Lewis98's social misfit

My posting is solely for educational purpose only. Should you get bored, kindly ignore me.

[shinoling]

Week 11: Social Media Case Study (Japan)

The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake turned 1995 into an important milestone for the spread of the Internet in Japan when it rocked Kobe and surrounding areas on January 17 (Murai 2015). 

The events produced a strong social awareness of how computer networks and email can contribute to building communities and facilitating communication. It was in this environment of growing Internet awareness that Windows 95 was launched in Japan in November 1995.

People now access the Internet through social networking services, smart phones, and cell phones. Such Internet use has come to be a central part of society, a reality which was brought home during the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011. In Japan, events like earthquakes have greatly expanded awareness of the Internet’s social use.

ANONYMITY

One of the way that Japanese cares a lot on social media is Anonymity.

Japan is generally a face-to-face driven culture where reputation precedes individualization (Advertising in Asia 2017). A strict set of cultural norms have set the basis for encouraging creativity and individuality as long as it goes through a certain set of rules first. Additionally, though internet and social media are now adopted widely, there is still some negative connotations that are often tied to new advancements and even social platforms that in turn limit the individual user looking to create an identity or brand online while still maintaining certain relationships.

It’s also worth mentioning that Japan is a relatively closed society where nuances such as the fact that “where you were born could identify the career opportunities you’ll receive” or “how what you say online could reflect on your immediate family”. For this reason, consumers often guard or keep relatively private certain information and also thoughts and opinions as not to do anything that could be damaging in the long run to themselves or their larger family.

As a result of these cultural norms, platforms are often perceived and interacted with much differently in Japan than in the US.

Facebook is the mature social network in Japan, with survey data showing that nearly 75% of its users are over the age of 30 (Tony 2018). Males now outnumber women at 57% overall, and even more in older demographics. This could be due to the fact that Facebook is seen as a more professional network and even used for job hunting and business networking by young professionals in Japan. 

Due to the culture differences in Japan, consumers are more often likely to use Facebook for professional networking where they can make a connection while also remaining anonymous in regard to their intention until there is more of a relationship built (Advertising in Asia 2017).

Japan is a culture full of unique caricatures, dynamic anime, avatars and much more. Platforms like Line and others have been finding ways to use this to their advantage in order to give consumers the opportunity to use their platform while still remaining visually anonymous to the searchable public.

[lewis98omigod]

Love the way you outlined the rooted Japanese face-to-face culture and their belief is that one’s family background can determine the brightness of his/her future. I would say that most of the Japanese are somewhat reserved in a sense that they tend to keep everything to themselves rather than voicing it out. I used to mingle with a Japanese sharing the same bunk bed with me at a hostel in Singapore and i once grabbed him out for dinner at a fish& chips store. At first, he didnt order any food (I assumed he might be a miserable backpacker) and only asked for a Coke. After we had taken our dinner and on our way back to the hostel, he dropped by and order take-out food at a vegetarian shop and out of my curiosity, i asked him why didnt he order any food at the fish& chips store and got himself a vegan food instead. 

He then replied: “Actually iam a vegan, sorry for not telling u just now”.

A moment of dead silence greeted me, cringeworthy moment i guessed......

“Hahahahaha....sorry about that, u should have told me earlier, quite interesting interacting with a vegan” 

[lewis98omigod]

Week 11: Global Social Media (South Korea)

Social Media Penetration Rate of South Korea                      (Shim 2020)

South Korea’s social media penetration rate has reached 87 percent, the third highest among nations around the globe as its social media penetration rate as of the first quarter this year was 80 percent higher than the global average of 49 percent. The number of social media users in Korea continues to increase, the report said. South Korea’s social media users as of March was 35.5 million, up by 15.2 percent on-year, the report quoted data collected by a local market research firm Mobile Index. 

Naver                                                                               (Oh&Cho 2020)

South Korea’s top internet portal Naver Corp. retained its leadership in the local social media market in December although strong competition from global social media giants Instagram and Facebook. According to local market research firm Nielsen Koreanclick on Sunday, Naver’s social network platform Band ranked as the most popular social media app with a total of 19.48 million users in Korea last month. Second most used social media app by Koreans was Instagram with 15.23 million users, followed by Facebook with 13.88 million users. The tally combined Android and Apple phone users. Besides, Naver’s Band also showed the sharpest growth in the number of new users, adding 12.6 million in just seven months.

Naver’s most controversial issue: No longer allow users to leave comments on entertainment articles                                        (Kim 2020)

Naver will be temporarily suspending the ability for users to leave comments on articles that relate to the entertainment industry, in an attempt to lessen the malicious comments some celebrities receive. Naver made this decision as they feel like they are also partly responsible for the violation of celebrities’ personal rights, as their service allowed some users to use the comments section to attack certain celebrities. Naver pledged to put in their all-out effort to solve the problem of malicious commenters using their advanced technology and operational policies. While they continue to work on a solution, they decided to prioritize empathizing with the celebrities who are affected by the comments, and that they need to be protected. Thus, they made the decision to close the comments section on entertainment related articles until the structural overhaul of their comments section is completed. In addition, Naver is trying to combat the problems of the auto-completion function on the search bar. The search bar functions similarly to Google, where the engine will auto-suggest search terms that relate to the word being searched. In some cases, keywords that violate artists’ personal rights or contain unconfirmed rumors are suggested, due to many people searching them. In order to respect the artists, Naver decided to abolish related search terms on their platform.

The death of Goo Hara and Sulli catalyzed the abolishment of anonymity 

(Sondergaard 2019)

K-pop star, singer, actress and former member of f(x), Sulli took her own life at the age of 25 in 2019 and was often the subject of hate comments over how she dressed and about being an outspoken feminist.

Sulli was also known for her feminist voice and outspokenness that was rare among female entertainers in deeply conservative South Korea. Prior to her death, she appeared in a TV show and spoke out against online backlash she received over her life.

K-pop star, singer, actress and member of Kara, Goo Hara, 28, was found dead at her home in Seoul, in 2019, which would make her the second female singer in a month to take her own life in the high-pressure industry. In May, Goo was hospitalized following a suspected suicide attempt. The star later apologized to her fans, saying she had been "in agony over a number of issues."  Goo had been abused by an ex-boyfriend who, after they split, blackmailed her and threatened to post her spycam sex videos online. Prior to her death, the 28-year-old singer had issued a plea for kinder words on social media. Her death also sparked a debate on the mental health of celebrities. Goo's death sparked an online petition on the website of the South's presidential office calling for stronger punishments for cybercrimes and abusive online comments, which garnered more than 20,000 signatures in less than a day.

How Naver abolished anonymity for commenters    (The Straits Times 2020)

Prior to this action, Naver's anonymous comment system had often been criticised for allowing abusive and disparaging comments. Now, Naver's new system will allow all users to access commenters' user profile pages. Profile pages will show user names in full, along with comment histories and profile pictures. The company will also impose a seven-day waiting period for comments from new users. This is to prevent people from creating multiple accounts just to post abusive comments. However, users whose accounts have undergone real-name verification can write comments immediately .Naver said it will eventually begin using artificial intelligence to filter out abusive comments and malicious users.

List of References:

Shim, WH 2020, Korea’s social media penetration rate ranks third in world, The Korea Herald, viewed 23 November 2020,

<<a href="http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200907000815">http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200907000815>

Oh, DS, Cho, JH 2020, Naver’s Band tops Korea’s social media market, Pulse News, viewed 23 November 2020,

<<a href="https://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?year=2020&no=65394">https://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?year=2020&no=65394>.

Kim, R 2020, Starting in March, Naver Will No Longer Allow Netizens To Leave Comments On Entertainment Articles, Koreaboo, viewed 23 November 2020,

<<a href="https://www.koreaboo.com/news/starting-in-march-naver-will-no-longer-allow-netizens-leave-comments-entertainment-articles/">https://www.koreaboo.com/news/starting-in-march-naver-will-no-longer-allow-netizens-leave-comments-entertainment-articles/>.

Sondergaard, M 2019, K-pop star Goo Hara death stokes online bullying debate in South Korea, DW, viewed 23 November 2020, 

<<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/k-pop-star-goo-hara-death-stokes-online-bullying-debate-in-south-korea/a-51423395">https://www.dw.com/en/k-pop-star-goo-hara-death-stokes-online-bullying-debate-in-south-korea/a-51423395>.

The Straits Times 2020, South Korea's Naver stamps out anonymity for commenters, The Straits Times, viewed 23 November 2020,

<<a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/entertainment/south-koreas-naver-stamps-out-anonymity-for-commenters">https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/entertainment/south-koreas-naver-stamps-out-anonymity-for-commenters>.

[lewis98omigod]

Week 10: Social Gaming

To be honest, i quit gaming ever since i was 12 where i used to spent my nearly entire monthly meal budget just to equip my weapon collection in “BlackShot”. Well, i was not born to be a good gamer no matter how well-equipped my weapon collection was then and i just kept losing match. Finally, i summoned up my courage to outgrow gaming and now my hobby is watching Youtube. 

Definition of Social Gaming?

- A tabletop, other face-to-face indoor or outdoor games, or video games that allow or require social interaction between players as opposed to games played in solitude, games played at tournaments or competitions or games played for money.

What makes social gaming different?                               (O’Neill 2008)

Turn-based – A social game is not social unless you are playing with another person. As such, social games enable users to take turns. Turn-based games are nothing new but in the current environment, turn-based takes on a new meaning. Keep in mind that turn-based is not a requirement, just a frequent feature found in “social games”. Awareness of others’ actions in games – I honestly believe this was the catalyst for “social gaming.” When you could see in your news feed that your friend just bit another one of your friends to turn them into a vampire, suddenly there was social context, making you more likely to interact with the game. Casual gaming – “Social gaming” is not really for so called “hardcore gamers”. As it is currently referred to, social gaming is for the average user and not for someone who plans on playing 24 hours a day. Then again, that may be an unexpected side effect. Multiplayer – This is a no brainer. You can’t be social without there being other people so whether it’s two or two hundred users, the game has to be multiplayer for it to be social. Based on Social Platforms – The final component that I believe typifies “social games” is that they are based around social platforms. In the context of social gaming, social platforms provide users with an identity and also can provide the backbone for simple forms of communication (such as notifications, etc).

Global gaming market                                                              (Kaplan 2019)

By the end of 2019, the global gaming market is estimated to be worth $152 billion, with 45% of that, $68.5 billion, coming directly from mobile games. With this tremendous growth (10.2% YoY to be precise) has come a flurry of investments and acquisitions, everyone wanting a cut of the pie. In fact, over the last 18 months, the global gaming industry has seen $9.6 billion in investments and if investments continue at this current pace, the amount of investment generated in 2018-19 will be higher than the eight previous years combined.

List of References:

O’Neill, N 2008, What Exactly are Social Games?, AdWeek, viewed 22 November 2020,

<https://www.adweek.com/digital/social-games/#:~:text=Social%20games%20are%20a%20structured,an%20identity%20and%20are%20casual.>.

Kaplan, O 2019, Mobile gaming is a $68.5 billion global business, and investors are buying in, TechCrunch, viewed 22 November 2020,

<https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/22/mobile-gaming-mints-money/>.

[lewis98omigod]

Week 9: Fandom

Undoubtedly, most of us are a fan of something and so do i. In terms of celebrities, i am a huge fan of Jackie Chan and Benedict Cumberbatch and whereas in terms of TV drama, i am a huge die-hard fan of “How I Met Your Mother” and “Sherlock”. Besides outlining the definition of Fandom, its pros and cons and my concluding sentence, i will share with everyone about my experience being a fan of those mentioned celebrities and TV drama.

Jackie Chan

I believe most of us know who is Jackie Chan although some 00′s might not familiar with him since i am a 90′s who grew up watching Jackie Chan’s filmography. Although Jackie Chan’s film is predominantly Cantonese-spoken, the funny fact is that the first Jackie Chan’s movie i watched was “Rush Hour”, one of the movies that made him successful in the US market and was English-spoken. Well, i dare to say i have watched almost 90% of his filmography although i outgrew him ever since Benedict Cumberbatch toppled up my idol list.

 Furthermore, despite Jackie Chan has gained in huge popularity worldwide for almost half century, one of the incidents about fandom that had traumatized him was that 2 Japanese girls who appeared to be his die-hard fans committed suicide by running towards the railway and getting hit by train as soon as they knew that Jackie Chan was married and during the 80′s, there was a group of Japanese girls forming a fan club entitled “Stay Single For Jackie”. Whaaatt!!!.

Since then, Jackie Chan settled down his wife and child in the US to prevent those paparazzo from pestering his personal life.

Benedict Cumberbatch

Yeap, because of him i had to outgrow my childhood idol, Jackie Chan. To be honest, i seldom watch any movies starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the only reason why i knew him was ‘Sherlock’ season 1. It was exactly 10 years ago when i was still a wimpy pupil awaiting to take UPSR and Netflix did not even exist then, my cousin bought me a ‘Sherlock’ season 1 DVD from the UK during his typical European summer break and since then, i was obsessed with English culture and started to work hard on my English language and now, i am proud to say that i am able to watch any English sitcoms and movies without referring to subtitles and sarcastically, i still rely on English subtitle whenever i watch dramas and movies since i need to learn some specific phrases (Crime, fiction and documentary) and even American and British slangs. Therefore, instead of my English teacher, Benedict Cumberbatch was a motivator for me to learn English. 

How I Met Your Mother

One of my favorite US sitcoms that helps me to improve my English and frankly speaking, i watched it only because of Cobie Smulders but gradually, i fell in love with this sitcom. This sitcom basically depicts the life of a bunch of adults who met each other in New York and soon they all became good friends and some among them became an engaged couple (Lily and Marshall) and even ex-couple (Ted and Robin), followed by each episode has different story plot which has interconnection to others and basically reflects upon our life journey (From unknown to known, followed by outgrow and meet new things). That is how our life should be: Live at the moment, accept the unknown, let bygone be bygone and embrace the future.

Sherlock

Once again, i watched it only because of Benedict Cumberbatch. Well, basically this television series is quite derailed from the original novel. I have a whole set of Sherlock Holmes novel as my collection but now i can barely even remember the story of every series. Sorry earthlings, for the whole series of 4 (television series) i cant make sense of the association between each episode since it is too hard to fathom (scientific and psychological). Under my impression, i know that Jim Moriaty was the final big boss (villain) of the whole series, every series revolves around the rivalry between Sherlock and Jim Moriaty. Too hard to digest the story plot.

Definition of fandom   (Jenkin et al. 2009; cited in Grinnell College n.d.)

Fandom is a term which describes communities built around a shared enjoyment of an aspect of popular culture, such as books, movies, TV shows, bands, sports or sports teams, etc. Fandom is an example of participatory cultures. Participatory cultures involve fans acting not only as consumers but also as producers and creators of some form of creative media. Though most fan cultures, including sports fans and fans of music groups, have elements of participatory culture, media fandom in particular encourages creative expression and artistic production by its participants.

A participatory culture more specifically as one that consists of:

Relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement

Strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others

Some type of informal mentorship in which the most experienced members pass along their knowledge to novices

Members who believe their contributions matter

Members who feel some degree of social connection with one another and care about other members’ opinions about their contributions.

pros of fandom:   (Environmental-Conscience n.d.)

You learn to deal with emotional highs and lows

Fandom is a great way to learn how to deal with emotional swings. Since you will experience many losses and wins, you will be on an emotional rollercoaster once in a while and through those experiences, chances are that you will also be able to deal with your emotions in a much easier way.

Controlling our emotions is not only important for fandom, it is crucial in various parts of our life and therefore, being a fan can also indirectly help you to succeed in life in general.

Feeling of community

One important upside of being a fan is that you can experience a real sense of community. If you are in a sports stadium or at a concert of your favorite band, you will have many people around you that have similar interests and you can really feel like a valued member of a group.

Especially if you are a rather shy person who has difficulties to connect to other people, fandom can give you the opportunity to hang out with other people who will accept you as who you actually are.

Fandom gives you the opportunity to hang out with like-minded people

Another advantage of being a fan is that you will often hang out with like-minded people who have quite similar interests and attitudes towards life. In fact, if you join a fan club, chances are that you will be able to make really good friends over time, which may even last for a lifetime. Hence, if you currently looking to make new friends, chances are that fandom may give you a great opportunity to do so.

Cons of fandom:         (Environmental-Conscience n.d.)

Being a fan can be exhausting

Apart from the many advantages of being a fan, it can also have serious downsides. One disadvantage of being a fan is that it can become quite exhausting in the long run. You will live through many highs and lows and some people are simply not able to deal with those emotional swings. Moreover, driving to away games on a regular basis can be quite demanding and can cost you quite a lot of time and money.

Fandom can lead to conflicts among family and friends

In extreme cases, fandom can even lead to conflicts between family members or friends. If your friends support different clubs, chances are that there will be conflicts sooner or later since everyone thinks his or her club is the best. In the worst case, friendships may even cease to exist due to rivalries related to fandom.

Social media hate

In our current state of the world, information can be spread on social media by everyone of us. Unfortunately, those channels are also used by people who actively try to hate against members of other fan clubs or players from other teams. In fact, many comments on social media are quite insulting and you may become victim to those haters yourself if you are not careful.

Conclusion

Fandom is a polarizing topic to argue since it has a mixture of pros and cons. Practicing a good fandom can bring benefits to our life in terms of emotional association and in pursuit of happiness. However, toxic fandom can lead to severe aftermaths such as distress, social security problem and extremism. In my opinion, fandom can be indulged but not to be immersed. 

List of references:

Grinnell College n.d., FANDOM AND PARTICIPATORY CULTURE, Grinnell College,viewed 11 November 2020,

<https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultural-theory-and-theorists/fandom-and-participatory-culture/>.

Environmental-Conscience n.d.,  Pros and Cons of Being a Fan, Environmental-Conscience, viewed 11 November 2020,

<https://environmental-conscience.com/being-a-fan-pros-cons/>

[lewis98omigod]

Week 8: Crowdsourcing & crowdfunding

Definition of crowdsourcing:  Crowdsourcing includes obtaining work, information, or opinions from a large group of people who submit their data via the Internet, social media and smartphone apps (Hargrave 2019). 

Benefits of crowdsourcing:                                                            

1) Increases Consumer Engagement- If a business chooses to seek out consumers in their crowdsourcing efforts, this can result in an extraordinary level of consumer engagement. Most traditional marketing media hold consumer attention for a short span of time. By asking consumers to participate in solving a specific problem or provide much-coveted data about their brand, the business is gaining valuable attention that many companies pay big bucks to gain.

2)  Reduces Operational Costs- Crowdsourcing offers a cheaper way to complete projects. When a group of people unite digitally to complete a task, businesses can bypass most of the costs typically associated with operations. This includes the overhead costs of housing and paying employees a full salary, as well as the costs that could be incurred from paying for employees to learn new skills and more. Depending on the projects being completed, faster turnaround times can also equate to increased profits.

3)  Fills Knowledge Gaps- Unless a company is operating on a massive scale, most of them don't staff all of the resources they need at any given time. Crowdsourcing provides the ability to access people who have skill sets that are unavailable within the company. This can be invaluable for projects or problems that require specialized knowledge or skill sets that are scarce.

                                                                                                        (White 2019)

Real-life example of crowdsourcing conducted by Amazon

Alexa Answers

Amazon is rolling out a new program to let anybody provide answers to questions that Alexa is unable to answer.

Alexa Answers is meant to expand the smart digital assistant’s knowledge base to keep it competitive with the Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri. For two years in a row, Google’s assistant has easily won an 800-question test conducted by Loup Ventures, with Alexa coming in third place. It’s particularly hard for Amazon to compete against Google, which can leverage years of information collected and organized for its search engine. The system will use game mechanics to engage users — people will be able to earn “points” each time the assistant shares one of their answers. 

Amazon is relying on a combination of algorithms and human editors to help vet responses and hoping that a system of user up and down votes will weed out mischief-makers. But previous experiments with user-generated answers, such as Yahoo Answers and Quora, have never really taken off, so Amazon has a hard task ahead.                                                                        

                                                                                                        (Rosoff 2019)  

Definition of crowdfunding:  Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital through the collective effort of friends, family, customers, and individual investors. This approach taps into the collective efforts of a large pool of individuals—primarily online via social media and crowdfunding platforms—and leverages their networks for greater reach and exposure  (Fundable n.d.)

Benefits of crowdfunding:

 1) It provides access to capital- Crowdfunding is a great alternative way to fund a venture, and it can be done without giving up equity or accumulating debt. Rewards-based crowdfunding platforms allow entrepreneurs to raise funds from the community in exchange for simply giving their tangible products or other relative gifts.     

2) It hedges risk- Launching a crowdfunding campaign hedges these risks and serves as a valuable learning experience. Crowdfunding as it is today allows an entrepreneur to gain market validation and avoid giving up equity before going all out and taking a product concept to market.

3) It provides the opportunity of pre-selling- Launching a crowdfunding campaign gives an entrepreneur the ability to pre-sell a product or concept that they haven’t yet taken to market. This is a good way to gauge user reaction and analyze the market in order to decide whether to pursue or pivot on a given concept.                                                                                   

                                                                                                  (Prive 2012)

Real-life example of crowdfunding conducted by Well-Aware:

Well Aware is a non-profit established to raise awareness and funds to provide clean water in East Africa. Well Aware is dedicated to supporting improved health and well being for individuals and organizations. It was established in 2006 by Sarah Evans, the co-founding member and current Executive Director of Well Aware.

The Shower Strike campaign is a week-long fundraising campaign, organized by the Austin Cosmopolitan Rotary Club & Well Aware, that rallied volunteers to hold a strike against showering. The goal was to get each of the volunteers to raise at least $1000 toward life-saving clean water systems in East Africa. The campaign had a team of over 100 volunteers participate in the strike around the globe and about 30 others who helped raise awareness and funds for the Shower Strike campaign. Almost 800 individuals and businesses made a donation towards the cause.

By the end of the campaign, Shower Strike raised over $70,001 through their beautifully branded CauseVox fundraising site within one week. The funding from this campaign will provide clean water to 40,000 individuals in East Africa through five clean water wells.                

                                                                                                       (Wu n.d.)

List of references

Hargrave, M 2019,  Crowdsourcing, Investopedia, viewed 04 November 2020, 

<https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdsourcing.asp>

Fundable n.d, What is crowdfunding, Fundable, viewed 04 November 2020,

<https://www.fundable.com/learn/resources/guides/crowdfunding/what-is-crowdfunding> 

White, J 2019, What Is Crowdsourcing and How Does It Work? Definition and Example, The Street, viewed 04 November 2020,

<https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/education/what-is-crowdsourcing-15026002>

Rosoff, M 2019,  Amazon will start letting random people provide Alexa answers, CNBC, viewed 04 November 2020, 

<https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/12/amazon-crowdsourcing-alexa-answers.html>

Prive, T 2012,  Top 10 Benefits Of Crowdfunding, Forbes, viewed 04 November 2020,

<https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/10/12/top-10-benefits-of-crowdfunding-2/?sh=fa6208f2c5e6>

Wu, R n.d.,  How Well Aware raised $77,000 in one week to provide clean water to 40,000 people, CauseVox, viewed 04 November 2020,

<https://www.causevox.com/blog/how-well-aware-raised-77000-in-one-week-to-provide-clean-water-to-40000-people/>

[lewis98omigod]

Week 7: Public health campaigns & communities

Inevitably, social media is one of the greatest creations in this era. Not only does social media enable us to stay in contact with others since all you need is just an internet allowing us to call or text people whenever you want, but also social media allows information to be reached out to people instantly whereby we all dont have to rely on newspaper in order to keep ourselves updated to the latest news and events, all we need is first signing up a social media account and following other users, news forums and organizations. 

In terms of public health campaign, social media plays a huge role in promoting public health campaign to the people especially this time of Covid-19 pandemic, i believe most of us use social media to read the daily reported cases, information from WHO and even consult health information via Google. As this year is a year full of disasters which completely affect our usual daily lives and livelihood. According to the general director of the World Health Organization, the Covid-19 pandemic is spreading fast and has taken more than 1 million lives. He has also anticipated with a pessimistic tone that the vaccine will only be introduced next year by latest, which means we still have to practice social distance, wear face masks and wash hand frequently. Therefore, we have yet to return to normal life due to the fact that pandemic still exists and has not been quelled. Speaking of which, it is time for us to adopt a totally new normality.

Despite social media plays a huge role in promoting public health campaign, there will definitely be a major problem arising, which is the spread of fake news. Since social media is a platform for information delivery and news sharing, some irresponsible users will spread news that are not genuine and without undergoing scrutiny, it creates panic in the community. Such problem is prevalent especially at this period of time where social media usage is boosting up as people rely on social media to keep updated with daily reported Covid-19 cases and latest announcement from the authorities such as Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Health. Indirectly, some irresponsible users grab opportunity to fabricate information and make it widespread in the community so that they can achieve their motive that people are getting panic-stricken to the extend to which, obstructing the SOP implemented by authorities.

According to Arumugam (2020), Fake news on Covid-19, on both the social media and messaging apps, remained rampant although threat of stern legal action and repeated reminders. Minister of Defence, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob reported that as of May, police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had opened 262 investigation papers. Among the total, 179 cases were still under investigation, 29 cases had been brought to court, 11 were issued with warning notices, and 18 of the accused had pleaded guilty. The MCMC's Quick Response Team (PRP) was set up to monitor suspicious news and allegations to help combat the spread of fake news related to Covid-19. Those presented figure does not represent the whole since there will be some unreported incidents. In our community, we often receive circulated voice messages from others sharing fake news or unconfirmed information. Those perpetrators usually are elderly people since they are new to social media and stubborn to scrutinize information beforehand which mislead them to share ingenuine information straight-away without proper justification. 

Taking my personal experience as a metaphor, I once read a Facebook post from an old lady (probably in her late fifties) stigmatizing a local Cafe owner) that he was tested positive because of 2 reportedly positive-tested customers used to patronize at the Cafe. As soon as the post went viral, immediately there was a public backlash against the old lady since she did not have understanding of the whole fact and soon the Cafe owner announced to the public that he had gone through SWAB test and eventually tested negative. A few days later, she advertised an apology notice via Facebook and newspaper stating that she was deeply remorseful for her irrational act and made a promise that she will reform and always think thoroughly before posting any information. 

In a nutshell, although social media contributes the delivery of public health campaign, we still cant guarantee that those information are genuine since nowadays, people can spread fake news easily and it is hard for us to identify how precise those information really are. As a friendly advice to all social media users, always stay rational and neutral when receiving information, which means never jump to conclusion hastily, think thoroughly before sharing information to the public. It is our responsibility as a social media user to uphold our own integrity. 

Reference list:

Arumugam, T 2020,  Fake news on Covid-19 still rampant, New Strait Times, viewed 28 October 2020,

<https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/05/591198/fake-news-covid-19-still-rampant-nsttv>.

[lewis98omigod]

Digital Activism week 6

In 2019 and 2020, not only have we heard lots of tragic news among celebrities and athletes, but also especially in 2020, the most devastating issue everyone encounters is the Covid-19 pandemic which has totally disrupted our daily lives and now we all start practicing the new normality which consists of 3 elements, 1-metre distance, put on face masks and wash hand frequently after back home from outdoor. However, if we broaden out horizon in terms of global news, we probably realize that some nations are suffering not only just purely pandemic thing, but also some ongoing protests against the government. For instance, In Hong Kong the protest still persists although has it been quelled temporarily due to the fear among Hong Kongers over the upcoming Chinese Security Law which is mandated typically for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since Hong Kongers are concerned about the high possible of the restriction of freedom of speech towards them. Likewise, in the US, lots protests are going on over the issue of police brutality, especially the incident of George Floyd who was dead due to suffocation while his neck was being knelt on by one of the police officers although the public attempted to stop this tragic but it proved futile. This tragic has sparked anger among the Black community and soon, a series of protests took place across the nation. In this topic, we will look into how digital activism works in reflecting upon the rampant issue. 

Digital Activism towards long hour working culture among Japanese workers

This drama entitled “ Watashi, Teiji de Kaerimasu “, which means I Will Not Work Overtime, Period! in English. It was released in 2019 and soon had drawn international attention for its criticisms of Japanese corporate life. The story plot revolves around the lead female role as an office worker, whom she decides that she will never work overtime, and regularly leaves work at the official end of the day. Since then, she has conflict with other employees, who usually stay at work until much later. Besides that, long-hour working culture has traumatized her ever since she was young when her father whose corporate life meant that he did not spend time with his family. Her bosses at the company, who see her refusal to work overtime as a lack of commitment to the company and its clients. Her situation is complicated by the arrival of an ex-boyfriend who joins the company. She gradually convinces her fellow workers to go home on time in order to save their health and relationships, but ends up breaking her original commitment, which results in her hospitalization and the demise of her own relationship with her fiancé. In overall, this drama has highlighted how long-hour working culture affects the health and family relationship of workers as they tend to have little time to spend with their family which end up suffering an inharmonious household. In some cases, we have heard news about Japanese office workers died due to fatigue and the increased divorce case in Japan is getting more common as husband never spends time with family after busying with tons of workloads. 

According to Brasor (2019),  The most common complaint from white-collar employees at Japanese companies is about the meaning of “quitting time.” The feeling is that even if a worker has finished their tasks for the day, it is considered bad form to leave the office before their colleagues or supervisors do. There are, of course, no established rules that dictate such conduct, and it can be perceived as a custom but even after three decades of debate over the question of unnecessary overtime and lost productivity in the Japanese workplace, there is still great hesitancy on the part of employees to go home “on time.”

Furthermore, a survey conducted by Japanese government showed that around one quarter of Japanese companies require employees to work more than 80 hours of overtime a month. Sarcastically, those extra hours are often unpaid. Japanese workers on average didn’t use 10 of their paid vacation days, and 63 percent of Japanese respondents felt guilty for taking paid leave.

As mentioned earlier, long-hour working culture has caused workers died due to fatigue. Taking a real-life case as an example, an employee of Japan’s largest advertising firm, Dentsu, jumped to her death in 2015. The cause was said to have been depression caused by overwork. The case generated widespread attention and renewed calls to change the long working hours and illegal unpaid overtime highly common in Japan. The aftermath of this issue has pressurized Dentsu’s CEO to resign over the controversy and the company was fined for violating labor standards as she had been reportedly forced to work 100 hours of overtime a month. After the death, Dentsu made changes within the company, including turning off lights in the office at 10 p.m. in an effort to force employees to leave (Saiidi 2018).

In conclusion, this drama portrays the long-hour working culture in Japanese society that has been rooted ever since. As we all know that, drama is the mirror of a society. Often we agree up to a point that dramas actually are delivering a message to the viewer about current society. As soon as the drama has been released, it has drawn the attention of Japanese government about the well-being of workplace and since then, lots of debate have been carried out in the parliament with an aim of enacting a law which can protect the employee’s well-being and revise the structure of traditional companies workforce as majority of traditional companies have a mindset is that employees should be always available at work and employees should be ashamed of applying holidays. Although work-life balance in Japan has yet to be achieved, but who knows in the future?

Reference list:

Brasor, P 2019,  TBS drama misses an opportunity to shine a light on genuine workplace issues, The Japan Times, viewed 13 October 2020,

<

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/18/national/media-national/tbs-drama-misses-opportunity-shine-light-genuine-workplace-issues/

>.

Saiidi, U 2018,  Japan has some of the longest working hours in the world. It’s trying to change, CNBC, viewed 13 October 2020,

<https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/01/japan-has-some-of-the-longest-working-hours-in-the-world-its-trying-to-change.html#:~:text=CNBC%20Explains-,Japan%20has%20some%20of%20the%20longest%20working%20hours%20in%20the,extra%20hours%20are%20often%20unpaid.>.

[lewis98omigod]

Political engagement- week 5

Frankly speaking, i have no interest in any politics since in my opinion, politics acts as a battleground for two or more political parties to get as much votes as possible in order to to be able to govern the nation. In the end, the outcome turns out to be which party is the governing and which party is the opposition. The background of politics is subtle in a sense that none of us can fully make sense of how political system works and hence, it sounds cliche that “politics is the art of the possible”. 

“Political engagement is defined here as a cognitive process. When the brain becomes stimulated by external stimuli, in this case relating to politics, elaboration occurs. Elaboration here means the connecting of thoughts, recognising the new information as important and relevant, a process that leads to having an attitudinal reaction. Political engagement is a necessary precursor for political participation and thus important for a vibrant civic culture.”-  Elena Afromeeva, Mirjam Liefbroer and Darren Lilleker from Bournemouth University

How politics impacts the social media?

In this globalized era, politicians are no longer using posters to self-advertise to the public. Instead, as nowadays almost everyone has at least one social media account (Facebook and Twitter), politicians start appreciating the convenience of social media due its fast responsiveness and less time-consuming. As a result, politicians make full use of social media in order to attract more audience and convey message even faster. Donald Trump is among the other politicians who is highly active on social media especially Twitter, where he expresses his thoughts and governmental policy and even shares his daily routine to the social media users. 

Political parties across the globe realize that in addition to advertising on traditional mediums such as television and newspapers, they need to invest in digital marketing if they want to stay competitive with their rival parties. Over the past few years, an uptake in UK and US parties becomes more prevalent, in particular, using social media campaigns to defeat their opponents. 

Let’s take the UK as an example. In 2017, the UK’s general election was a tight race, but the Labour party had huge wins, obtaining 21 seats from its Conservative opponents. Despite Jeremy Corbyn didn’t manage to emerge as the new prime minister, the party made huge strides by investing in effective digital media campaigns that were all about distributing the right messages as the right times.

In 2016, Demos research showed that around 23% of UK adult social media users perceive that social platforms help them “understand parties’ policy positions” prior to an election, and 26% said social media engagement made them more likely to vote. That’s something Labour took notice of in 2017. While, according to the Electoral Commission, the Conservative Party spent £1.2 million on Facebook advertising ahead of the 2015 General Election, Labour spent seven times less. And it regretted that decision for the next two years.

2017 was definitely a change of pace for the party. It began to invest heavily in social media, now the Labour party realize that social media investment is an imperative part of winning a political race. The party even created its own social media targeting tool called Promote, which it used to tailor unique policy messages to individual voters. The system automatically tweaked core policy messages to over a thousand unique variations which were delivered based on a number of factors, including location. In addition, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joined Snapchat to document his political journey - the first politician of his pedigree to do so. He was also very active on Twitter and other social networks. Despite Corbyn eventually didn’t win the vote for Prime Minister, he did successfully gave an impact to the public to give the Labour party significantly more seats and a 40% share of the vote. Surprisingly, He was also extremely popular with the younger demographic.

The Labour party as a whole concentrated on sharing positive messages about party leaders and policies, a smart move to get over from its negative criticisms of the “Tories” during the 2015 general election.

Its website had a temporary homepage in the weeks up the election, with the number of days until the election highlighted and the urgency messaging clearly outlined. These types of tactics are often used successfully in digital marketing campaigns for retail/eCommerce sites, and they worked well here, as well.

Besides that, Labour focused much on increasing its reach on social media. According to Nassour (2017), in the six weeks after the announcement of the 2017 General Election, ‘We Are Social’ revealed that the Labour Party increased its following by 61% across Social Media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The Conservatives’ social media following increased by just 6% in the same period. The party used positive messaging, celebrity endorsements, and ads to urge young voters to go to the polls. A record 622,000 individuals registered to vote in the final 24 hours of the registration period, young voters became the majority amongst the individuals.

Grassroots Labour party organization Momentum spent only £2,000 on Facebook advertising, as opposed to the Conservatives’ £1m but resulted in significantly more success because the ads were highly targeted and positive in nature, while the Tory party stayed quite negative and failed to engage its audience.

In a nutshell, political engagement on social media can bring a huge success since it can deliver message at the right time. With more youngsters are highly active on social media, undoubtedly political parties have seized such opportunity to instill some knowledge about politics on user’s mindset so that more awareness can be raised and people will have the will to vote. As the saying goes, Youngster is the future leader of the country.

List of reference:

Yassour, J 2017,  General Election 2017: Did digital marketing shape surprise results?, Croud, viewed 11 October 2020,

<https://croud.com/blog/news/the-2017-general-election-shock-results-the-work-of-digital-marketing/>.

[lewis98omigod]

Is Tumblr a Blog or a Social Networking Site? Week 4

Prior to taking this unit, honestly little do i know about Tumblr since i had never used and accessed Tumblr before. After a brief tutorial conducted by Doctor Bertha during week 1, i start to build upon the knowledge about Tumblr and How Tumblr acts as a social media platform for citizens to voice out thoughts and retweet posts. So now back to the most polarizing argument about whether Tumblr is a blog or a social networking site. My findings are as follows and lastly, i will make a concluding sentence about my perception towards Tumblr, it either is a blog or a social networking site.

First and foremost, we all need to know about the background of Tumblr and how it works. According to Boone (n.d.),  Tumblr is a network of millions of user-generated, personal Web sites. besides, Tumblr is also part blogging platform (like Wordpress, Blogger or Posterous) and part social networking service, allowing users create and post their own original content. Written entries, photographs, video clips or links to other Web sites as users can share all of these things with their friends and followers. Users make subscription to as many other users' pages as they like, which display on the user's feed, or Dashboard. It's also possible to give "notes" to other subscribers in several forms as users can re-blog someone's content on that user's Tumblr site, "like" it, or reply. To facilitate the social aspect, authors can choose to post their Tumblr entries simultaneously, or at least link to them, via other services, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Besides that,  A blog (a shortened version of “weblog”) is defined as an online journal or informational website showing information in the reverse chronological order, with the latest posts appearing first, at the top. It acts as a platform where a writer or a group of writers share their views on an individual subject (Skrba 2020). Personal use and business blogging are among the reasons why people blog. Blogging for business, you keep blogging in order to reach potential consumers and catch their attention. Without blogging, your website would remain invisible, whereas running a blog makes you searchable and competitive. So, the main purpose of a blog is to connect you to the relevant audience. Furthermore, great blogging makes your business look more credible, which is especially important if your brand is still young and fairly unknown. It ensures presence online and niche authority at the same time.

 For personal use, one of the advantages of blogging is being able to express yourself and share your passion. Blog serves as a platform for people to voice their ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Whether your passion is of business, personal finance, cooking, politics, photography, or marketing objective, blogging gives you the opportunity to connect and network with likeminded individuals who share the same passions. Second advantage is sharing knowledge.  starting a blog serves the opportunity to educate individuals that are interested in your field of expertise. The best part is that, as you build resources on your blog to teach others, you may realize there is a chance to monetize your blog by creating educational products or services online (Dekmezian 2016).

For social media, Dollarhide (2020) stated that social media is computer-based technology that promotes the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through the building of virtual networks and communities. By design, social media is internet-based and gives users quick electronic communication of content. Content includes personal information, documents, videos, and photos. Users engage with social media via computer, tablet or smartphone via web-based software or web application, often utilizing it for messaging. Moreover, social media originated as a way to interact with friends and family but was later adopted by businesses which wanted to take advantage of a popular new communication method to reach out to customers. The power of social media is the ability to connect and share information with anyone on Earth, or with many people simultaneously.

Conclusion

Now here comes the most polarizing argument ever, “Is Tumblr a blog or a social networking sites?”. As mentioned by Boone (n.d.),  Tumblr is part blogging platform and part social networking service, allowing users create and post their own original content. Written entries, photographs, video clips or links to other Web sites as users can share all of these things with their friends and followers. In my viewpoint, i do agree that there is no exact answer about whether Tumblr is a blog or a social network sites since Tumblr is definitely a blog for people to share thoughts and opinions. In terms of social network, Tumblr works like a social network as well since people can engage with others through following each other and texting each other via the message tab. Therefore, Tumblr can be a blogging platform and a social media platform simultaneously. However, Tumblr is more well-known as a blogging platform since people usually use it for blogging and retweeting other’s post. Social network is just an added special feature on Tumblr.

Reference list:

Boone, B n.d.,  How Tumblr Works, How Stuff Works, viewed 11 October 2020, 

<https://computer.howstuffworks.com/tumblr.htm>. 

Skrba, A 2020,  What is a Blog? – The Definition of Blog, Blogging, and Blogger, First Site Guide, viewed 11 October 2020,

<https://firstsiteguide.com/what-is-blog/>.

Dekmezian, G 2016,  Why Do People Blog? The Benefits of Blogging, Huffpost, viewed 11 October 2020,

<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-do-people-blog-the-be_b_8178624#:~:text=Businesses%20create%20blogs%20primarily%20to,and%20even%20generate%20online%20revenue.>.

Dollarhide, M 2020,  Social Media facilitates sharing ideas and thoughts, Investopedia, viewed 11 October 2020,

<https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp>.

[lewis98omigod]

When life pathway get darker, remember......bring a torchlight

Me