingly key role in crisis communication. At first authorities began to use hashtags related to the various disasters to give updates and respond to distressed people using social media platforms such as twitter and Facebook to communicate during disasters such as the QLD floods. It then evolved into a way that the public could convey important information to emergency crews. Where possible and safe the public could take photos of evolving fires or hurricanes and give authorities the location so they could monitor and respond accordingly. These tactics were used throughout tropical cyclone Marcia.

Social media has allowed a physical community to become an online one and form a line of information that can potentially save lives. However as with everything there has been criticism of the use of social media for this purpose saying that some may use the platform to attempt to contact authorities instead of calling leaving them vulnerable to slipping through the cracks. On top of this there is also a potential for spreading of prank alerts causing unnecessary wide spread panic as many are relying on the platform for information. In contrast to the criticism one notably positive development in social media to aid recent disasters is the development of twitter alerts in 2013. This technology allows approved law enforcement such as the police and government agencies to send vital information of safety messages or warnings and evacuation instructions. Followers of the account receive push notifications to alert them.

Reference - 

- Potter, E, 2015, ‘The role of social media as cyclones batter Australia’, The Conversation, Feb 20th, viewed 28/04/2016, http://theconversation.com/the-role-of-social-media-as-cyclones-batter-australia-37835

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[larryanderson4914457-blog]

Australian Government’s process for reporting cyber bullying.

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Appropriate or Not?

When your news feed appears and you scroll through it looking often mindlessly at friends updates celebrity gossip and current affairs it is often not the articles or pictures that catch your eye, but the comments. There are a limited amount of people that appear in your news feed based on people you have befriended or companies, brands, pages and celebrities you follow but in the comments of these posts there are people from around the world that you often have no alignment with having their say. Although you get a myriad of ideas and opinions it has to be said that in the general public often but not always those who bother to comment have a negative view and some take it to the extreme.

Due to the ability for anyone and everyone to have their say it is inevitable that there will be arguments, feelings will get hurt and the power packed word “bullying” will be thrown around, but how do we define the appropriateness of someone else’s use of social media and when can one individual claim its misses by another? This is a difficult question to answer as conflict on social media comes from a variety of sources, ages and genders so what might be appropriate for some is not for others.

If we focus in one demographic it may be easier to define the terms “trolling”, “online bullying” and “harassment”. For example teenagers. For this group social media can often be used in a very superficial way, to post and comment on photos of their friends, watch videos and drool over the hottest celebs, however when it goes wrong this is the most at risk demographic for long term damage. 42% of teenagers who use social media report having been cyber bullied, of this 42% 20% think about suicide and 1 in 10 attempt. These are huge statistics that need to be controlled and decreased but how is like everything else debatable.

One example discussed this week in our lectures/tutes and beyond is the Australian Esaftey Commission run by the Alannah and Madeline Foundation. The Commissioner claims it “has a wide range of functions and powers to enhance online safety for Australian children.” This commission acts to give people mainly young people the ability to report offensive content on social media and work with them to have it removed amongst other tools. When asking my 16 year old brother and his friends would this help them there was a number of issues raised. The first was as a teenager the knowledge of this safety program is probably not common and the second is they often feel reporting abuse can make the issue worse or make them look in their own words “soft”. It therefore renders these services almost unnecessary. Those who run the program either need to think of a different way to meet kids on their level or better promote their services to its target.

It is my view that both the use of social media and the regulation of the use of social media is hard to define as appropriate or not, purely due the the fact that each and every person using either option views the the cyber/social world differently.

References: 

- McCosker, A, 2016, ‘Managing Digital Citizenship: Cyber Safety as Three Layers of Control’, Negotiating Digital Citizenship: Control, Contest and Culture, vol/issue unknown, chapter 1, pg 1-15. 

- ‘Cyberbullying Rampant on the Internet’, 2013, CyberBullyHotline, Viewed 24/04/2016 http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/07-10-12-scourge.html

- Office of the children’s eSafety Commissioner, 2016, ‘Legislation’, Australian Government, Viewed 24/04/2016 https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-the-office/legislation

[tommy-siegel]

Request for “what history will remember about the 2010s”

:(

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Grass roots, activism movements and clicktivism

The phrase grass roots activism appears to date back to the early 20th century throughout American politics. One notable and successful example of grass roots activism is the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. People collectively met and marched amongst other actions all brought together through physical communities such as churches and neighbourhoods. Since these times to say the term has evolved would be a huge understatement, it now represents a whole new form of activism that does not stem from the coming together of one physical community but often by the joining of a myriad online with a common purpose.

One recent example of how social media has come to support protest is the twitter movement that was created after the siege on the Lindt Cafe in Sydney with the tag #Illridewithyou. The theory behind the movement was to show solidarity between all those who live in Australia after some who practice the Muslim faith felt unsafe being out in public alone for fear of retaliation due to the offender in the siege being of the same faith. The movement saw hundreds of thousands pledge rides to neighbours, to walk together to and from public transport and share taxis across Australia. Without social media this action would not have been facilitated on such a wide reaching scale.

If protest, petition or activism is not in-sighted these days by social media it is certainly encouraged, spread and scrutinised using online platforms. This is where the term clicktivism comes into play. It is not only “the use of social media and other online methods to promote a cause”, but also a way to facilitate social change (Oxford English Dictionary). It has been argued that clicktivism is a ’slack’ form of activism; however it can also be argued that it gives every day people an easy way to support a cause giving a topic more exposure. The critics accuse it of potentially harming serious issues because those clickers have a false sense of achievement for support that has not actually been effective for the cause.

One example of this was the KONY2012 campaign from Africa that produced a short film to bring awareness to have international criminal Joseph Kony arrested for his crimes as a cult leader and for inciting war. Although it received over 101 million views the online campaign came and went with no conviction or arrest. Another example was the ALS ice bucket challenge where people nominated friends and family to pour an ice bucket of water over their head to raise awareness to the terrible disease. It was successful in gaining much attention however it did not raise funds for the under recognised disease nor did it give all participants greater knowledge of the cause and why it was so important. Its hard to argue in these instances that the negative connotations connected to clicktivism are not just as it has been illustrated in multiple examples that more peoples attention does not always equal a greater quality for a cause.

Tzouvara, M, 2016, “In the age of clicktivism: the use of social media in facilitating participation and social change”, New Media Activism, 2nd March, viewed 14/04/2016 https://wpmu.mah.se/nmict161group2/2016/03/02/in-the-age-of-clicktivism-the-use-of-social-media-in-facilitating-participation-and-social-change/

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Trump Takes Credit For Major Accomplishment Based On Info From Random Twitter User, Hilarity Ensues

The theory of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is that he will change the country by the force of his will. He will command Mexico to pay for a beautiful wall on the southern border. Iran will send back American hostages, simply because he told them to.  America will be great again.

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Important duties for a future president - keeping car dealerships from Mexico

 #slowclap #allhaildonaldtrump #figjam

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Digital Citizenship

With the prominence of social media and the internet in everything that society now does it was imminent that it would begin to have an effect on our political views and stances both through public opinion and attempts at persuasion from politicians themselves. Less than 10 years ago only 64% of Australian households had access to the internet, now it would be fare to say that almost everyone has the ability to gain access. A large percentage of the voting population are those who live their lives through the many screens we surround ourselves with, they are also the newest with the right to vote and are therefore often malleable in terms of developing their political beliefs. It has been said that those who engage more in the news media have a higher probability of being civically and politically involved, this theory is what political campaigners have now strongly integrated into their tactics in order to capitalise on what draws todays generations attention most.

Social media sites such as Twitter have become a huge forum for political conversation, debate and opinion. Many of the largest names in world politics have accounts and use them daily to relay their messages, tweet about rallies and even engage in debate/arguments with the opposition to which millions follow with great interest. Donald Trump has several popular social media accounts including snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and his most infamous Twitter. At the announcement of his campaign to run for president Donald Trump had 3.1 million Twitter followers during his controversial run he has acquired 4.2 more followers giving him 7.2 million affording him great reach and making him highly influential in the social media stratosphere. Some social media analysts have attested his surprising staying power to his social media presence that is like no other. He has spent a fraction of the cost on advertising of his opponents and yet has gained the most attention through his shocking political statements on what he believes will make America great again. His constant tweeting (sometimes up to 59 times in one day) has been deemed a unique political campaign strategy, the first of its kind and has increased a whole new demographics of political participation.

In the growing era of social media a politicians smartest move is to move their campaigns online. Not only does it give them a greater insight into their followers and opposers but it reduces costs and gives their public a feeling of a more personal message and therefore engages them further in their civic duty and political understanding.

References: 

What is twitter?, 2013, social communication in the twitter age, p 1-12. 

Roussi, A, 2016, The Twitter candidate: Donald Trump’s mastery of social media is his real ground game, FRIDAY, FEB 19, 2016 01:33 AM AEDT, viewed 03/04/2016. http://www.salon.com/2016/02/18/the_twitter_candidate_donald_trumps_mastery_of_social_media_is_his_real_ground_game/

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‘Is Tumblr a blog or a social network site?’

When you type into the search engine Google what is Tumblr? the first result says “Tumblr is a microblogging platform and social networking website” (tumblr wiki, 2016). This statement of course does nothing to answer the question is Tumblr a blog or a social network site?.

Tumblr has many advantages as a blog which is why it is many peoples go to site for blogging. One advantage is that Tumblr segregates pages into interest based sections giving a blog an audience of peers interested in the same genres and topics. This is a unique feature and gives the website an edge over other blogging networks. However due to its younger based audience it decreases the chances of a blogs ability to reach more mature communities. It could be suggested that it is an effective forum for personal blogs but for certain businesses or companies it does not satisfy a professional communication forum and may not have the desired effect or reach. These factors makes it difficult to argue that Tumblr is solely a blogging site as it does not satisfy a myriad of bloggers needs and is monopolised by one section of the population.

There are many key reasons as to why Tumblr can be described as a social networking site. For example recent research has discovered that 45% of the population that use Tumblr are under the age of 35 years old. It is widely known that generations Y and Z that make up a large majority of under 35s are strongly involved in the social networking scene. I believe its users are the catalysts for the connection between social networking and Tumblr. It is also facilitated by the site itself as Tumblr allows its users to share posts, images, blogs etc with other sites that are deemed as social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Since it was established in 2007 there has been discussion about it becoming the next Facebook which has yet to come to fruition; however it is certainly something that is connected in the public eye with these other social media sites.

I believe that the answer to the question is Tumblr a blog or a social network site comes down to one dependant variable, the user. If you move from page to page on Tumblr you wont generally see the same style twice. Every person uses it to their own advantage and interests some as a blog and others as a social networking site. Therefore the only clear answer to this question is it depends who you ask.

References: 

Siapera, E 2012, Understanding new media, SAGE Publications, Los Angeles.

Papageorgio, K, 2013, Who Uses Tumblr? 17 Statistics Marketers Need To Know About Tumblr, April 22nd. Viewed 25/03/2016 http://kanguro.fi/blog/who-uses-tumblr-17-statistics-marketers-need-to-know-about-tumblr/