Eric Kong

  for MDA20009 Digital Communities  

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Global Social Media:China

What is China’s social credit system?

We know that China’s social credit system is not the first in the world but when it is complete it will be unique. Do not think that the social credit system is just give a score to everyone! IT WILL NOT BE THAT SIMPLE. In 2014, part of the system is already in place and China government target a 2020 goal to get rest of the part in place. There is no one social credit system. China government have their own social record system which work differently compared to the unofficial private version which are operated at companies such as Ant Financial's Zhima Credit. Ant Financial's Zhima Credit system use shopping habits among other data to inform credit-style scores, on an opt-in basis. (Nicole, 2019)

 How does the social credit system work?

The Social credit system will be country wide in China which the system will give a “unified social credit code” to business and an identity number for the citizens and all linked to the permanent record. For example, if u got the entity’s credit code, u can go to the credit China Website and type that code in and take out the credit records. Blacklist, it is the part of the China government credit system, if u do the illegal activities or owe the government money, the people will lose certain rights.(Alexander, 2019)

What happens if you are blacklisted?

I will give an example. For example, Liu Hu is a journalist in China. He is the one who writing about the censorship and the government corruption. Liu Hu has been arrested and fined because of his work and he also got blacklisted. Liu found he was named on a List of Dishonest Persons Subject to Enforcement by the Supreme People's Court as "not qualified" to buy a plane ticket, and banned from travelling some train lines, buying property, or taking out a loan.

 Why is China building this?

China builds the social credit system is all about building the trust. Ohlberg said Chinese society have trust issues such as pollution, food quality or employees not paying their worker. The system is useful to enforce vague laws like endangering national security or unity. Basically, this social credit system is used to punish the company which have bad behavior and illegal activity. The system also can build the means of the financial credit because a lot of people in China live outside the financial system which have no trustworthy credit rating.(Amanda, no date)

 Reference

Alexander, C. (2019) ‘China’s Corporate Social Credit System: What Businesses Need to Know’, 5 November. Available at: https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-corporate-social-credit-system-how-it-works/.

Amanda, L. (no date) ‘What is China’s social credit system and why is it controversial?’ Available at: https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3096090/what-chinas-social-credit-system-and-why-it-controversial.

Nicole, K. (2019) ‘The complicated truth about China’s social credit system’, 6 July. Available at: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained.

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Week 10 : Social gaming

Social Gaming

What is Social Gaming? Basically, Social gaming is used for relaxations and distraction. In the social games, include task, tutorial, communication between player and other, the most popular social game that I know in year 2020 is PUBG. Social gaming now is become more and more popular. (Amanda, no date)

Social gaming is still a new concept in the online world, and still does not have any universally agreed definition. However, there will have some general factor which most of the sources agree can be taken to characterize as “Social Gaming” which are :

1.       Multi-player: Social games are played by the multiplayers at the same time. All the players cooperate and compete.

2.       Social Platform: Social games is the platform that facilitates social interactions.

3.       Awareness and Interaction: In the social game, the individual player can be aware of the other player presence, accomplishment, and action.

 •Are gaming communities becoming more toxic environments for women

Social Gaming is not always a pleasurable experience for the girl or women because many women will be faced sexism and harassment while playing the game online. Based on the research made by the researcher shown that the women have equally or more skilled that the men in gaming when have equally time of the playing time, but the women are more than their male counterparts to be targets of toxicity. In the studies suggested toxicity is more harmful to the women and it is harmful to the psychological well-being. Based on all these bad experiences discourage women or girls from playing, they cannot gain the cognitive benefit of gaming. (Wired, no date)

 The benefit of the social gaming

According to the studies, the people who always active in social gaming will have better physical health, mental health, and others. When the people who spent more time in gaming with friends can help to build the good relationship, understanding and trust between each other. Social gaming will also help u to gain knowledge. For example, the hot game, which is Pokémon Go, the people will travel a lot of different country to collect the eponymous creatures. The knowledge will gain when travel to different country and communication with different people. (American Psychological Association, 2014)

 The disadvantages of social gaming

Gaming addiction will affect the eyesight. Nowadays, many small children already wear spectacles because of gaming, the children will be getting more screen time. If the children addicted in gaming, they would spend more time in gaming and no more outdoor sport or game. This will cause poor academic performance.

 Reference

Amanda, L. (no date) ‘What is China’s social credit system and why is it controversial?’ Available at: https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3096090/what-chinas-social-credit-system-and-why-it-controversial.

American Psychological Association (2014) ‘Video game play may provide learning, health, social benefits, review finds’, February. Available at: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/02/video-game.

Wired, O. (no date) ‘Toxicity in Gaming Is Dangerous. Here’s How to Stand Up to It’. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/toxicity-in-gaming-is-dangerous-heres-how-to-stand-up-to-it/.

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Week 9 : Fandom

What is fandom?

Fandoms is not born with the birth of the YouTube or Reddit. The fandom is born with the birth of the newspaper. Fandom or fan culture is used to describe the communities built around a shared enjoyment of an aspect of popular culture such as movie, TV shows, sports, bands, books, and others (Cambridge Dictionary 2021). Participatory cultures are also a part of the fan culture. Participatory cultures which are involved the fans are not only the customer but also as creator and producer of some form of the creative media. The main purpose involved in fandom is used to connect with content relating to the person’s specific interest and discuss the related content to the other fans around the world in online. These fans are also called “stans”.{Citation}

Is fandom a friendly space for a Chinese/Malaysian/Southeast Asian fan?

I think yes. Therefore, I list down 3 reasons, why I think yes:

1.       In East Asia, fans must be tough for their idols to survive the harsh entertainment industry.

The fans always need to support their own idols no matter Live streaming, TV show and others because it is hard to survive in the harsh entertainment industry and it is easily to be eliminated. Too many idols around the world, if the idol does not have their own fan, they cannot survive in the competition in the entertainment industry.

 2.       Fans have formed assembly lines to boost their idols' popularity.

For example, the fans in China will pooled money to “buy votes” and buy a lot of sim card which is used to support their own idol and make sure they will win in the competition.

 3.       Cultural experts call for supervision on negative phenomena such as fake view counts and stalking. Many fans want to have more contact with their idol, but they used the wrong ways which is stalking. They will follow their idol no matter at where such as home, shopping mall and others. (Randy, 2014)

 Reference

Cambridge Dictionary 2021, fandom, Cambridge Dictionary, viewed 6 May 2021, <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fandom>.

Randy, S. (2014) ‘“I’m Your Number One Fan”— A Clinical Look at Celebrity Worship’, February. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3960781/.

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Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding, What are Those?

What is Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding?

Basically, Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding is quite similar therefore a lot of people will be confused because both methods that leverage the power of the crowd to achieve the business goals. But need to know about that the objective of each is different.

Crowdsourcing is a powerful way which always used to find solution to complex task through a distributed problem-solving approach. It gathers all the knowledge, skill and the power of the crowd to outsource creative ideas which can really speed up the growth of the business or the process. (Miller,2020)

Crowdfunding is a powerful way which raising small amount of money from a large group of people. Compare to the traditional way such as bank loan or angel investors, crowdfunding is a more efficiency way. Social media provide a good platform for the crowdfunding. The people have a good idea can run the campaign on social media such as Facebook, twitter and other for greater reach and exposure of their campaign. For those who think the idea is interesting will give small amount to support the idea. By getting support from a large group of people, end up will have a large amount of the capital.(Laureen,2020)

 Advantage and disadvantages for Crowdsourcing

Cost- effectiveness

By using the crowdsourcing way, it allows us to pay according to the type and the difficulties or the complexity of the task. Therefore, we will receive value for every cent we spend.

Poor quality entries

Some contestants don’t have enough knowledge or idea about your industry and doesn’t want to take time to learn or gain more knowledge about your industry before submitting their entries. This means you may need to take more time to filter all the entries to find out the great entries.

 Advantage and disadvantages for Crowdfunding

Marketing

Beside than raising money, crowdfunding is a good way to test the market which the consumer can really accept the product idea.

Raise money easily

Compare to the other traditional way, crowdfunding is an easier way to raise money. Anyone who really like the idea and thinks the idea work, they can invest and support it. By getting support from a large group of people, end up will have a large amount of the capital.

Risk of failure

The investor doesn’t know the idea really work and it is high investment risk to all investor and contributor because most startups fail.

 Conclusion

The point of sharing all the information here is to make sure all of us can have more knowledge or idea and also the advantages and disadvantages about the crowdsourcing and crowdfunding. We also can know how the social media provide the platform to crowdsource and crowdfund so these two ways can be more effective.

 Reference

[1]           Z. Miller, “What Is Crowdfunding?”,https://www.thebalancesmb.com/a-guide-what-is-crowdfunding-985100

[2]           M. Laureen, “What Is Crowdsourcing?,” Sep. 17, 2020,https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-crowdsourcing-3542321#:~:text=Crowdsourcing%20is%20the%20process%20of,of%20gathering%20opinions%20and%20information.

[3]           Jules, “Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding: Do You Know the Difference?,” Jul. 28, 2020, https://www.easyship.com/blog/crowdsourcing-vs-crowdfunding

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Week 7 Public health campaigns & communities

I think everyone know Covid-19, right? I don’t know how everyone get the information about the Covid-19 but for me, I get all the information of the Covid-19 from social media. From the information get from the social media, I know how to protect myself and how to fight with the Covid-19. The information important to the public health and people. Most of the people “work from home” and stay at home. Therefore, public health need social media to improve.

What is Public health?

Basically, public health is the science of improving and protecting the health of the human and their communities. As we can know, this work achieved by researching disease, promoting healthy lifestyle, detecting, and preventing diseases and others. Is more focus on protecting the health of the entire population.

The relationship between social media and public health.

For sure, Social media is the most cost-effective way for the public health practice to inform the people about the health issue and others. (Gatewood et al., 2020) Social media allow us to share public health information in new

Spaces. Public organization can share the relevant content anytime and anywhere. Social media can work best when integrated with traditional public health communication channels. We can listen and collect feedback in real-time. By collecting all the feedback, the public health organization can improve themselves and provide useful content and information to the people all around the world. (Amy Burnett Heldman, n.d)

Ice bucket challenges

Ice bucket Challenges is also called as ALS ice bucket challenge. This is an activity which involve the pouring of a bucket of ice water over a person’s head which is used to promote the awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

the Pink Ribbon for breast cancer

Basically, the pink ribbon is an international symbol of breast cancer awareness. Pink ribbons are most commonly seen during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

World Water Day

World Water Day held on 22 March every year since Year 1993 which focuses on the important of the fresh water. This campaign is used to raise the awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water

 As a conclusion, social media is important to the public health because public health can easily spread the useful content and information to the people around the world. The people need to follow the instruction and information but need to make sure all the information and the instruction collected is not fake and please make sure all the information is correct and real before spread the news to others.

 References

[1]           J. Gatewood, S. L. Monks, C. R. Singletary, E. Vidrascu, and J. B. Moore, “Social Media in Public Health: Strategies to Distill, Package, and Disseminate Public Health Research,” Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 489–492, Sep. 2020, doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000001096.

[2]           Amy Burnett Heldman, “Social Media Engagement and Public Health Communication: Implications for Public Health Organizations Being Truly ‘Social.’”

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Week 6 Digital Citizenship 2: Activism and Protest

What is activism?

Basically, activism is an action , used to achieve the goal which is bring out the social change. The people who feel strongly about the cause and want to work toward change, that people could be an activist because an activist is the one who always fight for change in society. As we can know, the advantage of the online activism is no geographical constraints.

EXAMPLE:

Uyghur Muslims

In China, there have human right problem which is all about the Uyghur Muslim and this issue also made social media headlines. Inhumane treatment of the Uyghur Muslims was documented and heavily discussed on twitter and TikTok. The users would not know the human right crisis happened around them if they not seen in the social media. The power of the online activism is the activist can spread the information that they wish to share around the world.

Black Lives Matters

Black Lives Matters is an activist movement which start as a hashtag (#BlackLivesMatter) after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

The advantages and disadvantages of the social media activism.

Advantages:

1.       Fundraising

2.       Networking

3.       Allowing all the human engage and participate

4.       Spreading awareness about a cause or event.

Social media spreads awareness

Based on the result shown by the researcher, the people will spend an average 3hours on social media per day. That’s mean the people can get the information all around the world by using the social media. They can advocate for the issues thy care about from the comfort of their own house.

Disadvantages

1.       Lack of privacy

2.       Hashtags do not result change

3.       Unreliable information is often shared

Social media is the perfect host for misinformation

As we can see, social media is a powerful tool to raise awareness but it also the fastest way to spread the misinformation. Based on the research, the fake news spread six times faster than the true news on twitter. Many people don’t have or don’t take more time to do research about the information received in social media. They will share or retweet the post without fact-checking it. REMEMBER MISINFORMATION HAS PROVEN TO BE A SERIOUS ISSUE.

Is social media activism effective?

It depends. As u can see the advantages and disadvantages that I show above, the social media activism will work and effective if all the people really make a research and fact check the post that they share.

REFERENCE 

C. Martherly, “Opinion | Is social media activism actually effective?,” Feb. 2021, [Online]. Available: https://www.breezejmu.org/opinion/opinion-is-social-media-activism-actually-effective/article_7853d8b6-6a57-11eb-8fb1-e70f4d287663.html.

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Week 5 Digital Citizenship 1: political engagement

Nowadays, the young people don’t interest in politic anymore and it caused the young people don’t vote, don’t trust politicians, don’t join the political parties and others. Therefore, the social media become the way for the young people to know more about the politic or involve in the political activities. Based on the research, more than 60% of the American use the social networking side such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others. A new survey which made by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project find out that 66% of the social media user have completed at least one of the eight political activities with social media.

Like what I mentioned above, the young people don’t interest in politic so the political knowledge will be low, therefore social media offers convenient, quick, and good way for the users to gain or have more knowledge in politic. Social media provide a lot opportunity and chances for political exposure and others which can increase the users’ level of political knowledge.

The social media user like to post their own thoughts and the opinion about the issues and post which link to the political material and encourage others to take the political action.

As we can see, Facebook is the first major social media platform to transform the political discussion. Obama campaign use Facebook as a campaigning tool to win the election in year 2008.

That’s mean the traditional campaign tactics is not efficient anymore if compare to the new campaigning tool which is social media. Also, Donald Trump also go for the twitter almost every day to express himself without filter of traditional media. If u really pay more attention at the way that the politicians communicate today, can notice that it is different than the way they used to communicate before. Today, they are communicating by using places like twitter and Facebook.

So, does candidates still need to use social media for campaign in the future?

I think YES because more use of the social media, the user can get more information easily from the social media and much easier to contact each other. The content received by the user become more targeted. The social media will help the user have more engagement in the political aspect.  Social media also can inform about the campaigns and election more specifically. Social media is a good way and area for exposure to campaign message.

References

L. Rainie, “Social Media and Political Engagement,” Oct. 2012, [Online]. Available: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2012/10/19/social-media-and-political-engagement/.

“How Social Media Is Shaping Political Campaigns,” Aug. 2020, [Online]. Available: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-social-media-is-shaping-political-campaigns/.

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Is Tumblr a blog or a social network site?

Introduction to Tumblr

Tumblr was founded in 2007 by David Karp and Marco Arment. Based on the report in 2019, 172 billion of the post had been published on Tumblr. Basically, Tumblr can described as a micro-blogging site which is a mix like twitter, Facebook and WordPress because the user can use Tumblr to post or upload the video, text, image and others which allow user to create their own post. Users can subscribe other user’s pages which the user’s feed will show out on the dashboard (Boone 2012).

 What is blog?

Blog is the journal or daily which located online on the website. Normally, the content of the blog consists video, text, images and others. Blog can be personal use but also can share the information that user wishes to share to others as a public. The blog owner has their right to set their blog become private or public access.

What is Social Networking Site?

The Social Networking Site is an online platform which provide the service to the user that allow the users to create profile and interact with the other users. SNS have many different rules for establishing the connection. There have some Social Networking Site which are LinkedIn, Facebook and others. (“What is a Social Networking Site (SNS)? - Definition from Techopedia”, n.d.).

 So, is Tumblr a blog or social network site?

Tumblr is a social network site because it allows the Tumblr’s members follow each other and share the post, and comment others post. But Tumble also a free blogging platform which aim to post and share anything that member want to share as easy as possible. (Boone 2012).

 Tumblr called as a social network site because it has the function that like the Facebook (news feed). As we can see, Tumblr users connect with each other by subscribing to another Tumblr blog. When the user updates their blog with the pic or others, all these updates will show at the Dashboard. A social network is a place to publish content and comment on other people’s content.

 Tumblr called as a blogging platform because it allows the users to create the blog include the text, pic and others. Therefore, Tumblr provide the service which allow the user to create the multimedia post type that photo, feature text and others. Basically, Tumblr is more for creating bit-sized piece of content rather than long-form content (Stringfellow, 2013)

 Tumblr is a blogging platform and social network. The user can use it as blogging or social networking because the Tumblr provide both in their platform. The power of this platform is the user can use it as blogging and social networking.

Reference

Boone, B. (2012). How Tumblr Works. Retrieved from https://computer.howstuffworks.com/tumblr.htm

What is a Social Networking Site (SNS)? - Definition from Techopedia. Retrieved from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/4956/social-networking-site-sns

[eric101208805]

Is Tumblr a blog or a social network site?

Introduction to Tumblr

Tumblr was founded in 2007 by David Karp and Marco Arment. Based on the report in 2019, 172 billion of the post had been published on Tumblr. Basically, Tumblr can described as a micro-blogging site which is a mix like twitter, Facebook and WordPress because the user can use Tumblr to post or upload the video, text, image and others which allow user to create their own post. Users can subscribe other user’s pages which the user’s feed will show out on the dashboard (Boone 2012).

 What is blog?

Blog is the journal or daily which located online on the website. Normally, the content of the blog consists video, text, images and others. Blog can be personal use but also can share the information that user wishes to share to others as a public. The blog owner has their right to set their blog become private or public access.

What is Social Networking Site?

The Social Networking Site is an online platform which provide the service to the user that allow the users to create profile and interact with the other users. SNS have many different rules for establishing the connection. There have some Social Networking Site which are LinkedIn, Facebook and others. (“What is a Social Networking Site (SNS)? - Definition from Techopedia”, n.d.).

 So, is Tumblr a blog or social network site?

Tumblr is a social network site because it allows the Tumblr’s members follow each other and share the post, and comment others post. But Tumble also a free blogging platform which aim to post and share anything that member want to share as easy as possible. (Boone 2012).

 Tumblr called as a social network site because it has the function that like the Facebook (news feed). As we can see, Tumblr users connect with each other by subscribing to another Tumblr blog. When the user updates their blog with the pic or others, all these updates will show at the Dashboard. A social network is a place to publish content and comment on other people’s content.

 Tumblr called as a blogging platform because it allows the users to create the blog include the text, pic and others. Therefore, Tumblr provide the service which allow the user to create the multimedia post type that photo, feature text and others. Basically, Tumblr is more for creating bit-sized piece of content rather than long-form content (Stringfellow, 2013)

 Tumblr is a blogging platform and social network. The user can use it as blogging or social networking because the Tumblr provide both in their platform. The power of this platform is the user can use it as blogging and social networking.

 Reference

Boone, B. (2012). How Tumblr Works. Retrieved from https://computer.howstuffworks.com/tumblr.htm

What is a Social Networking Site (SNS)? - Definition from Techopedia. Retrieved from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/4956/social-networking-site-sns

A. Stringfellow, “The Great Tumblr Debate: Blogging Platform Or Social Network?,” Dec. 28, 2013.