digitaljas-blog

[digitaljas-blog]

The Great Firewall of China

One of the great things about the internet is our ability to access any information we want. Well, despite top secret, government information (unless you go on the dark web, not that I’m encouraging that).

Now imagine living in a world where you have an unfathomable amount of information at the tip of your fingers, but you are just denied access.

Sounds crazy, right?

Well, enter China.

Despite having an online population of 800 million users, China remains one of the most highly restricted countries when it comes to the internet. Citizens don’t have access to Google, Facebook or YouTube.

In order to control such a vast amount of content, China has created the largest system of censorship in the world: the Great Firewall.

The Great Firewall is a combined effort between the government and technology/telecommunication companies which enforce the country’s rules. 

But why go to such an extent?

Well, China argues that this strict control is to maintain social order and safeguard national security. Obviously it makes sense to impose some kind of control over the internet to stop things like cyber bullying, but politicians are scared over the internet’s ability to spread opposition to China’s one-party rule.

While this whole concept sounds crazy to us, this isn’t the case with citizens from China. 

A university student from the North-East says he has never even heard of the main social media sites us westerners use because they are blocked by the Great Firewall. He doesn’t feel like he is missing out because there are alternative Chinese digital platforms created (e.g. WeChat and Baidu).

This student even goes so far as to say:

"It's basically a protection against the foreign internet, which could be hackers"

However, it’s still possible for internet users to sneak past the Firewall. Thousands of Chinese citizens use VPNs to access the wider web; they create an encrypted tunnel from computers inside the blockade to networks on the outside.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, not so much. 

Increasing amount of people who either develop or distribute the software which allows people to sneak through the firewall are being arrested, on China’s president Xi Jinping’s orders.

I know this sounds shocking to us, but in hindsight there’s really not much that Chinese citizens are missing out on regarding western social media. It’s a strange place.

[digitaljas-blog]

Social Gaming

Virtual communities and online social spaces have all created their own internal rules that dominate the ways participants interact within the community. It’s these very rules that are not only reinforced by, but also given legitimacy by the players.

The consent of these participants is what sustains and enforces the rules of behaviour in these online spaces. This ‘consent’ is either from continual participation in a community, or through an ongoing process of negotiation and refinement. 

Power to the people.

To put this into perspective, let’s look at an example: Eve Online.

EVE Online is a community-driven spaceship online game where players can play for free, choose their own path from countless options, and experience space exploration and battles.

With over half a million subscribers, EVE Online encourages player participation in game management - this is done through a player council (the Council of Stellar Management) and active fan forums. 

The Council offers a management strategy not found in other online multiplayer games. It provides players a mode of communication with the developers and managers of the game.

In EVE Online, players sometimes develop their own codes of conduct and social norms which can impact game play. This is because players are embedded in different external cultures which shape and impact their game play; these different cultures generate a diverse set of views around ‘acceptable’ behaviour and where to draw the line. 

Each player brings with them a set of expectations about acceptable behaviour in the game - this is determined by their cultural background, education level, age and individual moral compass. 

The boundaries of these external environments are becoming more fluid as players extend the game through social media, fan forums, modding, fan fiction, conventions and cosplay. 

Therefore, identity issues and applicable rules need to be negotiated across boundaries. Where boundaries are not clearly defines, problems may arise that require the regulator to step in.

Now, we all know that stereotype of antisocial teenagers alone in their dark bedroom, obsessively playing video games until the late hours of the night. 

However, a recent study by Pew Research Center reveals that two-thirds of young gamers play video games as a way to socialise with friends and family. They have the opportunity to discuss game strategies for competitive and cooperative play, and this improves conversational skills for young people.

Social gaming offers the same affordances as any other social activity - they provide a chance to interact with other humans over shared interests, regardless of age range, race, or cultural/economic background. 

So, in hindsight, modern technology has opened endless avenues to communication and interaction, and online gaming is just one of these examples.

[digitaljas-blog]

Public Health Campaigns

We all know that social media has begun to transform ways in which organisations function. But, contrary to popular belief, this can actually be a good thing.

Here’s why.

In 2016, a doctor in the Dominican Republic who worked in a pediatric burn unit needed to learn how to treat burn patients, but wasn’t quite sure how to. 

Dr Camilo is a physiatrist trained in treating damaged nerves and muscles. She was part of a regional burn care training initiative - this involved bringing medical experts from the USA, Canada and Central America to share medical information. 

Other staff in her unit were qualified to perform surgery and give anaesthesia, but nobody knew how to prevent the patients from scarring and losing the use of their burned limbs. So, when in doubt, Dr Carolina Camilo turned to Facebook.

It was actually the Facebook group created by the director of this project which helped decide the plan of action and its execution.

“I had some doubts about what was the best option for one patient with a hypertrofic scar, and when I wrote my concerns to the Facebook group, they helped me through to reach excellent results.”

So, in hindsight, social media and technology in general are playing a greater role than ever before in the process of information sharing. It’s contributed to building health care capacity and ability worldwide. 

Organisations now have the ability to digitise their health information. Doctors can now expand their reach beyond where their physical location.

This is a life-changing step. Imagine telling that to people 100 years ago.

However, despite its perks, the internet also has its down sides when it comes to health. A common worry within society is that social media causes a rise in anxiety and depression. 

With this thought in mind, let’s take a look at Australian social media influencer Essena O’Neill.

O’Neill is considered to be an internet celebrity with over half a million Instagram followers, something many youngsters secretly hope to become. But, as O’Neill explains, it’s not all as glamorous or enchanting as it seems.

She critiques social media and how it upholds unrealistic standards, explaining that the ‘attractive instagram persona’ is all a lie. She says that behind this facade is an anxious and emotionally suffering individual who hides their pain because people are only brought to attention as a result of the visibility of their wellness, success and confident self-expression. 

However, internet researcher, Nathan Jurgenson, claims that the construction of our identity is not unique to the online world. He explains that identity performativity is not a new concept, but the way it is carried out now is new.

“All of identity theory is about talking about how we perform, so it’s a little bit strange when people who have studied that literature hear people go ‘oh everyone’s performing now,’ and it’s like, no, that’s all the self has ever been.”

[digitaljas-blog]

Crowdsourcing in Times of Crisis

In times of crisis, our communication systems often fail just as we need them the most. It’s during these times that people turn to different modes of communication for help, e.g. social media because it’s a huge database with an unlimited flow of information.

Because of our increased reliance on the internet and social media, emergency services and mainstream news media are now increasingly turning to the internet as a source of information.

This is called ‘crowdsourcing’.

For everybody who is new to this term, like myself, crowdsourcing is described as “using the power of the internet and social media to ‘virtually’ harness the power of individuals and bring them together in support of a disaster”. 

Crowdsourcing is another form of public participation, the difference being it relies on technology. It has become an essential component in kickstarting projects, launching business initiatives, or gathering large groups of people to tackle a problem. 

See, social media can be used for good.

To make the dissemination of information more effective in crowdsourcing, different social media platforms have been recognised for different purposes.

“We us Facebook to schedule protests, Twitter to coordinate and YouTube to tell the world”

This demonstrates how activist groups use social media as a tool to collaborate; they strategically use different social media platforms to coordinate at both micro and macro levels.

An example that really represents what crowdsourcing entails is the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

On January 12 2010, a major earthquake of magnitude 7.0 hit the Caribbean country. This caused the deaths of over 230,000 civilians and created an economic damage of over $13 billion US dollars. An additional 1.5 million people were displaced.

This disaster was tragic, but the extent of the damage was minimised due to volunteered crowdsourced operations that rapidly jumped into action to:

Save lives and resources (e.g. food)

Coordinate medicine and security

Over 85% of Haitian citizens had access to a phone that could be connected to social media sites. This gave citizens access to other internet users across the world and they were therefore able to spread the word about their situation.

Consequently, a campaign was designed by individuals around the world who came together and provided essential resources to the response organisations on the ground in Haiti. A crowdsourced organisation (Mission 4636) were able to access this information and quickly responded to support relief efforts in the disaster areas; they received, translated and helped coordinate requests for assistance from victims.

This case is an embodiment of crowdsourcing - it shows how effective the internet is in terms of access to information and how fast this information flows through the platform.

[digitaljas-blog]

Trolling & Conflict

The rise of the digital age and social media tools available has allowed us to be “always on” and “always connected”, increasing the level of contact we have with our community.

While this can be a good thing, considering our interactivity with each other has increased tenfold, this also poses its own set of problems.

These problems can be summed up with one word: trolls.

Trolling

In case anybody here is unfamiliar with the term, a troll is someone who “make[s] a deliberately offensive or provocative online post with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.”

Trolling practices are subcultural - this means they hold meanings that not everybody understands or would even want to know.

This subculture focused on ‘memes’ and ‘trolling’ primarily rely on most people not understanding what is happening. One of the primary ways to ensure ‘regular’ people don’t understand is to make the content as offensive as possible.

All sense of morals fly out the door and outrage spreads across social media as quickly as the memes themselves. However, what is shared is not simply just an image with a provoking caption, but an invitation to feel emotions (anger, amusement, etc.).

Cyberbullying

While trolling can be funny at times, it’s also a source of conflict. 1 in 4 students are being bullied in Australia.

In a study of 1000 students aged 14-25 years old, 23% of students had experienced bullying in the previous year.

Out of the 229 youngsters who experienced bullying, 25.3% stated this behaviour took place online. 

Anybody can be affected by bullying, but vulnerable students are more at risk. This includes youngster who are:

Experiencing homelessness

Suffering with a disability

LGBTQ+

From racial, ethnic and religious minorities.

How teenagers use social media reflects the existing problems in society and reinforces deep-seated beliefs.

In an attempt to differentiate bullying from other forms of aggression in the 70s, Swedish psychologist (Dan Olweus) concluded 3 components as being central to bullying:

Aggression

Repetition

Imbalance in power

Those who agree with Olweus’ definition of bullying tend to view bullying as a practice where someone of a differential physical or social power will subject another person to repeated psychological, physical, or social aggression.

If you look past the surface of bullying, you start to question who is at fault. 

While it’s morally incorrect, most bullies react aggressively because they are struggling with serious issues of their own. Many teenagers lash out when they are trying communicate their struggles; they are trying to negotiate serious identity or mental health issues. 

Generational Gap

Teenagers use the word ‘addiction’ to reference their online activities. However, media coverage on teen’s use of social media magnifies the misconception that the youth are uncontrollably hooked on technology. They portray it like a disease, suggesting that teens are unable to control their lives. 

When discussing teenagers’ engagement with social media, many adults use the notion of ‘addiction’ to imply that teens have no control.

A large problem with technology is that approximately a generation and a half of parents didn’t group with these technologies; the didn’t experience a childhood controlled through an online persona, they didn’t make online friends.

It’s these very individuals who are unable to help their children through cyberbullying, an experience that is completely foreign to them. They may not understand what norms and standards to expect of social media.

[digitaljas-blog]

Activism & Culture Jamming

For my fellow activists, protesting and activism are the only opportunities we have to make change. It’s the only way to be heard. 

But what actually is activism?

“The use of direct and noticeable action to achieve a result, usually a political or social one”

Activism is action that goes beyond conventional politics, typically being more energetic, passionate, innovative, and committed. In terms of politics, it includes election campaigning, voting, passing laws, and lobbying politicians. 

Action outside of politics include neighbourhood organising, protest marches, and sit-ins.

My favourite example of activism occurred when Stormzy, British rapper and overall icon, used his performance at the 2018 Brit Awards to call out the government and Prime Minister, Theresa May, on a live broadcast for their lack of economic support and blatant disregard to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. He also critiqued the Daily Mail for their racism and stereotyping of grime music for “glorifying drugs”.

It’s not often that celebrities use their platforms to make a difference, especially on such a large scale and at a prestigious event. That’s why this is a memorable example of activism because Stormzy goes beyond the conventional type of protests we usually see, using this event to call out those who run our country, in front of the world to see.

(Sorry, of course I had to add a British element to fit the blog theme. No regrets.)

But, if you want a cultural experience, here is the clip of Stormzy being a hero.

Anyways, lets get back on track.

Generally, it is believed that the new social media era has helped cases of activism succeed. Through the introduction of social media, media activism has emerged, greatly benefiting those without a voice.

Social movements are the core of many forms of media (e.g. technologies, genre) that contest dominant power. Media activism is a prime example of collective communication practices that challenge the status quo, including established media.

An example of media activism is the #CancelColbert case.

As a late-night show addict, I was slowly warming up to Colbert. Until one fateful night.

In 2014, Colbert posted an offensive tweet:

Understandably, reading this tweet may be confusing so here is some context:

The tweet was posted in response to Dan Snyder, owner of the American football team Washington Redskins, who had offered to set up a foundation for Native Americans.

The Redskins have been accused of culturally appropriating Native American culture by using a Native American name and symbol for their logo when American football is a non-native sport, so Snyder made this offer to make amends. 

Colbert mocked this offer by creating his own foundation (‘Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever’)

This is referencing an earlier episode, one where Colbert been captured making a racist parody of the ‘comedic’ Ching Chong Ding-Dong character.

Here is an accurate representation of myself walking into the Colbert party thinking he was unproblematic:

This problematic tweet drew the attention of freelance writer and activist, Suey Park.

She gained prominence in 2013 for creating the #NotYourAsianSidekick Twitter campaign which spread to over 60 countries thanks to the power of social media. The campaign was designed to critique the portrayal of Asian American women in pop culture. 

In response to Colbert’s tweet, Park coined the hashtag #CancelColbert, and this blew up so much that Comedy Central (the show’s network) tweeted an apology and Colbert himself apologised on his show. 

This is a prime example of ‘culture jamming’, a type of activism coined by Mark Dery. 

It is the act of using existing mass media to comment on those very media themselves. 

Culture jamming is a form of resistance to popular culture - it uses elements of social media, e.g. memes or hashtags, to critique the norms and practices of social institutions or to point up the flaws, inequalities and unethical elements of consumer culture and capitalism.

The #CancelColbert hashtag uses this idea to spread awareness of Colbert’s behaviour and to organise a group of like-minded to collectively boycott ‘The Colbert Report’.

So, to anyone who thinks the youth are ruining their lives on social media, you can see here that we are using our platform to better our future rather than ruin it.

[digitaljas-blog]

Political Engagement Presentation

https://prezi.com/view/18fZkA996l1g9QUMO0bs/

[digitaljas-blog]

Political Engagement: #auspol

As someone who has finally just started to understand politics in her home country, I’m finally coming to grips with the Australian political system (I think) so just bear with me.

#auspol is one of Australia’s most popular hashtags, ranking 3rd internationally for trending political topics on social media in 2015.

The hashtag is used for commentary and gossiping purposes about all things political. It’s used by digital citizens (people with the skills and knowledge to effectively use digital technologies) as a form of expression. This makes Twitter the public sphere for #auspol as citizens use this social platform to discuss their thoughts about politicians and campaigns with likeminded individuals. 

The virtual community offered by Twitter “allows individuals to meet like-minded people”. By being able to express identities without fear of rejection or exclusion, users feel comfortable enough to express their honest thoughts, which is why we can see very blunt and crude tweets. The image below pretty much sums this up.

There is a sense of hyper-reality on social media; individuals create their own set of rules and norms that guides their behaviour because there is no established community leaders, so there is less certainty in distinguishing between actual reality and a virtual reality.  

“the emergence of social media allows for an even more connected, rapid and more diverse space for the dissemination and discussion of news and public affairs, and for mediatising everyday life.”

Tumblr allows for a series of affordances - the interaction/relationship between individuals and an environment. 

One specific type of affordance is ‘generative role-taking’:

“Social media enable generative role-taking because the visibility of the dialogue makes the needs of the conversation more salient. Participants argue, complain, and share frustrations publicly in these conversationsPublic matters and opinions are never uniform”.

This shows that members of society express their own agency in selecting issues in politics that interest them. Factors such as race, gender, sexuality etc. alter one’s attitudes towards the political system, so Twitter allows this individualism to shine through. 

Politicians have become increasingly involved with Twitter, even going so far as having the Prime Minister owning their own account. While in hindsight this can be seen as a good thing, being able to interact with your Prime Minister and all, the public sphere means that oppositional views and hate are easier to share, and with little consequence because twitter isn’t regulated.

[digitaljas-blog]

Is tumblr a blog or a social network site?

Tumblr has been a topic of conversation since its creation in 2007, but what actually is Tumblr?

Is it a blog or a social networking site?

Tumblr is a site popular with the 18-29 age bracket, with 66% of all visitors being over the age of 35.

So, naturally, a parent-teacher guide was created to explain Tumblr in simple terms:

“Tumblr is a blogging platform that makes it easy for users to post images, GIFs, videos, music, text, links, and more”

The guide described the uses of Tumblr in the following terms:

A dashboard showing all posts from the blogs a user follows

Posts can be liked, reblogged and commented on

Users can use hashtags to find keywords and specific posts

Tumblr content typically falls into 3 categories:

Photos of young people’s mundane daily activities (studying, shopping, hanging out with friends)

Memes and gifs (add value to the ecosystem)

Porn and near-porn collections (use pseudonyms)

The latter two of these categories are what differentiates Tumblr from other social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The photos and gifs uploaded onto Tumblr hold the power of expression: teenagers feel comfortable to post anything they want but with more privacy since Tumblr is a domain for likeminded youngsters. The site offers a creative outlet to share their views online and circulate images based on their interests, such as pop culture, where others with the same interests will interact.

Now, onto the academic stuff.

Scholar Danah Boyd talks about the ‘always-on’ lifestyle, aka always being connected to a network. So, even if your activities aren’t centred on the internet, you’re not completely offline either because you are always connected and have access to social media.

The reason I bring up Boyd is because her work talks about the reasons behind the ‘always-on’ life. It’s not about instant gratification, it’s about bringing people and information together to enhance user experiences. Tumblr is a prime example of this, allowing users to connect across space and time, to interact with people who have shared interests, and to discuss social and political issues. 

The whole aspect of liking, reblogging and commenting on anybody’s post makes Tumblr a social media site - you are always connected to a network full of users and have access to a wide range of information, which goes for all social media platforms.

“Networks are developed and maintained through self-expression, communication and sharing”.

“Social networking tools to manage a personal, cultural and networked sense of self”

But what about the blogging element?

English professor Mary Cross describes the term ‘blog’ as a series of “individual, idiosyncratic commentaries” posted on a regular basis. She defines blogs as a public website featuring original blog posts, inviting others to become an audience and post their comments. In this case, Tumblr ticks off all of these boxes. 

So, to conclude, the interactivity that makes Tumblr as popular as it is today only serves to blur the answer as to whether Tumblr is a simply a blog or a social network site. The definitions provided by these scholars suggest that the synergy of the two platforms cause Tumblr to be a ‘microblog’;  a type of blog where users create short, frequent posts with digital content. This means that Tumblr isn’t simply one or the other, but exists as a hybrid of the two.