Peter Horsfall - MDA20009 @horsey1989 - Tumblr Blog

This is an interesting read to further your understanding on the top three social network sites in China.

It has more updated numbers and information then the lecture that was present on Monday, I believe.

#mda20009 #week11

Such an interesting concept to grasp on, to see how Australia's (%) is well above the world's average social penetration.

#mda20009 #week11

China has how many people??

So to get it this right, China has a firewall that blocks all outside content from entering the social network sphere to its country and its people. It’s an interesting study and area to look into as the Chinese government is something many Australian’s wouldn’t fathom or be used to. Let’s start off by looking at the social implications of China.

Instead of using facebook, China has companies such as RenRen (50 million users), Kalxin (115 million users), Ozone (600 million users), Tencent Pengyou (260 million users) and 51.com (200million users). Instead of YouTube, they have Youku Tudoi (475 million users) and 56.com (120 million users). Finally the twitter equivalent Sina Welbo (290 million users) and Tencent Welbo (280 million users). These figures are scary to even think about, the fact there is another side of the world using programs I have never heard of makes me feel very obsolete.

When looking at the basic population of internet users, we look at China having 1.4 billion (36% of population) people online compared to America’s 313 million (78% of population). These numbers should make you cringe just a little bit.

China’s firewall in a nutshell is a project operated and run by the Chinese government that neutralize opinions and the main aim is to prevent Chinese citizens from being influenced by the western world. This is why over China has over 30,000 internet police (from a study in 2005).

To me what I have learnt about China and social media is amazing this week, it has really expanded my view of just the world as a ‘western’ world but a world with a larger diverse culture. Although I was ready to accept this information I never thought I would need to worry about these alarming numbers. We live in such a big world!!!

Chiu, Lin & Silverman (2013, p.1) state that ‘social media is exploding worldwide, and China is leading the way’, my opinion on this would be yes it is and no it isn’t, just to be cynical. I say ‘Yes’ because they have greater numbers and a wider regulated internet market but this leads to the ‘No’ reasoning due to the fact it is so regulated that everything is monitored so nothing can be innovated from a bottom-up approach to business, it’s all top-down management.

For the last blog post I will do this semester for Digital Communities, it has actually been an interesting assessment to do. Blogging for me is a way for to critical analyse my points for the day or on the chosen topic/subject of the week and really interpret my understandings and/or viewpoints on a certain topic.

Thanks all for reading and best of luck for exams!

#mda20009 #week11 #China

Blizzard's MMORPG, World of Warcraft, has a community that asks fans to send in their art work to get it presented on their website.

This is just another way how the online community of Blizzard reaches out to all the users and keeps them attached and being apart of it

#mda20009 #week10

Paul Jr.'s tv show has come together with Blizzard to create a real life motorbike for both factions in WoW, Alliance and Horde. The fans choose which bike is the best and will be available for (Purchase - lol) in game for all players to use.

#mda20009 #week10

This is an absolute pisser of the original WoW days where the digital community of a guild is come together and unfortunately but comically is brought to a quick wipe (death) - enjoy

#mda20009 #week10 #leeeeeeroy

<Digital Communities> LvL 25 guild LFM

The topic heading is a rough example of how people try and find new people to join their guild within the trade chat in World of Warcraft.

As a fellow gamer, I do enjoy the enjoyment and satisfaction out of these masterpieces games. I play WoW (World of Warcraft) and have been for some quite time. During some points, I’d be a hard raider/player and lead a guild of 25 people of various ages into a raid scenario where strategy, precision and communication was needed. What I have found is that the whole community behind games like WoW, MMORPG’s have the sense to bring people together like any other form of sport.

I love basketball and play it three times a week in a state competition whilst also watching NBA. The NBA itself is a large community where fans from all over the world watch people they don’t know play for a championship. Online gaming is that passion for some people, many people have different values, beliefs and interests, while some have only access to some things.

MMORPG’s give the end user a AI character, to interact and build skills through strategy and social communication.

World of Warcraft have conventions which in the beginning by Blizzard is what everyone could do, now it is limited and invite only, as you have to register. The events run to watch the very best players from the very best guilds all around the world come together to play one another for quite big prizes. Recently, blizzard has gotten so big and successful there are rumours of a Warcraft movie being released in 2015-16.

Online gaming obviously has rules and norms in which players must follow. Fortunately, trolling is allowed in most MMORPG’s and is very hard to contain. Players can report certain players and if that player receives so many complaints, then the game admins will take the required action, whether it be banning the player for a certain amount of time or give them a warning. One big rule that gets broken in World of Warcraft is scamming.

People try to sell accounts for real life money and get conned into providing enough payment details for the scammer to receive the money for a fake account. Another issue is the currency in game (which takes time to make to purchase better items). It’s seriously a whole new economy inside these large games, especially with World of Warcraft. I don’t want to say it but the label ‘Chinese gold farmers’ is used a lot to represent jobs people are employed to do to play the game to make the online currency for which people (companies) sell through a third party website for real dollars. For example, 10,000gold for $25 AUD.

The only real implications with online communities is finding a balance between real life and online life. Relating back to the first couple of weeks we looked at the always on approach with social media, and the reality is that MMORPG’s are a form of social media but with a more addictive side to it.

I believe it’s okay for people to enjoy the game and get passionate about it but when it gets to the level where other things get affected, such as their health, schooling and relationships, is where the line needs to be drawn and the person playing needs to understand the risks and problems it can cause later down the track in their lives.

#mda20009 #horde #week10

Interesting read from BBC news, of that Women are spending lots of time on Facebook looking at pictures of friends could make them insecure about their body image.

#mda20009 #week9

Camera Hungry or Camera Shy?

In my experience, I have not wanted everyone to know where I am. Not because I am scared or insecure, is because I prefer privacy and don’t want the public attention in what I do. I’m at the age where I know who my true friends are, and who cares about me. From my teenage years, being tagged in photos on Facebook stirred trouble because I honestly would tell someone one thing then someone else another, then what I actually did was posted on Facebook. But that was a time when popularity was everything, and knowing people and flirting with girls was the only thing on one’s teenage mind. I think Facebook honestly is keeping people young, which can be both a good and bad thing. Vivienne & Burgess (2013, p. 296) states that the practices around personal images have a politics that extends beyond the individuals domestic context and to elaborate on this, it creates tension and uncertainty due to photos being misrepresented. In my experience I have had photos in Las Vegas completely drunk having the time of my life so everyone expected that I was this party animal, arguably I am but only when I go out, not in person all day every day. The point I’m trying to make here is that people can be misinformed on the perceptions of ones self. Lange (2009, p. 82) states that ‘videos help maintain connections between individuals and groups of people in a social network’. It’s interesting to question of how one uses images and videos in processes of digital communication and connecting with others, because it can vary on people’s attitudes, values and beliefs. So basically, their morals. Religious beliefs, morals, accessibility, age and gender all play a large role when it comes to these questions. Personally I upload videos and photos on Facebook to share something I have found interesting and funny and that I hope my friends would enjoy, if not, well I still have all my friends so I would assume they liked it? But as mentioned before, everyone knows who their friends are and tend to share photos, videos and information for one another. Snapchat to me is an individual and quite intimate form of social platform. When I first heard about Snapchat, I honestly first though, ‘oh sweet, this is clearly for one thing and one thing only, who would honestly use this for anything else?’, I was surely mistaken obviously. It comes down to being something that communicates feelings within a moment, its conversations through photos, rather than around them like Facebook. Snapchat is more personalized, unlike Facebook, it really is to address an individual not an audience. In relating this topic back to other topics, we can look at Reddit gonewild and how this fits right into that category of a masked social media platform. It’s a digital community people connect through to establish and keep friendships or build new friendships based on either physical attractions, emotional attractions and shared common interests. But it can also link in with trolling and the social media conflict. With high rates of internet attacks which topics mainly include race, religion and appearance, you could argue this is just another tool to attack people. Unfortunately these social media tools are still becoming popularity contests for teenagers, to keep them entertained and getting them through those years where they grow up to be who they’re meant to be. • But whole notion of social cohesion, which representing and assembling togetherness, it does do this but is it being over used? • Are kids these days getting smarter or dumber? • Why did universities make it easier for students to apply and enter? • Could this be a contributing factor? References: Lange, P. (2009) ‘Videos of Affinity on YouTube’, Snickars & Vonderau (eds) The YouTube Reader, pp 70-88. Vivienne, S., & Burgess, J. (2013) ‘The Remediation of the Personal Photograph’, Journal of Material Culture, pp 279-98.

#week9 #mda20009

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. More than 230,000 people died, and some of Haiti’s most populous areas suffered mass destruction (Heinzelman & Waters, 2010, p. 1).

#mda20009 #wk8post

Social media in times of crisis

Social media, with its ability to connect the whole world within minutes of a disaster, has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives per event and help target assistance to the most needy survivors of a natural disaster (Wiederhold, 2013, p. 781). Conference participants of the International Disaster and Risk Conference Davos proclaimed that social media authority is an institutional and not a technical issue. Asking for policies to be drafted by attendees representing the various nations, and stating that the role of this effective communication channel during the chaos of disaster is indispensable.

So how can Social media perform this essential function during times when people are facing the fear and stress caused by a natural disaster?

Social media is to control the information flow for an extended period of time and to channel its course in the right direction (which is to save lives, in this situation). Wiederhold (2013, p. 781) states that the role of social media during disasters has been divided into three different functions.

1st Information Relay, 2nd Targeting the right group to receive information and 3rd effective post disaster strategy implementation.

With this we look at crowdsourcing, Estellés-Arolas & González-Ladrón-de-Guevara (2012, p. 198) states that crowdsourcing is a term in its infancy, which, as new applications appear, is undergoing constant evolution. It is identified virtually with any type of internet based collaborative activity, such as co-creation or user innovation. So basically it is the process of getting work or funding, usually online, from a crowd people.

It’s more feasible and affordable to use a crowdsourcing marketplace. Crowdsourcing has the opportunity to lower the barriers to expression and ultimately help and support ordinary people in times of crisis (Ford, 2012, p. 39).

With crowdsourcing, we have crowdmapping. From the readings of this week, Posetti & Lo (2012, p. 34) describes how the ABC used social media in the Queensland large scale emergency. Posetti & Lo (2012, p. 37) continue to talk about how crowdmapping in the Queensland floods is where the ABC asked their community to locate problem areas, such as rising flood waters on an interactive map which I think is pretty sensible and smart.

To conclude, procedures of organizing options for survivors and collecting donations all over the world proves to be a much easier task when social media is involved. The hashtag aspect of twitter proves to be important in generating awareness. Social media has a way of carrying the news to people of the world so that they can interact, decide, and act upon it as we can see from both the two case studies. While previously the importance of social media in times of natural disaster might have been recognized only in hindsight, it is rapidly becoming an essential disaster planning tool in the arsenal of nations (Wiederhold, 2012, p. 782).

And even though verifying crowdsourced information is challenging, with advances in technology and this move from this digital age we are in and evolving into a nano age, new technologies will happen and social media will evolve into something more global and powerful, and i don't know about anyone else but im slightly excited and scared at the same time to where this technology will evolve to.

Will be under constant surveillance? In reference to Marvels: Captain America, The Winter Soldier, will social media be deemed as the S.H.I.E.L.D kind of protection service??

References:

Estellés-Arolas, E, & González-Ladrón-de-Guevara, F 2012, 'Towards an integrated crowdsourcing definition', Journal of Information Science, 38, 2, pp. 189-200, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 May 2014.

Ford, H 2012, ‘Crowd Wisdom’, Index on Censorship, pp 33-39, <https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-4025478-dt-content-rid-21833873_2/courses/2014-1-MDA20009-36221/Ford_Crowd%20Wisdom_Index_on_Censorship-2012.pdf> viewed 1 May 2014.

Posetti, J & Lo, P 2012, 'The Twitterisation of ABCs Emergency & Disaster Communication' The Australian journal of Emergency Management, 27, 1, pp. 34-39, https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-4025478-dt-content-rid-21833875_2/courses/2014-1-MDA20009-36221/Posetti%20%26%20Lo_Twitterisation%20of%20ABCs%20Emergency%20%26%20Disaster%20Communication_2012.PDF> viewed 1 May 2014.

Wiederhold, BK 2013, 'In a Disaster, Social Media Has the Power to Save Lives', Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 16, 11, pp. 781-782, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 May 2014

#wk8 #crisismanagement #mda20009

This is my assignment that will be presented on Tuesday 29th April, 10:30am.

#mda20009 #week8 #assignment

Interesting to see from a kids help website, these are the statistics where they received the most bullying.

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https://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/resourcesforprofessionals/bullying/bullying_statistics_wda85732.html

The UK experiences an alarming number of cyberbulling and deaths every year due to this form of social media harassment.

#mda20009 #wk7 #cannotbetrue

Cyber-bulling / Cyber-safety / Cyber-shutdown

When it comes to cyber-safety and social media, I believe a need for a regulator (ombudsman) is deemed necessary for online-dating and other forms of social networking. My theory is that, if we create it, we can stop it. We should be able to prevent things like this happening or at least lower the amount of times it can help (attacks).

The cyber smart website shows little interest in governing online behaviour and social media practice. It looks like a fun children site and lacks any awareness of how dangerous it could be. This site being new to me, I have explored most areas in this and it doesn't cover a whole lot of depth and issues teenagers go through in their day to day lives. In saying that, the website does provide support for parents whom are unknown in this field but parents should already be doing this. If they’re not, then it’s a lack of parental skills and parents need the help they can get.

Social media is diverging from reality. What I mean by this is that people live online lives different to their actual real life. Personalities can change through an array of reasons, could be gaming, blogs or even have someone else talk on your behalf. The one thing I personally found how it affected me, was I could pre-plan a conversation with someone. Whether it be someone I liked or a reason to get back at someone, It didn't feel like me.

Trolling in my own opinion on every form of digital platform, is the way to embarrass and tease certain individuals to gain pleasure through digital communities and social media platforms. McCosker (2014, p.6) as quoted by Dahlberg, see’s trolling as aiming to embarrass, anger, and disrupt and it Is often undertaken merely for amusement.

Can our online social forums incorporate and adequately deal with these kinds of so-called misuse?

This question is hard to answer but with the knowledge from the readings and my ego, I can draw a conclusion that might fit well. Online forums possibly need an observer full time (which will cost money unfortunately) but is a watchdog of all online posts and records and trolling behavior. This would be listed as a top down intervention.

Looking forward to the debate of having the ‘right’ to be a bigot, we can look at the comparison between racial vilification laws today. In my opinion, we all have the same colour blood and all are human beings. Hypothetically, if aliens were to come down and attack earth, let’s say.

We would work together and drop this meaning of racial discrimination. Humans are a race, not the colour of one’s skin. That being said, it is just a bunch of immature young adults and unfortunately all the way to university levels that this trolling is continuing.

Looking into the troll-hunting mum which fell prey to 4Chan trolls article on TheDailyDot, it is a sad fact that this happens. With trollers always having something to do online and targeting people whom just serve to protect their children and community. Britain itself has had a bad reputation with suicides and social media bullying and harassment, but it’s not as bad as it is here then there. But I cannot just say that, it is still happening, it is worldwide and it is happening as I write this blog. It’s like fighting an invisible dictator with many faces. It’s a fight authorities cannot win sadly if you think about it. There are just too many opinions out there, whom nest behind a keyboard to communicate his/her point across.

To conclude, McCosker (2014) states even though society is basically a reasonable form of togetherness, passions thus remain significant elements of conduct in it, it states that behaviour of teenagers or young adults cannot be contained or controlled until there is a regulator such as an ombudsman to limit the abuse and harassment some young adults cause.

But the sad fact is, Facebook and other social media platforms cannot be monitored and controlled. This leaves everything open on the World Wide Web and lives are still being ruined every day. Unless there is a global shutdown/ombudsman for each country.

References:

McCosker, A 2014, 'Trolling as Provocation: YouTube's Agonistic Publics', Convergence, pp. 1-19, < http://con.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/09/11/1354856513501413.abstract> viewed 17 April 2014.

#mda20009 #week7

This is in relation to my week 6 blog, it is an example of how Apple is an addictive technology killing how humans interract.

#mda20009 #wk6post #iAddict

It's an interesting article on how Ukraine only got the internet in the year 2000, followed by there is high risk of how five journalists have been killed criticizing the government. It's a tough world over there and a good read to give you a basic outview of social media of Ukraine.

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