Valerie Jawan

[valeriejawan]

I do’s: Post Audit of ICTs Observations and Reflections.

Engagement 

The relationship between me and the devices that I use on a daily basis is like a marriage, you want to take a break from it, but it is also quite impossible if that person is already embedded in your life. It’s like a lifetime contract.

This particular assignment in this MDA60002 Media Ecologies unit requires us to observe and note down every single time we are on our devices and what we do on them. It is also used to observe our ICT habits and reflect on where ICT stands in my life. This article will cover the summary of the findings, what I observed about my time with my partner (the ICT), and what I have realised to make this marriage work. 

The audit is done over 14 days including a week of break from classes to be able to see the maximum usage of my devices. After this audit, I realised it was more of an unhealthy obsession rather than a necessity. 

Wedding Day

I did this audit based on the five devices that I use daily which are my two phones, my Macbook, my Windows gaming laptop, and my iPad. Who knew how five devices could take almost 7 days of time out of the 14 days of observation. That’s half of my two weeks gone just being attached to my devices.  It was definitely an eye-opener to the underlying problem that I have. 

To make it easier to track and compile the observations, I categorised them into eight categories: 

communication and social media

streaming consumption

audio consumption

university 

financing

transportation

utilities

gaming

After calculating the time I spent on these categories, the category that I spent the most time on was communication and social media (can’t say I am surprised) with 53.9%. I spent 180 hours on my communication and social media apps across those 14 days. The least used category was the financing part. I used these devices more in my personal daily life and just 15.1% of it was spent on university work. From all the applications that I have used on my devices, the top time usage was on Overwatch, a team-player multiplayer first-person shooting (FPS) game, and TikTok. I spent more than 26 hours on both of these apps. 

Note: Two categories are not seen on the chart because their percentage (%) is almost equal to 0 and data is less than 1 minute. 

Honeymoon

Abraham Maslow (1943) came up with the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs theory that human needs are categorised into 5 levels of hierarchy. My relationship with my devices is mostly based on ‘love and belonging needs’ on the theory whereby I use my phone for instance to be in constant contact with my family and friends back in Malaysia. Having my phone around me just creates a sense of closeness with them despite being thousands of miles away. Being around something familiar is like a safety net for me being in a foreign place. As stated previously, my top app was a multiplayer game and I played with my friends back home to maintain our close relationship. Besides spending time with my friends, we often have competitive and friendly competitions to earn some side income. However, for TikTok, it is more of my own pleasure - in hopes to pass the time faster (and it definitely did. 7 days passed…)

Off to a rocky path

I made a graph of my screen-to-sleep ratio to observe my sleeping pattern and it looked like a constellation in the black hole. Despite having advantages to using ICTs, my usage of ICTs has been quite bad to the point where I only had 3 hours of sleep because I just couldn’t let go of these devices and also I have very poor time management which doesn’t make situations better.  Due to these odd sleeping habits, I realised I have developed some health problems. For example, I started having very bad back pain, especially at my lower spine till there was a day I couldn’t sit up for more than an hour and recurring headaches being on the screen. It is sad to see that I am hurting myself without realising it till it becomes a constant thing. It really shows how ICT can affect your health, not just mentally but also physically.

I knew I was the only one who could fix my addiction to ICTs and if I am not going to do anything about it, things will just deescalate even further. As Jose van Dijck (2013) stated in his article ‘Disassembling Platforms, Reassembling Sociality’, Jose questioned what is “social” in social media when we are actually not interacting with one another but rather sharing with one another behind a screen. After finishing the audit and looking back at the results, I downloaded an app-blocker on my devices to force me to not be able to use my devices for a set period. After having this app-blocker, I realised I spent more time actually communicating with my friends here and I even had the time to explore suburbs outside of Melbourne than just being locked up in my own space. 

After couples’ therapy

Disconnection is a lifestyle that I want to be living in, but not in this current world where everything is basically controlled by ICT. There were some ICT that I was using that I wasn't aware of when doing this audit, such as my use of Apple Wallet, Myki, or even my Student ID which is something that I use almost every day. ICT like this is what makes it impossible for a disconnected life. Without these ICTs, I would not be able to buy food to survive since I need my bank card or Apple wallet to pay or even cash out some money and I would not be able to enter buildings on campus without using my student ID. 

In a nutshell, there are pros and cons to having ICT in your daily life. When used moderately, our lives could be easier with all these ICTs around us. However, ICTs could also be the death of us when the question ‘Am I using ICT or is ICT using me’ comes in. We can’t get rid of ICTs because ICT will continue to evolve and grow but we can adapt to the evolution of ICTs by dividing real life and technology.

References

Maslow, A 1943, ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review, vol. 40, pp 370 - 396.

Van Dijck, J 2013, ‘Disassembling platforms, reassembling sociality’, Oxford University Press, pp 24-44.

[valeriejawan]

Global Social Media: North Korea

It would be a nightmare for some of us to not have internet access even for a few minutes. However, for some countries, it is a reality. Some doesn’t even have access to the Internet as they don’t have the same access to information and freedom of speech like us. Several countries such as Cuba, Myanmar, China, Iran, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Eritrea have banned or restricted internet use to keep citizens from the uprising, to keep their regimes intact and to make sure the free voice of the press is suppressed. 

Let’s focus on North Korea. As well all know, North Korea is one of the most restricted nation in the world. Not only they restrict people from coming in, the also restrict any sort of outside information from coming in. Only the political elite have full access to the Internet in North Korea. The country created a “walled garden” national intranet service called Kwangmyong is filtered to schools and state institutions. Many people along the border of China have tried to gain internet access from North Korea but it was too risky as the mobile phones are not legal and if they were caught accessing full internet, consequences will be taken upon the user. So, it’s better to not try!

North Korea started blocking Twitter and other sites in April 2016 to stem the spread of information. The political elites are reportedly active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Chinese services such as video platform Youku and Sina Weibo which is like a chinese Twitter. For foreigners that are visiting North Korea, they are provided unrestricted Koryolink 3G mobile network. Jean Lee, then chief of the Associated Press’s Pyongyang bureau was the first person to access Twitter and posted on Instagram through Koryolink in February 2013. 

References

Countries Where Internet is Foribidden or Limited, Mairie DeMont Soult. Retrieved from https://www.mairiedemontsoult.com/countries-where-internet-is-forbidden-or-limited/

Reddy, S. (2019). ‘Analysis: how does north korea use social media?’, BBC Monitoring. Retrieved from https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c200xiwn

Tannam, E (2018). ‘Why are internet users in north korea abandoning western social media?’, Silicon Republic. Retrieved from https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/north-korea-social-media

[valeriejawan]

Social Gaming

First of all, what is social gaming?

Social gaming is commonly referred as online games that allows social interaction between the players. They use this space to form communities, relationships and identities.  It varies from multiplayer card games, board games, social network games to interactive multiplayer video games. Online casinos are also considered as one of the biggest branch of social gaming.

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

Social game monetisation is where the publisher us their video game product to generate revenue. There are several ways of monetisation but the all serve the same purpose; to give back money to the game developers, copyright owners and other stakeholders. I wouldn’t say that gaming communities are becoming less about play and more about monetisation; I would say it is 50-50. There are still a lot of people who are playing these video games because they enjoyed playing the game. And also, there are several businesses that monetizes video games by using these several methods: subcription, microtransactions etc. Microtransactions enable players to obtain additional game content or premiums (King, DL 2018). This purchases are common in mobile game revenue models where the base game is ‘free-to-play’ but the players are tempted into spending money to make unimpeded progress in the game. This method of monetising video games has generated some concerns about the extent to which players may be vulnerable to overspending or impulsive buying on these schemes (Dreier, M 2019). 

Are gaming communities becoming more toxic environments for some?

Yes, at this digital era, almost everything online is becoming a more toxic environments for some people. Gaming communities are not always welcoming like how it used to be. One of the greatest issue of social gaming is sexual harassment, which is keeping many women from participating in the gaming community. The experiences of women or other groups that portrayed as outsiders or minorities in gaming culture can be discouraging. Research shows that online video games can be a very hostile environments as a product of competitive play via trash talk. In gaming culture, women are often harassed because they are perceived as an outside and intrusive minority; this is exemplified by the Gamergate controversy where self‐identified gamers threatened with violence to female video game developers for raising problematic gender issues in video game culture (Consalvo, M 2012). 

References

Tang, WY, Reer, F, Quandt, T 2019, ‘Investigation sexual harassment in online video games: how personality and context factors are related to toxic sexual behaviors against fellow players’, Wiley Online Library, viewed 30 May 2020, <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ab.21873>.

Consalvo, M 2012, ‘Confronting toxic gamer culture: a challenge for feminist game studies scholars’, ADA Gender New Media & Technology, viewed 30 May 2020, <https://adanewmedia.org/2012/11/issue1-consalvo/>.

King, DL & Delfabbro, PH 2018, ‘Video game monetization (eg., ‘loot boxes’): a blueprint for practical social responsibility measures’, Springer, viewed 30 May 2020, < file:///C:/Users/PAUL%20SANTA/Desktop/king2018.pdf>.

Nikita, K 2015, ‘Monetization in games’, Lathi University of Applied Sciences, viewed 30 May 2020, <https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/95966/Kononov_Nikita.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y>.

Dreier, M 2019, ‘Unfair play? video games as exploitative monetized services: an examination of game patents from a consumer protection perspective’, ResearchGate, viewed 30 May 2020, <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334489308_Unfair_play_Video_games_as_exploitative_monetized_services_An_examination_of_game_patents_from_a_consumer_protection_perspective>.

[cassandra-acf]

Fandom

What is Fandom?

So, how exactly do one defined fandom? According to Cambridge University (n.d.), fandom is the state of being a fan of someone or something, especially a very enthusiastic one. The relationship between fans and creators has always been incredibly complex, and in recent years it is grown quite intense and fraught.

Fan culture, or fandom, is a term which describes communities built around a shared enjoyment of an aspect of popular culture, such as books, movies, TV shows, bands, sports or sports teams, etc. Fan cultures are examples of participatory cultures. Participatory cultures involve fans acting not only as consumers but also as producers and creators of some form of creative media. Though most fan cultures, including sports fans and fans of music groups, have elements of participatory culture, media fandom in particular encourages creative expression and artistic production by its participants.

Why has Tumblr been currently the preferred social space for fans?

In recent years, Tumblr has increased dramatically in popularity and has become one of the fastest growing social networking sites. The reason for that is because fandoms perceive Tumblr as being a place for people to “strongly unite over something” (Hilman, Procyk & Neustaedter 2014 p. 4). Also, in Tumblr, fans have also created their own terminology that fits the type of activities they participate in such as One True Pairings (OTPs). OTPs is a set of characters that fans pair together (in a romantic relationship). Fans will refer to all OTPs relationships in all fandoms as simply ‘ships’ derived from the word relationship. Another terminology is the word ‘endgame’ that is frequently used by fans. The term ‘endgame’ refers to how they would like their OTPs to end up together at the end of a series. OTPs and ships are very important to the Tumblr fandom culture as they often drive what fans call ‘feels.’ Feels describe when a fan has high emotion towards any fandom related event. When a fan experiences an overwhelming amount of feels, they can express themselves by typing gibberish for instance ‘alksjdflksfd’. This text is meant to represent uncontrollable excitement. While there are several other terms used within Tumblr and fandoms, those described represent the most prevalent (Hilman, Procyk & Neustaedter 2014 p. 4).

Is fandom a friendly space for a Chinese/Malaysian/Southeast Asian fan?

First, let me address that a fandom is a pure and precious thing, and no one should feel conflicted about being invested in a pop-culture figure or property. But in certain situation, online communities have served as rallying points for stan armies that are obsessives who comb over every interview and shred of non-news for information about the object of their adoration. But increasingly, fandoms’ emotions have been curdling into a different kind of potion such as something petty, entitled, conspiratorial, even abusive (Wired, 2018).

There is certain situation, some fandom can be ruthless. For instance, Taylor Swift fandom, also known as “Swifties”. Generally speaking, Taylor Swift’s fans aren’t bad. They just really love Swift and tend to be a little over-the-top about it. And most of the time, that is what fandom is. But within that group, the “Bad Blood” singer has a few bad apples. There are those who go after Hayley Kiyoko for daring to point out that she should not be criticized for singing about women when Swift sings about men all the time. Also, there are Swifties who get bent out of shape when she does not get nominated for enough awards. And then there are the white supremacists’ fans Swift seems to have done nothing to court but pop up anyway. (Wired, 2018).

So, is fandom still considered a safe place for fans? A safe place is where people should feel free to express themselves however they choose. Nevertheless, not all fandoms can be considered as a safe place, but they are many that can. Thus, it technically depends on the culture of the fandom community you are in.

References

‘Fandom’ n.d., Cambridge University, viewed 22 May 2020, <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fandom>.

Framke, C 2016, ‘Creators of popular media are becoming increasingly wary of their fans. That’s a problem for everyone.’ Vox, viewed 23 May 2020, <https://www.vox.com/2016/6/8/11885562/tv-fans-the-100-fandom>.

Hillman, S, Procyk, J & Neustaedter, C 2014, ‘Tumblr fandoms, community & culture’, Research Gate, pp. 1-6.

‘The 10 Most Difficult-to-Defend Online Fandoms’ 2018, Wired, viewed 23 May 2020, <https://www.wired.com/story/10-most-toxic-fandoms/>.

[valeriejawan]

Fandom

What is it?

Based on the Cambridge Dictionary, fandom is defined as the state of being a fan of someone or something, especially in a very enthusiastic way. Fandom is essentially a way of saying “fan culture”. Fandom functions as an alternative social community (Jenkins 1992). The fan community shares a mutual bond over their enthusiasm for the specific piece of pop culture. 

Fandom on Social Media

We often see a lot of fan accounts created on social media especially on Instagram where there are at least more than 10 fan account for one specific celebrity. It is created by fans and not professionals, for the greater good of their fandom and also for other fans to enjoy. Fans are now going beyond the ‘traditional’ forms of engagement; at one point this was limiited to concert attendance and merch. Now fans have a few ways to be more involved - social media being the most important. 

This is where social media has positively affected fan culture by allowing the interaction of fans and aspects of fan culture to increase. The interaction between fan and the celebrity have increased because social media allowed fans to feel more connected to the celebrity on a more personal level. Increased It also has increased fans interaction with one another, allowing them to connect with each other with the same interest; and also affecting interactions between fan and producer; the record labels, the movie studios, the publishers, and the TV producers. 

I, myself. don’t personally have my own experience of fandom but I have seen a lot of fandom going on around me. For example, my mother is “fangirling” over a Korean actor named Lee Min Ho. So, for me, it is fair to say the media representations of fans as ‘weird’ and ‘overly emotional’ because sometimes this fandom can over-control someone’s emotion and they can get really obsessive of the celebrity. 

Fandom is (not a surprise) a friendly space for every Asian fan. Most of the fandom happens in Asia especially towards Korean actors/actresses, Japanese anime etc. Tumblr is one the preferred social space for fans as of now, because it serves as the ultimate place to connect with other fans of a particular topic and interact with the community especially for teens and young adults with strong interests in pop culture. Fandom on Tumblr is where mostly young people come together, forming small subsets of fan-driven communities to enjoy one another’s fan art, gifs, photos, fan fiction, and discussion. This is usually about a popular TV show or movie etc. They can be easily found through hashtags in Tumblr. 

One of the most famous fandom in Tumblr is the Harry Potter Fandom. Although the Harry Potter books and movies were concluded few years ago, but the Harry Potter Tumblr Fandom is still thriving till this day. Many fans have a place in their hearts for many of the characters in Harry Potter. Inspiring photos of the Harry-Ron-Hermione trio, gifs of Professor Snape or equally funny posts of Lord Voldemort can be search through any of the character’s name in the tags. There is also a hashtag and post called “reblog if you are a wizard” basically for Harry Potter fans to reblog if they are a huge fan and that post has hit 1.4 million reblogs on Tumblr. 

References

Moreau, E 2020, ‘A list of 10 entertainment fandoms that grew from tumblr’, Lifewire, viewed 23 May 2020, <https://www.lifewire.com/entertainment-fandoms-on-tumblr-3486068>.

Stein, LE 2018, ‘Tumblr and fandom’, Editorial, viewed 23 May 2020, <https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/1580/1826>.

<https://rampages.us/tommyspage/work-1/>.

Misailidou, E 2017, ‘Social media fandom: the construction of identity in the cases of “the 100″ and “once upon a time” tumblr communities’, ResearchGate, viewed 23 May 2020, <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317420298_Social_media_fandom_The_construction_of_identity_in_the_cases_of_The_100_and_Once_Upon_A_Time_Tumblr_communities>.

Cohen, D 2016, ‘The evolution of fandom through social media’, Pulsar, viewed 23 May 2020, <https://www.pulsarplatform.com/blog/2016/the-evolution-of-fandom-through-social-media/>.

<https://www.hundredlifedesign.com/fandoms-what-they-are-and-how-to-get-into-it-or-not/>.

[valeriejawan]

Crowdsourcing & Crowdfunding

What is crowdsourcing?

According to White (2019), crowdsourcing is the practice of utilizing the wisdom of a group for a common goal. It is best applied when attempting to solve complex problems in an innovative way or streamline intricate processes. This modern days, crowdsourcing is making a big impact in most industries around the world. The term “crowdsourcing” was first introduced by Jeff Howe back in 2006 in a Wired article. 

How does crowdsourcing work?

There are a few types of crowdsourcing depending on the outcome people are looking for. First of all, there is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is where large groups of people come together to fund/ donate to a certain type of project. One of the most known crowdfunding platform is Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a platform that focuses mainly on creative projects such as art, music, film etc. Crowdfunding allows anyone to engage people who are interested in their ideas and raise capital without pitching to large investors, banks, and other gatekeepers that could withhold the fundings. 

Example of crowdsourcing

One example of the most successful crowdsourcing campaign was the one held by Starbucks. Starbucks is a well-known American Coffee Company with thousands of branches across the world. They organised the “White Cup” crowdsourcing campaign which encouraged customers in the United States and Canada to decorate a Starbucks cup, take a photo of it, and submit the design through social media using the hashtag #WhiteCupContest. Tons of people participated in the campaign and shared their designs online mainly through Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. The winner was then awarded and the winning design was printed on a limited edition Starbucks resuable plastic cup. This campaign was a successful crowdsourcing campaign as common people were given the opportunity to show their creativity and design skills. 

Benefit of Crowdsourcing on Social Media

Crowdsourcing could be the way to find unexpected solutions to tough problems (Fournier 2019). When a business or organisation considers problems internally, it is easy to fall into the same modes of thinking. It can be hard to break out of the habit if the company has been doing something in a certain way for a long period of time. This kind of status quo inertia is a major problem for all kinds of businesses. It is one of the reason why innovation geniuses like the late Steve Jobs place such high priority on bringing in people from outside the business to challenge conventional thinking. By bringing in a broader group of people in solving a problem, they can gain access to hundreds or thousands of different approaches in solving the problem. 

References 

Fournier, A 2019, ‘6 great advantages of crowdsourcing you can benefit from’, Braineet, viewed 15 May 2020, <https://www.braineet.com/blog/crowdsourcing-benefits/>.

<https://www.letstechknow.com/10-great-examples-of-crowdsourcing-worlds-best-campaigns/>

White, J 2019, ‘What is crowdsourcing and how does it work? definition and example’, TheStreet, viewed 15 May 2020, <https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/education/what-is-crowdsourcing-15026002>.

Zote, J 2019, ‘How to use social media crowdsourcing effectively’, Sproutsocial, viewed 15 May 2020, <https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-crowdsourcing/>.

<https://sproutsocial.com/glossary/crowdsourcing/>.

[lyasarablog]

Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding

In times of need (social or political), can social media movements like #PulangMengundi (crowdsourcing and crowdfunding transportation to mobilise youths to vote) benefit communities?

Actually yes because now social network sites are seen as integral to the way important info, especially about disaster or specific events, has come to break and circulate. Most of us will first hear about certain information on the Internet first, am I right? Not only social network sites act as a platform for information flow, but also for breaking and sharing information to the world. Take as an example, GE14, the election that happened 2 years ago because there was an urgency to change a government from a corrupt one to one which people would actually believe in. As we all know there are a lot of people that are not working in their states and students who were studying outside of their hometowns. So there was a crowdsourced event on Twitter where the hashtag #PulangMengundi was trending in Malaysia. It all started off as a hashtag to remind people to go home and to vote, also to exercise their democratic right to vote but it evolves to Malaysian helping each other (Chin 2020). C’mon Malaysians, we need more moments like this.

Alright, back to the story, Chia & Augustin (2018) explained that after the Election Commission’s announcement, people who are working or studying outside of their hometowns are not allowed to cast postal votes, the cost of flights was becoming very expensive due to the demand. Since many Malaysians could not exercise their right to vote just because the flights were increasing in price, people started sharing, people who could afford it even offers to buy air tickets for those who were far way to go home and vote, people share transports to go back and most importantly, people were actually going to Twitter to source for information and for help (Chin 2020). Not only #PulangMengundi started trending on Twitter, but #CarpoolGE14 has also started joining the attention. Those people who are in need of transportation and financial aid used the hashtags to crowdfund flights and share transport (Chia & Augustin 2018). Other than hashtags, a website for PulangMengundi.com is not just about disbursing funds but also to create a platform for people to connect. Chia & Augustin (2018) explained that even their strategy lead, Andrew Loh said they are focusing on creating a culture for Malaysians to vote.

Can crowdfunding actually overtake traditional funding mechanisms for the creative industries?

In my opinion, yes. Traditionally, funding mechanisms for the creative industries have been financed by rich individuals or businesses. But with the emergence of social media, crowdfunding has changed the sort of reach. Anyone can donate small or huge amounts to their chosen project and also the project’s sponsors have less power on it. It really saves time and not to mention the procedure is simpler this way (Pasikowska-Schnass 2016). Social media will be slowly overtaking traditional funding mechanisms as now the internet provides digital spaces for producers, services and more to connect with the people for business or financing probabilities. This will then provide new opportunities for producers, musicians, people who run public institutions like museums, and libraries to draw up the public interest in crowdfunding projects. (Chin 2020).

Reference lists

Chia, J & Augustin, D 2018, ‘Malaysians prepare to #PulangMengundi’,

NewNaratif, viewed 15 May 2020,

<https://newnaratif.com/journalism/malaysians-prepare-pulangmengundi/>.  

Chin, B 2020, ‘Lecture 8. Crowdsourcing & crowdfunding’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 12 May, viewed 15 May 2020.

Pasikowska-Schnass, M 2016, ‘Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding in the cultural and creative sectors’, European Parliamentary Research Service Blog, 24 February, viewed 15 May 2020,

<https://epthinktank.eu/2016/02/24/crowdsourcing-and-crowdfunding-in-the-cultural-and-creative-sectors/>.    

[kirstin-k]

Fandom

What is fandom?

Fandom, also known as fan culture, is a phrase known for a group or community formed around a shared enjoyment of a topic within the community or group. These topics can vary from, TV shows, movies, cartoons, artists, celebrities, sports, and many more. These fans not only act as a consumer but they also produce their own content on the topic they are interested in. These contents that the fandoms create can be memes, fan art, cosplay, fanfics, video edits and more.

Tumblr is one of the best places for fandoms and fanbases. In the years when the TV show Supernatural was debuted, it was one of the largest fanbase In Tumblr. There are wide variety of gifs, pictures and blogs written about these tv shows and the gifs and more can still be seen until now.

These are the reasons why people explore the fandom sides on Tumblr: -

1.     They can make connections and new friends. As people are posting blogs about the topics or people they love to watch, the community will come together to share observations, theories and bond with amazing people with common interest on Tumblr.

2.     They can grasp the skills to critique as well as analyse media. They sometimes call themselves or are called the Sherlock of the fandom. These people are able to connect the character personalities, plots and gain details from the topic that they are interested in that others might not have noticed.

3.     They come to know new books, shows and more. As the topics they are a fan of, will have similarities with other movies and more, other users will suggest new topics that are similar when they finished the current shows and movies that they were enjoying. For example, a community loves Harry potter so when the series ended, they will be suggested the same work by the same author named JK Rowling for you to enjoy, that is Fantastic beasts and other works by her.

Fandom is not all happy and enjoyed by everyone, there are also negative things about fandoms as they do not only love and have passion for the topics and celebrities they are fans of, but they also have power against other when the community comes together. All the topics or people they talk and post about can be seen by everyone worldwide. These causes cyberbullying and dangerous connections like pedophilia. Cyberbullying starts because people do not like the fandom as they see them as losers for liking these topics or people or they just hate the fandom itself for no particular reasons, On the other hand, people especially adults can pose as someone else like a teenage girl, and take advantage of the people who are minors post about their interests by pretending to have a common interest and contact them. Fandoms will also go against other fandoms as the celebrities they stan are competing to get first place in music charts, movie charts and more. They will go against others to tell people that the person they stan is the best and others are not. The word “stan” is used as a term for crazed and obsessive fan that will go to great lengths for their obsession over a celebrity. This term came from a song by Eminem. These causes negative behaviors and teaches young generations that this is a acceptable behavior.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Stan

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/06/234404/fandom-fridays-introduction

https://studybreaks.com/tvfilm/tumblr-fandoms-skills-learned/

https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultural-theory-and-theorists/fandom-and-participatory-culture/

[valeriejawan]

Public Health Campaigns & Communities

Social media somehow plays a very big role in public health campaigns because who isn’t on social media, right? Based on Statista, there are 2498 million people using Facebook, 2000 million on Youtube, 1000 million on Instagram and 326b million on Twitter. Therefore, this resulted in the increasing competition for public health campaigns to seek people’s attention to influence their behaviour through these social media channels. Recent trends that have impacted social media public health campaigns which includes short video/ live streaming, Facebook advertising, Instagram and Snapchat, social messaging etc.

One of the most successful public health campaigns was during the Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health is one of the most serious health issues and yet people are often hesitant to talk about it. A LOT of people are going through mental health in this world which some ended up in suicide. And still the stigma around mental health often makes us avoid talking about it, and prevented those who have mental illness from seeking treatment. 

Instagram’s community has been spreading mental health awareness in the social media platform whether it’s the Mental Health Awareness or not. So, in May 2017, Instagram launched its #HereForYou campaign to encourage the people to share their mental health stories on Instagram. 

People are able to communicate with one another with the same problems and get through it together and this effort could make it more visible to friends and family about their invisible struggles. One of the first person highlighted was an 18-year-old Sacha Justine Cuddy from Britain who was using Instagram to share her stories as she recovers from anorexia. 

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five adults experiences mental health every year. Starting a campaign like the #HereForYou campaign is one of starting point to the right direction. 

References

Brar, F 2017, ‘Instagram launches #hereforyou campaign to honour mental health awareness’, shape.com, viewed 8 May 2020, <https://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/instagram-launches-hereforyou-campaign-honor-mental-health-awareness>.

Mcnamara, B 2017, ‘Instagram launches #hereforyou campaign to honour mental health awareness’, teen vogue, viewed 8 May 2020, <https://www.teenvogue.com/story/instagram-launches-here-for-you-mental-health-campaign>.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/

[valeriejawan]

Activism and Protest

Why is it necessary for a protest to happen? Why are there so many activists out there, why? According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, activists are people who believe in political and social change and protest is a strong complaint expressing disagreement, disapproval or opposition. There is a strong relation between these two; both exists to make an actual change, to make those who doesn’t listen LISTEN! 

One of the most known activist is Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela or more commonly known as Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela was the first ever president of South Africa back in 1994. Mandela experienced the firsthand impact of apartheid. Apartheid is where racial segregation, unequal rights, and poverty among the black majority were the norm. He fought for social justice and was faced by opponents who were internationally recognised, better funded and backed by a standing police force. Terrrorist, traitor, criminal - these were the names Mandela was often called. He was sentenced to life in prison on charges of conspiracy when the only thing he did was to get justice for the black majority in South Africa. 

The story of Nelson Mandela has reached the whole world through social media. It all started from a song called “Sun City” that protested the South African policy of apartheid written by Steven Van Zandt. The song reached to a lot of musical powerhouses. Since then, the story of Mandela reached by storm till today. His activism was one of the most historical activism in the world, touching a lot of hearts. 

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man Is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” - Nelson Mandela

His story really brought impact to a lot of politics especially the American politicians. These politicians found out about his story through the online web such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit etc and of course, the news. If not by social medias, his story would not impacted a lot people outside of the South African community. Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner participated in the divestment protests in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Skinner said she felt she was a part of it when Mandela was released and the South African government began its transition. She learned of Mandela’s death during a Democratic caucus in California.

President Barack Obama said he got his inspiration for his first presidential speech from Mandela. Obama said, “My very first political action, the first thing I ever did that involved an issue or a policy or politics, was a protest against apartheid. I studied his words and his writings.” in a televised address shortly after the announcement of Mandela’s death. 

Without the social media platforms, these kind of powerful l activism would not be known to the world. This show how powerful and fast something can be spreader through social medias.

References

Case, J 2013, ‘Nelson Mandela: a fearless social activist for all time’, the case foundation, viewed 1 May 2020, <https://casefoundation.org/blog/nelson-mandela-fearless-social-activist-all-time/>.

Minter, W, Hovey, G, & Cobb Jr.,C 2007, ‘No easy victories: african liberation and American activists over a half century, 1950-2000′, African world press, inc., viewed 1 May 2020, <https://books.google.com.my/books?hl=en&lr=&id=j-e2Bz_GCgMC&oi=fnd&pg=PP10&dq=nelson+mandela+activism&ots=Jnzpt6lVxW&sig=uyKfY2VE1iaMtSi9E165urQv8CA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=nelson%20mandela%20activism&f=false>.

Carter, CJ 2013, ‘Nelson Mandela: his impact on American activism, politics and pop culture’, CNN, viewed 1 May 2020, <https://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/06/us/mandela-american-impact/index.html>.

[valeriejawan]

Social Media and Politics

Politics is the way that people living in groups make decisions. Politics is about making agreements between people so that they can live together in groups such as tribes, cities, or countries. In large groups, such as countries, some people may spend a lot of their time making such agreements. These people are called politicians. Politicians, and sometimes other people, may get together to form a government.

Social media is the most powerful way of spreading news very fast throughout the whole world with just a click of a button. Politicians these days are more often seen on various social media platforms such as twitter, instagram, facebook and even youtube! Everyone is at least one a certain type of social media platforms. Almost every politician has a social media page/account today because it is the easiest way to convey a message or campaign virtually, and they have the control of the account or whatever they post rather than depending to a 3rd party media as this 3rd party media can manipulate the news if they do not support your campaign. 

But every bright side, there is always a down-side. Although these politicians are able to post their messages as a campaign strategy, the people out there could use it as entertainment - memes, stickers etc. Other than that. fake news could also spread fast through these social media platforms to bring a person down. So, there are pros and cons when it comes to virtually campaign or spreading news on social medias. 

Malaysia is no longer a stranger to social media. Malaysia was famous when the opposition party, Pakatan Harapan pulled off a shocking victory in the 14th General Election, causing the first-ever transfer of power in the country over 60 years. The reason behind this is that the Pakatan Harapan party are seen campaigning all over various type of social media platforms to cater for the different age groups in different social medias. I have personally follow a few of the Sarawakian politics on some of my social medias as I have a huge interest in politics, especially Sarawak’s politics as my grandfather was once a politician, my uncle is a political activist and I have been caught up on it since then. 

There is an apolitical civil movement that is still currently happening in Sarawak called the Sarawak Sovereignty Movement that was formed on April 13th, 2013. with the famous motto, “Dum Spiro Spero” and “Agi Idup, Agi Ngelaban” which means as long as we shall live, we will fight. This movement is made because there are people who had enough of the lop-sided development between the peninsula and Sarawak. This movement is all about politics as it involved the anger of these people have upon the Malaysian government. 

Lim, D 2018, ‘Social media and politics in malaysia election’, The Commonwealth Youth Programme, viewed 18 April 2020, <http://www.yourcommonwealth.org/social-development/democracy-participation/social-media-and-politics-in-malaysia-election/>

Sukumaran, T 2019, ‘On malaysia’s national day, sabah and sarawak question place in nation’, This Week in Asia, viewed 18 April 2020, <https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3027360/malaysias-national-day-sabah-and-sarawak-question-place-nation>

Auvinen, A 2012, ‘Social media - the new power of political influence’, Centre for European Studies, viewed on 18 April 2020, <https://www.martenscentre.eu/sites/default/files/publication-files/social-media-and-politics-power-political-influence.pdf>

[valeriejawan]

Is Tumblr a blog or a social network site?

Tumblr was first launched in 2007 and has been quite popular ever since. To be quite honest, I’ve only used Tumblr merely for inspirations and ideas for my design project but as I scroll through more into Tumblr, I’ve realised some people do social networking on here too. So, in this case, Tumblr is both a blog and a social network site. There is no specific rule of using Tumblr, you can do whatsoever you want, either blogging or socialising. When you do post blog posts on your blog, other people might get interested and your posts and comment, like or repost your blog, this is called social networking too! You are basically interacting with people from your blog posts. 

Tumblr is a bit more different than our usual social network. Tumblr allows you to post a wide variety of content types, ranging from text and photos to video, audio, and links. Tumblr also offers a variety of design “themes,” which allows you to customise your page however you want it to fit your taste/personality and to fit the type of contents you plan to post. If your blog is intended to be a business page, you can customise it to look like a professional designed page. 

According to American Express, 45 percent of Tumblr's audience is under 35 years old; and it is more popular than Facebook among 13 to 25 year olds of all are 52% male and 48% female, and as of August 2019, there are more than 488 million blogs on Tumblr (Statista 2019). All of these blogs are similar as in they write blog posts and they network with one another. So, in conclusion, it is fair to say Tumblr is not only a blogging website, but also a place for people to interact with one another. 

References :

https://www.statista.com/topics/2463/tumblr/

https://dustinstout.com/social-media-statistics/#tumblr-stats

https://www.themuse.com/advice/tumblr-the-social-media-platform-you-should-be-using

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