Digital Communities

This Tumblr blog contains my work for MDA20009 Digital Communities

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Blog 8: Social Gaming: Playing the Crowd

In week 10 we explored social gaming and the impact it has on a crowd. The term social games refer to games especially made for, and profiting from, social networking sites such as Facebook. A great example is:

1.       Farmville – successful games producers Zynga are the makers of Farmville – they also produced Candy Crush. This game gave their fans the ability to play with all their friends setting them apart from all other games.

I have personally played Farmville and it’s a great way to socialise and interact with friends. Its engaging and quite easy to get hooked. Being able to combine the games with friends allows the game to have a competitive edge that many other games don’t have. Another major benefit of the game is being able to connect your Facebook page through and invite more of your friends to join you. Multiplayer games all sound fun and engaging – but what do you do when it gets out of hand and unfair game play is introduced? Some would even call these keyboard warriors.

Engaging in multiplayer games means that there should be strict rules in place. Rules are used to establish a field of interaction at once familiar and strange, a deliberately differentiated site for competitive, social, cultural and commercial exchange. Unfortunately, the biggest downfall games such as Farmville have is conflict on a number of levels (Zwart, M & Hummohreys, S 2014, pp. 1)

Eve introduced contracts – these are binding between the platform provider and the player and while many purpose to set standards of player behaviour towards one another, they often don’t succeed (Zwart, M & Hummohreys, S 2014, pp. 2). Setting up standards, contracts and rules like this minimises frustration, fighting and foul play. Even though various measures are taken to exclude bad/unfair payers its still not enough to effectively manage disputes (Zwart, M & Hummohreys, S 2014, pp. 2).

Terms that are often introduced to monitor game play are:

-       You may not abuse, harass or threaten another player or authorised representative, including customer service and volunteers

-       You may not use any abusive, defamatory, ethnically, racially offensive, harassing, harmful, hateful, obscene, offensive, sexually explicit, threatening or vulgar language.

Unfortunately, foul mouths of players are a major concern that is regularly used in major game play (Zwart, M & Hummohreys, S 2014, pp. 4). Based on all the various information from past learning materials – the digital space is quite a mixed world. It serves many benefits to organisations, communities and individuals. But on the other hand, it comes with such concerns and evolving issues.

Its critical for parents, communities and others to keep looking into ways to minimise the hard the digital community can bring – and rather focus on the positive way it can impact individual lives.

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.

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Blog 7: Visual Communities and Social Imaging

In this modern age personal photography and later video have become embedded into our everyday lives. With huge developments in cameras and mobile phones we have notices a huge jump in person and social imaging. The term networked visuality is becoming an integral part of the formation and maintenance of social networks. Snapshots are becoming a common part of communication and even self-designated imaging communities.

The rise of selfie culture with is a self-portrait at arm’s length shared via social media is a prominent component of social imaging (Swinburne Online, 2018). One of the primary platforms used is SnapChat. By removing the permanence of the image in the visual community it works to overcome self-consciousness as discomfort of your personal image being stored. Snap Chat is a great way to share your day to day experiences without posting it anywhere public. It allows you to control who sees the image and how long for. Snap Chat is being used by all ages as a great way to keep in touch ad updated with friends and family. SnapChat also allows you to apply filters to your face to make it more fun and interactive.

Social media platforms such as Facebook and SnapChat have increased interpersonal relationships. If a relationship improves over social media, it’s been shown to improve face-to-face as well (Velten, J & Arif, R 2017, pp. 16). Through the experimental phase of a relationship - messaging apps allow people to ask questions they may not feel comfortable asking face-to-face initially (Velten, J & Arif, R 2017, pp. 16). It also appeals to the self-disclosure stage of a relationship – as it allows other people to see only what you want to see and maintain and ideal appearance.

Taking Selfies using snapchat has been found to be a great tool to reinitiate family/friend relationships. When one is less likely to call they are more likely to communicate through images.

With all these positives there are many negatives that come with social images. The nature of images disappearing could push people to take risky images. But many people forget these images can still be saved using a screen shot (Velten, J & Arif, R 2017, pp. 27). The other perceived risk is people adding you and sending you snaps when you may not know them. Snapchat is an excellent platform – but with all social media there Is a risk. Using it appropriately and with people you know is the safest option.

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10 posts!

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Blog 6: Crowdsourcing in Times of Crisis

In week 8 we focused on Crowdsourcing. This is defined as the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people as especially from the online community (Swinburne Online, 2018). The hunt for the Boston Bombers was promoted through Twitter – an open call was issued for images taken at the time of the bombing an analysis to pinpoint important information.

Social Mapping allows visual access in a situation of crisis ad disaster and often proves vital for emergency services. This often has accurate location-specific information available where an event covers a vast geographical area. In my own personal experience very recently, there were a huge number of bush fires that broke out on a very hot and windy 41-degree day. Luckily there are sources such as emergency.vic.gov that gives you very accurate locations of bush fires as well as closed roads. This made it a much more stress-free process when we had to evacuate. It also gave us peace of mind and updated throughout the process. In times of crisis social media can also be a useful tool as phone lines of station are in meltdown with members of the public wanting information.

Facebook and Twitter played an important role I crisis communication at the height of the 2011 South East Queensland flood crisis (Bruns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012). The overall use of twitter had the below findings:

-       The hashtag #qldfloods quickly became the central coordinating mechanism for floor related user activity. With more then 35,000 tweets sent with this hashtag.

-       Twitter was a very successful way of communicating information with 30-40% of tweets containing information about further websites.

-       Emergency services were among the most active participants on the hashtag

 Overall social media can play an extremely important role in crisis communication. Emergency services show review their current platforms ad strategize to use social media effectively (Bruns, A, Burgess, J, Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012). Establishing a good online presence on twitter is very important and ongoing monitoring is essential.

Social media is a fantastic tool to keep the community up to date. It allows people directly effected to remain updated as well as family and friends that can freely access all required information. Images, live updated, videos and calls for help can all be shared. Social media can also be used to raise awareness and plea for help during a devastating time. Helicopters can also be used to provide an Arial shot of the disaster to updated loved ones. Using social media takes a lot of pressure off phone lines.

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 3 August 2016, <http://www.cci.edu.au/floodsreport.pdf>.

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Blog 5: Trolling and Social Media Conflict

In 2018 we find ourselves in a world with the most access to public communication and a huge capacity to contribute. With the new comes responsibilities, potential misuse, conflict and harm. The term ‘Trolling’ is referred to as a loose set of acts and activities that dictates social media participation (Swinburne Online, 2018).

Growing up through high school it was evident that bullying a trolling was an issue that was going to surround all generations to come. As social media was evolving – forms of bullying were on the rise too. Kids harassed for the way they look, the way they dress, the way the act and even for what they say. In some cases, kids would get bullied for no apparent reason. With almost everyone using multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat – it’s becoming evident that bullying and trolling on those platforms can have long term effects.

In the US cultures are moving from using the Internet as an extra everyday communication its becoming primary and necessary. The shift from face-to-face communication to online communication has created a unique and harmful dynamic for social relationships (Nixon, C 2014, pp.1). cyber bullying involves hurting someone using information and communication. This type of bullying has seen a huge rise in the last decade which stresses the strong connection between cyber bullying and adolescent suicide. The primary concern of this type of bullying is mental health and adolescence tending to internalise issues (Nixon, C 2014, pp.1).

The connection between cyber bullying ad suicide behaviour has been explored around middle school, high school and college. Research shows that both targets and perpetrator think of suicide as well as attempt. Targets were twice as likely to attempt suicide.  

Seeing statistics like these first hand is quite alarming. Its very stressful for parents and guardians to remain alert and on top of this. The access everyone has to social media is inevitable ad all we can do is take all possible measures to reduce bullying ad trolling from occurring.

The Bully Project is an organisation aimed to support parent’s ad give advice when their child is being bullied. They provide strategies and techniques on how to support your children and deal with the situation. Other programs such as Family Zone ca be used for cyber safety.

The concern is there so now its time to raise awareness and act.

Nixon, C 2014, Current Perspectives: the impact of cyberbullying on adolescent health, Adolesc Health Med, Vol.5, pp. 143-158

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Blog 4: Activism and Protest

Local Activist groups use social media platforms as part of their campaigns. An example of one is Green Peace. They promote that there are may ways to get involved such as using social media, contacting their office, starting a campaign and even jumping onboard a ship. Green peace encourages people that have an idea to make their community, school, local environment a better place – they should start their own petition (GreenPeace, 2018).

Three forms of digital activism are:

Digital Citizenship – this refers to the potential benefit for society that come from a new digital and social media tool and their ability to facilitate their membership and participation of individuals within society (Swinburne Online, 2018). New media tools allow us to build and sustain communities with geographical restrictions and gain visibility.

Culture Jamming – this is the act of using existing media to comment on the very media itself. It can be used to critique the sociocultural and political hegemony that dominates modern society. Forms are performance art, graffiti and ad busting (Swinburne Online, 2018).

Adbusters – activist magazines devoted to numerous political and social causes. This is famous for cultural jamming campaigns and photographs that are politically motivated.

Social Media platforms are widely used by activists for a variety of political reasons. Social media is used to serve political goals of reforms, revolution ad authorial regimes (Youmans, W & York, J 2012, pp. 1). In the Middle East social media offered a sphere of public life in which Arab Youth could reach beyond its older generation and build links with transnational networks of advocates who contribute to state of power. Research has found that social media played an important role in the collective actions that resulted in the overthrow of the Government in Egypt and Tunisia’s revolutions (Youmans, W & York, J 2012, pp. 3). Social media can contribute in four ways:

1.    Making it easier to disaffected citizens to act publicly in coordination

2.    Creating information cascades that change protesters perceptions

3.    Raising cost of repression

4.    Dramatically increasing publicity through diffusion of information to regional and global publics.

Social media technologies are constantly evolving that are used by activists and regimes (Youmans, W & York, J 2012, pp. 3).  YouTube videos from Syria is uprising. The absence of professional journalists has created this need. These videos are extremely graphic, capturing violent regimes. Activists that documented circulate these videos help to promote recruitment of new members – forcing YouTube to implement strict rules (Youmans, W & York, J 2012, pp. 6).  

Greenpeace 2018, Get Involved, Green Peace, Viewed 8/1/2018, <http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/getinvolved/>

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, pp. 315-329.

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Blog 3: Politics and Civic Cultures

A growing number of politicians around the world are utilising new technologies to reach out to a larger audience as well as a younger audience. In the US politicians have led the way in YouTube to create presence and grow their communities of support. The platform has been used as a tool announce policy announcement and speeches. 

Since the US has jumped on board to social politics – Australian politicians are setting the trend. Kevin Rudd uses Instagram sharing his famous selfie.

Twitter and Facebook create an audience that is aware of all the elements in a message and can also process these messages. Twitter and Facebook have the unique ability to reach people who have interest in a company or person (Hellweg, A 2011, pp. 2). Making social media an extremely effective marketing tool – enabling communication with individuals who have already previously expressed interest. It also enables a public figure to build deeper relationships with clients, partners and individuals – resulting in a much more efficient platform for modern day politicians (Hellweg, A 2011, pp. 2).

In 2008 Barack Obama used social media for his presidential campaign. The Obama campaign did not invent anything new, instead it bolted together social networking apps to create a force to raise money, organise locally, fight smear campaigns and get the votes out (Hellweg, A 2011, pp. 3). During the campaign – Obama was given $55 million dollars in donations by linking his social media and website to a site called MyBo. Research has foud in 2008 a record breaking 46% of Americans used the internet, email or text messaging to gain information about the campaign, share opinion and mobilise others (Hellweg, A 2011, pp. 3). During the campaign 35% of Americans said they watched political videos, 6% contributed online and 10% said they used social networking sites.

Since 2009 Australian Politicians have joined Twitter. This platform allows users to display a network of connection openly and has been touted for enhanced facilitation for public interaction (Conway, B & Keski, K & Wag, D 2015. It is also being adopted to diffuse information to a growing audience. Some candidates exploit if interactive features but may choose to use it as a broadcasting platform rather than a venue for discussion (Conway, B & Keski, K & Wag, D 2015).

Conway, B & Keski, K & Wag, D 2015, The Rise of Twitter in the Political Campaign: Searching for Intermedia Agenda-Setting Effects I the Presidential Primary, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 363-380

Hellweg, A 2011, Social Media Sites of Politicians Influence Their Perception by Constituents, The ELON Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communication, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-15

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Blog 2 Social Media & Social Experiences

Social interaction and social networking is a social software that has been used to develop social networks. Social media platforms allow users to form participating, impressions, maintain and develop new relationships (Mustafa, S & Hamzah, A 2011, pp. 97). Statistics are showing that the internet is being used and is becoming a ‘must’ to survive in everyday society. Social media is quickly becoming the bread and butter to communicate in social experiences. Various social media platforms are being used as an effective means of communication and a critical tool in social interaction (Mustafa, S & Hamzah, A 2011, pp. 96). Since Web 2.0 has evolved the internet turned into a modern social media platform that involves mass participation. As times evolve all the various types of social media and communication technologies carry on with the same features – they provide greater speed, but also bring various information to participating audiences (Mustafa, S & Hamzah, A 2011, pp. 96).

Social media is increasingly being used to meet consumers psychological and social needs. The internet has the ability to form social interactions and build relationships. The uses of social media are forever growing. Technology is evolving to meet the technical requirements for creating an effective online social networking. It helps to form online group meetings, lists community involvement in discussions, maintain records for easy discussions and ensures identity of participants. Many would think social media is used purely for communication, but the points above clearly show all opportunities it provides (Mustafa, S & Hamzah, A 2011, pp. 97). Social media where individuals can meet and chat with others with similar interests is rapidly sprouting forming and maintaining online communities.

Studies are showing 62.5% of users use social media for more than three years. Whereas 45% of these consumers use two to three social networking sites. The usage shows instant messaging platforms are used by 57.5% of people that interact socially with friends. Followed by emails at 55% and only 7.5% use cards or letters to interact with friends. In addition to this 55% have met face to face with a friend who is known through social networking sites (Mustafa, S & Hamzah, A 2011, pp. 103).

The benefits of using social media for social interaction is that it facilitates and forms relationships, it makes interaction easier then face to face and interaction is more satisfying through social media platforms (Mustafa, S & Hamzah, A 2011, pp. 103).

 Mustafa, S & Hamzah, A 2011, Online Social Networking: A New Form of Social Interaction, International Journal Of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 1, No. 2

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Week 3 Blog 1 Pt.2

Week 3 was another interesting week I found quite fascinating to read. The material helped us make sense of digital communities and the various social media platforms we all use.

To develop expertise and gain a deep understanding of social media platforms its critical to know all of the features, cultures of use, potential for growth and limitations. To stay up to date and understand how social media platforms operate, its critical for any use to understand how it works.

In this week’s reading we explored and heavily focused on Twitter. The social media platform Twitter allows people to maintain a public web-based profile through conversation using 140 Character Messages (Murthy, D 2013, pp.2).

It is important to be able to distinguish and understand the difference between Facebook and Twitter. Twitter is predominantly designed to increase awareness as well as broadcast the experiences of ordinary people during social interaction (Murthy, D 2013, pp.12). Twitter also functions as a support unit, for example Rachel Baumgartel suffers from type 2 Diabetes. Rachel used Twitter to inform her support network of her diet, exercise routine – helping to keep her in line on a daily basis (Murthy, D 2013, pp.12). Twitter has also reinforced diary keeping/writing, news consumption and job searching.

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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)

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Week 1 Blog 1 Pt1

In week 1 we dove straight into the world of social media and how its very quickly taking over the world.

There are a few various definitions which all convey different aspects about the way we connect in the digital space (Swinburne Online, 2017).

Social Media is defined as the many relatively inexpensive and widely accessible electronic tools that allow people to publish and gain access to information, collaborate or build relationships with one another (Swinburne Online, 2017).

Social networks are various online sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Linkdin. These platforms provide web services that consist of users maintaining a public profile within a bounded system (Swinburne Online, 2017).

In This weeks talk we listened to Sherry Turkle discuss the way social media is changing how people relate to one another. Social networking platforms enable always on communication while promoting exposure – this is all done with the main goal to self-express, communicate and share (Wilken, R & McCosker, A 2017, pp. 292). As the modern age continues to evolve an obsession with being constantly connected is growing larger and larger. The main criticism from the video is that we are all connected – but still somehow alone.