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GLOBAL SOCIAL MEDIA - CHINA

In this post I will be speaking on Global Social Media. Particularly on CHINA. China has been notorious for many things that are obscure, revolutionary, and negative. The country has implemented an internet policy system that has the most restrictions, censoring, blocking certain news, websites and even social media platforms. Furthermore, the country has been growing to become one of the worlds largest economy and somewhat pursuing global dominance. Let’s dive more into China, shall we?

Sorry for the unnoticed pun. The movie in the GIF is from ‘Trouble in Little China‘. Anyways, in December 2015, the country hosted its second World Internet Conference where a few international leaders of stated and tech businessmen and analysts, came together in Wuzhen. The opening ceremony came with statement by President Xi Jin Ping, laying out his vision of China’s future in internet. He mentioned that we should respect the rights of individual countries to have an independent in cyber-development a warning against any affairs from foreign countries (Economy 2018). For the president, there is no difference between the real and virtual world as both should display the same type of political values, standards, and ideals. The Chinese government has been investing in the advancement of technologies to help monitor and censor out content. New laws and regulations have been passed on which content would be acceptable, and those who are committing any crimes against them would be suffer a heavy punishment. This development has made foreign content providers have less access to the country as well.

The amount of power that the Communist Party has over the internet rests on its determination to stop the spread of any data that it considers to be alarming. The Great Firewall and the Golden Shield were integrated. An estimated of 2 million employees to help monitor and censor content on the internet with the role known as “internet public opinion analyst” (Economy 2018). According to King et. Al. (2017), it had been estimated that the Chinese government had forged and posted nearly 448 million comments in a year. The large amount of posts that is censored is done by manually deleting post and, nearly 100,000 people are employed by the government, as well as private firms.

The internet has been a revolutionary invention since its inception. The way people view things will always come into question. China’s is trying to lead a country by ensuring that the benefits of the internet such as advance in commerce and innovations, would not affect any political change. Xi Jin Ping is seemingly willing to accept the consequences in free speech, government credibility and development of society. However, the internet pushes forward as a powerful tool for residents to seek advocation and advancement in human rights and social development.  

REFERENCES

Economy, E.C. 2018, ‘The great firewall of China: Xi Jinping’s internet shutdown’, The Guardian, viewed 21 November 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/29/the-great-firewall-of-china-xi-jinpings-internet-shutdown>.

King, G, Pan, J & Roberts, M.E. 2017, ‘How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument’, American Political Science Review, vol. 111, no. 3, pp. 484 – 501.

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SOCIAL GAMING - WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO US?

Games have always been a part of human culture ever since the earliest civilization. In modern times, PC’s and gaming consoles have dominated the gaming society. There was a time where Facebook offered games in the social platform. Games like Farmville, Pet Society was one of the biggest craze within Facebook. It was where friends could take some time off to play games on Facebook while also playing with friends or visiting their own unique place within a game like Pet Society. I personally have played games on Facebook and it was one of the first time I experienced gaming in a social manner. Social gaming can be defined in many ways. One of them is a multiplayer based game where players can play with each other at the same time to compete or play in the same team. Another is social games are games that are based on existing social platforms or new platforms that players can interact with each other (Logan 2020). This definition to me fits well with games like the ones on Facebook. Gaming has evolved into one of the biggest industries in the world, with gaming competitions being sponsored by huge and well-known companies. Diverse gaming console and PC’s customisation options, I could go on. However, how is the community is affected with this rapid rise in evolution.

Games nowadays can let you buy stuff with real money to get currency inside a game and purchase items. Monetization has been an issue among the gaming community. Many large gaming corporations like Ubisoft and Electronic Arts, are actively engaging in this area by integrating microtransactions into their games like FIFA, Madden, Star Wars: Battlefront and Assassin’s Creed (King et al. 2019, p. 131). According to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, EA had gained more than $6 billion in revenue from only FIFA ultimate Team since 2015 (Wojnar 2020). This has made game titles like these unfair to players. Star Wars: Battlefront was another situation where players could buy ‘lootboxes’ that would make them better when playing the game online. This would render those without the ability to buy ‘lootboxes’ losing most times against others with them. EA Patrick Söderlund , EA chief design has since apologized and that him and the company cannot afford to make the same mistakes (Gilbert 2018).  

Toxicity has been plaguing in the gaming community since its inception. Abuse in the gaming community constantly happens somewhere inside online games where other verbally insult and abuse others. Swatting is deadly and serious term. It is a dangerous ‘prank’ that other gamers do to other players. Swatting made its way into a national issue, as in 2019, LA-gamer Tyler Bariss, was angered due to a game in Call of Duty and tried to send the police to another player’s house in Wichita, Kansas. He instead sent them to a home of an innocent stranger Andrew Finch, who was shot dead in the mix-up (Ellis 2019).

Conclusion

There are various problems in gaming and in the gaming community. Large corporate companies who try to grab as much profits as they can by taking advantage of how gamers play games online competitively, to online abuse, bullying and even to the extend of life and death due to the behaviours of players in the community. There must be for gamers to not result in using revenge and assaulting and potentially injuring and killing another person. Games are made for us to have fun and find a way to escape our own reality and indulge ourselves in another where we can, in a way, be and express who we are as individuals. A gaming community can do a lot of good if they instead band together to do good. Such as Snoop Dogg even going in to competitive Call of Duty and Madden matches that helps raises awareness and instil positivity into the culture, signifying that it could be anyone playing a game and we should have the decency to respect one another.  

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FANDOM

What is a fandom?

A fandom is a person, or a group is enthusiastic about something. Take Anime as an example. It is an amalgamation of many different stories that each fan of a series, are particular on even the smallest detail. It is the fans own perception in recognizing and relating in a positive, personal and a deep emotional relation with an element in popular culture (Lacasa et al. 2016). We are all fans of something in the media that we are presented with. Television series, anime, manga, YouTube videos and more. The anime series below featured is from ATTACK ON TITAN

However, in this collective of people, there would be opinions and facts that would not be accepted in some way. Toxic fan behaviors have plagued online communities with nothing more than to only spout negative remarks about the series, manga or band, others and even people who are not involve with their fandom.

In the rising fame of K-Pop, fans of each group or band is more likely to favor the ones they support or relate to. Fans of the BTS All Male K-pop group, BTS Army, has been harassing fans of other groups like EXO and NCT. On July 2020, Charlie Puth was subjected to abuse from the BTS Army. They spammed a few of his TikTok posts with teasing comments like how he used JungKook, a 22-year-old member of BTS, to gain more attention or fame (Angermiller 2020). Even so, there are members of the fandom who condemn the act and always try to make others change their ways.

Conclusion

A fandom is collection of people who are very enthusiastic on something. This will actually boost or elevate what they are fans of. Giving, for example, creators of a series to continue their amazing work and amaze their fans and hopefully make even more. There are good and bad things that goes along with it but this allows the community and the other people who see them improve and be better and in a way, give a better fan service for new comers to become attracted into joining. We, as a fan, should only have constructive criticism and support to the things or people we are fans of.

REFERENCES

Angermiller, M.A. 2020, ‘Charlie Puth Implores BTS Fans to End ‘Toxic Internet Screaming Match’’, Variety, viewed 9 November 2020, <https://variety.com/2020/music/news/charlie-puth-bts-fans-1234698628/>.

Lacasa, P, Zaballos, L.M. & Prieto, J.F. 2016, ‘Fandom, Music and Personal Relationships through Media: How Teenagers Use Social Networks’, Journal of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 44 - 67.

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IS TUMBLR A BLOG OR SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE?

In this modern and technological era, there many social platforms that any one can utilise freely. At times, these things can be hard to differentiate. The vice president of marketing at ShopIgniter, defines it as a microblogging and social network service that lets users make their own page and post pictures and texts just like a blog post, where users can comment, like or re-post. Users can also follow other pages or accounts and its main page, the dashboard, is a line of posts that gives a similar experience like other social networking sites (Stringfellow 2013).

What is a social networking site?

Social networking sites are communities in the virtual world filled with users that can create their own unique profiles and interact with other users in real-time and mee other people. The public display of the connections made by users is a vital aspect of social networking sites. The ‘Friend’s List’ has links to other profiles allowing viewers to view more profiles and traverse the platform through the list (Boyd & Ellison 2008, pp. 213). People use social networking platforms to make new relations. Socializing with friends, finding information, sharing contents and just surfing on the platform to kill time. It is also used to talk about issues and debate on facts. Debates have been rising on social media platforms due to its reachability and wide awareness of issues by users that helps promote discussions among them even when they come from two places on the opposite sides of the world.

A Blog

A blog is a type of website where people can write things and express their opinions in a a journal-type format. It is used to properly give our intricate thoughts into a place where it can be seen and, in a way, to write about our daily lives. It can be privatised or made public when given the right URL code or search. Its written informally or can even be in a conversation-type post.

In my opinion, Tumblr dips its toes in both areas. Due to its blog like structure with enhanced social platform capabilities, makes it a unique and interesting place for any user to utilise. Tumblr takes advantages of how pictures and GIFs can be used to reach a wider set of audience.

Reference

Boyd, D.M & Ellison, N.B 2008, ‘Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 210 – 230.

Stringfellow, A 2013, ‘The Great Tumblr Debate: Blogging Platform Or Social Network?’, American Express, viewed 27 October 2020, <https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/the-great-tumblr-debate-blogging-platform-or-social-network/>.

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CROWDSOURCING AND CROWDFUNDING

WEEK 8

In my opinion, crowdfunding and crowd sourcing has been used since the olden times in where they needed more hands to work on something. However, these two things are different from one another but do share some similarities that might confuse a person. They both depend on the sheer number of people and ‘donations’ given by outsiders of the business in order to achieve a business objective.

CROWDSOURCING

Jeff Howe in 2006 defined crowdsourcing as the displaying of recognition towards a job done by a chosen person and outsource it to mostly large numbers of individuals when announcing it to the masses (Ikediego et. Al. 2018, pp. 28-29). In its core, it derives from a small but impactful idea that virtually everyone can help supply vital data (Zhao & Zhu 2014, pp. 897). This practice, in the past, meant that it would have to take a long time and process due to not being able to communicate their cause or reason to a lot of people in a time before the internet. Crowdsourcing was not much of a great idea until it was utilised by tech and web savvy organisations that were made to benefit from its wide array of network and users. Social media has changed the perspectives on crowdsourcing and will continue as the advantages of using social media platforms become more popular. Threadless, a Chicago-based company that sells graphic t-shirts that are designed and voted by members in the online community. Those who submit the best voted design will win the prize money and the design will be printed and be sold (Prescient Digital Media 2020). This allows the company to let designers use their creativity to achieve their desired design, but the design will still be heavily influenced by current and modern trends in social media platforms like Twitter.  

CROWRDFUNDING

Crowdfunding is the attempt of individuals, groups and organisations, for cultural social and for profit, in order to fund their business ventures by gaining small offerings from a large amount of individuals on the internet without no middle-man (Mollic 2014, pp. 2). Online crowdfunding is a tool and a trend. Social media platforms allow people to connect and develop relationships within the online community. Crowdfunding platforms like Kicstrater and Indiegogo can be categorised by their content be it general or related to a specific topic, interest or even to aid the creators of the corndfund. One of the recent and well-known crowdfunded company is the Oculus VR. Founder Palmer Luckey started his crowdfunding campaign in 2012. After the campaign was over, more than $2.4 million were raised, making it one of the biggest crowdfunded companies. The company was later bought by a social media giant, Facebook, in 2014 for $2 billion and its Oculus Rift is a member of the Facebook family of gadgets and services that Facebook provides.

In my opinion, they are two different things that try to achieve different objectives. One is used to gain vital information and data given voluntarily by individuals. Crowdfunding is used more towards gaining and achieving monetary support in order to complete a project or help someone in need. Both have changed due to the emergence of social media and its various channels of communication allowing instant awareness on any cause. Both help to gain a goal. However, there have been many cases  where these methods have been use for selfish or nefarious reasons and should be dealt with extreme punishment due to the lie and deceit that people experience in losing hard earned money that was intended for the right cause. This gives people the chance to learn and know which campaigns are legit and honest in their cause.  

RFERENCES

Belleflamme, P., & Lambert, T. (2016). An Industrial Organization Framework to Understand the Strategies of Crowdfunding Platforms. International Perspectives on Crowdfunding, 1–19

Mollic, E 2014, ‘The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study’, Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 1 – 16.

Prescient Digital Media, ‘Crowdsourcing Spreading like Wildfire with Social Media’, Prescient Digital Media, viewed 29 October 2020, <https://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/web-2.0/crowdsourcing-spreading-like-wildfire-with-social-media#:~:text=Crowdsourcing%20is%20the%20practice%20of,a%20large%20group%20of%20people.&text=Social%20media%20is%20becoming%20an,more%20efficiently%20than%20ever%20before>.

Ikediego, H.O., Iikan, M, Abubakar, A.M. & Bekun, F.V 2018, ‘Crowd-sourcing (who, why and what)’, International Journal of Crowd Science, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 27 – 41.

Zhao, Y.C, & Zhu, Q, ‘Effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation on participation in crowdsourcing contest: A perspective of self-determination theory’, Online Information Review, vol. 38, no. 7, pp. 896 – 917.

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Public Health Campaigns & Communities

Week 7

Public campaigns are defined a an attempt to help inform or educate and influence behaviours of the masses in a period of time using a set of communication activities and a wide array of messages in multiple methods and platforms to benefit individuals and society as a whole (Zhao 2020). Public health campaigns is the effort to help persuade the public to alter and adopt behaviours that will help keep and improve health or refrain from that any behaviour that would lead to any infection (Heath 2005). These health campaigns can focus on many things that affect health such as smoking, substance abuse, daily minimum nutrition needed for the body and even mental health awareness.

Social Media’s Influence

In Malaysia, COVID-19 has triggered the government to put out information to the public to combat the disease. The Ministry of Health in Malaysia constantly messages Malaysian residents through SMS to reach those who do not have access to internet. As nowadays, the internet is used widely due to the number of users that go online. Especially on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. These social platforms become a channel of sending information to the masses. This information given have been helpful in raising awareness in people. Especially in alerting of any cases that would occur. However, as significant as they may seem, this has negative effects on society as well. The rise of fake news continues to rise and jeopardise the community’s well-being. For example, in the Whatsapp messaging, there has been numerous cases of alleged ‘cures’ that can help fight or cure the disease shared unknowingly by Malaysians and false claims on who or where has been affected by the disease. The Health Ministry has its own Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Social media is a useful tool in getting information across the world in a matter of seconds. It has done great things in alerting citizens on things that they need to know during times of needs. Social media can be both good and bad in terms of how the information is used and who uses. It our responsibility to always check the validity of any news that goes around.

References

Heath, R.L. 2005, Encyclopaedia of Public Relation, SAGE Publication, Inc, California.

Zhao, X 2020, ‘Health communication campaigns: A brief introduction and call for dialogue’, International Journal of Nursing Sciences, vol. 7 no. 1, pp. 11 – 15.

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WEEK 6 ACTIVISM & PROTEST

Activism is the action or the policy of making use if vigorous campaigns in order to bring about a change in the political or social structure. In simpler terms, it is the simple action needed to effect social change. This can occur in a variety of methods and in many forms. It is often related to the question ‘How do we change the world?’ through political, social and economic or environmental change. This movement can be led but individuals but is often done as a collective (Simmons University 2019).

THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY AND WORD OF MOUTH

These days, activism and protesting has evolved in using another method, that is social media. Social media is often used as a platform to spread information with a single push of button. It helps spreads the thoughts and opinion towards a particular subject in order to gain support and hopefully achieve change. The Arab Spring, where a series of protests that included some of the largest Muslim countries like Syria, Libya and Egypt that begin in 2011. The use of technology and social media managed to help the movement to spread images of mass dissent despite government intervention as they used YouTube, camera phones and satellite television. For the case, social media technology might have been a game changer for any movement that face constant repression (Curtin & McGarty 2016, pp. 234).

The use of the ‘hashtag’ on the #BlackLivesMatter movement on Twitter corelated with major news events as it utilizes the platforms wide network of users to spread awareness on its cause. Another significant event that had used social media to spread the word on their cause was the Hong Kong protests in 2019 where residents of Hong Kong where fighting against a bill that would give rights to China to covertly abduct and detain anyone in Hong Kong and move them to a detaining facility in China. Their use of Facebook and Twitter had gained so much attention from the masses that in October 2019, the bill was formally scraped.

I personally have never really participated in any sort of protest before. However, I have retweeted and reposted post and pictures on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. I had done that because I had felt a personally way of how the people were treated. For example, in the #blacklivesmatter movement. The movement had reached its peak when the murder of George Floyd by policemen was caught on video and spread to the masses. Instances like this affect me because I too, wouldn’t want to be wrongfully accused and treated in such a way. It is any humans right to be treated well and fairly, no matter the skin colour. These events has affected me and it is sure to evolve and in how it can affect things in the future.

References

Curtin, N & McGarty, C 2016, ‘Expanding on Psychological Theories of Engagement to Understand Activism in Context(s)’, Journal of Social Issues, vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 227 – 241.

Simmons University, ‘Activism 101: Introduction’, Simmons University, viewed 15 October 2020, <https://simmons.libguides.com/activism101>.

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MARiO OPEN GOLF Nintendo Famicom 1991

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