Digital Communities

Hello, I'm Sarah! I'm currently studying Media and Communications, majoring in Cinema and Screen Studies. I spend my time adding movies to my watch list, tutoring piano and dancing. 

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#8: Why place is important

Location based media and networked media is a very useful tool in understanding our geo-identity. A person’s geo-identity refers to their sense of self and belonging to a geographic place (Wang 2015). Many social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram encourage tagging your location. This enables users to connect their content to a thread of pictures and status’ posted by other users. Whilst other networked sites such as Zomato and FourSquare allow users to find the “best restaurants, cafes and bars” (Zomato 2008) and the “perfect places to go with friends” (Foursquare 2017) that are in their current area, influencing where we eat and find entertainment around us. Google Maps also guides us through a geographic place, ensuring we arrive at certain destinations.

Place is grounded in a “fixed physical location” (Wang 2015, p. 31), however it informs history, social meanings and personal and interpersonal relations, constituting our experiences and memories. Our identity is connected to certain places and the way we move around in those places. Instagram used to have a feature called ‘photo maps’, allowing users to see their photos arranged based on where they were taken, however many people didn’t travel internationally “their photo maps looked like one giant stack of photos sitting on top of the city where they live” (Newton 2016), influencing Instagram to get rid of the feature as it wasn’t used. When I used this feature, I enjoyed seeing the places I had travelled to, it gave me the ability to situate a visual memory in a real place. Even looking at photos I had taken in Melbourne was interesting as you could navigate your way through the city, visually through both memories and geographically.

Earlier this year, Instagram introduced Location Stories, a feature that compiles publicly shared stories containing a location sticker. This feature allows users to see what is occurring in a place they are not physically in such as “[to] see if a bar is full and lively, or if a band has gone onstage… even use it to check the real-time, hyperlocal weather somewhere” (Constine 2017). This feature is useful as it connects people from all over the world and allows users to express themselves and their experiences via their location.  

People’s experiences of a place are formed through an understanding between the natural landscape surrounding them and the social relationships they are forming, therefore their belonging to a place is constantly changing and reimagined (Wang 2015). Furthermore, place-making is a “process of identification that constructs unity among people over time” (Wang 2015, p. 31), for example, my childhood home contains memories and experiences amongst my family and friends, similar for my schools, my place of work, local cafes, the cinemas, the list goes on. These places inform and shape part of my identity and networked media enhances those experiences.

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#7: Phone Story

Gaming and playing are two concepts that are deeply embedded within our society that sometimes we don’t even recognise we are doing it. Play is defined as a “free activity standing quite consciously outside 'ordinary' life”, however how far outside of ordinary life is it (Huizinga 1938)? Take Pokemon Go for example, a game that merges the world around us with the characters from Pokemon, or the theory of dramaturgy, the idea that human behaviour is influenced by the theatre, acting out everyday actions as though on stage, essentially playing the role of a human in different situations.

The game Phone Story (2011) highlights this conscious recognition of play and the human and machine symbiosis by creating a game for mobile phones that exposes “the dark side of smartphone manufacturing” (Pineschi 2011).

The game comments on the process a phone goes through for it’s creation. There are four levels, each referencing scandals that have occurred in association with smartphone companies and the obsession the West has with materialism. The type of play is agon or competition (Albarran-Torres 2017). Whilst there isn’t a contest between other players, there is a competitive element in that the player is trying to reach a goal, therefore having the ability to move onto the next level. After the completion of level four, the game returns to level one, emphasising the endless cycle of manufacture. The game was banned from Apple’s app store due to portraying "violence or abuse of children" and "excessively objectionable or crude content" (Dredge 2014).

Level one is a depiction of the child slaves in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The player is embodied as a soldier, taunting the children that begin to pant from exhaustion to return to their work. It is assumed that the cobalt mined is sold to “three battery component manufacturers in China and South Korea” who go on to sell to companies such as Apple and Samsung (Amnesty International 2016). Children as young as seven are working in the mines, alongside adults, all risking permanent lung damage (Amnesty International 2016).

Level two depicts a tall building in which people dressed in white (allusion to Foxconn uniform) are jumping out of. The player’s aim is to catch the people as they fall, fail and they fall to their death. This level comments on the Foxconn scandal were 18 workers attempted and/or committed suicide (Blanchard 2012). Employees of the company work excessive hours and are underpaid (Blanchard 2012).

Level three targets “gadget consumerism in the West” (Pineschi 2011). The player is depicted as an employee of a smartphone company, wearing a block coloured shirt - infamous with Apple - standing outside a building with a pear symbol (fairly explicitly referencing Apple). People come charging from the other side of the street, whilst the player has to throw phones into the customer’s hands. People lining up for the latest phone are common news stories prior to the reveal of the latest gadget, however the millions of people enjoying the benefits of the technology, “rarely ask how they are made”, which Phone Story aims to exploit (Amnesty International 2016).

Level four references the impact of e-waste in Pakistan. E-waste has many health risks such as neurological damage, additionally it can have environmental impacts and contamination of agricultural lands and livestock (The Recycler 2013).

The player is placed on the side of the company, forcing children to work harder, covering up unethical working conditions by saving the falling employees before sending them back into the building, selling the products and disposing of the electronic waste. The goals of the developer are to educate people with smartphones of the process behind it’s manufacture (Pineschi 2011). This message works successfully and possibly best as a game, as it is visual, interactive and places the individual in the position of the company.

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#6: Social Media & Men’s Health

Social media has played an increasingly important role in public health and more recently, men’s health. Adhering to the connotations of masculinity, expressing your health and/or mental state is something that is kept quiet. Men are “well known to rebuff health and wellbeing issues” due to the pressures to constantly appear masculine (Burgess et al. 2014, p. 22). Social media assists and has been utilised to alter this pattern and begin open discussions regarding men’s health. Movember is a charity event to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer and men’s suicide rates, additionally the #ItsOKToTalk campaign promotes conversation regarding men’s suicide rates and mental health.

Beginning in 2004, Movember is an annual event held in November in which men are sponsored to grow a moustache to raise funds for researching treatments and support services (Burgess et al. 2014, p. 22). Since the charity began, $770 million has been raised for men’s health (Movember Foundation 2017). Social media increases accessibility to information and content as it is perpetually available and offers increased levels of interactivity, therefore more public engagement compared to mass media (Burgess et al. 2014, p. 22). The Movember Foundation has a strong presence across all platforms with 12,410 followers on their Australian Twitter page, 76,820 likes on their Australian Facebook page, 78,700 followers on their Instagram page and 6,660 subscribers and 474 videos on their YouTube page. The same narrative is promoted across all platforms, ‘stop men dying too soon’ and even though the cause is most prominently advertised in November, it is a year round charity.

#ItsOKToTalk is a campaign that began last year (2016), where men were prompted to share a selfie with the ‘OK’ hand signal, to unashamedly inform family and friends of their mental state and to encourage their male peers to do the same. The trend began with UK rugby player Luke Ambler and the campaign quickly grew to an international scale (Laschon 2016) with celebrities such as Ricky Gervais supporting the cause (pictured below). Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians aged between 15 to 44 years (Laschon 2016). The significance of having the campaign online, meant that men could connect with others in a way they wouldn’t be able to without platforms such as Twitter and Instagram to share pictures and messages. Removing the stigma attached to mental health and ensuring men feel comfortable discussing mental health is an important part of the campaign.

Whilst there are many benefits towards engaging social media in public health, there is a risk that it may become superficial (Burgess et al. 2014, p. 23). There is concern that occasionally individuals post pictures or update status’ in regards to these campaigns, without following through with other actions such as raising funds for research to prevent the diseases. However beginning the conversation and encouraging men to feel that it isn’t emasculate to discuss their health is an important step in overcoming these illness’ and social media plays a large role in removing these stigmas and spreading the message.

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#5: Social Media in 2005 vs. in 2017

Today, there is no questioning social media’s involvement in emergency communication, it is unavoidable and relatively impossible (Posetti 2012, p. 39). With around half the population using the internet, online crowdsourcing is inevitable. Crowdsourcing is the process of outsourcing work, labour or funding from a large group of people. People use skills, ideas and location to create content, products or to fundraise. Two of the main social media platforms used in situations where crowdsourcing is prevalent is Facebook (launched in 2004) and Twitter (launched in 2006).

In 2005, New Orleans was hit with category 5 storm, Hurricane Katrina, arguably the most damaging storm to hit the United States. Out of the social media utilised today, Facebook was the only platform around during this time, however it was mainly used as a private social network for Harvard students. Hurricane Katrina did see the beginning of participatory journalism and people began to use blogs (Haddow 2014, p. 60). However majority of the news that circulated was through traditional news sources such as television and radio (Haddow 2014, p. 54).

Fast forward to earlier this year when Cyclone Debbie hit. Large scale damage was caused and thousands of homes were left uninhabitable however, Facebook and Twitter were employed to communicate evacuation messages, updates and on-the-ground experiences.

In 2014, Facebook introduced a Safety Check button for the purpose of natural disasters, so users could inform their family and friends of their safety. Facebook and Twitter also use hashtags such as #CycloneDebbie to sort all the incoming information into one thread for quick and efficient access.

During the September 11 attacks in 2001, only 1% of Americans were informed of the events via the internet, compared to 75% of Americans during the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 (Haddow 2014, p. 53). Comparing these two large-scale terrorist attacks, highlights how different news consumption is nowadays compared to sixteen years ago.

Mainstream media such as television and radio influence and interact with social media, for example, television news reports and online newspaper articles could show videos from citizen journalists uploaded to Facebook or YouTube and/or broadcast tweets from influential people, emergency services or regular citizens describing their situation. Whilst social media takes news reports from newspapers and television segments which users can re-tweet and share to inform other users. Fear and frenzy is minimised and people are updated almost immediately when emergency situations break out.

Whilst social media is extremely beneficial in crisis situations, there are some downsides. During an emergency the thread’s can fill up quickly with torrent’s of content, updates and repetition of information, creating noise and making it difficult to find useful information (Posetti 2012, p. 37). Additionally, information needs to be verified to sort out which information is accurate, trustworthy and authentic (Posetti 2012, p. 36).

Social media is still emerging as a place for crisis communication, but is quickly becoming preferential over top-down news sources due to it’s rapid nature and emphasis on citizen journalism.

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Crowdsourcing

This week I presented with my group on the topic of Crowdsourcing.

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#4: Trolling as a form of violence

Whilst the emergence and dominance of social media has mostly positive effects, it can be quite harmful and damaging. Trolling - people who deliberately make offensive or provocative posts online - has become something of a phenomenon, but when does the ‘freedom of speech’ defence tire and these posts and comments cross the line into violence?

Trolling can be described as an umbrella term for online harassment, containing: offensive names, purposefully embarrassing others, physically and/or sexually threatening others, harassing others over a sustained period and stalking (Farrell 2017). 

Often when we think of violence we perceive it as either physical abuse or existing within the physical world, but too often violence can be through technology (Ostini & Hopkins 2015). Using the definition according to the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 - which states Domestic and Family violence can be physically, sexually, emotionally, psychologically or economically abusive, threatening, coercive, controlling, dominating or causing the person to fear their safety or wellbeing - can be applied to technology as trolling can cause many of the same responses and feelings (Parliamentary Counsel 2016, p. 15-16).

This is evident in such cases as Charlotte Dawson. In 2012 she was hospitalised after hundreds of trolls targeted her on Twitter, and later died in 2014. After the incident in 2012 she exclaimed that “being outspoken (and a female) [makes her] the target of online vitiriol… [she was] bombarded with death threats and suicide taunts [which] broke [her]” (Byrnes 2013). Her public battle with depression inspired her to support campaigns like ‘Stop the Trolls’ and go on to interview many of her trolls. Whilst it is argued this is “the cost celebrities pay” (boyd 2014, p. 149), trolling and internet harassment caused Charlotte Dawson psychological and emotional abuse and eventually led to her death. In Australia one in five children aged eight to 15 have experienced cyberbullying, in addition to these statistics, in 2014 there were 2,864 deaths by suicide and 3,027 deaths in 2015. The combination of bullying and the internet allows for cyberbullying to occur 24/7 and can result in various forms of abuse, a fear for safety and wellbeing and potentially mental illness’ such as depression which could result in suicide.

Social media platforms have reviewed their approaches to blocking harassment, but how successful are they in policing trolls? In 2015, Mia Matsumiya (a musician), documented and collected over 1,000 abusive messages (Johnston 2016). Since then, Facebook has employed a request feature, so messages can only be received if they have been accepted. Reporting content on Facebook is relatively easy through pop-down menus and flagging buttons, however you can’t follow up a request that has been denied and the broad terms and conditions of the platform make cracking down on violations difficult (Johnston 2016). Twitter is subjectively governed using an email thread, users have the ability to report harassment aimed at them as well as other users, however, it is difficult to report many posts/accounts due to the formatting of emails (Johnston 2016). Reporting content on Instagram is difficult as visibility levels differ and Instagram and YouTube don’t inform the user of the actions taken, additionally, the process for reporting YouTube users is three clicks deep (Johnston 2016).

Essentially people need to be aware of the often dire implications trolling and cyberbullying has on people and need to start viewing it as a form of violence. Furthermore, the social media platforms need to improve their governance and ensure reporting users and content is an easy process with results and follow through.

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Even though within the context of the show, this performance was a rehearsal, I can’t help think that the empty room signifies our continuation to spread messages and awareness out into the digital world with either no one there to listen or little response and action taken. 

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#3: Does activism result in action?

Activism can be defined many ways but essentially it is a form of campaigning that brings political and/or social change and holds hegemonic powers accountable. Activism takes many forms, protests, rallying together, petitions, letter writing, litigation, boycotting, strikes, sit-ins and more recently liking, re-tweeting, changing profile pictures, copying and pasting status’ and following. Whilst the latter forms are seen as “slacktivism”, are they actually beneficial in creating revolutions?

Slacktivism or hashtag activism or clicktivism is the lazy form of activism. It’s a way to feel good about yourself, as though you have actually achieved something. When realistically, it’s time and money that has a real impact, not awareness (Park 2013). Even though it’s action outside of the digital world that is needed, social media helps start the conversation. It’s where hashtags and consequently trending topics are born and shared.

One of the largest demonstrations of political opposition recently was the Women’s March on Washington. It began with a Facebook page, proposing the idea of a march for women’s rights to 40 friends (Garrison 2014). Two months later, the day after the Presidential Inauguration, 3.3million people turned up in America alone to support the cause (Garrison 2014). This worldwide movement came at the right time, promoted action instead of awareness or opinion and connected like-minded people. The event sparked the #WhyIMarch hashtag, allowing people to share their stories, furthering the conversation.

Technology is beneficial in getting movements started and sharing the results, but a few days or weeks later people don’t really care anymore. Take the temporary profile pictures for example, Instagram and Facebook was littered with pictures of the Eiffel tower, French flags and #PrayforFrance after the terrorist attacks. But that’s all they were, temporary. The point is to show solidarity and empathy, a little ‘we’re thinking of you’ (Taylor 2015). Even though there is good intention, this misses the mark. How many people change their picture out of solidarity and empathy versus people who change it because everyone else is. Not only has activism become slacktivism, but it feels as though it’s becoming fashionable (Taylor 2015).

Whether it’s activism or slacktivism that occurs, technology propels the message into the world and actually allows people to get the information they need to get out into the streets and march or shout or rise up above the dominating powers. It connects people from opposite sides of the globe and allows them to share their struggles, their stories. It is successful because of it’s concern with human interest, “charged with emotion and historically resonant” (Sigal & Biddle 2015, p. 289). Whilst we are often consumed on a daily basis with places, people and movements we should be caring about and may take the lazy approach of clicking a button rather than donating our money or our time, at least the information is circulating, at least we are thinking about it and maybe, hopefully one day we will build up the courage and motivation to take action.

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#2: Politicians vs. Social Media

Most politicians are consciously aware of the effects that social media could potentially have on destroying their careers, therefore tending to participate rather than engage. 

In 2011 New York Congressman Anthony Weiner’s twitter was allegedly hacked after a lewd photo appeared on the platform (CNN Staff 2013). Two weeks later Weiner admitted to posting the photo and engaging in inappropriate online relationships, a further two weeks later he announced his resignation (CNN Staff 2013). Due to cases like this one, politicians are reminded that on the internet, specifically social media, nothing disappears and therefore many have a “desire to play it safe” and please everyone, which isn’t an entirely successful approach (Jericho 2013, p. 260).

However some politicians are good at engaging with their followers and the platform. When Tony Burke was mocked on Twitter for his mundane, bland tweets, the hashtag #tweetliketonyburke emerged (Jericho 2013, p. 264). Burke seized the opportunity to be amongst the joke tweeting various times using the hashtag such as this one…

…his ability to recognise that the platform isn’t used to shout at people and shove a message down their throat, allowed him to make real connections and show that he isn’t afraid to laugh at himself (Jericho 2013, p. 264). Malcolm Turnbull currently has 792,450 followers and realises two vital things about the platform, he is aware that he is able to connect to each of those 792,450 followers, essentially in their pocket 24/7 and he also utilises the platform in conjunction with other websites (Jericho 2013, p. 265).

Argued the “tweeter-in-chief”, Donald Trump, with 27.2 million Twitter followers and 21.7 million likes on Facebook, has a massive reach. He tweets in a unique way, using language and punctuation as though he is speaking, therefore personalising his account, rather than just stock-standard promotional messages. His tweets are purposefully provocative and attention grabbing, which not only allows his supporters to like and re-tweet, but for disagreeing followers to reply and debate with him, consequently broadcasters discuss his tweets, only propelling them into a bigger audience (Bickart 2017). The more he tweets the more he allows people to see the real him and “authenticity matters” on social media (Bickart 2017). People want to be following the official page, the verified account, the more we get to see behind-the-scene’s, the more we want to know and Trump provides. He is constantly informing followers of his personal thoughts, fearless of the effects it could potentially have, however he is in a position of power, so should he care?

Social media is all about connecting and engaging with people who we might not normally associate with, or be able to associate with. Politicians all engage with social media in different ways, whether their primary aim is to promote their messages or to come across as an everyday person and empathise with their followers. Either way, politicians may still be seen to have an agenda as we are constantly reminded that social media is mediated and everything can be spun or interpreted as fake news.

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#1: Is Tumblr a blog?

Tumblr can be argued to be a hybrid between a blog and a social network site, often taking elements from many platforms and adding it to it’s own. The fundamentals of a blog are as follows: an accessible technological extension of a personal home page, a personalised self-expression or themed content, asynchronous and usually long-form, reverse chronological and/or time-stamped entry and is predominantly public and openly accessible (Farrell 2017). Whilst these at the core of a blog, they are also fundamental to many social network sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

Blog’s and social networking sites share the same basic function which is to share ideas, thoughts and content (Rettberg 2013, p. 14). Each platform tries to focus on one form of media or sharing however they often bleed into each other, stealing and copying elements that are successful on other platforms (for example Snapchat stories) and the icons representing activities such as commenting, liking and sharing.

Tumblr gives users the ability to write, add a photo, quote, link, chat, provide an audio and/or visual clip. Blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook are able to execute most, if not, all of these functions as well.

There are different social expectations that come with a blog and social networking sites. In a blog it is more acceptable to “revel in anonymity” compared to social networking sites, were users expect a level of authenticity, as they are more interaction based (Reeve 2016). However many blogs are successful due to their genuine portrayal of a journey they are going through, examples being ‘Mummy blogs’ and people undergoing treatment for an illness. With that being said though, if you knew your diary was going to be viewed by a large amount of people, you would probably “think quite carefully about what you included”, with some people even taking the ‘fake it till you make it’ approach ie. Belle Gibson.

The term ‘publics’ refers to people/users who are members of many online communities such as a group for their university, a page for the football club they support or a fandom profile. One important aspect of publics are invisible audiences which are seen both in blogs and social networking sites (Farrell 2017). Publics exist in different ways on different platforms, Facebook generally consists of people you know where as Twitter and Tumblr’s existence is based on interaction with unknown faces, sometimes even bots. I think the latter is one differentiating factor between a blog and social networking site and can allow for people to share more personal details of their life without fear of judgement, “[it] is a ‘safe haven from their local friends’” (Reeve 2016).

The technologies themselves also limit how we use these platforms to share content. Social networking sites don’t allow for users to have their own personal home page/website as blogs do, one of the key differences between the two (Rettberg 2013, p. 15). Many social networks have restrictions such as Twitter’s 140 character tweets and Instagram’s 2200 character captions and 30 hashtags per comment. Where as blogs allow for long-form or lengthy reading which Tumblr abides by.

The next form of blog is arguably the already existing ‘vlog’ which has arisen since the introduction of smartphones and the increased dominance and popularity of pictures (Rettberg 2013, p. 15). 

Tumblr posses qualities that are found in social networking sites and blogs and contributes to blurring the line between what makes these two platforms different.

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