lisbethpham

[lisbethpham]

Week 10 : Digital Citizenship and Conflict: Social Media Governance

Each and every person in the society holds a different and very unique persona whether it is offline or online. However it is vital for any individual to use, behave and engage on online platforms in a way that is appropriate and beneficial for the society as a whole. There are plenty of places on the internet functioning with very little or no regulation and governance at all, but micro-level digital communities do have some sort of regulation by certain people, whether it’s the creator or just regular moderators. The anonymity of having an online citizenship leads to conflicts between or made by a number of individuals or groups of people on different online platforms. 

Gen Z, or just young people who are digital natives in this 21st century are those who were born, raised and lived parallel with the development of internet and digital communities. National Union of Students UK (NUS) 2016 reports indicated that the students who are characterised as “hypersensitive” or “snowflake” by numeral articles, are those who also get exposed to offensive, abusive and different forms of online harassment routinely. It was also stated that many have soon considered those toxic behaviours to be the norm in their daily routine, which is why they are overall more sensitive and easier to intimidate. 

Online sexual harassment is still a complicated subject, especially towards women as its primary victims. Experts believed that online harassment targeting women manifests in different forms: negative content on blog posts, hate speech, non-consensual sexting, cyberstalking, etc, and they can be directly at specific individuals or not. Again, there is very little governance online. People take advantage of this and advance technology to practise stalking and harassment on strangers online without getting any consequences, especially at women. Online public spheres are also male-dominated in most of the platforms, and the act of sexual harassment against women on internet is practically how they silence, correct and discipline women on such places (Jane, 2012; Megarry, 2014). 

There is also questions about whether online sexual harassment is practically the same as real life gender inequalities, and that it can still be seen as culturally accepted referring to old male-dominated hierarchy. Although both men and women can be sexually harassed, this toxic masculinity brought a bad approach to this problem, that men cannot be harassed and it takes not so much to belittle women. Men seem to think of sexual harassment as acceptable whilst women might feel challenged to go against it (MacKinnon, 1979) even though clear as day they are not benefiting from the act. 

Haslop, C., O’Rourke, F., & Southern, R. (2021). #NoSnowflakes: The toleration of harassment and an emergent gender-related digital divide, in a UK student online culture. Convergence, 27(5), 1418–1438.

Reinicke, Kenneth (2022) Introduction. Men After #MeToo : Being an Ally in the Fight Against Sexual Harassment (Springer International Publishing)

Laura Vitis and Fairleigh Gilmour (2017) 'Dick pics on blast: A woman’s resistance to online sexual harassment using humour, art and Instagram', Crime, Media, Culture. 13(3):335-355. 

Jane EA (2012) “Your a Ugly, Whorish, Slut”. Feminist Media Studies 14: 531–546

Megarry J (2014) Online incivility or sexual harassment? Conceptualising women’s experiences in the digital age. Women’s Studies International Forum 47: 46–55

MacKinnon, C. A. (1979). Sexual harassment of working women: A case of sex discrimination. Yale Fastback Series No. 19. Yale University Press

[lisbethpham]

Week 9: Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live Streaming

This week’s topic is one of my favorite topics since it is what I am super passionate about. 

“Gaming” is typically defined as voluntarily overcoming unnecessary obstacles (Suits, 1978), and in most games, we follow their rules. Games are available in different platforms, could be exclusive in some types of games, but mostly available on mobile phones, personal computers (PCs), controllers (nintendo switch, PlayStation). They could also cost money to buy, but a lot of developers actually earn more money from in-game purchases in free-to-play games, than selling the game title itself. Games that are known worldwide with millions of players like Candy Crush Saga, FarmVille, are called “social games”, where the mechanism of those games is to adapt to the player’s friendships to acquire new players as well as the ranking system to keep players competitive. 

Games communities are social communities. They consist of small communities and players from beginner to pros, could be dependent on skill, knowledge and field of expertise. It’s quite common that we see a “typical gamer”: cis white, or East Asian, young, typically middle-class, man, thus leading to a male-dominated game culture. Despite a higher percentage of women joining the gaming communities in recent years, there are still stereotypes indicating gaming is not for women, that they are “boosted”, “bad”, “belong to the kitchen” and usually play for men's validation. Streaming platforms such as Twitch, Youtube and Facebook Live are now full of streamers, showing their contents, ranging from pure gaming, to singing, making music, cooking and maybe just chatting. People coming to these platforms are also in small communities created by content creators and they bond through having the same hobbies, favorite games and from watching the same content creator. Not only indie content creators can make money by streaming their content on such platforms, professional esport players are also offered chances to build themselves their own brands, community and income by showcasing their practice games (Taylor, 2018).

In Australia, specially in Melbourne, huge conventions and festivals about games are being held annually such as Melbourne International Games Week (MIGW) or Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), showing how broad the communities are as thousands of people come to Melbourne to enjoy them. Not only to appreciate games and gamers, conventions were created also for developers and future game-makers to make their way to publish their indie companies and indie games, or to find a home that help them achieve that dream. 

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

Keogh, B 2021, 'The Melbourne indie game scenes: value regimes in localized game development' (Chapter 13), in P Ruffino (ed), Independent Videogames: Cultures, Networks, Techniques and Politics, Routledge, pp.209-222.

[lisbethpham]

Week 8: Digital Citizenship and Software Literacy: Instagram filters

It’s not surprising anymore that many, typically considered unachievable, “pretty” and “perfect” beauty ideals can be shown on our own face or body features with “filters”. Not only that but fake accessories and hair color can also be added as a feature of this magical filter. Snapchat first introduced this type of virtual facial filter on its platform called Lenses, that operating base on the user’s camera facing a person’s face, whether it’s a front or back camera, detecting their features and change them in different ways, could be face distortion, additional animal-like features, accessories, etc. Nowadays, other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok are also implementing new and extra-detailed filters that millions of people keep in their own app’s camera. Despite those filters being used by literally anyone, everywhere, on everything, it still sparks controversial questions. Asides from the positive responses on the innovation of ‘filters’, many people asked if it is really okay to get yourself shaped into some sort of stereotype beauty ideals. 

Jessica Baker (2020) believes that ‘filters’ are being underexamine and women’s attitudes are also undervalued in this situation. “We may recognize the human influence and cultural biases behind these technologies,” she said. Verily editor Krizia Liquido catches herself thinking about how Snapchat had lots of potential to be the “anti-photoshop” side of social media when it first launched. It is said to capture the most “real” side of a person to share it with friends and people in your social circle in a short time, and Lenses went against that idea. Culture Critic (2018), an user of Amaliah blogging website, posts about how she was addicted to Snapchat and the endless circle of Snap involved in her daily life. However, the presence of Snapchat and its filter feature also brought her uneasy feelings as she felt she’s being reminded of her own self, “accompanied by your own image,” she said, except for the fact that those images are distorted and it’s not really the person. 

There is no doubt that with the dominance of beauty filters, not only Snapchat but many brands in the beauty industry have started to capitalize on people’s insecurities. Whether they are shades of lipstick, blushes, styles of eyelashes, face and nose contours or cheekbone highlighter, brands can always find a way to monetize from Snapchatters wants of improving on their insecurities or just purely find a way to have prettier facial features. Not only that, many users are also actively seeking real facial or body plastic surgery or modification after having “digital plastic surgery”, which is the use of filters on themselves to look better. 

Personally, I like how Dr Patrick Byrne, director of the Johns Hopkins Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, talks about how he encountered patients that are confused between the pictures of themselves through different media, that “they are bothered by their (unfiltered) pictures but not by their reflections,” he said (Willingham, 2018). That is also the same way many social media users feel toward their own, real and presented, self images. 

Barker, Jessica. (2020). 'Making-up on mobile: The pretty filters and ugly implications of Snapchat'.  Fashion, Style & Popular Culture. 7. 207-221. 10.1386/fspc_00015_1. Willingham, A. (2018), ‘Social media messes with our perceptions so much, doctors are calling it “Snapchat dysmorphia”’, CNN, 10 August, https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/10/health/snapchat-dysmorphia-cosmetic-surgery-social-media-trend-trnd/index.html

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Body Modification on Visual Social Media

Just as every workplace has significant and distinct aesthetic templates, sometimes more specific and professional than others, social media is also said to have such popular aesthetic templates. Ever since the introduction of the concept ‘microcelebrity’ on social media, those aesthetic templates have been looking absolutely recognizable so far. Microcelebrity is defined as a new form of identity that is linked almost exclusively to online spaces (Senft, 2012). These ‘celebrities’ rely heavily on their visibility on social media to build a specific brand of products or even themselves, thus adhering to using aesthetic templates to highlight one or both of them. In social media posts by several well-known microcelebrities, such as Kylie Jenner, or Kim Kardashian, it is not hard to point out certain poses, movements that emphasize the curves and body parts of them, which not only normalize pornification but also promote unhealthy body images. Not just one or two, but many influencers and so-called microcelebrities are openly sharing images of themselves photoshopped and posed in a way that makes them look more ‘slim’, ‘tall’, have brighter skin, etc. Many women look up to this type of body image wanting to have similar body types, or body parts, such as lashes, brows, lips, cheekbones. Therefore, image or video-based social media platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok are the destinations for many young women to find ‘inspiring’ images for body modification, without consulting a real doctor or even considering if that body is achievable in real life. Evidence suggests that before their consultation, more plastic surgery patients are looking for health-related information online and on social media. A lot of teenage girls and young female adults are said to have body dysmorphic disorder by constantly comparing themselves to aspiring body image (and actually fake) on the internet, as well as lots of them might even be underrepresented in commercials and branding that it’s hurtful and create hatred towards themselves.  

Senft, T.M., 2013. Microcelebrity and the branded self. A companion to new media dynamics, pp.346-354.

Duffy  BE and Meisner,  C 2022. “Platform governance at the margins: Social media creators’ experiences with algorithmic (in)visibility,” Media, Culture & Society. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221111923

Robert G Dorfman, Elbert E Vaca, Eitezaz Mahmood, Neil A Fine and Clark F Schierle, ‘Plastic Surgery-Related Hashtag Utilization on Instagram: Implications for Education and Marketing’, Aesthetic Surgery Journal, Volume 38, Issue 3, March 2018, pp 332–338 

[lisbethpham]

Social Media Influencers and the Slow Fashion Movement

A statistic produced by Earth.org that is often talked about on the topic of fast fashion is that the amount of CO2 produced by fast fashion is double the amount produced by aviation and shipping combined. 20% of the world's wastewater, according to the UN Environment Programme, is generated by the dyeing of textiles. Because most production takes place in nations with weak laws, wastewater frequently ends up in rivers and oceans where it may cause havoc. Many well-educated clients are concerned and well-aware of the situation, which has a bad impact on people's long term well-being, thus a movement has been formed called Slow Fashion. The movement calls for more awareness of having a more sustainable lifestyle, especially in the fashion industry. In order to achieve sustainability, it’s said to focus more on the durability of the product, the ability to recycle and reuse, also slow down the production process and emphasize ethical issues, such as child labour, exploitation, etc. According to Ozdamar-Ertekin and Atik (2015), increasing consumer awareness of issues relating to social and environmental sustainability is what is driving the development of slow fashion. Because of this, consumers now want to exceed the trend of fast fashion. Customers are pressuring businesses to use socially and ecologically responsible practices in their production process since they are more aware of social and environmental issues (Pookulangara & Shephard, 2013). Consumers who follow this movement also experience emotions of self-growth and well-being, as it minimizes damage to the environment yet d0 not limit fashion style to anyone. Furthermore, I have also realized that fast fashion and the fashion industry as a whole take a huge responsibility for representing unhealthy body images. Therefore, not only do brands take initiative to be more sustainable in their production process but also be more inclusive toward those underrepresented. 

Owen Mulhern 2022, The 10 Essential Fast Fashion Statistics, Earth.org

 https://earth.org/fast-fashion-statistics/ 

Domingos, Mariana, Vera Teixeira Vale, and Silvia Faria. (2022). "Slow Fashion Consumer Behavior: A Literature Review"  Sustainability 14, no. 5: 2860. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052860

Ting Chi, Jenisha Gerard, Yuhfen Yu & Yuanting Wang (2021) 'A study of U.S. consumers’ intention to purchase slow fashion apparel: understanding the key determinants' , International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, 14:1, 101-112, DOI: 10.1080/17543266.2021.1872714

Jessy Humann, The Body Positivity Movement and Fashion, Luxiders Magazine, https://luxiders.com/the-body-positivity-movement/ 

Ozdamar-Ertekin, Z., & Atik, D. (2015). Sustainable markets: Motivating factors, barriers, and remedies for mobilization of slow fashion. Journal of Macromarketing, 35 (1), 53– 69

Pookulangara, S., & Shephard, A. (2013). Slow fashion movement: Understanding consumer perceptions: An exploratory study. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services,20 (2), 200–206

[lisbethpham]

Week 5: Digital Citizenship

Being born and raised in a developing country, I have heard about the term “global citizen” repeatedly in classrooms and through conversations with adults. But as a digital native generation, I have yet to learn about the whole concept of digital citizenship until today. McCosker (2016) stated that digital citizenship “has predominantly come to function as a concept o “appropriate” internet use”. When it comes to being a citizen, there are certain rights we have and responsibilities we need to fulfill, and so does being a digital citizen. It is true that by being online, we all have less surveillance and anonymity, therefore, many people have behaved in a way that might not be accepted in real life and threatened cyber security. Educational experts concentrated on the responsible and democratic use of the Internet and social media to safeguard young students' rights and obligations because using the Internet and social media in daily life brings up a number of important issues. It is believed that the issues such as cyber abuse, bullying or harassment need to be “addressed at the level of public in national, global, local context” (Cosker, 2016). With that said, the concept of digital citizenship is usually included in curriculums and educational settings (Choi, Cristol, 2021). 

The pandemic Covid-19 has left the world in a state of vulnerability not only economically but also mentally. Being limited to the outside world, it was emphasized how social media took an important role in sharing and influencing people as we were all isolated and dependent on the internet. Platforms such as TikTok  have the algorithm of bringing similar contents to users who are constantly looking up on some specific information. Therefore, any significant injustice and negative action that intensifies the group-based emotions, usually negative, is more inclined to spread throughout the impacted community as a result of the current emotional setting (Grant, 2021). Accordingly, many activists and influencers use social media platforms to fight for their rights, usually against sexism, racism, climate change and online hate speech. 

In recent years, political engagement has also changed in advanced democracies. Just like how a country’s citizens have the right to vote and have political influence, digital citizens can also engage with politics on different online platforms. However, people are more likely to engage with politics individually than as a formal group’s committee (Vromen, 2017). Now that most live footage of national and international meetings are uploaded online, not only the political figures can make an impact but each and every person who watches them can have their own perception of the situation, which might form new political movements online and offline. 

McCosker, A 2016 Negotiating Digital Citizenship: Control, Contest and Culture Managing Digital Citizenship

Grant, P.R. and Smith, H.J., 2021. Activism in the time of COVID-19. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 24(2), pp.297-305.

Moonsun Choi & Dean Cristol (2021) ' Digital citizenship with intersectionality lens: Towards participatory democracy driven digital citizenship education',  Theory Into Practice, 60:4, 361-370, DOI: 10.1080/00405841.2021.1987094

Ariadne Vromen (2017) Digital Citizenship and Political Engagement The Challenge from Online Campaigning and Advocacy Organisations London : Palgrave Macmillan

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Week 4: Reality TV case study 

Growing up watching reality TV shows like MasterChef, Naked and Afraid, Rich Bride Poor Bride, I have never thought of reality TV as a whole as more than just plain entertainment. Reality TV is a genre in which participants act without scripts, encountering sudden and surprising events throughout the whole show that brings entertainment to the audience. It is said to locate somewhere between information, entertainment, documentary and drama (Hill, 2005). Because it is about real people, it seems to hold up a mirror that reflects natural human behavior and interaction, to the extent that it lets audience speculating the authenticity of the content they are watching (Deller, R. A, 2019). The common assumption about reality TV is that although the realness of the show is exposed, it is not entirely; the audience gets confused and cannot tell the difference between information and entertainment, or fiction and reality in this type of factual production. In a survey in 2021, it is reported that only 69% of current reality TVs viewers can differentiate between fact and fiction in the show when it comes to relationship-based reality shows. However, more than half, 57%, of the study participants agreed that the show would be less interesting if the story was not manipulated, that the participants were somewhat fitted into specific pre-made roles. Reality TV has become very successful in the 1990s and 2000s. With that said, many sub-genre were created, such as wedding planning, survival, fashion, cooking, etc. And with the invention of social media, it creates a multi platform engagement for the reality shows’ participants as well as production cast and fans or general audience. Although this contradicts what it means to be a television show, by creating public space on multiple platforms, reality shows are becoming less reliant on TV itself, by extending viewer engagement, creating drama, interaction, and digital text online. The combination of reality TV vast contents and digital public sphere creates a place where people talk and discuss about meanings, ideas, controversies, representations, rights and even politics. 

References:

Hill, A., 2005. Reality TV: Audiences and popular factual television. Psychology Press.

Deller, Ruth A, (2019) Extract:  'Chapter Six: Reality Television in an Age of Social Media' in Reality Television: The TV Phenomenon That Changed the World (Emerald Publishing). 

Australian Communications and Media Authority 2021, Viewer response to reality television in Australia, acma.gv.au, viewed 2nd April 2023 <https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-10/Viewer%20response%20to%20reality%20television%20in%20Australia_ACMA%20commissioned%20research.pdf> 

Jacquelyn Arcy (2018) 'The digital money shot: Twitter wars, The Real Housewives, and transmedia storytelling',  Celebrity Studies, 9:4, 487-502.

[lisbethpham]

Tumblr case study

Earlier in the course we learned about the definition of ‘public sphere’. It is, in fact, not a sphere, but a metaphoric saying to describe and make sense of a virtual space where people interact (Hartley, 1992). Another more specific definition of the public sphere is:

A domain of our social life where such a thing as public opinion can be formed, where citizens…deal with matters of general interest without being subject to coercion… to express and publicize their views. (Habermas, 1997, p105). 

In addition, Kruse (2018), also stated: “The public sphere requires unlimited access to information, equal and protected participation, and the absence of institutional influence, particularly regarding the economy.” In today’s context, there are many social media platforms that fit in this interpretation and with that said, Tumblr will be the topic for this week’s case study. 

Tumblr is ranked in the top 10 used social media platforms in Australia (David, 2023) with a steady 3.7 million of monthly users. It was founded in 2007 by David Karp and was bought by Yahoo in 2013 but David remained the CEO of Tumblr. Just like Twitter, Tumblr’s users can follow others without having them to follow back, which creates a non-reciprocal network among users. However, Tumblr does not limit the length of each post and supports a whole range of multimedia such as images, videos and audios, as well as reblogging and hashtagging, without or with very little surveillance. All of these features make Tumblr one of the best microblogging services that many activists have used this platform to create public space for their activities. Tumblr has been used for early feminists and body positivity trends by having female users posting selfies and pictures of themselves to depict a more diverse and authentic body types and races. Many experts on feminism argued that female figures have always been depicted as the symbol of objectification and representative of male desires (Lin, 2009). And women seem to appear more controlled and restricted with expectations, especially societal, than men (Dvir et al., 1995; Rayburn et al., 1999). Both Western and Eastern mass media have very big, but negative, influence on teenage girls and young adult women with them promoting a narrow ideal of female beauty: young, slim, whiter skin, etc. Many have seen that as an underrepresentation of diversity; and examples are women with higher weight, women of color, older or above a certain age. But with the lack of surveillance and to no extent the diversity can be shown, lots of explicit images can be found under the hashtag #bodypositivity, despite the NSFW (not-safe-for-work) content being banned on Tumblr. This means that many users, with high probability being young girls, are affected with the idea of self-oversexualization to reach self-acceptance, which is also the content of many bloggers, rather than self-improvement. 

References:

Anne Reif, Insa Miller & Monika Taddicken (2022) “Love the Skin You‘re In”: An Analysis of Women’s Self-Presentation and User Reactions to Selfies Using the Tumblr Hashtag #bodypositive, Mass Communication and Society, DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2022.2138442

Chang, Y., Tang, L., Inagaki, Y. and Liu, Y., 2014. What is tumblr: A statistical overview and comparison. ACM SIGKDD explorations newsletter, 16(1), pp.21-29.

David Correll 2023, Social Media Statistics Australia – February 2023, SocialMediaNews.com.au, viewed 1st April 2023 <https://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-february-2023/>   

Dvir, T., D. Eden and M. L. Banjo: 1995, ‘Self-Fulfilling Prophecy and Gender: Can Women be Pygmalion and Galatea?’, The Journal of Applied Psychology 80(2), 253– 270. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.80.2.253.

Habermas, Jurgen. 1997. “The Public Sphere.” Pp. 105–08 in Contemporary Political Philosophy, edited by R. E. Goodin and P. Petit. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers 

Hartley, J. (1992). The Politics of Pictures: The Creation of the Public in the Age of the Popular Media (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315002095

Kruse, L.M., Norris, D.R. and Flinchum, J.R., 2018. Social media as a public sphere? Politics on social media. The Sociological Quarterly, 59(1), pp.62-84.

Lin, C.L. and Yeh, J.T., 2009. Comparing society’s awareness of women: Media-portrayed idealized images and physical attractiveness. Journal of Business Ethics, 90, pp.61-79.

Pilipets, E., & Paasonen, S. (2022). 'Nipples, memes, and algorithmic failure: NSFW critique of Tumblr censorship'. New Media & Society, 24(6), 1459–1480. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820979280

Rayburn, C. A., I. S. Hansen, M. A. Siderits, P. Burson and L. J. Richmond: 1999, Life Choice Inventory (U.S. Copyright Office, Washington, DC).