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[v-marshall-mda20009-blog]

Gaming: the newly-found benefits

Week 10: Social gaming - playing the crowd

With up to 65 percent of gaming now social, it seems like the “loner game” is long gone (Fiegi, 2011). Nowadays, computer games can be played either online or in the same room with friends and family (Fiegi, 2011). 

In May 2014, Siegal reported 34 million core gamers in the United States alone, with each gamer spending approximately 22 hours every week playing video games (Siegal, 2014). For online multiplayer games like FarmVille and World of Warcraft, gaming rules and boundaries are reinforced to establish a field of interaction - competitive, social, cultural and commercial exchange (de Zwart & Humphreys, 2014, p.77). 

Gaming has traditionally come under fire for its ability to cause social exclusion and exposure to violent media. However, recent studies have gone to show that playing games with people can provide to have health and social benefits, such as increasing trust and the ability to collaborate with others (Fiegi, 2011).

So as gaming continues to combine our real and virtual worlds, how healthy can gaming really be?

There have been endless studies on the negative sides of gaming including addiction, depression, aggression, social exclusion and intellectual laziness. However, new research is shedding light on the social and psychological benefits of gaming and the importance of a more balanced perspective. 

According to a review of research in ‘American Psychologist’, ‘playing video games, including violent shooter games, may boost children’s learning. health and social skills’ (Bowen, 2014). The review also credited gaming for helping to improve problem-solving skills, building resilience in the face of failure and other cognitive skills such as ‘spatial navigation, reasoning, memory and perception’ (Bowen, 2014).

So it can be argued - if antisocial games are believed to cause to antisocial behaviour, then perhaps playing prosocial games can lead to prosocial behaviour? A recent study published in the Journal of Psychology and Social Psychology, found that participants who had just participated in a prosocial game compared to individuals who had played a neutral game were ‘more likely to engage in helpful behaviours such as picking up a box of pencils spilled by the experimenter or agreeing to volunteer to take part in additional research without any further compensation’ (Rutledge, 2010). 

For an old soul like myself, I personally value experiences that I can share with friends in real time. However, as our society becomes more and more technology based, it’s important that we understand and value the positive, social and communal aspects of gaming. To quote Isabela Granic, PhD of Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands, “if playing video games simply makes people happier, this seems to be a fundamental emotional benefit to consider” (Bowen, 2014). 

References:

Bowen, L 2014, Video game play may provide learning, health, social benefits, review finds, American Psychological Association, vol. 45, no. 2, p.10.

Fiegi, A 2011, Jane McGonigal on how computer games make you smarter, Smithsonian Magazine, viewed 17 January 2016, <http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/jane-mcgonigal-on-how-computer-games-make-you-smarter-22964/?no-ist>. 

Fogerty, E 2016, Are there any social aspects or benefits to children’s video games?, viewed 31 January 2016, <http://comm482.weebly.com/erin-fogerty-final-paper.html>. 

Routledge, C 2010, The social benefits of video gaming, Psychology Today, viewed 31 January 2016, <https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/more-mortal/201006/the-social-benefits-video-gaming>. 

Siegal, J 2014, This is how much time the average gamer spends playing games every week, BGR, viewed 17 January 2016, <http://bgr.com/2014/05/14/time-spent-playing-video-games/>. 

Zwart, M & Humphreys, S 2014, The lawless frontier of deep space: code as law in EVE online, Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, p. 77-99.

#mda20009 #gaming #computer #virtual #addiction #benefits #social

[krisosullivan]

I’m also not a huge gamer online - intact, i don’t even think I have any gaming apps on my phone.  It’s interesting to see how many people really do interact games online. I am always getting notifications on Facebook saying “So and so has invited you to play Candy Crush!” - Personally, I think - who has the time?!

[theresesollazzo-blog]

Week 10: Social gaming: playing the crowd

This week I am bit of a fish out of water - When it comes to gaming I really haven’t a clue since the days of Nintendo 64! Therefore trying to understand this week’s readings on Eve Online was a bit challenging with no context, so like with anything foreign these days I ‘goggled’ it and a whole lot of spaceships came up! I’m sorry if you’re a gamer reading this. You probably just cringed… But if Penny can do it and beat Sheldon too, then there is still hope for me!

Particular characteristics of online games in facilitating digital communities and online publics can be defined by their type of massively multiple online role-playing games (MMORPGs), which are online games that are capable of supporting large numbers of players simultaneously in the same instance, or world (Technopedia 2014). 

So MMORPGs are ‘video games’ that allow hundreds or thousands of simultaneous players, on a PSP, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DSi - providing they are connected to the Internet! Right?

In exploring some of the processes of forming rules and norms (and breaking them) - or ‘codes of practice’ within online gaming communities,  de Zwart and Humphreys’ article discusses that a typical MMOG such as EVE will involve layers of overlapping and potentially conflicting rule sets. The law, norms, architecture and the market are all factors that can affect the regulation, as present in the governance of MMO game EVE. In breaking the rules, this reading mentions that players learn to play with and against the code, and it is this tension between control and creativity that keeps the game space interesting (de Zwart and Humphreys 2014, p.79)

The growing popularity for MMOs I think is an implication of these cases for how we can understand digital communities more broadly.  From what I have understood, your traditional single player games as a result are being developed into multi-player online games, with their own digital communities, that can include anything from ranking charts to their own official gaming events. Digital communities have reinvented the gaming world by connecting players from all over the world and as a result the gaming industry has exploded. Massively Multiplayer Online Games have now grown into 15 distinct categories:

MMORPG: MMO Role Playing Games – Harry Potter

MMOBA: MMO Battle Arena – League of Legends

MMORTS: MMO Real Time Strategy Games – Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, War of Legends

MMOFPS: MMO First Person Shooter Games – Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament, Halo, Planetside

MMOSG(sports): MMO Sports Games – FIFA, Pro-Evolution Soccer

MMOR: MMO Racing Games – Need for Speed, Drift City, Project Torque

MMORG/MMODG: MMO Rythm/Music Games or MMO Dancing Games – Dance Dance Revolution, Audition Online

MMOMG: MMO Management Games – The Sims Online, Monopoly City Streets, Virtonomics

MMOSG(social): MMO Social Games – Second Life, Club Caribe, Everquest, Dotsoul, Furcadia

MMOBBG/MMOBBRPG: MMO Bulletin Board Games or MMO Bulletin Board Role Playing Games – Quest For Magic, BladeMaster

MMOPG: MMO Puzzle Games – Three Rings, Puzzle Pirates

MMOCCG: MMO Collectible Card Games – Magic:The Gathering Online, Alteil, Astral Masters, Astral Tournament

MMO alternate reality games – Second Life

MMO Turn based Strategy Games – Ultracorps, Darkwind:War on Wheels

MMO Simulation Games: Equilibrium/Arbitrage, The Sims Online, Jumpgate

Apparently what makes MMOGs so addictive is the sense of meaningfully interacting with thousands of people halfway across the globe. Games like the World War II create an actual war-like simulation, while those like FIFA or Pro-Evolution Soccer reproduce an entire Soccer stadium virtually. And for a non-gamer like me, I think that’s pretty cool! (Germino 2013)

On that note I would like to conclude my last blog entry on a positive note. I have really enjoyed keeping this blog. It’s been a great way to share my learnings and interact with other students and I hope reading has been just as enjoyable for you.

Therese 

Germino J,  2013, 16 Different Types of Massively Multiplayer (MMO) Online Games,  Dragon Blogger, accessed 29/1/16 

What is Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG)? - Definition from Techopedia, accessed 29/1/16

De Zwart, Melissa and Humphreys, Sal. The lawless frontier of deep space: Code as law in EVE online [online]. Cultural Studies Review, Vol. 20, No. 1, Mar 2014: 77-99. Availability: <http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=225934593111540;res=IELAPA> ISSN: 1446-8123. [cited 29 Jan 16].

[v-marshall-mda20009-blog]

Wow! I had no idea there was so many Massively Multiplayer Online Games categories! It certainly is a world of its own, one I admit I’ve never really explored. But I do see the benefits of being able to interact with people from all over the globe. I look forward to seeing how virtual gaming worlds expand…it’s crazy to think of where we will be in ten years time with the current technological advances. Truly amazing. I too have enjoyed keeping this blog - great work & congrats on finishing! :)

[krisosullivan]

Wow - all of those categories! Myself, like Tori had no idea how many there were! It’s a little crazy to think about all of the changes in the technological world that have happened in front of our very own eyes - a lot of which we aren’t even aware of! Great blogpost. 

[krisosullivan]

Week 11 - Behind the Great Firewall of China

Before we begin, I encourage each of you to look at the follow short youtube clip which will provide a brief introduction to this weeks topic.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X92RKBE-KVY The statistics provided in this video left me dumbfounded at how a country where our most popular social network platforms are banned, still remain the highest number of internet users and people who interact with social media than anyone else in the world. The use of ‘Microblogging’ seems to be similar to our social media platforms, though it seems incredible to imagine not having Facebook or YouTube at all!  With over 532,000,000 Chinese people interacting over different forms of instant messaged at any one time, it is clear that they have found ways to overcome the ‘Great Fiewall of China’. An example of this is the Microblogging as mentioned above, where people are able to bypass current ‘banned’ sites to post feelings, photos, interests etc - just like Facebook does! Infact, 84% of internet users in China either use Microblogs, or contribute to Video sharing (presumedly through the same platform).  IP blocking has also become popular in China which enables a user to have their IP re-routed to somewhere else in the world so it is not known where they are attempting to access the internet from. This is not uncommon and has been seen here in Australia, with many Netflix users attempting to block their IP addresses in order to obtain the US version of Netflix.  Though this may seem like a good idea, there any many people employed by the Chinese Government to stop this from happening, all of which are very aware of the current trends and are masked with the task to stop this from happening.  Does it seem a little unfair that one of the most advanced and populated countries in the world don’t have the freedom to access what they want?  Personally, I think its a hard question to ask. I’ve never been to China and I am sure their society functions fine without access to these types of social, though I think dictating what a population can and can’t do is wrong and violates civil rights. In saying that, I have grown up with social media and couldn’t imagine a world without it - so maybe I am a little bias. 

[krisosullivan]

WEEK 10: “Social Gaming - Playing the Crowd”

Gaming is most definitely not a ‘new’ thing in society, with first handheld gaming devices hitting the market in 1979 (Melson 2006). Since then, the gaming industry has grown dramatically, not only in handheld devices and consoles - but also online via social media. Think about the amount of times you have logged onto your Facebook account and had an invitation from one of your friends to play a game - wether it be ‘farmville’, ‘candy crush’ or the latest version of ‘cut the rope’. Chances are you’ve had this happened to you at least once. In order to receive these invitations, your friend must be activitely playing this game regularly and believee me, they are not alone with over 11.8 million daily users of Candy Crush alone in 2015 (Statista 2015). 

A lucrative market, that has bought companies like Zynga, the makers of Candy Crush tens of millions of dollars over their lifespan and continues to grow, with an increase of 24% in 2015 alone.  In 2006, Facebook opened their platforms for online gaming, which can be said to have assisted with Facebook’s growth to 1.25billion users. This increase in number can be attributed to societies want of playing their friends on something that is user friendly, simple yet entertaining. Each successful game, like the ones mentioned above have all of these characteristics.  Have a think, do you play games via social media? What really ropes you into playing? Is it the entertainment, or is it the competitiveness? References Melanson 2006, ‘A Brief History of Handheld Games, Engadget, Accessed 27th January 2016, Available at <http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/a-brief-history-of-handheld-video-games/> Unknown 2015, ‘Facebook’s most popular Games’, Statistica, Accessed 27th January 2016, Available at <http://www.statista.com/statistics/267003/most-popular-social-games-on-facebook-based-on-daily-active-users/>

[theresesollazzo-blog]

Week 8: Crowdsourcing in times of crisis. #qldfloods, #prayforparis and #banjir

Traditionally, emergency information has been distributed via radio, TV and as shown below with communal boards for community and tourists. 

Nowadays, with the advent of social media and digital apps, crisis communication has improved, especially around the speed of communication and its effective ‘cut through.’ Crowdsourcing in times of crisis allows alerts of danger to reach its immediate audience as well as be passed along and thus amplified many times over. As seen with #qldfloods, Twitter users became further information disseminators, especially at the height of the crisis. In addition, tweets containing situational information and advice, pointers to news media stories and multimedia updates, how to help or donate funds, were particularly “resonant” on social media.  (Bruns et. al, 2012, pp. 7-10).

When a Qantas Airbus A380 had to make an emergency landing in Singapore last year, passengers Tweeting pictures of damage to the plane at a time when the airline were still saying they were unaware of any damage. We live in a world where not even the US Special Forces, never mind corporations, have the power to control the speed at which news travels (Morris 2015). 

According to Morris, social media doesn’t change, but instead underlines, the basic rules of crisis communications. But the speed at which crises can travel in a digital age means you need to be fully prepared and have a plan ready to implement.

Since the Queensland floods more and more people have looked to social media in times of crisis, including the recent Paris terrorist attacks.  During this time, Facebook activated its Safety Check tool, which allowed users in the Paris area and affected by the attacks to mark themselves or others as ‘safe’. No statistics are available currently to track and measure Safety Check’s role in these attacks. (Goel & Ember 2015) Twitter statistics available show,  The hashtag #prayforparis,  was very popular, with 6.7 million posts in 10 hours. And the hashtag #StrandedInUS gained a lot of traction in the United States to help French people whose flights had been canceled (Goel & Ember 2015). 

Interestingly, Jakarta is flooded with information during disasters and the Indonesian capital is also the world’s most active Twitter city- however the value of social media as a disaster response in Indonesia is mostly discounted. According to iRevolution, ‘ actionable information on rising flood levels could somehow be gleaned from millions of tweets in real-time, these reports could be inaccurate or completely false. Besides, only 3% of tweets on average are geo-located, which means any reliable evidence of flooding reported via Twitter is typically not actionable—that is, unless local residents and responders know where waters are rising, they can’t take tactical action in a timely manner.” A report is considered verified when a confirmed geo-tagged tweet includes a picture of the flooding, like in the tweet below. These confirmed and verified tweets get automatically mapped and also shared with Jakarta’s Emergency Management Agency (Meier 2015).

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 13 January 2015, <http://www.cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf>.

Morris, S, 2015, Using Digital and Social Media During a Crisis, The Quarterly: The Digital Edition, viewed 13 January 2015, http://www.portland-communications.com/publications/the-quarterly-issue-4/using-digital-and-social-media-during-a-crisis/

Meier, P 2015, iRevolution, viewed 13 January 2015 , <http://irevolution.net/>.

Goel V & Ember S 2015,  As Paris Terror Attacks Unfolded, Social Media Tools Offered Help in Crisis, The New York Times, viewed 13 January 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/technology/as-paris-terror-attacks-unfolded-social-media-tools-offered-help-in-crisis.html?_r=0

[v-marshall-mda20009-blog]

You have brought up a very valid point of the verification of reports. While crowdsourcing tools like Facebook and Twitter can be extremely beneficial for crisis communication and emergency management, we mustn’t ignore the repercussions of falsely reported and unverified information when it comes to life and death. 

[krisosullivan]

I think its important that you mentioned how all of this can happen in ‘real time’. Within a matter of seconds of something happening, it can be spread via social media - which could drastically change the outcome of a situation. On the other side of this, it is also important to note that not all information can be regarded as ‘reliable’ and should be evaluated before being taken on face value. Great post! 

[krisosullivan]

Week 9 - Crowd Sourcing in times of crisis

As seen with the QLD bush fires and events like the Sydney Siege, crowd sourcing can really help authorities to gain more information about a particular subject or event. Crowd-sourcing can be seen from two perspectives;  1) obtaining valuable information from the public in real time  or 2) obtaining information that may be misinformed, misleading or may be provided by a person with an agenda.  Each of these should be considered when looking at an event or subject when crowd sourcing has been used. Is it reliable? Is this person bias? Where has this information actually come from? For more information on crowd-sourcing, please look at a presentation that another student and myself created: https://prezi.com/tsbeslr1ai3a/crowd-sourcing-in-times-of-crisis/ 

[newblogger42-blog]

Digital Communities: Week 8

Finding People on the Street: Crowdsourcing in Times of Crisis

No longer is it just the marketing professionals that look to social media to find out what their customers want.  As discussed in this week’s topic, governments and emergency response departments are using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and specifically designed software applications such as Ushahidi, to source, disseminate information and make decisions about a crisis (Swinburne Week 8 2016).

Merriam Webster (Swinburne Week 8 2016) describes crowdsourcing as a way to obtain information from a large group of people of the online community who make contributions to services, ideas or content.  These groups contribute in real time, allowing organisations to keep up to date almost instantly.

However, there are possible negatives to this type of data collection which can also hinder the process, such as false claims and information being given. Or there is a technological breakdown.  Tierney (2014) relays the story of Hurricane Sandy when it hit New York City and how power outages and other telecommunication damages hindered the process of crowdsourcing through people right in the heart of the disaster.  Authorities then needed to rely on images and posts from others not affected by the outages to gather information about the disaster, but this in itself can pose problems.

Ushahidi, a social mapping platform, allows citizen journalists to post reports regarding human rights campaigns, something that has opened up doors for other humanitarian rights organisations.  However, Ford (2012) also states that although platforms like Usahidi allow people to be more organised and engaged with others that share the same views on humanitarian rights, there is a need to verify information that is posted for authenticity.  Something all organisations utilising these types of platforms should perhaps consider.

References

Ford, H 2012, ‘Crowd Wisdom’, Index on Censorship, SAGE Journals, Vol 41(4), p33-39, viewed 11 January 2016, <http://ioc.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/content/41/4/33.full>

Swinburne 2016, ‘Week 8: Crowdsourcing in Times of Crisis’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Swinburne University of Technology, Learning Materials on Blackboard, 11 January, viewed 11 January 2016.

Tierney, TF 2014, ‘Crowdsourcing Disaster Response: Mobilizing Social Media for Urban Resilience’, European Business Review, 9 July, viewed 11 January 2016, <http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/?p=4911>

Images

Socialbrite 2012, ‘How crowdsourcing can help your nonprofit’, [image], viewed 11 January 2016, <http://www.socialbrite.org/2012/08/29/how-crowdsourcing-can-help-your-nonprofit/>

[krisosullivan]

I like how you have looked at the negatives of crowd-sourcing because there sure is quite a few! It’s a little hard to say that is all negative, or positive for that manner - though I completed understand how obtaining information off people who may have another agenda, or are simply uninformed can end dangerously! Let’s hope we don’t see too much of this in the future as crowd-sourcing becomes more prevalent in society.

[krisosullivan]

Week 9 - Visual Communities & Social Imaging

Before we start, I want each of you to consider the amount in which you interact via social media with images. This doesn’t just mean having a profile picture on Facebook, this includes instagram, tumblr and most recently, SnapChat. When you are out for a meal and it looks incredible, is the firs thing you do reach for your phone and send a snapchat, or upload it to instagram? In previous times, photographs were used to capture special moments such as family portraits, holidays and the occasional photo taken at an unpredictable time - capturing a special moment that was reflected upon years down the track. Nowadays, with the advancement of camera technology on all smart phones and portable digital cameras, photos are taken at all kinds of events which are promptly sent or uploaded via social media to provide a visual image of what or where somebody is. This bringing the definition of personal photography to change, ‘those photographic practices and images that are inextricably part of personal life – whether the individual taking pictures, the images we use to represent ourselves, the pictures we collect or display for ourselves, or the sharing of pictures with others as part of personal communication’ (Martin Hand, 2012, p. 5).

The main point to look at within the definition is the word ‘communication’. Personal photography is no longer about taking a photograph to capture a particular time period or memory, it is now a way of communication. They say a picture tells 1000 words, is that what it has become? I’d say yes, it has become an era where we communicate with each other via images. We choose to take photos of our food and send to 15 friends on snapchat, which is essentially telling them that you are out eating, this is what you are eating and how fantastic it looks. Through tagging of people and places, we are also communicating to others who we are with and where we are. 

As the popularity of communication through images grew, the images and types of images grew with them. The introduction of ‘selfie’, also known as a self portrait taken by the subject at arms length grew in itself, it is irregular to go out to a bar or nightclub and not see somebody take a ‘selfie’. We have been described as the ‘selfie’ era, and I don’t think that’s inaccurate at all. ‘Selfies’ matched with the latest ‘filter’, which changes the colours and tones of a photo to enhance the quality and look of photo have become a wide spread phenomenon - to point where it is slightly expected that if somebody is doing something exciting, different or is looking good, a photo is expected and embraced by friends, family and people you may not even know! Is it a bad thing? I don’t think so. Does it make society a little more superficial ? Probably. Will this phase of snapping everything die out? Who knows. What I do know is that whilst there is a call for it, companies will continue to develop new and exciting ways to share these images, to provide the best possible look for user and create a higher anxiety among society that they must be looking in top form all the time. 

[krisosullivan]

Digital Citizenship 3: Trolling and Social Media Conflict

As with anything, when a huge number of people become involved in something, each with their own attitudes, opinions and belief systems - there will be conflict. This is no different to social media. Social media, being used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide can be a breeding ground for bullying, harassment and a new term of ‘trolling’. Though it is difficult to have a simplistic definition of ‘trolling’ due social media’s ever-changing landscape, it is essentially when somebody bullies, abuses, demeans or jokes in a rude manner about or to another person.  As users of social media are getting younger, when this kind of conflict occurs, it is taken very seriously by parents, schools and employees. All different types of organisations and educational instates had to quickly create a social media code of practice to ensure that all people involved were aware of what is and isn’t acceptable on social media.  It is a shame that social media is sometimes depicted as a dark place, where people are constantly bullied and made to feel worthless. When you look at all of the positives that social media has bought to the world, does it seem a little extreme to put the small amount of ‘trolling’ on a pedestal? Of course, it is horrible that anybody gets bullied, particularly online as it can remain in the existence for a much longer time, however, it is important to consider the age of the groups that are generally associated with this trolling.  Teenagers, no matter where they are, are growing up, going through puberty and have all different kinds of emotions running through their bodies and minds. This is going to lead to different types of conflict, wether it be online or not. As said by in ‘It’s Complicated’, ‘Social media has not radically altered the dynamics of bullying, but it has made these dynamics more visible to more people. We must use this visibility, not to justify increased punishment, but to help youth who are actually crying out for attention. Blaming technology or assuming that conflict will disappear if technology usage is minimized is naive’. (boyd 2014, p. 152). We also need to consider the other end of spectrum when looking at bullying, it is becoming quite regular to see videos uploaded to YouTube and Facebook that show a person bullying another and somebody standing up to them for what they are saying or doing. An example of this was only last week, when a lady on a Sydney train refused to have a man sit next to her, when she became abusive and used threatening behaviour. Another man then intervened to before being threatened with a weapon, controlled the situation. This video has been watched over 500,000 times with many messages of support to the man who stood up to diffuse the situation.  Is trolling and online harassment as prevalent as what we are made to believe? Do we really see much bullying occurring on our own social media pages? For me, I think not. I rarely see online bullying. Wether that is because I am out of my teens or not, I am not sure - all I do know is that social media for me simply brings people together to communicate, share ideas and inform.

[krisosullivan]

Digital Citizenship 2: Activism and Protest

Digital Citizenship is often referred to as the benefit that society is given from new digital technologies or social media tools and their ‘ability to facilitate the membership and participation of individuals in society’ (Mossberger etal 2008, p. 1). This can come in many forms, however, one of the most popular, as previously discussed is societies involvement in politics via their own social media interactions. It is possible to now ‘follow’ a politician to obtain a broader view of their lives, intentions and attributes - something that was not previously possible unless meeting them face-to-face.  This new world of social media has allowed us to build and sustain communities with less concern about geographical location, allows more people to have a voice/opinion, use these opinions to discuss/move against powerful people/parties, present views in a logical and legitimate manner and reduces barriers for those wishing to participate in an online discussion. Social media has also allowed for groups to protest online, creating a notion than can prove to be bigger than one person writing a letter. Large organisations like Greenpeace and change.org use social media and other online tools to inform societies about the work that they do, encouraging other members of these societies to participate. This way to spreading knowledge is a fantastic movement for organisations like the ones mentioned above as it is cost effective, informative, provides further reach and allows people to actively participate in their cause. As they say, ‘there is power in numbers’! Culture Jamming is another movement that, although has been around for a long time, has taken a different form in social media. Essentially, culture jamming is using existing media to comment on media itself, as well as political and social issues in the world. You only have to go onto the streets of any major CBD to see one type of culture jamming; street art or graffiti. Although many see this as vandalism, a large proportion of these works have a clear message they wish to get across, wether it be about the rich taking from the poor, the latest government scandal or a personal opinion on the running of a society.  As well as culture jamming, we are beginning to see slacktivism and clictivism in social media. This is a type of activism that has no real long lasting effect on the world, however, has a clear message that a person and/or people wish to make known.  An example of this was in 2012, when the “Kony 2012″ campagin began. It’s aim was to have Joseph Kony arrested for the atrosities he had been involved in, in Uganda. Hundreds of thousands of people jumped on board this campaign, ran mainly by social media in order to have him arrested. Though public interest was high and many people rallied for this arrest, 3 years later he is still at large. This particular campaign, although its aim was not met, gave the world population the feeling of control, that they were making a difference. It is likely that these types of campaigns will become more prevalent in the future. With all of this in mind, is social media controlling our lives, or is it allowing us to have more control over ourselves and our world?    

[holledgeh93-blog]

Week 5 Concepts: Political identities on social network! #mda20009

Concepts. Politics. Not to worry fellow bloggers and reading folk I will aim to not bore you with politics. Politics and global leaders are using social network platforms to their advantage and our advantage. The awesome trait that social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram etc adopt is that us the ‘public’ can voice our opinions on world leading topics and arguments and discuss them in forums and live chats. We will post on these platforms who we hate and who we love, expressing both emotions and arguments towards our much loved politicians and their movements. Us Australian’s thrive on taking the s#!t out of pollies. It’s even better when they have disturbing facial features as large noses, red hair, big ears and one of them who constantly wears the most unpopular swimming clothing piece dubbed as the “budgie smugglers”. Many pollies are using this to their advantage. Whether it would be a good or bad publicity it is publicity for them and increases their chances of becoming one with “us”. YouTube is an excellent product of social networking for this particular reason. Pollies can post their videos of support, opinions, arguments and sometimes satire vines. The youth of the globe is the ‘public’ sector that spends most of their time on these networking platforms. We will as members of the youth express about politicians and global issues. We as youth are the next generation. We will as a group will drive these conversations and will be able to connect to the pollies. This is so important for these budding leaders and there budding chances of winning our hearts and mind. Let’s go back to twenty years ago where there was no Facebook, YouTube or even Google for that matter. Young voters wouldn’t have much of a clue on who to vote for and what they are actually voting ‘for’. Now day’s we can make a decision via these posts that are relating to politics. These days we have a much better idea and we supposedly know who we are voting for and what we are voting ‘for. This is the power of amateur political comment. As an example “During the 2008 US Presidential Campaign comedians poking fun at candidates quickly appeared on YouTube. Tina Fey’s Saturday Night Live Impersonation of Sarah Palin created more attention and more hits than any of Palin’s YouTube clips”. Pollies and YouTube for the win!

[krisosullivan]

I couldn’t agree more with your comment ‘we as youth are the next generation’. We really are and to think that we have all this information at our fingertips, to me, is a step in the right direction. It allows us to make better judgement calls - or at least have a laugh at what these politicians are doing!

[krisosullivan]

Digital Citizenship - Politics and civil cultures

One of the positives of having such a social media driven world is the increased interest that has occurred towards politics and democracy. When it comes to voting time, we are inundated with political propaganda from various political parties, all hoping to obtain that special vote that you hold. Take a second to think, have you noticed politicians becoming increasingly active on all forms of social media? It first started in the US, where YouTube was used to connect millions of people to information about their views, intended policies and political stance. In the political ‘dog-eat-dog’ world, these videos were used to rope in the younger generation who previously did not interact with politics due to the lack of widespread awareness that they had. Social media, not limited to YouTube, but also twitter, Facebook and even instagram, has connected the younger voters with political candidates or political parties - all whom are hoping to score an extra vote.  In Australia, the Labour and Liberal party have a heavy presence on Facebook, allowing members of society to be aware of current reforms, policies and individual candidates that they are vying for. Our current Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull has a Facebook page that posts updates each day to his 250,000+ followers. Tony Abbott has nearly half a million followers. The Liberal Party itself has over 240,000 followers. This shows that the major Australian political parties and personalities have followed in the US’ footsteps and are using social media to connect with the younger population. It is important to say that although a person has half a million followers does not mean that they are more likely to be voted in - it simply proves there is an interest in this particular person, wether it be positive or negative.  I ask you to consider, do you think is it a good thing that we have our Prime Minister on Facebook? Personally, I don’t see an issue with it. If there is an interest in a person or party, why shouldn’t they be able to advertise over Facebook, YouTube or Twitter? My only concern is that these pages are full of bias information that ensures the person or party is depicted in a positive light. This pages are aimed to advertise, not necessarily to inform. It is with this that society must take a level headed approach when viewing this information and consider, why are they telling me this? Is this really what is happening? Am I being told just what I want to hear to get a vote? If we can use our judgement, I say - why not follow your favourite politician or party!

[riceage-blog]

MDA20009 - Digital Communities Blog #1

Week 1

The introduction to Digital Communities was brief yet potent. Setting up an important framework for what the next eleven weeks will entail. To instantly put the realities of Social Media in perspective we are confronted with some pretty amazing statistics:

-       If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s third largest in population, trailing China & India (The Social Media Revolution [video], 2014)

-       Facebook added over 200 million users in less than a year (The Social Media Revolution [video], 2014)

Following on from this, Sherry Turkle discussed concerns we should all be aware of as the world becomes more connected. A specific quote that resonated was: “Being alone feels like a problem that needs to be solved” (Connected But Alone? 2013). Turkle perfectly summarises a new disorder that current generations are facing. Disconnection from the real-world and reliance on the digital, means any time spent away from social connectivity induces panic and seems to require a solution.

Week 2

This week focussed on different social theorists and their perspectives on sociality. Ferdinand Tonnies was perhaps the first sociologist to focus on the idea of society and communities. He distinguished two forms of sociality after examining what kept a society together even though most people are strangers to each other. The critical bonds he found are summarised as:

Community (Gemeinshaft)

-       Associations we seek out of our own choice

-       Friends, neighbourhood groups, voluntary groups & family

-       Bonds that are based on affection (Swinburne University of Technology 2015)

Society (Gesellshaft)

-       Formed through rational will; such as leading to certain goals

-       Membership to state as a citizen

-       Member of company; bought together through purpose of profit (Swinburne University of Technology 2015)

Modern sociologist, Cass Sunstein, voices an interesting point regarding social media, stating the consistently customized information one receives in a digital environment leads to an egocentric world (Siapera, E 2012, p. 195). Sociality that is created via user preference, therefore blocking the negative, creates a distorted sense of community. Dealing with conflict of opinion and having interactions with difficult people are crucial to self-development and a working society.  

Week 3

Week 3 involved an interesting comparison of two very different social media platforms; Reddit & Twitter. Dealing in anonymity, Reddit (in particular the discussed sub-reddit r/gonewild) is a place where people can communicate in a digital community while remaining anonymous behind a username. This creates ‘context collapse’, people trying to communicate with groups of people that are not normally bought together (van der Negal 2013, p. 3). Operating via anonymous pseudonyms helps control context collapse as people can portray themselves in any fashion they like. Twitter, on the other hand, allows its users to maintain an online conversation via copious updates no more than 140 characters in length (Murthy 2013, p. 1-2). This creates an environment of interactive multitasking, meaning the communication works on a many-to-many model (as opposed to television which works on a one-to-many model) (Murthy 2013, p. 6).

The comparison of these two platforms shows that digital communities are desired in many different forms. Some prefer an anonymous model based on receiving ‘karma points’ from strangers. While others desire a voice to be heard by the masses instantly, no matter how mundane the content may be. For many both of these platforms are necessary and feed different parts of the ego.

References

Buzzz Social Media 2014, The Social Media Revolution 2014, viewed 05 November 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs>.

Murthy, D 2013, Twitter: Social Communication in the Twitter Age, Wiley, pp 1-13.

Murthy, D 2013, Twitter: Social Communication in the Twitter Age, Polity, Cambridge.

Siapera, E 2012, ‘Socialities and Social Media’, in Introduction to New Media, Sage, London, pp 191-208.

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle 2013, viewed 05 November 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

van der Negal 2013, Faceless Bodies: Negotiating Technological and Cultural Codes on reddit gonewild, Scan Journal of Media Arts Culture, vol. 10, no. 2, Macquarie University.

Week 2, MDA20009 Social Theory and Social Media, Learning Material on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology 2015, viewed 11 November 2015

[krisosullivan]

Your comment about the online world feeding people’s ego’s has interested me. I have always believed that majority of people only show portions of their life to make people believe that they live this particular life that is in fact, quite different to reality. I don’t necessarily see this as a positive thing, but I think we are all guilty of it at times!

[riceage-blog]

Digital Communities Blog #2

Week 4 – Blogging Practices and Cases

Before the abundance of social media platforms we are inundated with today, there was the humble blog. Derived from the term ‘web log’ in 1997, John Barger’s online diary, Robot Wisdom WebLog, was one of the pioneering elements to the blogging sensation that took off in 1999 (Cross 2011, p.47).  More than just ‘word of mouth on steroids’ (Cross 2011, p.38) the blog has spawned many new formats of social connectivity and reshaped how we interpret a public audience.

“Publics can be 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” (Mizuko Ito 2008, p. 2-3).

Different from the physical audiences of old, networked publics can create many new dynamics:

Invisible audiences (Boyd 2010) are those that are viewing content but not contributing or making themselves known. A user on reddit who exists without creating, voting or commenting on content is deemed a ‘lurker’ (van der Nagel 2013, p.6-7). This creates the problem of something being much more public than how it seems.

Collapsed Contexts (Boyd 2010) exist when groups of people not normally connected begin to communicate in certain ways (van der Nagel 2013, p.3), as discussed in my previous blog. This makes it hard to distinguish distinct social contexts.

The blurring of public and private (Boyd 2010): considering the above dynamics, this makes the line between private and public almost indistinguishable.

While there are no mandatory laws for a blog to exist, those that are successful follow a set of key components (Cross 2011, p.48):

Chronology: they are presented in reverse chronological order to emphasize freshness.

Frequency: consistent updating is required to maintain interest from their public.

Focus: Successful blogs have a voice, be it that they talk about a certain topic, or hold a certain view consistently to separate themselves from the rest.

When you work through the technical aspects and analyses of blogging, one thing becomes clear. At their simplest level, a blog is modern discussion. Different from the one way media of newspaper articles, blogs offer an opportunity for the public to engage and share their thoughts on a post. Successful bloggers listen and engage back with their public. This is how digital communities are formed and sociality exists in the modern world. As award winning blogger Matthew Barby (2014) explains: “If you don’t understand what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong, you will never be able to adapt”

References

Barby, M 2014, My Recipe for Success: How to Launch a Successful Blog, moz.com, 13 October, viewed 27th November 2015, https://moz.com/blog/my-recipe-for-success-how-to-launch-a-successful-blog

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

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

van der Negal 2013, ‘Faceless Bodies: Negotiating Technological and Cultural Codes on reddit gonewild’, Scan Journal of Media Arts Culture, vol. 10, no. 2, Macquarie University.

[krisosullivan]

I completely agree with you saying that blogs are essentially a modern day discussion. It’s quite clear that we have all become quite technologically savvy and now communicate online much more than we ever have previously. I wonder what it will be like in 10 years time?

[holledgeh93-blog]

Week 4: Concepts: 'publics'

Concepts. Publics. On social networking platform’s I’m pretty sure you cannot find the word private. Most users are exposing there private parts in the feed. In this week’s learning materials we looked at publics and the public sphere as a whole. We explored types of publics and looked into the term of ‘public’ on social networking sites as Reddit, Facebook, Twitter etc. We also linked back to our blogging in regards to creating public opinions, arguments and general conversation whether it would be formal or informal text. A public can be thought of as a ‘a concrete audience, a crowd witnessing itself in visible space, as with a theatrical public’. In most recent and tragic times we look at public in a theatrical public area at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris. During the Paris terriost attacks “American rock band Eagles of Death Metal has released its first statement following the terriost attack at it’s show at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris last Friday. At least 89 people died in the attack when gunmen entered the venue and opened fire on the theatre where more than 1000 fans had gathered to see the Californian band perform”. To have this happen in such a public area comes to a shock. At the time of the gunmen opening fire, the ‘public’ would have been frozen and paralysed of fear. This fear comes from the unknown and your immediate thoughts when you are placed in such terror are fight or flight. Either option that the mind chooses you throw out all private traits and you have to come together as one and support each other. Through this tragic event we saw what humans can do for other humans in ‘public’ supporting each other. Humans taking responsibility for each other. The band went on to later say “Although bonded in grief with the victims, the fans, the families, the citizens of Paris, and all those affected by terriosm, we are proud to stand together, with our new family, now united by a common goal of love and compassion”. This type of ‘publics’ doesn’t relate much towards online public’s but it shows what the ‘public’ can do in situations that they have rarely faced before. Human love and support for each other needs to be more existent in the ‘publics’.

[krisosullivan]

I like how you have used a recent event to better develop the idea of a public. The way you have described how these people must have felt is spot on. My deepest sympathies go out to all of those people and the families of those who lost their loved ones. 

[krisosullivan]

Week 4 A ‘public’ can have varying meanings, some of which have changed due to the technological advancements of the current world. The definition of  ‘a concrete audience, a crowd witnessing itself in visible space, as with a theatrical public’ (Michael Warner, 2002) relates to a traditional way in which we think of the public, as physical being, whereas the thought of the of an online public sphere is better represented by ‘the kind of public that comes into being only in relation to texts and their circulation’ (Michael Warner, 2002, ‘Publics and Counterpublics’ in Public Culture 14[1] pp. 49-90; pp. 49-50) as this relates more to the way in which people interact due to a subject matter - wether it be physical or via an online forum.

Networked publics are “Publics that are re-structed by networked technologies” (Boyd D 2010) and are used to communicate with friends, discuss similar attitudes/beliefs, make business acquaintances and allow for people to interact in a way that is in real time with little to no hassle. In todays world, there are many different platforms for networked publics, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and various blogging websites such as Tumblr. This way of interacting has become incredibly popular over the past 5-10 years, as we as society have become more involved in the online world. It leaves me to wonder, where will we be in future? Will we even have to physically go to work, or will logging onto our home computer become the norm?

According to Danah Boyd, there are three main dynamics that are essential to a networked public. They are; 1) Invisible audiences - people who connect online 2) Collapsed contexts - the lack of spiritual and social boundaries that make it hard to keep distinct social contexts 3) Blurring of public and private - As the above says, there is a lack of spiritual and social boundaries which mean people are unaware of what should be kept private and what should be made public.

As well as being a part of networked publics, many people are also a part of ‘counter publics’. These publics are generally a smaller amount of people that slowly work to overtake social structures and cultural norms. This doesn’t have to be intentional and can be as simple as sharing particular meme’s or quotes on a Facebook page that are different to the normal social and cultural ‘way of life’. For example, think of the word ‘Turnt’. This word, coming from the a mix of the words ‘turn it up’ has now become a normal way of saying that someone is or is going to be inebriated. There are hundreds of meme’s all over Facebook, each with tens of thousands shares, likes and tags to follow. Who knows what the next ‘in thing’ will be?!

Danah Boyd. (2010). “Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications.” In Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (ed. Zizi Papacharissi), pp. 39-58.

[krisosullivan]

Week 4

A ‘public’ can have varying meanings, some of which have changed due to the technological advancements of the current world. The definition of  ‘a concrete audience, a crowd witnessing itself in visible space, as with a theatrical public’ (Michael Warner, 2002) relates to a traditional way in which we think of the public, as physical being, whereas the thought of the of an online public sphere is better represented by ‘the kind of public that comes into being only in relation to texts and their circulation’ (Michael Warner, 2002, ‘Publics and Counterpublics’ in Public Culture 14[1] pp. 49-90; pp. 49-50) as this relates more to the way in which people interact due to a subject matter - wether it be physical or via an online forum.  Networked publics are “Publics that are re-structed by networked technologies” (Boyd D 2010) and are used to communicate with friends, discuss similar attitudes/beliefs, make business acquaintances and allow for people to interact in a way that is in real time with little to no hassle. In todays world, there are many different platforms for networked publics, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and various blogging websites such as Tumblr. This way of interacting has become incredibly popular over the past 5-10 years, as we as society have become more involved in the online world. It leaves me to wonder, where will we be in future? Will we even have to physically go to work, or will logging onto our home computer become the norm? According to Danah Boyd, there are three main dynamics that are essential to a networked public. They are;  1) Invisible audiences - people who connect online 2) Collapsed contexts - the lack of spiritual and social boundaries that make it hard to keep distinct social contexts 3) Blurring of public and private - As the above says, there is a lack of spiritual and social boundaries which mean people are unaware of what should be kept private and what should be made public.  As well as being a part of networked publics, many people are also a part of ‘counter publics’. These publics are generally a smaller amount of people that slowly work to overtake social structures and cultural norms. This doesn’t have to be intentional and can be as simple as sharing particular meme’s or quotes on a Facebook page that are different to the normal social and cultural ‘way of life’. For example, think of the word ‘Turnt’. This word, coming from the a mix of the words ‘turn it up’ has now become a normal way of saying that someone is or is going to be inebriated. There are hundreds of meme’s all over Facebook, each with tens of thousands shares, likes and tags to follow. Who knows what the next ‘in thing’ will be?!    Danah Boyd. (2010). "Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications." In Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (ed. Zizi Papacharissi), pp. 39-58.