Manaja_Digital Communities

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Visual Communities and Social Imaging

Share (https://goo.gl/2H7nRC)

Photography has evolved immensely over the past century, most notably with the development of digital photography and then the development of social media. Prior to digital photography and social media, people used to take analog pictures of either moments in their lives they would like to treasure and share with family and friends in a photo album, or as artistic photographs to sell or display. At the end the photograph was the product.

The development of social media and digital photography have paved the way for a new kind of photography sharing where the actual photo is not the product but the discourse around it (Jurgenson, 2014). These developments have made it much easier for individuals to share their photographs and videos with those they affiliate with to a certain degree. People started to find affinity in such activity and belonging to certain elements of the online digital imaging world. Lange argues that “Videos of affinity try to establish communicative connections to people, often members of a social network. Some people might equate videos of affinity to amateur video blogs 9 because they are both assumed to focus on home-based forms of videomaking” (Lange, 2009).

Social Media (https://goo.gl/hYhfjp)

Platforms such as snapchat and Instagram were purely built on the idea of photo sharing. Snapchat became popular among users do to the fact that they could decide whether the images disappear after a certain amount of time. This in turn brings up two notes regarding this platform, one is that it helps some users who would consider themselves “camera shy” to experiment knowing they had some control over how and what they share. The second is that the idea of the photo has now become the conversation starter and not the point, as Jurgenson explains it, the ends is the communication and meaning expressed through the photo, the actual photo is irrelevant (Jurgenson, 2014).

Social media platforms have also given the users the most important element of desire and that is to have those images seen by the widest possible audience. Users can tag their photos with keywords through hashtags and geotags, these tags make the process of finding or being found much easier, especially in a space where millions of photos and videos are added daily.

Reference:

Jason Farman 2014, Photography, Self Documentation, & Social Media: An Interview with Nathan Jurgenson, 16 June, viewed 28 January 2018 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnPtZ5lKDHo>.

Lange, P 2009, ‘Videos of Affinity on YouTube’, in P, Snickars & P, Vonderau (eds), The YouTube Reader, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm, pp. 70-88.

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CrowdSourcing in Times of Crisis

Ushahidi (https://goo.gl/fjny9Z)

In times of crisis and natural disasters such as earth quakes floods and fires communication can be key to saving lives and properties. Conventional traditional media is very limited and relies on data gathered over time on the ground, that results in delays while relaying information that might be critical. The emergence of numerous social media sites and platforms have given way to a new form of instantaneous information gathering and response through the use of crowd sourcing. Crowd sourcing is the practice of delegating a task to a large group of people in the hope that the combined group knowledge will improve the understanding of a chosen topic (Estelles-Arolas & Gonzalez-Ladron-De-Guevara, 2012, p. 1).

Crowd sourcing is used in many aspects in the online world, be it direct or none direct. Sites such as Twitter Facebook and google+ rely on user generated information to function in an indirect way. Whereas Wikipedia and Reddit function in a crowd sourcing manner to populate these sites with information directly that is for the purpose of enlighten others and making information available to all.

Other online sites completely function and depend on crowd sourced information to provide as much information as possible in times of crisis or disasters. Sites such as Ushahidi, give live and updated user generated information, this information can then be used by emergency services in these situations to provide support and help to the most effected and needed areas or situations. (Okolloh, 2009).

Japan Tsunami (https://goo.gl/44HhYu)

Social mapping is a real time visual representation of posts by public user giving emergency services and media a vital tool in accessing such information (Swinburne, 2017). These social maps have been key in saving many lives in the Haiti crisis where first responders where able to pin point the most affected areas (Meier, 2012).

Crowd Sourcing and social mapping are great tools for fast and mostly accurate information, some of the benefits of crowd sourcing include the immediacy of information gathering, pin pointing most affected and needy crisis areas, social mapping provides an easy to navigate map of the crisis area. There are also some draw backs to crowd sourcing including the reliability of information gathered from the public, what information is relevant and worthy, and anonymity makes it difficult to collect testimonies. A good example of the struggle of crowd sourcing is during the Egyptian election monitoring process in 2010, vandals tried to bring down the Ushahidi system by uploading more than 260,000 photos and crippling the system (Ford, 2012).

References:

Estelles-Arolas, E & Gonzalez-Ladron-De-Guevara, F 2012, ‘Towards an integrated crowdsourcing definition’, Journal of information Science, vol. 38, no. 2. Ford, H, 2012, Crowd wisdom, Index on censorship, vol. 41, no. 4.

Meier, P 2012, Mobile Technologies, Crisis Mapping & Disaster Response: My Talk at #MWC12, iRevolutions, <https://irevolutions.org/2012/02/26/mobile-technologies-crisis- mapping-disaster-response/>

Okolloh, O, 2009, ‘Ushahidi,or‘testimony’: Web 2.0 9 tools for crowdsourcing crisis information’, Participatory learning and action, vol. 59, no. 1.

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Trolling and Provocation

Trolling (https://goo.gl/TsxMCP)

Societies can only exist because people want to associate with others (Siapera 2012). Hence in the digital age we now have what we call digital citizenship, where digital media tools “facilitate the membership and participation of individuals within society” (Mossberger et al. 2008, p. 1). Unfortunately, in all societies there are those that would like to cause harm or misuse the system.

With the internet being ever more accessible and social platforms developing further and further we can find all kinds of users online, some of those use the system to cause harm to others through bullying or other forms of cyber-attacks, those have been loosely labelled as “internet trolls”, McCosker suggests that “What has come to be called trolling should be taken as a starting point rather than a vague end point for understanding the place of provocation in its multiple, highly contextualised and always changing forms.” (McCosker 2014, p. 202).

Some users find a haven in social media sights as they can control their anonymity to certain degrees, this gives them the freedom in the virtual world to do things they wouldn’t actually do if they were known. Online anonymity, I believe, has created a space for people to express their thoughts freely. McCosker also argues that “The conflict, and subsequent moral panics, often associated with the use of YouTube by young people is often associated with the relative lack of constraints placed on posting videos or commenting.” (McCosker 2014, p. 203). More rigorous rules and regulations governing online activities are complicated to come by due to the cultural differences, freedom of speech, the amount of information that has to be processed and so on.

On the other hand, and away from trolling and negative aspect of social media misuse, you have those who in turn use social media for greater public good. People use such sights and tools to raise awareness of public issues or potential harm, such as the video created by Checkpoint Media, which was an eyewitness to a racial abuse of a person on public transport.

References:

Siapera, E 2012, 'Socialities and Social Media', in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208.

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

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

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Activism & Protest

Protest (https://goo.gl/ngR9yp)

Activism and protest in the social media age has taken on a whole new meaning. Social media has made it much easier and faster for communities to for around an idea, belief or cause. These groups can be formed from any part of the world with the physical locations being irrelevant. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and so on, have given the public tools to participate and voice their thoughts, giving them a sense of democracy and freedom.

Activism (https://goo.gl/4WW3LM)

In the rise of the so called Arab Spring, social media platforms where used extensively to share information about gatherings, plans and protests that could be accessed by anyone needing that information. Some even dubbed these revolutions and uprisings as “Facebook revolution” (Youmans & York).

The issues facing online activism is that they rarely translate to real change in the physical world, a good example is the video “Kony 2012” produced by Invisible Children Inc. that went viral, and was seen by millions of people around the globe. The aim of the video was to make Warlord Kony famous and bring him to justice for his crimes. People extensively shared the video and participated in the online debate activism, it most likely gave people a sense of responsibility and achievement to be part of such an activity. Unfortunately, that never translated in the physical world and Kony was never captured. Some people felt they were let down by the campaign for just fizzling out to no conclusion.

Many activist organisations use social media in order to deliver their messages, groups such as Greenpeace and Change.org extensively use social media platforms as part of their campaigns to raise awareness.

Culture Jamming is another form of activism, it has been around before social media but is currently used extensively on social media to comment on the system. The ease of new digital tools and participatory culture makes culture jamming available at the fingertips of most people.

References:

1. Youmans, W, & York, J 2012, 'Social Media and the Activist Toolkit: User Agreements, Corporate Interests, and the Information Infrastructure of Modern Social Movements', Journal Of Communication, vol. 62, no. 2

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Politics and civic culture - Week 5

(IVN.us)

Obama once said “I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life. That’s number one” (Jericho 2013). The internet revolution has brought the world together through media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, People from all nationalities, parts of the world or even in space, can interact and share information with each other. It gave individuals a sense of democracy and gave them a voice, individuals can speak their mind on any topic at any time.

One way in which social media has had an effect is in the political scene worldwide. Politicians in the USA have led the field in this area, not only to connect with a wider audience but also to connect with a younger one (Swinburne online). Politicians such as Barack Obama and Donald Trump have embraced social media, mainly Twitter, in their presidential campaigns in order to widely broadcast their messages, feel closer to the public as any individual can interact with these messages by either sharing or commenting, and hope they can gain more followers.

(wccftech.com)

Participatory culture is a driving force behind online political presence, Politicians rely on their followers to participate in their online presence and share that with others they know. Some argue that online platforms can have an astounding effect on societies, examples include crediting social media sites with revolutions and uprisings such as those that gripped some Arab nations. Societies rallying behind a cause that they believe in (or think they do), such as the “Kony 2012” video created by Invisible Children Inc. This tactic might make individuals feel part of a good cause by sharing and supporting the idea, but some critics suggest that’s as far as it will go, and that it will not have any real impact in reality (Jericho 2012).

(Kony 2012, Invisible Children)

Sally Young argues that “any claim of internet-led revolution are premature if the internet has merely allowed the same group of people different ways to access the same sort of information they were getting before” (Young 2010). She argues that crediting the internet with revolutions just because of access of information is a weak link as that information could have been collected or gained in a different matter.

The one major thing the internet and social media sites gave to individuals is the instant access to information by others, The Egyptian revolution was supported by social media (I wouldn’t go as far as calling the revolution a product of social media sites), it allowed users to easily and quickly share information regarding what was happening and where people should be.

The internet and social media sites have given the political and civic world a way to connect and be heard on an individual level, making the connection between people more intimate and personal, but at the same time a dangerous place, people must always be aware of what information they share online as that might come back to haunt them at some stage in life.

References:

1. Jericho, G 2012, 'How many votes are there on Twitter?', in The Rise of the Fifth Estate, Scribe, Victoria, Australia.

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

3. SwinburneOnline 2018, Digital citizenship 1: Politics and civic cultures, Week 5

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Affordances

Don Norman defines affordances as objects that have a rich set of uses that exceed that of what they are originally designed for (Don Norman, 1994). Affordances have managed to shape social media and platforms to accommodate the users and what they need them for. To start off, there are many social media sites that offer different approaches to sharing information, each site is regulated by its own rules and regulation to either limit or expand on their functionality. For example, Twitter is quite limited in terms of publications, user can only publish 140 characters at a time. Users got around this by adding a number to the post and uploading multiple connected posts. This has led to twitter increasing this limitation to 280 characters to accommodate the demand of the users. At the same time, twitter is a public space, so any user can access this information.

On the other hand, we have Facebook, this social media site allows users to publish unlimited amount of information to their account, users also have control over their privacy to a certain degree, they can choose how public or private their posts are and who can view them.

Other sites such as YouTube and Reddit have been used slightly against the grain. For example, YouTube was meant to be a video sharing site, users were able to upload music and other text based files as video and shared a wider range of information, also the comment section in YouTube allowed for a debate place and sharing of common ideas and thoughts on certain topics.

Media Platforms have giving users the space and freedom to express their thoughts, beliefs and ideas. Platforms catered for that through different means. One of the main points argued in social media platforms is anonymity, people can control the level of their anonymity in these social spaces, they can, to a certain degree, control who can see their information or even their identity. Van der Nagel argues that “with regard to social media, one persistent theme in the case for anonymity is that it is a way to manage separate contexts.” (van der Nagel, 2013).

References:

Interaction-Design.org 2011, Affordances (Don Norman, 1994), 15 February, viewed 6 Dec 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Zb_5VxuM>

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.

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Digital Communities

(Image: alternativebritain.com)

Societies can only exist because people want to associate with others (Siapera, pp192). Societies and communities exist because we are social animals as Aristotle defined it. Siapera breaks it down to two types of association, the organic will that is almost instinctive. And the rational will driven by a purpose and orientation. This has two developments according to Siapera, community and society. Community is developed through the organic will of association, whereas society on the rational will, where association is based on certain goals. In the development of the digital world and digital communities through social media and platforms, the physical lines of society and community have changed. We are in a world where we are always connected to information and others, we are connected to a degree that Sherry Turkle suggests that it is taking over our physical connections. The digital world has developed at such a rapid pace over the past 20 years, and with all the development it became easier and easier for individuals to use it to gain information or to project their beliefs, ideas and thoughts to the world. The most intriguing part of digital revolution is that it gave users and individuals a platform to voice their thought, it gave them a sense of democracy and freedom of speech that wasn’t possible before. Social media and social platforms have sprung up to support such a need. Social media has been loosely defined as “the many relatively inexpensive and widely accessible electronic tools that enable anyone to publish and access information, collaborate on common efforts, or build relationships” (just et Al,. Cited in Murphy, 2013, pp 7-8). This ranges today from mobile phones to personal computers that allow users to access the world wide web. Social networks have been defined by boyd and Ellison as web service providers which facilitate users maintaining a public or semipublic profile within a bounded system (boyd and Ellison, 2007). Nowadays, these include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and so on. Each one of these platforms have their own affordances which is defined by Don Norman as The value of a well-designed object is when it has such a rich set of affordances, that the people who use it can do things with it that the designer never imagines (Don Norman, as cited in Affordances Interaction-Design.org 2011). The digital age also gave users anonymity that they did not have in the physical world, people could express their thoughts without the pressure of being judged or known (van der Nagel, 2013). Another type of anonymity is that users can edit how they want to appear in the digital world, they share only information that they think help them build a certain image of themselves.

Reference: Boyd, D & Ellison, M n.d., 2007, ‘Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 210-230.

Siapera, E 2012, 'Socialities and Social Media', in Understanding New Media, Sage, London, pp. 191-208. 

TED-Ed 2013, Connected, but alone?- Sherry Turkle, 19 April, viewed 6 Dec 2016,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0g8TsnA6c>. 

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