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Blog Post 8 - Global social media: Case Study China

What have I learnt about social media in China?

Currently China has a population of over 1.355 billion people, the largest of any in the world with over 513 million people, more than double the 245 million users of social media in the United States. China’s online users spend more than 40 per cent of their time using social media and this is reported to be on the rise.

China’s social-media users not only are more active than those of any other country but also, in more than 80 percent of all cases, have multiple social-media accounts, primarily with local players (compared with just 39 percent in Japan). The use of mobile technologies to access social media is also increasingly popular in China: there were more than 100 million mobile social users in 2010, a number that is forecast to grow by about 30 percent annually. Finally, because many Chinese are somewhat sceptical of formal institutions and authority, users disproportionately value the advice of opinion leaders in social networks.

Do you agree/disagree with Chiu, Lin and Silverman’s (2003, p 1) claim that “Social media is exploding worldwide, and China is leading the way.”

The case study stated that Chinese Internet users spend more time on social-media sites than their counterparts do in Japan and the United States. Consumers in China, for example, spend 46 minutes a day visiting social-media sites, compared with 7 minutes in Japan and 37 minutes in the United States. I do believe social media is expanding worldwide rapidly as it is accessible in every country that has internet access (perhaps not in third world rural areas of some countries), also, I believe China is definitely leading the way in regards to social media as they tend to do in all areas of the worlds product and service arenas. China may not invent the product but they always figure out a way to improve on the existing product and making further changes to better the product for a cheaper price. Due to the extraordinary large population of China, it is only inevitable that they lead the world in the progressive stages of products like social media and technological advances.

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/understanding_social_media_in_china

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Blog Post 7 - Social gaming: Playing the crowd

Definition of social gaming

Social gaming commonly refers to playing games as a way of social interaction, as opposed to playing games in solitude. It may refer to: Card games that involve multiple players, Social network game, games that have social network integration or elements, Board games, in which counters or pieces are placed, removed, or moved on a premarked surface according to a set of rules, Multiplayer video games, where more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time and MMOs which can be broken down into the sub categories of:

MMORPG,such as Second Life and World of Warcraft,

MMODC, such as Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2,

MMORTS, such as Starcraft and Saga

MMOFPS, such as Firefall and Heroes and Generals,

MOBA, such as Dota 2 and Guardians of Middle Earth,

MMOR, such as the crew,

MMOCCG, such as Magic the Gathering and Hearthstone, and

MMOMG, such as the Sims Online.

LAN party, a temporary gathering of people establishing a local area network (LAN), primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games

Role-playing games, a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting

Live action role-playing games, a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions

Miniature wargaming, a form of wargaming that incorporates miniature figures, miniature armor and modeled terrain

Alternate reality games, an interactive narrative that offers a platform to explore possible situations and social interactions while avoiding real world consequences

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_gaming

An interesting case study called “5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted” includes an article written by a games researcher at Microsoft on how to make video games that hook players, whether they like it or not. He has a doctorate in behavioural and brain sciences. Quote:

"Each contingency is an arrangement of time, activity, and reward, and there are an infinite number of ways these elements can be combined to produce the pattern of activity you want from your players."

http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html#ixzz3PJdAXrG0

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Blog Post 6 - Visual Communities and Social Imaging

Tagging and being tagged.

To be tagged means that the person who uploaded said piece of media (photo, video, note, etc.) knew that you were in the video, so they "tag" you saying so. For example, if I was in a picture with my friend, my friend would tag herself and me to show that we are both in the picture. It’s mainly used to identify people easier in pictures where there are a lot of people. Personally I wouldn’t be able to relate to the ‘politics’ of being tagged or tagging others as I am not on social media. Friends of mine have had bad experiences and seem to block more people than they friend as they feel that an almost ‘stalkish’ behaviour is more prevalent in recent times compared to when they first signed up to social media sites like FaceBook.

What is Snapchat?

Snapchat is a mobile app you can download to your iPhone or Android smartphone, which you can then use to “chat” with friends through photos, videos and captions. It is similar to talking by using pictures and videos. One of the most mentioned unique things about Snapchat is that the pictures you send are “self-destructing”, pictures are erased after a few seconds after they have been sent. In recent times however Chanel 9 provided a report stating that although the picture or video only is available to view for a few seconds after the recipient opens it, it is actually permanently stored on the internet along with anything we post on the internet.

The use of photography.

Nathan Jurgenson’s discussion on the use of photography was pointing out the filtering being used to post pictures on sites such as instagram to alter how we look. He mentioned the impulse people have to see our present and the use of ‘vintage’ photos being used because they look more aesthetically pleasing on the eye. Nathan brought up a really interesting point on how photos that were taken in the ‘olden days’ were shared to those who came over to your house for example and your physically showed them printed pictures, now you post your photos on social media and you have an immediate audience.

References:

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091002185830AA1P56l

http://webtrends.about.com/od/Iphone-Apps/a/What-Is-Snapchat.htm

Photography, Self Documentation, & Social Media: An Interview with Nathan Jurgenson (2014) < http://bit.ly/1s6JOIa>

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Blog Post 5 - Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

Crowdsourcing is the process of getting work or funding, usually online, from a crowd of people. The word is a combination of the words 'crowd' and 'outsourcing'. The idea is to take work and outsource it to a crowd of workers.

Famous Example: Wikipedia. Instead of Wikipedia creating an encyclopedia on their own, hiring writers and editors, they gave a crowd the ability to create the information on their own. The result? The most comprehensive encyclopedia this world has ever seen.

Crowdsourcing & Quality: The principle of crowdsourcing is that more heads are better than one. By canvassing a large crowd of people for ideas, skills, or participation, the quality of content and idea generation will be superior.

http://dailycrowdsource.com/training/crowdsourcing/what-is-crowdsourcing

The benefits of crowdsourcing - are the access to resources such as skilled areas of work like photography, promotional staff, office work or design. Crowdsourcing through using resources can allow people to advertise and sell their unique “skills”. Access to scale (size and location), if you needed to hire people full-time or part-time for jobs that are commonly required but not ongoing - it doesn't make sense for each business to hire these people individually.  For example, hiring a team to make phone calls for a day, promoting your brand at a conference or doing field research across a wide range of locations (like store-checking a chain of retail shops).  Crowdsourcing gives any business access to a large workforce for specific events or promotions but the flexibility to lower costs when required.  This means that small companies and entrepreneurs can now do things that were genuinely never possible before, and redirecting their resources to achieving business objectives. Also Transparency (real world data) is a benefit regarding crowdsourcing, by conducting a large volume of crowdsourcing transactions through a single marketplace platform, real transaction data becomes more transparent. 

The challenges of crowdsourcing – crowdsourcing can bring a number of challenges and can require certain compromises and as the concept matures it is important for businesses looking to use Crowdsourcing platforms to be aware of the issues and manage them accordingly, for example;

Cost of management – crowdsourcing means outsourcers need to deal with workers directly, which can result in the buyer of services needing to spend time and money to manage their resources effectively.

Creating a fair marketplace – another challenge arising from users dealing directly with one another is that processes and rules need to be constantly re-defined to take into account unlimited possible user cases – now and in the future.

Quality control – again, by creating an online environment in which people can engage with each other directly, trust and safety as well as quality control can be highly challenging and given that this is a base expectation for most users, needs to be managed well from the outset.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/7/10/technology/pros-and-cons-crowdsourcing

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Blog Post 4 - Digital Citizenship 3: Trolling and social media conflict

Does Australia need a cyber-safety or social media ombudsman?

I think absolutely Australia needs a cyber-safety ombudsman so that they can monitor negative behavior being posted on social media sites and can then contact the individuals using these sites maliciously to stop them from doing further harm and punishing them for their actions.  

How effective do you think the approach is to ‘governing’ online behaviour and social media practice?

The cybersmart website is designed to support and encourage participation in the digital economy by providing information and education which empowers children to be safe online. I think their approach is beneficial as they have broken their website into different age group for children to teens to contact them and get additional information into ages 0-7, 8-12 and 13-18. There are also different sections for parents, schools and outreach workshops available.

Do you think our online social forums can incorporate and adequately deal with these kinds of so-called misuse? Or do we need top down intervention?

Depending on the time taken to address the misuse of social media sites, social media forums may not be as effective as a top down intervention approach

How do these kinds of activity based in social media platforms compare with current debates about everyone having the ‘right to be a bigot’, and the relaxing of racial vilification laws?

I think these kinds of social media platforms allow people to be more anonymous and therefore are able to hide behind their computer screens and take part in things like bullying and the ‘right to be a bigot’ and not necessarily being held accountable for their behaviours. I don’t feel that there has been a relaxing of racial vilification laws, I believe that a small portion of the general public feel that they will not be held accountable for their racist behaviour.

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Examine some of the sites for global protest, activism, resistance or uprising: eg., Ukraine, or Turkey. How do social media platforms feature within these struggles?

Euromaidan, literally "Euro Square") was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on the night of 21 November 2013 with public protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti ("Independence Square") in Kiev, demanding closer European integration. The scope of the protests expanded, with many calls for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and his government. The protests ultimately led to the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Many protesters joined because of the violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November and "a will to change life in Ukraine".By 25 January 2014, the protests had been fuelled by the perception of "widespread government corruption", "abuse of power", and "violation of human rights in Ukraine". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan).

Think about your broader engagement with digital activism. Have you clicked a 'like' on a Facebook site or been part of a group that has utilised social media to unite members, plan actions or develop petitions?

There are 6 different activist functions relating to technology, which are;

Share public opinion

Plan and Action

Protect Activists

Share a call to action

Take action digitally

Transfer resources

Reference: http://www.meta-activism.org/2012/02/digital-activism-101-the-5-activist-functions-of-technology/

Are the negative connotations of 'clicktivism' justified?

The negative connotations of clicktivism can be completely justified as many of your clicks don’t actually count towards a specific payment. When you click on something, your donation isn’t going through, unless you go out of your way to follow prompts to actually make a donation. All it is creating an advertisement on your Facebook feed so your friends can see what you like and then they can join in.

Culture jamming can be a problematic process because much of the corporate content is covered by copyright – so where does that leave "culture jammers", vandals or activists?

Culture jamming (sometimes guerrilla communication) is a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including (but not limited to) corporate advertising. This affects “culture jammers” in the way that restricts how much content they can share and get out to the world.

Reference:  https://www.google.com.au/search?newwindow=1&client=firefox-a&hs=IUK&rls=org.mozilla%3AenUS%3Aofficial&channel=nts&q=what+are+%27culture+jammers%27&oq=what+are+%27culture+jammers%27&gs_l=serp.3...235602.240213.0.240681.26.15.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0.msedrc...0...1c.1.58.serp..26.0.0.CMa73R2j5YA

Future gaze: how might activists utilise social media in the future?

Activists in the future may utilise social media in the future in many ways for example; Offers an overview of the campaign for the revolution in Qatar explains that a campaign has been launched on Facebook calling for a revolution against the regime of Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Aal Thani. Its organizers are protesting against the corruption rampant in the regime and the absence of real political and party life in Qatar, as well as the lack of coverage of Qatar's domestic affairs on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV. They also criticized the country's friendly relations with Israel and the U.S. References.

Reference:  L. Barkan 2001. Washington, DC: MEMRI: Middle East Media Research Institute.

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Blog Post 2

Social media does change the means, sites and potential reach of political communication. It introduces more opportunities to ‘talk back’ and participate in political discussion. But not all media scholars agree that this indicates a positive leap for democracy and for politics. Media scholar Professor Jodi Dean is critical of the role social media plays in support of democracy is political science. In her video presentation (DCU School of Communications 2013) she argues that social media we’ve assumed to be liberating within the political environment might not be as productive as we think.

If social media is the way of the future for politics, then what sort of candidates will "perform" well and attract the increasingly important younger vote? Does a candidate have to look good via YouTube to succeed?

I think social media will be the way of the future for politics as long as social media is still as popular as it is now. There is really no choice but for politicians to participate using social media as the whole world can view their thoughts and views on politics and gives the reader more insight into their lives. Looking good wouldn’t hurt for a candidate using YouTube as we are a society that is based on looks as well as smarts, the better looking you are, the more likely you are to attract attention (unfortunately).

 Is there an increasing need by politicians and political parties to provide entertainment as well as credibility? How does an older candidate cope with the intense scrutiny via the online screen?

Definitely, people want to see someone’s personality, what they are really like as a person. If a politician comes across as personable they are more likely to get more votes from the public as we can relate to them on a human level. For older candidates it would probably be advisable for them to have an assistant that is more ‘tech savvy’ to help with navigating social media sites, perhaps an adviser to help them with what information would be good to let the public know and what not to share.

Future gaze: How might electioneering change in future, with new social media platforms and technologies?

It could be highly possible that in the future, voting could be changed to online as has been done with for example tax returns. A password and identification process can be carried out when logging on and then the voter could go ahead and vote, which would save a lot of time and money, considering people really do find it a chore to go to the voting polls.

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Social Media offers the rare example of a marketing strategy on which politics isn’t twenty years behind.  Candidates and elected officials have been quick to adopt and leverage social media to engage and educate voters.  For example, Barack Obama had dozens of social network profiles, ranging from MiGente.com to Facebook to BlackPlanet.