mydigitalcommunitiesassignment

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Week 10: Digital citizenship and conflict: Social Media Governance

Sadly, in digital communities, conflict can take place, and it plays into digital citizenship. Whilst online communities tend to be an accepting place and strive to be one, some communities can be unwelcoming, or there might be some individuals that might not seem very pleasant.

Whilst “the Internet has the potential to benefit society as a whole and facilitate the membership and participation of individuals within society” (Mossberger et al. 2008), sadly, people use it negatively, therefore not being a good digital citizen. Being a good digital citizen means that a person displays “appropriate online etiquette” (Australian Curriculum, 2021), and some individuals might not behave well online and do not care for their personal responsibility to act well on the Internet when interacting with others.

Despite a social media platform being a ‘neutral space where technically one should not have more power than another, that is not the case, and often, women and people from minority groups find themselves receiving a lot of hate online from others, demonstrating that some people hold more power on a platform. People from these groups are harassed at times by “being called offensive names, being embarrassed online, being physically threatened online, etc…” (Lenhart et al. 2018), and because it is taking place online, there is sometimes little that the victim can do to put an end to the harassment.

Victims can block their harassers online to try to end the annoyance; however, it is not always the solution to this issue. If blocking does not work, there are few options available for victims of harassment online. All social media platforms have restrictions and rules on what users can do; however, the way that these rules are monitored is automated. Therefore, these systems might not pick up on offensive behaviour or understand why a person requires assistance to end the harassment. A victim can report people’s accounts and posts, but it is up to the social media platforms to detect if any wrong-doing has occurred, meaning that if the platform’s automation system does not pick it up, there is nothing to put an end to a harasser apart from the victim deleting their own account or just hoping for the harassment to end. Social media platforms need to do more when governing users on their platforms because a lot of the time, their systems do not work when protecting victims.

References:

Australian Curriculum, 2021, Glossary: Digital Citizenship, viewed 15 May, https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/technologies/glossary/?letter=D

Marwick, A & Caplan, R, 2018, Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment, Feminist Media Studies, vol.18, no. 4, pp. 543-559

Mossberger, K, Tolbert, C & Mcneal, R, 2008, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US

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Week 9: Digital citizenship case study: Social media influencers and the slow fashion movement

Slow fashion is a type of movement that has become significantly popular recently but has existed for a while. Also known as ‘sustainable fashion’, the movement is linked to the counter culture of the 1960s, the “anti-fur campaigns in the 1980s and protests against unethical working conditions in the 1990s and 2000s” (Lai et al. 2017). The slow fashion movement is seen as the opposer to fast fashion as it limits the pace of the fast fashion life cycle and focuses on the importance of quality clothing instead of fast fashion, which is usually cheap, mass-produced and constantly changing. Slow fashion is linked to sustainable consumption movement and “is built on the essential concepts of sustainability values…” (Chi et al. 2021). The slow fashion movement focuses on the impact the clothing industry has on the environment by recycling clothing by either repurposing old clothing or donating it to others. Instead of clogging up landfills and going to waste, clothing still has a purpose and can still be used. For a fashion label to qualify as sustainable, it must meet the requirements of it not being produced through child labour, and the materials should not harm the environment.

In recent times, the slow fashion movement has gained a lot of supporters. Through social media, especially platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok, many young people are starting to learn about the detrimental impacts that fast fashion is having on the environment and have taken to thrift shopping or aiming to become more ethical consumers. Whilst ‘thrifting’ has always been an affordable and more sustainable way of shopping, many young people are starting to go to thrift stores to buy clothing. Through social media, young people can find and develop their own styles and have found that they can still purchase the ‘major brands’ without spending the money buying brand new clothing, so they go thrift shopping. There is also rising pressure on social media for younger people to have multiple outfits and styles due to how popular influencers have become who show off all their outfits and thrifting is a cheaper alternative to style themselves for social media (Ordubegian, 2020). Whilst their main priority might not be to contribute to the slow-fashion movement, thrifting has become popular amongst the younger crowd and will continue to spread among younger people, which will positively impact the slow fashion movement and the environment.  

References

Chi, T, Gerard, J, Yu, Y & Wang, Y, 2021, A Study of U.S. consumers’ intention to purchase slow fashion apparel: understanding the key determinants, International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 101-112

Lai, Z, Henninger, C, Alevizou, P & Cham, J, 2017, “An Exploration of Consumers’ Perceptions Towards Sustainable Fashion – A Qualitative Study in the UK”, Springer International Publishing Sustainability in Fashion

Ordubegian, N, 2020, Thrifting and its rise in popularity, viewed 10 May 2021, https://clarkchronicle.com/features/2020/06/07/thrifting-and-its-rise-in-popularity/

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Week 8: Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live Streaming

The gaming community is an extensive one with a long history, consisting of many sub-groups and has been a way for people to connect with each other over their love of video games. While the gaming community has been around since early digital games, the community has evolved significantly since console gaming and the Internet were made available. As the Internet became more widely adopted in the 90s and early 00s, multi-player functions were changed as “multi-player gaming took the gaming community to a new level because it allowed fans to compete and interact from different computers, [improving] the social aspect of gaming” (Chikhani, 2015) and also meant that people could now meet others and chat with people from all over the world about anything to do with games whether it be tips and tricks for a specific game, thoughts on gaming consoles or general discussion. Generally, the term ‘gamer’ conjures a particular image of a young man who is considered ‘nerdy’ and spends all day on their consoles, but this has drastically shifted as there is such a diverse group of people that play video games, despite it always being like that. Still, the diversity in the games community can now be seen more with the popularity of the streaming platform, Twitch.

Twitch is a streaming platform that is dedicated to gaming and has changed the gaming landscape significantly. The platform itself claims to be the best live streaming platform for gamers and prioritises content creators, like gamers, who want to stream the video games they play to people who want to watch. The platform became significantly popular, and “the site boasted 2.2-plus million unique broadcasters per month” (Taylor, 2018, p.3) in 2017 and has become even more popular recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning more people were staying home and playing video games. Twitch has changed the gaming community drastically as now so many people want to stream on the platform to make some money off it, something which the platform supports. Also, because of how easy it is to stream on the platform, it provides more access to those who might not have had the opportunity to stream before and gives them more visibility than other platforms like YouTube might have had, which can show off an extremely diverse gaming community. References

Taylor, TL 2018, ‘Broadcasting ourselves’ (chapter 1), in Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming, Princeton University Press, pp.1-23

Chikhani, R, 2015, The History of Gaming: An Evolving Community, viewed 8 May 2021, https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/31/the-history-of-gaming-an-evolving-community/?guccounter=1

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Week 7: Digital citizenship and Software literacy: Instagram filters

Augmented reality "allows the user to see the real world, with virtual objects superimposed upon or composited with the real world" (Azuma, 1997). Filters are a type of augmented reality that is famously seen on social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat and hugely popular amongst its users. Whilst augmented reality has existed for a few decades already, it became really popular when smartphones were created, and augmented reality was integrated into these devices. Snapchat filters are an example of the early adoption of augmented reality used by the general public on a large scale. With Snapchat or Instagram filters, it can be shown in our regular environment, and the filters superimpose itself over individuals faces or the environment we are showing, as a type of 'digital mask' in real-time. It reacts to facial expressions, movements, and other types of stimuli, making it a really exciting thing to have and fun to play around with. However, whilst they can be fun and exciting to use, there is an element of filters that 'beautifies' people's faces, so different aspects of their face might be changed to fit traditional beauty standards.

'Digitised dysmorphia' is a theory by Isabelle Coy-Dibley (2016) about the pressures placed on women to alter their digital image and how they are impacted by technology that helps modify bodies and filters like the ones on Snapchat and Instagram are part of this issue. Applications like Facetune, which are referred to as 'beauty apps', are designed to monitor and enhance appearances and offer people filters to 'beautify' themselves in a way that fits in with stereotypical standards, meaning that people adjust themselves on these apps to make themself look 'better'. Whilst it is not a medical condition, it is a socially constructed condition that is enabled by digital technology, and Coy-Dibley believes that people experience pressures to beautify their image using digital technology (Coy-Dibley, 2016). Digitised dysmorphia can also be commonly seen in celebrities and influencers online who frequently post pictures of themselves using Instagram or Snapchat filters or modify their bodies using technology, yet are seen to be the ones that fit society's stereotypical beauty standards, therefore pushing the bar of what is expected of people, higher and higher but also demonstrating that 'digitised dysmorphia' and the 'beautifying' effects seen in filters is having a damaging impact on people's self-esteem and they are becoming more dissatisfied with the way they look.

References

Azuma, R, 1997, A survey of augmented reality, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, vol.4, no.4, p.355

Coy-Dibley, I, 2016, “Digitised Dysmorphia” of the female body: the re/disfigurement of the image, Palgrave Communications, London

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Week 6: Digital citizenship and health education: Body modification on Visual Social Media

Body modification is becoming a increasing issue on visual forms of social media as people are beginning to feel less satisfied with their bodies and the way they appear due to micro-celebrities and influencers that have become extremely popular on social media platforms. A micro-celebrity is someone who "[maintains an] online identity as if it were a branded good" (Senft, 2013) and are only seen in online visual social media platforms. As social media enables anyone to post and share online, there has been an "explosion of user-generated content online whereby consumers… are actively involved in the production process of content" (Drenten et al. 2019), and influencers are an example of that. They aim to gain sponsorship or brand deals to gain a level of fame and popularity online. However, to gain these deals, they have to achieve a level of beauty that is often unattainable naturally and resort to body modification and editing photos to do so.

As influencers gain more and more popularity on social media platforms like Instagram, many ordinary individuals see the praise that influencers are receiving online for their bodies and want to emulate what they are doing and look up to influencers as a type of goal.

While it is common for many people to look up to celebrities and try to copy aspects of their lives that they might admire, many young people, especially young girls, are envious of these influencers and become dissatisfied with their bodies. However, most influencers with a high level of fame online have not achieved this level of 'beauty' without body modification or editing their photos before posting. However, many think that the images posted and how micro-celebrities look is authentic and will not openly admit that there is some form of modification, physical or technological, that is done to them. A lot of people are comparing themselves to 'modified' people and are now wanting to modify their own bodies, whether it be through plastic surgery or editing applications, to try and reach the beauty standards that influencers have created. According to a report in the Financial Review, "demands for beauty treatments… has increased by more than 50 per cent since the COVID-19 pandemic" (Hughes, 2020). This demonstrates the impact that online personalities are having on the public and how people are resorting to body modifications to feel satisfied with their bodies in the hopes they can be the same as the influencers they view online.

References

Drenten, J, Gurrieri, L & Tyler, M, 2019, Sexualised labour in digital culture: Instagram influencers, porn chic and the monetization of attention, Gender, Work & Organisation, vol. 27, no.1, pp. 41-66

Hughes, D, 2020, Cosmetic surgery boom is new face of COVID-19, viewed 5 May, https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/health-and-wellness/cosmetic-surgery-boom-is-new-face-of-covid-19-20200821-p55o0u

Senft, T, 2013, Microcelebrity and the Branded Self, A Companion to New Media Dynamics, Blackwell, UK

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Week 5: Digital citizenship: hashtag publics, political engagement and activism

Digital citizenship refers to when people have “the knowledge and skills to effectively use digital technologies to communicate with others, participate in society and create and consume digital content” (Digital Technologies Hub, 2021). This means that people should be using digital technologies practically and effectively and should not be misusing it to the detriment of others. Being a good digital citizen means that individuals should have “appropriate online etiquette, literacy in how digital technologies work and how to use them, an understanding of ethics and related law, knowing how to stay safe online, and advice on related health and safety issues… and the permanence of data” (Australian Curriculum, 2021).

Due to digital citizenship, the nature of political engagement by the public is changing as social media now enables a new type of personal engagement, activism and personalisation. Due to the public’s increased digital literacy and social media’s ability to provide news that might not be covered in mainstream media, individuals are becoming more and more involved in the political process. People have more access to information, meaning that there has been an increase of individuals becoming more engaged with the community or organisations connected to online social causes, the environment or human rights causes (Vromen, 2017, p.2).  Citizens are becoming more involved in the election process through finding and sharing information online, therefore “[changing] political engagement in advanced democracies” (Vromen, 2017, p.2).

Whilst digital citizenship focuses on the skills the public possesses when it comes to using digital technology, an example of a lack of good digital citizenship was during the 2016 US election. Whilst other major political elections have occurred during social media’s existence, social media and the media, in general, played a significant role in this election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Social media platforms like Facebook “display content based on a user’s previous interests, and it… conforms to [their] political ideology” (Sanders, 2016), meaning that articles about political parties and politicians, real or fake, appeared on Facebook feeds for many, potentially altering the political opinions of millions due to misinformation and fake news. If more people online were good digital citizens and could decipher between fake and real news, the result of the 2016 US election might have even changed, demonstrating the power of digital citizenship and social media.

References

Australian Curriculum, 2021, Glossary: Digital Citizenship, viewed 4 May, https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/technologies/glossary/?letter=D

Digitial Citizenship Hub, 2021, Digital Citizenship, viewed 4 May, https://www.digitaltechnologieshub.edu.au/teachers/topics/digital-citizenship

Sanders, S, 2016, Did Social Media Ruin Election 2016?, viewed 4 May, https://www.npr.org/2016/11/08/500686320/did-social-media-ruin-election-2016

Vromen, A, 2017, Digital Citizenship and Political Engagement: The Challenge from Online Campaigning and Advocacy Organisations, Palgrave Macmillan, London

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Week 4: Reality Television

Reality television is "a type of television programming… [aiming] to show how ordinary people behave in everyday life, or… situations, often created by the programme makers…" (Collins English Dictionary, 2021). The genre itself is thought to have become popular in the 1990s with the programme created by MTV called 'The Real World', where it "brought so-called people to television in what were nonacting roles… [and] viewers of the [program] saw themselves in these faces" (Huff, 2006). From then on, reality television has had a significant impact on pop culture and society in general. Throughout the 2000s, programmes like 'Survivor', 'Big Brother' and 'Idol' achieved major success. These programmes were recreated in multiple different countries due to the immense popularity of the original show. (Hill, 2014). Reality television includes dating programmes, talent contests, celebrity-based programs, court programmes, gamedocs and lifestyle programmes, making it a broad and extensive television genre (Murray & Ouellette, 2009). Other famous examples of reality television shows include 'The Bachelor/Bachelorette', 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians', 'Next Top Model', 'MasterChef' and 'Queer Eye'.

In Australia, reality television programmes are incredibly popular, with the major commercial channels like Channel 7, Channel 9 and Channel 10 all having programmes that manage to top the ratings. 'Married at First Sight Australia', a programme that airs on Channel 9, is a social experiment where strangers are matched together by 'experts' and marry each other (not legally binding) to see if they are compatible (Nine TV Access, 2015). In the most recent season of the show, which aired in 2021, each episode of the show was usually the highest-rated programme for that night, raking in around one million viewers per episode (TV Tonight, 2021).

However, since the creation of social media, it has shifted the way audiences view and interact with reality television programmes. Audiences used to have an input on reality television through their phones by using televoting, a form of opinion polling that is done through SMS (Definitions, 2021). This was done in the earlier seasons of Australia's version of 'Big Brother', where viewers could send an SMS for who they wanted to save and is quite common on many other reality television shows that enable the audience to decide. Social media has significantly increased the interaction that viewers have with reality shows in various ways. On social media platforms, people can discuss shows and share views or opinions about events that might have occurred on a reality programme they were watching, therefore creating 'buzz', and smaller pieces of discussion could escalate into something bigger that might involve the general public. Thus, platforms can be seen as "[becoming] essential to the success of [reality] television" (Bone, 2020).

Reality television stars also heavily rely on social media to gain popularity or keep it going once they have finished participating in a programme. Some reality programmes target people who already have a large online following to increase the popularity and viewership of their show. Other participants of reality television shows might want to try and maintain their celebrity status by using social media as a way to maintain fans. This is known as 'self-branding' where "individuals [develop] a distinctive public image for commercial gain and/or cultural capital" (Khamis et al. 2016). Often reality stars will resort to platforms like Instagram and become influencers, enabling them to continue their fame.

References

Bone, B, 2020, How Social Media Changed Reality TV, viewed 2 May 2021, https://medium.com/swlh/how-social-media-changed-reality-tv-c4cb3e725a86

Definitions, 2021, Televoting, viewed 2 May 2021, https://www.definitions.net/definition/televoting

Hill, A 2014, Reality TV, Taylor & Francis Group, London

Huff, R 2006, Reality Television, ABC-CLIO, LLC, Westport

Nine TV Access, 2015, Married at First Sight, viewed 2 May 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20150227133641/https://tv.nineaccess.com.au/programs/nine/married-at-first-sight/

Murray, S & Ouellette, L 2009, Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, NYU Press, New York

TV Tonight, 2021, Timeshifted: Sunday 18 April 2021, viewed 2 May 2021, https://tvtonight.com.au/2021/05/timeshifted-sunday-18-april-2021.html

Khamis, S, Ang, L & Welling, R 2016, Self-branding, 'micro-celebrity' and the rise of Social Media influencers, Celebrity Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 191-208

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Week 3: ‘How does Tumblr function as a digital community?’

A ‘digital community', or also referred to as a ‘micro-public’, is a small type of hub that can “co-exist, [is] intersecting and overlapping in multiple forms across diverse media platforms” (Bruns & Highfield, 2016, p.98). There are smaller types of communities that exist on multiple social media platforms where individuals can be active and engage with others through using the internet as a type of discussion space.

Tumblr is an example of a social media platform that functions as a digital community. Established in 2007, founder David Karp wanted something that enabled people to blog in a ‘free’ way where individuals could share whatever they enjoyed or wanted as blogging at that time had become “editorial material” (Karp, 2011). Karp sees Tumblr as a way for people to creatively express themselves as people can design their blog in their own unique way and essentially post about what they want, differing from other social media platforms, like Facebook or Twitter at the time, as there was less creative control over how a person could arrange or style their profile. Through this, “Tumblr could be understood as a platform that prioritises aesthetics, amplified through its allowance of user-customised short form blogs” (Keller, 2019, p.7) demonstrating how it acts as a community for people to truly express themselves but can also do it in an anonymous fashion, which many other social media platforms do not allow for.

It was recognised in the 2010s, that Tumblr was a place for people to “revel in anonymity and say whatever [they wanted] without fear,” (Reeve, 2016) becoming a platform where people, predominantly teenagers, sought comfort and shared their feelings that they would not openly express to others on other social media platforms and could ‘reblog’ things that they enjoyed, creating a deeply personal profile of an individual that truly showed who they were. This was extremely important for LGBT+ youth as the anonymity of the platform (McKracken, 2017) made people feel that they could reveal their honest self and could communicate and interact with others who dealt with the same feelings as them. This enabled them to learn more about themselves or others, having a positive impact on LGBT+ youth as a digital community was there for them and made them feel safe.

The ability to find people who enjoy the same things as you and engage with them in whatever way you feel comfortable with demonstrates how Tumblr functions as a digital community.

References

Keller, J 2019, ‘“Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms, Social Media + Society, vol. 5. no. 3, p.7

McCracken, A, Cho, A, Stein, L & Neill Hoch, I 2020, a Tumblr Book: Platforms and Cultures, University of Michigan Press

Schonfeld, E 2011, (Founder Stories) Why David Karp Started Tumblr: Blogs Don’t Work For Most People, viewed 26 March 2021, <https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/founder-stories-why-david-karp-started-tumblr-blogs-dont-work-for-most-people/>