DIGITAL COMMUNITIES

Global social media – Is China missing out on Social Media?

Imagine hopping on a plane to China, taking a fab photo of yourself at the Great Wall of China (not looking of course), applying a great filter to make you look tanned (slumber anyone?) and then finding that access to Instagram, Facebook and other traditional social media sites BLOCKED! (Gasp)

Yep that’s right, there is no access to these sites in China but instead this country embraces their own forms of networks such as Qzone, Weibo and Renren.

But don’t think not being able to get onto Facebook stops any Chinese residents from using social media.

“Social media is deeply integrated into people’s lives in China, and it is kind of like the first time a public sphere has happened there” (Anti, 2012).

“China’s social-media users not only are more active than those of any other country but also, in more than 80 percent of all cases, have multiple social-media accounts.” (Chiu, Ip & Silverman, 2012)

The different social media platforms China uses, makes it impossible for businesses and brands to use the same advertising techniques they would on say Facebook or Twitter. With this in mind, many companies have adapted their ‘social media campaigns’ to fit China’s market.

For example, we have all seen Dove’s real beauty campaign which was highly successful with the American and Australian market. If you haven’t seen it, basically Dove used different women in all shapes and skin tones to promote their products and the meaning of true beauty. However, this campaign did not wash over (pun not intended) so well with the Chinese market as consumers viewed the real women as ugly and overweight and were not inclined to buy Dove’s products.

Dove then decided to change its plan and partnered with Ugly Wudi, the Chinese adaptation of the US television show Ugly Betty, to weave the Real Beauty message into story lines and use interactive programs such as a blog by Wudi and live online chats to generate the message. “This increased uptake of Dove body wash by 21 percent year over year after the show’s first season, and increased unaided awareness of Dove’s Real Beauty by 44 percent among target consumers” (Chiu, Ip & Silverman 2012).

Week 10 presentation - https://prezi.com/e4mmlmamzcd8/social-gaming/#

Sexual harassment occurs often in many online settings. Specifically, 65% of women report harassment and receive three times as much derogatory or insulting remarks than men.

It’s the sexist remarks, rape jokes and threats, and sexual harassment, according to a recent study from Ohio state university that turns women away from playing video games.

#Gamergate is an online movement considered with ethics in game journalism and with protecting the ‘gamer’ identity.

It began as an attack on Zoe Quinn, a female game developer after claims that she allegedly cheated on her boyfriend (who is also a game developer) with other people in the game journalism world just to get publicity for her games.

Soon her number and address were made available to the world and the threats against her became so bad that she left her house and began couch surfing.

After this, gamers decided to switch their hate from Zoe to the games journalism industry. Basically because they think that all the people who review games, are too close with developers and therefore their review becomes bias.

A popular blogger, Anna Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency, created a Youtube video series called Tropes Vs Women in Video Games examining gender metaphors in video games.

She funded the series using crowdfund, however this triggered a campaign of harassment from segments of the video game culture. Attackers sent her death and rape threats, hacked her webpages and social media, vandalized her article on Wikipedia, and posted disparaging comments online. One attacker even created a computer game that allowed players to punch a picture of her.

In her videos, she finds disturbing, recurring themes in the ways that women are depicted in games, from blockbusters such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty to small titles such as Splatterhouse and MediEvil 2.

However, there are some Aussie companies trying to remove the gender labels from video games.

Just a couple of days ago this was posted online. A JB Hi-Fi in Melbourne has created a “games for girls” display, which breaks down gender stereotypes in the gaming community.

From mental illness to cancer to multiple sclerosis, the health industry is increasingly turning to our social networks to raise awareness and funds to help stop these diseases.

“Social media has enhanced communication between individuals and organizations and it has the potential to augment public health communication.” (Thackery, Neiger, Smith & Wagenen 2012)

In December 2014, my father lost his battle with prostate cancer. One year later, my family decided to create a donation page for men’s prostate cancer as well as having a BBQ fundraiser to create awareness about this terrible disease. The response was incredible. Together with money from the fundraiser day, we managed to raise $5,120 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. From that, $2000 was raised online by creating awareness on social media from posting and sharing the link on Facebook.

This was the first time that I had personally seen how powerful social media can be in raising money for a serious issue. We had people from all over Australia sharing our page, some of which did not know my dad or been affected by the disease personally but believed it was an important enough issue to be broadcasted.

Prostate Cancer is still a very big problem as it is proven that 1 in 7 Australian men will be diagnosed at some point in their lifetime. The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia is quite prominent on social media in their attempt to combat this issue. Their recent campaign #pass4prostate teams up with the Australian Rugby Union and their match sponsor, Astellas to challenge Australian men to face up to important health issues.

#Pass4Prostate is a global social media campaign in which participants are encouraged to post a video of themselves “throwing a football pass” on social media using the campaign hash tag to trigger donations from Astellas to prostate cancer foundations around the world (Lowe, 2015)

It is no doubt powerful people on social media including celebrities and well known personalities have the power to reach a wide audience on important health issues. “Celebrities often speak personally and bring compelling authenticity to public discourse.” (Chapman, 2012)

We are using the internet for everything these days, especially social media sites (for example even our uni assignments are on Tumblr instead of on paper), that it makes sense that we use these sites in times of crisis and disaster.

The term ‘Crowd source’ refers to obtaining (information or input into a particular task or project) by enlisting the services of a number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet.

Crowd sourcing can be used for ridiculous requests such as one women wanting $2000 for a “Midlife crisis squirrel tattoo”, but on the serious side, social media now plays a critical role in natural disasters as an information propagator.

The fact that we can access information so quickly and easily now has allowed emergency services to reach more people and to target the exact areas where people are being affected.

However, the problem with everyone reporting on social media moments after something major happens is that the truth becomes inaccurate and it is hard to know what has really happened or what someone thinks has happened.

“Social networks offer valuable, factual sources, but in the precious hours following a disaster, they become a real-life version of the Telephone game we played as kids: One kernel of truth gets so distorted, so exaggerated, that it turns into a rumour at best and a malicious lie at worst.” (McGarry, 2013)

Facebook has created a ‘Safety Check’ which alerts others that their friends are safe from a natural disaster that has occurred. It can speed up the process of response and recovery and relieves family or friends from worry or stress knowing their loved ones are ok.

However, Facebook’s safety check has received some scrutiny from users.

Some people have become more stressed waiting for their friends and families to mark safe and when they don’t, automatically think the worst. In reality, during some disasters, access to the internet can be interrupted which means people are unable to check in safely.

I remember during the Nepal earthquake I got notification after notification from my Facebook friends “marking” they were safe. These people were obviously nowhere near Nepal, half of them probably didn’t even know where Nepal was and yet they were clicking that they were “safe”. In this instance, I think it becomes a bit of a joke for what is in fact a serious matter.

Another issue is that who decides what disasters are worthy for the safety check to be activated? “Is Safety Check only for “natural” disasters? And how “big” is big enough to qualify?” (Vota, 2015).