aaronr99

[aaronr99]

Global Social Media: China

          On my final blog, I will be writing about social media in China. China throughout the years, has seen its rise towards global power and has been making significant global presence. Many global leaders are concerned about the increase of this eastern power, because the country is still falling behind in its human rights especially regarding the Uyghur muslim camps, and the Hong Kong protests. In this blog however, we will be focusing on the social media in China. In 2019, China has around 882 million social media users, however, China’s internet penetration rate is at about 61% which means that 2 out of 5 Chinese are still offline. Smartphones also play an important part in China’s rise in social media users, as these mobile devices allow for access to the internet, where in 2019, 90% of China’s internet users access the internet through their smartphones. However, China’s social media is limited and is blocked by the so-called “Great Firewall of China”. 

          So, China has seen the rise in social media space throughout the decades, however, a few foreign companies have been missing out in China’s social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. This was done by the Chinese government, as they are not able to monitor and control Internet content of their citizens, since most of these sites are user-generated. To solve the problem, they created another localized Chinese server, and created Chinese made social media apps to prevent contents that are not in the state’s interest and delete any content they deemed inappropriate. China has created their own version of social media apps such as Weibo (which is a popular “microblogging” app in China), WeChat (which is equivalent to Facebook, and is a widely used messaging app in China), Tudou and Youku are the equivalent of Youtube. These social media apps are allowing the Chinese government to monitor their citizens' social media activities, by censoring keywords to crack down on any attempts that might threaten the Chinese Communist Party. 

          This had shed light on China’s privacy policy for its citizens, and also globally, especially during the rise of Tik Tok. Tik Tok is a Chinese app that has reached the U.S and around the world, and has caused controversies in the country. Especially in the U.S, the government had threatened to ban the app, due to privacy concerns about China data mining their citizens' information. This has become more concerning, as China is trying to implement an algorithmic surveillance system. This surveillance system will be able to harness the advancements in artificial intelligence and data mining abilities to construct detailed personal information of their citizens. The Chinese government is planning to implement a system they called a “citizen score” to encourage good behaviours among its citizens. They will be installing more surveillance cameras to monitor their citizens movements, which will result in a more chilling and controlled environment (Anna Mitchell, 2020). Moreover, they also have plans on using the vast collection of online shopping data mined, and citizen score will also be affected based on the items you purchase online. The monitoring and data mining done by the government on online shopping data mining shows the complete disregard of consumer privacy. This is probably the reason China is receiving a lot of backlash on the apps they owned such as Tik Tok. Moreover, Chinese made products such as Huawei have been under fire for the past due to privacy concerns, that the device is made as a spying device for the Chinese military. Although this is not proven, conspiracy theories would eventually rise. 

          In my opinion, China is a country that has its advantages and disadvantages. Although it is one of the world's fastest growing superpower, they should also focus on the human rights aspect of the nation to truly be a first-world nation. 

References

1. Anna Mitchell, L., 2020. China's Surveillance State Should Scare Everyone. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: <https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/china-surveillance/552203/> [Accessed 29 November 2020].

2. NOLASIA. 2020. Social Media In China - NOLASIA. [online] Available at: <https://nolasia.net/social-media-in-china/> [Accessed 29 November 2020].

3. Statista. 2020. China: Number Of Social Media Users 2017-2025 | Statista. [online] Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/277586/number-of-social-network-users-in-china/#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20there%20were%20around,world's%20biggest%20social%20media%20market.> [Accessed 29 November 2020].

[aaronr99]

Social Gaming

          In this blog, I will write about social games, and also online gaming communities in general. This includes various gaming community sites, such as Steam and Twitch. The internet has done wonders when it comes to enhancing connections and relationships between families and friends. These relationships can also be formed through online meetings, where individuals meet up with each other through social media sites, or online games. Before the age of the internet, games had been a way for humans to form connections with each other and meet new people through close friends. These games such as football, badminton and many more, had been around for ages. Now with the existence of the internet, we can play with others online, and have made countless different and unique games. Online games are not of a single type, in fact there are many genres of online games out there, depending on each individual's preference. Nowadays, online games have become an opportunity for others to make money, as there are many jobs that anyone could take through online games. By definition, social games is a computer game that is played with or against other people, using the internet and social media (SOCIAL GAME | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary, 2020).

          First, let's start with the more social and interactive aspect of the gaming community today, streamers. Streamers are individuals who play games online and stream their experience at the same time. Streamers interact with their viewers by reading the constantly flowing chat rooms, where viewers interact with the streamers and other viewers as well. Let’s start Twitch, as this online platform, fully supports streamers, and generally is used for streaming. Twitch has a unique community, where the most of its community interacts actively when a streamer streams their games, with exceptions if the streamer makes a Reddit page or a Youtube Channel to further expand their content reach. Inside the streamers chatroom, viewers interact and react to incidents and events happening throughout the stream by using memes and emotes. Emotes are similar to emojis but might be harder to explain to someone alien to the Twitch community, but basically it's a way for viewers to express their reactions, by using small pictures of human faces and other random stuff. Streamers could also hire moderators or “mods” (in the communities own term) to watch over the live chat room, making sure that viewers who chats meet the community guidelines. Bigger streamers with more that 5 thousand viewers might have a more active chatroom where viewers will ask questions, or express themselves. The best part about being a twitch streamer are the donations that viewers can give to their streamer. Viewers are of course, not obligated to donate, however, most fans of a particular streamer may donate up to $50 to support the streamer. Many might think that being a streamer is an easy job, as you just have to sit in front of your computer with a camera facing directly on your face. In reality, the job of a streamer is challenging, as you have to struggle on making content for your viewers, and this includes playing games that can actually be fun for watching. There are many types of streamers, where some streamers just play casual games, and only have to focus on interactions with the viewers for comedic purposes. Some streamers are more experienced and only focus on one game that they are passionate about. These streamers will do live reviews on the game, and sometimes do constructive criticisms on the new updates, or already existing weaknesses that the game has. They also represent the game’s community and are the medium of communication between the game developers and the game’s community. 

          Next is the online game itself. There are countless online games today that allow players to interact with other players within the game. I’ll give an example of my favourite Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game, called League Of Legends. League of Legends had been around since 2010, and was developed by Riot Games. This game is a mixture of strategy and action game that lets players play as characters (or referred to as “champions”). The basic rule behind the game is that 10 players will play and each side of the team will have 5 players. The two teams will work their way through the game and ultimately destroy the enemy’s Nexus or until either side forfeits to win the game. This game has a uniqueness of its own, where the 5 players of each team will play their own role throughout the game. They, of course, will decide what role they want to play as in the beginning of the game, and will discuss with their other team members on which champion they want to play. These team roles were not initially made by the game developers themselves, but created by the game’s communities. The roles were developed through hours of gameplays and experience players had on the game, and decided that there is an underlying strategy to win the game, thus creating roles for the team members. These roles can change through the years as the game constantly develops and players will always try to find ways to fit themselves in the ever changing environment. Games such as League of Legends, is not the only one that has an active community. There are many games such as Fortnite, Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO), and even mobile games such as Players Unknown’s Battleground Mobile (PUBGM) has a very active community. An active gaming community will have fans who do reviews of the game and even provide guides and tips on how to be a better player in the game, by making Youtube videos. Others will also participate in online forums such as reddit to interact with other players, and would regularly post memes for entertainment. More subtle players will jump to a more creative side of the community where some would draw and post fanarts and others would even cosplay as their favourite characters in the game. 

         In conclusion, social gaming has certainly made an advancement as more players are joining various gaming communities. Each gaming community has its own uniqueness and perks, but one thing for sure, is that the dynamic and sociality in gaming communities are intriguing. 

References

1. Hotspawn.com. 2020. What Is League Of Legends? - Hotspawn.Com. [online] Available at: <https://www.hotspawn.com/guides/what-is-league-of-legends/> [Accessed 28 November 2020].

2. Dictionary.cambridge.org. 2020. SOCIAL GAME | Meaning In The Cambridge English Dictionary. [online] Available at: <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/social-game> [Accessed 28 November 2020].

[aaronr99]

Fandom

          In this blog, I will be delving inside the world of fandom. Fandom is defined as, a group of enthusiastic fan of something or someone (Fandom definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary, 2020). Today, social media has allowed for easy communication and connectivity between individuals. This has led to multiple rise of fandoms, spanning from sports, celebrities, movies and even tv shows. Fandom is a world-wide phenomenon, and most of us would personally know a person or two who is always crazy about something, albeit that might just even be ourselves. However, we can all agree on one thing, these fans will always go out their way to support the things they love, even if that means doing anything to not miss out on those football matches, the next album release, or recent celebrity drama. 

          Contrary to the negative view society holds for most fandoms today, fandoms had also shifted to using their community as a movement of activism and had proven to be a force for good. Fandoms throughout the years, in some way or another had challenged social norms, media representation, and even swayed towards pushing political agendas and social justice campaigns. For example, let’s have a look at one of the biggest fandoms we have today, the korean pop band BTS and their fans, the ARMYs. Now, I myself am not a part of this community, but since I’m an avid Twitter user, the presence of this fandom and their activities in the social media platform can’t be overlooked.  In the recent months, the U.S had been preparing for their 59th presidential election, and during this period of time the ARMYs had participated in the U.S political discourse. On twitter, users were tweeting how the ARMYs had interfered with buying an amount of tickets during the Trump rally, and had decided not to show up leaving many seats empty. The supposed “prank” they pulled, had led the Trump team to believe that as many as 1 million ticket requests were received, but ultimately only 6000 attendees came. Moreover, other K-Pop (Korean Pop) fanbases had also participated in online activism, and held progressive values while doing so. The interesting part about these fandom activists is that they are not limited to their demographics and are not localized in one country. The members span across the globe, ranging from the U.S to East Asia. In the recent BlackLivesMatter movement that happened in the U.S, many of these K-pop fans had dominated social media by tweeting about the incident on twitter. As a matter of fact, a police scanner app in Dallas, Texas had been flooded with fancams after the police department requested individuals to report protest activities, thus making it difficult for the police to identify protesters. On twitter, they flooded the #BlueLivesMatter hashtags, made to combat the #BlackLivesMatter and will stray the anti-racism movement, with fancams and videos. Some of the people of the fanbase had disagreed in the way it was conducted, especially in spamming fancams, and it could’ve been used to spread more awareness about the BlackLivesMatter movement. Interestingly, the fanbase also raised about $1 million donation for the BlackLivesMatter movement, where $1 million was also donated by the BTS group themselves. In a sense, K-pop fan bases are always competing against each other, which led to a competition between the fanbase and try to outperform the other, in order to champion their favourite K-pop group. This led them to call up for charities and donations, when they see other fan bases starting their own. 

          Ultimately, fanbases are easy to mobilize with the existence of social media. Fan members can reach up to members around the globe if they have any intention of starting up donations, or movements. Moreover, these fans will do anything in order to put their favourite artists on the spotlight. The efforts they make in providing aid on social justice movements, or charitable efforts, is another way to increase the popularity of their favourite artists. We are in no position to say that this is a negative thing, as they are also helping in fighting for a good cause. The social media domination these fanbases holds, makes it a formidable force when it comes to spreading campaigns and messages on social media sites. Another fanbase that had turned into a force for change were the Harry Potter Alliance. This fanbase had been making charities and donations in order to provide equality for the minorities in today’s society. The Harry Potter Alliance had been fighting for gender equality, LGBTQIA+ equality, racial injustice and even climate change. The fandom also does charities to help the unfortunate, for example, after the Haiti earthquake struck in 2010, the Harry Potter Alliance had partnered with Partners In Health and successfully raised $123,000.

References

1. Time. 2020. How K-Pop Fans Actually Work As A Force For Political Activism In 2020. [online] Available at: <https://time.com/5866955/k-pop-political/> [Accessed 28 November 2020].

2. Journal.transformativeworks.org. 2020. View Of Up, Up, And Away! The Power And Potential Of Fan Activism | Transformative Works And Cultures. [online] Available at: <https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/435/305> [Accessed 28 November 2020].

3. Wikiwand. 2020. Harry Potter Alliance | Wikiwand. [online] Available at: <https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Harry_Potter_Alliance> [Accessed 28 November 2020]

[aaronr99]

Crowdsourcing & Crowdfunding

          In this week’s blog, I will be writing about crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, which are two different concepts made possible through developing social media capabilities we have today. Crowdsourcing is defined as obtaining work, information, or opinions from a large group of people who submit their data via the internet, social media, and smartphone apps (Investopedia, 2019). Crowdfunding is defined as the use of a small amount of capital from a large number of individuals to finance a new business venture (Crowdfunding Definition, 2020).

          Crowdsourcing is a method of collecting services, content or ideas through the contributions of a large number of people. Crowdsourcing can be separated into crowdfunding and crowd wisdom. Although crowdfunding is a method of collecting money from multiple individuals, crowd wisdom is where a group of individuals provide information or data on a certain subject, instead of one expert. Crowd wisdom is used in many aspects from businesses to activists. For example, there are many protests that are currently happening all around the globe, yet for an outsider, it can be hard to really grasp the idea or motivation behind each protest. Documentation of the protest would need to be recorded in order to keep others informed about certain things happening before, in between and after the protest. In 2010, a group of activists had created a website called CrowdVoice. CrowdVoice is a website made for crowdsourcing purposes where multiple people could share Facebook posts, news articles, witness accounts or tweets about particular movements. This website helps records and constantly updates news on multiple movements across the globe from the US to Indonesia, and since became a social media archive. It helps in raising awareness and attracts journalists towards certain issues including political, environmental and human rights issues. The website also combats misinformation spread by governments trying to cover-up or cloud certain issues. A recent example is the misinformation spread by the Chinese government during the Hong Kong protest. 

          With the mass use of social media today, crowdfunding is easier. Crowdfunding can be done for many reasons such as business entrepreneurship. However, many crowdfunding today, offered social entrepreneurship, where individuals strive to make a change in the community by donating money to crowdfunding campaigns. For example, organizations can look for crowdfunding for charities while championing their causes. This can be very helpful during humanitarian crises such as rescuing, recovery or treatments of individuals. The charities can be focused on many things from funding food and shelters to people facing natural disasters, and it can even be funding a cancer research centre, or stopping child labour campaigns. Crowdfunding as a disaster relief effort was demonstrated during Hurricane Harvey, where two months into the natural disaster, a fundraiser in GoFundMe and CrowdRise had garnered $65 million to victims and charities. Crowdfunding had also been used by activists in Hong Kong, where activists have raised more than HK$5 million ($640,606) in a crowdfunding campaign to take out newspaper ads in a bid to get a controversial extradition bill on the agenda at the G20 Summit.

          There is also a different aspect of Crowdfunding, which can be used for businesses. Crowdfunding provides opportunities for individuals to kick-start their entrepreneurial dreams. Entrepreneurs' goals are starting their own businesses by means of creating new products and innovations, and sometimes products that aren’t readily available in our markets. This is not possible however, if they have a limited finance that cannot support in producing their products, hence another alternative is by using crowdfundings. There are various websites that provide a platform for entrepreneurs to connect with investors and raise money, such as KickStarter and IndieGoGo. Crowdfunding has led to many modern inventions we benefit from today. For example, many of us today, have already installed “Popsockets” on their mobile phones. The person behind the idea was David Barnett who started a fundraiser in KickStarter back in 2012, making it one of the most successful crowdfunded businesses (Chobanyan, 2020). 

References

1. Investopedia. 2020. Crowdfunding Definition. [online] Available at: <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdfunding.asp> [Accessed 24 November 2020].

2. Investopedia. 2020. How Crowdsourcing Works. [online] Available at: <https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdsourcing.asp> [Accessed 24 November 2020].

3. Chobanyan, A., 2020. 5 Crowdfunded Businesses That Became Million Dollar Companies. [online] Crowdfunding PR & Marketing Blog - The Crowdfunding Formula. Available at: <https://blog.thecrowdfundingformula.com/crowdfunded-businesses/> [Accessed 24 November 2020].

4. Giving Compass. 2020. How Crowdfunding Can Support Disaster Relief. [online] Available at: <https://givingcompass.org/article/how-gofundme-is-redefining-the-business-of-disaster-relief/> [Accessed 24 November 2020].

[aaronr99]

Public Health Campaigns & Communities

          In this blog, I will be writing about public health communities. Throughout the century, advancement in technology and medicine had increased the life expectancy of the average human. Technology has helped increase our healthcare system, and has helped us in finding cures and vaccines to previous diseases that could be fatal. It certainly is a privilege to live in times where healthcare services are easily accessible. Through the advancement of technology, it has developed social media which is a tool we know well today, and with the increase in social media use, public health is easier to maintain. Public health by definition means, science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. This work is achieved by promoting healthy lifestyles, researching disease and injury prevention, and detecting, preventing and responding to infectious diseases (What is Public Health? | CDC Foundation, 2020).  

          Social media helps in raising public awareness about certain health issues, especially a global pandemic such as COVID-19. In fact, nearly 90% of older adults in the U.S have used social media to seek and share health information. Social media helps you to be updated on the latest issues, guidelines and advisories. For example, many health advice and instructions are going around today's COVID-19 pandemic, such as encouraging individuals to wear masks in public, avoid crowded places and correct ways to wash hands, which helps individuals to stay safe and keep a healthy lifestyle. Following credible accounts on social media, could also help educate on misinformation regarding health issues. There is a lot of misinformation on health issues in social media, and it is easy for people to be misguided as they are often spread through close friends or families who share the info. Therefore it is important to fact check health information through sources like the CDC or WHO. 

          Secondly, social media can inspire lifestyle changes. Social media can be used as a tool to achieve healthy lifestyle goals such as going to the gym or quitting smoking. Posting about your goals on social media promotes accountability towards others and encourages a “social support system” which creates positive reinforcements from friends. Research has shown that promoting your goals publicly on social media, helps you stay focused, and dramatically increases the chances of success. Social media also provide features such as meetups, which are organized online involving people of similar interests. Recovering addicts could benefit from these meetups as they are able to communicate with each other and discuss their recovery plans.

          Thirdly, social media helps in providing medical aid and medical reach. Social media helps individuals struggling with mental illnesses. Therapists and psychiatrists had been using social media as a benefit to extend their aid and medical reach. An increasing number of websites are now offering support through social media channels, and provide anonymous forums for people to connect, and share personal experiences. Many even allowed their users to sign up for an SMS service to receive daily motivational messages. During today’s global pandemic, most countries are put into a lockdown, in which many people report having mental health issues as they are unable to physically meet friends and families and perform everyday social activity. Social media had provided them the alternative to connect and socialize.

          In my opinion, social media has definitely helped in maintaining better public health. It has helped raise awareness about health issues especially during the needy times, where we are facing a global pandemic.

References

1. Robinson, L. and Smith, M. (2020). Social Media and Mental Health - HelpGuide.org. Viewed 20th October, https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm.

2. Pantic, I. (2014). Online Social Networking and Mental Health. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Viewed 20th October, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4183915/.

3. Trifonova, V., 2020. How Coronavirus Has Changed The Way We Use Social Media - GWI.Viewed 20th October,<https://blog.globalwebindex.co m/chart-of-the- week /social-media-amid-the-outbreak/>

[aaronr99]

Digital Citizenship 2: Activism & Protest

     On this week’s blog, I will be writing about activism and protest on social media. Activism, by one common definition, involves participating in vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change (Warhurst, 2019) . Activism is demonstrated in multiple ways, such as, petitions, boycotts, rallies and demonstrations. Individual activism, or activists, can use literature such as books to propagate their messages and justify their cause to their audience. On the other hand, a protest is an expression of bearing witness to words or acts with respect to specific events, policies or circumstances on behalf of an express cause (Winter, 2007). From individual statements to mass demonstrations, protests can take several different forms. However, the most effective protest would be a collective action by means of mass demonstrations, where individuals coordinate with each other, in order to organize a protest. These types of protest leaves a much bigger impact and if organized and purposeful, can become a social movement. 

      Activism and protest had been demonstrated in multiple events occurred around the globe, from anti-racism movements such as the anti-apartheid movement in Africa, to pro-democracy against China’s ruling Communist Party in Hong Kong. These movements may fight for a different cause, however, they share a common goal, which is demanding change from their current political, economical, social, or environmental status. Activism and protest is an importance and necessity in a society as it resembles the dissatisfaction of the treatment or living conditions of a group of people, who are most likely to be in the minorities. 

Social Media, Activism & Protests

     Digital activism is where digital tools, are used for bringing about political or social change. Today, our lives are much linked with the internet and social media. Social media has allowed people to connect with each other a lot more easier, and this is a catalyst that makes it a lot more ideal for activism. Social media has an amount of blogging and microblogging websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, which makes it easier for individuals to express their thoughts and ideas to a larger audience. On websites such as Twitter, daily tweets and retweets fly around about social movements like BlackLivesMatter, Hong Kong protest and Climate Strike. It is way easier to spread a message for change in social media as it gives a global audience. For example, online videos and articles started coming up in 2019 about the protest in Hong Kong, which might not be receiving the spotlight it deserved internationally, if it weren’t for social media sites and Hong Kong activists such as Joshua Wong, who sends out daily tweets about the protest on Twitter for outsiders to see. Facebook and Instagram have also served as a platform for the protesters to share campaign posters, slogans as well as image and video evidence of police violence. These social media sites have also allowed an easy organization and coordination for the protesters, as they can share action information and a variety of upcoming activities. 

     Last year in the U.S, the BlackLivesMatter movement gained the internet’s attention, and spread like wildfire around the globe. It started after a video circled online of an African-American man named George Floyd, who was killed in police custody. Millions of Americans started to protest in the streets to bring justice for the man, and many more African-American who were killed unjustly by the police force. Protesters went online and started sharing links in social media websites to ask others to sign online petitions, and some even started a fundraiser for the family of the lost loved ones. Even large companies and brands got involved with the movement where some had donated thousands of dollars for the social movement. The movement had even spread outside the U.S to various countries such as the U.K, multiple countries in Europe, and even East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea. This proves that through social media, the social movement was a big success, and that it had effectively spread awareness to communities who were completely oblivious about the issue. More than that, it had helped the younger and older generation, who might’ve come across the BlackLivesMatter message in social media, to finally come to conclusion that there are injustice done towards the Black community. 

     In my opinion, social media is a very effective tool for activism, and had started to become a norm where people who feel like there’s justice or changes needed to be done, can use to advocate their ideas and principals. Social media had many disadvantages in terms of the amount of fake news that can go around, however it is the most effective way to spread a message and when it comes to activism because it is ideal to find a way to easily connect with more people to justify your cause. The new way of digital activism hasn’t change the traditional way of activism, but had greatly improved it for easy organization, and coordination of protest, and also could spread to a more larger audience. Since the most of the countries are going for a lockdown during this global pandemic, social media had also helped to keep the social movements running without requiring any outside activities.

References

Morning Consult. 2020. Brands Are Getting Involved In The Black Lives Matter Movement. Here’s How Black Consumers Want To See Them Participate - Morning Consult. [online] Available at: <https://morningconsult.com/2020/07/16/brands-are-getting-involved-in-the-black-lives-matter-movement-heres-how-black-consumers-want-to-see-them-participate/> [Accessed 13 October 2020].

Warhurst, J. (2019). The power of protest and activism. [online] The Canberra Times. Available at: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6418372/the-power-of-protest-and-activism/ [Accessed 13 Oct. 2020].

Shao, G. (2019). Social media has become a battleground in Hong Kong’s protests. [online] CNBC. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/16/social-media-has-become-a-battleground-in-hong-kongs-protests.html. [Accessed 14 Oct. 2020].

Buchanan, L., Bui, Q. and Patel, J.K. (2020). Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History. The New York Times. [online] 3 Jul. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html. [Accessed 14 Oct. 2020].

[aaronr99]

Digital Citizenship: Political Engagement

      On this week’s topic, I will write about political engagements in social media and I will mainly focus on these how this topic is related towards U.S politics. Political engagement is defined as voluntary activities undertaken by the mass public to influence public policy, either directly or by affecting the selection of persons who make policies (Chapal Khasnabis et al., 2010). 

      Political engagement had definitely changed and was way more different than it was 50 years ago, as nowadays politics and social media goes hand-in-hand. In a democratic society, social media has played an important role as a medium for expressing opinions and criticisms. Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, is generally used by communities to engage in political activities, where, thousands of people are tweeting and posting about their daily thoughts on the political climate happening around them. As a matter of fact, most politicians today has a social media account in Twitter and Facebook, and it is very beneficial for them to do so, owing to the fact that, social media had changed the nature of political�� communication because its a tool that could connect users directly to politicians. 

     People can now participate in political campaigns on social media. They can leave a “likes” or “retweets” on posts regarding the agenda of their politicians, and engaging in online debates to influence others. They can donate to the cause of their politicians and help fund the political campaigns and work together with other individuals of similar political interest.  This helps the people to feel that their participation is important in the democratic process.  For politicians, social media can be used to garner support from the masses, and campaign managers also effectively organize volunteer and fundraising efforts of their supporters.

     Since the 2020 presidential election is coming soon, the race towards gaining public interest is back, as both of the candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden utilizes their Twitter accounts. Joe Biden, of the Democratic Party even expressed his views and opinions on certain events such as the Trump’s administration’s response to the COVID-19 situation and the protest following the killing of George Floyd. 

     For smaller and local politicians, engaging themselves on social media is a helpful way of addressing issues as they wont get coverage from mainstream media, for example, politicians such as Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez did live videos on her twitter account to interact with voters and non-voters alike, and to encourage meaningful and personable conversations. Most active participants in social media agrees that it can be used for users to press on social change, paying attention to issues and influencing policy decisions by their elected officials. Social media highlights issues that needs to be addressed, for example, the MeToo movement, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. These movement were somewhat political and more people are pushing for a policy change, by making online petitions, especially for the mistreatment of police towards the African American community.

     In conclusion, social media had definitely change the political landscape as it is more easier for the people to voice their opinions and thoughts freely. It provided a lot more different ways to participate in politics, such as donating, fundraising and making online petitions. It had come to the point where people no longer rely on journalists and news article to champion their thoughts on any matter. 

     References

1.  Vonderschmitt, K. (n.d.). TopSCHOLAR® The Growing Use of Social Media in Political Campaigns: How to use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to Create an Effective Social Media Campaign. [online] Available at: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1366&context=stu_hon_theses.

2.  Sciencedirect.com. (2015). Political Participation - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. [online] Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/political-participation [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019].

3. Anderson, M., Toor, S., Rainie, L. and Smith, A. (2018). 1. Public attitudes toward political engagement on social media. [online] Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/07/11/public-attitudes-toward-political-engagement-on-social-media/.

[aaronr99]

Tumblr: A blog or Social Networking Site (SNS)?

     Tumblr is created in 2007 by David Karp, and was created to be a platform used to share personal blogs, videos, photos and many more. Most teens and adults today are still using tumblr by means to get creative on the platform. They write blogs or share photos and videos of themselves to garner more “re-blogs” from other dwellers of the website. This is a very useful system as it will allow like-minded individuals to connect with each other, where they could share their hobbies and interests or maybe start a fandom on about anything. 

     First and foremost, Tumblr allows its users to blog. The definition of a “blog” (or initially called “weblog”) is an online journal or informational website displaying information in a reverse chronological order, with the latest posts appearing at the top (Skrba, A 2020). Basically, it’s more like a personal diary, that could be read by anyone it comes across with. For example, you could write about how your day went, and constantly updating it every week or so, or write about facts you find interesting about your favourite character in a book, or write about the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement that had recently shed light to the injustices faced by the Black community. All in all, users are able to blog and express themselves on Tumblr and be it for personal reasons, or any other motives, blogging is a feature that Tumblr provides.

     Social Networking Service (SNS) by definition, is an online vehicle for creating relationships with other people who share an interest, background, or real relationship (Kenton, 2020). This means that it is a platform for people to connect with each other. Tumblr is used by many as a place to share common interests which sparked fandom and other communities. Fandom is a very unique culture, where some fandoms are united and provide undying support for an artist. These fans usually keep themselves updated about recent news of their artists, and encourage each other to buy their albums. 

     Communities in Tumblr are lively, and constantly changing everyday, which creates a dynamic environment for users to socialize with each other. This shows that Tumblr is indeed a Social Networking Site as well.

     Tumblr definitely feels like it has a mix of twitter. As a twitter user myself, the thing I found to be similar is the re-blogs works exactly like Twitter’s retweets. Any one of your followers will be receiving your blogs on their dashboards. Based on the small research I made, Tumblr had been utilizing its website to write personal blogs while also connecting with others in different types of communities within it. Finally, I would conclude that, Tumblr is both a blogging and also a social networking site.

References:

1. Skrba, A. (2020). What is a Blog? - Explanation of Terms Blog, Blogging & Blogger (2020). [online] firstsiteguide.com. Available at: https://firstsiteguide.com/what-is-blog/#what-is-blog.

2.  Kenton, W. (2020). Social Networking Service—SNS. [online] Investopedia. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-networking-service-sns.asp#:~:text=A%20social%20networking%20service%20(SNS.