Digital Communities

HELLO EVERYONE. I AM SAMANTHA ELSA DAVIDSON AND I AM A STUDENT OF SWINBURNE SARAWAK. THIS BLOG IS STRICTLY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

[hubertpohhh]

Global Social Media: Eritrea

Many may not heard about Eritrea before and so do I. Therefore following my curiosity, I am about to find out more of Eritrea as in the location, the internet access and the people. Eritrea is located in the north east of Africa on the Red Sea surrounded by neighbour countries like Djibouti, Sudan, Ethiopia with the population of over 5 million. The country is listed as the most isolated place on earth in term of internet connections, in other word ‘The Africa’s North Korea’. The internet access in this country is fully controlled by its government and it is the only African country to have no privately-owned media (BBC News 2019). The internet censorship and surveillance has got to another level here in Eritrea. It is also voted as the tops list of most censored countries in the world overtaking China, North Korea and any others (VOA News 2019). According to a list compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (n.d.), the following are the ranking of top 10 most censorship countries:

Eritrea

North Korea

Turkmenistan

Saudi Arabia

China

Vietnam

Iran

Equatorial Guinea

Belarus

Cuba

In Eritrea, internet access is all government-controlled and less than 1% of the population reportedly go online. All non-government controlled media is banned. There is no room for freely reported news and the media are subject to the whim of the president. According BBC News (2019), the government has held a monopoly over broadcasting since independence as well as shutting down all independent media since 2001. Its exceptionally limited internet access has caused unconvience to its people as well as there are no connection between the citizens and outside world. Do the government actually cares about their citizens feelings in term of freedom? The answer could be no because citizens could not have knew their news are being censored. Citizens might still lived under the rock where they know nothing about internet, digital media, and so on. Are the government being selfish or they are hiding somethings fishy? It remains a unanswered question.

Why do some countries censor the internet?

In this 21st century, where digital media is almost everything in our daily life, current technological movement gives the impression that the internet is unrestrained but imagine people or the whole country’s media is totally censored by its government. Well, there are countries like that, citizens has no access to internet, to social media, to the world. The common reasons behind are always related to politics to completely controlling what information citizens have access to. But unlike any countries, Eritrea has the strictest law on censoring the country’s internet which allows governments to be able to hold greater over what people say and do, and often, how they vote (Open Access Government 2019). Access to information throughout the country is also hurt by a prohibition against mobile Wi-Fi, and means Eritreans are only able to access the internet via slow dial-up modems, which could account for the very low access rate of just 1%.

Not only that, North Korea with the dictatorship of its supreme leader Kim is known to have a extremely strict censorship rules over its country. With the government able to take strict control over communications, all media outlets are owned and controlled by the North Korean government. As such, all media in North Korea get their news through the only government oriented platform; Korean Central News Agency. All news, information publish by any North Korean media has to go through and get its information from Korean Central News Agency. It is believe that the reasons are mostly because of its propaganda as back in the days to prevent conflicts with countries like China, Russia and South Korea (Veronica 2016, vol.37, pp.46-50). In addition, it also helps to prevent any distribution of digital media files hence it also prevent the loss of control in term of digital media distribution and also easier for tracking (Schiess 2017, pp.4).

People Republic of China, one of the biggest censors of the internet and uses a vast digital barrier nicknamed “The Great Firewall of China” has implemented the similar concepts across its country as well and significantly stepped up its game starting from 2012 when President Xi took place. The government censors content for mainly political reasons, but also to maintain its control over the populace. The government maintains censorship over all media capable of reaching a wide audience. This includes television, print media, radio, film, theatre, text messaging, instant messaging, video games, literature and the internet. However unlike others countries, China has also developed its own national social media or internet platform to benefit its citizen which are mainly allowed to use only in China. Social media apps such as WeChat, Sina Weibo, Tencent QQ, DouYin and many more.

Do citizens have a choice on censorship? Does this means they have no rights to oppose?

Censorship appears in most countries whether it is seriously carried out or not. Even country like Malaysia has its own censorship on internet websites as well. Malaysia ban most of the pornography websites which prevent citizens to gain any access to any of those websites which could potentially harm the younger generations or any individuals. Back to Eritrea, personally from my point of view, people living there do not get a choice to decide in fact they have to follow whatever their government said to stay tight with their legal rules and regulations. They are put in a situation whereby they can only listen to orders from the government and do not get freedom from there.

Well, there are exceptional cases where citizens tries to disobey the rules set by Eritrea’s government on censorship media. As of 2018, at least 16 journalists were still behind bars or imprisoned in Eritrea. I believed with the advancement of technologies available these days, it could be getting easier for people to break the wall, oppose the law and reach for the outside world. Virtual Private Network (VPN) is one of the ways for any individuals to use and have access to the internet browsers. 

List of References:

BBC News 2019, ‘Eritrea profile - Media’, viewed 6 June 2020 <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13349077>.

VOA News 2019, ‘Eritrea Tops List of Most Censored Countries’, viewed 6 June 2020, <https://www.voanews.com/africa/eritrea-tops-list-most-censored-countries>.

Committee to Protect Journalists (n.d.), ‘10 Most Censored Countries’, viewed 6 June 2020, <https://cpj.org/reports/2019/09/10-most-censored-eritrea-north-korea-turkmenistan-journalist/>.

Open Access Government (2019), ‘Why do some countries censor the internet?’, viewed 7 June 2020, <https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/countries-censor-the-internet/58366/>.

Veronica, M 2016, ‘Propaganda and Censorship: Adapting to the Modern Age’, ProQuest, vol.37, pp.46-50, viewed 7 June 2020, <https://search.proquest.com/openview/69209b239e82cd368d45cc68d1c62c09/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=32013>.

Schless, N 2017, Governmental Control of Digital Media Distribution in North Korea: Surveillance and Censorship on Modern Consumer Devices, ERNW GmbH, pp.4, viewed 7 June 2020, <https://mirror.adversec.com/dprk/docs/governmental_control_of_digital_media_distribution_in_north_korea-nschiess.pdf>.

[samanthaelsathings]

Case Study on China: China Social Credit System

What is China’s Social Credit System?

According to Koty (2019), china social credit system is a term also known as China Ranking System that uses big data to monitor and assess trustworthiness that is used to build a high-trust society based on individuals and companies following the law. This system will also gather social credit scores to each entity based on their social behaviors, which are translated into rewards and punishment. This system was initially announced in 2014 which aims to be fully functional nationwide by 2020.

The Aim of the System

The aim of the system is to monitor, rate, and regulate the financial, social, moral and political behavior of China’s citizens and companies via a system of “punishment” and “rewards”. The stated aim is also to give individual who are trustworthy with benefits and discipline those who are deemed as untrustworthy. The government of China has considered the system an important tool to steer the country’s economy and to oversee the society (Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2020).

How Does it Work?

Each citizen is expected to be given social credit score that will increase or decrease depending on one’s social behavior that is acceptable or deemed to be unacceptable. Additionally, the government submits data based on businesses financial standing that is obtained through the standard government inspection. Data that is collected in the monitoring system are calculated based on the social credit rating for each business (Boquen,2020).

The Pros and Cons of China’s Social Credit System High scores can lead to:

Priority for school admission and employment

Easier access to cash loan and consumer credit

Free gym facilities

Cheaper public Transport

Shorter waiting time in Hospitals

Faster promotion at work

Jumping queue for public housing

Tax break

Punishments can lead to:

Denial of licenses, permits, and access to some social service

Exclusion from booking flights and train tickets

Less access to credit

Restricted access to public services

Not eligible for government jobs

No access to private schools

Public shaming; exposing names and ID numbers of citizens who are blacklisted online, or TV screens in public places.

Is the Social Credit System a way to instill good behavior and provide safety to citizens? At what cost?

Can you imagine having the government dictate every movement you make without your consent? Most people would not like the thought of having every movement you make being watch over by the government. In my opinion, it is unfair and unreasonable to punish a person based on things that are unnecessary and shaming them over it. By putting a person in the “blacklist” will restrict everything they do. From having restriction for social services to not being able to find a job. Even though what they did is socially wrong, everyone should be given a chance to change their ways.

Reference

Boquen, A 2020, ‘An Introduction to China’s Social Corporate Credit System’, New Horizons, 19 May, viewed 5 June 2020, <https://nhglobalpartners.com/chinas-social-credit-system-explained/>.

Koty, A.C 2019, ‘China’s Corporate Social Credit System: What Businesses Need to Know’, China Briefing, 5 November, viewed 5 June 2020, <https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-corporate-social-credit-system-how-it-works/>.

Bertelsmann Stiftung 2020, ‘China’s Social Credit System’, Bertelsmann Stiftung, viewed 5 June 2020, <https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/fileadmin/files/aam/Asia-Book_A_03_China_Social_Credit_System.pdf>.

[jjlau99]

Are gaming communities becoming less about play and more about monetisation?

Games as a service refer to a broad class of online games which provides in-game content on a continuing revenue model (Lehdonvirta 2009, pp. 98). It is designed to encourage users to make ‘in-game purchases’ or ‘microtransactions’, which involve money usually spent on small expenses (such as between $1 and $5) to access virtual items or currencies in the game.  Approximately 70% of revenue from in-app- purchases comes from 10% of players. Within the gaming industry these players have become known as ‘Whales’. The basic design and implementation of purchasing options in games, especially their rapid pace, repeatability and inherent randomness in certain formats, have been invited some comparisons to gambling products, particularly electronic gaming machines (King & Delfabbro 2018, pp. 1637). Video game publishers usually monetize their game products and it is pretty normal. The purpose is to return money to game developers, copyright owners and other stakeholders. As monetization methods continue to diversify, they also influence game design in ways that sometimes lead to criticism and game communities.

Going back to the topic, I agree that the gaming community is less concerned about games and more concerned about monetization. I think this is because people will have a comparative mentality. If the gamer reload and purchase in game, he/she will get a unique upgrade for a skill or weapon, known as a ‘skin’. For example, the prices of these skins range from relatively inexpensive to thousands of dollars, and even have the ability to sell on e-bay and other sites for other players to purchase. As of Feb 2017 the most expensive weapon skin in Counter Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO), a hugely popular eSport game, was valued at approximately $100,000USD. So gamers nowadays are more care about the spec of their user in the game rather than enjoy the game itself.  

References:

Lehdonvirta, V 2009, ‘Virtual item sales as a revenue model: identifying attributes that drive purchase decisions’, Electronic Commerce Research, no.9, pp. 97-113.

King, D & Delfabbro, P 2016, ‘The Cognitive Psychopathology of Internet Gaming Disorder in Adolescence’, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, no.44, pp. 1635-1645.

[101209840]

Good blog, I agree that monetization is still acceptable. Game developers are time consuming jobs, without monetization they will go starving. 

[samanthaelsathings]

Social Gaming

According to Gough (2019), social gaming frequently refers to games that are played online which also allow social interaction among players while being in the game. This can include multiplayer card games, board games, social network games, and also interactive multiplayer video games like, Call of Duty or Mario Kart.  

Have you ever wondered if playing video games online has become less about playing and enjoying the game but more about purchasing items to be able to advance in the game?

This shows that it is very crucial to be aware of the changes that are happening within the gaming industry because the way gaming developers make money off games has changed. To be able to play games now is not only about initial purchase of the game or paying a monthly subscription for access. Majority of online games, especially app-games now have in-game purchases which is designed to make being able to advance through the game difficult without making such purchases (SORTED Youth AOD Service, 2020). For example, Candy Crush only give a certain amount of free gold bars which are used to purchase boosters in the game to progress through harder levels. Once you have insufficient gold bars, you are required to make a purchase of gold bars in the candy shop which is needed for you to continue on with the game. Although there is a change in the way gaming developers make money off games, it is also important to understand that gaming developers have worked hard to make these games available and it always good to recognize their efforts by purchasing in app items.

Apart from this, some gaming communities have also become a negative environment for society who are considered “non gamer”, for example, women and LGBT communities. For decades now, video games are seen as things for boys and girls are supposed to play with only Barbie dolls. As an example, when a person tries to include themselves to a game, without disclosing their genders or sexual preferences, they are usually welcomed and included. Only when disclosing their genders or sexual preferences, the problem starts to begin. This can even go to the extent of being threaten or banned from social groups within the game for being a woman or those in the LGBT community (Schaepman, 2017).

In conclusion, it’s important to understand the reason for monetization within the gaming industry and in considering a person’s identity, as in the offline social world, everyone should be able to choose their own identity or character they relate to, in video games, without constant fear of being harassed for being different in terms of their sexuality or gender.

References

Gough, C 2017, ‘Social Gaming’, Statista, 7 March, viewed 29 May 2020, <https://www.statista.com/topics/2965/social-gaming/>.

Schaepman, J 2017, ‘The Changes of On-and Offline Presence of Females and LGBT—Gamers between 1995-2015’, Leiden University, 30September, viewed 29 May 2020, <https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/49358/Schaepman%2C%20Jacqueline-s1133330-BA%20Thesis%20CAOS-2017%20.pdf?sequence=>.

Sorted Youth AOD Service 2020, ‘The Monetisation of Gaming’, Sorted Youth AOD Service, viewed 29 May 2020, <https://www.bopdhb.govt.nz/media/61150/gaming-fact-sheet-monetization.pdf>.

[samanthaelsathings]

Fandom

According to Grinnell College (2020), fandom is a term which describes a community which are built around similar interest in aspects of popular culture, such as books, movies, TV shows, bands, sports or sports team, etc. Fan culture include an example of participatory culture which not only involve fan being a consumer but also producers and creators at the same time for some form of creative media. This shows that media fandom actually encourages the ability for creative expressions and artistic productions by its fan-base.

In recent years, there is a growing trend of online fandom communities found of Tumblr. This is because Tumblr is known for being a place for people to “strongly unite over something”. While the social networking site was built mainly as a blogging platform, it is flexible and has been appropriate for it to be used for much more than just a blog. As the Tumblr users have so much love for the community, they appreciate that they have common interests with other Tumblr users and that other people are willing to analyse, and generally obsess over the same things as they do. The GIF feature has also played an important role in understanding the Tumblr Culture. For example, there are tons of fan GIF of the TV show, Vampire Diaries, on Tumblr which can allow fans to interact among each other through the platform. (Hillman, 2014).

However, the negative part of social fandom can be how fandom online can sometimes be weird and alienating especially for fans who are “fandementalists”, but it should not define the entire picture of what fandom really is (VanDerWerff, 2016). Personally, I don’t really have an actual obsession over a particular subject but experiences I have noticed on social media, especially on Twitter, that some K-pop fandom can be somewhat toxic and negative as they try to defend their idols over criticism from others in a way that isn’t healthy. This doesn’t not mean all K-pop fandom but some, which paint a picture of fandom in general as “weird” or “overly emotional”.

With the use of social media, it has changes communication technology which has shaped various elements of popular culture in online spaces.  The construction of online identities provides fans with the opportunity to share common interests with each other. However, the possibility of the negative part of it should also be considered.

Reference

Grinnell College 2020, ‘Fandom and Participatory Culture’, viewed 22 May 2020, <https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultural-theory-and-theorists/fandom-and-participatory-culture/>.

Hillman, S 2014, ‘Tumblr Fandoms, Community & Culture’, Research Gate, 1 February, viewed 22 May 2020,<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262246094_Tumblr_fandoms_community_culture>.

VanDerWerff, E 2016, ‘Fandom can be weird and alienating. But it’s driving the conversation in crucial ways’, Vox, 9 June, viewed 22 May 2020, <https://www.vox.com/2016/6/9/11890246/fandom-weird-critic-important>.

[samanthaelsathings]

Crowd-sourcing & Crowdfunding

According to McGowan 2018, although crowd-sourcing and crowdfunding are similar in nature as they both allow people to primarily leverage mass-community collaboration, they relate to two completely different things. Crowd-sourcing comes from the word: crowd and outsourcing. Outsourcing can be defined as a practice in which goods or services are obtain from third party sources whereas crowdfunding is the process of raising funds through a collective effort of groups of people.

As internet has played a huge role in the evolution of the world, social media is becoming an essential tool for crowd-sourcing and crowdfunding as it allows organizations to reach a winder audience at a faster pace while being cheaper and more efficient than ever before. For example, for political reasoning. Although social media is known to be used to spread the unenthusiastic attitude; it also tends to encourage greater political participation especially for younger generation. For instance, the movement of @CarPoolGE14 and #PulangMegundi (return to vote) which was a trend birthed in Malaysia by concerned Malaysian to help other Malaysian travel home to vote during the 14th General Election on the 9th May 2018 (Najwa Abdullah & Amalina Anuar, 2018). With the use of crowd-sourcing and crowdfunding on social media, the #PulangMengundi movement has reached a mass amount of participation from a mass-community of people as the group has raised funds of approximately RM200,000 which came from about 250 sponsors which are used to give funding assistance to allow students, new-time voter and those working far from home to be able to come back to vote during the GE14. This also shows how social media has the capability to make politics seem more appealing and relevant to younger generation of voters, and to encourage common initiatives. These kinds of movements have also increased voter turnout as it was the closest-fought Malaysian election in history (The New Straits Time, 2018).

However, in an era filled with forged news, the effects it has on crowd-sourced information is unavoidable, but, according to Carufel (2019), crowd-sourcing could act as an effective tool in fighting the wide spread of misinformation on social media if implemented correctly. This can be done by enforcing the importance for social media platforms to survey their users about how much trust they have on various outlets and by promoting content from sites with high trust ratings rather than site with similar topics but lower trust ratings.

This shows that crowd-sourcing/crowdfunding on social media when used appropriately can be such a beneficial tool to combat arising issue within the community as it supports the collaborative help from people of different groups.

References

McGowan, E 2018, ‘Crowdfunding vs. Crowdsourcing’, StartUps, 19 April, viewed 13 May 2020, <https://www.startups.com/library/expert-advice/crowdfunding-vs-crowdsourcing>.

Najwa Abdullah & Amalina Anuar 2018, ‘Old Politics and New Media: Social Media and Malaysia’s 2018 Elections’, The Diplomat, 8 May, viewed 13 May 2020, <https://thediplomat.com/2018/05/old-politics-and-new-media-social-media-and-malaysias-2018-elections/>.

The News Straits Times 2018, ‘#PulangMengundi: M'sians pitch in to help those who can't afford to travel home for GE14’, viewed 13 May 2020, <https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/04/356247/pulangmengundi-msians-pitch-help-those-who-cant-afford-travel-home-ge14>.

Carufel, R 2019, ‘Fighting the spread of fake news—why crowdsourcing is effective’, Agility PR Solution, 13 February, viewed 13 May 2020, <https://www.agilitypr.com/pr-news/public-relations/fighting-the-spread-of-fake-news-why-crowdsourcing-is-effective/>.

[samanthaelsathings]

Public Health Campaigns & Communities

Have you ever wondered what does public health mean and how does social media influence the importance of public health to the public?

According to CDC Foundation (2020), public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of the population and the communities which can be achieved by promoting healthier lifestyles to the public, researching on diseases and injury preventions, and detecting, preventing and responding to infectious diseases. With the use of social media and social networking sites to communicate in real time and on-the-go, health professionals and patients are recognized to be an important factor for the development of public health over a decade ago. Therefore, the combination of social media and health care is a powerful tool as social networking sites has become an important platform for people to seek health resources, and not just for the millennial generation. According to Pagoto,Waring, & Xu (2011), approximately 90% of older adult users of social media have seek and share information via various social media platforms.

The beneficial part of using social media for public health is to raise awareness to the public about new, emerging and annual health concerns. For example, with the current pandemic that is happening, the Ministry of Health in Malaysia has been posting on Twitter about the ways to minimize the risk of getting infected by the current health hazards. With the ongoing changes and the need to practice social distancing, social media has also become an important tool to ensure that the public is aware of the current issues, guidelines and advisories to stay at home and to stay safe.

Although social media can be an important tool to support the spread of information quickly to diverse groups of people which is beneficial when the information that is shared is factual, helpful and clear. Unfortunately, with the use of social media, there is also a lot of health misinformation that occur. For instance, when MyEG, a government service provider announced that the public may purchase their “Covid-19 Rapid Test Kit” which allow the public to use it from home. MyEG also quoted in their website that, “You are able to get results within 15 minutes with no requirements for samples to be sent to laboratories” and claimed that the kits were developed by a leading diagnostics company and are widely used in China as it is approved by their local health authorities. However, the ministry of health has said in a Facebook post that these test kits are “fake news” which was counter-response by MyEG that these kits were waiting approval from the health ministry. (Free Malaysia Today, 2020).

This shows that even if the use of social media can be helpful to raise awareness about public health issues, it can also be a platform where misinformation is widely spread. Information that are shared should be information that are thoroughly analyse and from resources that are reliable.

References

CDC Foundation 2020, ‘What is Public Health?’, viewed 4 May 2020, <https://www.cdcfoundation.org/what-public-health>.

Pagoto, S, Waring, M & Xu, R 2011, ‘A Call For a Public Health Agenda for Social Media Research’, Journal of Medical Internet Research, viewed 4 May 2020, <https://www.jmir.org/2015/3/e70/>.

Free Malaysia Today 2020, ‘Health Ministry calls Covid-19 test kit ‘fake news’, viewed 6 May 2020, <https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/03/18/health-ministry-calls-covid-19-test-kit-fake-news/>.

[samanthaelsathings]

Social Activism & Protest

Social activism is an intentional action started up by an individual whose main goal is to seek social changes. If a person feels strongly about a certain cause and are working towards a change, they can be considered an activist (Amherst College,2019). For example, an activist can be a someone who wants change regarding double standards among females and males in a working environment, sexual violence or a mother of a child who was killed by a drunk driver talking to an audience about drinking and driving.

Here is a question that pops up in your mind right now, where does social media stand in making social activism and protest a success?

To have a better understanding on that, an example of activism and protests which became a worldwide movement that happened on social media is the #MeToo movement.  

According to North, A (2019), the #MeToo movement was surfaced about a decade ago by activist, Taran Burke, whose goal was to “spread a massage for survivors of sexual violence: you’re heard, you’re understood”. In 2017, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted about this movement because she wanted to “give people the sense of magnitude of the problem” which causes a burst of awareness about sexual violence and harassment worldwide. The main goal of this movement is to build connection with survivors of sexual assault to have access to healing and to advocate for changes to laws and policies (Me too, 2018).

With the help of social media, the #MeToo movement became a global movement showing that there is power in social media in putting a light on the culture of superiority of men over women across the globe. Women from all over the world has taken part in the #MeToo movement to protests about the sexual misconduct that is happening all over the world. It is seen that several accusations were brought to light and taken seriously after survivors spoke of their experiences which resulted to putting their abusers in jail or losing their jobs.

As a conclusion, social media has the power to shed a light on problems that are faced throughout the world through social media movements. With that being said, social media can be an effective and important tool for a person to create awareness in order to seek social changes.  

References

North, A 2019, ‘7 positive changes that have come from the #MeToo movement’, Vox, <https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/10/4/20852639/me-too-movement-sexual-harassment-law-2019>.

Amherst College 2019, ‘Social Activism’, viewed 22 April 2020, <https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/careers/amherst-careers-in/government-nonprofit/picareers/careers/social_activism>.

Me Too 2018, ‘About Me Too’, viewed 22 April 2020 <https://metoomvmt.org/about/>.

[samanthaelsathings]

Political Engagement

In the era we live in currently, social media is becoming an important tool for politicians to allow the public to engage and participate in their manifestos. This is because social media has a strong influence on public participation in politics. Do you ever wonder why?

Social media has provided an outlet for communication and keeping up with the world as politicians share their opinions and thoughts through social media platforms which can be read by anyone around the world (Juniors, 2019). According to Falasca (2019), most political parties uses social media to promote and advertise their manifestos to the public and to showcase how much good deed that they have contributed to the society to win over the public’s interest. This is because when a politician lets out a massage, their followers would do the work of spreading the word and liking it. In fact, when a post has a massive impact, it would create a chain reaction giving it great publicity without doing much.

However, many politicians have also caused controversies through social media platforms. Take for example, the famous controversial current US president, Donald Trump. In the many years, Trump has been famously known for posting obnoxious tweets. Recently, Trump has tweeted a controversial tweet regarding the current pandemic saying that the World Health Organization (W.H.O) blew it which he claimed to be funded largely by the United Sates, yet very “China Centric” (Lanyon, 2020).

Ever since Trump got elected, there has been a debate on whether Trump should be banned on Twitter for violating Twitter’s rules but by blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial tweets would hide some important information that is needed for people to see and debate. (Mahdawi, 2019). This has been a back and forth argument topic for a while now.

In conclusion, social media is great place for politician to spread awareness and to allow for engagement from their supporters when used in a proper manner. Meanwhile, social media has also been a place for entertainment for the public. For example, when there are a lot of funny “mak cik kiah” memes after the recent announcements regarding the current pandemic by the Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Muhyiddin Yassin. Although it was a serious topic, he managed to keep everyone calm and entertained during this time.

References

Falasca, K c. 2019, ‘How does the political parties use social media? Who is actually working for whom?’, Mid Sweden University, <https://www.miun.se/en/Research/archive/how-do-the-parties-use-social-media-who-is-actually-working-for-whom/>.

Lanyon, C 2020, ‘Coronavirus: Donald Trump threatens to cut off WHO funding over agency’s handling of outbreak’, South China Morning Post, <https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3078865/donald-trump-says-who-too-focused-china-and-really-blew-it>.

Juniors, J 2019, ‘Opinion: The Controversies of Social Media’, JMORE Juniors, <https://www.jmoreliving.com/2019/04/25/opinion-the-controversies-of-social-media/>.

Mahdawi, A 2019, ‘Should Trump be Banned from Twitter?’, The Guardian, <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/04/should-trump-be-banned-from-twitter>.

[samanthaelsathings]

Is Tumblr a blog or a Social Media Site?

Since we are actively using Tumblr for this unit, it is the right time to understand the use of Tumblr and whether Tumblr is classified as merely a blogging site or a social network site?

The term “blog” usually refers to an online journal or diary which started out as a personal site where people tend to use it to express their opinions, and stories based on the topics a person wants to be known for or topics that they are familiar with (Grosvenor, 2019). On the other hand, social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter or Facebook refers to a website which are designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently and in real-time. (Hudson, 2019). A good portion of the traffic on blog pages are from search engines on google from people who wants to know about the opinion on a certain topic making people who reads the blog pages strangers to the writer whereas a social media site is a place where people usually interact with others that they are aware of, usually following you or seeking you out. (Collier, 2016).

This is where the question come to mind, what is Tumblr?

Tumblr can be considered a blogging platform and a social networking site. This is because a person can use Tumblr strictly for blogging or strictly for social networking with others or even both at the same time. Tumblr can be classified as a social networking site and a blogging site because there are a lot of similarities between Tumblr and other popular social networking sites like, Twitter, Facebook and even Instagram as it allows users to customize pages, add profile photos, like, reblog and even post a comment on other users posts which allows interaction among users. Although Tumblr is known to be a blogging site because it mostly involves “writing” but in fact Tumblr is also high in visuals because it allows users to post short blog posts along with photos, animated GIFs and videos. A Tumblr post can also go viral in a matter of hours to other social networking sites which can lead to having social relationships. (Moreau, 2020).

With this information, is there a clear line specifying that Tumblr is a blog or a social media site? The answer is no because Tumblr is platform where bloggers create content that are of a specific topic and are constantly reblogging work of others which allow social relationship to be build with people of the same interest making it also a social networking site.

References

Hudson, M 2019, ‘What Is Social Media?’, viewed 7 April 2020, <https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-social-media-2890301>.

Grosvenor, C 2019, ‘How Do Blogs Work?’, viewed 7 April 2020, <https://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/everything-blogging/how-do-blogs-work>.

Collier, M 2016, ‘The Key Difference Between Your Blog and Other Social Media Channels That Most Companies Miss’, viewed 8 April 2020, <http://www.mackcollier.com/difference-your-blog-social-media-company/>.

Moreau, E 2020, ‘How to Use Tumblr for Blogging and Social Networking’, viewed 8 April 2020, <https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-tumblr-4049305>.