Digital Communities @magicnumber23-blog - Tumblr Blog

Week 6: Digital citizenship 2 - Activism and protest.

What is Digital Citizenship? Digital citizenship is used to refer the potential benefit for society as a whole that comes from new digital and social media tools and their ability to ‘facilitate the membership and participation of individuals within society’ (Mossberger, 2008, p. 1). It helps technology leaders, teachers and parents to understand what children/students/technology users should know how to use technology in the appropriate way. It is more than just a teaching tool, it was a way to prepare users for a society full of technology (Mike Ribble, 2015).

The cyber activists who want to shut down ISIS:

In August 2014, a Twitter account that was affiliated with the hacker group Anonymous, declared a full scale cyber war against ISIS. Anonymous will do its part in combating ISIS’s influence in social media and shut them down (Simon Cottee, 2015).

Anonymous is believed to be setting up protest in a number of major cities across the globe for masked members to show unity against the Islamic State.

When the terrorist attacks happened in Paris, a group that were associated with the hackers’ known as Anonymous had announced #OpParis, a social media campaign against ISIS (Brian Mastroianni, 2015).

“This is only the beginning, ISIS. We will hunt you, take down your sites, accounts, emails and expose you … You will be treated like a virus and we are the cure,” stated a masked activist in a video posted on YouTube. “We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. ISIS, it is too late to expect us” (Brian Mastroianni, 2015).

While French, Russia and the United States bombers are targeting Islamic Sate areas from the sky, Anonymous are making their own devastating campaign against the terrorist origination. They are using computer codes rather than a high-powered weapons and say that the hacktivist group has built tools that might be a better approach than the world governments tool to combat ISIS (The Daily Sheeple, 2015).

In a YouTube video by Anonymous, the group had said: “More than 20,000 Twitter account belonging to ISIS were taken down by Anonymous.” They have provided a whole list of accounts that have been taken down (The Daily Sheeple, 2015). But answer this, how effective has the web-based operation really been counteracting the terrorist group effective reach?

References:

Mike Ribble, 2015, Digital citizenship, using technology appropriately, Retrieved 8 December, 2015, from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/

Mossberger, K., Tolbert, C., & McNeal, R 2008, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Simon Cottee, October 8th 2015, Can Cyber Activists Chase ISIS off Twitter? [Weblog], Retrieved 8 December 2015, from http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/anonymous-activists-isis-twitter/409312/

Brian Mastroianni, November 24th 2015, Anonymous vs ISIS: Who has the upper hand in social media war? [Weblog], Retrieved 8 December 2015, from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anonymous-vs-isis-social-media-war/

The Daily Sheeple, 2015, YOU’RE A VIRUS, WE’RE THE CURE’: ANONYMOUS TAKES DOWN 20,000 ISIS TWITTER ACCOUNTS. [Weblog]. Retrieved 8 December 2015, from http://www.thedailysheeple.com/youre-a-virus-were-the-cure-anonymous-takes-down-20000-isis-twitter-accounts_112015

Anonymous protest: http://blogs.ft.com/photo-diary/files/2013/11/anonymous.jpg

Keep calm: http://data.whicdn.com/images/64595778/large.png

magicnumber23-blog

@aleksnajd you’ve provided some great insight into this weeks topic, great use of images and Youtube video. I remember when I first watched the ‘Anonymous - Operation Paris’ video when it appeared in my Facebook feed, it gave me chills. I hope to think their fight against ISIS is effective, but to what extent I’m not sure or if society will ever know.

#MDA20009

sammmiemc50

Blog # 6 (Week 8) Digital Communities Collective Wisdom, Wealth and Aid - ‘Two heads are better than one’

The old adage “two hands are better than one” is as relevant today as it was in the 16th century when a writer, John Heywood, coined the phrase (The Phrase Finder 2015).

The phenomenon of ‘Crowdsourcing’ works along the same lines as the phrase: a collective wisdom, financial funding, or the efforts of a group of people as opposed to one person, can achieve far more, and often for free, than an individual mind, or wallet (Shepherd 2012). User-generated contributions can be an innovative way to engage in an almost infinite resource of skills, intelligence, experience, and money.

This week’s content focussed on the innovative use of technology-based tools, including social media, to enable delivery of information, calls for action, and various responses to crises (Blackboard, Week 8, 2015).

HELP - natural disaster and the ‘natural’ urge to help

During the 2011 Queensland floods and to a lesser extent, the 2009 “Black Saturday” bushfires in Victoria, emergency services and police harnessed the power of social media, and crowdsourcing, to gain real-time information from people at the scene, as well as inform the public. According to Crikey (2011), given natural disasters generate a considerable amount of information, using both media reports and citizen accounts can enable a more effective emergency response. Human instinct, as a rule, is to help (people and others): emergencies provide a catalyst for this response and Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms can provide tools to enable by, for example, using a simple hashtag # such as #qldfloods (Crikey 2011).

Collective Wisdom: are the masses ‘wising up’

Crowdsourcing is used to build information databases, such as Wikipedia, Linux, Yahoo!, and Answers. The massive connectivity of the Internet means that accessing cheap, vast sources of information can bring ‘diverse heuristic ideas’ to solve problems and build user-generated knowledge bases. The appeal of contributing to a collective, democratic database resonates clearly with millions, given the success of crowdsourcing information systems (Rang Bar & Maheswaren 2014).

The ‘compelling benefits of crowdsourcing’, however, are not without challenges:

Novelty: The novelty of altruism is arguably being worn out: people now seek reward for contribution

Identity: The identity of participants cannot be verified - contributors previously rejected for content can reappear

Privacy issues of the content: who owns the ideas, the contributor or the collective?

Integrity of content: it is impossible for one individual to qualify the integrity of the content of the entire collective contribution, and it negates the concept to have an external arbiter

The Darker side of Crowdsourcing

More sinister uses of crowdsourcing are emerging. The use of crowdsourcing to incite terrorist activities through social media experts involved with terror groups is being increasingly identified. Islamic State (IS) provided information and guidance for activities related to terrorism through the convergence of terrorism and cyber-threat. An example is the recent detainment of a Kosavar cyber-hacker who obtained personal contact details of 1300+ government officials from the US, UK and Australia, and passed to those details to IS. The list was disseminated to ‘the crowd’ globally, with the presumed intention of committing terrorist acts against those people, including ‘lone wolf attacks’ (RT 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 17 September 2015, <http://www.cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf>

Crikey 2011, How Twitter is mapping the flood crisis, accessed online 17 January 2016, http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/01/12/how-twitter-is-mapping-the-flood-crisis-and-whether-you-can-trust-it/?wpmp_switcher=mobile

RT, 2015, ISIS is ‘crowdsourcing terrorism’, https://www.rt.com/usa/318984-isis-crowdsourcing-kosovo-list/

Rung Bar, A and Maheswaran 2014, ‘Confidentiality and Integrity in Crowdsourcing Systems’, SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-0217-3_1

Shepherd, H 2012, ‘Crowdsourcing’, Contexts, American Sociological Association, SAGE

Swinburne online, Week 8, Crowdsourcing, https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-5190913-dt-content-rid-26655218_2/courses/2015-SO3-MDA20009-210404/UnitLearningMaterials/week-08.html

narellemda20009-blog

A well written and informative blog. Your section on “cons” of crowdsourcing is enlightening and a bit scary. It’s both amazing and scary to know where your supposedly “private” information can end up. Everyone’s digital footprint is out there - and there’s always someone out there who can or will use it for their own purposes (good or bad). Thanks for the thought provoking read!

magicnumber23-blog

Agree with @narellemda20009 a very well written and informative blog, thank you. I liked the idea how you touched on ‘The Dark side of Crowdsourcing’, terrorism is a pressing global issue that affects all of us.

#MDA20009

aleksnajd-blog

Week 9: Visual communities and social imaging.

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

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

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

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

References:

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

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

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

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

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

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

cameronmda20009-blog

Hi aleksnajd, great blog.

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

Cheers

magicnumber23-blog

Thanks for the read @aleksnajd! I also use Snapchat. I find it more convenient and private then spamming my Facebook or Twitter accounts with snaps of my family and random every day experiences. Agree 100%, you do need to be mindful of what you capture and share otherwise it will turn into a ‘revenge porn’ or ‘sexting’ scenario - lucky for me I’m too old for that shit!

#MDA20009

cameronmda20009-blog

Week 10: Social gaming: playing the crowd

I play online games, mostly ddo (Dungeons & Dragons Online) although my connection speed makes it a painful experience on occasion.

I have also introduced the kids to a collaborative online came called Arcane Legends to try and get them used to the concept of working together instead of alone, so far so good, although they still prefer Minecraft (which is fine, it is a good platform for demonstrating expression through construction). They also think it is funny to say that their dad kicks ass on Lego Play Station games that I play with them.

One of the things that they are developing through their guided journey in a MMORPG with my assistance, is when to spot trolling and time wasters, and who to respond to and who to ignore. If anyone contacts the littlest one (who is 7) she gives me the ipad to read the comment and I decide if it needs blocking etc, and I explain what and why I have decided to either allow communication or block it. I hope that this is helping them to develop their own sense of how to navigate an online environment.

Humphries and de Zwart cite an argument of Pargman and Jakobsson (2014 p. 5) where gamers move between frames while communicating, from an individual player, to an embodied person (that has physical needs) to being ‘in character’ as a role playing toon or avatar. This is the case, however, the individuals doing so are not born knowing how to socialise through these scenarios, they are socialised into an online gaming paradigm, through learning and experience, different and separate from face to face physical reality.

This is an argument that I have made pretty much the entire unit duration (sorry if I am boring my public!), that socialisation, dealing with trolls and bullies online, crowdsourcing information and participation in providing data are learned social activities that require guidance and experience to navigate, not government regulation or protection.

A reinforcing point that seems to be lacking in discourse surrounding other online behaviour is the identification of the fact that individuals bring their own ethnocentric ideals and behaviour to the games and online interaction as well as “their cultural background, their education levels, their gender, their age and their own individual moral compass.” (de Zwart & Humphries 2014, p. 17).

Here is an interesting twist on RPG that has, I believe, just been released.

Online games provide a brilliant resource for other online fields to study established communities that have already experienced the problems that mainstream networked communities are only just starting to experience. Funnily though, up until recently gamers were ignored or thought of as aberrant due to their commitment to the gaming worlds.

References de Zwart, M & Humphreys, S 2014,’ The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online’, Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 77-99.

Suzor, N & Woodford, D 2013, ‘Evaluating consent and legitimacy amongst shifting community norms: An EVE Online case study’, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1-14.

shivaniielizabeth-blog

Hi Cameron - again great post! My parter is a huuuuuuge online gamer, he loves playing MMORPG and MOBA games. I just read your post to him, and he told me that he has stopped playing them so much because he really hates the negative aspects of the online gaming community and in particular, the anonymity of the internet and the way that it allows people to act the way they wouldn’t normally - he says they are called ‘greifers.’ [side note, as I typed, he asked me to reference him so: (Quinn, 2016)]

I really like that you are bringing up your children in a way that shows your children both the positive and negative sides of the internet, especially in online communities. This is something I had to discover myself, and the hard way. I also agree with you, nothing beats experience as a learning tool, but guidance is always going to benefit, especially in the case of children.

Really great perspectives, and I can definitely relate.

cameronmda20009-blog

Haha, thanks for the comments, two thumbs up to your partner for demanding to be referenced! Yeah the “greifers” (Quinn 2016 cited in shivaniielizabeth 2016) are everywhere (there you go now I quoted your partner lol), when their rubbish gets too much I exercise my inalienable right to turn that computer off and go and do something else. Generally though, to me the comments from others online are not a lot different to computer generated content, they simply do not matter :) The power of trolls, griefers and bullies to influence and disturb is granted by the affected user, if you deny effect then they become the ultimate embodiment of impotence, flailing angrily away at their keyboard to no acknowledgement.

Cheers

magicnumber23-blog

Oh yes death by lag, always blamed it for my shit house K/D ratio. Navigating the gaming environment with your kids is great, I’m yet to experience this learning curve but I’m you make it sound so much fun - another excuse for me to play games! Agree 100% we need less Government intervention, however there are many parents out there who don’t offer the same level of guidance or support that’s needed. Do you think education will eventually cut through to those parents? Also to add to your final comment about gamers, the stereotype also includes introvert, lazy and unemployed. Do you think the wider social acceptance was due to the fact developers were successful in broadening their target markets with social games? Thanks for the read!

#MDA20009

Blog #8 – Social gaming: playing the crowd

(Moviepilot 2015)

Social gaming past & present

Social gaming for me growing up as a kid meant maximum of 4 players, but you had to BYO controller because I only had the two and they weren’t cheap. The console I’m talking about is the Nintendo 64 (answer is yes, I still have mine), wow does that bring back memories of playing with friends and family. There was always fights as to who used the red limited edition controller with my siblings and the arguments with my next door neighbour as to why we took each other out in Mario Kart. Fast forward 10 + years and not much has changed, the gaming industry is still earning a packet (well more than a packet, billions), gaming is still a thing, games are still addictive and arguments are still at play. What has changed is the stereotype of a gamer, these days anyone and everyone with a smartphone who plays ‘Candy Crush’, ‘Clash of Clans’ or ‘Farmville’ is a gamer. These games are also referred to as ‘social games’, the ability for network publics to game and communicate on a range of network platforms (Bishop 2016; Scullion 2015).

(Clash of Clans 2015)

Liam Neeson...Cmon seriously for a game commercial?

Gaming is a $100 billion dollar industry, with social games grossing in excess of $30 billion. Social game developer Zynga achieved its popularity and success by leveraging off Facebook’s network capabilities and platform with its classic game ‘Farmville’ (PR Newswire 2015). Everyone I know has played ‘Farmville’ or ‘Candy Crush’ at some stage. Not me! I’m proud for not getting sucked into forking out cash for the sake of speeding up progress for a higher level or unlocked achievement. According to ‘Candy Crush’ developer, the game “is addictive because it’s equal parts pain and fun and fits consumers’ short attention span” (Shanley 2013).

Massively multi online role-playing games (MMORPG)

The closest thing I’ve come to playing ‘World of Warcraft’ is the endless amount of hours I put into ‘Warcraft’ on my Dad’s 486 PC when I was a kid. I know it’s a stretch, but I did say closest. Console gaming is more appealing for me, nothing better than wasting hours on end playing ‘Call of Duty’ at ridiculous hours of the morning. Oh wait....That was before I decided to study. The key characteristic I’ve experienced in online gaming seems to echo the same for digital communities. MMORPG are a forms of sociality, bringing individuals together as networks through technological innovation to share and experience common ideas, needs, wants and objectives (Bishop 2016).

Whether it’s social gaming or immersive MMORPG games, gaming is here to stay and will continue to evolve – next step virtual reality? Check out the funny YouTube video of Jimmy Fallon testing out VR for the first time. In the mean time I’ll be trying to think up a multi-billion dollar game idea…

(The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon 2016)

References

Bishop, R 2016, ‘Week 10’, Social gaming: Playing the crowd, Learning materials on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed 23 January 2016.

Clash of Clans 2015, Clash of Clans: Revenge (Official Super TV Commercial), 1 February, viewed 22 January 2016, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC2qk2X3fKA>.

PR Newswire 2015, ‘Multi-Billion Dollar Mobile Gaming Industry Projected to Reach Higher Levels as New Gaming Apps are Introduced into the Market’, PR Newswire, 1 May, viewed 23 January 2016, < http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/multi-billion-dollar-mobile-gaming-industry-projected-to-reach-higher-levels-as-new-gaming-apps-are-introduced-into-the-market-502133181.html>.

Ryan, P 2016, ‘Magpies Swan, Cloke in ‘nude photo’ furore’, afl.com.au, 18 January, viewed 22 January 2016, < http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-01-18/swan-cloke-in-nude-photo-scandal>.

Shanley, M 2013, ‘How Candy Crush Makes So Much Money’, Business Insider, 8 October, viewed 22 January 2016, <http://www.businessinsider.com/how-candy-crush-makes-so-much-money-2013-10?IR=T>.

Scullion, C 2015, ‘We’re All Gamers, and It’s Time to Embrace That’, VICE, 27 July, viewed 22 January 2016, <http://www.vice.com/read/were-all-gamers-and-its-time-to-embrace-that-945>.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon 2016, Joshua Topolsky Helps Jimmy Paint the Moon with a VR Headset, 13 January, viewed 22 January 2016, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtA6woCsN1g>.

Images

Moviepilot 2015, ‘The Nintendo 64 Is 18 Years Old! Here Are 8 Insane Facts You (Probably) Never Knew About the Beloved Console’, [image], moviepilot.com, viewed 23 January 2016, < http://moviepilot.com/posts/3277146>.

#MDA20009

tiarnasaur-deactivated20160706

Week 10 - Social Gaming

When I was a child I was born into the era of socially acceptable gaming. The Nintendo 64 had just been released and if you had one you were pretty important and luckily enough I was gifted one for Christmas one year. I still have mine today and it holds some pretty great memories of gaming with friends and even family.

Mind you this was long before the internet was accessible and affordable to many people in Australia. Today I would still call myself a gamer even though I don’t get to play as often as I would like but in saying that I can definitely say from personal experience that the dynamics of gaming have changed!

Today the gaming industry is worth billions of dollars not just from the buying of the games and the consoles themselves but from add-ons. Even free games suck you in with their highly needed add-ons. Many mobile apps need you to pay money to purchase in game items and I’m sure many parents would say a lot of their credit cards have become the unknowing victims of their children’s in app purchases. All of these games have some sort of addictive component that drives the need for these add-ons. Every few weeks you’ll see a story in the news about how some parent’s toddler has accessed their account and gone on a rampage buying in game items unbeknownst to the parent. This then ensues angry emails to the game provider asking for refunds (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2016).

We are now far from the days where if you wanted play a game with someone you had to have them come over to your house. Now all you need to do is connect to a server and you can play with people from all over the world! With this connectivity comes socialisation. People all over the world are able to bond and share stories regarding a game that they play together which in turn forms a kind of mateship.

So many people have ‘online friends’. People they’ve met in an online space that they have never actually met in real life. This was once weird but has somewhat become the social norm now. How you socialise has forever changed and our need to socialise will always be there so having a different place to facilitate the socialisation helps those that may in real life be shy (Positivevideogaming.web.unc.edu, 2016).

It may sound funny but people are now actually paid to play games and there are even national and world championships. League of Legends (LoL) – An MMORPG - even has its own university units dedicated to it now. It may be weird but I would say gaming is here to stay!

References

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, (2016). In-app purchases. [online] Available at: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/internet-phone/in-app-purchases [Accessed 20 Jan. 2016].

Positivevideogaming.web.unc.edu, (2016). How Video Games Can Be Social | Positive Effects of Video Games on Society. [online] Available at: http://positivevideogaming.web.unc.edu/sample-page/ [Accessed 20 Jan. 2016].

magicnumber23-blog

Oh yes the good old 64, the memories of blowing into the game cartridges when you had issues loading the game. I too still have my 64 and the classic and best game of all Bond (big head and paintball mods in multiplayer hands down). Agree, gaming is here to stay and what’s going to be interesting is how or if virtual reality will make a big difference to the industry just like smartphone gaming has. Cheers for the read.

#MDA20009

Blog #7 – Visual Communities and Social Imaging

Offline and online world of social media

Gone are the days when we use to take a photo or video to capture that moment in time, that special memory of a holiday, family occasion or birthday. Memories that were captured offline, developed and displayed around the home or kept in bulky photo albums. Now, we’re living in an online world where there’s no such thing as offline anymore, less photos around the house and photo albums with a few selected photos. Innovation and technology hasn’t changed the the idea of capturing a moment, it has changed however, how and when we document – 24/7 (Bishop 2016; Jason Farman 2014). Innovation of the smartphone and the Internet has enabled us to capture an image or video with a portable pocket sized device, and then instantly upload it to social media for the world to see. I like it how Sociologist Nathan Jurgenson puts it ‘seeing your life in the present already being documented’. Jurgenson believes uploading images to social media shouldn’t be compared to traditional photography in its art form, but rather a way of communicating the experience itself (Jurgenson 2014; Jason Farman 2014). I agree, social media provides a much bigger audience than visitors to your home.

Snapchat: Network Visuality & Visible Publics

(Snapchat n.d)

To be honest I’m not a fan of taking a ‘selfie’ and I’m rarely involved in one, looking in the mirror every morning scares me enough already! I don’t use Snapchat for taking ‘dick pics’, ‘selfies’ or any illegal activity, I use it to communicate my experiences with an audience that cares and enjoys sharing it with me. I’m talking about family and friends and 99% of the time it’s 10sec snaps of my 1 year old son growing, learning and general everyday life. I don’t feel I’m trading the experience in hope of documenting the moment as Turkle puts it, I’m able to do both (TED-Ed 2013).

(Jason Farman 2014)

Snapchat is an example of ‘network visuality’, expression and experiences through images and videos. ‘Network visuality’ has become a social norm, evident in the existence and popularity of other social media platforms, Instagram, Facebook, Flickr and Youtube (Bishop 2016). In an interview (check it out above), Jurgenson talks about theories as to why it’s normal to have an audience for your content (Jason Farman 2014). However, there is a difference between a wanted audience and unwanted audience and yes I’m talking about ‘dick pics’ again. Whether it’s Snapchat, SMS or any other social media platform, no one, not even Snapchat can “guarantee” the vulnerabilities from hacks or leaks (Bogle 2015; Bishop 2016). However, if your name is Dane Swan or Travis Cloke, your vulnerability is your stupidity (Ryan 2016).

(Womens Day 2016)

Posting, sharing and snapping your visual generated content is a way of communicating the experience itself to others. But, be warned about the vulnerabilities and implications of an unwanted audience, don’t take ‘dick pics’!

References

Bishop, R 2016, ‘Week 9’, Digital citizenship 2: Activism and protest, Learning materials on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed 22 January 2016.

Bogle, A 2015, ‘Snapchat tells users it’s not storing their private snaps after privacy update’, Mashable, 2 November, viewed 22 January 2016, < http://mashable.com/2015/11/01/snapchat-privacy-policy-update/#cOH0jp1Eigqh>.

Jason Farman 2014, Photography, Self Documentation, & Social Media: An Interview with Nathan Jurgenson, 16 June, viewed 22 January 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnPtZ5lKDHo>.

Jurgenson, N 2014, ‘The Frame Makes the Photograph’, Snapchat, 7 January, viewed 22 January 2014, < http://blog.snapchat.com/post/72561406329/the-frame-makes-the-photograph>.

Ryan, P 2016, ‘Magpies Swan, Cloke in ‘nude photo’ furore’, afl.com.au, 18 January, viewed 22 January 2016, < http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-01-18/swan-cloke-in-nude-photo-scandal>.

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 22 January 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>.

Images

Snapchat n.d., [logo], viewed 24 September 2015, <http://au.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/2014611/rs_600x600-140711114502-600-tech-snapchat-logo.ls.7114_copy.jpg>.

Womens Day 2016, ‘THE NUDE AFL PHOTOS EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT…’, [image], kiis1011.com.au, viewed 23 January 2016, <http://www.kiis1011.com.au/entertainment/the-feed/the-nude-afl-photos-everyone-is-talking-about>.

#MDA20009

stephsaidso-blog

Crowdsourcing & Crisis Mapping

Crowdsourcing

What is crowdsourcing? Well, an article published by Wired magazine in June 2006 states that Jeff Howe created the term “crowdsourcing” (Adams 2013). However, the term that was studied by theorist by Henry Chesbrough (Schildhauer & Voss 2014) refers to companies outsourcing projects to the public, tapping into the knowledge of a larger crowd by setting a challenge to the public for opinion suggestion and insight (Michel Neumann 2014).

Additionally, Blohm Leimeister & Krcmar (2013) differentiate competitive and collaborative as two forms of crowdsourcing. Collaborative crowdsourcing is established in a co-operative way where as the competitive type of crowdsourcing is constructed by gathering and communicating individual results.

Crisis Mapping

Crisis mapping is typically undertaken with the goals of creating “maps” that have key geographic data related to a response (Greenberg 2013). But is crisis mapping just used for political campaigns? No! Crisis Mapping can also include social and environmental crises.

Crisis Map Sourcing involves multiple methodologies and technologies to collect data. Ranging from paper-based survey approaches to crowdsourcing reports via SMS and utilising social media (iRevolutions 2011).

Crisis Mapping in Australia

In 2013 Google launched the Free Crisis Map, a crisis mapping tool for the bushfires burning through Australia in particular, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. (Starr 2013). The map allows users to zoom in, locate any one particular fire and discover its current status.

When researching crisis mapping I came across the following video “Emergency Management Social Media Research.” The video demonstrates examples of how social media was used throughout the Victorian floods in 2011. To save you watching the video I have summaries the key points below:

· Around the time of the Victorian floods in 2011 there where over 12,000 mentions of the floods on social media,

· Of those, the most common platform of social media used share information was that Twitter

· Social media reported flooding faster than official news outlets in metropolitan areas

Ultimately, the video and its finding show that the news of crisis, whether they are environmental, social or political – they have the ability to travel faster on the web via social media than the speed that news outlets can report them. That’s the power of crowdsourcing.

References: Adams I 2013, Crowdsourcing vs. Co-Creation: What’s the difference?, 21 November, viewed 12 January 2016, < http://blog.optimizationgroup.com/crowdsourcing-vs-co-creation-whats-the-difference> Blohm I, Leimeister J M & Krcmar H 2013, “Crowdsourcing: how to benefit from (too) many great ideas”, MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 199-211. Greenberg B 2013, Why Is Crisis Mapping So Popular? 23 October, viewed 13 January 2016, < http://www.emergencymgmt.com/disaster/Crisis-Mapping-Popular.html> iRevolutions 2011, What is Crisis Mapping? An Update on the Field and Looking Ahead, January 20, viewed 17 January 2016, < http://irevolution.net/2011/01/20/what-is-crisis-mapping/> Neumann M 2014, Open Innovation vs Crowdsourcing vs Co-creation, 17 April, viewed 15 January 2016, <http://www.wazoku.com/blog/open-innovation-vs-crowdsourcing-vs-co-creation/> Schildhauer T & Voss H 2014, Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing in the Sciences, 19 January, viewed 15 January 2016, < http://book.openingscience.org/vision/open_innovation_and_crowdsourcing_in_science.html> Starr M 2013, Google launches Australian bushfire crisis map 22 October viewed 16 January 2016, < http://www.cnet.com/au/news/google-launches-australian-bushfire-crisis-map/>

narellemda20009-blog

Crowdsourcing seems to be a natural off-shoot from social networking allowing many to contribute to the efforts in disasters. One of the “good” things to come out of social media. But of course there are those who will abuse this and the challenge for those who use crowdsourcing for crisis management will be to develop tools which will be able to better process the masses of information received, to data mine the information and to use collective intelligence to week out the false/misleading data. Thanks for the informative read!

magicnumber23-blog

Social media does cop a lot of bad publicity and negativity, however crowdsourcing is just one example where social media can be a useful and helpful tool. Good find re Google crisis mapping, something that I’ll check out for sure.

Thanks for the read

#MDA20009

newblogger42-blog

Visual Communities

How you see myself

With the many different platforms of social media, we can now share so much of ourselves and our lives online with others. Particularly with those that live some distance away. But how much do people actually want to know? I might think it’s important, but others not so much. And then what do we do when we are confronted with a selfie of our best friend? Again! We ask why do they feel the need to constantly upload photos of themselves? Who knows! Some may call it narcissism (Swinburne 2016).

Lange (2009) discusses the human need for attention and social media platforms certainly provide an avenue to fulfill this need. Quite ironically, Dr Sylvia Gearing (2013) explains in her Youtube video that taking selfies and posting on social media doesn’t give the viewer a real sense of who you are and doesn’t replace genuine face-to-face communication.

So how do we move on from here? What is an acceptable form of sharing information about ourselves, whether via text or photos, that will be free from criticism or judgement? We all have the right to express ourselves the way we want and whilst we may not agree with the act and find it very aggravating to be constantly bombarded with the same face day in, day out, perhaps we need to think about what is motivating them to engage in this behaviour.

Having said that, celebrities, such as Justin Bieber (Huffington Post 2013), use selfies to enhance their public images and use sexuality to achieve this. There are thousands of photos on the internet of celebrities that are barely clothed or posing as if they are blowing a kiss to fans. Whilst it may gain negative publicity, it is still publicity and keeps the celebrity (and even Jo Blog) in the forefront of viewers minds.

With the many platforms available; Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, even Tumblr, no longer will we be free of the avid selfie taker. However we do have the choice as to whether we choose to engage with it. And as communicators we can learn what is important to people from these behaviours, but Dr Gearing is right; digital should never replace meaningful face-to-face conversations when the opportunity permits.

References

Gearing, S 2013, ‘Generation Me - The Downside of Taking Selfies’ [video], Youtube, viewed 18 January 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=was0EQ0R8Ek>

Huffington Post 2013, ‘Justin Bieber’ [image], Huffington Post, viewed 18 January 2016, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com>

Lange, P 2009, ‘Videos of Affinity on Youtube’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Week 9 Learning Materials on Blackboard, 18 January, viewed 18 January 2016.

Swinburne Online 2016, ‘Week 9 Visual Communities’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Swinburne University of Technology, Learning Materials on Blackboard, 18 January, viewed 18 January 2016.

luanabickel-deactivated20160307

Hello,

Great read here.

Definitely agree when you say how celebrities use the selfies and visual platforms to promote themselves. On this week’s presentation we have also discussed about self-made celebrities. All via visual platforms. How do you see this kind of celebrity and their use of selfies for personal marketing?

Cheers

Luana

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narellemda20009-blog

Celebrities use of selfies is all about exposure and “getting their image out there” - always being “in YOUR face”. I always wonder whether they get tired of having to be so public; I could think of nothing worse that not have a little private time to zone out and “just be yourself”. How much more stress do people put themselves under? It’s a sad reflection on society today when one feels that they must always be in the limelight - makes you wonder, what their “quality of life” really is.

magicnumber23-blog

Thanks for the read :)

@luanabickel Definitely a strategy in building their personal brand, every time Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift posts anything, it ends up trending due to their massive social media fan following. @narellemda20009 I suppose the pressure of having to meet publicity/agency commitments could be stressful, but I think it’s all part and parcel of being a celebrity and the money and lifestyle that goes with it.

Blog #6 – Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

(Fraser et al 2013) Picture: Glen Male

This week we look at how social media platforms Facebook and Twitter are used for crowdsourcing in times of crisis, in particular the 2011 Brisbane floods.

What is Crowdsourcing?

When I hear the word crowdsourcing, I think kickstarter.com or gofundme.com, websites seeking financial investment or support for campaigns. But no, that’s crowdfunding, however both are similar concepts. Crowdsourcing can be defined as a communication piece seeking for the contribution and collaboration of individuals to help, aid, or solve an issue of social need (Howard 2006; TEDx Talks 2012).

Crowdsourcing played a very important role during the 2011 Brisbane floods, of which I experienced firsthand myself and the power of social media. Facebook and Twitter were instrumental in disseminating and sharing crisis information and updates from emergency services and anyone that captured the moments unfolding on their smartphones. 35,000 tweets containing #qldfloods hashtag were sent, of which 30-40% contained further links and information about road closures, power outages etc from other websites. QPSMedia (Queensland Police Service) provided situational information using both platforms, which was later acknowledged to have played a crucial role in keeping people safe and up to date (Bruns et al 2012, p. 7-9)

My personal experience of crowdsourcing in time of crisis

It’s hard to believe the Brisbane floods happened 5 years ago, although I wasn’t personally impacted, my mates were. I can still remember the first time I saw photos of a mate’s house on Facebook, the back flow from the Brisbane river and stormwater drains caused the most unthinkable damage. The pictures prompted me and some other mates to head around and help out, initially it was going to be a day, however it ended up being a week by the time we also helped out the rest of the street. The first weekend after the floods, I volunteered for the ‘mud army’ after seeing the call out on social media. My wife, some mates and I rocked up at a meeting point first thing Saturday morning, the line up of volunteers was huge! As we anxiously waited with our shovels, gloves and buckets for almost an hour, we were turned away in the nicest possible way because there were too many people already out on the streets. The enormous generosity and support shown by the people of Brisbane and the surrounding areas was insane, the call outs from emergency services, council and individuals on Twitter and Facebook had worked.

The power of the crowd shouldn’t be underestimated, especially in times of crisis. If you have time check out the TEDx talk ‘Leveraging the chaos of crowdsourcing’ by Peter Davison.

(TEDx Talks 2012)

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 18 January 2016, <http://www.cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf>.

Fraser, K, Johnson, S & Rawson, S 2013, ‘Brisbane CBD braces for its second flood in two years’, [image], The Courier Mail, 29 January, viewed 18 January 2016, < http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/brisbane-cbd-braces-for-its-second-flood-in-two-years/story-e6freoof-1226563818419>.

Howard, J 2006, ‘The Rise of Crowdsourcing’, Wired, 14 June, viewed 18 January 2016, <http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html>.

TEDx Talks 2012, Leveraging the chaos of crowdsourcing: Peter Davison at TEDxMongKok, 12 June, viewed 18 January 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bm5QIiIGp4>.

#MDA20009

sammmiemc50

Blog # 5 (Week 7) Digital Communities ‘Drama’ and understanding online bullying

In the previous weeks, the units explored the impact of social media and networked communities within the contexts of personal use, the increasingly employment of social media platforms for political campaigning, and activism and protest through digital means (Blackboard 2015). The unit moved to focussing on the contested concept of online interpersonal conflict and exploring further how we manage our identity socially online: ‘trolling’, cyber-bullying and recognising some positive opportunities exist to ‘help’ the bullies themselves whose intention is to expose and embarrass others through social media platforms (Wilken & McCosker 2014).

Bullying - Divergent Conceptions

According to danah boyd (2014, p.130), the concerns about teenage online conflicts and perceived public shaming and harassment have resulted in a ‘national obsession’ with cyber-bullying - interactions that are largely misconstrued by adults. Boyd’s perspective is based on a definition of bullying drawn from the work of Dan Olweus that identifies three components that are required to meet the threshold of bullying

agresssion

repitition

imbalance of power

Personal accounts obtained from teenagers by boyd do not support that most online conflict contains the element of ‘imbalance of power’: rather the interactions are entered into wilfully and knowingly and are often initiated for ‘drama’ - “perfomative, interpersonal conflict that takes place in front of an active, engaged audience, often on social media” (boyd, 2014, p.138).

Given the absence of an imbalance of power, many examples of perceived cyber-bullying are no more than a form of entertainment, or a means to alleviate boredom.

This perspective can be contested. “Social Norms Theory” (Perkins and Berkowtitz, 1986), proposes that an individuals’ interpretation of social norms, “those beliefs about the attitudes and behaviours that are normal, acceptable, and even expected, in a particular social context” and that influence behaviour, can be misinterpreted to conceive that an attitude or behaviour is more common (or less common) than they perceive it to be: thereby the person engages with ‘false norms’ (Anti-Defamation League). In the social media context, such false norms can lead to someone to engage in behaviour - online rumours, cruel taunts, deliberately embarrassing someone - thinking that it is acceptable to their peers, with the intention of conforming to expectations, driving behaviour in engaging in cyber-bullying. The perception can be that non-participation may lead to being ostracised from the group - and potentially become a victim themselves (Berkowitz 2015).

As a parent of teenager who is in the cohort of being susceptible to both being bully or victim, the changes in legislation that has recently been implemented is of particular interest. One only needs to become aware of one tragic example of how cruel online persecution can lead to the death of a young person to be persuaded that perceived violation of civil liberties (i.e. freedom of speech) measured against regulation to prevent such behaviours, supports that a regulatory framework is justified (Begg 2015).

Text messages, Facebook posts - and tragedy

On Easter Saturday 2014, 19-year-old Jessica Cleland suicided having been cyber-bullied by two teenage boys “she considered friends”: she had no history of mental illness. The Coroner’s finding stated that “although it is not possible to identify, with any degree of certainty, the factors contributing to a person’s decision to take their own life, it is evident that messages received by Jessica online proximate to her death … were precipitating factors. I am satisfied that Faceboook and text messaging were problematic for Jessica: easy access to the Internet on her phone meant that she was exposed to potentially upsetting communications 24 hours a day: and she was able to return to, and re-read, the upsetting messages .. and ruminate about them” (The Drum 2015). Jessica’s Facebook account had been flooded with “horrible sentiments before she died” by the two boys, who had publicly stated that they hated her and that she was “a f**cking woos” and “useless” (Ford 2015: McNab 2015).

Under new legislation, the two boys in the Cleland case could be sentenced to 10 years in prison. With the function of promoting online safety of children, The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commission provides education and resources for young people, parents, teachers, and anyone concerned about cyber-bullying stating the Commission’s vision “is to encourage behavioural change where Australian children and young people act responsibly online, just as they would offline to create an environment where cyberbullying behaviour is just unacceptable” (Office of the Children’s eSafety Commission 2015).

References

Begg, M 2015, ‘New cyber-bullying commissioner takes nanny state too far’, The Australian, freedomwatch.ipa.org.au/tag/childrens-e-safety-commissioner/

Berkowitz, A 2013, Social Norms Approach, Education Development Centre’s Higher Education Centre, www.ou.edu/judicial/pae/pdt/iv/b/IVBiiSocialNormingTheory.pdf

boyd, D 2014, ‘Bullying: is social media amplifying meanness and cruetly?’, It’s complicated: the social lives of networked teens, Yale University Press, New Haven

Blackboard 2015, Digital Communities, https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-5190912-dt-content-rid-26655217_2/courses/2015-SO3-MDA20009-210404/UnitLearningMaterials/week-07.html

Wilken, R and McCosker, R 2014, ‘Social Selves’, The media and communications in Australia, 4th edn., Allen and Unwin, Sydney

yesdontyouknowit

I really enjoyed this read. It’s interesting how even deleting people from your work off your Facebook can be considered to be bullying. Social media is redefining how people hurt and support each other.

melgallimore-blog

Thank you for your blog I really enjoyed it. It is really great to hear from the perspective of a parent.

Not having children myself and having already grown into my skin and personal confidence I am some what protected from cyber bullying, so thank you for sharing your views and concerns :)

magicnumber23-blog

My boy is only 1 and a lot will change in the next 12 yrs, but it still makes me sick and concerned reading about cyberbullying tragedies just like Jessica. My heart goes out to parents who’s kids have been victims, awareness and prevention is key for the future. Cheers for the read :)

#MDA20009

theurbantheoristblog

When Push Comes To Shove

Its every parents nightmare, bullying.

No longer is this form of harassment confined to the school yard, thanks to social media platforms such as Facebook, My Space even You Tube and Twitter, the art of bullying has taken on a whole new guise, known as cyber bullying.

So what exactly is cyber bullying, how does one identify when it’s happening?

The very nature of bullying in todays age, takes on many forms including physical, emotional/verbal, cyber and social. The aim of bullying is to harass, embarrass, intimidate or threaten persons individually or as a collective. More often than not, bullying is often more than the work of just one, the fact is that for most cases the opposite is true.

According to bullyingnoway.gov.au, an alarming 83% of students that bully online also carry out offline bullying, adding further insult to their injury, 87% of the time,their colleagues are often nearby as the bullying takes place.

Interestingly, there is a relationship between age related attacks and online connectivity, as older students are found to be highly prone to engaging in bullying than their younger counterparts.

Meanwhile, a staggering 61% of 16 - 17 year olds friend those that their unfamiliar with offline, while 78% feature personal information including a personal profile image of themselves.

Olweus (as cited in Boyd,) suggests that from a fundamental stand point, bullying is focussed around a difference of power.

Notably, the typical model of bullying promotes the idea of an enforcer and the victimised, in most cases the victimised is left with an ongoing anxieties of what the enforcer in this case might be up to next.

Danah Boyd blames networked technology for essentially complicating how society interprets bullying, suggesting that for some, “cyber bullying is a whole new Phenomenon”. Interestingly, as the world became introduced to social media, overtime the views taken to identify bullying have become somewhat blurred.

So what can be done if you or someone you know is being victimised by cyber bullying, you ask?

Quite a lot, in recent years, the Australian Government has cracked down severely on this type of hate crime, going as far as to pass laws to legislate against it, intact part 10.6 of the Telecommunications Act outlines the legislation for online harassment.

For those under the age of consent, theres a website known as “ takeastandtogether.gov.au which explains simply the processes involved in identifying and addressing all facets of bullying.

Furthermore; for parents wishing to educate their children about what is and is not cool online, the ThinkUknow.org.au outlines everything you as a parent needs to know.

Above all, prevention is far better than the cure, identifying these traits can be as simple as watching for symptoms such as, regular complaints of ill health, increased feelings of sadness or depression, wanting to be alone, increased levels of anxiety and an inability to sleep.

Left untreated, theses symptoms hold the potential to affect the child well into their adult years.

Maybe you might know someone who has been bullied when it comes to awareness do you think there is enough being done to stop harassment both on and offline?

References:

Cyber bullying: An Anonymous Nightmare | Examiner.com. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.examiner.com/article/cyber-bullying-an-anonymous-nightmare. [Accessed 11 January 2016]

What is Cyberbullying | StopBullying.gov. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/index.html. [Accessed 11 January 2016]

Boyd, Danah.Bullying: Is social media amplifying meanness and cruelty?It’s complicated; the social lives of networked teens.P.128-152 (ONLINE), New Haven, USA Yale University Press. 2014.

Protecting yourself online | Youth | Queensland Government.2016 [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.qld.gov.au/youth/being-safe-knowing-your-rights/protecting-yourself-online/index.html [Accessed 10 January 2016].

Take A Stand. 2016. Take A Stand. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.takeastandtogether.gov.au [Accessed 10 January 2016].

eSafety Homepage | Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner. [ONLINE] Available at: https://esafety.gov.au/?from=cybersmart.[Accessed 11 January 2016]

Criminal Code Act 1995, Comlaw.gov.au https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2009C00380/Html/Text#param827 (Online) [Accessed 10 January 2016]

Thinkuknow Youth.2016 [ONLINE] Available at: http://thinkuknow.org.au/youth/ [Accessed 10 January 2016]

Cyberbullying - A Short Film - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://youtu.be/Wvqd_4r85P4. [Accessed 10 January 2016]

narellemda20009-blog

A fantastic blog - you have used images, video & statistics effectively to emphasise the impact that cyberbullying has on the community. You list some great resources too. A great read - thanks!

magicnumber23-blog

Good read! I don’t think cyberbullying was around when I was growing up, if you had someone on MSN messenger or ICQ that annoyed you, you could just block or delete them. The Government has implemented some good measures in awareness and prevention at the grassroots of education, but I think parents also play a key role at home.

#MDA20009

Blog #5 – Digital Citizenship 3: Trolling and social media conflict

The dark side to the Internet and social media

As I’ve explored in my other blogs, the innovation of the Internet and the creation of social media brings many advantages and benefits to individuals’ and society as a whole. However, where there is good, evil is lurking closely around the corner. The evil I’m talking about is the trolling, bullying and stalking behaviour from anonymous keyboard warriors that hide behind their screens (Wilson et al 2013).

Urban Dictionary top definition for trolling:

“Being a prick on the internet because you can. Typically unleashing one or more cynical or sarcastic remarks on an innocent by-stander, because it’s the internet and, hey, you can” (Urban Dictionary 2016).

Not all conflict is seen as trolling or cyberbullying, but a matter of misunderstanding, wrong intent and misinterpretation. However, it’s not something society can ignore because there are ‘pricks’ out there ruining lives for amusement, deception, manipulation or just seeking to justify their feelings (Bishop 2016). It’s not just ruining lives; it’s ending lives (NoBullying.com 2015). In most of these tragic cases the victims have been children and teenagers, the statistics are frightening, I had no idea until reaching into this weeks topic. Australian research indicates cyberbullying is most common in 10-14 year olds, with 50% of the age group reported being bullied online at some stage (Kids Helpline 2014). Nobullying.com and kidshelpline.com.au are movements against cyberbullying, they provide further insight into identifying the signs, dealing with and seeking help (NoBullying.com 2015; Kids Helpline 2014).

What is being done?

The Australian Government started its crackdown on cyberbullying back in 2014 by appointing a Commissioner who had the task of enhancing the online safety of children in Australia. One of the campaign objectives was to collaborate with industry leading companies, Google and Microsoft to implement improved safety measures in the fight against cyberbullying (Mamamia 2014; Lannin 2014).

Check out the ‘Office of Children’s eSafety’ for more information.

What can you do!

So the wise Internet folk say ‘Do Not Feed them!’, don’t give them the satisfaction and material they’re looking for. Unfortunately the digital world will always come up against it, however digital citizenship needs to continue the fight against them by creating awareness and prevention before its too late (Wilson et al 2013).

I say let the scum rot at the bottom of the Internet!

References

Bishop, R 2016, ‘Week 7’, Digital citizenship 3: Trolling and social media conflict, Learning materials on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed 16 January 2016.

Kids Helpline 2014, ‘Cyberbullying’, Kids Helpline, July, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://www.kidshelpline.com.au/grownups/news-research/hot-topics/cyber-bullying.php>.

Lannin, S 2014, ‘Cyber Bullying: Government crackdown to target social media sites’, ABC, 3 December, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-03/government-plans-cyber-bullying-crackdown/5935560>.

Mamamia 2014, ‘1 in 5 Australian kids have experienced this. And the consequences can be devastating’, Mamamia Team, 15 August, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://www.mamamia.com.au/cyberbullying-statistics-in-australia/>.

NoBullying.com 2015, ‘The Top Six Unforgettable CyberBullying Cases Ever’, NoBullying.com, 22 December, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://nobullying.com/six-unforgettable-cyber-bullying-cases/>.

Sturdivant, K 2014, ‘They see me Trollin’, [image], Fun Science Friday – “Trolls Just Wanna Have Fun”, Southern Fried Science, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=16818>.

Urban Dictionary 2016, Top Definition: trolling, Urban Dictionary, viewed 16 January, <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trolling>.

Wilson, J, Fuller, G & McCrea, C (eds) 2013, Trolls and the negative space of the internet, Fibreculture Journal, Issue 22, viewed 16 January 2016, <http://twentytwo.fibreculturejournal.org>.

#mda20009

Blog #4 - Digital Citizenship 2: Activism & Protest

These days I can’t scroll through my Facebook page or twitter followers without seeing any type of digital activism that’s asking me to share, like or hashtag for support. As a digital citizen I’m happy more than happy to comply if its something I’m interested in or have personal views towards, but does it actually show my support? If so, how? New digital and social media platforms have made it easier and cheaper (free?) to ‘facilitate the membership of individuals within society’ (Bishop 2016).

Facebook is an activists best friend

Now I know why my Facebook feed has been hijacked by activists, it’s the most attractive social platform with more than one billion users logging in each day (eBizMBA 2015 & Facebook 2015). Facebook is a tool that activists can use to influence, engage and encourage collective actions in a digital environment. So remember when I said I do like or share a post that I support? Well there’s a term for it, it’s called ‘slacktivism’. Check out the below YouTube video for a more in-depth explanation and understanding of slacktivism.

‘Biologically wired to look good to others’, interesting comment in the video, I’ve never really thought about it that way before (DNews 2013). Not sure if I agree or disagree, sitting on the fence – What do you think? Speaking of fence, slacktivism in a different perspective has been documented that it can be influential if someone is sitting on the fence about a topic and Facebook enables their voice or actions to be heard or seen (Dan 2015).

‘Social Media Activism: Changing the World, One Post at a Time?’.

I stubbled upon this article while researching. I’d forgotten about the ALS Ice Bucket challenge, the social activism campaign not only raised over $100 million but also awareness about the disease. Does it ring any bells? I didn’t participate, but I did like and share posts from family and friends that did. I don’t think social media can ‘change the world’, but it can be used as a tool to facilitate support and awareness around issues that affect the world.

Culture Jamming

Another type of digital activism is culture jamming, expression in the form of graffiti art, hacktivism, adbusting and performance art against the hegemony of popular culture. Banksy is a great example, who also happens to be one of my favourite artists. Until next time, enjoy his latest piece.

(Banksy 2016)

References

Banksy 2016, ‘the son of a migrant from Syria’ [image], banksy, viewed 15 January 2016, <http://www.banksy.co.uk/index1.asp>.

Bishop, R 2016, ‘Week 6’, Digital citizenship 2: Activism and protest, Learning materials on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed 8 January 2016.

Dan, N 2015, ‘Slacktivists more important than people think’, UWIRE 6 July, General Onefile, viewed 28 November 2015, <http://ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA420738882&v=2.1&u=swinburne1&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w&asid=a2103e9ff5e2b4f3d678b80662783c4e>.

DNews 2013, You ‘Like’ Doesn’t Help Charities, It’s Just Slacktivism, 15 November, viewed 15 January 2016, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efVFiLigmbc>.

eBizMBA 2015, Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites | December 2015, eBizMBA, viewed 25 November 2015, <http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites>.

Facebook 2015, Newsroom: Company Info, Facebook, viewed 25 November, < http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/>.

Moore, S 2015, ‘Social Media Activism: Changing the World, One Post at a Time?’, Socialmediatoday.com, 7 October, viewed 15 January 2016, < http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/suzannewayincom/2015-10-07/social-media-activism-changing-world-one-post-time>.

#MDA20009

Blog #3 Digital Citizenship – Politics & Civic Cultures

#Running for #Office #Follow me

Social media has increasingly become apart of a political campaign strategy for any candidate seeking the publics support. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are able to disseminate campaign messages and gain candidate support by a like, share, comment or hashtag. Social media has proven to generate support, motivate and excite the political process, but does this effect actually make a difference on ballot day? (Housholder & LaMarre 2014)

Where did it all start?

The 2008 U.S presidential election made history, not just because Barack Obama became president but how social media was apart of of his success. Obama embraced social media during his political campaign by engaging and connecting with potential voters on the issues that mattered most via Twitter, MySpace and various blogs. Leading up to election day, Obama had already won the social media battle against his opposition John McCain. Come election day Obama had a total of 118,1008 twitter followers compared to John who only had 4,942 followers (Lardinois 2008).

The Social Campaign infographic provides great insight into the importance social media played during the 2008 U.S election and the potential it projected for 2012. Click here for the full version. The infographic illustrates the impact social media was projected to have in 2012 and how the increase of users could benefit political campaigners in the future (Dugan 2012). Fast forward too 2012, Twitter reaches 500 million users, with 141 million of those in the U.S (Lunden 2012). Wowser.... 20 times than what was projected!

(Dugan 2012)

The Obama Story Continues ...

(Sharp 2012)

Obama sent out the above tweet before he even addressed the nation on his success of being re-elected for “four more years”. Obama’s tweet within minutes had 741,473 retweets and 290,546 likes. Twitter was also used by other powers that be to congratulate Obama on his victory (Sharp 2012).

(Sharp 2012)

7 years on...

Looking back it’s hard to believe Obama was at the forefront in using social media for political campaigning 7 years ago. Then, Obama had 100,000 Twitter followers and 840,000 friends on MySpace. Now, Obama has over 67 million followers on Twitter and over 46 million Facebook page likes (Obama 2015 & Lardinois 2008). Obama’s organisation continues to use social media as a political strategy, embracing technological change by pursuing political support not just on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube but also being active on Google+, Slideshare, Flickr, LinkedIn and Foursquare ( Turoczy 2008 & White House 2015).

Click here for further insight into Obama’s Social Hub

Academic research and hard evidence is still out on whether political campaign support on social media has transferred to physical votes on polling day. What is evident is how Obama has been effective in using social media to generate support and awareness in gaining democratic voters.

Further insight into the company Blue State Digital the agency who has been credited for the success of Obama’s social media presence. The video also looks at the power of amateur political comments in broadcasting campaign messages. Have you ever shared or contributed to a political campaign message?

#thanks for reading

References

Bloomberg Business 2015, How Social Media Strategy Changed Election Campaigns, 26 May, viewed 18 December 2015, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0kXc7Xjb7Y>.

Dugan, L 2012, ‘Social Media Then And Now: The 2008 And 2012 Presidential Elections [INFOGRAPHIC]’, Social Times, 31 Jan, viewed 12 December 2015, <http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-media-then-and-now-the-2008-and-2012-presidential-elections-infographic/459616>.

Housholder, E & LaMarre, H 2014, ‘Political social media engagement: Comparing campaign goals with voter behavior’, Public Relations Review, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 138-140.

Lardinoism, F 2008, ‘Obama’s Social Media Advantage’, readwrite, 5 Nov, viewed 12 December 2015, <http://readwrite.com/2008/11/05/social_media_obama_mccain_comparison>. (Lardinois 2008)

Lunden, I 2012, ‘Analyst: Twitter Passed 500m Users in June 2012, 140M Of Them In US; Jakarta Biggest Tweeting City’, techcrunch, 30 July, viewed 12 December 2015, < http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/30/analyst-twitter-passed-500m-users-in-june-2012-140m-of-them-in-us-jakarta-biggest-tweeting-city/>.

Obama, B 2015, Barack Obama, viewed 18 December 2015, <https://twitter.com/BarackObama>.

Sharp, A 2012, ‘Election Night 2012’, Twitter, 7 Nov, viewed 12 December 2015, <https://blog.twitter.com/2012/election-night-2012>.

Turoczy, R 2008, ‘Obama’s Social Media Advantage, Act II’, readwrite, 7 Nov, viewed 12 December 2015, <http://readwrite.com/2008/11/06/obamas_social_media_advantage>.

White House 2015, ‘Social Hub’, US Government, viewed 12 December 2015, <https://www.whitehouse.gov/engage/social-hub>.

#mda20009

ljt245

The online, the always on and the ugly.

Blog 1 – reflecting on weeks 1 to 3 of Digital Communities.

Affordable, powerful and connected technology has announced the era of globalisation and the individual (Wilken and McCosker 2014, pp. 291-293; Siapera 2012, p. 191). But all this managing of identity, curating of friends lists and tweeting of opinion, represents an explosion of sociality (Siapera 2012, p. 192), new ways of being together! Tonnies talked about community’s affective bonds (Swinburne Online 2015b) replaced by society through technology. It seems that technology is taking us back to where we started and those nostalgic views we have might just be tested.

As online students we know years of collaborating apart, and, through convenience and necessity most of us embrace being ‘always on’. The continuous, peripheral connection to knowledge and people (boyd 2012, pp. 73-74) makes collaboration flexible, fast and (sometimes) fun! Although my double standards show each time I’m dismayed by my children jumping at the text message chime. Putnam’s very American metaphor (Swinburne Online 2015b), of bowling alone though, is one I take issue with. We have never worked or played together more than we now do online. While there might less depth in these connections (TED ed 2013), Putnam’s beer and pretzels are hardly high culture so, for a new generation Xbox and PlayStation are the new bowling, less ‘bowling alone’ than ‘bowling apart’.

Synonymous with social media is the discussion of privacy (Wilken and McCosker 2014, p. 294) but I want to say, right now, I’m optimistic, especially with those ‘born digital’. Online awareness is ingrained in them (Youth and Media n.d), and if knowledge is power then they are well equipped to negotiate the tension between public and private. But is the threat to privacy as bad as we imagine? Sunstein (in Siapera 2012, pp. 195-196) notes the internet’s boundless choice, at the same time Wellman (in Siapera 2012, p. 198) notes the tendency for users to choose content based on their own preferences and characteristics. Privacy becomes less urgent when fewer people care what you put online, and those that do, seek only (van der Negal 2013, p. 5) reflections of themselves.

I’m more concerned with our new gatekeepers of information. Social media challenges traditional content distribution with a many to many model. Government, industry associations and editors once applied ethics and societal concerns to what we saw and heard, in contrast distribution of online content is regulated solely (Gillespie 2010, pp. 358-359) by the profit driven. The sheer volume of data moving through their platforms requires technological and cultural structures to manage (van der Negal 2013, pp. 5-9) and it is in these that billionaires decide what you can see, do and say. I remain optimistic though. I trust in a humanity that has maintained privacy in the face of threat (boyd 2010, p. 52) and exploits the affordances (Swinburne Online 2015a) of social media platforms for free expression and believe in the end we control our online creation, not the other way around.

References

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

boyd, D 2012, Participating in the Always On Lifestyle, in Mandiberg (ed) The Social Media Reader, NYU Press, pp 71-76.

Gillespie, T 2010, ’The politics of platforms’, New Media & Society, vol. 12, no. 3, Sage.

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

Swinburne Online 2015a, ‘Week 3: Platform case study: reddit’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed 12 November 2015.

Swinburne Online 2015b, ‘Week 2: Social theory and social media’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed 12 November 2015.

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 26 August 2014, <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.

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

Youth and Media n.d, Digital Natives, Youth and Media, viewed 20 November 2015, < https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/youthandmediaalpha/projects/past-projects/digital-natives/>.

narellemda20009-blog

Technology is a new way of communicating and being together, but don’t you think that this is a bit “false” because we’re all “managing our identities” and only showing what we want to show? This means that we have an “online self” and a “private self” - I think that the private self also needs a place to express itself and probably on a face-to-face basis otherwise I see that health issues will eventually result.

ljt245

Hi there. Taking your point but I think we equally manage our identity offline as well - how we dress and behave, who we spend time with, what activities we do. I think the self is actually a series of compartmentalised selves and choosing not to show all of it all the time is not necessarily false. Thanks for the comment!

magicnumber23-blog

Hi @ljt245,

100% agree with how you finished off your blog “in the end we control our online creation”. The privacy debate will continue to be an age old issue. Those individuals that continuously complain and argue about the risk/threat to their privacy will always do unless they get off social media completely. I have no sympathy for those that share personal images online that they only want some people to see, we all know how that turned out for snapchat users. Thinking about it, I suppose a digital common sense awareness will evolve over time just like the protection of our privacy.

#mda20009

stephsaidso-blog

An intro to social media

Weeks 1-3 - MDA2009 - Digital Communities

Five years ago I met my partner on Facebook. Yep - it’s true! It’s actually not that bizarre as today; statistics show that 1 out of 8 married couples in the U.S. met via social media (Buzzz Social Media, 2011). Then three years ago I began tertiary studies in marketing online. Now that’s not seen as uncommon these days. A study undertaken by the U.S Department of education revealed that online students actually out preformed students that studied face to face (Buzzz Social Media, 2011).

If social sites can play cupid for a large portion of the world and can help students overall study performance then it’s probably about time to investigate a little deeper into this thing called “social media.”

So what is social media?

According to Rouse (2015) Social media can be defines as:

“ Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.”

I am already beginning to notice that there are so many terms specific to social media. Virtual communities, digital communities, networked publics, and digital societies have already come up over the past few weeks.

Over the coming weeks I will be investigating the technical terms of social media as well as the terminology associated with digital communities. I will be posting “glossary definitions” post check out my post this week on ‘Virtual communities’.

As I mentioned before, I study online and I met my partner on Facebook. But what other social media platforms do I use, you ask? I have to confess and state that I use social media quite a lot but at the same time I would like to think that I can enjoy the company of family and friends without picking up a device. I believe danah boyd (2012) said it best “I’m apart of a cohort who is always on.” It’s true - in his day an age we use social media in our daily lives.

The social media platforms that I use daily regularly are Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn. I use each of them mainly for communicating with different social groups in my life:

· Facebook - to communicate with my family,

· Snapchat – to connect with only my closest friends,

· Instagram - with a wider scope of friends; and

· LinkedIn - purely with colleagues.

So we use social media a lot.

Is this a good or bad thing?

What are the positives and negatives of social media?

Everyone has there own opinion on whether social media is truly an asset or whether it may be a fad. Over the past few weeks I have turned to social media - Youtube to find out what others really think.

Some of the videos I watched where ‘The Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media’ and ‘Pros and Cons of Social Media.’

My investigations lead me to create a list of the pros and cons of social media.

Positives

· Self expression

· Share your feelings

· Learn about others

· Connectivity - keep in touch

· Opportunities for Businesses

Negatives

· Cyber bullying

· Waste of time

· Leads to Addiction

· Lead to Isolation

· Affecting Productivity

· Invasion of privacy

But I’m still undecided. I cant seem to pick I side.

What do you think?

Is a social media good or bad?

References:

Boyd, D 2012, Participating in the Always On Lifestyle, in Mandiberg (ed) The Social Media Reader, NYU Press, pp 71-76.

Buzzz Social Media 2011, The Social Media Revolution 2014, 23 October, viewed 26 August 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eUeL3n7fDs>.

Manalaotao H 2014, The Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media, 6 March, viewed 11 November 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMQ2kmGrxCs>

Rouse M 2006, Virtuale communities, September, viewed 18 November 2015, <http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/virtual-community>

Rouse M 2015, Social Media, May, viewed 18 November 2015, <http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media>

The social media revolution (2014) <http://bit.ly/1jX4W0W>

Thomas C 2014, ‘Pros and Cons of Social Media,’ 24 May, viewed 11 November 2015,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iibedok4Bvo>

ljt245

Hi there. Making connections with your own experience, and your conversational style were really effective here. I felt really engaged and wanted to read on - well done!

Most of us use social media but the first 3 weeks of this course bought formal theory into the frame and asked us to look at it in a new way, to apply some critical thinking. Your positives / negatives list captures what we as a group came up with nicely and is a good primer for the weeks to come.

Have clicked the follow button and will be checking in over the coming weeks, looking forward to what’s next!

stephsaidso-blog

Thanks for the feedback! You put a big smile on my face :)

magicnumber23-blog

Hi @stephsaidso.

I believe social media is positive thing, however like anything you always need to take the good with the bad. Its interesting you put “waste of time” as a negative, I suppose it depends on the context. Personally its a negative when I’m procrastinating when I should be studying :) Positive when you have time to waste e.g waiting for the train/bus or doc/dentist. I’m not one to self-express or share my feelings online, however definitely a positive to communicate with loved ones on the other side of the world and use LinkedIn for business networking opportunities.

Thanks for the read!

#mda20009

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