Digital Communities

[shivaniielizabeth-blog]

The World of Online Gaming

I come from a bit of a gaming world – I wouldn’t call myself a gamer, but my brother is a gamer, and my partner is a gamer, as well as most of his friends. Now, because of this world that the people I love are so heavily involved in, it is practically impossible for me to not be able to pick up terminology or story lines and even get a little bit involved in these online worlds.

Over 50 million people play an MMORPG (Second Skin, 2008), and I can see why. World of Warcraft has over 10 million players worldwide (Atlay, 2015), all part of this virtual reality world. I remember once my partner was playing World of Warcraft, and he asked me to play a bit so that I could understand what he was talking about when he explained what was going on in his games. All I did was run around and kill things with lasers coming out of my eyes… and I only played for about 40 minutes before I said that it wasn’t for me. That being said, I did get really into it! I yelled when someone ran in front of me to kill the tree-monster (sorry if you play WOW, I don’t remember the exact character name) I was trying to kill. It was a lot of fun, but I don’t think I really was able to get into the virtual world side of the game with less than an hour of play time.

The documentary Second Skin (2008) focuses on the relationships that gamers have with their virtual worlds and their fellow gamers. So many people have used these games as a form of socialising. People play these games for more than 10 hours a day… couple that with approximately 8 hours a day for work, attempting to factor in 4 hours for sleep, that leaves 1 hour left in a day for EVERYTHING else, including eating, bathing, cleaning, exercising, socialising (Second Skin, 2008). Half of MMORPG players say that they are addicted to this virtual worlds and 1 in 5 say that they are residents of a virtual world (Second Skin, 2008). It can be an online dating tool, with 1 in 3 gamers date someone from a virtual world (Second Skin, 2008).

There is a dark side though, especially for females. Many can experience cyber bullying. John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight, dedicated a segment to the online harassment (2015). He focused on the “veritable cornucopia of horrifying messages” that women can receive online, including rape threats and death threats. It also focuses on how the law in America hasn’t progressed to be able to help these women the way the really should be able to.

I personally think that the gaming world gets a bad rap for being an ‘unhealthy’ virtual world. To me, I don’t really see the difference between my partner wanting to log into his game as soon as he gets home and me checking my Facebook newsfeed. Virtual worlds can be addictive, and for all the reasons we have discussed – they provide you with the ability to escape, and communicate and even to become the person you WISH you could be. There probably is something inherently wrong with all of this, but I also don’t believe in digital duality (Herrman, 2014) and the real and virtual are going to become synonymous, and I really do think that this is something that we need to embrace, rather than reject.

References:

Atlay, O 2015, ‘Most Popular MMORPGs in the World’, MMOs.com, viewed 17 January 2016, < http://mmos.com/editorials/most-popular-mmorpgs-world>

Herrman, J 2014, ‘Meet the Man Who Got Inside Snapchat’s Head’, BuzzFeed, 28 January, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/meet-the-unlikely-academic-behind-snapchats-new-pitch#3dlvjg2>

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver 2015 [television program], HBO, 21 June.

Second Skin 2008 [Presto], Brauer & Escoriaza, USA.

[theitalianbootinmelbourne-blog]

Hello,

What a story the online gaming. I see my mates getting into it too badly. They can’t get enough, and I agree with you, when do they have a bath?? (They do though). Personally, I can’t be part of this virtual online gaming world. It is not for me. All the best with yours endeavours.

Simon+e 

[kerrellsblog-blog]

I love your blog, it is somewhat like mine! my brother is a big gamer and my partner is also a big gamer but myself.....i play games on my own. Not sure why, maybe im afraid of losing and if i lose against a computer it doesn’t matter as much to me than losing to a human. Cyberbullying has definately picked up over the years and it is something that needs to be monitored and I have also told a secret to an online friend that i have told no one else........

[ivetakocianova-blog]

Gaming as a social activity

Week 10

I always thought gaming was a very antisocial behavior. (I don’t play games so if I get some terminology wrong I apologize in advance.) But when I hear the word gaming I imagine someone sitting with their controller in front of TV or computer, staring at the screen enable to interact with another person in real world. I have worked with people who came to work exhausted, because they spent the whole night playing online games.

My partner loves to play Clash of Clans. I was against it and saw it as a complete waste of time. I was shocked when I found out that it is actually the top worldwide revenue game. Gaming and especially mobile gaming is a constantly-growing field that makes a lot of money and is dominated by some free-to-play giants (Lazarides 2016). In the case of Clash of Clans the creators are very innovative, I have to admit. They collaborated with an actor Christoph Waltz and created several fairly funny commercials. Just in case you haven’t seen one of them I added a video below, where Christoph Waltz teamed up with a comedian James Corden.

(Clash of Clans 2015)

The following graph proves how huge is the industry of social gaming on Facebook alone.

(Statista 2015)

Once my partner said it was a great way to stay in touch with his friends. That came as a surprised to me. I never thought of a game being a tool to be social. He was using it as let’s say a chat room on Facebook, but he was playing his game at the same time. Perhaps is not that bad?

Tourmeau explains that social aspect is the backbone of games, the ability to play with all of your friends. That’s what makes these games stand apart. And it really is the thing that we consider first and foremost whenever we are designing a game (Zynga 2014).

Basically by playing a game, you are creating a social group with common theme and individual rules. These rules are created by the players with norms emerging from within the game space and from the context of play (de Zwart & Humphreys 2014).

I don’t see it as such a bad way to spend free time. However, the question is whether the players can control their time spend playing these games. There is a thin line between playing for entertainment and being social online, and being obsessed.

Wow! This is my last blog entry. I can’t believe how fast it went by. It has been an interesting journey on discovering this constantly changing digital world. It has changed my opinion and certainly increase my knowledge on several topics covered over the last 10 weeks.

Thank you for reading my blog and joining me on this adventure.

REFERENCE LIST: Statista 2015, ‘Most popular Facebook games in November 2015, based on number of daily activity users’ [image], Statista, viewed 22 January 2016, <http://www.statista.com/graphic/1/267003/most-popular-social-games-on-facebook-based-on-daily-active-users.jpg>.

Clash of Clans 2015, Clash of Clans:Legend of the Last Lava Pup (Official Commercial), 22 December, viewed 22 January 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0eVYdmmYJk>.

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.

Lazarides, T 2016, ‘Games like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga reigned in 2015but not all remains the same’, Touch Arcade, viewed  22 January 2016, <http://toucharcade.com/2016/01/20/games-like-clash-of-clans-and-candy-crush-saga-reigned-in-2015-but-not-all-remains-the-same/>.

Zynga, 2014, viewed 24 September 2015, <www.zynga.com>.

[theitalianbootinmelbourne-blog]

Hi, 

Great blog and great point in “There is a thin line between playing for entertainment and being social online, and being obsessed”. Sometimes I sneak a look at the online gaming places(perhaps, internet point as they play online, thus internet must be connected) in the CBD or BoxHill (Melbourne) and I see the obsession. I see the same person sitting there even when I come back after work!!! And I think he’s not socialising!!! Perhaps, the obsession is to socialise online and not playing the game itself. 

All the best.

Simon+e

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Hey, I liked your blog post because It reminded me of a family member who wasn’t that into gaming but then tried it and kinda liked it. lol. I don’t play online gaming very much at all now, i do enjoy playing against the computer though. and time does fly when your gaming!!

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Network Gaming!

When I was younger I use to play strategy type games over dial-up modem with friends or have, what we call, LAN parties (Local Area Network) where we all brought our desktop computers over to one person’s house and networked them all together and played games against each other. Now, facebook has given people of all ages the chance to play against each other and even pay for those little luxury extras. The games I use to play like Starcraft (The very first one), counter-strike (also the earlier one) and Red alert did not have options to buy any extra items or anything which now I look back on it, was a great thing! Although back then I wasn’t thinking about spending money while trying to destroy my brother at counter-strike.

A successful digital gamestore that is used by my whole family is Steam. It is an online gaming community where you can download/buy games and join gaming groups (also known as Clans). Steam is available on most devices and there is a huge selection of games to choose from. My favourite game of all time is on this...Half-life! Can’t wait for the 3rd one to come out!!!

While I am sure these games have an age limit or needing parents permission to play, it is leaving opportunities open for young people to spend rediculous amounts of money and not even know it..or their parents money or even raising health concerns for themselves.

The father of a 20 year old boy who spent 12 hours a day on his xbox has pleaded to parents to protect their children of prolonged gaming after his son had died from a blood clot in his lungs which developed deep vein thrombosis which is more commonly associated with people that are on long flights or immobilised for long hours (Twomey, 2016).

References

Steam, 2015, Steam green light, retrieved from https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=158862679

Twomey, R 2016, X-box addict, 20, killed by blood clot after 12-hour gaming session, daily mail, retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2020462/Xbox-addict-20-killed-blood-clot-12-hour-gaming-sessions.html.

[shivaniielizabeth-blog]

The Selfie Epidemic

Oh the good old selfie…. Originally just an easy way to take a photo if you don’t have anyone to take it for you. Now, the selfie is a staple for everyone, even my 67 year old father learnt to take selfies on his recent trip to Europe.

Instagram is a very popular social platform for sharing photographs. With the minimal use of words, Instagram allows you to post your life online, with only photographs. The home of #foodporn – taking photos of your food – and perfecting the selfie. Everything looks better with a filter right? #nosuchthingasnofilterneeded

Sharing our lives in such a visual way, using personal photographic practices (Hand, 2012) has led to a new form of visual communication. Nathan Jurganson led the charge against the concept of digital dualism (Herrman, 2014) and said that while digital dualists believe that the digital word is only virtual while the physical word is the real world, he believes this is false (Herrman, 2014). I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. If digital communities have taught me anything, it is that we rely so heavily on the internet and staying connected that the two worlds are definitely the same.

Jurganson works for Snapchat, an app that allows people to send videos or images to people that only last for up to 10 seconds. They are then deleted and never to be seen again. Now, Snapchat has gotten a pretty bad wrap since its inception. With the ability to send photos without any real repercussions (because they get deleted after one 10 second view), it opened the door for teenagers to send images to their friends that may not exactly be something that they want others to see – sexting, photos of kids smoking or taking drugs and in general states of misdemeanour – which can be worrying for parents (Abney, 2015).

This being said, I’m not a teenager, my friends are between the ages of 22 and 32, and we all use Snapchat. I find it easy to use and to communicate. I love sharing what is going on my life, without sharing it with someone I went to school with. Ishan Haque wrote in Business Insider (2015) that she would only post on Facebook if it was something that put forward a certain image of herself (she used the term ‘good Samaritan’) but with Snapchat, she could post what she wanted and send it to whom she wanted. The use of “raw, unedited photos and videos” (Haque, 2015) is what makes Snapchat so captivating.

This digital synonymy between the ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ worlds is only going to become more intertwined.  I love the ability to use Snapchat as a communication tool. I wonder what will come next in the digital evolution process.

References:

Abney, S 2015, ’10 things parents and kids should know about the SnapChat app’, Family Share, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://familyshare.com/parenting/10-things-parents-and-kids-should-know-about-the-snapchat-app>

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

Haque, I 2015, ‘A 15-year-old explains why teens are obsessed with Snapchat and Instagram is ‘over’’, Business Insider, 11 May, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://www.businessinsider.com/a-15-year-old-explains-why-teens-are-obsessed-with-snapchat-and-instagram-is-over-2015-5?IR=T>

Herrman, J 2014, ‘Meet the Man Who Got Inside Snapchat’s Head’, BuzzFeed, 28 January, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/meet-the-unlikely-academic-behind-snapchats-new-pitch#3dlvjg2>

[theitalianbootinmelbourne-blog]

Great blog, as usual. I agree with your last statement about the intertwined connection between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ that is only destined to get greater and more twisted. Ciao ciao

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Nice blog! and yet another person that has used Snapchat as an example of how much social media has advanced! it is a great way of sharing pictures and videos with friends but i agree that some young kids out there have got no idea what they are doing when they send out a rude pic of themselves....tsk tsk!

[aleksnajd-blog]

Week 9: Visual communities and social imaging.

In visual communities and social imaging, there are different ways which we can view visual aspects of people own identifications whether it being on Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr. People use it to engage with others through a way that they can share images to those they choose to connect with (Urban Dictionary, 2016).

In my own experiences, I enjoy tagging photos on social platforms whether it being my trips to Europe or when I am with friends, I like to look back to it as a memory so I don’t forget the good times. It is important to be careful what you post online, because once its uploaded, it’s out there on the web, and there is nothing you can do. Some people aren’t always up to date with social media, and this is smart because they prefer to keep things hidden from people. I have friends on Facebook that have a restriction to what people can post on their walls in case it being inappropriate.

Snapchat is an app on smart phones where you can send images to friends, giving you the ability to write a short message as well as a photo of your surroundings. I myself used it as another means of communications with my friends where you would send random photos or just send a short message to each other. Snapchat is really interesting, although you have to be careful when using it, because photos can be screenshotted and saved on your phone. People that send nude photos can have photos saved through the screenshot function on your phones and it can give the receiver the ability to share this with other people. So be mindful what kind of photos you are sending, it can easily backfire (Elyse betters, 2015).

The first self-portrait to ever been  taken was by Robert Cornelius in 1839 where he took the images by removing the lens cap and then running it into frame where he sat for a minute before covering up the lens again. On the back of the image he wrote, “The first light picture ever taken, 1893” (Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, 2016).

References:

Urban Dictionary, 2016, social-imaging, Retrieved 5 January, 2016, from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=social-imaging

Elyse betters, 26th December 2015, what’s the point of Snapchat and how does it work? Retrieved 5 January, 2016, from http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/131313-what-s-the-point-of-snapchat-and-how-does-it-work

Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, 2016, Selfie, Retrieved 5 January, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfie

Robert Cornelius, http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/12/robertcornelius.jpg

Snapchat, http://musically.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Snapchat_logo-2.png

Sexting, http://31.media.tumblr.com/00fc39b8f394059e747e3e2bd5f2693a/tumblr_inline_niryggP8QI1t4xvfm.jpg

[cameronmda20009-blog]

Hi aleksnajd, great blog.

The first selfie is an interesting component, and it seems to have a great deal more importance than the current fad of posting selfies everywhere. While not a fan of selfies, on reflection I also take many pictures when overseas and post them, usually via FB, noting where I am and what the experience is, and I go back through them every now and then and wish i was traveling again!

Cheers

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Hey how are you,

Awesome blog, very interesting. Good old Snapchat hey. Never ceases to amaze me the amount of silly people that send rude pictures over snapchat and think they have gotten away with it. But look how popular it is!!

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Visual communites

3 Things You Need To Know About Photo Tagging In Facebook Online visual communication has enhanced so much more since I have been using the internet. To talk and share stuff with my friends I use to go into a chatroom and there was an option to go on camera, but I rarely used it. MSN messenger was a big hit as you could add friends onto your own personal list  and talk in a private chat while doing other things. Now, social media platform sites like facebook (which is my main source of communication) is huge, because now you have your own personalised page and can invite whoever you want to see it and share pictures and videos with everyone about your daily life. Now you are able to add a picture with what you are saying to get your message across instead of just assuming.

Photographs can tell a thousand words and the internet has changed the way taking photographs happen and social networking sites have changed what it means to “share” photographs. Vivienne and burgess (2013) state that social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram have revolutionised the way photo albums work, with personal images now being stored digitally online rather than in a photo album book style. Sites such as Instagram and Tumblr rely on “social interaction” pictures, while there is an observation that the younger generation use photography now as a means of peer bonding and interaction (Vivienne and Burgess, 2013).

Tagging and being tagged in photos is another new generation of sharing pictures with others. I have not really had an issue with being tagged in photos as Facebook allows an option to review what you have been tagged in before it gets shown to the world. Snapchat is a fun way to share pics, I do not use it as a main source of sharing as you are only able to see the picture or video for a short time then it is permanently deleted. Snapchat introduces a quick way of sharing photos and videos without uploading first (Kinda like cutting out the middle man).

Reference:

Vivienne, S., & Burgess, J. (2013) ‘The remediation of the personal photograph’, Journal of Material Culture, pp. 279-98.

Photo ref:

Sieber, T (2012),  3 Things You Need To Know About Photo Tagging In Facebook, retrieved from http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-things-you-need-to-know-about-photo-tagging-in-facebook/

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Sourcing the Crowd Source

 (Crowd sourcing was not a huge thing when I was younger...not that I am old anyway but since social media platform sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have taken off, it has become more easier to use crowd sourcing sites to get your message across.

According to Startup Daily (2014). Australia’s crowd sourcing hub has grown and boasts amongst it ranks. Some of Australia’s crowd sourcing sites are; Kaggle, Redbubble, Envato, Expert 360, Airtasker, Imagebrief and Flightfox. Some of these businesses have made upwards of 11 million dollars. Design Crowd, which started off in a garage, has raised 6 million dollars of venture capital and freelancer making it the first crowd sourcing business in the world to go public (Startup Daily, 2014).

So why does Australia have so many crowd sourcing sites?  Crowd sourcing comes from the principle that a good idea can come from anywhere and anyone, so crowd sourcing appeals to Australia’s culture. This could be why enterepreneurs brands like Qantas and Vegemite, Politicians such as Krudds t-shirt design has embraced crowd sourcing. It is definately not always fun and games when it comes to crowd sourcing. For companies there’s no confidentiality which leads to competitors possibly knowing what your up to, wrong direction which causes people to look foolish and stolen or recycled names which competitors have been known to deliberately submit ideas that are not even their own (Yudkin, 2016).

The Qantas campaign “The reason why we fly” was involved in crowdsurfing thousands of photos from Australian’s to use in a TV commercial as well as names to display on the sides of selected Qantas planes (Lynch, 2013).

References

Lynch, A (2013), 10 of the best Aussie crowd sourcing projects from 2012. Smart Company. retrieved from http://www.smartcompany.com.au/growth/29877-10-of-the-best-aussie-crowdsourcing-projects-from-2012.html

Lynch, A (2014), Why has Australia become a global crowd sourcing hub? Startup daily, retrieved from http://www.startupdaily.net/2014/12/australia-become-global-crowdsourcing-hub/

Yudkin, M (2016). Crowd sourcing: 9 hidden pitfalls of this new method of generating your new business name. Marketing for intraverts and other under-appreciated people and companies. Retrieved from http://www.yudkin.com/crowdsourcing.htm

[thisisclarewright-deactivated20]

Crowdsourcing Power

Blog # 6

Week 8

The good, the bad, the ugly, we all have our opinions on Social Media. The way it has filtered into our lives and revolutionized the way we connect with each other in our personal and business lives, but what about the use social media in global scale disasters? By posting photos, comments and hashtags we rapidly spread information globally for disaster relief via social media sites. This is the crowdsourcing power of open social media platforms.  

The main advantage of crowdsourcing is the immediacy in which disaster status reports and emergency information can be dispersed compared to more traditional methods. The use of social media platforms provides the opportunity for status reports to be communicated urgently to relief organisations and the public (Gao, Barbier, Goolsby 2011 p. 11).

Crowdsourcing tools collect data by creating hashtags. Hashtags are a user-generated tool for marking a message with a specific topic or theme. As an example, the twitter hashtag #qldfloods was created in 2011 for the Queensland flood crisis. By using a hashtag tool we are able to coordinate user activity on social media platforms (Bruns, Burgess, Crawford & Shaw 2012 p.7).

Social media platforms, in particular Twitter, have proven to be a main source of news and media information. In the Queensland flood crisis first hand images were posted and shared in a context that is referred to as “citizen journalism” (Bruns, Burgess, Crawford & Shaw 2012 p.34). Citizen journalism, like all social media post ranges from the informative to the boring, but gives the public a true, first hand sense of the scale of the disaster in real time.

The platform Ushahidi was created specifically for crowdsourcing power.  Ushahidi enables anyone to create their own mapping website for events in which public can post reports to. This means that even in remote locations, with the use of Ushahidi, we can use crowdsourcing power to organise events and citizen contribution reporting in global disasters (Ford 2012).

Crowdsourcing has proven to report information and advice quickly in crisis situations, often developed with very little prior planning from authorities. This platform provides scope for up-to-date information and coordination of emergency management of global disaster procedures.

References

Bruns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012, #qldfloods and @QPSMedia: Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods, Arc Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, pp 7-10, viewed 17 September 2015, <http://www.cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf>.

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

Huiji Gao, Geoffrey Barbier, Rebecca Goolsby 2011,“Harnessing the Crowdsourcing Power of Social Media for Disaster Relief,” IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 10-14, viewed 11 January 2016 < http://www.cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf>.

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Nice blog. Very simple and straight to the point! I will admit, I do not pay much attention to how much crowd sourcing is used today but lately with all the damaging storms around it has come in great use for knowing what is going on where.

[theitalianbootinmelbourne-blog]

Week 8 “The Crowd: Sourcing or sifting, that is the question”.

Since the introduction of Social Media, the level of interconnection has seen an increase on a daily basis. More and more people connect to share ideas, clues and news. And what about if someone wants to make some money out of the crowd?

Andrade (2012) pinpoints crowdsourcing as a brisk way to guide higher quality results. This concept can be applied to businesses that are looking at expanding their views but what about if we expand this concept and apply it to help provide an important support for the community? Through the Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2014), crowdsourcing is the exercise to gain contribution from a large group of people mostly from the online community Therefore, in the case of disasters, such bushfire or floods, the benefit of crowdsourcing can help reach that people who are not aware of the situations.

The advent of social media’s platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have changed and boosted the way to report. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) during the Queensland floods took a leap by introducing the hashtag #qldfloods in order to have a profound impact in an emergency situation. (Posetti & Lo, 2012). It is evident how crowdsourcing has introduced a different level of communications amongst people and clearly a different level of support; a new sense of community has been born.

So, do we all think that during a time of crisis, social media can be beneficial? The downside of the social media was highlighted by Duffy (2014) within is article on ABC. Duffy stresses that social media could have obstructed the investigation during the Sydney siege and perhaps could have caused more damage than it did by informing the terrorist of the police movement.

Within the social media community, people might feel overwhelmed with the information available in the online space. Let’s simply think about a fund raising Facebook page. The credibility of that is always questionable, thus leading to sift the crowd and avoid sourcing it.

It can be understood that crowdsourcing can release the creativity in order to generate unlimited options, creates collaborations amongst different group of people, introduces diversity and expand people’s vision. But, on the other side of the coin, the bright and beneficial future offered by crowdsourcing can become a double-blade weapon. Crowdsourcing can interfere with important operations, can bring bad news to someone who is indirectly involved in a crisis or worse can distribute to people the wrong message. So, will you now sift the crowd instead of sourcing it?

References

Andrade, M 2012, ‘Crowd-source’, T+D, vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 52-56.

Duffy, C 2014, ‘Sydney siege: Social media could hamper police operations, being exploited by modern terrorist, expert says’, ABC, viewed 11 January 2016, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/sydney-siegesocial-media-a-liability-says-expert/5971622.

Postetti, J & Lo, P 2012, The Twitterisation of ABCs Emergency & Disaster Communication, Australian Journal of Emergency Management, Vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 34-39.

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Awesome read! I think that social media is beneficial but you should not always take everything you read as being the honest truth and prepare to have an open mind with everything you read. I personally do not like the pages on social media that ask for money because I feel like it is way too easy to be a fake page!  I can see you are not a huge fan of crowd sourcing =)

[kerrellsblog-blog]

The Ugly Troll

Amanda Todd's Alleged Bully Named By Anonymous After Teen's Tragic Suicide I remember when I was younger and only just finding out what the internet was, there did not seem to be any hassles with cyberbullying or trolling then. Might I add that this was around 15 years ago and the internet has advanced in so many ways.

Social media is apart if most peoples lives now as this is a great way to communicate with family and friends across the world, but also is a breeding ground for cyberbullies and trolls. I, myself had not heard of “trolling” until probably the last few years but cyberbullying has been around forever, infact in the recent year I have been  a victim of cyberbully which now looking back was the stupidesy way of loosing a friendship. Cyberbullying and trolling is the easiest way to intimidate, abuse and humiliate others as we are not doing this face-to-face but hiding behind a screen which some people believe may guarantee their safety. This story tells otherwise.....

Amanda Todd death investigation Global BC Final Oct. 12 2012  (YouTube).

An Hactivist group known as Anonymous had tracked down the man who allegedly bullied Amanda Todd, the 15 year old who committed suicide after suffering cyberbullying that led to depression and anxiety (Sieczkowski 2012). Anonymous posted the alleged bullies name,address and even evidence of the man being a pedofile with screenshots, chat messages and even a YouTube video of Todd from year 7. This story is proof that no one is safe behind their screens and cyberbullying can have a huge impact on someone’s life without you even knowing it. 

Words can get taken out of context or people just like starting trouble. The Australian government esafety website has some great facts about cyberbullying and trolling which can be found at www.esafety.gov.au. As much as I think a cyber safety site is a great idea, it would take alot of manpower and dollars to keep it going and keep track of every bullying case in Australia, but in saying that it is a great idea for those seeking assistance.

References

Sieczkowski, C. (2012)  Amanda Todd's Alleged Bully Named By Anonymous After Teen's Tragic Suicide, Huffington post, retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2012/10/16/amanda-todd-bully-anonymous-suicide_n_1969792.html?ir=Australia.

[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>

[thisisclarewright-deactivated20]

I love this blog - thank you for posting! I like that this sample of trolling is “light” compared to other examples of trolling, because as you point out, it shows the reality of cyber bullying as an extension to real life bullying.

From what we are taught of cyber bullying, we know not to respond to the troll. The DJ should not have responded to punter and then none of this would have occurred. However, I believe that the punter should not have written anything negative on the DJs social media page as this was not a forum for opinion.

So I think, on a scale of 1-10, I vote 1 for the DJ.

Clare

[kerrellsblog-blog]

This is great! I overall do not think the DJ was performing a criminal act as I genuinally think the DJ did not care what he wrote and new he would have people backing him up but maybe not to this extreme. I give this a 3 out of 10 for criminal and a 10 out of 10 for douche bag.

kerrell

[arielblogstuff-blog]

Flame the Troll and online prank!

Trolling, flaming, online pranking and cyberbullying are all forms of digital antagonism designed for provocation. Whilst cyberbullying, a form of harassment carried out in a deliberately hostile manner is probably the more mentally afflicting of cyber activity, its affect is largely dependent on framing through cultural and geographic context (McCosker 2014, abstract.) Whilst the ability of cyber antagonism to affect and provoke is dependent on circumstance, the consequences are not necessarily negative.

According to McCosker the highly contextual, relational and active modes of provocation specifically designed to antagonise are often initiated as a game of sorts (2014, p. 202). Trolling for example, those out to intentionally anger or frustrate someone else, may seek an adversary for a bit of, albeit often obtuse, intellectual jousting (Cheezburger 2016). In this way interactions may form participatory modes of agonistic pluralism, democratic sociality, which, to be effective, are always and necessarily contested (McCosker 2014, p. 205). Like two sides of an argument, social platforms and trolling may allow space for passion and contested interactions among adversaries.

Boyd identifies are darker side to the competitiveness of cyber-communicational provocation as vying for social statuses and online prestige. Those victorious amount more popularity through likes, shares and twitter peeps, forms of attention that become commodity (2014 p. 151). The struggle to participate often involves drama, pranks with indefinable values which can be intentionally or accidentally hurtful to others. Often leading to feelings of seclusion, lack of identity support and self-esteem statuses (Boyd, 2014 p. 152). On the flip side, those social-cyber champs may claim shallow victories. Such as YouTube and Instagram sensation Essena O’Neill, amounting over 750 000 followers across the visual based platforms only to give up her royal statuses claiming, ‘she was totally unhappy’ and ‘wasn’t living an authentic life’ (McNeal 2015). Indeed, O’Neill experienced a darker side of social success, forming superficial relationships and identity support predicating a fractured reality.

Whilst there are those critical of the unrestricted moral cyber activity often leaving victims with meagre avenues for retribution on most social platforms. Boyd notes that online forms of antagonism have not radically altered the dynamics of negative communications and intent, rather just made them more famous. This also makes the victims of negative antagonism famous too. Boyd states we must use this visibility not to justify punishment but to recognise who needs help and understand why others engage in acts of meanness and cruelty (Boyd, 2014 p. 152). Burgess and Green cite the work of Drotner (2008) and Jenkins et al. (2006) who identify participation in antagonistic modes of online interactions as experience in criticising media, predicating the 5th estate (McCosker, 2014 p. 203). Identifying criticism as a vehicle for democracy, the freedom to write without fear of retribution.

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.

Cheezeburger 2016, Trolling, Cheezeburger.com, viewed 7th January 2016, http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/trolling

McCosker, A 2014, YouTrolling as provocation: Tube’s agonistics publics, Convergence, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 201-217.

McNeal, S 2015, An 18-Year-Old Instagram Star Says Her “Perfect Life” Was Actually Making Her Miserable, Buzzfeed Inc., Viewed 7th January 2016, http://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/a-teen-instagram-star-is-editing-her-photo-captions-to-show#.ms2Yk1gkR

[thisisclarewright-deactivated20]

Hi Ariel,

It was great to read your blog. It stands out to me as identifying the more positive side of Trolling, by identifying a troll as people who need help. I have never thought of it this way.

This relates to the fact that a cyberbully can easily be found and their actions can be seen by other online users, unlike a real life bully who can often go undetected.

Clare

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Hey Ariel,

Love your blog! it is amazing how people interpret “trolling” now isn’t it. I will admit i have only ever seen people do trolling just to get attention and cause problems and it is frustrating watching everyone fight with this “troll” which is exactly why they are doing it in the first place...to get a reaction out of people...crazy hey!

[theitalianbootinmelbourne-blog]

Week 6: Digital citizenship 2: Activism and protest

Is there a benefit behind that? 

Is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube so powerful that can bring down popular regime or reshape a society? Or that types of Social Media are simply the face of a protest that spreads around the globe and than collapse when a new protest arises?? So, first of all, let’s look at the power of Social Media and where they can spread the message to. Simply, everywhere there is an internet connection. Anyone can see it and be aware of that particular situation. The Invisible Children (2014) describes Joseph Kony, a Uganda leader, as a megalomaniac warlord who kidnapped children to strengthen his army. 

A video (KONY 2012) describes who and what Joseph Kony is. Within the Uganda situation, a social media campaign took place in 2012 under the name of KONY 2012 in order to showcase it to the rest of the world, therefore, looking for help from the other nations. There is the video for you.

Also, Curtis and McCarthy (2014) pinpoint what the outcome of that propaganda had led to the unwanted outcome, thus leaving the warlord free and potentially capable of repeating his cruelty over and over again. Although, the situation in Uganda and within KONY are unclear, the ‘digital activism’ and ‘digital polemic’ generated by the video are simply a milestone for the digital era. Yes, the power of social media tools allowed the rest of the world to be aware of violent authoritarian regime. Although, the the rest of the world was aware of the situation, the outcome was simply the opposite. 

The video did generate almost 21 million of views but did not stop Kony, therefore, creating ‘slacktivism’ such as a form of online support that requires a little time or effort. It can be said that ‘slacktivism’, although is a simple form of supporting a cause with the final outcome that might not be the wanted one, generates awareness of the main matter. And this can be seen with KONY 2012. Although, the issue is still “up and running”, potentially this matter has 21 million of people that are aware of it. So, here is the question: Would slacktivism be beneficial if the issue was a new disease? 

Culture Jamming

 Now, after that, I must touch “Culture Jamming” as it really appeals me. I love marketing and looking for/preparing ads to promote and draw attention. So, having an ad sprayed and altered is not the kind of ‘outcome’ I would like to see. Culture Jamming is a phrase that was popularised by Marc Dery (1990). It can be seen as the disruption of the communications, therefore, altering what the communication is by creating an independent one. During my early life in Milan, Italy, culture jamming was kind of popular, see the pictures I have attached. 

No social media at that time, therefore, just personal artists who believed that the world could learn something different by their different point of vision. Perhaps, that people used to think in a different box. 

 Ciao a tutti!!!

References

Curtis, P, McCarthy, T 2014, ‘Kony 2012: what’s the real story?’, The Guardian, 1 October, viewed 12 December 2015, <http://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/mar/08/kony-2012-what-s-the-story>. 

Dery, M 2010, Culture jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs, Shovelware, viewed 12 December 2015, <http://markdery.com/?page_id=154>. 

Kony 2012, Invisible Children, 5 March, viewed 12 December 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc>. 

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Very interesting that your not a fan of culture jamming. I don’t mind because it is always good to see other peoples point of view on different matters. Whenever i see a sign that has been “defaced” i either have a giggle, have no idea what it means or really think about what the person done. 

[cameronmda20009-blog]

Week 6 Digital Citizenship 2: Activism and protest

WARNING LIKELY TO OFFEND ANYONE 

I love culture jamming, in all of its myriad forms. It is in fact, a favourite hobby of mine to interfere with peoples pictures, or sometimes take some of my own and add a few things, through the wonderful application of the very basic editing tool, Microsoft Paint. Sometimes, if one of the kids has not cleaned their room or have left toys out, I would take a picture and edit it a little and claim that was what the toys were doing while they were at school, the below is an example where my youngest, Bella, brought home someone else’s Care Bear (I don’t want to think about how she got it) from school and left it at home the next day. This is the picture I produced for her of the Care Bear abusing her bear, Man-Bear-Pig.

Now, neither my partner or I smoke, and Bella thinks smoking is disgusting, and funnily enough using it in this manner simply reinforced to her that smoking was bad, the swearing is also an interesting approach we use where the word itself is not banned to her, however she does not use it, ever, because she thinks it is bad. On the down side, when Bella thinks she is being clever she will tell her grandmother that I smoke now. I will note at this point, that you have been warned by the big bold letters at the top of this blog, that it may be offensive. We were, not very long ago, living in South Australia and my partner worked in the council, I received an email from her one day and I decided to redo the email banner and send it back (It was not appreciated at the time, not at all, until much later).

While not on the scale or import of culture jamming today it is still symbolic subversion (Dery 2010) and represents my personal version of “semiological guerrilla warfare” (Dery 2010), and, is representative of the original concept underpinning ‘Billboard Banditry’ which in my opinion, should be a sport. Although these are really for my own entertainment and do not represent any sort of position, the altered media does still “speak back to media” (Bainbridge, Gok & Tynan 2011, pp. 192-193) which is in essence, culture jamming. Some production are much clearer and intent in their vision, specifically targeting recognised social signs in the name of culture jamming, such as the religion of The Flying Spaghetti Monster:

Image sourced (Smith 2011) While amusing, the FSM came about through a frustrated parent being confronted with creationism being taught in a public school alongside Darwin’s theory of evolution (Smith 2011). The parent, Bobby Henderson, then argued that his belief in Intelligent Design focused on a deity composed of pasta, meatballs and sauce, and deserved equal teaching time due to it being equally impossible to prove or disprove the existence of this deity against any other. The FSM church is now a registered religion and continues to ‘culture jam’ religions discourse through its very existence which confronts the biggest flaw in the multiplicity of world religions, that no one can empirically prove the existence of their respective deity.

References

Bainbridge, J Goc N & Tynan L 2011, Media & Journalism, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.

Dery, M 1990, ‘The Merry Pranksters And the Art of the Hoax’, New York Times, 23 December.

Smith, JC 2011, ‘The flying spaghetti monster and the Pastafarian quatrains’, Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 35, no. 5. Pp. 54-56, viewed 8 December 2015, http://ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA265486029&v=2.1&u=swinburne1&it=r&p=AONE&asid=0052e53f0b923f7c710d705515e9ee04

[shivaniielizabeth-blog]

I loved reading this! I love your personal cultural jamming examples and the FSM - I had completely forgotten about it! Great post :)

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Haha your blog was great to read! I never even thought about culture jamming until now and i love how people turn something not significant into something that makes you think all the time!

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Week 6: Activism and protest

We are now able to connect with people in a more powerful way than ever before. Social networking sites allow people to voice their own opinions and be heard by millions. Local activist groups can now use social media platforms as part of their campaigns. ‘Get up” is one example of a digital activist group who gets together to build up Australia for a better future, their website can be found at www.getup.org.au this site allows people to connect through social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. Many activist groups just like ‘Get up’ allows campaigns to create new ways of mobilising protest movements and even social revolution (Swinburne blackboard, week 6, learning materials, 2015).

Another form of Digital citizenship is Culture Jamming. Culture Jamming is subvertisements that are usually targeted at consumers themselves or large corporation which often makes people think about what they are buying or looking at (Urbanist, 2015). 

How often have you been walking down the street and notice all the signs and symbols that bombard your vision? It seems as though we live in a society that is dominated by visual information however, the cultural, political and commercial symbols are worth rethinking on a regular basis.

Less common but just as powerful are political forms of culture jamming just like the ones above. These examples are everyday symbols and signs that people would not normally think twice about. Changing their meaning becomes extraordinary and take on much more significance than what was expected.

Hmmm!

References

Swinburne Online 2015, Swinburne blackboard Week 6: Digital citizenship-Activism and protest.

Urbanist 2015, Signs of our times: Social and political culture jamming, Web Urbanist, viewed 11 December 2015, <http://weburbanist.com/2007/10/08/culture-jamming-political-commercial-and-social-signs-of-our-times/>

[tiarnasaur-deactivated20160706]

Week 5 – Digital Citizenship – Politics & Civics cultures

Politics and digital citizenship both now play a major interconnected role. With the digital world now helping communicate and campaign for these political parties and members.

The use of social media has been seen to have a great effect for the recognition of politics with voters of all ages alike (Young, 2010). It could be seen that social media has had a positive shift in connecting younger people with politics. It’s especially shown with the online creation of ‘young’ political parties which often communicate and organise events through social media. This presence also has a negative effect for those who do not want to participate in this active politics culture when it can sometimes be thrust in their face by enthusiastic friends inviting them to events that you may not possibly care about – (talking from firsthand experience here!). This enthusiasm often creates the opposite, with people unfriending those with political affiliations. Whether or not you see politics being on Facebook as a good thing it certainly has made an impact and has raised awareness.

The success of politics through exposure on social media is somewhat mixed. If you are already a publicly liked figure you will do well regardless but if you are disliked or unknown there will be a great struggle for them. This is increasingly the case with older political candidates who don’t quite know how to use the digital world to their advantage and often do themselves more harm than good. Comments made or posted on social media are often a sticking point for a lot of people and if there is a mistake made with one comment most people will remember the comment and scrutinise the person for making the comment even if the context was not present.

The way the world is evolving is requiring politicians and people of political backgrounds to become involved in social media to raise awareness of the cause. The less a politician uses social media the less they are recognised by tech savvy people whereas the more a politician uses social media the more they are recognised.

Take Nationals NSW leader Mike Baird’s Back to the Future day video for example.

By joining social media many users are leaving themselves open to criticism and scrutiny. There is no filter for people to not receive abusive posts so many politicians will have to face this if they join the social media revolution. This is an unfortunate aspect of politics and social media as many people will vent their frustrations through a computer screen with the politician being the target of the abuse.

Although social media has now been around for a while it can still provide a new way to conduct politics and possibly even elections!

References

Young, S 2010, ‘News, political reporting and the internet’, in How Australia Decides, Cambridge University Press, Victoria, Australia.

[thisisclarewright-deactivated20]

I agree with your comments on social media having a positive effect connecting younger people with politics. I love your example of the negative effects of politics which you have experienced first hand in regards to friends expressing their opinions on social media sights - I love this because I can relate!

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Totally agree with your comment about older politicians not knowing alot about social media so it sometimes does them more harm than good. How many times have we seen a story behind an incriminating picture when maybe it is not exactly what it seems...

[theitalianbootinmelbourne-blog]

Week 5: Politics and civil cultures

The growing relationship between political campaigns and social media allows a 24/7 media cycle. That’s it, let’s say it. If the previous styles of campaigns were solely debates on TV around dinner time or just after, nowadays a campaign can hit the spectators for the all day without a break. ABC with its article “Is social media changing the way politics works” underlines the 24/7 media cycle and how the benefit of using different social media platform can be a form of accessibility towards a plateau of potential followers. Therefore, sending the message to whoever is engaging on that particular platform. But, it is not only “being online” the real connection that politics are looking for. Bondi (2013) keeps a closer look at the “likes” of potential candidates for Illinois, US. She actually debates how popular can a person be if that person is not engaging with the public.

Could it be a tactic from political parties to engage a younger population? Or simply, the world is evolving with its social media, therefore, politics have to evolve too? There is clearly food for thoughts here, but the reality is: Is the politic job to look good at the eyes of the younger people even though the politic is conducting an obsolete program? Muffitt (2015) underlines how young people do not want to vote, based on the fact that politics are not addressing their issue. So, here the twist. Social media is only a façade of a politic that has to stay abreast of generational changes.

Social media and politics have been around for almost a decade. The recent “negative” success of Abbott’s social media campaign helped develop a video in which Abbott’s proposal of National Broad Band (NBN). Waters (2013) discussed about it as one of the ten best social media event in 2013, positioning it at 7. Social media is a powerful tool that, although is crucial for politics to reach a greater crowd, is also detrimental for their job. The negativity that social media can have on politics is far greater than the positivity. Perhaps, it is much easier to pick on negative aspects than the positive ones.

References:

ABC (2013), ‘Is social media changing the way politics works?’, ABC, 30 July, viewed 06 December 2015, http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/07/30/3814292.htm.

Bondi, M (2013), ‘How Many People Actually ‘Like’ the 2014 Candidates?’, The Huffington Post, 11 June, viewed 06 December 2015, < http://www.huffingtonpost.com/madison-bondi/how-many-people-actually-_b_4227390.html?ir=Australia>.

Muffitt, E (2015), ‘Young people don’t vote because politics is stupid, not us’, The Telegraph, 15 January, viewed 06 December 2015, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11346325/Young-people-dont-vote-because-politics-is-stupid-not-us.html.

Reality Check 2013, Abbott’s Internet, 25 August, viewed 06 December 2015, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmD-uFgcvbU>.

[kerrellsblog-blog]

Hey loved your blog on this weeks topic. I think the world is evolving with its social media rather than politics using social media. Everyone is so reliant on social media these days that i think even the politicians would go crazy without it =)