#lastblogpost

Nowadays, social media has expanded worldwide and China has followed the trends of the social media. According to Mckinsey, there are 5,700 of internet users and found that around 95% of users have been registered on social media sites (Chiu, Lin&Silverman, 2012). China is the most active in social media compared to other countries. Below showed that China is the largest population of internet users compared with other cities.

What kind of social media use by China user?

Weibo

Sina Weibo is the most popular micro-blogging site in China that has been released in the year of 2009. Sina Weibo usually explained as the combination of Twitter and Facebook, this two-social website is blocked in China. With Weibo, users can upload image, video, gifs, it is similar to the function of Twitter and Facebook. Then, the user can read other people post, like their posts or re-blog their post without being followed back (Thai, 2018).

Bytheway, I am one of the users of Sina Weibo a few years ago. In my opinion, it is exactly like Facebook but Weibo is in Chinese version. I used Weibo to follow all the artists that I like, see their daily lifestyle, share their posts and comment on their posts.

WeChat

Wechat is known as the all-in-one messaging application which developed by Tencent. Users can do everything they wanted including send money to other people, make video calls, play games, and others. According to the research firm China Skinny state “WeChat touches everything for consumers communicating with their nearest and dearest, sharing their most special moments and buy everything from cinema ticket to taxi rides”. (Heath, 2015).

          Henry Jenkins III article, “Pop Cosmopolitanism” hits hard on the topic dealing with how pop culture has developed over time and on a much larger scale. Jenkins discusses many topics that we have discussed in class about how powerful people that own industries, movies, music, technology, every media source that is out there can pick and choose what they want consumers, viewers, audience, and the whole population to see and hear what they want to put out there. As Jenkins says, “ I mean this not simply in the predictable sense that American pop culture dominates (and is being shaped for) worldwide markets but also in the sense that a growing proportion of the popular culture that Americans consume comes from elsewhere” (587). The previous articles that come to mind when reading Jenkins theory are, “The Internet’s Unholy Marriage to Capitalism” by John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney, also, the article,  “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” by  Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.

          In the article “The Internet’s Unholy Marriage to Capitalism”  Foster and McChesney describes, how the internet has changed the game in a capitalist world. The way our world works revolves around the internet and the increasing improvement that technology has done from 1990′s to what the future holds. Which goes hand in hand with Jenkins theory and his perspective on the revolution in the digital world. Jenkins asserts, “Convergence begins and ends with... sooner or later all media are going to be flowing through a single black box in our living rooms, and all we have to do is figure out which black box is will be” (587). In other words, since our media is growing rapidly and improving by the second every media source that is out there, will soon come together and form as one large outlet or what Jenkins calls “Black box”. This quote explains more in-depth about Foster and McChesney's thoughts stating, “The internet, or more broadly, the digital revolution is truly changing the world” (43). An example I think that goes great with this is during Shelby’s discussion lead and the video she used describing what big corporations own what industries. Explaining how most of these corporations, to stay ahead of the game they try to put two corporations together to have a bigger business and out beat everyone else competing for power and profit. Which proves Jenkins, Fords, and McChesney theories within the media culture that as it expands it starts to form into that large outlet of media.

          Jenkins also says, “Cosmopolitans embrace cultural difference, seeking to escape the gravitational, pull off their local communities in order to enter a broader sphere of cultural experience” (588) and this as well, “Cosmopolitans use networked communication to scan the planet in search of diversity and communicate with others of their kind around the world” (591). Basically saying, that American pop culture tries to incorporate other cultures around the world showing that television, movies, music, and media itself portrays the diversity of all cultures. What Jenkins says ties in with what Adorno and Horkheimer discuss in their article explaining how technology influences the way businesses run and what they produce to the world in movies, magazines, radio, news, and music. They say, “Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art.” Adorno and Horkheimer believe that movies and radio industries use to have to means towards everything they produce and give to the audience believing that it’s something good for the people. However, that has all change for the power of businesses has grown to the point that there is no meaning anymore, boss men’s get to choose what they want to produce and what they want to show the audience, because now instead of meaning it’s basically making money. Adorno and Horkheimer claim, “They are so designed that quickness, the power of observation, and experience are undeniably needed to apprehend them.” and they also say, “The result is the circle of manipulation and how retroactive need in which the unity of the system grows even stronger.” these quotes corresponds to Jenkins claim and how in today’s media we try to incorporate other cultures to increase the diversity. However, in reality, what we try to communicate to people through media in portraying culture are considered “stereotypes” and using those as the influence on culture diversity, really means increasing the views or ratings towards those ethnicities. A good example dealing with what Jenkins, Adorno, and Horkheimer say in Rachel’s discussion lead with her different era’s of music dealing with subgroups and how people those years would portray themselves. The way producers or cosmopolitans portray culture in movies and television is through subgroups. The media increases the stereotypes of different races and they influence production to use those stereotypes to increase the number of viewers towards that race to call it “diversity”. Which Rachel describes with how music era can change a person to be that artist or band since they listen to that genre or era they try to present themselves like that in society. The same way producers and cosmopolitans do in pop culture to increase those stereotypes to the population that they need to represent themselves the same way.

Source: http://feelgrafix.com/group/china.html

I’d never really thought about the difference between social media here in the western world and that of SM in China and Asia – until I began this week’s learning materials.

When I began reading about China’s censorship laws it didn’t really surprise me. China is a communist nation and as such they would have a lot of control on what their citizens’ view on the internet and what content their citizens put out over the internet.  It was interesting to read the lengths that the government will go to keep certain types of information private: In the article The Great Firewall of China it talks about the complexity of China’s government censorship laws and breaks it down into three main types; Technical - The Great Firewall of China, Human Powered (where workforces are employed to delete posts and adds posts to spin the debate) and Self-Censorship.

 Source: https://www.opendemocracy.net/china-correspondent/great-firewall-of-china

I feel lucky that I live in a democratic world where my freedom of speech isn’t quashed by overbearing governments.

However, social media in China is bursting, and parts of it are filtering down to the rest of the world but I’d hardly say that China is leading the way.  Most of their social media sites are copies of social media platforms created by western society. For example, we have Snapchat, a platform used to share images and video with friends. China have Papa, a platform used to share images and video with family and friends.  China has Momo. This platform is a location based tool that helps you “hook up” with random people.  Sound familiar… yep, Tinder.

Basically, China have created their own social media platforms for their own country, and because the population of China and the rest of Asia is so big, social media is going off.

I was also interested to read that the popularity and use of some social media sites are based on where you live and how much you earn. In an article titled China’s Social Media Boom, Chiu, Lin and Silverman (2013) write  “Consumers who favour Sina Weibo tend to be in higher income brackets, earning more than 8,000 renminbi (about $1,300) a month, and are much more likely to live in Tier 1 cities  (Tier 1 cities are comprised of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen).

It’s something you really don’t see in the western world. Everyone has easy access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat… regardless of how much you earn.

So do I agree that China is leading the way in terms of social media? No I don’t, and Mark Zuckerberg may have something or two to say about this as well!!

Source: https://www.theinformation.com/interview-mark-zuckerberg-cover-facebook-for-the-information

China may be leading the way in their own little universe of Asian influenced, copycat versions of popular social media sites, but I do believe that, in the near future, we can look forward to being able to utilize these copycat sites here in the western world and hopefully, maybe one day, China and the rest of Asia will get to enjoy Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube.

Source: http://magicmirrorproclamations.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/faceblocked-great-firewall-of-china.html

P.S. That brings us to the end of my blog posts for MDA2009: Digital Communities.  Thanks to everyone who has left comments on my posts. Hope you enjoyed the read.

Over and Out!

References:

Chiu, C, Lin, D & Silverman, A 2012, China's social-media boom, McKinsey & Company, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/chinas_social-media_boom>.

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

The Great Firewall of China 2013, Open Democracy viewed 3 August 2016, <https://www.opendemocracy.net/china-correspondent/great-firewall-of-china>.

Texting was the fad in high school. It was all anybody wanted to do, and they wanted to do it all the time, any chance they had. Having your phone out in class resulted in a Saturday School. In college, I believe there should not be any phone restrictions. As adult students taking courses that we pay for, I believe it is up to the student how they spend their class time. A reasonable, mature, focused adult would not have their cell phone out. Regardless of who they were texting prior to class or if their friend sends them a picture of their lunch in the Oakland Center. We should KNOW to pay attention in class, WE PAY for the classes.

I, personally, prefer texting if it’s for 1) conversing with my sister who lives in East Lansing, 2) if my mom wants me to pick up something from the store 3) if my dad wants me to pick him up from work and 4) if I’m talking to my boyfriend. Other than that, short conversations making plans or talking about something that isn’t necessary for phone conversation, I really do not text. I don’t care to, I use my voice to talk to the people most important to me. I think the cons outweigh the pros when it comes to texting. People have their heads down staring at their phone screens so much that they 1) get into severe car accidents, 2) run into an object, wall, or another person texting, and 3) probably have pretty bad neck problems.