DIGITAL COMMUNITIES

Online campaigns are a great way to engage with audience and help create more awareness around a movement. A campaign can be defined as, “A defined project, of linked actions organised towards achieving a particular goal, (political, social, business, marketing)” (Stickels 2020). However, it’s also important to recognise which platform you are using to promote certain campaigns as whilst they are all for public use, their functions do have some differences. In Stickels lecture (2020), he demonstrates that these platforms not only have different purposes, but their users can vary as well, so when planning and organizing a campaign it is important to choose the correct platform.

Success of a campaign is to not only generate interest online but to see whether any real life differences have been made. Creating a campaign and understanding whether or not is successful is by following a particular process as Stickels (2020) demonstrates. This process includes the idea (what? How? Why?), the plan (the strategy, platforms, the media, design, research), the execution (launch, talk, share, build your community, bloggers), collation (collect all the content, collate in a fun way, create your campaign ‘storybook) and then the evaluation (did it work? How did it work? What we did well? What we could do better?).

Recent studies shows one in five adults receive their political news primarily through social media. The study also finds that those who do get their political news primarily through social media tend to be less well-informed and more likely to be exposed to unproven claims that people who get their news from traditional sources.

In comparison to other media, the influence of social media in political campaigns has increased tremendously. Social networks play an increasingly important role in electoral politics, this was evident in the campaign of Donald Trump and in recent times the misinformation published in regards to Covid-19.

I believe Facebook and the Australian government need to work together more in creating stronger laws and regulations surrounding what news corporations can and cannot publish. There can be detrimental effects on misinformation published, as it can present citizen ideas that are not factual. Much debate surrounding the vaccine in an example of this, as many articles have been published providing incorrect information and data

A great example of using online campaigns for activism of current times is the #BLM movement which stands for black lives matter. Campaigns that started online have created so much awareness around the issues surrounding this that there is now protests happening around the world, petitions being signed, and political engagement has just become involved in this movement as well. In conclusion, whilst online campaigns are a great we to advocate for change, the online actions are not enough, actual change offline needs to occur, and if it does that’s where we can recognise that those campaigns have been effective.

References:

About Digital Citizenship 2020, The attitude, skills, knowledge and behaviours in a digital society, NSW Department of Education, viewed 22 May 2021, < https://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/about>.

Cheng, J, Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, C, Leskovec, J, Bernstein, M 2017, ‘Our experiments taught us why people troll’, The Conversation, , viewed 22 May 2021, < https://theconversation.com/our-experiments-taught-us-why-people-troll-72798>.

Digital Citizenship 2020, What is it?, Digital communities Hub, viewed 22 May 2021, < https://www.digitaltechnologieshub.edu.au/teachers/topics/digital-citizenship>.

Duggan, M 2014, ‘Online Harassment’, Pew Research Centre, 22 October, viewed 22 May 2021, < https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2014/10/22/online-harassment/>.

It is no surprise that the fashion industry is hugely profitable and plays a role in all of our lives. I mean, we have to put clothes on our backs… right? According to Statista (2020), the global apparel market is said to reach about 1.5 trillion US dollars in 2020. These are huge numbers but at what cost?

What we need to ask ourselves is when does the necessity to put clothes on our back turn into careless consumer behaviour. That is where understanding the difference between fast and flow fashion comes in.

Merriam-Webster (2020) describe fast fashion as “An approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers”.Whilst the clothes are more often than not affordable, the footprint that is left on the environment is far too great to see past.

The global fashion industry accounts for 10% of the world’s carbon emissions” (Milner 2020). These numbers are even larger than the combined carbon footprint of international flights and maritime shipping Milner (2020) shows.

If the fast fashion industry doesn’t slow down and take on an eco-friendlier approach these numbers will only continue to increase even higher than what they already are.

In contrast to this is the slow fashion industry. Hill (2018) describes this as “An awareness and approach to fashion, which considers the processes and resources required to make clothing, particularly focusing on sustainability.”

The slow fashion industry gives consumers an opportunity to purchase better-quality garments that have taken a more sustainable approach, treating people, animals and our planet earth fairly.

A great example of a slow fashion movement that has taken off is Big Sister swap who enable consumers to swap their own preowned and loved clothing, for others. Some other great examples of flow fashion companies include Asket, Encircled, Kowtow and Vetta. These are the sort of initiatives that are helping to slow down the great impacts of the fast fashion industry.

So what can be taken from this is just simply understanding where your clothes are coming from, knowing the impacts of which the fast fashion industry has and recognising that there are more sustainable options when considering what your next purchase may be.

References

Big Sister Swap 2020, About us, viewed 20 May 2021, <https://bigsisterswap.co.uk/pages/about-us>.

Mcfall-Johnsen, M 2019, ‘The fashion industry emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined. Here are the biggest ways it impacts the planet’, Business Insider, 18 October, viewed 20 May 2021, <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/fast-fashion-environmental-impact-pollution-emissions-waste-water-2019-10?r=US&IR=T>.

Merriam-Webster, 2020, Fast fashion, viewed 20 May 2021, <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fast%20fashion>.

Milner, E 2020, ‘Week 7: Digital citizenship case study: Instagram, influencers and the slow fashion movement’, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Modules via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 6 May, viewed 20 May 2021.

As the world becomes more and more digitalised, the popularity of gaming has risen. This has created an expansion in major gaming companies and an increase attractiveness for online gaming. According to Newzoo’s 2020 Global Games Market Report, the video game market is estimated to be worth roughly $159 billion in 2020 (Statista 2020). Approximately four times the revenues estimated for box office revenue, which is astonishing!

Growing up gaming was a massive part of my childhood, I remember playing games on the PC or playing Mario Cart against my brother on the PlayStation. Gaming creates a community, as it allows people from all over the world or even just across the road, to interact and share experiences. For some, it gives them a sense of community and belonging, which I think is a fantastic aspect of gaming.

In the past year, majority of the world’s population spent a lot of time at home due to being in lockdown, which had a drastic impact on the world of gaming. As many of us were stuck at home, we found ourselves looking for new distractions, hobbies and ways to socialise, and for many gaming was an outlet.

Esports is a competitive level gaming, which involves teams of people playing games against each other at a professional level, regularly winning large amounts of monetary prizes (Taylor 2018). Esports has become increasingly popular in recent years, due to several major international sporting events such as the Olympics being delayed, and almost all other televised sports being put on hold for a period of time throughout 2020/21. Digital gaming and esports do create new opportunities for socialising, as companies such as Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming has partnered with esports to create a free gaming platform that is easily accessible for all.

As the industry develops there have been a number of roles that have emerged, including : event managers, agents, production crews, social media managers and content creators. There is also a lot of potential to grow and expand in the industry, and I believe Esports will continue to develop in coming years due to the explosive growth of streaming platforms.

References :

Statista 2020, Number of active video gamers worldwide from 2014 to 2021, viewed 28 April 2021, .

It is no surprise that the use of face filters has rapidly become a part of selfie culture; whether it be animal ears, virtual sunglasses, rainbows, face swaps or beautifying and disfiguring filters. Face filters are based on augmented reality, which means that a face detection software recognises a face in front of a mobile camera and adds a real-time virtual layer on top of it. Snapchat originally launched the face filters in 2015 to promote a “a whole new way to see yourself”, and within two years Instagram had also released their own face filters (Schipper 2018).In the beginning the filters were a playful and humorous addition to the apps, however they have additionally become a beautifying software to modify an individual’s facial features. This can include making chins smaller, skin softer, lips bigger and eyelashes longer, which is problematic in many ways.

Rather than celebrating the traits that make us unique and beautiful in our own way, we are constantly provided with new ways to hide them through face filters. Face filters allow individuals to transform themselves into a more refined and socially desirable version of themselves, which creates stereo-typical norms of self-presentation. Instagram exceeds a staggering 1 billion users on a monthly bases, with over 80 million photos posted daily. Through exploring various content and Instagram pages, we inevitably expose ourselves to hundreds if not thousands of heavily altered images of celebrities and influencers alike, without realising the detrimental effects it has on our perception of self and construction of our online identity. These filters that edit our complexion and facial features can be extremely detrimental on an individual’s self-worth, and creates a high expectation of unrealistic beauty standards.

Coy-Dibley suggests that body digitised dysmorphia exists on a spectrum with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), but as a socially conditioned dysmorphia, shaped collectively by societal pressures, constructs of beauty and the technology presently available to attain these standards in image form (Coy-Dibley 2016). Advances in image technology have arguably modified facial beauty imagery, therefore the social perception of a “beautiful” face are no longer based on natural features. In many ways, face filters generate unrealistic beauty standards and essentially offer users unattainable beauty standards.

Throughout researching and learning about this week’s topics, I found myself scrolling through Instagram posts and stories to discover how often face filters were used. I would say near to 70% of selfie stories uploaded had face filters, and particularly on women’s stories. Unfortunately, I do not see a decline in user participation anytime soon as it has become a societal norm to use these facial filters on these platforms.

References :

Coy- Dibley, I 2016, ‘“Digitized Dysmorphia” of the female body: the re/disfigurement of the image’, Social Sciences, p.2

Within the past decade, social media platforms have become a universal stage for promoting plastic surgery and body modification. Instagram in particular, has emerged to be a platform for microcelebrities to form a new identity through pornification, and for brands to promote their products by having aesthetically pleasing content. In many ways, microcelebrities and brands work together to create aesthetic templates to generate exposure and subsequently produce sales. In 2017, the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery reported that 42% of their patients requested aesthetic surgery to improve their appearance on Instagram (Dorfman et al. 2018, p.332).

Instagram in particular is well suited to plastic surgery, with over 80 million photos uploaded a day, it is a superb marketing tool for organisations and microcelebrities’ to gain a following. In turn, the rise of social media platforms have been linked to the ideal of modifying one’s self image, creating a platform of user’s being self-critical and making judgement towards their own appearance. When it comes to body modification young females are heavily more influenced than men (Carah & Dobson 2016, p.205). Due to branding and body imaging being the core themes across platforms such as Instagram, it is sadly perceived to be relatively important theme in society. The platforms have been saturated by campaigns that focus on physical appearance, dieting and beauty; creating an emphasis on body features such as lips, waist and buttocks.

As consumers we are fed this content and manipulated to believe they are achievable and realistic beauty standards, however this is not the case. It only intensifies the relationship with food and body image, which Is why body image has become a large issue over the years. This will continue to be a problem in society if platforms are heavily comprised of influencers and ads promoting certain body types and features aimed at women.

Last month, Gwyneth Paltrow launched a ‘clean’ eating meal business, where the name in itself speaks enough volume. Paltrow is known for promoting diets in the past and continues to support a diet-culture. In 2018, she published a book about fasting and how it is the best way to lose weight. High profile influencers having access to social media is extremely problematic as they continue to promote diet cultures and create unrealistic beauty standards for women. Overall, this can lead to lower self-esteem, an unbalanced diet and consequently eating disorders.

On the other hand, Instagram can also be used to promote body positivity and provide support for women dealing with eating disorders or low self-esteem. However, I believe that some brands and microcelebrities need to create a different perspective as their content can be extremely detrimental.

References :

Carah, N & Dobson, A 2016, ‘Algorithmic Hotness: Young Women’s “Promotion” and “Reconnaissance” Work via Social Media Body Images’, Social Media + Society, Vol.2, No.4, p.205

A digital citizen can be considered a person who participates in three aspects of society online: economic opportunity, democratic participation, and inclusion in prevailing forms of communication (Mossberger et al 2008, p.469). Public participation in politics is a significant feature of democratic citizenship in a Western society. Due to the advances in social media and communication platforms, there has been a drastic rise in the distribution of ideas, public deliberation and network organisation. Social media has created new forms of norms and identities, as well as creating a public forum for political expression and advocacy.

 In recent years, political engagement in advanced democracies has changed, and this is heavily due to the enhancements in technology. There has been a significant decline in many traditional and collective-oriented organisations, such as trade unions and political parties. At the same time, there has been an increase in citizen involvement within the local community, environmental and human right organisations, and online social movements. This reveals a shift in society’s approach to political engagement, as there has been a considerable change in the contemporary era. Many now engage in politics through online petitioning, group-based online political action or digital forms of citizen engagement, to raise awareness and promote change (Vromen 2017, pp2-3). These social media platforms have allowed individuals to reach a larger and diverse audience; which can present greater exposure and awareness towards a campaign, petition or political advocacy.

An example of a digital citizen using a social media platform to generate awareness and advocate change in society on Instagram:

 I recently attended the 'March4Justice' at Treasury Gardens In March, where thousands of women and men came together to rally for change in how women are treated in society. Without social media this event would have not received both national and global exposure, as social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram were used to promote the event and demand change. Hashtags including #march4justice and #enoughisenough were used to spread awareness through these mediums.

  Overall, digital citizenship enables an individual to use their skills and knowledge effectively, and use digital technologies in a positive way to create awareness, communicate with others, and consequently create positive change in society.

 References:

 Mossberger, K, Kaplan, D & Gilbert, M 2008, ‘Going online Without Easy Access: A Tale of Three Cities’, Journal of Urban Affairs, Vol.30, No.5, pp.469

Since the early 1900s, reality television has become a widely popular term, referring to various programme types such as reality crime shows, home video programmes, docusoaps, wider human-interest programmes, or even more hybrid programmes such as Big Brother; which contains a mix of game and real life soap elements. There has been a wide public and academic interest in reality TV in recent times, as often the shows use a combination of authenticity and fictionalised scenes to resinate with their audiences ( Biltereyst 2003, p.117).

I often find myself in a reality binge, where I know the show is heavily scripted and a waste of my time, but I still find myself sitting on the couch watching a season in a day. I think a lot of people could relate to this, which makes me question what connects us to these shows? I believe a massive element is that it can become a place where people can come together in the ‘public sphere’ and become a community surrounding the show, and further discuss general interests and express their articulate views. In many instances, I found myself discussing several issues surrounding reality television with both my peers and strangers on digital forums. Overall, social media has diversified this market and audience participation, as it has increased opportunities for reality stars and fans to interact across the social media landscape.

 Consequently, reality tv tends to be portrayed in a negative formation with an interest in being controversial with social issues and giving a voice to deviant views that have tendency to spark public controversy. It can be contradictory in regards to how we should treat one another in society. I believe this distorted view has stemmed from a variety of reality shows that encourage and portray women to treat each other in an aggressive and disrespectful manner. Reality TV typically reveals inappropriate behaviour within peer groups, often promoting interpersonal drama, aggression and bullying. For example, women in The Real Housewives franchise gossip, back-stab and behave aggressively, condescending and catty toward one another. The expression of relational aggression between females seen across several reality shows gives girls the idea that gossiping is a normal part of a female relationship, that it’s in girls’ natures to be divisive and competitive with one another, and that being mean earns respect and is often necessary to get what you want. As we try to discourage bullying, gossiping and other forms of interpersonal aggression between young girls, it’s unfortunate that reality shows often feature adults behaving in exactly this manner, all the while continuing to gain popularity in mainstream media.

However, Graham reinforces the importance of reality tv and these communication spaces, as they help us better understand the ways citizenry is intertwined with aspects and practices of everyday life; the moments when the sense of citizenship emerges, it triggers the needs for political conversations in everyday life (Graham 2011, p.28).

References :

Biltereyst, D 2003, ‘Media Audiences and the Game of Controversy: On Reality TV, Moral Panic and Controversial Media Stories’, Media Audiences and the Game of Controversy, Vol.6, p.17

Tumblr operates as a digital community through its ability to bring individuals together online; a place where your interests connect you with your people (Tumblr 2020). It allows these individuals to share their identities with the rest of the world through the use of blogging. Furthermore, it functions digitally as it accessed online through electronic hand-held and computer devices and it operates as a community by uniting people from one side of the globe to the other.

German philosopher and sociologist Habermas, describes the ‘public sphere’ as a place where people from all walks of life come together for the purpose of using reasons to further critical knowledge, which in turn, leads to social and political change. The overall argument for the ‘public sphere’ is that it provides a space for the public to come together and debate ideas. Several researchers have criticised the idea that social media sites have not promoted unlimited access to information or provided equal access and participation (Kruse et.al 2019).

Arguably, Tumblr illustrates the importance of understanding the role of online platforms in the contemporary world. Tumblr’s flexible personal profiles allow users to experiment with marginalised identities they may want to keep private, whilst still being able to connect with likeminded individuals. The site is structured around pseudonyms rather than “singular” or “real world” identities, which has allowed the platform to become especially popular around feminists, LGBTQ community, and other marginalised youths (Keller 2020, pp. 5). Keller explores this in her research as she examines the growth and engagement in feminist politics amongst bloggers. Many women use the platform to share their personal experiences and raise awareness surrounding sexual assault, misogyny and inequality in society.

Tumblr also functions as a public forum where people can discuss more trivial and recreational topics, such as fan fiction and fan clubs for celebrities. Regardless of your interests, you will generally come across likeminded individuals you can encounter with on the platform. It is as simple as typing in a hashtag to discover a feed of relevance and to begin sharing, posting and communicating with other users.

References

Keller, J 2019, ‘“Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms, Social Media + Society, vol. 5. no. 3, p.7