From Boilermaker to Bachelor Degree.

Selfies and social media seem to go hand in hand, like a match made in heaven. Snapchat and Instagram seem to be flooded with selfies. So much so there is even a song about taking selfies and using Instagram filters by the Chainsmokers appropriately called #selfie (The Chainsmokers 2015). The dominance of social media can be regarded as narcissistic (Murray 2015, p. 490). I admit I have taken my fair share of selfies and share them to social media. Events like my birthday, achievements like buying my first home and even on my wedding day; these moments were documented by me taking a selfie.

These days we connect to each other by sharing moments of our lives in photos on social media or videos. These photos have become an essential part of communication especially online with each other. Almost everyone has access to a camera from your phone, your computer or an actual camera.

Something that I learnt this week is an app called The French Girls App. I think the name comes from Titanic. However, it has become such a meme, even I have taken a photo of my friend whilst he was lying on a hospital bed waiting to be seen by a doctor for his torn achilles, blowing on a green whistle using the snapchat app outlining him and captioning it “draw me like one of your French girls.” However, I digress. The French Girls App is about posting your selfie an having complete strangers draw a portrait of you (frenchgirlsapp 2014) but you get to keep your clothes on unlike Kate Winslet.

Tenor 2017

Highsnobiety 2019

Just like that Snapchat was dead. Snapchat has over 186 million daily users, generating over 10 billion views per day (Statista 2018), however Kylie Jenner is no longer one of them.

It was unavoidable that an app like Snapchat would be created with the release of mobile phones with inbuilt cameras and readily available internet access. It became so normal to take a photo of every moment and share them instantly on your chosen social network. This method of story telling has become a staple in the way we communicate with each other.

The appeal of Snapchat was that images we posted only visible to other users for a short time, but it’s gone (Tillman & Betters 2018). Perfect for creeps to send photos of their unwanted genitalia. I joke but it is a serious issue. But just like Snapchat’s photo disappearing so is its popularity with one tweet from Kylie Jenner. Yes, we live in a world where one tweet from Kylie Jenner can cost your company $1.3 billion dollars (Highsnobiety 2019). Its scary to say but this is reality.

References

Frenchgirlsapp, 2014, viewed 27 27 January, 2019, <https://www.frenchgirlsapp.com/>.

Murray, D. C. (2015). Notes to self: the visual culture of selfies in the age of social media. Consumption Markets & Culture, 18(6), 490-516.

Highsnobiety 2019, Kylie Jenner’s Tweet Did Not Cost Snapchat $1.3 Billion, viewed 27 January, 2019, <https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/kylie-jenner-snapchat-tweet/>.

Statista 2018, Number of daily active Snapchat users from 1st quarter 2014 to 3rd quarter 2018 (in millions), Statista, viewed 6 January 2018, <https://www.statista.com/statistics/545967/snapchat-app-dau/>.

Tenor 2017, I Want You To Draw Me Like One Of Your French Girls GIF, viewed 27 January, 2019, <https://tenor.com/view/titanic-kate-winslet-leonardo-di-caprio-voglio-gif-8627264>.

Tillman, M & Betters, E 2018, ‘What is Snapchat, how does it work and what is it used for?’, Pocket-Lint, 27 September, viewed 6 January 2018, <https://www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/snapchat/131313-what-is-snapchat-how-does-it-work-and-what-is-it-used-for>.

Back in 2006, Jeff Howe wrote a story about some outsourced images and used the term crowdsourcing to describe how organisations used the internet to source goods and services. Crowdsourcing is described by Wilson, Bhakoo and Samson as an organisation taking a task and outsourcing it to a network of providers, usually large crowds (2018, pp. 1467-1468). Howe revisits his initial article in 2013 to demonstrate the success story of Japan’s Muji and describe an oncoming trend, as big jobs are converted to many smaller ones to be crowdsourced.

Hossain & Kauranen (2015, PP.2-3) explain well-known projects of the past have used crowdsourcing principles. An example of this was the Longitude Prize during the eighteenth century, with the realisation of the advantage of successful and accurate navigation of the oceans.

Not all modern examples are a roaring success, though. Cappuccino flavoured chips by Frito Lay are a pretty good example of the crowd taking the Michael.

Crowdsourcing in the 21st century generates game-changing platforms like GE’s Fuse, which has been used to pool innovations that tackle technical problems like data collection from machinery around the world (Kloberdanz 2017). Equally impressive is the Ushahidi platform, which has become an acclaimed platform helping people gain a voice or assistance(Ford 2012, pp. 34-35). During the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, volunteers in New Zealand and abroad used Ushahidi to help with information on road conditions, supplies and services in conjunction with Twitter hashtags. #eqnz or #helpme (McMurren, Verhulst & Young 2016, pp.7-8).

In an article for the Australian Journal of Emergency Management, the potential for refining crowdsourcing and microtasking in emergency management was explored. Previous successes utilising mobile telephony and social media to better harness crowdsourced information from the public were explained. However, the authors expressed the need of good digital citizenship in the fair treatment of paid overseas contributors (Poblet, Fitzpatrick & Chhetri 2017 PP. 48-52).

Having previously been an active member of the SES for many years, I’ve seen the importance of trust and community resilience during challenging times when people fear they’ve lost everything. Tapping and combining the social capital existing as a result of social media and emergency preparedness can reverse some of the capital lost through technology use and discussed here. 

An article regarding Victoria’s Community Fireguard showed how the program developed a sense of preparedness and strong social bonds within communities (MacDougall, Gibbs & Clarke 2014, p.264). Social capital developed within programs where the community works together to build networks and certain types of social capital. Using social media, like that cited by Siapera (pp.203-204) then compliments that capital with it’s own.

Crowdsourcing, whether it be paid assistance or free, is a brand new ocean for organisations to navigate and seek advantage. It has applications across business and essential services, including emergency services. In some instances, it can contribute to the trust and resilience within communities, whether large or small, real world or digital.   

Before I researched this topic, I knew very little about gaming. I always thought it was anti-social time-wasting behaviour of those who engaged in online games. However, research suggests that 55 percent of gamers play with others and that gaming is now recognised as a social activity (Crawford & Rutter 2007, p. 4). I can see that there are many benefits to social gaming including its capacity to bring people together.

Social computing is the social and interactive behaviour between computer users, includes social networking sites (e.g., Facebook) and multiplayer online games (e.g., fortnight). Although fairly new, fortnight is one of the most popular multi-player games at present and allows users to come together to fight off evil and fight off each other. Ertan & Medeni (as seen in EC JRC 2009) defines social computing as a “set of open, web-based and user-friendly applications that enable users to network, share data, collaborate and co-produce content”.

Some online games use the collaborative natures of gaming to structure the culture, norms and rules around how games are facilitated among users. EVE Online, a space-themed hugely multiplayer web-based amusement (MMOG), affords players a channel of correspondence with game managers and developers by effectively empowering player participation in game management (Zwart & Humphreys 2014, p. 77).

Online gaming facilitates digital communities because it brings people together through the value of shared experience. To form friendship and share interests with other users is what online gaming affords. Social media has enabled these connections to take place and grow through the now larger audience reach it provides. Social gaming is developing an important component in today’s social media sites with social networking sites offering a place for online games to progress in the virtual medium. (Aburahmah et al. 2016, p. 72). Now with the facilitation of social media sites, online gaming is continuing to grow as an opportunity to engage with others through communication and discussions.

According to Crawford & Rutter (2007, p. 1), 

“though the origins of digital gaming can be traced back to the 1950s, it was not until the late 1970s and 1980s that digital gaming began to develop as a leisure activity”. 

But with the benefits of online gamily producing digital communities, there are always going to be risks. Some say that people become addicted to the games and it changes the behaviour in adolescents, making them angry and at times lashing out in violence. Research Internet gamers reported 40% of massively multiplayer online role-playing games users categorized themselves as “addicted to the game’ with one in six reporting frequent problems in life due to “Facebook” use (Geisel et al. 2015, p. 2).

References

Aburahmah, L, AlRawi, H, Izz, Y & Syed, L 2016, ‘Online Social Gaming and Social Networking Sites’, Procedia Computer Science, vol. 82, pp. 72-79, viewed 30 January 2019, <https://ac-els-cdn-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/S1877050916300254/1-s2.0-S1877050916300254-main.pdf?_tid=e7680ead-c2a4-46e3-abb4-c7fecd7e5b4d&acdnat=1548820467_1fe91c293688c1d370fce69689da3908>.

Crawford, G. & Rutter, J., 2007, ‘Playing the Game: performance in digital game audiences’ in Gray, J., Sandvoss, C., and Harrington, C.L. (eds), Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, New York: New York University Press, pp. 271-281.

de Zwart, M & Humphreys, S 2014,‘The Lawless Frontier of Deep Space: Code as Law in EVE Online’, Cultural Studies Review, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 77-99.

Ertan, A & Medeni, T 2011, ‘A LITERATURE REVIEW ON TRUST, PRIVACY CONCERN AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES & ONLINE FANTASY ROLE-PLAYING GAMES’, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF eBUSINESS AND eGOVERNMENT STUDIES, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 21-29, viewed 30 January 2019, <http://www.sobiad.org/eJOURNALS/journal_IJEBEG/arhieves/2011_2/03asli_ertan.pdf>.

Geisel, O, Panneck, P, Stickel, A, Schneider, M & Müller, C 2015, “Characteristics of Social Network Gamers: Results of an Online Survey”, Frontiers in Psychiatry, vol. 6, no. 69, pp. 1-5, viewed 30 January 2019, <https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00069/full>.

Online Gaming [IMAGE], in GIPHY 2019, Sassy Star Wars Gif, viewed 30 January 2019, <https://giphy.com/search/online-gaming>.

Person gaming [IMAGE], in Tripwire 2019, The State of Security, viewed 30 January 2019, <https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/vert/checklist-online-gaming-privacy/>.

Finally the blog post I really wanted to write. I was more motivated to write about Social Gaming than all the other topics. I being a gamer really felt connected to this topic and I disagree with anyone who says that social gaming is just keyboard warriors in their mum’s basement. For starters my mum doesn’t have a basement. The countless hours that I have lost paying World of Warcraft, Halo, Counter Strike, Call of Duty. I might have finished my degree maybe 2-3 years ago. I took a break from my last studies before embarking on my Business degree 5 years ago. I will admit online study has taken away all my gaming time however gaming for 5 years doesn’t get me much, other than achievements on my Xbox and PlayStation accounts. But I kind of get the same thing from Swinburne with my degree on some fancy paper and bonus, I also get crippling debt. Sad realisation right there.

I would say I’m not an active gamer anymore, I would categorise myself as a casual gamer and Fortnite is perfect for that.

So, you might be asking where is the social aspect to all of this? Well, when I play, I’m normally hooked up with a microphone, playing and talking with my friends, as we plot world domination. I have always played in groups with friends, I have even made friends with people from some of my games who I would consider lifelong friends now.

So why Fortnite? If somehow you have missed the storm that is Fortnite is a game that has over 200 million players worldwide (Stuart 2018). So, lets breakdown what is Fortnite?

1.       It’s playable on most computers (Mac and PC), PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, IOS and Android devices, provided your device supports its minimum system requirements (Epic Games 2019).

2.       It allows cross platform play, so people with PlayStation can play with people on Xbox .

3.       It’s quick battle royal games.

4.       Its updated regularly and is very quick to add pop culture reference in game.

Before we move on, the game play style battle royal is pretty much a fight to the death. 100 players start and last one standing takes all the glory (Epic Games 2019). Fortnite is a free to play game however Fortnite has made over $1 Billion in microtransactions (Kain, E 2018). Well that escalated quickly.

The increase number of social games means that users can interact with each other on multiple gaming platforms (Heider 1944). Good and bad interactions. I’m not saying that its all great in game land, Fortnite too, is no stranger to players using racist slurs, sexist comments and just plain terrible language. Fortnite has been linking it to multiple cases of abuse and inappropriate language (Zhou, N 2018). However, it happens everywhere, I’ve never seem to mind nor do I let it get to me. My friends and I are there to have a good time, we have a quick game chat up and then log off and continue with our lives. Its just a place for us to hangout together without actually hanging out, because God forbid, I leave my mum’s basement.

To say that social gaming isn’t social would be incorrect however I don’t personally believe it satisfy physical human interaction. I play games because it’s fun and convenient however if my friends were to invite me out to play something, I would be there in a heartbeat. I enjoy playing with friends and I enjoy the games. You make it as social as you want to be.

I leave you with my favourite but banned xbox commercial 

  72andSunny 2019

References

72andSunny 2019, Xbox 360 ad - “Standoff”, viewed 28 January, 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0VOM7e5Hug>.

Epic Games 2019, Battle Pass Season 7, viewed 13 January, 2019, .

Heider, F . 1944. Social perception and phenomenal relations. Psychol. Rev. 51, 6, 358–374

Kain, E 2018, ‘Fortnite: Battle Royale Has Made Over $1 Billion As It Completely Dominates Video Game Streaming’, Forbes, 18 July, viewed 12 January 2019, .

Though to be completely honest, I am not sure I could finish my degree without intervals of games. 1 hour study, 2 minutes in War Thunder blowing the hell out of other player. Ah the stress relief and the lack of care. Makes for a nice change from watching my grammar, word count, and content.

As a kid my favourite film maker was John Carpenter. His edgy work with science-fiction and horror had a great deal of commercial success up to the mid-eighties, but it is one of his low budget offerings I think mostly of today. The film was adapted from a short story titled “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” (Schultz 2017) and Carpenter’s film version was released as “They Live”.

It starred a former wrestler with a memorable one-liner, but was dismissed as B grade. Despite this, appreciation has grown decades later (Rothkopf 2014). The plot was simple, the central character discovers activists using broadcast signals to convince the world that hidden messages from aliens are contained within advertising, telling us to “obey”. A special set of sunglasses made the hidden messages visible. It also made the aliens visible, as you’ll see below.

They Live contained a hidden protest by Carpenter about the politics of the Reagan era in the United States (Alamo Drafthouse 2011) and messages from the film have been used over and over as a form of protest (particularly the zombie-like aliens as a suggestion someone may be false or deceptive). It’s images, along with another wrestler from long ago, have also become part of culture jamming, seen in Shepard Fairey’s work. Culture jamming as a protest against the control of corporations using consumer objects, commercials and billboards, logos, or other symbols (Wettergren 2009, p.2).

When I watched the film again with my son, he asked why they didn’t just use the internet and we had a conversation about a mythical place called the eighties. Now though, people do express a desire for social change through the internet- especially social media. It’s an obvious opportunity that emerged with new technology and brings new challenges associated with digital citizenship and the way we act online.

Author Clay Shirky links the rise of digital citizenship to emerging technology as far back as 2001. He describes the trend of technology being used for this purpose as a launch pad for activism around the globe (2011, pp.28-29). Internet users increased across this time from 738 million in the year 2000 (Davidson, 2015) to a whopping 4.17 billion in 2018. That number represents around 55% of the World’s population and almost 4 billion mobile internet users.

Jericho (2013, pp. 255- 257) demonstrated the impacts of activism as a form of digital citizenship, using examples of the Arab Uprising and Oscar Morales and his fight to stop Colombian revolutionaries who had engaged in executions, torture, kidnappings and more during civil conflict in Columbia (Brett 2003, pp.88-101).

Flew et al. (2012, pp. 160-161) explains the options for people to engage in serious public communication, such as a citizen journalism role or underground channels like Wikileaks, have increased.

Like wrestling, there is an argument that perhaps not all activism is genuine. Slactivism, sub-activism and clicktivism are terms for low-effort activism through likes or clicks without engagement. An example given was the copy and paste of letters or protests through social media (McCafferty 2011 pp.17-18). In an interview, Micah White (the co-founder of the Occupy Wall Street movement) described activism as being turned into something similar to weekend entertainment (Funnell 2017).

Even the Obey culture jamming has been questioned, pondering what activism is when it starts to resemble the thing it was protesting against in the first place (Lewis 2013).

The mission for social movements has been made easier through social media, but the appropriate use of the internet relating to activism is something we don’t think of enough. Particularly, we need ensure signals aren’t blurred about whether online activism is aimed to achieve a social goal or something else entirely. Activism can be life or death for some in the world. Breaching law is a risk many activists take to bring attention to laws that were unfair in the first place. As the internet opens channels to new cultures, it may even be that law is absent in that region.

Have you ever protested something you felt passionate about? Did you use social media or the internet to do so?

References

Alamo Drafthouse 2011, ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE - THEY LIVE John Carpenter, 7 June, viewed 25 January 2019, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAOyt37Mi5I>

Brett, S 2003, You’ll Learn Not to Cry: Child Combatants in Colombia. Human Rights Watch.

Davidson, J 2015, Here’s How Many Internet Users There Are, Money, viewed 1 January 2019, < http://money.com/money/3896219/internet-users-worldwide/>.

Flew, T, Spurgeon, C, Daniel, A & Swift, A 2012 The Promise of Computational Journal, Journalism Practice, vol. 6, no.2, pp. 157-171.

Funnell, A 2017, From slacktivism to ‘feel-good’ protests, activism is broken: Here’s how to fix it, ABC, viewed 19 December 2018, < https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-25/activism-is-broken-heres-how-we-fix-it/9077372>.

Jericho, G 2013, Rise of the Fifth Estate : Social Media and Blogging in Australian Politics, Scribe Publications Pty Ltd., Carlton North.

Lewis, W 2013, How did OBEY go from an anti-corporate anti-Man street un-brand to Made in China fratboy wear?, Elephant Journal, viewed 25 January 2019, < https://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/06/how-did-obey-go-from-an-anti-corporate-anti-man-street-un-brand-to-made-in-china-fratboy-wear/>.

McCafferty, D 2011, ‘Activism vs. slacktivism’, Communications of the ACM, vol. 54, no. 12, pp. 17–19.

obeygiantart 2011, Shepard Fairey talks about the film “They Live” 6 July, viewed 26 January 2019, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=38&v=J24p8QhrWSE>.

Rothkopf, J 2014, Empire of the Sunglasses: How ‘They Live’ Took on Republicans and Won, Rolling Stone, viewed 29 December 2018, < https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/empire-of-the-sunglasses-how-they-live-took-on-republicans-and-won-173344/>.

Schultz, C 2017, Book vs. Comic vs. Film: “Eight O'Clock in the Morning” vs. “Nada” vs. “They Live”, Lit Reactor, viewed 26 January 2019, < https://litreactor.com/columns/book-vs-comic-vs-film-eight-oclock-in-the-morning-vs-nada-vs-they-live>.

Shirky, C 2011, ‘The political power of social media: technology, the public sphere, and political change,’ Foreign Affairs, vol. 90, no.1, pp. 28-38. 

Statista 2018, Global digital population as of October 2018 (in millions), Statista, viewed 10 January 2019, < https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/>.

Are you influenced by political opinion through social media?

Political discourse online is a great example of digital citizenship. Matters of state are often debated online as part of our civic culture. Some days, social media goes into meltdown with political news and views. That discourse can originate with international agitators, as well as domestic contributors like politicians and citizen journalists (Young 2010, pp.205-216).

But is everyone doing the right thing?

Digital citizenship has many definitions and it’s probably best to try and nail that down first using some academic opinions that range from attitudes and participation in politics and policy (Mossberger, Tolbert & McNeal 2008, pp. 4-9), to citizenship beliefs such as freedom of speech, welfare and dignity (Isin & Ruppert 2015, pp.19-23). Crockett (2015, pp. 39-40) describes appropriate dealings using internet tools across finance, ethical and moral considerations, health and well-being, people, values, the environment and more.

Digital citizenship is about a person’s behaviour online, their responsibilities and how they contribute as a citizen.

This links to our civic culture as the tie between politics and society contributing to an effective political system. Civic culture includes the way we communicate about politics online, as well as things like respect, trust and consensus, it connects with digital citizenship to provide positive actions by populations (Couldrey et al. 2014, pp. 615-617).

Digital citizenship and civic culture will be further discussed across future blog entries, so stick a pin in that.

Social media is a big player in our civic culture, to the tune of 3.4 billion social media accounts worldwide (Statistica 2018). All factions of political parties, activist groups, commentators and even internet trolls have a line to huge audiences in either a one-size-fit capacity, or differentiated to suit their tastes through networked individualism. Unprecedented numbers of social media users mean increased capacity for communication and engagement, Obama was the benchmark for this in 2008 and discussed here. 

Those who choose to influence through social media may not be what they seem, though. They may not even be real.

In the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, fake social media accounts designed through computer code to act human were used. Social media robots searched for phrases/hashtags or keywords, followed user accounts, added to public lists and even judged public opinion. Organisations like Pandora can create an artificial intelligence, while less-advanced code is easily available online for budget-conscious, internet propaganda enthusiasts (Bessi & Ferrara, 2016).

Recently, Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project revealed political interference across numerous geographical borders (Howard & Woolley 2018 pp. 6-7).  In relation to the United States 2016 Presidential Election, the authors described ‘armies of bots’ battling with information to influence the vote on social media (2018 pp.190-193).  

Political opinions expressed across social media, amateur or otherwise, have been called into question. Social media entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, play a political role across geographical zones around the world as fake news and fake accounts are used strategically. Large contingents of social media accounts can influence elections and policy using Facebook and other networks. 

Facebook hasn’t exactly been falling over itself trying to rectify the situation, either. Indeed, financial values attributed by markets to those social media organisations are heavily influenced by user quantities and may now be causing a reluctance to self-regulate. Responsibility to act falls somewhere between the complex debate on government regulation, corporate citizenship on the digital spectrum (Hoff-Clausen & Ihlen 2015, pp. 18-35) and digital citizenship by the individuals within. 

There is no question that political players and commentators now heavily engage using social media, but are they acting responsibly or interfering with a sovereign state’s democratic process?

What’s your views on fake news and social media accounts across Facebook and other networks?

References

Bessi, A & Ferrara, E 2016, ‘Social Bots distort the 2016 U.S. Presidential election online discussion’, First Monday, Vol.21, No.11, viewed 2 January 2019, <https://firstmonday.org/article/view/7090/5653>.

Couldry, N, Stephansen, H, Fotopoulou, A, MacDonald, R, Clark, W & Dickens, L 2014, ‘Digital citizenship? Narrative exchange and the changing terms of civic culture’, Citizenship Studies, vol. 18, no. 6-7, pp. 615-629.

Crockett, L 2015, ‘Conversation: Digital Citizenship,’ The Social Educator, vol.33, no.1, pp. 39-43.

Hoff-Clausen , E & Ihlen, O 2015, ‘The Rhetorical Citizenship of Corporations in the Digital Age’, in Adi, A, Grigore, G & Crowther D (eds) Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Age (Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility), Volume 7, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.17 – 37.

Howard, PN & Woolley, SC 2018, Computational Propaganda, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Isin, EF & Ruppert, ES 2015, Being Digital Citizens, Rowman & Littlefield International, London.

Mossberger, K, Tolbert, C & McNeal, R 2008, Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Statista 2018, Global digital population as of October 2018 (in millions), Statista, viewed 10 January 2019, < https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/>

This is a good question. Personally I am more political player and commentators have ever acted responsibly. People have always tried to interfere with the process. Just look at the Indonesian elections of recent years. Offline the interference was huge. To make it worse, looks like it will happen again.

Crowdsourcing in times of crisis, but what is crowdsourcing. The Cambridge Dictionary defines, crowdsourcing as the activity of giving tasks to a large group of people or to the general public, for example, by asking for help on the internet (Cambridge English Dictionary 2019). When I think of crowdsourcing, I often think of all the crazy events where I found out about it because Facebook starts a let people know you are safe program. I feel like I learn about natural disasters on Facebook faster then I learn about it from the news. I work a 9-5 job and in my moment of procrastination I often check Facebook and that’s how most of the time I find out that something terrible happened. People often look to social media including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram for all the latest updates and details on the events both good and bad. I know I do.

(Crowdsourcingweek 2019)

Social media has the ability to connect the whole world with a touch of your finger especially in time of a disaster. It also has the amazing has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives and help get assistances to the neediest survivors of a disaster (Wiederhold, 2013, p. 781).

These days you can’t go past something tragic event happening without a GoFundMe page popping up. You can find any cause you are passionate about and donate a little or a lot depending on what you are feeling. People can even go fund a complete stranger’s wedding. A quick search on GoFundMe for the word wedding comes up with 43470 results found (GoFundMe 2019). Now crowdfunding isn‘t always for personal gain. The Cambridge Dictionary defines, crowdfunding as a practice of getting people to each give a small amount of money to provide the necessary finance for a project, usually through the internet or social media (Cambridge English Dictionary 2019). Other sites crowdfundning platforms include Kickstarter, which is the world’s largest funding platform non-personal agendas. Kickstarter funds creative projects such as film, music, art and designs (Kickstarter 2019). Another site for crowdfunding is Indiegogo. Indiegogo is like Kickstarter but also allows personal funding as well as funding for human rights (Indiegogo 2019). Using social media to promote your crowdfunding project you can depending on the purpose of your project or cause, find the appropriate site to use as a medium to begin to promote and beginning funding your campaign. What a world we live it in today.

References

Cambridge English Dictionary 2019, CROWDFUNDING | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary, viewed 27 January, 2019, <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/crowdfunding>.

Cambridge English Dictionary 2019, CROWDSOURCING | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary, viewed 27 January, 2019, <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/crowdsourcing>.

Crowdsourcingweek 2019, 14-Parts-of-the-Crowd-Economy, viewed 27 January, 2019, <https://crowdsourcingweek.com/14-parts-of-the-crowd-economy-landscape/>.

GoFundMe 2019, GoFundMe: #1 In Fundraising & Crowdfunding Online, viewed 27 January, 2019, <https://au.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=homepage_norma/search&term=wedding>. Indiegogo 2019, Indiegogo: Crowdfund Innovations & Buy Unique Products, viewed 27 January, 2019, <https://www.indiegogo.com>.

Week 7 - Trolling and Social Media Conflict. 

After reading Danah Boyd’s article of whether social media is amplifying bullying, i believe that it is important to understand that the use of technology and platforms is not the blame for the use of drama that arises between peers, however, to understand and focus on the use of media platforms and technology, that have enhanced personal conflicts and made dynamics of bullying visible. (Boyd 2014) 

Anyone who uses social media platforms throughout their life has most probably either experienced trolling, trolled another individual or witnessed trolling of others. Trolls are full of negativity. So, how do we handle trolls on social media platforms? 

Well first, what is a troll? 

Trolls are individuals who try and put people down. This is seen as a form of bullying as they get pleasure of seeing how many feelings they can hurt by writing negative information towards people or about people to get a response. To keep a reputation online and thrive with positivity. Follow these 5 steps to accomplish just that. 

Step 1 - Establish a Policy 

Establishing a policy will help detail what comments will be allowed on your media platforms. This helps trolls disappear and create a more friendly and engaging environment in the social media world. 

Step 2- Kill them with Kindness

With the use of humour, lightness and kindness, turn the tables around and respond to the troll with a positive comment. This can be seen as a great way to bring in positive attention as well kill the troll with kindness!

Step 3- Choose a path that is positive

It is important to learn to laugh at many trolls. Ignore their nasty comments and do not let them get to you, because the troll will then think they have won. It is important to remember you are the better person as you do not bring people down. 

Step 4- Unmask them 

Many trolls thrive on being anonyms, if you take away that power, it can result in that troll to think twice about what they may post on your platform. 

Step 5- Create your own community

My last and most favourite step is to create your own community. This means deleting negative people, blocking them and having no contact with them at all. By doing this, you are creating a positive community within your social media platforms and you will also see less of trolling of others and even yourself as the use of negative people on your media platforms have now disappeared. 

remember, “ Sometimes you just have to take a step back and realise what’s important in your life, what you can live with, but more importantly what you can’t live without” - Lauren Conrad 

References

arabiangazette.com, ‘ Is Online Identity To The Youth In A Contemporary Society? [image] in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&biw=932&bih=470&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=DlItXNOVIIOA8wXooYP4Cw&q=media+platforms+friendly&oq=media+platforms+friendly&gs_l=img.3…3225.9524..9835…0.0..0.305.4808.0j17j6j1……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0..0j0i67j0i30j0i5i30j0i24.Gg6hzh6_mG8#imgdii=jftdv6fYFjBgrM:&imgrc=5Ei2kLGnorBAzM:> 

Boyd, D 2014, It’s complicated: the social lives of networked teens

Daily Mail, ‘Cheerleaders sassy expression’ [image] in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com/search?q=sassy+face&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=0NLLvkLkKfNxeM%253A%252C2wa-1A9ec1cY2M%252C_&usg=AI4_-kTadicelHOXA37h8BOqNHvwebpoYg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwixgquKqtDfAhXBgLwKHUNKCgkQ9QEwA3oECAUQCg#imgrc=0NLLvkLkKfNxeM:> 

MIT Sloan School of Management, ‘ Probing the origins of happiness [image] in Google, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=cFQtXMK7E8GE8wWtubW4Ag&q=happiness&oq=happiness&gs_l=img.3..0j0i67l4j0l3j0i67j0.1596.3012..3096…0.0..0.295.1833.0j4j4……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0.HuaICj7lN0E#imgrc=g8qq0_6z8bInGM:> 

Activism 

“The policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change” (Oxford Dictionaries 2019).

How activists communicate has expanded to an uprising of new media activism ‘Clicktivism’ - a way for activists to use the internet to support a political or social cause. While some believe that this has brought more opportunities to spread a message and support a movement. It has also brought to activism a sense of passivity - “acceptance of what happens, without active response or resistance” (Oxford Dictionaries 2019).

A real-world example of this passivity is the campaign of warlord Joseph Kony ‘Kony 2012’. Kony was a movement by non-profit organization Invisible Children was created to raise awareness about Joseph Kony and stop Kony and his violent militant army. The video became a huge viral sensation with over 100 million views and 1.3 million likes. 

You can view the Kony 2012 video below, warning video contains upsetting images.

So, what happened to this campaign? In the end, the viral sensation died to be replaced by the newest craze in social media. Invisible Children did not achieve their objective with Uganda’s military ending its pursuit of Joseph Kony in 2017. 

But really what was their objective?

According to Invisible Children, “KONY 2012 was an experiment” (Invisible Children 2014). To the people who suffered at the hands of Kony and the people who got on board the movement, many believed there was a much more profound sense in what they were trying to achieve. However, if you go on to the Invisible Children website to try access the video it says the film “no longer exists”. Between an experiment and a video that no longer exists, it becomes apparent why there is so much criticism around clicktivism. 

Some argue that the current disparaging utilisation of word clicktivism does not do justice to the concurrent advancement of creating innovation and modern-day methods of participation (Halupka 2014, P.116). Furthermore, Invisible Children (2014) argue that the Kony campaign still served its purpose which was to make him famous enough to get world leaders to act against the Lord’s Resistance Army (Invisible Children 2014). 

So, what of the well-known form of activism culture jamming. The aim of culture jamming is for society to see their messages and adopt a social movement towards change. This is done through sabotage advertising and consumerism by introducing noise into transmitters to a receiver, invest ads, newscasts, billboards and other media artefacts with subversive meanings (Dery, M 2010). Why is there more criticism towards clicktivism when graffiti, a form of culture jamming, cost the Australian government 1.5 billion of dollars annually for its removal?

Culture Jamming is getting people consciously involved, ego’s aside.

When I ask people if they knew that clicking the like button on a movement on social media meant they had become an activist; they all said no!

For an interesting view into Clicktivism read Activism or ‘Slacktivism’? Can the #IceBucketChallenge really change the world? 

References

Dery, M 2010, Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of Signs, Shovelware, viewed 3 January 2018, <http://markdery.com/?page_id=154>.

Halupka, M 2014, “Clicktivism: A Systematic Heuristic”, Policy & Internet, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 115-132, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/full/10.1002/1944-2866.POI355>.

Kony 2012, Invisible Children, 5 March, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc>.

Kony Meme 2019 [IMAGE], Clicktivism/Slacktivism, viewed 6 January 2019, <https://reflectionsoncampaigning.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/clicktivismslacktivism/>. 

Oxford Dictionaries 2019, activism | Definition of passivity in English by Oxford Dictionaries, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/activism>

Oxford Dictionaries 2019, passivity | Definition of passivity in English by Oxford Dictionaries, viewed 3 January 2019, <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/passivity>.

Slacktivism Meme 2019 [IMAGE], Slacktivism: Image Gallery, viewed 6 January 2019, <https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/slacktivism/photos>.

I kind of thought Cultural Jamming was more of a digital vandalism.

Week 8- Crowdsourcing in times of crisis

Before talking about the topic of crowdsourcing, it must be defined first, well what is crowdsourcing? 

Crowdsourcing focuses on work, opinions and information being obtained from a group of people who sometime work as freelanced or through a voluntary basis. They submit data through the big wide world of the internet including, smartphone applications and social media platforms. It is believed that social media is seen as one of the most effective components of crowdsourcing because it reaches a bigger audience, resulting in a more efficient and fast way of crowdsourcing. However, in times of a crisis, is crowdsourcing still as effective? i refer this to Bruns article about the 2011 Queensland floods as he makes valid points about the effectiveness of social media platforms, in this case, Twitter and how it allowed the community to help. 

In 2011, South East Queensland was hit with floods. The floods crisis went on from the 10th to the 16th of January. Through the time of the flood crisis, social media platforms were seen as effective ways of communication as updates and information were being shared with the public and locals. 

Crowdsourcing through twitter was a very effective role that was played during the time of the crisis. For example, many users of Twitter tweeted a hashtag “qldfloods” to mark a message that was relating to the topic to further the awareness of the crisis towards the users of Twitter. From the 10th to the 16th of January, 35,000 tweets were hashtagged, resulting in 50 to 60% of users retweeting the hashtag and around 40% of them users containing further information about the floods (Brun et, al, 2012, pp. 7-10). 

In my opinion, i believe that crowdsourcing through the use of the internet, especially through social media platforms is one of the most effective ways to get information across to the community. I even think it is more beneficial than the news providing this information through televisions as it is important to understand that many individuals may be at work and do not have access to a television at their worksite, however, the use of smartphones throughout the twenty first century gives crowdsourcing an effective element to raising awareness as it is a faster way to communicate to the audience of social media and can also result in raising donations to help the community that is affected much quicker. 

What do you all think about crowdsourcing being an effective element in times of a crisis? 

For further information, please refer to these links below. 

https://www.redcross.org.au/news-and-media/news/support-in-north-qld-floods 

https://goldcoastpets.com.au/2011/01/13/queensland-floods-ways-to-help-qldfloods/ 

References

Bruns, A , Burgers, J , Crawford, K & Shaw, F 2012, ‘Crisis communication on Twitter in the 2011 South East Queensland Floods’, viewed 14 January 2019, <https://eprints.qut.edu.au/48241/1/floodsreport.pdf> 

Salvation Army, ‘2011 Queensland Floods- update 30/1/2011′, [image], in Google, viewed 14 January 2019, <https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=932&bih=519&ei=EWQ8XJjxI5f3rQGDk6qIBg&q=2011+queensland+floods&oq=2011+queensland&gs_l=img.1.0.0j0i8i30j0i24l8.576.3529..4956…0.0..0.159.2336.0j16……0….1..gws-wiz-img…..0..0i5i30.aVTEYaydH_k#imgrc=hxEOJc8AQ4YEsM:> 

Twitter, ‘Twitter (@Twitter) | Twitter’, [image] in Google, viewed 14 January 2019, <https://www.google.com/search?biw=932&bih=470&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=3mQ8XL-GFMeH9QOg2KWgBQ&q=twitter+&oq=twitter+&gs_l=img.3..0i67j0l9.11323.11323..11707…0.0..0.152.152.0j1……0….1..gws-wiz-img.II_JhAlhHMg#imgrc=gUUd1zMCwaxvPM:> 

Gillespie’s breakdown of the term ‘platform’ highlights how quickly different types of technology (software and hardware alike) have fit into a single description. It also pointed to the fickleness of the English language; for one word to have so many transformations is quite remarkable to me! This one word describes so many tools with several, varied capabilities which, on the surface, do not seem particularly similar.

One word!

-          a physical platform one stands on to address a group of people

-          a popular style of footwear

-          a website for sharing and viewing videos, photos, music and/or text

Gillespie further delves into the analysis of language in drawing attention to the deliberate use of “you” in YouTube. He highlights how using “you” in the title and catchphrase (“Broadcast Yourself”) creates appeal, because it places the focus on the individual interacting with it. The website offers and encourages users to engage with the posting and commenting functions. I don’t think I’ve personally ever posted a video that wasn’t for uni, but I do use YouTube for music (exclusively… And in an age of Spotify… How embarrassing).

Murthy’s 2012 book “Twitter: Social Communication in the Twitter Age” states that “more than 200 million tweets are sent every day”. This very well may have changed in the last five years, but I would imagine it’s only increased, no doubt in part due to ease of use and depth of reach. Twitter has become somewhat central in political discourse, including world leaders engaging with it in varying respects. Ekman & Widholm (2014) identified ‘public performed connectivity’ as one of three types of conceptual frameworks to apply to the celebritisation of politicians. They stated that “the boundaries between the public and the private become partly dissolved” when politicians participate in social media, making them appear more human to the general public. I remember seeing Barack Obama with a rapping Lin Manuel-Miranda outside the White House and thinking, “when did this guy get cool?”

In Gillespie’s conclusion he states “A term like ‘platform’… is carefully massaged so as to have particular resonance for particular audiences inside particular discourses”. I think he sums it up eloquently here, because while YouTube and Twitter have little in common at first glance, both have given and continue to provide the opportunity for regular people – those of us with little to no influence otherwise – a voice, and therefore the potential to engage with entertainment and social issues alike.

REFERENCES

Gillespie, T 2010, 'The politics of platforms’, New Media & Society, vol. 12, no. 3, Sage.

Ekman, M & Widholm, A 2014, “Twitter and the celebritisation of politics”, Celebrity Studies, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 518-520, viewed 10 December, 2014, <https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2014.981038?scroll=top&needAccess=true>.

I really had not thought of this until I read your blog:

                     “a popular style of footwear”

Maybe this is the most accurate description so far. What digital platform do you wear? For me ithas been MySpace, FaceBook and LiveJournal. I wput them on an run with them, until they grow old, then I chuck them out and get a new one.

Uncle Wez