mevsdigitalcommunities

[mevsdigitalcommunities]

Week 11: Understanding social media conflict

As it has been mentioned in my second post, Digital Citizenship is a person who has the skills and knowledge to use digital technologies in a (positive) way to participate within the society (economic opportunity, democratic participation, etc) to communicate with others and able to create and consume digital content. Platformization entails the extension of social media platforms into the rest of the web and their drive to make external web data “platform ready” (Helmond 2015).

Social Media has formed as called the social media governance. Social media governance looks at how the internet runs, the regulations and who controls. There are a lot of conflicts happening within social media and one of the most common conflicts is known as online harassment. This happens every day and I myself have gone through it. Online harassment is an umbrella term encompassing a variety of behaviours and is thus conceptualized differently by scholars (Marwick & Caplan 2018).

The most prominent victims of harassment, such as Sarkeesian, comedian Leslie Jones, game designer Zoe Quinn and usability expert Kathy Sierra, were subject to pejorative language; doxing; death threats; porn revenge; cyber-stalking; and other threatening behaviour.

Regardless of how harassment is defined, women , especially women of colour and queer, are more likely to be harassed online and more likely to be harassed to the point where young women may see it as a normal part of online experience (Marwick & Caplan 2018)

Online harassment didn't considered as a social activity, but since the strategies and tactics that are being used shows that they weren't working on their own, that they were actually loosely coordinating with each other. The social element is a strong motivational force that works to provide incentives for perpetrators to take part and escalate assaults by earning praise and approval from their peers (Marwick & Caplan 2018).

Because the internet is borderless, so is the abuse. In Australia, Elinor Lloyd-Philipps, a British man now based in Sydney, began to receive threats of rape, harassment and abuse in response to her specialised blog on vintage underwear, Nylon Swish. She quoted “In the real world, if someone comes up to you and touches you inappropriately, yeah, you can go to the police. On the internet, if I ever complain and say; ‘This has happened, I’m sick of it’, people say; ‘You’re on the internet, what do you expect?’ “There’s no support for women at all, from the police or anyone else.” (Wong & Hunt 2016).

This kind of conflict or problem that are very common to women does affect their lives so much. No matter whether it is online or offline, it is a crime that no women deserve to be treated. Therefore, this social conflict link to a campaign or a movement that has been growing as well of being a #feminist. This movement aims to empower women and encourage the political movement into establishing a law that can minimize people who experience such violence. 

To conclude my overall posts, no matter what topic that we take a lot at, the digital communities have grown rapidly and how much power there is within. The digital communities play a huge role in giving good impacts of making a change into the real world. 

References:

Alice E. Marwick & Robyn Caplan, 'Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment'  Feminist Media Studies Volume 18, 2018 - Issue 4: Pages 543-559.

Esther Milne, 2020, 'Week 11 Understanding social media conflict', MDA 20009 Digital Communities , Swinburne Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 28 May 2020, viewed 3 June 2020.

Wong, SLJC and Hunt, E (2016). The women abandoned to their online abusers. The Guardian. [online] 11 Apr. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/11/women-online-abuse-threat-racist [Accessed 3 Jun. 2020].

PS: WHY CAN’T I INSERT GIFS ON THIS PARTICULAR POST?! I HAVE TRIED REFRESHING IT AND POST IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN, BUT IT JUST DOESN’T WORK. 

[mevsdigitalcommunities]

Week 10: Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live Streaming

Week 10: Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live Streaming The topic that’s going to be discuss in this post will be a very different from the topic from the previous posts. This post will be talking about the gaming communities, social gaming and live streaming. In this post, I will be collaborating from my lecture points, the topic itself, and my own personal experience.

Gaming has evolved significantly compared to a decade ago. The evolution of gaming has started from the arcade games, local multiplayer, online multiplayer, social media and mobile games, and online streaming platforms. The typical gamer is generally considered to be white or East Asian, young, middle class, and a man. The social rule within the gaming communities generally will accept those who are considered as gamers compared to those who are just starting out or who don't play frequently.

Social Games are quite popular these days, especially through the ads that we all have been getting on our social media. Social games are online games that adapt your friendship ties for play purposes, while accommodating your daily routine (Järvinen 2011). Within the social games, it will form a community as well, however, it acts differently (more casual) compared to the actual gaming communities.

Live Streaming is a very common thing to do in the gaming communities, where a person live-records himself playing a particular game. This action formed a community as well, where someone looks up to a professional gamer to learn or watch. The threads of sharing play and spectatorship lie at the root of digital gaming, but live streaming weaves them into the flow of this particular moment of media and internet culture (Taylor 2018).

I got addicted to a game called Mobile legends a few years ago. Mobile Legends is a game that is considered as modding. Mod is a modification of a video game (Hardwick 2020). I played mobile legends throughout my high school years, and I was the only girl in my school who was addicted to this game.

However, there are a lot of guys in my highschool who love to play this game. Because I played this game abusively, I would say that I was in the Mobile Legends gaming community. The game allows me to form my own team or if I was playing alone, it will choose other online players that will be the same team as I do.

This game is very competitive therefore, it builds some tensions within the team. It was easier when I was playing the game with my team (four other guys from my high school). However, I noticed how it does affect my ways of acting around those who don't play the game as frequent as I did.

Within that gaming community, there are pro players who have established their own Youtube channel to live stream, this was a way for me to learn new skills that will somehow help me develop or become a better player. The community within the game is also very strong, because there are tournaments being established where the community can compete and/or watch the live tournaments through the app or from other platforms.

I have gained so many friends within the community and build bonds with my guy friends who played the game with me. Therefore, I truly believe that the gaming communities are also considered as a digital community, because they have their own influencers and branding promotions within the society on different platforms.

References:

Taylor Hardwick, 2020, 'Week 10 Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live Streaming', MDA 20009 Digital Communities , Swinburne Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 26 May 2020, viewed 3 June 2020.

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

[mevsdigitalcommunities]

Week 9: Digital Communities, political engagement and activism

My lecturer, Milne (2020) explained a campaign is a defined project, of linked actions organised towards achieving a particular goal (politics, business, marketing).  After posting two posts regarding social influencers, fashion and beauty campaigns in social media, this post will be talking about political engagement and activism and how campaigns play a huge role affects those two topics.

Before establishing any campaign, the particular party or organisation must have planned about it. As it has been mentioned in the lecture slides, Sun Tzu and Alvin Toffler quote “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise of defeat”.

Digital campaigning must have generate content, such as:

tell a story based on shared values, & pivot to action

target/segment your support base

build the container: norms, trust, action

Create a plan for storytelling vectors

Include/share partner organisations & allies in your story

Alvarez et al (2019)  stated “The very temporality of collective struggle has also changed the lives of social justice movements online. Networked technologies make it possible to access and participate in political action anywhere and at any time. One of the distinct benefits of digital activism is that it can keep the movement ticking during and beyond the event horizon of immediate political intervention by the performance action stage and it can allow performance actions to move and take effect quickly through a participatory ground-swell that is often leaderless” .

As we can take a look at today’s problem about racism after the George Floyd case, a lot of campaigns and movements have been conducted by the whole society both offline and online. At all social media platforms, people has been purging the hashtag #Blacklivesmatter . 

A lot of campaigns have been done by almost every digital citizen, both single and corporate. This particular case and campaigns will affect a lot into the political engagement of voting the next president in the United States. 

During this campaign, a lot of activists have been ruling the campaign on encouragin others to make protests and aiming to make change of being anti-racist and fight against violence to black people. This movement has made a huge movement all around the world to support this particular goal.

Nonetheless, we can see how the digital community is now getting united to spread and promote a positive movement that has been led by the activist. This movement is also expected to make a political engagement on changing the government’s behaviour and point of view of making a change. Not only that, but this movement will also affect the upcoming presidential election in the United States. All of this shows how a campaign with the goals, strategy and tactics are successful that it has hugely affected political engagement and activism.

References:

Alvarez N., Lauzon C., Zaiontz K. (2019) 'On Sustainable Tools for Precarious Times: An Introduction'. In: Alvarez N., Lauzon C., Zaiontz K. (eds) Sustainable Tools for Precarious Times. Contemporary Performance InterActions. Palgrave Macmillan

Esther Milne, 2020, 'Week 9 Digital Communities, political engagement and activism', MDA 20009 Digital Communities , Swinburne Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 19 May 2020, viewed 3 June 2020.

[mevsdigitalcommunities]

WEEK 8 Digital Health and Cosmetic Surgery on Visual Social Media

Mavroudis (2020) mentioned, Public health is integrated with communication technologies especially in the advent of social media. The Kardashians are known as the most influential people in the world. They have been promoting body positivity through brands that sell products that will help in achieving the “perfect” body, such as FitTea, Skims, etc. This particular movement can be problematic towards the public health policies.

There are several types of influencer, however, the ones that I will be explaining today are Micro-influencers. Micro-influencers usually have a few hundred thousand or even fewer followers. However, they have extremely engaged fan communities in a very specific niche. As a result, they are more likely to be able to motivate their followers to take the action they want to take. This enables them to drive their audience towards a particular brand without appearing to be overly promotional (GRIN 2019).

Instagram users are unknowingly engaged in unpaid work and personal marketing to develop their brand and compete for visibility. Visibility labour refers to strategies that both micro-famous and non-micro-famous people use on platforms such as Instagram to enhance their status or popularity. Esthetic labour concentrates on poses, accessories, props or subjective work on the surface of the body rather than on the work of emotion. The display of female sexuality through sexualized social media content is a powerful means of gaining visibility (Mavroudis 2020).

However, male influencers offer masculinity when it comes to performing esthetic labour. Mavroudis (2020) also mentioned male influencers in my research have been striving for a more muted display of sexuality where no specific body parts have been accentuated. Bodies appear to be actively performing tasks that relate to the masculine ideals of athleticism, strength and dominance.

Cosmetic surgery has been the top influencers has been doing and promoting. Cosmetics or Plastic surgeries clinics are now promoting themselves through them to increase demand. According to 2017 statistics from the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 42% of surgeons address that one's patients are pursuing aesthetic surgery to improve their appearance on Instagram , Snapchat, Facebook and other social media channels (Dorfman et al 2018).

Not only the female influencers who often promote and practice the cosmetic surgery trend, however, there are also transgenders who are showing their process when doing the plastic surgery as their transitioning process. I am not against this particular behaviour, because they are showing bravery and their compassion and identity, which in today’s society is very meaningful.

However, some of this movement does trigger those who feel insecure. Sometimes, when micro-influencers post pictures in social media, the viewers aren’t aware of visibility labour and esthetic labour behind all of it. Some people may look upon their beauty and perfect body without realising that there are other things that have been done behind their pictures. This un-realisation may trigger the viewers, making them feel insecure, and causing their health in problem (both mentally and physically). 

Therefore, it is very much needed for the micro-influencers to give some kind of awareness, such as body positivity. Also, it is also important for the viewers or the society to have common knowledge about it. This can help them to know or at least aware of what’s going on behind every post and picture.

References:

Grin.co, 2019. 10 Types of Social Media Influencers You Can Work With - GRIN - Influencer Marketing Software. Viewed 3 June 2020, <https://grin.co/blog/types-of-social-media-influencers/>.‌

Jonathan Mavroudis, 2020, 'Week 8 Public Health Campaigns and Social Media Influence', MDA 20009 Digital Communities , Swinburne Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 12 May 2020, viewed 3 June 2020.

Dorfman, R.G., Vaca, E.E., Mahmood, E., Fine, N.A. and Schierle, C.F. (2017). Plastic Surgery-Related Hashtag Utilization on Instagram: Implications for Education and Marketing. Aesthetic Surgery Journal, 38(3), pp.332–338.

‌

[mevsdigitalcommunities]

Week 7 SLOW FASHION

Digital citizenships clearly have a wide range of meaning. The most popular digital citizenship right now is known as influencers. Influencers have played a huge role in society today. Each influencer has their own specialty to promote and spread trends.

Milne (2020) explained slow fashion can be referred to as eco fashion / sustainable fashion / ethical consumption. A fashion can be considered as sustainable based on the four principles:

1. Produced goods has to be child labour-free across the entire supply chain.

2. Materials used in the manufacturing process should be less toxic, recycled, upcycled and/or more resilient to the natural environment. This also captures the contrary of the 'throw away' behaviour of fashion often related to fast fashion.

3. The production process must be ethically and socially responsible, pay fair wages to workers and, ideally, create jobs in the country of origin by producing locally.

4. Establishing long-term relationships around the supply chain is essential to both a sustainable production process that allows fair prices and wages to be negotiated and a strong network to nurture sustainable fashion creation.

The global fashion industry is facing numerous challenges in terms of sustainability and social responsibility. The fast fashion model, in particular, forms a large ecological footprint and faces a host of social and environmental concerns. Given that the law currently provides only limited protection for the freedoms of the fashion industry that is often ineffective in promoting organisational behaviour, corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives can help to prevent inequalities in the fashion industry and improve standards and behaviour (Brewer 2019).

Legal reforms and growing support for companies pursuing more sustainable practises are indeed required to drive the fashion industry and consumers away from the fast fashion model towards more sustainable sourcing, production, distribution , marketing and consumption practises. Companies that have adopted such slow fashion practises can provide a model for the future of the global fashion Industry (Brewer 2019).

Jessica Stein is an example of a good digital citizen. She is an influencer who supports sustainability. On her instagram page @tuulavintage , she often uploads pictures about her life and nature. She’s known as the top seven influencers who lead in the slow fashion movement. She gives the ultimate inspiration to wanderlust. She  supports sustainable brands such as the Yöli & Otis and Auguste the Label plant dyed and ethically dyed labels and shoots them in exotic locations such as Bali, Florence, Tulum and all over New Zealand and Australia. (Gransworthy 2018).

I feel like slow fashion has been a growing movement in today’s society. Teenagers are the most common audience who are most likely to get influenced by this particular movement. More than half of young people, 16-19 years of age, say they have deliberately bought or stopped using a brand because of its ethics, and 85 per cent think that brands should minimise their environmental impact, according to recent research by MediaCom (Sweeney 2018).

Therefore, as a young adult myself, I have been slowly changing my habits into minimizing bulk retail purchase and buying clothes from brands that are sustainable. Even there are a lot of fast fashion brands that have started producing clothes from recycled materials, such as Cotton On with their new bomber jackets made out of recycled materials. #sustainablefashion

References:

Sweeney, E 2018. Allbirds invites fans to “meet” their shoes with interactive experience. viewed 3 Jun 2020. <https://www.marketingdive.com/news/allbirds-invites-fans-to-meet-their-shoes-with-new-interactive-experience/541120/>.

Garnsworthy, J. (2018). Meet the Influencers Leading the Slow Fashion Movement. Accessed 3 Jun. 2020. <https://stylecaster.com/slow-fashion-influencers/>.

www.instagram.com. (n.d.). Jessica Stein (@tuulavintage) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/tuulavintage/ [Accessed 3 Jun. 2020].

Esther Milne, 2020, 'Week 7 Digital Citizenship Case Study: Slow Fashion', MDA 20009 Digital Communities , Swinburne Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology,5 May 2020, viewed 3 June 2020.

[mevsdigitalcommunities]

WEEK 6 WHAT IS DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP? HOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS CHANGING THE ELECTION PROCESS?

Digital Citizenship is a person who has the skills and knowledge to use digital technologies in a (positive) way to participate within the society (economic opportunity, democratic participation, etc) to communicate with others and able to create and consume digital content.

One of the aims is to benefit society to engage into political processes, such as the election process. The common thing that digital citizenship participates in when getting involved in the election process is by spreading out hashtags to form a cult for a specific party.

Each party themselves will contribute in giving their speech or thoughts through social media, not only to connect with the people, but also somewhat give the society impressions of how the party behaves. For example, the Clinton party gives an impression of professionalism when communicating through their social media platforms, yet the Trump party communicates more casually compared to Clinton’s party (Enly 2017).

Through social media, people are also able to discuss particular topics regarding each party that will get voted. This discussion may reflect on each candidate's response regarding discussing the topic that comes up.

The most common platform being used for political campaigns and discussions are through Twitter and Facebook. Based on an article discussing both specific platforms, Twitter has been used more for sharing information and opinion than Facebook. The Twitter content was particularly influential in expressing an opinion or in taking a stance.

On the other hand, Facebook has been used more to formally paint and praise and express support (Nelimarkka et al 2020).

Therefore, the responses from each party or candidate do affect the society when choosing the right candidate. It is based on the society’s judgment of their responses when discussing a topic and/or a campaign. The society will form an argument and movement by stating their opinions with each other about the candidates that may influence others perspectives and even manipulate.

These platforms have the potential to influence the functioning of democracy and therefore may warrant more regulation, practitioners and policy-makers should be careful to consider how platforms shape public discourse and how they can be built in a way that promotes society, political discussion and democracy (Nelimarkka et al 2020).

References:

Enli, G. (2017). Twitter as arena for the authentic outsider: exploring the social media campaigns of Trump and Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election. European Journal of Communication, 32(1), pp.50–61.

Nelimarkka, M, Laaksonen, S-M, Tuokko, M & Valkonen, T 2020, ‘Platformed Interactions: How Social Media Platforms Relate to Candidate– Constituent Interaction During Finnish 2015 Election Campaigning’, in , Social Media + Society, pp. 1–17.

‌

‌

[mevsdigitalcommunities]

HOW DOES TUMBLR FUNCTION AS A DIGITAL COMMUNITY?

I agree with the theory where social media is defined as a public sphere that has full access to information and equal participation for everyone (Milne 2020). However, every social media has different social currency, e.g Tumblr’s social currency is the Note, where users re-blog as post, like a post, or respond to a post (Anchell 2016).

In general, Tumblr mostly functions as a blog, whereas Instagram functions as a photo album and Twitter functions as a diary (just my opinion). Tumblr is more customizable which engages people more to be creative and fun. Tumblr allows diversity in terms of posting wise, where people can talk pretty much about everything that their heart desires.

A loyal tumblr user said she remain on Tumblr since 2014 because she feels she isn’t attractive enough to be a youtuber, she isn’t popular enough to be on Twitter, and she thinks Facebook is “dumb”. She feels more free in Tumblr due to the society that’s formed within Tumblr (Reeve 2016). This is one of the reasons how Tumblr functions as a digital community, because there aren't any standards or qualifications to be successful.

Tumblr is more than just talking about your personal life. It talks more about jokes, art and sex. The energy that’s built within is more relatable, absurd and dynamic where it minimizes the act of social theory. Where did you think memes and quotes came from?

Tumblr is also a great platform to collect data reports, by reblogging, it allows users to repost as well as comment, and it also gives fair credibility by giving exposure to both creators and reblogger. Through this re-blogging feature, it also gives a scent of building a digital community by sharing opinions and/or appreciating others posts.

Tumblr offers freedom, where people can remain anonymous, where people can speak their mind, where people can be creative by creating memes, gifs, a blog, quotes, etc.

 Every post also covers all aspects in life, politics, gaming, emotions, fashion, beauty, sex, sports, movies, tv-shows, characteristics, etc. It gives equal participation to everyone with different interests to form into one digital community.

-K