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Voltron Mystic Messenger AU part 1

Global Social Media: Case Study China

I will always be fascinated by the way social media has been regulated in China. I work with a company that has a very high amount of Chinese customers, therefore, I do hear a lot about their social media. WeChat is one of the major ones I hear a lot about, as well as qq. In China, rather than eliminating social media, there have been strict rules or restrictions put in place to make sure that the Chinese population don’t have access to unwanted information or to avoid their opinions being swayed (Crampton2011).

There are many reasons the Chinese have such a high involvement in social media, 2 of which include the rural-to-urban migration that has torn families apart as well as the one child rule in China and how this can cause people/ children to be isolated (Crampton2011). It’s quite sad to think that people are resulting to social media to get a human connection these days and also that the Chinese have been cut off from a lot of the rest of the worlds social media so they can’t completely immerse themselves online.

In China, they have replaced YouTube with something called Youku and also Tudou. These are quite different in that YouTube is very much a place where people can upload whatever they please, maybe a funny dog video or a fail video, however, Youku or Tudou have a lot more of a professional setting (Crampton2011). They have longer videos that are definitely more mature and are almost like an online TV station rather than somewhere to browse random videos (Crampton2011). Now, Youku and Tudou have actually been quite successful in assisting companies that focus on producing video content (Crampton2011).

It’s interesting that there are so many issues on the web these days even in Australia and around the rest of the world, and China has gone ahead and implemented this Golden Shield project which seems to have been quite successful and from what I’ve read hasn’t even caused any uproar in the community. Maybe I don’t necessarily think that it’s reasonable to expect everyone to agree with a surveillance technique like this, but I do think that China has really made a statement with this regulation. Although we do have freedom of speech here, maybe Australia could take on some of these ideas to combat things like bullying that happen on a daily basis and can unfortunately be quite overlooked.

References

Crampton, T 2011 'Social media in China: The same, but different' China Business Review, Vol 38, Issue 1, pp 28- 31.

funnygamememes

I’ve made this mistake far too often…

funnygamememes

I just can’t help myself

Social Gaming

Personally, I’m not a gamer, the game I spent the most time on is probably The Sims. But I do have a bit of knowledge surrounding it. I never used to think of gaming in a social situation, I thought it was something that you played either by yourself or with a friend using the same console in the same place. I could not have been more incorrect. Just like everything these days, gaming is evolving rapidly whether that be in regards to improvements to “lag” (as some gamers like to call it), the visuals of the game and most importantly in this post the social aspect. There are so many different games people can communicate with others through these days, some of which are actually through social media avenues such as Facebook. With social media and gaming being connected there is of course room for conflict.

So what does it mean to “play”? playing is participating in an activity that is deliberately outside your usual life and is usually not a serious activity. There are rules in place and there are also time frames and boundaries (Homo Ludens, 1938). This allows for people to step out of their usually daily realm and fully invest themselves in basically another life.

Of course with having the social aspect to gaming there is always going to be room for conflict. One of the major risks of social gaming is anonymity. You really have no idea who you’re talking to unless you’re playing a game through Facebook and are playing with your friends. Another conflict that is definitely well known in the gaming world is fraudulent behaviour. One game in which I has been prevalent in the past is the game called EVE. As EVE is very much a laissez-faire structure (Suzor et al. 2013), meaning that the players don’t really have any rules or restrictions. There was one situation in this game which ended up being called the ‘Eve Investment Bank’ which was when the participants of the game made a banking structure to announce itself as a scam (Suzor et al. 2013). The in game currency they held at the time was worth about $216,600 Australian dollars (Suzor et al. 2013)!

People are spending serious money on gaming. When people reach significant milestones within the game to then have them stripped of their achievements by fraudulent behaviour and people not following regulation would be very frustrating a devastating! The more I get into this topic, the more I realise I really knew nothing about it before this weeks content. It’s definitely very interesting and I can see how people can spend a lot of money and invest a lot of time in them. This was quite a challenging topic for me to understand but I will hopefully continue to grow my knowledge on it!

References

Suzor, N & Woodford, D 2013, Legal and Governance Challenges, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, Vol. 6, No. 3.

minus-the-negative

For when your support system is stuck at the office.

minusthenegative.com

notesforselflove

it is ok to ask for help

asking for help doesn’t make you weak

sheisrecovering

Self care comes first.💜

Public Health: Campaigns and Communities

Social media and the internet has taken health case to a whole new level by producing crucial information and support to those who may be in need. Having support groups on social media sites such as Facebook for example, can have positive effects on the person who is seeking assistance. They can interact with people experiencing the same, or similar, health issues and they can share valuable advice with one another from their own personal experiences. Even though social media can be a really useful tool in public health, there is always room for something to go wrong. One thing that may be an issue in this type of situation is privacy and surveillance. Do you really know who you’re talking to online? And can you really trust what they’re saying?

Ah social media, you allow us all to communicate with one another from the other side of the world but why do we never need to properly verify our identity? It’s WAY too easy to create a fake profile, steal someone’s photos and chat to basically whoever you please online. This is the scary part of opening up to someone in a support group for example online that you haven’t met before but is claiming to be suffering in similar ways to you. It’s hard to decipher who is real online and who is a fraud. This is something to keep in mind when using online forums regarding public health as social media isn’t always appropriate for all situations, this is because there is always the chance for privacy breeches or surveillance (Ems et al. 2016).

Yes there are definitely negatives to putting yourself out there in public health forums and groups online, but the positives definitely outweigh the negative. Having people there to support you through a hard time whether that be something mentally they are going through or something physical, is always a great way to receive affirmation and feelings of solidarity (Ems et al. 2016). This can be CRUCIAL as some people may not have others going through similar things in their family or friendship group, this really prevents people from feeling alone.

Social media has been a helpful tool to so many who are seeking out public health advice or forums/ groups as it helps build a community feel for them and lets them know they’re not alone. This is something I’m very passionate about as I do have a couple of friends who are in online groups who find it an extremely comforting and helpful tool in their situations.

Just keep in mind, that if this is something you’re going through and you’re looking to join a public forum, please be careful of what you post online as mentioned above; you really don’t know who you’re talking to or where the information you send will end up.

References

Ems, L, Gonzales A.L., 2016, A Social Media Strategy, New Media & Society, Vol. 18(8), pg. 1750-1767.

#public health

arjuna-vallabha

A Hindu Nepalese woman offers prayers at Indrayani temple that was damaged in Saturday earthquake

chromet

Pray for Nepal

Crowdsourcing in Times of Crisis

Social media has significantly changed the way we manage disaster response, whether they be global or local (Poblet et al). Crowdsourcing is when information is gathered from large sources of people, not necessarily the traditional way, but from people who are on the internet. The way it has changed allows people who are in the disaster zone to post real time content and updates (Poblet et al). This is a significant transformation to the way we used to become aware of disasters as we used to need to wait for public announcements on radio stations or the news. Amateur photography used to be so irrelevant in these types of situations, however, because we can access information directly from people who are currently suffering or at the location of these events they have become more respected. The community-level communication processes are adapting because emergency organisations are adapting to social media and are now creating accounts to deliver live updates on global occurrences (Poblet et al)

Social media, especially Twitter, played a significant role in the South East Queensland flood crisis. During the space of the 10th-16thof January, which was the dates of the flooding in Queensland, over 30,000 tweets were sent using the hashtag #qldfloods (Bruns 2012 et al). Emergency organisations and media crews were one of the main sources of information for people who may not only be wanting updates on the floods but may be looking for tips or assistance as they were reposting the publics tweets as the incident was occurring. This is so significant because it keeps people informed in real time and also allows for advice to be shared among the community. A way that this method could be improved on is by having staff at media organisations and emergency organisations trained in social media strategies and plan how they might respond to another disaster if it were to occur.

During the event of an 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal, Napalis use social networking sites as a significant resource during this time as a means of communicating with others and giving advice. A positive effect of using social networking sites during this time is that it gives people the opportunity to let others know they are safe, they also used the SNS’s to dismiss rumours (Sinha 2015). A negative of this method is that in the areas that were significantly affected, would they even have access to this at such time? It leaves the questions of how accurate the map representations are of the affected areas and can we really and truly rely on the public to produce an accurate representation of what is going on in an effected area?

REFERENCES

Bruns, A., Burgess, J., Crawford, K., Shaw, F 2012, ‘Crisis Communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods’ Media Ecologies Project,viewed 1stMay 2018,https://eprints.qut.edu.au/48241/1/floodsreport.pdf

Poblet, M., Garcia-Cuesta, E & Casanovas, P, ‘Crowdsourcing Tools for Disaster Management: a Review of Platforms and Methods’ Viewed 1stMay 2018, https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-7037456-dt-content-rid-41925845_2/courses/2018-HS1-MDA20009-227427/Crowdsourcing%20tools%20for%20disaster%20management.pdf

Sinha, S 2015, ‘3 Ways Nepalis are using Crowdsourcing to Aid in Quake Relief’ The New York Times, viewed on 1stMay 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/world/asia/3-ways-nepalis-are-using-crowdsourcing-to-aid-in-quake-relief.html

laundryandtaxes

My question, given how easy it is to troll Trump, is whether he will be allowed to keep his personal twitter. That seems like an actual security risk.

thedailysimpson

behexagusthegreat

But trolling is fun.

Trolling and Social Media Conflict

Ah trolling. Something that unfortunately most of us are familiar with, whether that be because we have been affected personally or have witnessed it at some point. Although social media was created with wholesome intentions, it has turned into a virtual hell for some.

An internet troll’s intentions are usually to upset or hurt as many people as they can (Phillips 2015). Trolling seemed to begin in the comments section of blogs and social media sites where people were posting away with the intention to upset whoever’s content they are commenting on.

A major issue with trolling is that people have the option to remain anonymous which leads to unaccountability (Hannan 2018). As these people are hiding behind fake or anonymous profiles they can unleash the true hatred that lies within them. Trolls have the power to psychologically abuse and torment the likes of others and can really contribute

Trolling is definitely a form of bullying, however, we call these bullies “keyboard warriors”. Trolling takes bullying to another level and gives people the confidence they never had. It has become so normalised and we are still yet to find a really successful way to monitor it without hindering peoples freedom of speech. As well as the intention to hurt someone, online trolls also want to gather attention.

If there are any concerns people have regarding trolls they can file a complaint with the ACMA (Australian Communication Media Authority). Although yes this is some kind of resource to help those who are having issues with trolling online, it is not a prevention technique.

Trolling comes in all shapes and forms, someone who is notorious for online trolling is the one and only Donald Trump. Trump has trolled many other politicians, whether they are in power or not, and has also trolled many others like journalists (Hannan 2018). This is the unfortunate thing about social media and trolling, is that anyone and every can get involved and someone with such a big following like Trump can potentially influence thousands of other people so they then think that something like trolling is okay and acceptable.

There are so many avenues people can use to troll, yes there are the standard Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc., but in the past we have created our own problems by making sites such as Ask FM which are a breeding ground for trolls (Hannan 2018). People can post anonymously as much as they please without a filter and being unable to be blocked by the receiver.

Hopefully the trolling becomes more regulated and frowned upon in the future, but for now it still unfortunately remains a norm.

References

Phillips, W 2015, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things : Mapping the Relationship Between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture, MIT Press.

Hannan, J 2018 ‘Trolling ourselves to death? Social media and post-truth politics ‘, European Journal of Communication, vol. 33, iss. 2, 214-266.

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