erinwalker136-blog

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To start this week’s topic on the great firewall of China, Check out this handy infograph from Linkfluence. 

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To be expected really.

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Great title, even better read! Love your work @digitalcommunitieswithbekbell

FOCMO: Fear of China Missing Out.

There has been a great deal of mystery for some time shrouding the use of the internet, and further the use of social media in China. People like us, hailing from the Western World have always assumed that people in China are severely missing out on activities which we are able to do so freely. Although in some ways this statement is accurate on a broad scale in relation to censorship issues in China, when it comes to Social Network Sites, China has been able to deliver some highly popular alternatives.

The Chinese Government has allowed the use of sanctioned social networking sites that can only be accessed within China, allowing users to connect internally and appeasing some dissatisfaction in regards to people’s abilities to network. Crampton (2011) says that for people in China, connecting with other Chinese people is a top priority, access to the internet and social networks has opened up a stream of information to people that has been unimaginable for quite some time.

The monopolisation of state-approved social networking sites all but guarantees their popularity, given China’s massive population and yearn for information; we can start to see that perhaps our understanding of their social media landscape was ill informed.

“Numerous factors help drive Chinese, more than other populations, to engage in social media. These include rural-to-urban migration that has separated families, the loneliness of the one-child generation, and a distrust of information from government-controlled media.” (Crampton, 2011)

Most studies have found that people in China, almost spend more time on the internet than other countries with similar populations. Linkfluence reports that “With 91% of internet users frequently using social media, (against 67% in the US), Asia presents an unmissable opportunity for digitalised brands…” Linkfluence are an organisation with offices in China and Singapore who offer services to businesses stipulating they enable them valuable insight into how they can breach this previously impenetrable market space.

The illusion and veil that surrounds the internet and social media use in China really demonstrates the success of the regime that is being enacted by the Government in China. One of the most well-known blockages of information to Westerners is China’s incapability to view information on the pro-independence activism that took place in Tibet in 2008. Tibet was invaded by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in 1950, the act was called the liberation of Tibet and Tibetans have tried to combat the repression of the Chinese ever since the initial invasion. It is particularly important for the Chinese Government to maintain the belief in their own people that Tibet is happily under Chinese rule, just like everyone else.

“To Americans and other Westerners, it might seem odd that Internet censorship is still possible at a time when YouTube, satellite TV and online chat rooms produce an overwhelming flow of real-time news and data. Yet authoritarian regimes from Cuba to Saudi Arabia to Pakistan rely on a mix of sophisticated technology and old-fashioned intimidation to ensure that dissent can be repressed, even in the Information Age.” (Wiseman, n.d)

To look at the broad issue of censorship in China would require much more time and would far exceed the word count than this blog could afford. In talking positively about the Chinese availability of their own social networking sites we are not diminishing the larger issues at hand, merely recognising that things are different than in our own Western world.

References & Bibliography

Chiu, C, Lin, D & Silverman, A 2012, China’s social-media boom, McKinsey & Company, viewed 3 February 2017, <http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/chinas_social-media_boom>.

Crampton, T 2011, ‘Social media in China: The same, but differen’t, China Business Review, Vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 28-31, viewed 3 February 2017, <http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/social-media-china-business-review/>.

CNN, 2012, “Timeline of Tibetan protests in China”, viewed 3 February, 2017, <http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/31/world/asia/tibet-protests-timeline/>.

DLDconference 2013, DLD13 - How Social Media is changing China and Asia, 7 February, viewed 3 August 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3z2ucaR6A>.

Forsythe, M 2017, “China Clamps Down on Online News Reporting”, Nytimes.com, viewed 3 February, 2017, <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/world/asia/china-media-sina-sohu-netease-phoenix.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FInternet%20Censorship%20in%20China&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection&_r=0>.

Freetibet.org 2017, “Tibet’s history | Free Tibet”, Freetibet.org, viewed 3 February, 2017, <https://freetibet.org/about/history>.

Linkfluence, 2016, Top 10 Chinese Social Media, viewed 3 February, 2017, <http://linkfluence.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/top-10-chinese-social-media.2-2.png>.

Greatfirewallofchina 2014, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/>.

Simon, D 2017, “China’s scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works”, Washington Post, viewed 3 February, 2017, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinas-scary-lesson-to-the-world-censoring-the-internet-works/2016/05/23/413afe78-fff3-11e5-8bb1-f124a43f84dc_story.html>.

The Great Firewall of China 2013, Open Democracy viewed 3 February 2017, <https://www.opendemocracy.net/china-correspondent/great-firewall-of-china>.

WISEMAN, P 2017, “'Hacktivists’ Fight China’s Web Censors”, ABC News, viewed 3 February, 2017, <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4707107&page=1>.

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Interesting to see what effect this will have on Australian ecommerce!

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Hey guess what guys? I thought my last post was my last, but turns out I made a mistake earlier on and you got a bonus post out of me!

China seems to have taken every way that you can utilise social media in business, and made it work in an extremely successful way. When you listen to Kitty Lun (DLDconference 2013) discuss how her business created a holiday called Singles Day, and made that into the world’s largest annual online sale within only a few years. This can be even be seen with the amount of companies that are now tapping into the Chinese online market such as ALDI Australia who are launching products online in China early this year (Heffernan, M 2016).

38% of social media users in China make purchasing decisions based on recommendations theyv’e read on social media (Simcott, R 2014) – businesses would be stupid not to take advantage of such a consumer market. Whilst many know that the Chinese government has blocked the use of many of the social media applications that we know, you might not know that China just decided to make their own. The Chinese Government censors all content and has the right to delete any content without notice, social media users are lawfully required to register their real name on all social media applications. That’s an interesting one for me, something that I wish was applicable here because I hate seeing fake accounts on Facebook, I’m sure it is a law here somehow but it seems to happen frequently.

In 2015, it was estimated that the population of Chinese social media users was over 650 million people – that’s double the size of the US population (Jamie, 2015). Look up how many people live in Australia and just compare those statistics. Then you’ll feel the enormity of it all.

The interesting thing that I found when looking into the social media applications that are available in China is that they’re all a one stop shop, they all have more than one purpose. This is something we’re starting to see with Facebook now having the Marketplace function where you can buy things, etc. but in China it’s huge, Sina’s Weibo for instance is a hybrid of Twitter & Facebook (Jamie, 2015) and then on the other hand you have applications that were traditionally used for e-commerce that are now integrating sharing functions such as Taobao's Weitao that has a feature similar to pinterest where you can share interesting products with your peers or let them know what you purchased (Flemming, S 2016). China are definitely leading the way in terms of the expansion and trends of social media.

Okay - now I’m pretty sure I can sign off, thanks for having me guys!

Sources:

DLDconference 2013, DLD13 - How Social Media is changing China and Asia, 7 February, viewed 3 August 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3z2ucaR6A>.

Heffernan, M 2016, ‘Australia in box seat for Aldi’s Asian Expansion’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 November, Viewed 3rd February, <http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/australia-in-box-for-seat-for-aldis-asian-expansion-20161111-gsn5xb.html>.

Simcott, R 2014, ‘Social Media Fast Facts: China’, Social Media Today, February 27, Viewed 3rd February, <http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/social-media-fast-facts-china>.

Team, T 2013, ‘Renren Rides China's Social Networking And Gaming To $3.20’, Forbes, 3 May, viewed 3 February 2017, <http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/05/03/renren-rides-chinas-social-networking-and-gaming-to-3-20/#4bf5c9e232eb>.

Jamie, 2015, ‘Chinese Social Media Statistics and Trends Infographic, MakeaWebsiteHub, 25 January, Viewed 3 February 2017, <https://makeawebsitehub.com/chinese-social-media-statistics/>.

Flemming, S 2016, ‘The State of Chinese Social Media in 2016: What You Need to Know’, AdAge, 10 August, Viewed 3 February 2017, <http://adage.com/article/viewpoint/state-chinese-social-media-2016/305392/

>.

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A fantastic idea in terms of bringing a social media aspect into an airport but a very interesting argument in regard to user-generated content and the copyright of the photos taken by the Tasmanian Photographers

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How to make friends by insulting their kill scores...

For some reason when I think of digital gaming I can't go past Pokemon Go. ‘The game works by using your phone’s GPS for your real-world location and augmented reality to bring up those cool-looking Pokémon on your screen, overlaid on top of what you see in front of you’ (Lee, S 2016). Very interesting in terms of community because it brings the digital community members face to face as part of the game. When battling other players you had to physically be standing near them. There was a lot of online hype about Pokemon Go, with Facebook groups and Subreddits created to organise mass meetups for the community of players. One such event in Chicago attracted interest from thousands of people (Tassi, P 2016). You also can't forget the Facebook groups that shared where players had found certain Pokemon.

Jim Sterling (2013) defines some rules for online gaming that pretty much sum up everything I've ever heard about gaming - as I'm not a gamer myself.

Online gaming is serious

New people are terrible (also known as ‘noobs’)

Popular game features should be called cheap

Things that kill you should be called cheap

Lag is what makes you lose (never lack of skill)

If you're losing really badly - it must be a hackers fault

The word ‘gay’ can be used to describe everything and anything

Singing on your headset is definitely acceptable

Insulting people is key

If someone on your team scores - they've stolen your kill

This code represents a little bit of reality, lots of gamers make fun of each other online but most official gaming codes of practise will define acceptable and not acceptable behaviors, these are usually a general reflection of the real community that the person/people who wrote the code lives in. For instance if I was writing a code, I would include something to note that racism is not acceptable, because I live in a society where racism isn't acceptable but it is still an issue. Julien Wera (2017) discusses the challenges of managing an online gaming community and recommends the appointment of a Community Manager, a paid role implemented by the game developer. This person is the one who would write the code of practise, with main piece of advice being to think of anything that could happen, if the code changes too often it could lose its credibility.

Wera (2017) states that “people try your game because of the gameplay, the graphics, the reputation or a good marketing campaign, but they keep playing because of the people they play with”, the importance of community is huge and something that does need to be well understood for the game developers.

Thanks for reading

- Erin

Sources:

Lee, S 2016, ‘What is Pokemon Go and why is everyone talking about it’, Lifehacker, 7 November, viewed 1 February 2017, <http://lifehacker.com/what-is-pokemon-go-and-why-is-everyone-talking-about-it-1783420761>.

Tassi, P 2016, ‘On The Ground At Chicago's Massive 'Pokémon GO' Meet Up, Deflated By Server Problems’, Forbes, 18 July, Viewed 1 February, <http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/07/18/on-the-ground-at-chicagos-massive-pokemon-go-meet-up-deflated-by-server-problems/#1c1769d5db9a>.

Sterling, J 2013, ‘10 Golden Rules of Online Gaming’, Destructoid, 10 May, viewed 2 February 2017, <https://www.destructoid.com/ten-golden-rules-of-online-gaming-64474.phtml>.

Wera, J 2017, Online Community Management: Communication Through Gamers, Gamasutra, viewed 2 February 2017, <http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3603/online_community_management_.php?print=1>.

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How to duckface

As a lover of cameras and photography, I’m no stranger to a selfie. I’m also no stranger to apps like Snapchat, Instagram, Flickr as well as selfie enhancing apps like Candy Camera. I’ll admit it, I’ve duckfaced once or twice – you all know you’ve done it. You can’t judge me. I also have to admit I was a huge user of Tumblr in terms of photographs and sharing photos that other people took that I felt a connection to. This is my interpretation of ‘networked visuality’, I got to learn a lot about the people I followed on Tumblr, just based on the pictures that they took and shared. You learn about their interests, what different aspects of their lives look like, etc. 

‘Use of photography can no longer be understood as simply representing their connectedness in a network, but requires us to attend to the relationship between people, images, and environment, that is, to their situatedness in ecologies of place’ (Hjorth, L, Pink, S 2013). I love this explanation as it really sums up the way we are moving in terms of digital relationships, you really have to pay attention to what people are doing online and what they're sharing in order to put your real life experiences with that person in perspective. This take on networked visuality is interesting as it challenges the whole idea of real life experience - if you're communicating via video on Snapchat, does that count as real life? What are your thoughts?

One of the topics in the article referenced above is the idea of public vs. private photos, one subject in the article Barbara posts at least two photos a day to Instagram but she also takes a lot of photos that she keeps private. You need to have an understanding of how photos can be manipulated (Hjorth, L, Pink, S 2013). Your publics are visible too, you can see who they are and they can see who you are. The technical concerns that can arise are about sharing too much, should you include your location on every photo? How can people misuse this kind of information?

An article written by Cheryl Mercedes (2011) details the dangers of sharing your location on social media sites such as Facebook. It means people know when you're not at home, the ideal time to break in, if means people can track you down - whether you want them there or not. It's like a permanent invite to everything you attend. Do you do this? 

Sources: 

Hjorth, L, Pink, S 2013, ‘New visualities and the digital wayfarer: Reconceptualizing camera phone photography and locative media’, Mobile Media & Communication, Vol 2, Issue 1, pp. 40 - 57 

Mercedes, C 2011, ‘"Checking in" on Facebook comes with hidden dangers’, WAFB, May 10, viewed 1 February 2017, . 

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What a wonderful world

One of the first things that comes to mind when I think about social media use during a crisis, is the Facebook development of the Safety Check. This tool allows those who are geographically near a major crisis to easily inform their Facebook friends that they are safe, and they can check the status of other Facebook friends nearby to see if they’ve notified everyone they’re safe as well (Facebook, 2017). During the 2016 Nice truck attack in France, I had several friends overseas at the time who were able to let everyone know that they were safe, some took longer than others, over 12 hours to check in on Facebook but this was due to coverage issues in that particular area at the time.

In terms of natural disasters, in 2008 the Sichuan Earthquake occurred in China and a user of the Tianya forum reported the earthquake in the same minute that it took place. What followed was other users of the forum reporting where the earthquake was felt, within 10 minutes more than 22 cities in China had reported feeling the earthquake via this forum (Qu et. Al 2011). Whilst this is just an information gathering tool, it is interesting to see how social media was utilised during natural disasters in the earlier days. The picture below shows the map of the 22 cities who reported feeling the earthquake.

The implementation of crowdsourcing during a natural disaster can be a quite effective community tool. During the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake, a collaborative editing website was set up to help manage volunteers but also provided a place where citizens could find out where to aquire basic things such as medicine, petrol and food. During the disaster the website received over 750 user reports. Not only was this tool used as something that citizens could use to find information, but the tool was put together by various volunteer technical communities from all over the world who utilised a group chat to initially set the website up (Melor, P 2011). This is a fantastic example as not only did people use social media to find the information, but collaborative social media was used to create and launch the tool as well. The way I understand it there are two forms of crowdsourcing in this example, the first is the emergency experts from all over the world who are combining their knowledge and information to create the tool, and the second form is the people in New Zealand who submitted the reports of information to be added to the tool.

What wonderful world!

Sources:

Facebook, 2017, Safety Check, Facebook, viewed 31 January 2017, <https://www.facebook.com/about/safetycheck/>.

Qu, Y, Huang, C, Zhang, P & Zhang, J 2011, ‘Harnessing social media in response to major disasters’ CSCW 2011 Workshop: Designing Social and Collaborative Systems for China.

Melor, P 2011, ‘Launching Eq.org.nz for the New Zealand Earthquake’, Ushahidi, 24 February, viewed 31 January 2017, <https://www.ushahidi.com/blog/2011/02/24/launching-eq-org-nz-for-the-new-zealand-earthquake/>.

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Wow, my workplace is currently pursuing online business in China - this is fascinating!

Want to know an equivalent social media site in China?

Thanks to: https://informationstrategyrsm.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/the-great-firewall-of-china/ 

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Troll it - LOUDER

Hi everyone,

Talking about trolling this week, how can you go past everyone’s favourite TV show? Catfish! I have to say I am a big fan of Catfish and it truly shows the real effects that trolling can have on someone, if you haven’t seen the episode with Antwane & “Tony” who is in real life, her cousin Carmen who rang the show about Antwane’s love life – you are missing out and you need to go home and watch it right now!

Trolling to me is more on the humourous side of things, where someone has the intention of being funny but in many cases, I think that this can be taken offensively. For instance, I have a friend who has lost all respect for a trance DJ who has moved into more mainstream music, so this friend of mine makes comments on every single Facebook post this DJ puts on Facebook, he uploads memes and creates jokes about this DJ because he’s lost the passion for the music that he originally started producing. This friend of mine eventually got blocked from posting on the DJ’s page. In this instance, I think he was aiming to annoy or at least get through to this DJ but the DJ has taken offence and blocked him.

But why do we do it? I watched an interesting video a few weeks back that I think everyone must have seen by now, Simon Sinek talks about millennials and a key point that I think he makes is that there is a chemical reaction that our body has when we get a text message, or a Facebook like. A chemical called Dopamine. So is this potentially one of the reasons why we go looking for attention on Facebook, why we think that we can gain attention by trolling someone else maybe? See video below – let me know what you think.

 Another thing to consider is how does social media react to conflict? How quickly and easily does someone’s offensive post get removed? A post written by Facebook (Levine, M 2013) a few years ago discusses what they consider to be offensive and the two main ways in which content is removed from Facebook. The first way is that a user reports the content, so you an everyday person could easily submit a report on anyone’s picture, post, etc. The second way being an automated content removal that gets picked up by Facebook’s systems. In 2013 when they wrote this post Facebook admitted that their systems weren’t as effective as they would have liked but it was something they were working on, the balance between free speech and having Facebook as a safe place.

Have you ever reported anything on Facebook? Comment below why you reported it?

Sources:

Tamar Love Grande 2010, ‘The 18 Types Of Internet Trolls’, Smosh, viewed 5 January 2017 <http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/articles/18-types-of-internet-trolls>

David Crossman 2016, Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace, 29 October, viewed 23rd December 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU&t=206s>.

Levine, M 2013, Controversial, Harmful and Hateful Speech on Facebook, 29 May, viewed 10 January 2017, <https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-safety/controversial-harmful-and-hateful-speech-on-facebook/574430655911054/>.

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Social Media vs. Activism

This week I wanted to chat about social media and activism. I think one of the biggest uses of social media when it comes to activism is simply raising awareness. It is an easily accessible medium that can reach millions of people quite quickly. 

If you can get the message right, it will spread like wildfire – for instance the image of the young Syrian boy who washed up on a beach in Turkey (Smith, H 2015). How many people knew the level of risk you took trying to flee Syria before this image went viral? This image shifted the focus of a Canadian election campaign (CBC News 2015) and caused a generous spike in donations to charities (Merril, J 2015). There’s no discounting that the world reacted to this photo.

 If I am to look at the idea of culture jamming – the idea of using media and turning it back on itself I think one of the best examples is Greenpeace. Take a look at this Greenpeace Advertisement:

This example is using Coca-Cola’s imagery to challenge viewers, it aims for viewers to question the information that they are receiving from companies like Coca-Cola. It uses the beach location to point out the impact that Coca-Cola have on beach environments. Culture Jamming utilises the power of advertising in the same way that corporate companies do, just with a different message. Using the power of a brand against itself (Madrigal, A 2012). In this example, Greenpeace have used the happy summer vibe and contrasted it with the dead birds falling from the sky, insinuating that their death is due to the actions of Coca-Cola.

I do believe that a lot of ‘activisim’ on Facebook or other Social Media websites can just be considered as ‘clicktivism’, simple activism that doesn’t have much of a lasting effect. I think that we are desensitising ourselves to horrific news stories such as terrorism, child soldiers and so on because they are things we see and hear about so often thanks to Social Media. However, if you were standing on a side walk and handing out pamphlets to raise awareness for something, I definitely think that Social Media has moved forward from this type of activism and despite the fact people might share it and take no action, at least they read it and they’re aware of it? 

What are your thoughts?

Sources:

CBC News 2015, ‘Refugee crisis, drowned Syrian boy shift focus of election campaign’, CBC News, 3 September, viewed 15 January <http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/syria-migrants-canada-drowned-migrants-leaders-respond-1.3213878>.

Madrigal, A 2012, ‘The New Culture Jamming: How Activists Will Respond to Online Advertising’, The Atlantic, 15 May, Viewed 15 January, <http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/05/the-new-culture-jamming-how-activists-will-respond-to-online-advertising/257176/>.

Smith, H 2015, ‘Shocking images of drowned Syrian boy show tragic plight of refugees’, The Guardian, 3 September, Viewed 15 January, <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/02/shocking-image-of-drowned-syrian-boy-shows-tragic-plight-of-refugees >.

Merril, J 2015, ‘Refugee aid charities see surge in donations after image of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi moves the nation’, Independent, 4 September, viewed 15 January, <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/refugee-aid-charities-see-surge-in-donations-after-image-of-drowned-syrian-toddler-aylan-kurdi-moves-10484953.html>.

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Worth watching

Has the development in technology affected our face to face social skills? https://youtu.be/zIOi-B0uOqA

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Trump was completely slaughtered online throughout the whole election, videos of comedians impersonating him going viral but somehow so got voted in. If that doesn't show that social media doesn't have a major effect on political outcomes then I'm not sure what does...

Every time I think he can’t surprise me anymore he proves me wrong.

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This is a great breakdown.

(via Social Media Comparison Infographic)

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Politically Tweeted?

Hi all, apologies for the late post, everyone knows it gets pretty crazy around Christmas time – with both work and family!

This week I want to touch on politics and social media. Firstly I’ll give you my opinion, because that’s the most important opinion – right?! I think that social media is the cheapest and most effective way for politicians to get in touch with their voters. Everything in the digital age is easy, it’s personalised, it’s intimate (Jackson, E 2016) and it is as if nothing falls on deaf ears when you’ve got the keyboard at your fingertips.

Personally, I want to relate to the political party that I support, I want to feel as if they are someone who would understand my lifestyle and my needs as an Australian Citizen. When you see them on TV and read about them in the newspapers, they don’t seem like real people, with real lives it is as if they’re living in this publicity celebrity style world. Put them on social media and have them tweet about the Bachelorette finale – suddenly, I feel like I can relate to Mike Baird sitting on the couch at home with his family. He’s doing things that I’m doing too. I think that this is the reason why political parties are using social media more often as part of their campaigns.

However, despite the fact that I can relate to Mike Baird sitting on the couch at home watching the Bachelorette – do I still vote for his party? Some studies have found that there are benefits of utilising social media for political campaigns both online and offline, in ways that can help achieve key campaign goals (Housholder, E & Lamarre, H 2015 p. 139). Certainly, social media was a huge part of Barack Obama’s campaign and ongoing Presidency that I believe aided his popularity. The video below gives an overview of the company called Blue State Digital that managed Barack Obama’s election campaign. The big things that I take out of this are the key points of ‘message’, ‘money’ and ‘mobilisation’ and how they achieved these goals through social media.

I personally don’t think that popularity always wins you an election, you might get the majority of youth votes who haven’t quite figured out where their political values lie but there is a large population of older voters who are dedicated to their political parties but it did work for Barack Obama so there’s no saying it can’t be done.

Sources:

Jackson, E 2016, ‘'Facebook campaign’: politicians expected to embrace social media for 2016 election’, ABC News, 3 May, viewed 6 January, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-03/politicians-will-embrace-facebook-for-federal-election-campaign/7379950>.

Housholder, E & Lamarre, H 2015, Political social media engagement: Comparing campaign goals with voter behaviour, Public Relations Review, Vol. 41, No. 1, p. 139

Bloomberg 2015, ‘How Social Media Strategy Changed Election Campaigns’, Youtube, 26 May, viewed 6 January, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0kXc7Xjb7Y>.

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Public’s - listeners or creators?

Considering the ideas of publics, Mizuko Ito (Mizuko Ito, 2008, pp. 2-3) discusses the idea that publics are reactors, remakers and redistributors. I agree with this to a certain degree, but I also think that in the age of social media, publics can also be creators.

The video below discusses the idea of when we started looking to the internet for news, when did this age begin of news programs showing footage filmed by a bystanders mobile phone, footage they’d sourced from the internet. This idea of ‘citizen journalism’ truly does show that the publics can be creators.

Another concept I’d like to raise is ‘The Fifth Estate’, many of you would be familiar with the idea of the ‘Fourth Estate’ that the role of the media is to criticize and discuss the government’s actions through journalism. The Fifth Estate is a similar idea but instead of the media its bloggers or online forums (Sigal, I 2013). It is also about community formation, two examples of The Fifth Estate that come to mind for me, are Julian Assange’s Wikileaks which consistently criticizes government action as well as media and aims to correctly inform the publics.

The other case that comes to mind is the case of Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, who raped an unconscious female and only received a 6 month sentence. The internet exploded, with online campaigns for the Judge to recall his decision earning over 500,000 signatures (Li, W 2016). 

Certain reactions to this case such as #ThingsLongerThanBrockTurnersRapeSentence (Elizabeth, D 2016) are an example of a counterpublics, people trying to change the cultural norms – in this case, rich kids getting away with crimes. The hashtag erupted over social media with people describing things longer than Brock’s jail sentence, examples below:

Whilst these examples relate more to social media as a whole, rather than blogs specifically the sense of community and the uses of these posts are still relevant. It shows how people use social media and blogs to express their opinions to the public, for me with this blog, I’m expressing my understanding on this topic and what theories I’ve disagreed with, etc. It needs to be understood that a blogs public is varied, depending on the blog, some blogs may target a specific topic such as ‘How to survive Cancer’ in this case, the public is most likely to be people suffering from cancer or their family members. However, if a blog is just expressing opinions on current topics and trends, the publics could be hugely varied depending on the article.

Sources:

Sigal, I 2013, ‘What Is The Fifth Estate, Anyway?’ takepart, 16 October, viewed 8 December 2016, <http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/10/16/what-is-the-fifth-estate>.

Li, W 2016, ‘The Stanford rape and the social media effect’, ABC News, 10 June, Viewed 9 December, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-10/li-the-stanford-rape-case:-a-social-media-game-changer/7500452>.

Elizabeth, D 2016, ‘Hashtag About Brock Turner's Short Jail Sentence Is Going Viral’, TeenVogue, 9 September, viewed 9 December, <http://www.teenvogue.com/story/brock-turner-viral-hashtag-short-jail-sentence>.