Jacqui's digital community. #unilife @jacquiii33-blog - Tumblr Blog

Online Gaming, Online Shaming

I don’t think anybody can say they haven’t been exposed to online gaming in one way or another. Whether it’s the endless facebook notifications asking you for items for a particular game or requests to join playing. I have definitely played online games such as Farmville and candy crush. I even spent money once (ONCE!!!!) to buy enough machinery to fulfilthe requirements of Farmville. It’s intense. People can spend hundreds and thousands of dollars, and even more hours, addicted to online gaming. It’s definitely not something I can understand. I found an article, listing 8 people, from old to young, to very very young, who have spent crazy amounts of money during online gaming with some children leaving their parents with massive bills due to their online addiction. It leaves a question, is there a point where we should restrict or at least reign in the capabilities that online gaming affords us, if people are going into debt to afford their habits? It’s on the same line as other addictive behaviours. Will we end up with a gaming rehab, or online users with real addictions? The stories seem to go from one extreme to the other, with one man spending $100,000 on a piece of property through an online game, online to make $200,000 profit by charging people entry into his online acropolis. Genius? Probably. Extreme? Definitely.

EVE is game that prides itself on it’s aggressive style of game play, and as a result, has been a plague to many scams and scandals over the years including fraud, theft and corporate raiding. To get an idea of just how many schemes there are in the game EVE alone, check the following wiki page, which outlines different scams and schemes. http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Scams_in_EVE_Online. This website not only explains the scams but also how to detect them and avoid them.

In an article published by the Daily Mail, they explain that the consequences in online gaming will sometimes carry over into the real world, when one player forgot to play an online bill protecting their sci-fi community. As a result, their area within the galaxy was left unprotected, resulting in the largest war ever seen within the game, lasting 14 hours and costing $300,000. Now don’t be fooled. That’s $300,000 real dollars and a big hit to the bank account.

Social media platforms like Facebook have made online gaming even more easily accessible, allowing users access to a LOT of online game options and this number continues to rise. However, online gaming isn’t just around due to social media, but can be accessed through online forums, gaming sites and through hook ups on consoles like PlayStation and X-Box.

Online gaming company Zynga is a leading developer in popular online games. Since 2007, they have seen over one billion online users play at least one of their many online games and obviously, as result, have become hugely successful and popular. 400 million people have played their game Farmville and they see over 150 million hands of poker played through their online version. If these numbers don’t preach to the massive online gaming community, I don’t know what will.

REFERENCES:

http://www.ranker.com/list/8-people-who-spent-an-exorbitant-amount-on-video-games/benjamin-dunn?page=2 http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Scams_in_EVE_Online http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547908/EVE-online-sees-biggest-battle.html www.zynga.com de Zwart, M & Humphreys, S 2014,' The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online', Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 77-99.

#MDA2009 #onlinegaming #Zynga #facebook

Our digital photographic identities

(Image source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/ellens-oscar-selfie-beats-president-3201446)

Wait…Let me take a selfie!

This is a common hashtag used on photographs on a Saturday night and a common quote used before leaving the house (within my social circle anyway!). This is thanks to a specific song by “The Chainsmokers” but also because of the selfie revolution. Whilst selfies are fun and a great way to document the way you and your friends looked in a particular moment, have we really thought about the images we post online and the way they are shaping our digital identities?

Many social platforms are now making it easier for their users to create a significant digital presence through photo sharing and allowing us yet another way to connect with each other digitally. Thanks to apps such as Instagram and Snapchat, we now have new modes of sharing and communicating within our digital networks and practices of image-sharing and networked publics have become much more mainstream media ecology (Vivienne & Burgess, 2013). Snapchat founder, Evan Spiegal stated that the fact of “you are the sum of your published experience” is problematic and radical, believing that profile/text based social media networks were over. Spiegal states that selfies “make sense as the fundamental unit of communication on snapchat” explaining that it makes an easy transition between digital media as self-expression and as communication. I agree with Spiegal on this – photo sharing apps such as Instagram, which is a personal favourite of mine, allows the digital experience to be more interactive because you are sharing memories and moments that people can visualise, as opposed to just reading the status update about that moment. Have you ever had that moment when you are really trying to explain a story to someone who wasn’t there at the time and they awkwardly respond with “Must have been a had to be there moment.” With video and photo sharing, you can avoid that frustrating situation. Whether or not you wish to share that experience on line is your choice.

(Image source: http://www.inewmedia.org/7-reasons-why-taking-a-selfie-is-still-hot-and-trendy/8403/)

Wait, is it? Is it your choice if your videos and photos are posted online if you didn’t take them? Not really, and this is where we need to consider the digital identities we may be unwillingly creating through photo sharing. With advancing technology its’ easy to access personal photography devices at any moment and a task that was once orientated around close networks and family photo albums, is now available to much broader network and may reach someone we don’t really want it to reach. This can be achieved through digital actions such as tagging and mapping. Tagging refers to a word or “tag” you may wish to attach to a photo, making is more easily accessible and searchable to other online counterparts. Instagram is essentially were tagging started, closely followed by twitter and facebook and now is used across practically every social platform at the users discretion.

An article/study by Vivienne and Burgess (2013) from the University of QLD focuses on the consequences of digital image sharing and the politics surrounding self-representation through personal photography. Whilst they note that digital storytelling is going online by taking advantage of distribution platforms, the users of these platforms must also be fimilar with the challenges of creating an online identity through photo sharing and privacy management surrounding those pictures. On this note I want to pin point two stories I have come across in the last week. They both focus on images being shared online without the consent of the victim within the photographs but in entirely different circumstances.

The first article is about people who steal other digital users photographs to create fake profiles and “catfish” other online users. Catfish refers to people being insincere online and leading another user/human being (!) into believing they are somebody else entirely (there is also an MTV show about this – watch it, it’s great – literally called Catfish). The article goes into the story of a teenage girl and her friend and essentially explains the hardships they have faced because of their photos being stolen from their profiles and used to Catfish other users. The link is below.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/catfishing-ellie-flynns-name-and-face-have-been-stolen/story-fnjwnfzw-1227195328030

Now, with the second article, I am sure most of you have heard about this or seen it this past week or two but it’s about a girl who discovers her ex boyfriend has shared intimate photos of her online, obviously, without her permission. Not only did her boyfriend post the photos on social media but the photos were also picked up and placed on various pornographic websites. The women within the website reacts wonderfully and her strength is definitely an inspiration to young women. Again, link included below.

http://www.mamamia.com.au/social/revenge-porn-victim/

Read these articles, enjoy them. They really gave me a better insight into my online identity and to who has access to post photos of me and my friends online. And lastly, because what other uni assessment can you post your own selfie??

REFERENCES:

Hand, M 2012, Ubiquitous Photography, Polity Press, Cambridge. Herrman, J 2014, ‘Meet the Man Who Got Inside Snapchat’s Head’, BuzzFeed, 28 January, viewed 24 September 2014, <http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/meet-the-unlikely-academic-behind-snapchats-new-pitch#3dlvjg2>. Lange, P 2009, ‘Videos of Affinity on YouTube’, in P, Snickars & P, Vonderau (eds), The YouTube Reader, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm, pp 70-88. Vivienne, S & Burgess, J 2013, ‘The Remediation of the Personal Photograph’, Journal of Material Culture, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 279-98.

#mda20009 #selfie #digital identity #socialmedia #social networks

smoorsey

Before the days when everyone had a camera phone in their pocket, we would gather for a family picture, video tape special occasions and record experiences to be able to keep them and treasure them along with our memories. The experiences we did record were the really special moments. There has...

jacquiii33-blog

Interesting post - haven't read a blog on a similar topic yet. Selfies are just another craze of social media, like snapping photos of your food for instagram, or sharing you first profile pic on facebook to raise awareness for a charity. Social media allows people from everywhere at any time to creates fads that reach all corners of the globe. Although, I think selfies will be around for a while, especially now they have created the selfie stick haha!

#mda20009

valerialeek

Week 8: Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

When the world was hit with a series of natural disasters (see for example Hurricane Katrina, the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and throughout Asia but also the Tsunamis in both Japan and Indonesia), social media played a vital and fundamental role for people to ask for help and for that help to arrive from all the volunteers and officials that were provided with the right tools to help those in dire need.

Social media has made a difference before, during and after these catastrophes by providing easy accessibility. This proved effective following the earthquake in Japan where tweets to Ambassador John Roo got help to transport injured patients from Kameda Hospital.

During the earthquake in Haiti, social media users were used as a base for volunteers by Ushahidi, a piece of software that allows digital volunteers to create maps for first responders in a disaster zone.

A group of companies (including Ushahidi) called FrontlineSMS, CrowdFlower and Samasource, collaborated to set up a text message hotline – “Mission 4636” – supported by the U.S. The Haitian government collaborated with radio stations to advertise the hotline, and a few days after the disaster, anyone in Port-au-Prince could send an SMS to a toll-free number, 4636, to request help. The messages were routed to relief crews at the U.S. Coast Guard and the International Red Cross on the ground.

Skype was also used to coordinate relief efforts. The Marine Corps, the Coast Guard and The World Food Program have also used Ushahidi in several disaster response efforts. After the disaster hit in Japan, Ushahidi was used to create the largest crisis map to date with over 8,000 reports received via social media about shelters, food stores, cell phone charging centers and road closures.

Emergency relief agencies such as the Red Cross also maintain Twitter accounts and use them to disseminate information to the public, such as how volunteers can help and where to get shelter and aid following a disaster. The results of a recent study released by the Red Cross showed that the public is now seeing social media as an important medium to communicate with their friends, families and colleagues as well as to seek help before, during or after an emergency situation.

“Technology can solve this problem quickly and cheaply, but governments and relief agencies don’t often use it.”

The rapid proliferation of broadband, wireless and cell phones, coupled with new crowdsourcing technology, is completely changing the face of disaster relief. Everyone with a computer can provide crucial assistance, sifting through satellite photos, translating messages or updating maps, and most people are happy to do this free of charge — contributing to life-saving relief efforts is a powerful motivator. Governments and aid agencies should make it a central part of future disaster response efforts.

jacquiii33-blog

This is a great blog piece with plenty of examples used. I found it really easy to read and interesting. The examples used really show the impact and impression social media has had on crowdsourcing Great job.

#mda20009 #crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing

Week 8 was focused on learning about CROWDSOURCING. Crowd Sourcing is a practice of obtaining needed services, ideas or content by soliciting contributions from a group of people and especially the online community.

This week was the week that my group and I had to submit our group presentation as our chosen topic was crowd sourcing. In our group assessment I focused on the Asbestos crisis currently happening in the ACT. A company by the name of Mr Fluffy insulated properties built within the ACT between 1969 and 1979. The insulation was later known to contain loose fill asbestos, which is prone to becoming airborne in living spaces, making it incredibly dangerous when inhaled. I analysed the various Facebook pages such as the Friends of Mr Fluffy page made up primarily of affected property owners, Mr Fluffy Tradies which is aimed at Tradespeople who have been known to work on affected properties and the ACT Government Facebook page, The Asbestos Response Taskforce. In addition to Facebook, I also looked at Twitter feeds of the ACT Government and various media outlets in the ACT such as The Canberra Times newspaper and 2CC radio station.

I discovered that in this instance crowdsourcing can have both a positive and negative impact. Whilst the Facebook pages and twitter feeds make it easy for property owners in affected homes to talk and share information and stories. This means that in addition to receiving information they may not have already been aware of, they also have a support network in that of fellow affected property owners and information sources such as the ACT Government Asbestos Response Taskforce facebook page. Whilst information sharing is encourages in instances like this, it can also mean that information can come from a “middle man” instead of the direct source. In the instance of the ACT Asbestos crisis, property owners are highly emotive and as a result, agitated and frustrated. This can spread throughout the online social groups and results in information being shared that isn’t necessarily correct.

We see crowdsourcing used a lot by police and emergency services on both twitter and facebook. Examples of this are spreading the faces of missing persons, information about break and enters and description of possible perpetrators. I read an article the other day on the NSW Police facebook page about their search for a missing person in the Wollongong area. The woman was known to police and was popular with a lot of cafes and thrift stores in the area as she was homeless. The post allowed people to share information of sightings and where she is most commonly seen and the response to contact police in the area with the information.

On a larger scale, we have seen examples of crowdsourcing in the hunt for the Boston Marathon suspects and ISIS propaganda videos.

After gaining a deeper understanding of Crowdsourcing, it’s easy to see that it is a very accessible tool to users of social media. In events of natural disasters such as floods and fires, both of which are common concerns within Australia, we can share information, success stories and concerns and ask for assistance from the community in the way of supplies and support. We have seen this recently in the case of the fires in South Australia. On Facebook, I follow policing websites for my local area as well as Wollongong, where I grew up. I also follow state emergency service updates for ACT and NSW and “Alert” websites that provide up to date information regarding natural disasters as well as other incidents such as robberies, assaults and missing persons. As ABC’s social media coordinator Ping Lo stated, in the event of an emergency phone lines are often inundated with calls from the public wanting to either contribute or ask for information or assistance. In these events, using social media platforms to share information can help to reduce the call volume, especially as social media is easily able to be updated regularly and information can be shared as frequently as required.

Just an end note, I found a great website this week if you all get a chance to have a look, is called crowdsourcing.org. It’s got all things crowdsourcing, including examples, research and campaigns.

REFERENCES

http://cdn.nextgov.com/nextgov/interstitial.html?v=2.1.1&rf=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nextgov.com%2Fbig-data%2F2012%2F09%2Fbiggest-federal-crowdsourcing-challenges-arent-technical%2F58103%2F

http://www.crowdsourcing.org/editorial/crowdsourcing-and-crowdfunding-explained-a-short-animated-film-by-crowdsourcingorg/12431

#mda20009 #crowdsourcing

The image above in furthermore to our learning in week 7 about bullying and trolling on social media. The above image, aptly named "safebook", gives some tips to both parents and youth using social media website Facebook. It touches on reporting bullies and what to do it you are being bullied online as well as protecting your personal information.

Image source: https://spideroak.com/privacypost/online-privacy/protecting-kids-from-cyber-bullying/

Week 7 - Bullying and trolling on social media

This week we looked into trolling and bullying through social media. You would know, if you are exposed to social media, that bullying through social media is common. This substantiates from comments on videos and photos of a person’s physical attributes to comments on a thread of someone’s personal opinions they just may not agree with. I see it through my social media feed all the time. One particular instance that came to my attention this week is through the photographic posts of an American girl who also likes to hunt animals and post the photos on her facebook – her profile is set as a “public figure”. Now, whilst I don’t necessarily agree with her parading her trophy animals on social media or with hunting in general, I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to comment on her posts with malicious threats and vulgar name calling. However, in the generation of social media, this is common and in a lot of instances, expected and accepted.

I agree, however, with the quote from Dana Boyds “It’s Complicated” where it reads “Social media has not radically altered the dynamics of bullying, but it has made these dynamics more visible to more people. We must use this visibility, not to justify increased punishment, but to help youth who are actually crying out for attention.”

What this comment states is true, social media itself has made bullying and trolling more visible to the public eye, especially with the media coverage on teen suicide blaming accessibility to social media and bullying, as the cause. However, bullying was a problem long before social media’s existence, it’s just now, social media makes is easier to access profiles and target certain people or groups within society. According to Swedish psychologist Dan Olweus bullying is a practice in which someone of different physical or social power subjects another to repeated psychological, physical or social aggression.

Another point I took from the extract from dana’s writing is the “to help YOUTH who are actually crying out for attention.” As I mentioned earlier, with today’s youth, social media is common place and part of the daily routine which means, unfortunately, bullying is also common place and accepted when seen online, even though those youth may not totally agree with the views expressed. I feel dana emphasises the need to help youth using social media, as bullying is not as commonly seen in older users of social media platforms and their exposure to social media is generally a lot more than their older counterparts.

As part of this week’s work, we were also asked to watch a video called “Caught on camera: racist Australians abuse girl & smash bus window.” I had seen the video before on the news but the Youtube user who released this particular version – Checkpoint media – used comedy and witty sarcasm to draw the users attention, which is particularly successful in social media and with a younger audience as it keeps their attention. I think this video ties in with the point that dana boyd is trying to make in “It’s Complicated.” Bullying, in this instance, racism, happens both in and out of social media. Social media played a large role in this particular case as the incident was able to be recorded and uploaded to social media networks such as Youtube and Facebook and highlighted the racism issue that is widespread within Australia and also the three perpetrators. With over 4 million views and over 30,000 comments the video was well received when shared on Youtube and allowed an incident that may not have necessarily been made public otherwise, easily viewed. The sharing of the video online allowed users to express their opinions on the incident in a number of ways such as commenting, sharing and viewing.

It is clear, when we look at extreme cases involving teens taking their own lives such as the case with Amanda Todd that social media plays a part in the way that it enables people greater access to harass another teen. In the instance of Amanda Todd, a teenager who commited suicide after posting a video online about her harassment and bullying, it is noted that whilst online bullying played a role, it wasn’t the only factor in her decision to take her life. As noted in one of our readings this week, it is easy to now become concerned with “cyberbullying” and it is general concensus that social media increases bullying, although data and study proves otherwise. In my opinion, social media in just a tool and is used the way the individual behind the keyboard intends it to be used, whether that use involves bullying or not.

REFERENCES:

Boyd, D 2014, 'Bullying: Is the Media Amplifying Meanness and Cruelty?', in It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, Yale University Press, New Haven, USA, pp 128-52. CheckpointMedia 2012, Caught on camera: racist Australians abuse girl & smash bus window, 18 November, viewed 22 September 2014,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp6J6PF47CM> Fuller, G 2014, 'Cyber-safety': What are we actually talking about?, The Conversation, 27 February, viewed 22 September 2014, <http://theconversation.com/cyber-safety-what-are-we-actually-talking-about-23505>. McCosker, A 2014, YouTrolling as provocation: Tube's agonistics publics, Convergence, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 201-217. https://storify.com/AlmaSa13/stop-cyberbullying http://parents.kernhigh.org/report-cyberbullying/

#mda20009 #cyberbullying #bullying #notok

Week 6 - Cultural Jamming

This week we learnt about the role social media plays in protests and activism and how different social media platforms enhance their campaigns and maximize their potential for community action. We know by looking at common campaigning organisations such as Greenpeace and change.org, that social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are used to reach a large audience and in turn maximize their potential to spread their message and raise funds for their campaigns. Through social media these organisations are able to reach a larger audience then they would normally be able to reach and social media creates a space for followers of their campaigns to share content and campaigning material released by the organisation, creating a voice for the organisation through their followers.

We also looked into Cultural Jamming, which, whilst predating social media has been given a new platform for creation and communication through social media platforms. Cultural Jamming is normally in the form of non-conventional campaigning, such as graffiti art, performance art, adbusting and Hacktivism and is based on the idea that advertising can be used to point out the inequalities and unethical elements of customer culture and capitalism.

We were provided with a website for an activist magazine famous for culture jamming campaigns called adbusters.org. Below, I have included some examples of their photographs and politically motivated billboard advertisements.

I found the adbusters website intriguing and really creative and found myself being able to familiarise with other advertisements I have encountered in the past that contained culture jamming aspects that I wasn't aware of at the time. Adbusters target a lot of giant corporations with the advertisements and campaigns such as MacDonald’s and tobacco companies as well as a whole heap of politically inspired campaigns. In addition to the advertisements they create they have also been involved in events like “Buy nothing Xmas” and “Buy Nothing Day”. Campaigns that go against the traditions of Holiday seasons as we know them, advising viewers to buy nothing – again, a punishment to the corporate giants who rely on holiday periods to make a vast amount of their annual income. My favourite advertisement I seen is a part of the "Buy Nothing Xmas" campaign and is the image of an elderly man dressed as Santa pointing towards the viewer with the quote "I want you to spend a lot of money to prove how much you love your family." This advertisement, shown below, may seem familiar to some of you and it should - it's a rip off of an old US Military campaign used to recruit new members. This familiarisation makes the adbusters version more hard-hitting as it insinuates that materialism on Christmas is endorsed by the US Government. The two images are shown below.

OLD MILITARY CAMPAIGN:

ADBUSTERS BUY NOTHING XMAS ADVERTISEMENT:

I learnt this week, especially through my exposure to the adbusters website, that I like the ferocity of culture jamming on social media and how it can make you change your thoughts and ideals on a particular subject. Now that I have been able to analyse some examples of Culture jamming advertisements I have come to realise how common of a tactic it is through campaigning and advertisements, especially on social media, where the same social sarcasm and negativity towards larger corporations is very apparent.

REFERENCES:

adbusters.org buynothingxmas.org http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/newspaper,uncle/Interesting

#mda20009 #culturejamming #adbusters

Whilst this is the social media statistics for two American politicians, it provides insight into just how many followers politicians can gain and build on through campaigning in a social networking space.

American President Barack Obama is hugely successful online, which is shown above in this image. IN 2012, Obama had 21 million twitter followers making him one of the most followed men in the world on social media - not just in the political stakes but in general!

According to Twitter Counter (http://twittercounter.com/pages/100) Obama is now the third most followed person in the world with over 51 million followers.

This proves how effective social media has been for politicians and will continue to be as the younger generations grow.

#mda20009 #politics #politicsinsocialmedia

Week 5 - Politics in social media

We focused this week of learning around a central questions "How are political parties and politicians connecting with their communities (local, state, national) through social media networks?"

This central question allowed us to explore how social media is affecting the way politicians go about running and advertising their campaign.

We particularly looked at how politicians are utilising social media more within their campaigns to attract the attention of younger voters. Being within the "younger voter" category myself, I can say that the heavier your social media presence as a politician, the more attention I would be willing to pay to you. I remember when I first set up my twitter account years ago (rarely use it now) and I posted a tweet after being allowed to vote in a federal election for the first time. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard started following me after this tweet and it was cool. I mean, I was new to twitter and two of my followers were two of the biggest politicians in Australia. How cool is that? It immediately sparked my interest in following them more - I quickly realised that they followed everyone, obviously to target a wider audience and in turn, a larger range of potential voters but I still felt more connected to our nations politicians.

Social media in politics became a must within the political campaign led by Kevin Rudd. Since then, Kevin Rudd has be donned by Australia media as the Twitter King of politics within Australia. He was the first Australian politician to hit over 1 million twitter followers, currently sitting on 1.45 million followers. This is massive compared to his successor Julia Gillard who has only 529,000 twitter followers according to her twitter account and current Prime Minister Tony Abbott who has a tiny 390,000 followers sited on his account. This seems like such a small number for our current Prime Minister, or does this just mean that he didn't use social media networking to it's full potential throughout his campaign? It appears in Tony Abbotts instance, the statement in this weeks readings is flawed, Followers, views and likes don't necessarily translate to votes. In his instance, votes, don't necessarily turn into followers.

I believe Kevin Rudd was so successful, especially with the younger voting audience, as he had a calm and carefree persona online. Majority of the pictures posted are of him interacting with the public, or laughing, or participating in normal everyday activities. It makes K Rudd more relatable, especially compared to other politicians who ram political campaign jargon down our throats non stop.

Politicians make headlines in the news everyday, of course they do, they run the country! But since social media became a must for up and coming politicians, it's also a must for news websites to stream their tweets throughout the article, especially as a lot of social interaction of politicians is done through social media. We saw this the other day when news.com.au reported on Jacqui Lambie interrupted the senates tribute to fallen cricketer Phillip Hughes. The link is below if you want to explore her tweets on the matter http://www.news.com.au/national/jacqui-lambie-interrupts-senate-tributes-to-phillip-hughes-to-talk-about-defence-pay-bill/story-fncynjr2-1227143134445

When researching this topic, I also found some other websites which look into the way politicians run their campaigns, mostly it targets American politicians and their social networking interaction, as it's so much bigger over there. I have included them below for your interest. The articles look into where politicians have gone wrong and what they have done right when campaigning through social media and what platforms are most used for politicians. Also, majority of them are blogs which is a good insight into others perspectives of political campaigns are their presence in social media networks.

http://www.newmediacampaigns.com/page/using-social-media-in-political-campaigns http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-politics/ http://socialmediainpolitics.blogspot.com.au/

#mda20009 #politics #politicsinsocialmedia

themadeleinemaie

Australian Politics over the recent years has in my opinion been somewhat of a shambles, and I feel that social media has played a great part in influencing this personal view. Social Media has enabled society instant access to the thoughts and opinions of others; a majority of my newsfeed often...

jacquiii33-blog

Very interesting blog post! I like how you pointed out that Rudd was popular with the younger crowd due to the presence on social media, but most likely didn't help them understand his policies anymore then if they didn't follow his social media profiles! I like that you have done something different and talked about your points of view about social media in politics, rather then just what we have learnt.

technicallyfreetimetravel-deact

Pollies life lines……

Politicians on social media - Aug 2014: Statistics

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ap1exl80wB8OdFhaQ1gzdzg3d1VWcFJpSl91bkQwbWc&usp=sharing#gid=6

Social media is more popular with the younger members of politics and this will grow further as the older...

jacquiii33-blog

Great blog post about week 5's learnings! I like how you looked up details of your local member in your area to see how they are engaging with their voters through social media. I also agree when you say that once the younger voters get older, social media is going to be an even more vital role of communication - but don't underestimate older voters, they are making their presence known on social media too.

Blog 2 - Publics within Social Media

In week 4, we delved deeper into the inner workings of social media and how it is heavily influenced by the "the public" or the "public sphere". These two terms came from the work of German Sociologist and Philosopher Jurgen Hebermas and describe the way in which we interact and engage with different content online and in which form are we accessing it, from who are we accessing it?

We look at 'publics' now, as new cultural formations and practices that we are seeing particularly in the space of social media. As new digital platforms come to light and we learn to engage and interact in new ways because of these new platforms, we discover new affordances that they offer to us.

From our readings, we discovered that Dana Boyd, who we were introduced to earlier in the Teaching Period, categorised "Networked Publics' into three different categories - Invisible audiences, collapsed contexts and the blurring of public and private. I believe these three categories, after exploring them, are categories I have witnessed myself before online. For example, when we are collaborating online in a space such as a social networking feed or a blogging site, our content isn't necessarily private - we choose to reveal about ourselves what we will. I am blogging as Jacqueline, so I am not entirely anonymous, and I am targeting a particular audience, my peers within my Digital Communities unit for Uni. So from these two things alone, I have provided some information about myself.

It can be hard to interact online - to be honest - I don't remember how it was done all those years ago before it got so intricate in the way we chose to follow and communicate online and with who we communicated. The likes, the followers, the sharing of blog content, the video content. Social media and it's various platforms has become very comprehensive and instead of the early days when we communicated online with only those we knew in person (well I did anyway), we can now communicate within different digital cultural circles based on what we like, who we follow, our common interests, the groups we join.

The photo above is a good visual depiction of how we communicate online and how we may encounter different 'publics' and 'networked publics' and for the reasons in which we communicate online - to share content and ideas publicly. It enforces the topic of 'counterpublics' that we touched on. 'Counterpublics' explains the kinds of interactions we participate in online and on what sites and how smaller, loosely connected groups can form and join together in a digital community. This happens everytime we like something new on facebook, or follow a new celebrity of twitter or join a specific group on google +.

This week I learnt to look deeper into how we communicate online and why we communicate the way we do. You don't log into your various social networking platforms thinking about the way you communicate online - you just do it, it's a social norm and not something we consider. Studying it, however, open your eyes to the inner workings of social networking and media and just how intricate it's communications can be.

#mda20009 #social networks #publics

kbdigcom

Why do we talk about social media platforms?

What is a platform? Gillespie (2010) explores the use of the term platform in regards to internet usage from a computational, architectural, figurative and political viewpoint.

Platforms can be viewed not only in a physical sense with regards to...

jacquiii33-blog

I love how you have asked the question to yourself of Who am I? referring to who you are in a digital space and quoting your different usernames and email log ins. I think that's a really good approach at seeing how we all, as individuals, fit into this digital space which houses billions of users. Great point and something that really had me thinking.

abpositivelydigital

Digital communities within social media are a great catalyst of the Information Age. Theorists continue to debate whether this new media has elicited a shift in late modern sociality where opposing views attempt to determine if we are now an informational or an impersonal society.

Photo...

jacquiii33-blog

This is a great blog Abbey. You obviously know your stuff because it's very knowledgable! You should be proud of your first attempt. I do like the break up in the text with the images - something I didn't think we could do on tumblr - as it said that on the assessment outline document! Looking forward to reading your next one!

What do you think of when you see this image? A common hand gesture and the word like?

Of course, you think of social networking site Facebook.

#holdofsocialmedia #facebooklike #thumbsupforfacebook #MDA20009

#mda20009

An introduction blog: Digital Communities.

This is my first blog for the semester, apart from the images I have been sharing. I am going to briefly look at a few different points covered within Digital Communities and how I have gained a greater understanding of the power of social media and how it used as a great tool within society for a number of different reasons. Mainly, it will be focusing on the way I have learnt, from the content covered.

Firstly, we started off the semester by learning more about the terminology used within social media and took time to reflect the way we use social media within our day to day lives. We spend so much time using social media that it becomes second nature, meaning we rarely assess just how much we use it. When I started analyzing just how much I use social media and how important it is to me, I started to realise how big a part of my life it is. Living away from home, it's a great way to keep up to date and in touch with friends and family through status and photo sharing. I started to think maybe this is why I don't get enough sleep? Maybe I am utilising social media TOO often. No, this is the way of the world and the only one I know, having grown up with social media.

I particularly liked the social networks definition given by Bboyd and Ellison (2007-2011). Particularly, in part, "..through which they can articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection." This is what social "networking" is all about. You may notice now how facebook is gathering data from it's users to direct certain advertising towards them, depending on their "likes" and interests. So now, not only do we have immediate connections with our friends and family on varying social networks, but we are also connected with people who share common interests. Do you like the Kardashians? You are not linked to other users who also like the Kardashians? Are you interested in science? So are Peter, Bob and Mary, if you catch my drift. In the photo I shared earlier today, it notes MTV as being the most followed brand on instagram, and through that those millions of followers are all connected through that one common interest, that one social networking link. This isn't something we don't immediately recognise when we log into our different social networking accounts, but since studying digital communities, it's hard to ignore.

We moved on to learning about and thinking about what holds a society together. Now, I am majoring in social science psychology so I have had extensive study in what holds a society together. I know about the hunting and gathering societies developing and adapting from villages to cities through the industrial revolution. It is interesting though, to learn about societies from a digital and social networking aspect. Definitely something the hunting and gathering societies would not be aware of! Community and Society are the two central themes adopted and related to how people and sub-cultures interact through social media. It's interesting to see how these two common themes come into play every day on social media, when you consciously add a new friend to instagram or facebook, or how you may like a page dedicated to what your working life may involve.

So far, learning week 1 and 2 have had the greatest impact on me evaluating my life and how social media fits into it, or rather, in some instances (as much as I hate to admit it), how I fit my life around social media. These two weeks have really set the tone of the unit and I am really looking forward to exploring more about how social media affects our lives and changes and adapts overtime to suit our needs.

#mda20009

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Jacqui's digital community. #unilife