Digital Communities

Blog

[katedcswin]

the game.

To finish off the unit and my blog... Phew! Let’s end with a discussion of ‘Social Gaming’. Becoming very popular social gaming is known as a form of sociality and player conflict in online gaming communities; particularly social gaming has become identifiable as a form of gaming made for social network sites, typically profiting from social media platform Facebook.

It’s pretty rare these days that you are able to download a game on your phone without having to ‘connect through Facebook’ sigh* Just to vent, if I get another notification that someone wants to play Candy Crush with me I will throw my phone at the wall!

Sure digital communities offer lots of ways for people to connect, but let’s be honest... Not enough. So let’s also play games together ‘On-the-line’ and now with its own term ‘Gamer Communities’ formed through a range of network platforms it allows players to connect online and play together online :) (Argh, so much ON-THE-LINE).

The most popular or well know games include Farmville and Candy Crush. However, it was the maker of Candy Crush (King, 2014) that established early on that they could leverage off huge user-base and the network structure of social networking sites like Facebook- So its King’s fault that we’re getting annoyed by fellow Facey friends with annoying Candy Crush invites!

[katedcswin]

The selfie

As digital communities carry on growing so do our digital profiles and a profile doesn’t exist without photos... The importance of the visual is at its forefront with platforms even based around photography and videos. 

With all this photo taking, video filming and the obsessions to share everything, image sharing platforms are going off tap, literally! From YouTube to SnapChat, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr and Pinterest... So many selfies!!

People’s desires are all about visual modes of expression nowadays... Seeing is believing. Although, this fixation with our digital image is producing a number of anxieties, difficulty with ethical/moral issues and even legal matters as people are losing control over common decency.

Ubiquitous photography

As the 21st century has forced a new way of living through technology, photography and videos that are entrenched in our lives... Personal and social imaging has become an evolution!

Mobile camera technology + social media platforms = photography becoming ubiquitous

Generating a new form of personal photography:

Includes those photographic practices and images that are inextricable part of personal life - whether the individual taking pictures, the image we use to represent ourselves, the pictures we collect or display for ourselves, or the sharing of pictures with other as part of personal communication (Martin Hand, 2012, p. 5) 

Visual publics

Expanding from ‘network publics’, visual publics are becoming broader and closely visible through social imaging platforms and practices. This is enabled through things like tagging - Tagging is thus both a way of finding and being found.

However, tagging is often automatic and sometimes not authorised by the person that is made publicly visible through the platform. Sparking a degree of anxiety and concern in younger people.

Selfie culture

Selfie, now so popular it has been added to the Oxford dictionary:

Selfie noun

a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media

Apps like Snapchat have exemplified ephemerality of selfies, by taking away the permanence of a photo in visual communication through social media. Snapchat not only allows people to overcome their self-consciousness but also provides the reassurance that the image won’t be shared unwillingly, stored, or copied.

[katedcswin]

Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

Social media has stepped up to the plate when it comes to ‘crowdsourcing in times of crisis’. Information on huge Australian natural disasters has been well circulated in times of need through social media platforms such as Facebook and especially Twitter.

These platforms offer a more innovative communication tool that allows the public to easily deliver timely information. Social media acted as a ‘hero’ during the Queensland floods in 2011. Twitter was used by disaster management agencies such as the Queensland Police Services (QPS). QPS used Twitter to spread information during and after the floods, spreading reliable, fact-checked updates, and where support services could be found. Tweets from QPSMedia included.

“The Riverside Expressway in Brisbane CBD is now closed. Please avoid driving through Brisbane. #thebigwet #qldfloods” (Knaus 2011).

However, as the utilisation of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have grown exceptionally as a source to find valid and up-to-date information it needs to be acknowledged that opposing to the critical nature of accurate warnings the downfall is worth noting that false disaster warnings could have significant impact on people.

Can we trust what we are reading as precise and valid information, or could it be rumours...?

A lesson learnt from previous disasters with false warnings or information uploaded, like the suggestion that Brisbane’s CBD was being evacuated and public transport was shut down. So a ‘Mythbusters’ series of tweets was created by the Police Service Media Unit. This entailed the override of misinformation before it spread through the network by QSP Media unit, demystifying the tweets.

[myuniblog]

Week 10  When I play Monopoly and I play to win!!!

Hands up who loves Monopoly? *shoots both hands up in the air instantly wishing I had more hands to put up*

I.

LOVE.

MONOPOLY.

So much so that I spent way to many hours on Christmas day enjoying my new Melbourne edition that I almost forgot it was Christmas, but I digress.

What does Monopoly have to do with the breakdown of gaming communities and publics? A lot if you ask me. For those of you who are avid players like myself there is no doubt that you play by your own (house) rules. Here let me give you an example: My family and I have a rule that all Tax goes into the middle of the board and if you land on Free Parking you get to keep all that money instead of paying it to the bank.

Now I know this seems harmless, but humour me if you will. Imagine if I was playing Monopoly online wth real money (which you can do, but not with real money at least I don’t think so) against players from all over the world, and because we are avid Monopoly enthusiasts we decided that the ‘Tax Rule’ was a better style of play even though it wasn’t an official rule made by the creators of the game. Continue imagining that you are bordering on broke and with a click of your mouse the online dice randomly spin in your favour and your Thimble piece lands on Free Parking allowing you to inherit the total tax paid by the players - ONE MIIIIIIIILLIOON DOLLARS!!!!!! (Dr Evil Voice)

Okay maybe a Million is a stretch - or is it?

Now in many ways Monopoly is a game of chance so this type of scenario is not completely unbelievable. But!

What does it mean for the integrity of the game if you and your small group of tycoons suddenly decide that your way is the right way? And what’s more what would happen if you imposed your rules on the creators forcing them to change the official rules?

Would the game be more fun? Would the game be more fair? Would this open the flood gates to numerous other ‘house rules’ being adopted or rather the creators being held to ransom?

This is essentially the situation that creators of social gaming and online multi role player games like WOW (World of Warcraft) are beginning to fine themselves in (de Zwart & Humphreys, 2014).

They’re being challenged by communities of players who think that some or even many of the rules should be broken.

For those of us who consider ourselves Digital Citizens - that is anyone who is actively on the internet daily (MIT Press) we know that ‘The Internet’ has a mind of its own and if you try to correct it, ‘It’ will Turn. On. You. Case in point: how to pronounce GIF (Chan, 2013).

So what does this mean for the future of gaming?

Should they crowdsource rules and have them voted on by members? or do you see it going another way?

References

Chan, C 2013 ‘The Creator of the Gif says its pronounced Jif’, gizmodo.com 21 May, viewed 24 January 2016.<http://gizmodo.com/the-creator-of-the-gif-says-its-pronounced-jif-he-is-509179289>.

‘Defining Digital Citizenship’ MIT Press, viewed 25 January 2016<https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/9780262633536_sch_0001.pdf>.

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.

***** As this is the last entry required for this unit I have to just share with you one last super funny story - well at least I think its super funny *insert gritted teeth emoji*

Many moons ago I worked for a rather large consumer electronics company. And one day whilst at work (I sold their product in a department store) a couple whom I had never served came up to me very angry and advised that they wanted to return their tablet as it wasn’t working anymore. I looked at the device and realised that it was a over a year old and possibly out of warranty so I would need a receipt. They told me that they didn’t have a receipt and as I worked for said consumer electronics company I should take it and give them a new one or they would go on social media and say how bad myself and the company are - I shat myself, figuratively speaking of course.

I played with the device - it was working fine to me - and asked them what exactly the issue they were having was. It wasn’t connecting to the internet they said. A quick google search of a few keywords lead me to an article about Candy Crush players. It turns out that many players of the game were manually adjusting the date and time on their tablets in order to get free lives/games and this was causing their device to lose internet connection as they were so far in the future the device didn’t believe that the internet even existed…or something like that.

I tried not to piss myself laughing there on the spot as I searched the device for the Candy Crush app - check, then checked their date and time settings which where somewhere in the year 2092 - check. All signs pointed to hard core gamers gone bad. I composed myself reset their clock to auto settings brining it back to the year 2012 and confirmed with them their CC habits.

The tablet was then snatched from my hands without so much as a ‘Cheers! Thanks’ (in a Patsy Stone voice). Being the consummate Gen Y that I am I didn’t need their gratitude I simply lamented in their stupidity and am of course sharing this story with whoever reads this and anyone else who will listen.

~Fin~

[katedcswin]

Hahaha you're kidding?! Ah well, can't fault their dedication I suppose!

Really interesting topic. I think the game creators' rules should be left intact, especially in the case of established icons like Monopoly - I mean, it must be ok if it's spanned generations right?! And opening the rules up for modifying would cause chaos!

Great post!

[arielblogstuff-blog]

The Reality of Space

From Facebook to YouTube to Instagram, the proliferation of content across social platforms is vast. Cyberspace, like the reaches of the galaxy are seemingly limitless and akin to the capacity of the human brain… Leading to such rhetorical ponderings as, ‘how useful is this information anyway?’ and ‘how much can I fit in there?’. Parallel to such philosophical thought experiments as “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around…? – If a selfie is without an audience may it reverberate the vast ether of digital cyberspace? (free for GPL ;) For work or play, human attention may well be the aim of the social game. Lange describes attention as a gift rather than an economic manifestation of capitalist value (2009, p. 73). Possibly an idealistic view when one considers that corporate interests underpin the motives behind the major social applications themselves (Sevignani 2016). Moreover, when one considers that the average human in the western world is subjected to over 5000 advertisements every day, the perceived control of attention over which media we consume is a matter for debate (Johnson 2014).

The social media sphere has been termed as the identity merger of our personal and professional personas (Vivienne & Burgess 2013, p. 296). The immediacy of modern media and forming of weak relational ties through ‘followers’ and ‘back-links’ allows for the prolific dissemination of personal information, ‘oh no my personal information has just gone viral!’ (shock). In a way, sharing content becomes a mode of personal development and thus, advertisements for our identities which may or may not be an accurate depiction of reality (Wilken & McCosker 2008, p. 293). But again, the ‘reality’ of online content falls back to the context of the situation, the energy of attention afforded to the mode which validates its existence. Lang describes the process of securing attention as one that requires negotiation (2009, p. 71). In person, or through the traditional modes of face-to-face interaction, attention is to the individual a complex negotiation of rules and interpretations of verbal and non-verbal modes influenced by our identities. This is a naturally and inherit-ably complex process. The human brain is conditioned by our sociability, adept at storing and archiving seemingly infinite complex social interactions, recalling them verbatim (Foulger 2004). Indeed, the primary stimulative process of interaction, gestures and framing, present in face-to-face communications are simply not possible online. The competition for stimulation must be elevated, in the digital world they say you have 15 seconds for a viewer to decide if the content is worthy of attention, maximum (Rigney 2015).

Indeed, information regarded as worthy of attention must have some relevance or value to our lives. This, according to scholars is termed as the attention economy, where originality may be key to captivating brain cells amid a vast and competitive informational universe (Lang 2009, p. 73). No longer are the selfie, the status and the online video mere records of our existence to be viewed by a select few, but rather a mode to transmit a feeling of a particular moment in the creators’ life and thus to compete for attention in the cyberspace.

References

Johnson S, 2014, New Research Sheds Light on Daily Ad Exposures, SJ Insights, LLC, Viewed 19th January 2016, http://sjinsights.net/2014/09/29/new-research-sheds-light-on-daily-ad-exposures/

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.

Rigney, B 2015, ’15 Statistics on How Critical Attention Span is Your Digital Marketing’, Marketing Tech Blog, viewed 19th January 2016, https://www.marketingtechblog.com/15-statistics-on-how-critical-attention-span-is-your-digital-marketing/

Sevignani, S 2016, Privacy and Capitalism in the Age of Social Media, Routledge, New York.

Wilken, R & McCosker, A 2014, ‘Social Selves’, in Cunningham & Turnbull (eds), The Media & Communications in Australia, Allen and Unwin pp. 291-295.

Vivienne, S & Burgess, J 2013, ‘The Remediation of the Personal Photograph’, Journal of Material Culture, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 279-98.

[katedcswin]

Perfect parallel with the tree falling analogy!

It's funny to think that even though we may feel we have control over what media we consume, as Jonson says, in reality that may not be the case...

Great post!

[theitalianbootinmelbourne-blog]

Why Selfie?

Thanks to all the new mobile phones spread around the world, I can now send a picture of my burger to all my friends in Italy. And why not, I can also send a selfie too with a thumb up by using a selfie stick (Getting ready for Australia Day).

I must admit that this evolution has led to a creation of a new community, such a “personal photography community” in which a person takes selfie and share them around the globe via social media. Looks like I have coined a new term. Never mind. Hand (2012, p. 5) describes personal photography as a practice in which a person takes picture of himself/herself in order to share them with others as part of personal engagement. 

Well, I happily remember taking photos with an old style Polaroid (hands up who has used it at least once) and sticking them into my album. Some great memories. 

But now, with the social media, taking a photo, is like taking away the pleasure of going through that dusty albums left on the bookshelf.

What I am trying to get to is that social media have taken away a meaning of taking photos. Of course, you can share your moments on social media with all your friend lists, but the form of visibility has changed dramatically. And with the visibility, the form of communication has changed too. Let’s recap how things work. You take some photos with a Polaroid, you stick them to the album, you show them to your network of people, the people that you like, trust or emotionally involved. Nowadays, you take some photos, perhaps selfies, you post them on a social media page via Facebook or Instagram and they get liked by your network of friends, who perhaps are not all your friends nor all of them trustworthy. In other words, we are uncovering more personal details about us then before and also uncovering a different method of communication. Sanghani (2014) pinpoints the fact that looking at selfie leads to dissenting feelings about body image. Now, raise your hand if you cared about your body image after you took that photo with the Polaroid?

I can only say that within the social media, taking a good selfie, can bump up your likes. 

To finish, I would like to ask you, my friend blogger: were you more engaged with your friends’ list with the old fashioned Polaroid or you are now more engaged with your social media friends’ list.

Have a good one and take a selfie!!!

Hand, M 2012, Ubiquitous Photography, Polity Press, Cambridge.

Sanghani, R 2014, ‘Why we really take selfies: the ‘terrifying’ reasons explained’, The Telegraph, 1 April, viewed 22 January 2016, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/10760753/Why-we-really-take-selfies-the-terrifying-reasons-explained.html.>.

[katedcswin]

So true!!

Oh I miss waving the polaroids around waiting for an image to appear! 

While sharing photos on social media can have its benefits (like sharing with friends and family overseas), it has completely ruined the social aspect of seeing people after a trip and taking them through the album. 

[tahliaforrestdigital-blog]

Will the real source please crowd up.

hey guys :)

As we come to the end of week 8, which while interesting was a challenging and stressful week for me personally, I am glad to be writing to you all tonight.  This week was basically a lesson on crowdsourcing. 

As the name genuinely implies, crowdsourcing involves the obtainment of needed services, concepts or ideas by gaining the opinion and knowledge of a large publicity - especially over the internet rather than by an employed member. This allows for accuracy and a lack of bias. The learning materials used the Boston Bombers as the example for this due to the high usage of platforms such as Twitter for crowdsourcing suspects or further information.

In terms of a crisis, Crowdsourcing can become a vital part of surviving. Think of natural disaster. In these times of crisis and disaster, visual access to these events proves vital. Crowdsourcing in this situation allows for the fast and wide spread of information and makes sure the events has become public knowledge that can be responded to promptly and quickly. 

This hits us Aussies pretty close to home. Our country is often struck with heart breaking disaster such as floods, fires, and tornados. Our devastating accidents pushed us to crowdsource through the usage of social medias to develop strategies.  I live in a small country town on the boarder of VIC and NSW. One night we suffered a devastating tornado which destroyed lands, parks and homes. Here is a video for anyone interested! (luckily for me, I slept through the whole thing and my home was untouched)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBo-r-mDXN8

See you guys next week xx

[katedcswin]

Hey Tahlia,

Good on you for sleeping right through it!

It’s so true - because of the number of times natural disasters strike us, we’ve had to adapt and use crowdsourcing for vital information at really critical times.

[arielblogstuff-blog]

Outsourcing Web 2.0 Style

Crowdsourcing, coined in 2005 is defined as ‘the process of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers’ (Merriam Webster, 2012). From creative and informative projects to mobilizing a lynch mob, crowd-sourcing has been one of the more compelling examples of group interaction in the social space since the emergence of web 2.0 (Diana, 2010). One infamous example of the informative, sprawling community based content systems that fall under the crowd-sourcing umbrella is Wikipedia. However, a more poignant use of interactive technologies is through the mobilization of social action groups in times of crisis and community need (Ford 2012, pp. 33-39).

The authors of the Ushahidi program, meaning ‘witness’ in Swahili was one example of the power of modern media to oppose political oppression. Authors of the Ashahidi system in partnership with mobile phone operators were given a means to post reports using an SMS short-code system and thus were able to circumvent the governments media ban (Zuckerman 2008). Indeed, Kenyans’ demonstrated to the world how technologically sophisticated their communities were in response to a government who sought to rig elections and coordinate violent attacks upon social action groups (Zuckerman 2008). 30% of Kenyans’ used social media, a 33% increase on Africa’s aggregate and Hershman reports that 75% of Kenyan blogs were linked to Ushahidi by January 10th of 2007 (2008). The platform is best known as a collaborative form of citizen journalism, supplanting the hegemonic role of the countries morally defunct media powers, enabling ordinary citizens to,

·         Report what they saw

·         Develop a database of events

·         Enable the understanding of events at a macro level

As well as SMS messaging, citizens of Ushahidi were able to submit details of geographic locations, supporting information, photos and video. Whilst administrators attempted to verify information against mainstream and citizen media reports and to resolve information’s into an interactive map. Ushahidi provided citizens a powerful informational tool to map the complexities of peacemaking efforts in the Kenyan electoral conflict (Zuckerman 2008).

One of the main criticisms of crowd-sourcing is the validity of information. Amongst other issues, the sheer number of individual informative sources make the validation of content a logistically daunting task for moderators of crowd-sourcing platforms (Hershman 2008). The fact that Ushahidi content moderators published unverified reports, or on in a case closer to home the usage of Wikipedia being academically frowned upon by most Universities being cases in point. However, in many cases, reports are verified and scholars do indeed support and contribute to Wikipedia (Ford 2012). Thus, effective crowd-sourcing is a prudent example of the 5th estate. In the case of the Kenyan uprising, information was power, Ushahidi gave a voice to the people in a time when they needed it most.

References

‘crowdsourcing entry’ 2014, Merriam Webster, viewed 13th January 2016, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing.

Diana, R 2010, Crowdsourcing Is Outsourcing Web 2.0 Style, Regular Geek, viewed 13th January, 2016, http://regulargeek.com/2010/05/14/crowdsourcing-is-outsourcing-web-2-0-style/

Ford, H 2012, 'Crowd Wisdom’, Index on Censorship, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 33-39.

Hershman 2008, Activist Mapping Presentation at Where 2.0, White African .com, viewed 13th January, 2016, http://whiteafrican.com/2008/05/15/activist-mapping-presentation-at-where-20/

Zuckerman, E 2008, Kenya: Citizen Media in a time of crisis, My heart’s in Accra, viewed 13th January, 2016.

[katedcswin]

Hey Ariel,

Loved the Ushahidi example of crowdsourcing and how with a common goal in site, numerous bodies can come together to provide a platform to be heard at such an important moment, despite government’s efforts to silence them.

[ivetakocianova-blog]

Can ‘governing’ sort out the issue of Cyber bullying?

WEEK 7

I’m against abuse or bullying of any sort and I feel quite strongly about it. So when this topic came up I jumped into my ‘usual’ assumption – it is wrong and somebody should be punished for it. However, after reading Danah Boyd’s article, Bullying: Is the Media Amplifying Meanness and Cruelty?, I’ve realized that this issue is not as black and white as I thought. Bullying has been happening long before Internet and social media and when it becomes public most people aim to punish the perpetrator and protect the victim. However, sometimes they fail to recognize and acknowledge the complexity of the conflict. Most bullies react aggressively, because they are struggling with issues of their own (Boyd 2014). According to Fuller (2014) the core problem with cyber bullying is that there is a generation who did not grown up with technology. Therefore, parents from that generation may not be able to help their children as this experience is completely foreign to them.

Thanks to social media everything is more public, which brings different issues and conflicts. If we start strictly controlling internet use of children and teenagers, it most likely will not lead to a successful outcome. Firstly, younger generations are better at using technology than their parents will ever be. Secondly, the more restrictions there are, the more they want to break them. Rather than controlling their online behavior, we should use their online actions in an effective manner. “Social media made dynamics of bullying more visible to people. We must use this visibility, not to justify increased punishment, but to help youth who are actually crying out for attention” (Boyd 2014). Social forums are dealing with the issue of cyber bullying by deleting post or whole accounts. However, I don’t believe that is an adequate measure. Accounts can be created again, under different name, in minutes. I was part of a Facebook group of Czech and Slovak people living overseas. People from all over the world shared their experience about citizenship, food, shopping, parenting, social benefit, etc. I found it really interesting reading about people’s everyday lives from completely different environments. The atmosphere was quite positive and encouraging. The admin has decided to change the rules of the group. No talking about religion or politics or you will be kicked out. So we should be talking about weather all the time?? Of course politics and religion will be discussed to a certain degree! I felt that the right of speech was incriminated and left the group. I do believe that social forum can incorporate adequate measures to deal with online abuse, but this is not the way to go.

Reference list: 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 Fuller, G 2014, 'Cyber-safety’: What are we actually talking about?, The Conversation, 27 February, viewed 22 September 2015, <http://theconversation.com/cyber-safety-what-are-we-actually-talking-about-23505>. ‘Pros and cons of digital devices in the hands of young students’ 2012, [image], EmergingEdTech, viewed 3 January 2016, <www.emergingedtech.com>.

[katedcswin]

Hi Iveta, Couldn’t agree more with you. Deleting or placing over-the-top restrictions on individuals or groups really doesn’t solve anything! Proper solutions need to be put in place to get to the root of the problem. Thanks for the blog!

[myuniblog]

So you think you can troll?

I give it at least 2 more years before we see this as a legitimate television show - most likely streamed via your favourite provider.

So I’d like to share with you all an act of Internet trolling and I’d like for you to tell me on a scale of 1-10 if this constitutes as bullying/harassment, and is something that should be policed/governed?

A DJ posts to HIS social media a snippet of a set that he did at a very popular music festival A punter of the festival responded to the post that he was not happy and that the song in the snippet brought the credibility of the festival down (This is the polite way to say it) The DJ responds with the phrase ‘who cares’ The DJ’s response is then echoed by hundreds of hid friends/fans/followers - literally. They all tag the punter in their responses and say ‘who cares’ The situation goes viral and suddenly people who may or may not even follow the DJ all respond and tag the punter with ‘who cares’ This is a true story and this is an example of Trolling. If you don’t believe me you can check it out here and please don’t going the ‘who cares’ bandwagon as its not really that funny any more.

There is an argument here that the DJ was simply defending himself against someone who wanted to rain on his parade, but if we are to believe that the troller is the perpetrator than the DJ is actually the one in the wrong - and perhaps he is by using his influence to somewhat ‘shame’ the perpetrator.

There is also an argument that as his social media profile is public he should be open to criticism and should just cop it on the chin.   ……….

I know that this example is fairly simplistic and much lighter than some of the incidents we see on the news that effect young people today and the the of behaviour exemplified by the younger sister in Danah Boyd’s piece: Bullying: Is the media amplifying meanness and cruelty? but imagine if we were to have an ombudsman that governed specifically online behaviour. The DJ in this instance could find himself in a considerable amount of trouble or even face criminal charges, and that to me makes no sense when we already have laws in place designed to protect us against acts like stalking and harassment.

I think what we need is a change in our culture - we need for people to take online behaviour as seriously as they take IRL (in real life) behaviour. We need for there to be greater conversation and transparency in the community stating that that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated and can be prosecuted. Is it so far fetched for there to be specific segments of the police force dedicated to cyber crime as in CSI: Cyber. This would police who are hackers and have an IT background - I’m sure they already exist, but we don’t know about them.

So again I would like to ask you:

On a scale of 1-10 how criminal where the actions of the DJ?

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.

Mack, E 2015, ‘Meredith’s DJ Levins Trolls Crowd With Justin Bieber, Sets Trolls On The Haters’, Music Feeds, 15 December 2015, viewed 2 December 2015,<http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/merediths-dj-levins-trolls-crowd-justin-bieber-sets-trolls-haters/#EkykMzWYSqd0CAPt.99>

[katedcswin]

I like the example you’ve put up! While it may be fairly simplistic as you say, it still makes you really grapple with who is in the wrong here! Maybe a two or three for the DJ in my opinion... Oh and please not another CSI!

[katedcswin]

Troll

This week let’s discuss how social media enables the freedom for individuals to act or voice anything in any way they like... creating media conflict. The 21st Century and the social age of anxiety, depression and moral panics that consume the younger generation. Bullying, Trolling, hating, stalking, incivility all made so easy now through social media platforms, that has established the modern day bully!

Social media’s ability to allow individuals to be discrete, be anonymous, and be underage is the sole reason all this is possible. With these capabilities come huge consequences, trying to keep up with the insanity of new technologies as our governments, schools, and other organisations rush to develop preventatives within new laws and social media codes of practice.

The number of ways that social media is misused everyday is appalling! ‘Trolling’ and ‘provocation’ the accessibility to freedom of speech and freedom of contribution has never been so easy now all thanks to social media platforms. The new age term trolling engrosses peer to peer abuse or bullying, forms of harassment or stalking... Perhaps resembling an internet troll?

What has come to be called trolling should be taken as a starting point rather than a vague end point for understanding the place of provocation in its multiple, highly contextualised and always changing forms. (McCosker, 2014)

Dana Boyd seems to believe that it is not the social media platform that is at fault but rather the young people’s ability to construe drama flanked by each other. I feel like if technology wasn’t at the hand of every teenager around the world... Then problems would subside. Obviously this is a semi ridiculous statement, I do understand that... Although I much preferred the days when technology and social media weren’t running wild... Oh and how’s this for a thought, kids actually played outside... Weird! However, Dana makes a point, if technology was to disappear or be minimised these behaviours would still exist. Correct... But I doubt in the same intensity of today’s digital era.

[katedcswin]

The Act of Protests

How can social media facilitate community action... the passion we all share with technology encompasses our passion to complain at every chance we get. What better way to protest than sit on our devices and really get stuck into it... Has it really done us favours or just made people even angrier? 

‘Digital citizenship’ is a term that has been used to refer to the potential benefit for society as a whole that comes from new digital and social media tools and their ability to ‘facilitate the membership and participation of individuals within society’ (Mossberger etal 2008)

But does it really always benefit us (society)? How appropriate is the use of Twitter or Facebook when referring to world troubles... Or “first world problems”? My opinion is absolutely I believe people get carried away with the accessibility of social media, how easy it is to chuck in their 2 cents when it comes to unpopular regimes or to push protest movements.

We all felt remorseful after the Paris Attacks. However, did social media users have to filter their Facebook profile pictures to the French flag? I mean how do we distinguish between our sorrow for Parisians and Syrians... Or the bomb dropped on Turkey a week before the Paris Attacks... Social media platforms limit users’ knowledge. 

Narcissistic people (30,000) retweeted the meme in tribute to those killed by terrorists in Paris as the Eiffel Tower stood in darkness for the first time since 1889. 

“A harrowing symbol of the darkness that came over the city in tribute to all lives lost” Monroe-Hamilton, 2015.

Well at least that’s the impression the ignorant Twitter users were under...

My how community action can get so misconstrued in a game of Chinese whispers as thousands of people from miles away try to contribute. The meme uploaded by Rurik Bradbury and the truth is the Eiffel Tower lights are shut off every night at 1am is just a matter of routine.

“Instead of silence or helpfulness, social media pukes out stupidity, virtue-signaling and vicarious ‘enjoyments’ (in a psychoanalytic sense) of terrible tragedy by people thousands of miles away, for whom the event is just a meme they will participate in for a couple of days, then let fade into their timeline” Bradbury explained in an interview. 

However... How social media can facilitate some good in society is what we call ‘Local digital activism’. Local activists are groups of social media users that assemble campaigns through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs to reach larger publics and to promote funds for a good cause.

[thisisclarewright-deactivated20]

Blog #1  For better or for worse

The ubiquity of digital communities and social media networking has created a revolution in the sociality of modern day communication. We are, as individuals, networking more than ever before with digital technological devices. But is this shift in increased digital communities a positive or a negative for establishing relationships?

Is technology redefining human connection for better or for worse? 

Dr Sherry Turkle coins the term the “Goldilocks effect” in an April 2012 TED Talk (TED-Ed 2013). When you think about it, Goldilocks was a sassy girl. Rebellious to her mothers demands, a connoisseur of culinary dishes and meticulous with interior comforts. But, who could have guessed, generations after her creation Goldilocks’s legendary character would be used to best describe the negativity of personal connections we now maintain with friends, family and colleges! Turkle states that communication via digital technology enables us to maintain relationships not too far, not too close, but just the right amount of physical and emotional distance (Hunt 2014). In her TED talk, Turkle talks about people wanting to be with each other, but also elsewhere, in amounts that are convenient to them (TED-Ed 2013). How does this form of “beingness” effect adolescents who need to develop the art of face-to-face communication, which takes place in real time, without the control of being able to edit their words or retouch their image (TED-Ed 2013)? Turkle maintains that human relationships are messy, yet we are cleaning them up with technology and therefore sacrificing communication for mere connection (TED-Ed2013).

With the ubiquitous influence of digital communities in our daily lives, and with no sign of this abating, lets search for the positives. In an American study of the use of social networking sites among 92 undergraduate college students, positive results in digital relationships were found (Pempek, Yermolayeva, Calvert 2009, p. 227). It is apparent that spending time on social networking sites is a daily experience for most young adults, at a time in their lives that is traditionally characterised by a struggle to find their sense of self. With the use of social media, adolescents can experiment with their identity, in an easy, accessible way and foster the development of their identity in a virtual environment (Pempek, Yermolayeva, Calvert 2009 p.228). In addition to this, research found a strong positive relationship between social media use and social, face-to-face interactions. The primary use of social media sites is for youth to stay in contact with friends they often see, and friends they rarely see (Pempek, Yermolayeva, Calvert 2009 p.229). 

So what now? Is technology redefining human relationships for better or for worse? For good or for bad? Is it negative or is it positive? Let me just say this; It is here, and it is not going anywhere anytime soon - so lets embrace network digital technology for all the affordances it provides us, but lets be AWARE of how much it can consume our lives. Lets make conscious efforts when we are with our friends to put our phone away for real time, face-to-face interaction. Lets make digital device exclusion zones in our home for quality family time. Lets look up at the world around us when we are outside, instead of down at our mobile devices and lets smile, the real life around us is too good to miss!

References

Hunt, M 2014, ‘Technology, Connections and the Goldilocks Effect’, Social Media Today, 12 February, viewed 17 November 2015, http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/technology-connections-and-goldilocks-effect.

Pempek, T.A.; Yermolayeva, Y.A.; Calvert, S.L. 2009, College students’ social networking experiences on Facebook, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Volume 30, Issue 3, May 2009, Pages 227-238 http://cdmc.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/Facebook2009.pdf

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 17 November 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c.

[axebrain]

Hey Clare,

I totally agree that social media is not the monster it is made out to be. It has so many positive aspects that you have covered and often augments face to face relationships rather than diminishing them. There is however, the choice we make to maintain digital contacts whilst in the company of our ‘real’ friends that poses the real threat. Are we ‘here’ or ‘there’? For we cannot be both, no matter what my kids tell me. Something has to give and the fear is that real relationships are pushed aside when we think we need to check Facebook every ten seconds.

Regardless, you are right. Digital community is here to stay. We must embrace it, but not forget to embrace our friends with our full attention too.

Great post.

Luke

[katedcswin]

Hey Clare, great post! Was really informative and enjoyable. I really enjoyed your Goldilocks example, it was witty :)

[tahliaforrestdigital-blog]

pwned by the public

First of all, for me personally, this week was more so preparation for the group assessment which includes a presentation. Mine is due tomorrow morning and I spent most of my study time this week dedicated to that, but don’t worry the presentation looks awesome me and my girl Shan smashed it.

While I write this blog post, I am alone in my bedroom. My family is not home and the house is silent.. but, when I click “post” at the end of this rant, this blog post will be made public, for all to see, read and devour. 

But what and who is the public?

Within the learning materials of week 4, Mizuko Ito (cultural anthropologist) describes it as “…reactors, (re)makers and (re)distributors, engaging in shared culture and knowledge through discourse and social exchange as well as through acts of media reception.” In saying this, if you are reading my post now and are engaged in my opinion, welcome to the public! When it comes to blogging, I like to think of my followers as my public, as they are my audience. Pretty cute that I have an audience, thanks guys, shucks. 

Moving along…..

Networked Publics!

Networked publics are a little harder to put into words and anecdotal examples..but thats where Danah Boyd (2010) comes in :) Boyd uses 3 central dynamics to describe networked publics, which include: Invisible audiences: not all audiences are visible when a person is contributing online, nor are they necessarily co-present Collapsed contexts: the lack of spatial, social, and temporal boundaries makes it difficult to maintain distinct social contexts and The blurring of public and private: without control over context, public and private become meaningless binaries, are scaled in new ways, and are difficult to maintain as distinct. 

However, this is still completely different to Counterpublics…duh.

Counterpublics are loosely connected groupings actively working to counter dominant cultural norms and social structures. Basically, the trends we see on facebook, twitter and here on tumblr connect us to make us a counterpublic.. The example they used in the learning materials rocked: “For example, consider the development and use of the word ‘pwned’, a corruption of the word 'owned’. This originated in an online game called Warcraft, where a map designer misspelled 'owned.’ When the computer beat a player, it was supposed to say, so-and-so 'has been owned.’ Instead, it said, so-and-so 'has been pwned.’ It basically means 'to own’ or to be dominated by an opponent or situation, especially by some god-like or computer-like force. 'Man, I rock at my job, but I still got a bad evaluation. I was pwned.’ OR 'That team totally pwned us.'” (Learning Materials)

This week totally pwned me…goodnight everybody xo

[katedcswin]

Hey there Tahlia.. wow your blog looks cool, i’m a rookie at the blogging stuff but you seem to know your way around pretty well I really like your page. I enjoyed your blog on Publics and and how personal your writing style is.

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Blog, Blogging and blogger

So this is the first time I have actually ever blogged so I am still getting my head around exactly what/why people blog. Obviously I am blogging for my Uni assignment but other people blog for fun,to let people know who they are and what their story is. 

What is a blog?

Retterberg (2014) states that a blog is like getting to know someone, so you need to read them overtime, just like a television series. A blog is more than just words and images, it is the sum of the layout, writing style, connections with other bloggers and the pace at which each blog gets published.

What do I think about blogging so far? I just cannot seem to get my head around it all so I am not a huge fan of it so far, but as time goes on I am sure my thoughts will change. As I am researching blogging I have found out there are many words that derive from the word blog for example:

- A Blog is a journal or diary that is on the internet, it is also means to write a blog. 

- A Blogger is a person who keeps a blog and is revolutionising the way news is shared.

- Blogging is the action of the blog (Bird, N.A.).

This has made it even more confusing for me! but I do remember a blog being a journal of people’s day-to-day activities, but now people write about far more interesting topics such as up-to-date news, technical information, celebrity scandal, politics and heaps more other topics.

To blog or not to blog that is the question, google images

I have notices that Tumblr gives you a wide variety of options to edit your page in whatever way you want, font size, colour and style, positioning of writing on teh page, background colour and choice of theme and profile picture. I am sure there are many more editing options than what I have mentioned but these would allow the blogger to create a world of their own and invite whoever they want to join.

I do believe that blogging is a wonderful way to express yourself however you like and share all the memories, fun times and sad times with whoever you want, it reminds be of being really mad at something, getting a piece of paper and a pen and writing down your thoughts and feeings….I guess this is the same thing, just on the internet.

References

Byrd, K N.A, What is a blog?, BlogBasics, viewed 26 November 2015, <http://blogbasics.com/what-is-a-blog/>

Rettberg, J 2014, ’Blogs, Communities and Networks’, in Blogging, Polity Press, MA.

[katedcswin]

Hi Kerrell good job getting your post up! I am in the same boat... this is my first time blogging too. I really enjoyed your honesty in your blog and you made some interesting points :) 

[shivaniielizabeth-blog]

Even if you have nothing important to say, you can still blog about it!

So we’re all writing these blogs, and to be completely honest, I’m having such a great time, I’ve just spend the last 2 hours reading through all the Digital Communities blog posts so far!

I’m also part of this week’s group presentation, so I have spent the whole last week really deconstructing blogs! Blogs are such a major cultural phenomenon (Cross, 2011) – they went from people creating their own websites, to a platform where anyone can write about anything – whether it is academic or personal.

It is interesting to read Jill Walker Rettberg (2014) discuss how social media is a relatively new term, where social networks began as only a way to network with people, and now has transitioned to become its own form of media. This sort of peer-to-peer communication can be invaluable to business and traditional media outlets, who started to take advantage of it (Rettberg, 2014). In fact, it has been said that bloggers are becoming the “Fifth Estate” alongside traditional media, the Fourth Estate (Cross, 2011).

Each blog must have a public. Publics can be changed by the ever-changing social and cultural landscape (Mizuko, 2008). A public is an audience and the advent of the internet and social platforms to become the self-organised audience and to not be defined by physical borders.

‘Networked Publics’ are defined by these invisible audiences; but also collapsed contexts, which can be defined by the lack of common social boundaries; and the mishmash between public and private, where something that was once considered private can become public when shared via these new media platforms (Boyd, 2010). This has also allowed for multiple publics for each discourse. A blog may be written for a specific demographic, but that doesn’t mean that only people from that specific demographic will read that blog.

The relationship between public and author is synergistic and one cannot exist without the other (Warner, 2002). For example, without a public it seems as though there would be no need for social media. Sherry Turkle said that people can feel as though no one is listening to them in their day-to-day lives (TED-Ed, 2013), but social media can give anyone a platform to say what they want and will always have a public to listen to them.

I love the TV show House M.D., and when I think of bloggers I tend to go back to one episode called Private Lives, in which a patient is slowly dying but she feels the need to write about everything that she is going through and sharing it with all the people that read her blog (House M.D., 2010). This includes what she should choose as treatment. It seems so ridiculous to me but it was so important to her to have this platform for her to be listened to, to feel companionship without the demands of friendship (TED-ed, 2013). 

I used to use MySpace as my main form of social media a few years ago but now I use Facebook and I don’t know anyone that still uses MySpace. Many blogs have moved from being a typical BLOG that we all know but now even that landscape has changed - there are vloggers on YouTube, Instagram bloggers, microblogging platforms such as Tumblr (which we are all now experts in!). People can even make money from a blog. What do you all think – where are blogs heading?

References:

boyd, d 2010, ‘Social Network Sites as Networked Publics’, in Papacharissi, Z, A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites, Routledge, Hoboken, pp. 39-58.

Cross, M 2011, Got Blog, in Bloggerati, Twitterati: How blogs and Twitter are transforming popular culture, Praeger, Santa Barbara.

House M.D. 2010 [television program], FOX, 8 March.

Mizuko, I 2008 ‘Introduction’ in Vamelis, K (ed), Networked Publics, MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 1-14.

Rettberg, J 2014, ‘Blogs, Communities and Networks’, in Blogging, Polity Press, MA.

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 26 October 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

Warner, M 2002, ‘Publics and Counterpublics’, Public Culture, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 49-90.

[katedcswin]

Hey Shivanii I enjoyed your blog post. Even though we have a different mentality when it comes to blogging I can still agree with some of your views :) 

[katedcswin]

Our ‘Social’ Leaders.

The acceptance and the increase in the use of social media platforms have become incredibly widespread throughout civil society. The professionalism in my eyes is at an all time low when tweeting is being constructed by our world leaders. Can we have confidence in our political leaders if they are participating in such juvenile acts? 

So what is digital citizenship? Let’s converse in the appropriateness of social media platforms being used by political parties, politicians, members, and supporters as part of campaigning and communicating to the public.

K.Mossberger, et al. define digital citizens as ‘those that use the internet regularly and effectively’ (Wikipedia, 2015).

So how do our political parties and politicians connect effectively with their communities through social media networks?

When it comes to winning over the public, apparently the amount of twitter followers is a good determinant... Well Tony Abbott seems to think so. There was speculation in the 2013 federal election that Abbott was upset about his far fewer Twitter followers, 39,000, compared to Rudd’s staggering 93,000... Shortly after the campaign, Abbott’s followers started to inflate dramatically to 240,000, with Rudd’s only to rise to 119,000. This caused rumours that the Liberal Party bought fans for Abbott’s page.

Revenge through social media doesn’t shout professionalism... although Mike Baird seems to think so, feeling the need to have to post a video of his Twitter hate mail. It’s a bit much throwing a tanty Mike. 

The New South Wales election 2015: Mike Baird the NSW Premier may have many onboard fans but also has a fair share of critics, as he made awfully clear in his video regurgitating the hate mail.

“You look like the smilin’ assassin. Your charming smile hides your black Liberal heart” tweeted one user.

“Mike Baird, I knew you were in Newcastle yesterday cuz I could smell the sulfur coming from your pitchfork from over 10 miles away” tweeted another user.

“This guy should be a writer. I like that. That’s actually quite funny” Mr Baird laughed. 

The video ends with Taylor Swift’s hit song ‘Shake it Off’, with Mr Baird indicating he was a clear Tay Tay fan and did not take the insults to heart, but Baird did still feel the need to make a disapproving video (awkward).

I just want to comment that if these social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, etc) weren’t so uncontrolled/out of control, then we wouldn’t have to be exposed to garbage mail... Or rubbish rebuttal videos. Just saying...!

Winning even more voters over, Mike Baird the pro Twitter user uploads a selfie with his daughter at the Taylor Swift concert. It sure won the public over with the ‘ohh’s’ and ‘ahh’s’ as voters gushed over the Premier’s father-daughter relationship status... Even though the Premier was clearly stating that we was just happy to have an excuse to the teeny boppers concert, the excuse was his daughter... Just a lame Tay Tay fan!