Somewhere

This blog is for educational purposes only. #MDA20009

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Week 11: Global social media practice - case study on China

Chinese Firewall known as?

The Chinese firewall, officially known as the Golden Shield Project, uses a variety of techniques to review China's Internet and block access to various foreign websites. China reviews content for various reasons, usually because it criticizes the Chinese government or violates Communist policies. China not only blocks individual websites - they use technology to scan URLs and web content to find blacklists such as "Tiananmen" and block such traffic. By blocking foreign social networking sites like Twitter and forcing its citizens to use alternatives such as Sina Weibo, China can control social networking sites and gain the ability to review them. China also employs paid people to publish content on the Internet that is conducive to Communist Party policies, trying to influence public opinion. China's Great Wall Firewall has evolved into the world's most advanced online censorship system (Hoffman, 2017).  With the development of China's Internet and the vigorous development of network business, speech was controlled, objections were revoked, and attempts to organize outside the official Communist Party were quickly eliminated. But the impact of the firewall is not limited to China itself.

Although strict review of one-party China is nothing new, under the rule of President Xi Jinping, online restrictions have become more stringent, especially in the politically sensitive events of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and the death of the Communist Party Congress. When it happens. China began blocking Facebook's WhatsApp messaging service before the conference and expanded its restrictions on virtual private networks, a common way to bypass the Great Wall firewall (The Great Firewall of China, 2018). Ensuring China’s “cyber sovereignty” or protecting the country’s Internet from unfair foreign influences is one of Xi Jinping’s publicly stated goals. Initiatives to limit online freedom include suppressing the upward trend of #MeToo allegations; these measures virtually eliminate the ability to anonymously post social media and even play games; and limit the pipeline of new games to review content and combat addiction. After the blog described Xi Jinping as a cartoon bear, Pooh’s temporary exile began. At the same time, foreign companies that want to operate on the mainland are forced to take intrusions that are common elsewhere. Apple opposed the US government's request to create a backdoor for its password-protected products, removed the application, and established a local data center based on Chinese government requirements. All of this helps China have the least online freedom in the 65 countries supervised by the Freedom House of human rights organizations. It said that China's Internet control has reached the "new extreme." In the past year, people have been sentenced to jail for posting unwise comments on Weibo, including in private chat. Weibo or WeChat is Tencent's ubiquitous SMS service.

The weaknesses of Great Firewall?

The Great firewall is not perfect, although China is certainly working hard, it is impossible to really block information and review everything. From using non-closed unofficial terms (effectively stated in the code) to using a VPN tunnel to get out of the firewall, you can even bypass the widest range of Internet censorship systems. The government has ordered three Chinese telecom companies to completely block access to virtual private networks or VPNs by February 2018 (China moved to block internet VPN from 2018, 2018). The ban on VPN can also harm academics, software developers and foreign companies. Over the years, Chinese researchers have complained that they lack sufficient overseas journals and methods to communicate with universities around the world, while developers rely on code hosted on websites outside China. Foreign companies in China often use VPNs to protect company data or communicate with corporate headquarters. It is unclear whether the ban will affect corporate VPNs.

References

China moves to block internet VPN from 2018, 2018, the guardian, viewed 25 May 2018, <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/11/china-moves-to-block-internet-vpns-from-2018>.

Hoffman C, 2017, How the “Great Firewall of China” Works to Censor China’s Internet, viewed 25 May 2019, <https://www.howtogeek.com/162092/htg-explains-how-the-great-firewall-of-china-works/>

The Great Firewall of China, 2018, Bloomberg News, viewed 25 May 2019, <https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/great-firewall-of-china>

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Week 10: Social Gaming

So, what’s social gaming?

Social games are structured activities with contextual rules through which users can participate in each other. Social games must be multiplayer and have one or more of the following functions: turn-based, based on social platforms, to provide users with identity and freedom (Nick O’Neill,2008). Therefore, social games enable users to take turns and realizing the behavior of others in the game. Another most important element of social gaming is the social part. It is similar and different from multiplayer games in games like Call of Duty. Social games are of course strictly multiplayer games, but they use different ways to play multiplayer games. Social games are usually built around a more intimate interaction between players. Sharing items, evaluating a friend's trading compliments, and inviting new players to join are part of most social games. Usually social games are based on different type of social platforms such as facebook, Steam, Garena. In the context of social gaming, social platforms provide users with an identity and also can provide the backbone for simple forms of communication (such as notifications, etc).

Impact of Social gaming

One of the many themes raised during the Qutee study was the benefits of the game to society as a whole. In an online survey, players were asked what they thought was the main benefit of the game. More than 40% said gaming improves emotional well-being. If you think that one out of every five people in the US will experience mental health problems every year, it will be a serious benefit. This is in stark contrast to the general view that playing video games can lead to violence and other anti-social behavior. According to Qutee, 93% of players think this is wrong.Kevin Anderton,(2018). Another benefit is the formation of a strong friendship. About two-thirds of gamers claim that they met five friends while playing games, and 37% said they have done more. Playing games provides a great way to break the ice, get together, and spend time together. It leads to strong friendships, which is natural. Playing video games is associated with performance advantages and improvements in many visual and spatial tasks. By requiring players to practice games that extract spatial information from the screen, specific visual space skills and tasks that include these skills can be improved. The positive impact of video games on visual-space skills has been found in related research (eg, Green & Bavelier, 2003) and experimental studies (eg, Okagaki & Frensch, 1994). In many visual and spatial tasks, Garners has been found to outperform non gamers, exhibiting faster visual response times, improved target positioning and psychological rotation (Green & Bavelier, 2003; Achtman, Green, & Bavelier, 2008; Green & Bavelier, 2007). Experimental studies have shown that only 10 hours of video games can improve spatial attention and psychological rotation (Feng, Spence, & Pratt, 2007; Green & Bavelier, 2003). It's worth noting that most of the research that has found video games to influence visual space skills uses fast-paced video games that are often violent.This reminds people that video games don't fit the good or bad dichotomy - they have many effects that can have both positive and negative effects. Educational video games have been found to be effective teaching aids in a wide range of fields. Video games often reinforce student behavior, attract enough students to play games multiple times, provide clear goals, and need to be actively involved (Gentile and Gentile, 2008). Education video games have been successfully used to teach students some school subjects such as mathematics, reading and biology (Murphy, Penuel, Means, Korbak, & Whaley, 2001; Corbett, Koedinger, & Hadley, 2001). Employers also recognize the power of video games and combine games to teach the work skills employees need. For example, Volvo uses online games to train car salespeople (Entertainment Software Association, 2011b). Educational video games can also be used to explain health and encourage a healthier lifestyle. Many studies have shown that video games are an effective teaching tool to help young people understand health conditions such as cancer and diabetes (Brown et al., 1997; Kato, Cole, Bradlyn, & Pollock, 2008; Lieberman, 2001). These games can also bring behavioral changes.

In contrast, the findings reviewed in this chapter lead to the conclusion that social game effects are complex and better understood from multiple dimensions rather than good or bad dichotomy. The major impact of social games has been proven in many areas. Some of these effects are desired by parents, such as the impact of prosocial social games on empathy and help (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2010). Other social game effects are worrisome to parents, such as the impact of violent video games on aggression (eg, Anderson & Dill, 2000), even a single game can have multiple effects on a person, some of which are harmful, some of which are beneficial (for example, a violent game that improves visual space function, but also increases the risk of physical attacks). More research is needed to increase our understanding of how prosocial sosial gaming can exert their influence on empathy and help to explore the impact of video games on attention and cognitive control and increase our understanding of the symptoms and consequences of game addiction. Given the large number of children and teens who play video games, increasing our understanding of the effects of positive and negative social gaming is a relevant research topic that is important for public policy debates, theoretical developments, and potential intervention strategies designed to increase positive impact and reduce the negative impact of playing social games.

References

Achtman, R, Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D 2018, Video games as a tool to train visual skills, Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 26,435-446.

Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, N., Swing, E. L., Bushman, B. J., Sakamoto, A., & Saleem, M. (2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in Eastern and Western countries. Psychological Bulletin, 136,151-173.

Anderson, C. A., & Dill, K. E. (2000). Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 772-790.

Brown, S. J., Lieberman, D. A., Gemeny, B. A., Fan, Y. C., Wilson, D. M., & Pasta, D. J. (1997). Educational video game for juvenile diabetes: Results of a controlled trial. Medical Informatics, 22(1), 77-89.

Corbett, A. T., Koedinger, K. R., & Hadley, VV. (2001). Cognitive tutors: From the research class-room to all classrooms. In P. S. Goodman (Ed.), Technology enhanced learning (pp. 235-263). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Entertainment Software Association, 2011, Games: Improving education, viewed 23 May 2019, <http://www.theesa.com/games-inproving-what-matters/ESA_FS_education_2011.pdf>

Gentile, D. A., & Gentile, J. R. (2008). Video games as exemplary teachers: A conceptual analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37,127-141.

Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2003). Action video game modifies visual selective attention. Nature, 423,534-537.

Green, C. S.,& Bavelier, D.(2007).Action video game experience alters the spatial resolution of attention.Psychological Science, 18(1), 88-94.

Greitemeyer, T., & Osswald, S. (2010). Effects of prosocial video games on prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98,211-221

Kato, P.M., Cole, S. W., Bradlyn, A. S., & Pollock, B. H. (2008). A video game improves behavioral outcomes in adolescents and young adults with cancer: A randomized trial. Pediatrics, 122, 305-317.

Kevin Anderton,(2018).The Impact Of Gaming: A Benefit To Society [Infographic]

Nick O’Neill,(2008). What Exactly are Social Games? Available at: https://www.adweek.com/digital/social-games/

Peng, J., Spence, I., & Pratt, J. (2007). Playing an action video game reduces gender differences in -spatial cognition. Psychological Science, 18, 8.50-855.

Sim, T., Gentile, D. A., Bricolo, F., Serpelloni, G., & Gulamoydeen, F. (2012). A conceptual review of research on the pathological use of computers, video games, and the internet. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. DOI 10.1007/s11469-011-9369-7

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Week 9: Fandom and Fan Activism

So, what is Fandom about?

I think all of you will be curious about what is fandom and fan activism. Most of us might think that both of fandom and fan activism are having the same definition. So, what is fandom? Fandom is the word to describe a person who admire on a singer, band, football team or others very much. It also can be said as it is a word to describe state of being a fan of someone or something, especially a very enthusiastic one. In our daily life, the word of “Fandom” might be used rarely so that when we talk about this word, we will be weird.

But here is some example, Josephine chatted with Teen Vogue about the romantic drama, support from the fandom, and more and the festival, billed as a celebration of pop culture and fandom, will feature performances from Empire of the Sun, Modest Mouse, Phantogram, Cold War Kids, Echos, Nvdes, Allie X, Party Nails, and more. For a fandom, they might do some action that make a normal person uncomfortable like they will follow the lifestyle of their favorite artist, use the same daily necessities as their artist (Bergado, 2019).

Fan activism can be defined as a form of civil engagement and political participation that emerges from the passions of fandoms and fan culture.  Fan activism can be fan-driven efforts to engage and address civic, social, and political issues. Fan activism gives opportunity to fans to see their favorite artist in live but not through television or social media apps. There is significant power and potential of fan activism.  Fandoms can be ideological and cultural resistance to heteronormative and patriarchal values of society.  The capacity of fan communities to unite and mobilize in reaction to casting decisions, show cancellations, etc. is well established.  Now, these collective mobilization efforts are being used to support campaigns for social justice and human rights, inspiring young people to engage. For fan activism, there are some risks should be concerned. The safety of artists might be threatened, this is because their fans want to see their favorite artist, so they might do their best without thinking about the effect of their action to get closer with their favorite artist.

References

Bergado, G 2019, Josephine Langlord on the romance of after, bringing Tessa to life, and crying fans, viewed 14 May 2019, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/josephine-langford-tessa-after>

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Week 8: Crowdsourcing & Crowdfunding

The term ‘crowdsourcing’: how it is formed?

The term ‘crowd’ was used particularly as a term in which individual who self-establish of a common purpose, emotion or experience. However, organizations often use the context of ‘crowd’ to examine the collections of individuals engaged themselves in organizational purposes in order to construct competitive advantage. Therefore, crowdsourcing can be considered one of the strategic to influence the ability of an organization continuously create value to the firm (Prpic, Shukka, Kietzmann & Carthy 2014). Crowdsourcing consider as a practice of solving problems and provide localized information in order to strive for a common goal (What is Crowdsourcing, 2019). First step of crowdsourcing includes significant considerations that construct that how a crowd is formed. Then highlights the capabilities of a firm that need to establish to obtain and assimilate resources such as ideas, knowledge, expertise, time or funds from the crowd. The last step of crowdsourcing is to outlines the final decisions that the entrepreneur need to address to engage crowds effectively. In the past, people had to be physical to create the masses. However with Internet, people are able to create virtual groups because of their common preferences and interests which offer an immense opportunity to rethink and reinvent to improve organizational productivity (Sherman, 2011). 

Examples of Crowdsourcing

Undeniably, one of the most successful crowd-powered startups is Waze. Waze is an app which offer for users to report traffic jams and automatically gives directions for the best route to take. In addition, Waze also crowdsourced the information by measuring drivers speed to determine traffic jams and by request users to report if there any road closures to avoid frustration sitting in traffic. It’s consider as a distinguish app that proves a dedicated crowd is sometimes all a company needs which aims to improve quality of everyone’s daily driving(Kearns, 2015). 

On the other hand, even Samsung also realise the value of Crowdsourcing. Hence, what they seek is different from others which is innovative solutions for existing electronic products and technologies. Samsung also seek collaboration with other firms and interested individuals. In 2013, Samsung partnered with product development platform, Marbler to Crowdsource ideas on how they could utilise newly discovered patents from NASA. They provided users the opportunities to assist the company to create next product while generate a share of revenue along the way (Schoultz, 2016). As a conclusion, with the power of hundreds to thousands of creative minds throughout the world, microtasks can be performed simultaneously, and projects can be completed more quickly and cost effectively with the practice of crowdsourcing.

Introduction to Crowdfunding

The origin of crowdfunding, translated from the foreign crowding word, that is, public fundraising, is a “pre-consumption” model, which uses the form of “group purchase + pre-purchase” to raise project funds to the public with a modern way. Compared with traditional financing methods, crowdfunding is more open for funding a variety of new ventures, allowing individual founders of for profits, cultural or social projects or equity (Mollick, 2013). As long as it is a project that the public likes, the first fund can be obtained through crowdfunding, and the scale of the first fundraising will not be large, providing unlimited possibilities for more small businesses or creative people.Crowdfunding platforms collaborate an individual or entity in need of funding with community members willing to contribute cash. Although pessimists find it inexplicable, it has been consistently demonstrated that people worldwide have a philanthropic nature when it comes to causes in which they believe whether that’s an entrepreneurial product or service, disaster relief, an artist’s vision or something else entirely. Overall, crowdfunding is not just a practice to selling the idea of noble cause, but about the stories that make the cause worth contributing to (Finker, 2018).

Examples of crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is an emerging fundraising measure that utilize the ease of websites or other Internet tools to raise capital for small businesses from the general public in order to accomplish their own business plans (Valancience & Jegelevicute 2013). Hence, Kickstarter is a platform used by general public who use Crowdfunding as the characteristics of the Internet and SNS to allow small entrepreneurs, artists or individuals to reveal their ideas to the public, in order to get everyone's attention and support, then to get the financial assistance needed (Harburg, Hui, Greenberg & Gerber, 2015). As a results,crowdfunding succeeds in integrating the traditional funding model with a modern way of driving business and welfare. While crowdfunding does not necessarily guarantee the longevity of a company, project or idea, it helps many individuals gain experience, mobilize communities and create relationships for other opportunities.

References

Finker, L 2018, What Crowdfunding means for Philanthropy, Executive Leadership & Philanthropy, viewed 06 May 2019, <http://lazarfinker.org/what-crowdfunding-means-for-philanthropy/>

Harburg, E, Hui, J, Greenberg, M, Gerber, E 2015, Understanding the effects of Crowdfunding on Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, Segal Design Institute, viewed 06 May 2019, <https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6347/44b9f2be9cacd55c1ceb4902d4fe58b11def.pdf>

Kearns, K 2015, Great Examples of Crowdsource in the age empowered consumers, Tweak your biz, viewed 06 May 2019, <https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/9-great-examples-crowdsourcing-age-empowered-consumers>

Mollick, E 2013, ‘The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study’, Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 1 - 16.

Prpic, J, Shukla, P, Kietzmann, J, Carthy P 2014, ‘How to work a crowd: Developing crowd capital through crowdsourcing’, Business Horizons, vol. 58, Issue 1, pg. 77 - 85.

Schoultz, M 2016, How Brand Crowdsource for Continuos Ideas, Medium, viewed 06 May 2019, <https://medium.com/@mikeschoultz/how-brands-crowdsource-for-continuous-ideas-9409f62ca304>

Sherman, A 2011, How to use crowdsourcing techniques in your virtual team, Reuters, viewed 05 May 2019, <https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS405921270820110713>

Valancience, L & Jegeleviciute, S 2013, ‘Valuation of Crowdfunding: Benefits and drawbacks’, Economics and Management, viewed 06 May 2019, <http://www.ecoman.ktu.lt/index.php/Ekv/article/viewFile/3713/2499>

What is Crowdsourcing, 2019, Crowdsourcing Week, viewed 05 May 2019, <https://crowdsourcingweek.com/what-is-crowdsourcing/>

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Week 7: Digital Citizenship 3: Trolling and Social Media Conflict

Who consider as a Digital Citizenship: How it is related with Trolling?

In this 21st century in which the revolution of Internet create a new era, people who broadly use technology as one of the media to connect, communicate, share, trade, and game online across new media devices has invoke serious social problems nowadays (The Digital Citizen - A New Type of Grassroots Activism, n.d.). Digital Citizenship has taken the concept to utilize the ease of technology to report events, organize action and mobilize supporters across nation (Oxley, 2010). Of course, it is undeniably that digital citizenship has accessed through the use of Internet in an appropriate way to create trolling and social media conflicts which can be significantly impact on people who are innocent.  

What isTrolling?  

Trolling is a behavior which associated with a negative persona or attitude online to provoke an uncomfortable emotional reaction from others. Social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram where trolling takes place as the comments are expose through online (Internet Trolling and the Dehumanization of Society, n.d.). The incident was happened during 2012, an innocent teenagers Amanda Todd was committed suicide due to Internet trolling, unleashing an outburst of social media condolences and soul-searching. Todd’s death reveals the nasty side of Internet users which are inexplicably still posting hurtful comments about the girl such as they are still criticize the torment and death of Todd which stated Todd tragic as a “Moral of the story … don’t be a slut,’’ and also another user stated that “I don’t feel bad. Why did she keep doing things that made people hate her?? What a slut’’. In addition, the image has been posted online highlights a young lady hanging with a vile caption “Todding” despite the fact that Todd is struggled to escape from the tournaments (Lau, 2014). The studies also found that users usually trolls for fun and they are enjoy seeing someone in pain and despair.

What are Social Media Conflicts: The consequences?

Social Media has become one of the pervasive technologies which allows everyone to accessed to the web with just a click or with a fingertips. Therefore, social media plays a crucial role in generate social media conflicts whereas the evolution of web provide user-generated content, online collaboration, information sharing and collective intelligence (Davidson & Yoran, 2007). According to Prater n.d., social media form online community with the ease of electronic communication and networking sites service which allow users to share various content and ideas included (text, pictures, video, etc). The provocation of social media is that what users usually decided to post but not opposed to randomly posting which can possibly make others sensitive to the facts that people take. On the other hand, the influence of social media has a significant impact on political struggle and prompt social media conflicts on the level of elites to mass-level collective action (Niekerk & Maharaj, 2013). The exchange of information and communication online facilitated by social media are currently increase the exposure of wrongdoing of elites, mobilization and coordination of protest. Activists often use social media as the connections, coordination and communication with people all around the world as it is less costly and rapid. Moreover, in the context of political violence and political violence potential activists and allies can be targeted and recruit easily such as ISIS. Whereas in the context of non-violence movement such as the 2017 Women’s March (Prater, n.d.)

References

Davidson, M. A., & Yoran, E. (2007). Enterprise security for Web 2.0. Computer, 40(11), 117–119.

Internet Trolling and the Dehumanization of Society, University of Ontario, viewed 25 April 2019, <https://techcurruoit.wordpress.com/category/digital-citizenship/>

Lau, A 2014, ‘Amanda Todd Bullying Trolls Show Nasty Side of Internet Users’, Huffpost, viewed 22 April 2019, <https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/10/12/amanda-todd-bullying-trolls-tips_n_1962886.html?utm_hp_ref=amanda-todd>

Oxley, C 2010, ‘Digital Citizenship: Developing an ethical and responsible online culture’, Brisbane Grammar School, viewed 25 April 2019, <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED518512.pdf>

Prater, D n.d., How Social Media is Changing Conflict,  Peace Science Digest, viewed 22 April 2019, <https://peacesciencedigest.org/social-media-changing-conflict/>

The Digital Citizen - A New Type of Grassroots Activism, Webroot.com, viewed  21 April 2019, <https://www.webroot.com/au/en/resources/tips-articles/digital-citizenship>

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Week 6: Digital Citizenship 2: Activism and Protest

About?

Digital citizenship is one way of describing the appropriate or intended use of technology. For the purpose of this unit and considering social networks; digital citizenship controls the distribution of online material posted to an online network, website and blog (Young people and social networking services: A Childnet International Research Report, 2008). 

Activism: only a hashtags?

Activism consists efforts to promote an activities and this action may be performed on a day-to-day basis in a wide variety of ways. Activists utilise social network affordances to encourage the promotion of their campaigns. For example, digital activism has began organizing their protests on Twitter using the hashtag in response such as #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, #MAGA has ignite the extensive discussion about the effectiveness and feasible of the use of social media as the purpose in the engagement of political and social activism (Anderson, Toor, Rainie & Smith, 2018) The New York conclude this action of protesting as "a social uprising". 

Protest: for the rights?

It’s proven that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter often leads to poloptical participation, especially when it comes to protest behavior. Undoubtedly, people often use social media as a platform to facilitate the exchange of information which is coordinate with the protest activities. Therefore, social media platform can take as many form and its act as a catalyst to shape both disruptive and non disruptive participation from individual statements to mass demonstrations (Josh et al., 2018) A protest consider an expression of bearing witness on behalf of an express cause by words or actions with regard to particular events, policies or situations.The online efforts of protesters show that the power of social media as a tool for political change is staggering.The social media platform plays a role in create an opportunity to made the content visible and create attention to the publics through online platform. As a results, people have the courage to lead them to the streets and overthrow the authoritarian regime.

Does Social Media Provide Useful Information to Protestors?

Social Media is an important commuication tools in spreading, and exchange information with just a click in a short period of time.Therefore, the ease of Internet access allows the protestors to maintain contract with the rest of the world in order to evoke protest in a country for certain purpose. Indeed, the use of social media conveys the message from one another and  unite the whole people together to oppose certain policies that are unfavourable to the people, such as oil price hikes, abuse of internal security laws, deviations in education policies, marginalization of the community, police's inability to maintain community security, community disasters, etc. Policies and measures related to combating and exploiting the public interest (Morozov, 2011). 

As a conclusion, it is believed that the use of  social media sites is vital in accomplishing polotical goals, such as attain attention of politicians on the issues. On the other hand, the purpose of social activism and protest are important to create sustained movements for social change for the citizens to voice out their thoughts through a series of actions. 

References

Anderson, M, Toor, S, Rainie, L & Smith, A. 2018, Activism in the social media age., viewed on 13 April 2019, <https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/07/11/public-attitudes-toward-political-engagement-on-social-media/>

Josh, J, Bonneau, R, Langer, M, Tucker, J et al., 2018, ‘How Social Media Faciliatates Political Protest: Information, Motivation, and Social Networks’,  Advances in Political Psychology, vol.39, no. 85 - 90., viewed on 14 April 2019, <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John_Jost/publication/323146225_How_Social_Media_Facilitates_Political_Protest_Information_Motivation_and_Social_Networks_Social_Media_and_Political_Protest/links/5a85aaf60f7e9b1a954820d8/How-Social-Media-Facilitates-Political-Protest-Information-Motivation-and-Social-Networks-Social-Media-and-Political-Protest.pdf?origin=publication_detail>

Morozov, E 2011, Whither Internet control? Journal of Democracy, 22, 63–74.

‘Young People and Social Networking Services: A Childnet International Report’, 2008, Facet Publishing, viewed on 15 April 2019, <https://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/downloads/Young_People_and_Social_Networking_Services_full_report.pdf>

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Digital Citizens: Political Engagement

Political engagement define as?

Political engagement refer to a process that leads to having attitudinal reaction which involve the participation with others and where the elaboration occurs. Elaboration indicates the connection of various thoughts which dealing with political issues. It’s compromise manipulation of information and allows users to promote political posts also make sound political decisions which may affect the political sphere.

Undoubtedly, the use of social media becoming a feature which involving political and civic engagement in the recent years. According to the research, the data shows that 35% of users take the advantages of social media as a tools to encourage others to vote. It is also shows that 34% of users utilize social media as a tools to reflects their thoughts and thinking which related to the political issues that was originally posted by someone. Overall, users use social media as a platform to express their thoughts about the political issues, comments on political material, encourage others to involve in political actions, join political group on a social networking websites and follow elected officals on social media, and follow elected officals on social media ( Brady & Smith, 2012).

Why is political engagement important?

Political engagement plays an important role for the citizens to get involvement and participation in the civil society and activities. It is crucial for the citizens to examine the possible ways to express their political discontent. Activities such as volunteering, voting, attending political events or by joining interest group are one of the method for individuals to get involved in politics issues (Delgado, 2016). Precisely, political participation enabling government to understand what the citizens wants to ensure governments are able to fulfill their role. (The importance of political participation, 2017)

Impact of Social Media on Politics

 Social media have increasingly been embraced by politicians, activists, and social movements as a new way to communicate and reach citizens that they could not interact with. Social media has changed the way people communicate. Various news channels tweet or give updates on significant happenings all over the world and the news quickly gets passed around the networks just at your fingertips. It allows people to keep in touch more regularly and it creates an opportunity to experience different cultures and exchange opinions.

 The American presidential campaigns in 2008 were the first campaigns where the presidential candidates Obama and McCain used Social Media. The use of Social Media has most conspicuously made its mark during more recent American presidential campaigns (Kreiss, 2016).

Another fact to confirm the importance of social media as a tool for politicians: Back in 2007, during the French presidential elections, social media had a strong effect on the outcome and the victory of the Centre-right UMP party‘s Nicolas Sarkozy. Indeed, ―over 40% of Internet users reported that conversations and other activities on the Internet had an effect on their voting decisions. (Nicolas Baygert, 2009).

References

Brady, H & Smith A. (2012). Social Media and Political Engagement. Retrived from https://www.pewinternet.org/2012/10/19/social-media-and-political-engagement/

Delgad J. (2016). The importance of political participation after the election. Retrived from https://www.statepress.com/article/2016/12/sppolitics-political-participation-after-elections

Kreiss, D. (2016). Prototype Politics: Technology-Intensive Campaigning and the Data of Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press

 The importance of political participation, 2017. Retrived from https://rightforeducation.org/2017/10/political-participation/

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Is Tumblr a blog or a social network site? Why Blogging?

In this modern era of 20th century, undoubtedly blogging has become one of a habit and slowly evoke then integrated into part of our life. There are several free blog platforms provided through online such as, Tumblr, Blogger and Wix. From my own perspectives,Tumblr is both a blogging platform and a social network. It is either depends on how the user use Tumblr as a platform strictly for blogging or as a community for social networking with others (Moreau, 2012). Traditionally, blogging usually refer to a personal space for individual and tends to involve writings as a purpose to publish thoughts and self-thinking through online and public. Nevertheless,Tumblr helps to create a highly visual appealing short blog posts which are able to insert photos, animated GIFs and videos. Whereas Tumblr is also a media which we use to display who we are seen to be and a reflection of how we want to shows to the society. In fact,Tumblr consider as a platform as for the users to share and exchange different thoughts, share information, ideas, feelings, interests and desires. In addition,Tumblr also focuses on inspiration of different categories such as fashion, make up, trends, foodie. While Tumblr are often used to express personal emotions, to vent their dissatisfaction, depression or anger on their blogs, or to share personal happiness with one another.

Why Tumblr as a Social Network Site?

On the other hand, Tumblr is a site where users can post photos, images, music, jokes, quotes or text to a short-form blog and share with one another. It is also enable users to build communities together and create webs of personal relationships. Besides, Tumblr also places great emphasize on customization, and ease of use where users are able to manipulate article with the features of ‘like’, ‘share’ and ‘reblog’ and allow users to stay up-to-date to one another content. Tumblr is establishing as a social networking site to provide tools to help users to find friends who have lost contact and assemble groups of users who share the same interest with the same belief with each others. It allows interaction and engagement between one and another as a public forum to brought one another together and are able to exposed to each other’s within fandom. Tumblr also provide more direct link with friends, and contribute to a big social circle to enable users to have interconnections with each other as this helps to cultivated in intellectual relationships.

As a conclusion, Tumblr can be display as either a social site or blog to replace with older forms of entertainment due to the various form of features offered by the website.

References

Moreau, E. (2019). How to Use Tumblr for Blogging and Social Networking. Retrived from

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-tumblr-4049305