#week6post

This project is an ongoing process, above here is a picture of a draft spread that we have to create for this project to showcase the new letter we created and named. These spreads are created to showcase the process of how the letter was created and what letters were used to make the letter. As I develop more spreads, I will include the history of the font and where it originated. This process relates to our current reading as when you dissect these letters you learn about a letter’s anatomy and how to use these parts to make a letter that’s unrecognizable and new. Knowing this helps us learn the early classification of letters and why they are created. This helps us own our craft and make it distinguishable from others such as those of the nineteenth century when these classifications were made. The mixture of typefaces includes weight, size, numbers, and a whole assortment of different typefaces that you can mix to get a pleasing visual result.

In short, some people dismiss this sort of online activism, or clicktivism, as lazy, disengaged or even pointless, but the bottom line is that it’s catching on because it has proven to effect change. Meanwhile, while at all online petitions and campaigns produce direct results, at worst they help spread awareness and empower people who otherwise might not have the channels to support or promote a cause (Holmes, 2013) Thanks to social media, now anyone with an internet connection can help to do it easily and quickly, simply by sharing information about the issues they believe in with their friends and peers.

This week and throughout will be posts about Activism and how digital activism is making its mark on the world today, and how it is being used in current day to day events such as the Ukraine disturbance, while also looking at how I have personally engaged with digital activism on social media platforms. With looking at Ukraine, and what is going on there, you can see many of the social media platforms being used as a global message to promote this resistance from the Russians. In helping identifying the movements of Ukraine, you can look at the reading from Youmans & York (2012, pp. 325) which states that there are six strategies activists can exert their power and enhance social media as tools for collective action. Firstly by mass inflation of social media on all platforms to spread their messages across, secondly activists use law to apply extant legal doctrine to create new remedies against social media companies that put users at extra risk. Thirdly, activists can appeal directly to governments in the US and other countries that claim to be committed to an open Internet and democratization. Fourthly activists can work to advance industry self-regulation and fifthly, they can also pressure large social media companies via long-term, iterative, incremental advocacy. Finally, activists can embrace the development of these ‘civic technologies’. These technologies are not constrained by government or commercial gatekeepers, but instead are untethered platforms for the generation of further innovations. The point of these six strategies is what is being used from all activists and any resistance/uprising going on around the world. I believe this is the order in which one has to develop a worldwide issue to get recognition but to add to Youmans & York’s six strategies would be the connections of people. Having an influence on a celebrity or a well followed person, such as Ellen DeGeneres or Katy Perry, you have 100’s of millions of people instantly to receive a message, I mean check out the response from the #selfie that Ellen took at the Oscars. When it comes to likes on facebook, I still see it as a novelty in most cases. I do see the sites and advertisements for products and movements but I honestly don’t have the passion or interest in it, which doesn’t mean I am against it, I just don’t have the time, need or receive any benefits from it. Does that make me a jerk? I don’t think so. I have liked a facebook page, and I believe it’s for good intention only, It is a friend and singer who is trying to make her way up into the world through her passion and love for music. Another page I have liked is the Swinburne Stalkerspace, this isn’t really an activist group but merely a group for stating what is going on around Swinburne and what needs attention and fixing. This then is read by users from the Swinburne community groups which then petition and act in accordance with Swinburne guidelines to create a better campus for students. With looking at clicktivism, I believe there are no real negative connotations to clicktivists unless you follow the Nazi party then you are in a bit of strife. Culture jamming is problematic process because much corporate content is covered by copyright. So what is culture jamming? Roughly put, it is a form of disruption that plays on the emotions of viewers and bystanders. Jammers kind of want to distrupt the unconsious thought process that takes place when most consumers views a popular advertising and bring out a detourement. So how do they do it? Four emotions, Shock, Shame, Fear and Anger are the catalysts for social change. A good example is of the link above for the Ipod (iAddict). In finishing off, how will culture jammers continue and activists utilise social media in the future? The answer here is unclear, for culture jammers; the increase of laws and security hightens the risk of being prosecuted. Although maybe culture jamming in a very multi-cultural country like Australia isn't the best option. For Activists, social media is forever evolving, there will be new avenues and more celebrities to make this world what they want it to be. Greed will take over and activism will always be a movement as long as social media is about. References: Youmans, L. W & York, J. 2012, ‘Social Media and Activists Toolkit’, Journal of Communication, pp 315-329