An excellent post! Love the personal touch at the beginning in which you mention chat rooms in the early days of digital media,  I concur that the privacy issue is of concern. Someone such as myself would be extremely uncomfortable with their image being online as I don’t even partake in photos if I can help it. Just not comfortable in front of a camera. So if someone was able to manage a photo that I was included in, I would not be happy for this to be posted online!

What’s behind a ‘Selfie’?

In December of 1998 I was able to taste, for the first time, what it felt to ‘chat’ with another person through a computer. This was only possible because of the Internet of course, but also because of the chat rooms that were created for this end so that people could connect and ‘talk’ without using their voices. It’s been almost 20 years and I can still remember my fascination for talking to someone in Philadelphia or Johannesburg whom I had never met, and whom I would probably never meet either. It felt as if the future had finally arrived.

‘Do you have a photo of yourself’?  

Millennials may be surprised, but this question was a commonplace in most conversations during the early years of chat rooms – just as frequent as its equally anachronistic answer: ‘Sorry, I don’t have a scanner’. Almost twenty years later, not only do we have the possibility to take as many photos of ourselves as we pleased, but we have turn this practice into a real cultural thing.

NETWORKED VISUALITY The growth of the selfie culture – an arms-length self-portrait taken with a smartphone or a webcam with the purpose of being share in social media (Selfiecity 2014) – has led to a new level of online interaction in social networks. Indeed, a large amount of social media users – particularly adolescents and young adults – are nowadays using images as a way of building and sharing their life narratives (Vivienne and Burgess 2013). This phenomena is known as ‘Networked Visuality’ (Hjorth 2011), and its impact is such that a number of social media platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram were created specifically to foster (and take advantage of) this trend. Of interest, according to Selfiecity women take more selfies than men.

For another perspective on the Selfie issue, watch this very engaging TED Talk called ‘Me, my selfie and I’. 

  PRIVACY: THAT THING FROM THE PAST One of the major issues associated with the sharing of images photos and videos is privacy. Or I should say, the lack of privacy. Indeed, not everyone is happy about showing themselves in social media, with the potential of being seen my countless of curious friends of friends. In this respect, one may feel tempted to say something like ‘Well, then do not share those photos’. Fair enough, but what if it was not the actual person who uploaded that photo, and it was rather a Facebook friend? Moreover, what if you do not even do social media but you attend to a party, have lots of fun, and then you are tagged in a number of photos shared on Facebook? 

In a focus group aimed at exploring the social media privacy issue, Besmer and Lipford (2010) found that incriminating evidence was one of the main concerns among participants. Specifically, people’s main fear was being caught by the camera when drunk. In a less serious fashion, people were also urged to delete photos of themselves uploaded by others where they were in an ‘unfavourable light’ (AKA ‘I look terrible!’) (Besmer and Lipford 2010). Interestingly enough, this focus group found that no participant related the lack of privacy with perceive unsafety (i.e., strangers stalking their profiles to gather information for potential crimes). Yet, it is worth noting that this last finding is not consistent with previous studies (see Athern et al. 2007). Finally, you may also want to watch the following social media experiment by Jack Vale (2013), which has a very powerful message for all social media users.

References

Ahern, S, Eckles, D, Good, NS, King, S, Naaman, M & Nair, R 2007, ‘Over-exposed?: Privacy patterns and considerations in online and mobile photo sharing’, In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 357–366, San Jose, California, ACM.

Besmer, A & Lipford, HR 2010, ‘Moving beyond untagging: Photo privacy in a tagged world’, Univerisy of North Carolina at Charlotte, viewed 14 January 2018, <http://dmrussell.net/CHI2010/docs/p1563.pdf>.

Hjorth, L 2011, ‘Mobile spectres of intimacy: the gendered role of mobile technologies in love – past, present and future’, in R, Ling & S, Campbell (eds) The Mobile Communication Research Series: Volume II, Mobile Communication: Bringing Us Together or Tearing Us Apart? Transaction Books Edison, NJ , pp. 37-60.

Jack Vale Films 2013, ‘Social Media Experiment’, viewed 14 January 2018, <https://youtu.be/5P_0s1TYpJU>.

Papadoupoulos, L 2015, ‘Me my selfie and I’, TEDx White Hall Women, viewed 14 January 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAdOeP6d3pQ>.  

Selfie city, 2014, viewed 14 January 2018, <http://selfiecity.net/>.

Vivienne, S & Burgess, J 2013, ‘The Remediation of the Personal Photograph’, Journal of Material Culture, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 279-98. 

I loved that song!! Was stuck in my head once I read your blog!  I agree with your sentiment on selfies. I mentioned in my own blog my extreme dislike of having photos taken of me, let alone taking them of myself. I feel a certain level of discomfort and a feeling of being vain. I suppose I am from a generation that wasn’t brought up on selfie culture, so it is not a social norm for me.  Also, the fake poses drive me absolutely nuts. Can’t people just be themselves in. a photo? Are you trying to represent yourself as someone else? I just dont understand this incessant need for perfection. Live is seldom perfect.

Blog 7: Visual Communities & Social Imaging

There was song written about it. It made it into the Oxford Dictionary in 2013. It killed more people in 2015 than Sharks. They occur approximately 93 million times a day. ….THE SELFIE!

The word, quite self-explanatory, is best described as ‘an arm’s length mobile phone camera self-portrait shared via social media’ (Swinburne. 2018). Whilst dating back to the early 80’s, the craze of the selfie really hit in society in 2002 and today is a global phenomenon. Most people would experience it on a daily basis. Whether it is as you scroll through your newsfeed, you’re a user of Snapchat, you’re sitting on the bus or reading a trashy news magazine.

Personally, I’m not a big fan – I feel it draws attention both in the capturing and the sharing. That’s just me though, maybe I’m not good at finding the right angle or pulling the right facial expression. Back in 2010/2011 I remember I posted a status on Facebook, and that took courage and it was only text, not a selfie. I posted “Snapchat, making it totally acceptable for people to take selfies”. It popped up on my on this day a couple of months ago and that’s why I remember it – but I ask myself why did I think their needed to be a reason to take a selfie, if that’s what people like doing, if that’s how they like to communicate and share themselves and are not impacting others, then go for it. These days with the concept and features on Snapchat, selfies aren’t always about reflecting your attractiveness. “Snapchat isn’t about capturing the traditional Kodak moment. It is about communicating with a full range of human emotion – not just what appears to be pretty or perfect’ (Bernazzani. 2017). In 2015 Snapchat added lenses, also known as filters, encouraging the self-facing camera (SELFIE ALERT!) to change and add to their look. From puppy ears, face swap, rainbow tongues and more. For me this feature played a crucial part in the rise and establishment of selfies. It offered a different meaning and purpose, with a more fun and silly approach. In today’s society whilst the selfie is definitely still around to promote your latest hair do, outfit or mission out on Saturday night, a lot of people and particularly celebrities are using them to show themselves for who they really are. We all wake up with bed, have pimples or laze around in track pants and a for a while and for some people, they use the selfie culture to display who they wish/want they could be, a false representation, rather than who they really are. We don’t always look as good as our last Instagram post!

(Instagram. 2015)

Reference:

Bernazzani. Sophia, 2017, ‘A Brief History of Snpachat’, HubSpot – Marketing, accessed February 2018, available from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/history-of-snapchat

Swinburne Online, 2018, ‘Week 9: Visual Communities and Social Imaging’, Digital Communities – Swinburne Online, accessed February 2018, available from https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/77/pages/9-dot-3-networked-visuality?module_item_id=16377

Visual Communites and the Obsession With the Selfie

Anyone that knows me, knows my aversion to having my photo taken. As such, I really struggle with the concept of the selfie. I don’t need you to see a photo of me for you to be able to communicate with me! I do appear to be in the very small minority with these views if social media is anything to go by these days. However, I digress. What is a selfie? A selfie is a self-portrait that is taken of one-self. This self-portrait has created with the purpose of posting it to social media and is taken with a digital camera or smartphone (Qiu, Lu, Yang, Qu, & Zhu 2014)

The selfie has changed the way we express ourselves on social media and has seen the introduction of more visual based social media channels. Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are all forms of visual publics. Visual publics are defined by Ito (2008) as “Publics that can be reactors, [re]makers and [re]distributors, engaging in shared culture and knowledge through discourse and social exchange as well as through acts of media reception”. The introduction of Snapchat and Instagram, in particular, have seen a shift in the way that we post online. This is because they are both predominantly image and video driven social media platforms.

Online expression is an important form of communication. How we communicate always depends on the technology available to us at that particular time. Photography was, at one point, purely used for keeping memories or remembering a special moment in time. Now, with billions of people across the globe having a smart phone with an inbuilt camera in their pocket, citizens are now exploring new ways in which to express themselves online. Enter the selfie. The concept behind the selfie is all about your personal brand, and with selfies, you are branding yourself with an image. Young adults, in particular, are using these images as a way of building their online profiles.

This can pose some significant issues. One of these are the drawing comparisons between oneself and others. According to an article in The Conversation, when it comes to our online personas, we present the very best of ourselves. We achieve this by applying filters to our images to ensure that we upload content that only makes us look at our very best, as we are living in a world that places emphasis on physical beauty and there is a constant pressure to look our best. This can place immense pressure on adolescents and can cause insecurity if they feel they have come up short against the profile of another on social media. It is important to remember that this sort of competition would exist even if the selfie did not. The selfie culture was introduced into this world that places an emphasis on beauty, it was not created by selfie culture.

Great post. I couldn’t agree more in regards to your views on slacktivism. Just because a method of protest or activism does not fall under the traditional method of how these are to be structured, doesn’t mean that it is not effective or is not helping to contribute change.   As I mentioned in a previous blog response for another student, it seems that if there is not a definitive, immediate outcome, the activism is a waste of time and was ineffective. My disagreement could not be greater to this way of thinking. I loved the inclusion of your own personal experiences with digital activism. It was good to hear that your protest effected real change within Hollywood. 

Digital Activism

#Hashtags, Likes, Shares are not only a means to start a discussion online, but also a very useful tool for people to disseminate information and distribute education. Critics always assume that only traditional social movement tactics such as demonstrations and rallies are effective for protesting or pressing for change. Even cultural commentator such as Malcolm Gladwell said ‘Digital Activism is an oxymoron’ and engaging online in ‘Slacktivism’ is a waste of time (Huffingtonpost 2014), the debate was always over which way is the ‘right’ way to protest?

Through informed awareness, by making knowledge public through social media, this democratises societies and is crucial to social movements. (Youmans & York 2012). Social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter and various online blogs have made it easier for people to gather and voice their opinion on a subject of common interest. It is a tool in aiding collective action and shaping social movements’ agendas (Lopes A 2014).

Even if social media is considered as a tool of empowerment and liberation by many, governments are beginning to restrict on free speech even online. Many countries like North Korea, China or Egypt are already pushing for stringent bans on media sites and social media platforms. An example was when bloggers had to take over the position of correspondents and journalists to publish the news in Egypt, against the government’s suppression on news websites, silencing voices of the oppositions and activists. The blog sites coverage of the event helped organise more protest on a broad scale international level.  

Meanwhile, in recent proceedings, which I also took part in, was a successful social movement that first initiated on Twitter after a fan-favourite LGBT character was killed off in a TV show “The 100”. This triggered a harmful trope called ‘Bury Your Gay’ that writers carelessly written in every storyline for almost every single LGBT character created on TV and films . This event set off people to protest against the writers of the show, taking to social media to raise awareness, and holding TV executives accountable whilst fighting for a better LGBTQ+ representation in the industry. In results to this, the fans trended over 150K tweets worldwide with the single hashtag #LGBTFansDeservedBetter and raised over $160K for the Trevor Project Charity.  Fans also placed 4 billboard signs around Warner Bros. studios in Los Angeles, and it wasn’t long before all major media outlets such as CNN, BBC, Variety, Forbes, UN Women and many more.. paid attention.

Social media alone are not accountable for the protest or action, they are simply a tool to organise them. Online support should not be seen as a resentment because of its unconventional method, rather it should be seen as an asset, the ability to mobilise a vast numbers of people.

References:

Huffingtonpost 2014, Malcolm Gladwell: People Are Empowered By Their Lack Of Power, Interviewed by The European, viewed on 4 January 2017, <https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/20/gladwell-people-are-empowered_n_4993831.html>

Lopes A  2014, The Impact of Social Media on Social Movements: The New Opportunity and Mobilizing Structure, Creighton University, viewed on 2 February 2018, <https://www.creighton.edu/fileadmin/user/CCAS/departments/PoliticalScience/Journal_of_Political_Research__JPR_/2014_JSP_papers/Lopes_JPR.pdf>

Youmans, W, & York, J 2012, ‘Social Media and the Activist Toolkit: User Agreements, Corporate Interests, and the Information Infrastructure of Modern Social Movements’, Journal Of Communication, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 315-329.

I just can’t understand how anyone can believe that the MLS Ice Bucket challenge was a form of slacktivisim! Not only was the disease put under the spotlight (I hadn’t heard of it before), large donations came in that will go to research in the hope of finding a cure.  I think people feel that activism has failed unless it has a definitive, immediate outcome. Life is seldom that clear cut. The donations raised by the ice bucket challenge could be the reason that a cure is found for MLS in the coming years, Without the research that the money has funded, this might never occur. 

The same issue I encountered with the Arab Spring example of activism that I used in my own blog. The countries are still savaged by brutal governments and civil war. However, citizens of this countries are no longer willing to be oppressed and they are fighting for their rights. A spotlight has also been placed the behaviour of the governments within these counties. I believe that that is a win!

Blog 4: Activism & Protest

(Shaw. 2016)

The almighty powerful hashtag. The spreading of an online campaign, the trending of a topic. What spreads better, a hashtag about Kim Kardashian or vegemite on your toast?

Digital activism is “where digital tools (the internet, mobile phones and social media etc) are used towards bringing about social and/or political change” (Rees 2015). We all know the power and participation of the digital word – activism thrives from that participation and hence why the two have now come together to find success. Digital activism has transformed the world and political protest, movements and events and has helped to activate thousands of new enthusiasts.

An online activist campaign, which has occurred in the last few years was the ALS/MND ice bucket challenge. It was a remarkable social media campaign that spread worldwide, form those near and dear to suffers, everyday civilians and celebrities. The ice bucket challenge, which involves:

1. Filling a bucket (or large container) with ice and water

2. Tipping it over your head

3. Challenging/nominating three other people to participate in the challenge within 48hrs

4. If nominees don’t partake in the challenge within the 48 hours they make a donation to a MND charity - or you could do both!

(MND Australia)

To spread the campaign, which was an optional part of the challenge, participators had to film or take a picture of themselves and post it on the relevant social media platforms and tag #icebucketchallenge #MND

Over 60,000 people participated in Australia and more than 3 million dollars was donated to MND Australia and state MND associations. It is known as one of the powerful examples of the influence of social media. Looking at stats for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) there donations multiplied by 23 during that same time period, from 5 million to 114 million. (Tufts University. 2014). They also saw extreme changes and improvements in their social media following. When the challenge first began the ‘ALSA had 9000 Twitter followers and 35,000 Facebook likes. Post challenge campaign they have seen 146% increase on Twitter and 849% increase on Facebook’ (Tufts University. 2014). This increase traction and awareness has allowed a significant increase in education about the awareness.

(MND Australia)

Whilst awareness was raised and an increase in donations definitely occurred, it is believed that a good portion of the people were slacktivist – ‘the practice of supporting political or social cause by means such as social media or online petitions, characterised as involving very little effort or commitment’ (Oxford Dictionary. 2018). In saying that though, if the millions of donations helped to find a cure, then it has been for the greater of the good and contributed.

Did you participate in the #icebucketchallenge?

Have a look at some of the best celebrity #icebucketchallenges HERE

Reference:

MND Australia, ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’, MND Australia, viewed January 2018, available from http://www.mndaust.asn.au/MND-Australia-archive/Ice-Bucket-Challenge.aspx

Oxford Online Dictionaries, 2018, ‘Slacktivism’, English Oxford Living Dictionaries, accessed January 2018, available from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/slacktivism

Rees. A 2015, ‘Digital and Online Activism’, RESET Digital for Good, accessed December 2017, available from https://en.reset.org/knowledge/digital-and-online-activism

Shaw. B 2016, ‘Reasons Why Social Media Activism is Effective’, ODYSSEY, available from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/reasons-social-media-activism-affective

Tufts University School of Medicine, 2014, ‘The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: The impact of Social Media on Health Communication’, Tufts University School of Medicine, accessed January 2018, available from https://sites.tufts.edu/publichealth/2014/09/18/the-als-ice-bucket-challenge-the-impact-of-social-media-on-health-communication/

Is Digital Activism really only Slacktivism?

Everybody seems to have a cause they believe in, and in this day and age, they are not scared to voice it! This may involve a post on Twitter, a photo filter for profile pictures on Facebook, or a viral challenge, such as the ice bucket challenge for ALS. All of these are forms of digital activism. Simply put, digital activism is the use of digital tools, such as mobile phones, as a means of bringing about social and/or political change (Rees 2015). Digital activism uses many tools that enable online activism. These include, but are not limited to, online petitions, social networks, blogs and mobile phones. The tools available to use for the purpose of activism will continue to grow as technology continues to evolve.

Citizens are now globally interconnected via technology and digital communities, which makes it a fairly simple task to mobilise large numbers of people in a very short period of time (Mitu & Vega 2014). Due to its interactive nature, the distribution and circulation capabilities of social media can be used for online activism by ‘liking’, ‘sharing’ and ‘retweeting’ messages by activists. This clearly demonstrates how digital communities have the potential to harness the enormous potential for social media, and other digital sources, to influence and effect cultural and social change (Goodling n.d.).

Are these likes, or hashtags or retweets actually achieving anything though? Are they helping to enact real change? This is where the term ‘slacktivism’ comes into play. Slacktivism is defined as an action that is undertaken that comes at very little cost, and is merely a ‘feel-good’, token display of support for a political or social cause, without any significant attempt to enable significant change (Davis: Morozov, cited by Kristofferson, White & Peloza 2014). Are these just token symbols of activism with no real power? According to Dewey (2015), all actions can be used to help educate and bring about changes in social and cultural attitudes, which is another important aspect of digital activism.

Protestors in support of Arab Spring Image source: https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-the-arab-spring-2353029

For example, take a look at Arab Spring. Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that occurred across the Middle East in 2011. The activists behind Arab Spring used social networking as their main tool to express their feelings in regards to unjust acts committed by government. Due to the sharing of uncensored or filtered information through social media platforms, they were able to overthrow a government. According to this article, Facebook was used to organise protests, Twitter was used to coordinate events, and YouTube was the channel in which they broadcast to the world their story. This sharing of information proved critical for this movement and for their goal of overthrowing oppressive and cruel governments.

As my mother always told me, every little bit helps, no matter how small the contribution. Some small form of contribution is better than no contribution at all! 

REFERENCES

Goodling, L n.d., MOAR Digital Activism, Please, Kairos: Rhetoric, Technology, Pedagogy, viewed 7 December 2017, <http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/19.3/topoi/goodling/MOAR_Digital_Activism_Please.pdf>.

Kristofferson, K, White, K & Peloza, J 2014, ‘The Nature of Slacktivism: How the Social Observability of an Initial Act of Token Support Affects Subsequent Prosocial Action ’, Journal of Consumer Research, vol.40, no.6, pp.1149-1166.

Mitu, B & Vega, DOC 2014, ‘Digital activism: a contemporary overview’, Revista de Stiinte Politice, no. 44, pp.103+.

Rees, A 2015, Digital and Online Activism, RESET Digital for Good, viewed 8 January 2018, <https://en.reset.org/knowledge/digital-and-online-activism>.

What an informative piece. I had no idea that Facebook had a ‘Safety Check’ function that is activated in the face of a natural disaster. Extremely interested to now that. Seems that by reading and commenting on a number of blogs as a part of the assessment requirements, I have actually managed to learn a lot o new information during the journey, 

A very interesting question that you pose in regards to access to crowdsourcing in countries with no access to social media. How do you provide crisis communications? Especially considering that the infrastructure in those countries is virtually non-existent, more-so in the remote areas. My personal opinion is that this would then come down to social mapping and a reliance from the global digital citizens to help piece together a crisis map to enable humanitarian assistance to be executed as successfully as It can be.

Blog 6: Crowdsourcing in a time of crisis

The Boston Bombing, the ISIS attacks, Lindt Café Siege, Queensland Floods and Black Friday. All times of crisis both in our home country and worldwide. In times of crisis we want to spread the word, protect as many people as we can, look out for our loved ones and make sure they’re alright. Crowdsourcing, best described as ‘the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community’ (Merriam Webster. 2014). In times of crisis crowdsourcing allows and provides the online community to inform and share on the relevant and unexpected event. ‘The public, emergency services, and other media sources have prioritised social media platforms to spread reporting’s and to also gather information of such events’ (Barbieri. 2016). At times of need when information needs to be distributed and spread to the public quickly we turn to social media to facilitate the distribution as the engagement and participation is high and the message is received the fastest.

Mark Zuckerberg and his team continue to keep impressing. In 2014 they launched the Safety Check on Facebook. It works by:

- When the tool is activated after a natural disaster and if you’re in the affected area, you will receive a Facebook notification asking if you’re safe.

- An individual’s location is determined by the city you have listed in your profile, your last location you opted in to nearby friends and the city where you are using internet. If your location is identified incorrectly, you can mark that you are outside the affected area.

- If you’re safe, you can select “I’m Safe” and a notification and News Feed story will be generated with your update.

Zuckerberg describes said ‘it is our way of helping our community during natural disasters and gives you an easy and simple way to say you’re safe and check on all your friends and family in one place’ (Facebook. 2014). 

Whilst crowdsourcing provides a great tool and way of communication, what those people and those countries that do not have access to social media and digital technologies. From those in third world countries (where crisis can be so common) to those of older generations who are not active in online communities. How can we ensure all information that is posted online is true and factual – this is an issue we face on a day to day basis, from an article you read on the Daily Mail through to research for an assignment.

Reference:

Barbieri. S, 2016, ‘Crowdsourcing in Time of Crisis’, Prezi, accessed January 2018, available from <  https://prezi.com/3dua-f5hu1pg/crowdsourcing-in-time-of-crisis/ >

Merriam Webster, 2014, ‘crowdsourcing’, Merriam Webster, accessed January 2018, available from < https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing >

Cottle. P, Gleit. N, Zeng. S, 2016, ‘Introducing Safety Check’, Facebook Newsroom, accessed January 2018, available from <https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/10/introducing-safety-check/ >

Zuckerberg. M, 2014, Facebook Post, Facebook, accessed January 2018, available from < https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101699265809491 >

Crowdsourcing was a topic that restored my faith in social media. Especially after the week 5 learning materials surrounding trolling and the devastating impact that it can have.  Crisis seems to bring the best out in people and to see digital citizens using social media in such a positive manner was extremely pleasing. I concentrated more on social mapping, but you have highlighted the importance of social media and demonstrated how it can be used as an effective crisis tool. The Lindt Cafe siege was a great example, where a noticeboard was created. How much more effective would the 20/11 crisis have been if such crisis tools for communication had been available?  I remember vividly the image of notice boards with faces of the missing people that families had erected. How much more effective would communication have been if the global community was able to play a role?

The power of crowdsourcing during times of crisis

One of the most powerful ways social media has changed our lives is by the way that we now as a society deal with crisis. Crowdsourcing has changed the way society manage these times, and how we respond to crisis.

Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers’. (Merriam Webster Online 2014). During a crisis we can see its many forms being used all over the world. For example in the recent bush fires in Los Angeles, friends and family were marking themselves “safe” if they managed to escape the fires to let their loved ones know they are ok – all across the globe. This tool developed by Facebook has replaced the need to have as many call centres that used to exist to check on loved ones overseas during a crisis.

Online social media platforms turned into notice boards for updates and news during the Lindt Café Siege in Sydney in 2014. As the events unfolded Twitter became a noticeboard to update the country on the events in real time. The majority of updates came from within the Sydney CBD, including one of the first comments by Sydney Journalist Chris Kenny, who at the time was believed to be the last person to walk out of the café before the events took place. The updates were simple, factual posts updated by journalists detailing the information they had at hand. This was a quick and simple form to keep the country updated on what was happening, which hostages had broken free or been released and the actions of the NSW Government and Police Force. This also updated the population on the parts of the city that were deemed unsafe at the time as the offender had also threatened that he had placed bombs around the city.

More importantly, social media allows us to build online communities and grieve together openly or come to terms with facts during times of crisis.

During the Paris Attacks Twitter used its “Moments” tool to use highlighting top news tweets about the attacks, as well as the prayers and good wishes posted by celebrities around the world. This enabled the world to come together in support and solidarity.

Hashtags such as #prayforparis have taken social media platforms by storm during times of crisis. It received 6.7 million posts in 10 hours. Hashtag’s such as these symbolise the world unifying after a horrific event has occurred through our online community. It shows the strength of social media and how quickly it can be used to bring a country or several nations together.

The hastag #UneBougiePourParis (which means a candle for Paris) sparked live community action, taking it from just a message online to the physical actions of Parisians lighting a candle to mourn their loss and the countries grief.

References

‘crowdsourcing entry’ 2014, Merriam Webster, viewed 29 December 2017,<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowdsourcing

Ford, H 2012, ‘Crowd Wisdom’, Index on Censorship, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 33-39.

Howard, J 2006, ‘The Rise of Crowdsourcing’, Wired, 14 June, viewed 3 August 2016, <http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html>.

Inside Story. 2017. Crowdsourcing terror. [ONLINE] Available at: http://insidestory.org.au/crowdsourcing-terror/. [Accessed 29 December 2017].

Crowdsourcing in Times of Crisis

The introduction of the internet has meant that global communication is now only the click of a mouse away. The vast coverage of digital media ensures that citizens are not just consumers of media, but they also now produce media using new media tools that allow them to communicate and create content (Wasserman 2014). Crowdsourcing is a direct beneficiary of this. Crowdsourcing is best defined by Brabham (2013) as collective intelligence from online communities to serve business objectives, product design, problem solving, and improve citizen participation in governance.

Crowdsourcing is a crucial communication tool during times of crisis. The information gathered through crowdsourcing is then used in social mapping or ‘crisis maps’. Humanitarian organisations have now gone digital. An example of one such organisation is Crisis Mappers. This digital humanitarianism community relies heavily on participation culture (Stempeck 2013). The citizens of the world are constantly creating and sharing via digital communities, most notably social media networks. Crisis Mappers is able to disseminate information from social media and extract meaningful data rapidly to ensure rapid response times in the creation of crisis maps. These maps provide an understanding, in real time, of what is happening on the ground (Delwich & Henderson 2013, p.193-195). It is also important to ensure that the cultural differences of different countries are respected and understood. We live in a world that is culturally diverse, so to be able to effectively provision humanitarian assistance, it is important to have a cultural understanding of the area that is affected (Lensu 2014, p. 7). For example, dietary requirements of a crisis area that has a dense population of muslims would require dietary considerations to be taken into account.

Patrick Meier discusses the future of crisis mapping. Video Source; YouTube./ O’Reilly 2011

It was during the Haiti earthquake in 2010 that the importance of crisis mapping became self-evident. Patrick Meier, the co-founder of Crisis Mappers, along with what started out as a small group of others, went about creating a real-time crisis map of the area that was updated in real time. The information that was triangulated, and based on the sheer volume of information coming through and the number of volunteers that jumped in to help the cause, a crisis map was produced that proved to be one of the most detailed maps of Haiti that was ever created (Samson 2012). This detailed map ensured that humanitarian relief was delivered to the areas that were in need of it the most. Crisis mapping has since been used in all digital humanitarian efforts since the Haiti disaster (Bloch 2016).

Social media demonstrates that there is a prevalence of information sharing. This has directly resulted in the birth of crisis mapping and clearly demonstrates that digital citizens want to participate in crisis communications.

 REFERENCES

Bloch, H 2016, When Disaster Strikes, He Creates A 'Crisis Map' That Helps Save Lives, NPR, viewed 6 January 2018, <http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/10/02/495795717/when-disaster-strikes-he-creates-a-crisis-map-that-helps-save-lives>.

Brabham, DC 2013, Crowdsourcing, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Delwiche, AA & Henderson, JJ 2013, The Participatory Cultures Handbook, Routledge, New York.

Lensu, M 2014, Respect for Culture and Customs in International Humanitarian Assistance: Implications For Principal and Policy, University of London, Ann Arbor.

Samson, A 2012, Crisis Mapper: Dr Patrick Meier, National Geographic, viewed 21 September 2017, <https://www.nationalgeographic.org/news/real-world-geography-dr-patrick-meier/>.

Stempeck, M 2013, 81 Ways Humanitarian Aid Has Become Participatory , MIT Centre for Civic Media, viewed 5 January 2018, <https://civic.mit.edu/blog/mstem/81-ways-humanitarian-aid-has-become-participatory>.

Great post. Very informative. I had a laugh when reading your it though. I was one of those people that didn’t  realise that they were a social gamer. I mention in my own blog post how I am constantly harping at my own child about his social gaming, only to find out that I was no better before I quit playing Candy Crush! LOL I have to say though, I an still not convinced that some of the stereotypes are incorrect. My biggest concern is the lack of physical social interaction. Certain research showed a tendency for social gamers to ‘drop away’ from the real world and want to spend more time playing online. This is to the detriment of their existing physical relationships, I know that I was doing the very same thing. I understand that gamers are still socially interacting, however, there needs to be a balance.

Blog 8: Social Gaming: Playing the Crowd

When you think of online and social gaming the stereotype alarm bell starts to ring, however through the advancement of digital and social technology this wall is slowly being broken, probably without people realising.

Have you played Farmville? World of Warcraft? Call of Duty? Words with Friends?

Then you’re are social gamer. A social gamer isn’t just someone who sits on their computer for endless hours into the dawn of day, or has the super fancy gaming chair with matching headset.

We have seen technology advancements provide the imaginable in terms of communication and in the past few years technology and gaming have realised their combined potential to take advantage of that space. Gaming on computers and consoles have been around for a while, but it is now that mobile is starting to take over that. ‘Building a socially focused gaming ecosystem has been held back largely due to form factor limitations. Older phones had limited processing power and connectivity to power the instant, synchronous interaction that we expect from games. However, that’s changing. New mobile gaming technology is creating exciting new avenues for people to play games with friends (and make new ones)’ (Paradise. 2018).  

Online and social gaming allows people to connect with other gamers all around the world, to participate in and connect and share a mutual passion. When first established it would be a computer opponent, operating off algorithm. Whereas these days, you match, join or invite actual humans to be your online competitors. Massively multiple online role-playing games (MMORG) is the foundation behind todays gaming atmosphere. They provide and facilitate massive player and group connection and interaction for both online and offline human interaction. People come together for social and online gaming seminars and competitions – putting a whole new level on the social side of it.

Like with everything, games have also been modernized and digitized. The originals like Monolopy, Scrabble, Connect Four, Guess Who, have all been digitised into an online and mobile format with still a virtual interaction experience. Modernisation and digitisation is only going to continue to take over and expand the online and social gaming word. Will it bought live to your games room in the form of hologram?

Reference:

Paradise. A , 2018, ‘Social play is transforming mobile gaming’, VentureBeast, accessed February 2018, available from < https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/29/social-play-is-transforming-mobile-gaming/>

Zynga certainly know how to create addictive online games. Words With Friends was my addiction once upon a time. I could lose track of time when I was playing it. I stay away from online games now as I just cannot afford to lose time like that between school and work. I never got into Farmville. I always found it supremely annoying when asked to dig a vegetable patch or whatever those annoying requests were..Does that make me a bad person for ignoring my friends requests? The psychology behind the games is one aspect that interest me the most. I wonder how deep the psychological research went into the constructing of this game and whether they were ever aware at any time what this game was going to mean for social gaming and the significant role it played in creating these online, virtual gaming communities?

Interesting that you quote game playing as relaxing. I tend to find it as anything but relaxing. I think that is my supremely competitive nature that wants me to win. 

Blog 8: Social gaming

Social media continues to redefine human connections as our digital citizenship now allows us to form social connections in a range of new ways. One of these ways is gaming, facilitated via a social network. Gameplay provides relaxation, an opportunity to compete with others and an escape from real life, which is ironic because online games are often based on a replica of real life. Today’s blog explores an online game that has captured the attention and time of millions of people. What is most interesting about FarmVille is that its many users say it is ‘boring’ but they cannot stop playing it (Saint 2010). I was intrigued to know what characteristics could have such an effect on people.

Zynga launched FarmVille in 2009 and quickly reached eight million players, all connected via Facebook (Bort 2013). With only a slight drop off after 2013, it remains the most popular social game ever (Goad, 2009). Its premise is to maintain a farm, in a simulated environment, harvesting crops, selling produce and raising livestock (ZyngaNetwork 2018). Notable features of the game include its high quality animation, with characters that move in a life-like way, who have real stories. It has user-friendly navigation and a true to life ecosystem (ZyngaNetwork 2012). Whilst these features have contributed to the game’s success, it is the next two factors that made FarmVille the most popular game of all time. Zynga goes to great lengths to ensure you feel a sense of duty and social obligation to play, as it prompts you via Facebook to ensure you feel bad if your friends suffer when you aren’t playing (Saint, 2010). This is an interesting dynamic because the characters are only animations but people feel like they are genuinely suffering, which reinforces how real our online lives are to us. The second contributing factor is the manner in which FarmVille advertises. Players share their achievements on Facebook with others, in order to gain rewards. Despite many non-players finding this disruptive to their News Feed, the constant reminders encourage people to take action (Saint, 2010). This is a cost effective method, as people are more willing to receive recommendations via word of mouth (Kapadia 2015). This fast paced word of mouth is made possible by the social media affordances of Facebook.

Interestingly, Zynga made several other games that are not connected via Facebook and none have been as successful (Saint, 2010) showing how core social media platforms are to its success. Following the closure of several games, including one called PetVille, Zynga customers complained about the connection they felt to the characters in the game ‘Please don’t remove PetVille, I’m going to miss my pet Jaime, why do you want to cause depression for me and others’ said a loyal PetVille gamer (Constine, 2012).

The makers of Farmville claim that social connection is the most important factor in social gaming (ZyngaNetwork 2012). Users may socialise in varied ways including posting their accomplishments online, discussing their opinions in a gaming review forum or posting their tips, successes, cheats and more on YouTube. To a non-gamer, these posts and videos have little conventional appeal, yet a two minute video titled ‘Farmville cheats and tips’ has 124,845 views (MrFarmvilleGuy, 2009) and a video titled ‘Amazing farm in Farmville’ has almost 330,000 views (Kong, 2009), proving considerable interest in the videos.

This is one of the ways social media offers people new affordances via their digital citizenships. People socialising, communicating and competing during gameplay is one of the many ways social media continues to redefine human connections.

References

Bort, J 2013, ‘8 million people play Zynga’s FarmVille 2 every day’, viewed 20 January 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com.au/8-million-people-play-zyngas-farmville-2-every-day-mark-pincus-says-2013-5.

Constine, J 2012, Zynga shuts down Petville, Fishville, Mafia War 2’, viewed 1 January 2018, https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/30/zynga-shuts-down-petville-fishville-mafia-wars-2.

Goad L, 2009, ‘FarmVille: Biggest online game ever’, viewed 14 January 2018, https://www.aol.com/2009/09/15/farmville-biggest-online-game-ever.

Kapadia, A 2015, ‘Why word of mouth marketing is important for your brand’, viewed 20 January 2018, https://www.getambassador.com/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing-statistics.

Kong, 2009, ‘Amazing farm in FarmVille’, viewed 26 January 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y9-ejtHObU.

MrFarmvilleGuy, 2009, ‘Farmville Cheats and Tips’, viewed 23 January 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e6Tt8rcDjQ.

Saint, N 2010, ‘Why the no-fun FarmVille is so popular’, viewed 26 January 2018, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/09/28/farmville.popularity/index.html.

ZyngaNetwork 2012, ‘The Making of Farmville 2’, viewed 14 January 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnNKko2ELKQ>.

ZyngaNetwork, 2018, ‘Grow your own farm online with FarmVille’, viewed 24 January 2018, https://www.zynga.com/games/farmville.

Social Gaming - What The?

Online gaming is something I have absolutely no idea about, so I was concerned when writing this blog entry. I had strong opinions when I commenced writing with little idea of what social gaming entailed. My son is an avid gamer. I am constantly at him to get off the Playstation and to get out and hang with his mates, only to be informed by him that they are all online as well! What the? Doesn’t anyone want to be social in the real world anymore? Apparently I am not the only parent with concerns. Watch the YouTube video below posted by MrW01FY. It is a slightly comedic video that speaks of his own parents concerns and his point of view (scary that his mother almost repeated me verbatim in her commentary to her son!).

Video Source: Youtube / MrW01FY 2017

From my opening paragraph, you can clearly see the opinion I had formed on social gaming. I had the opinion that social gaming was breeding a culture of anti-socialism. Well, you can imagine my surprise to discover after starting the week ten readings for this unit, that I was, at one point, an avid social gamer myself! Once again, what the? Yep, you guessed it, Candy Crush and Words With Friends. They were my own private addictions that lasted for many months until I was able to finally wean myself away from it. 

Candy Crush Image source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/candy-crush-live-action-game-939165

My son plays MMORPG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). MMORPG’s create an environment in which millions of users interact on a daily basis. It is believed, from research conducted, that the game play within these types of games is more beneficial to the player because they are also able to use them as avenues to explore new relationships, new places, and themselves. A survey found that approximately 75% of both the males and females surveyed has made friends within these online gaming communities (Cole & Griffiths 2007). Further to this, Smyth (2007) found that MMORPG’s players were more likely to experience less engagement with ‘real-life’ friends and interference with their schooling after one month of continual game playing.

These statistics did very little to alleviate my concerns. If anything, they actually re-enforced my opinion. I can accept the concept that social gamers are collaborating and socialising within these virtual communities and are creating strong social ties. However, balance is needed. According to this article, It is just as important to maintain healthy, physical relationships in the ‘real-world’. They need to be able to talk and socialise with friends and family outside of the virtual communities that they are participating in to minimise the risk of losing these physical relationships.

The only truly shocking discovery to come out of the learning materials in week ten was my own participation in anti-social behaviour. My opinion, however, remains unchanged. Whodathunk it? I was a social gamer without realising it!

REFERENCES:

Cole, H and Griffiths, MD 2007, ‘Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers’, CyberPsychology & Behaviour, vol.10, no.4, pp.575-583.

Trolling and the Potential Impact.

As a parent, cyberbullying is of great concern to me. I am extremely vigilant with social media usage by my child. It horrifies me to think that my child could be made to feel unsafe and vulnerable in their own home. In the world prior to social media, if you were bullied at school, you would go home and you were able to escape the bullying and have a place to feel safe. To my way of thinking, this is where cyberbullying is having a more devastating impact. Our children are unable to escape the torment, even in their own homes. There is no longer a safe haven.

What exactly is cyberbullying though? Cyberbullying is defined as any communication that is intentional and hurtful that is communicated using any form of technology (Belsey; Patching and Hinduja, cited by Edrur-Baker 2010). Cyberbullying is also known as ‘trollling’. Trolling is a term that is used to incorporate cyberbulling and provocation in an online environment (Swinburne 2017). Trolling becomes complex to associate and define. Some trolls are driven by ideals and beliefs and are attempting to draw attention to social issues or rally support for socially marginalised groups. So we cannot classify all trolling as malicious in its intent (Sanfilippo, Yang & Fichman  2017). What is considered as trolling may also be subject to how the communication is interpreted, experienced and intended (Boyd 2014, p.140).

We need to be very careful in the way we look at governing trolling. For example, in the recent suicide by Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett, one particular journalist wrote an article for the Australian making a case against the bullies stating that they could be criminally culpable for their actions. Whereas, MIndframe (a site encouraging responsible respresentation by Australian media in their reporting of suicide and mental illness) was calling for calm heads to prevail. It is seldom believed that any one single action leads to the suicide, although bullying may well have been the trigger. Usually it is believed that there are many other issues at play, such as mental illness. It is these types of complexities that make it hard to apply one hard and fast set of rules across the board to trolling. 

There are also concerns raised in an article on Mamamia that the bullies may also turn to suicide as they may feel such intense shame and grief that they may also suffer the same catastrophic fate. Trolls are people, though we tend to dehumanise them and portray them as monsters, when they too, may be vulnerable and suffering from issues that they do not know how to deal with. Dolly’s father, in the midst of his own grief, was able to recognise this and invited the bullies to his daughter’s funeral.

Calm, subjective heads need to prevail when determining what action should be taken against trolling. Maybe we should all take a leaf out of Tick Everett’s book!

Video Source: YouTube / American Today News 2018 

REFERENCES

Boyd, D 2014, It’s complicated: the social lives of networked teens, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 128-152.

Erdur-Baker, O 2010, ‘Cyberbullying and it’s correlation to traditional bullying, gender and frequent usage of internet-mediated communication tools’, New Media & Society, vol.12, no. 1, pp. 109-125.

Sanfilippo, MR, Yang, S & Fichman, P 2017, Managing Online Trolling: From Deviant to Social and Political Trolls, viewed 13 January 2018, < https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/41373/1/paper0224.pdf/>.

Swinburne Online, 2017, Week 7: Digital Communities, viewed 13 January 2018, <https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/77/pages/7-dot-2-trolling-and-provocation?module_item_id=6782/>.

I love the stories where people turn a bad situation into a positive. My initial reaction to trolling is fear and hate, especially as a parent and I opened my own blog post on this discussion stating exactly that. You just want to punish those that you feel have harmed or wronged your child. However, as we discovered when studying this particular topic, that trolling is very hard to define and govern and the one-size-fits-all approach will just not work. The situation needs to handled with calm and rational thought. Dehumanising the troll and painting them as a monster really makes us no better than them in some situations, as these perpetrators are often crying out for help themselves. We need to realise we are all human, we all feel pain and we all need to stop and show some kindness. Sarah Silverman, I tip my hat to you. 

Don’t feed the trolls

Image: Artur Debat, Getty Images

Being a fairly private person and not one to give away too much online, I can’t say that I’ve ever been trolled. The closest has been a few commenters on Instagram pointing out that my picture was stupid and theirs was way better. At first my curiosity got the better of me and I clicked over to see. Of course, their pictures, if they had any, looked like they’d been taken by a visually impaired terrier who accidentally stepped on an iPhone. The intent, I discovered, was not to engage in constructive photographic critique, but to annoy, frustrate and provoke a reaction.

An extensive recent study by Cornell University found that there are two main triggers that motivate individuals to troll: ‘the individual’s mood, and the surrounding context of a discussion’ (Cheng et al 2017) - meaning, if one person leaves a trolling comment, others will follow.

An informative video further discussing the psychology of trolls can be seen here:

Video source: YouTube / SciShow (2016)

Of course not all negative commenters or ‘angry posters’ are trolls. Many are just ordinary people expressing an opinion. As writer Tim Dowling describes:

(Dowling 2012)

A troll’s intent, by comparison, is to ‘deliberately provoke others online, typically through inflammatory, offensive or provocative comments’ (Walters 2015). In fact, ‘trolls may not believe a word of what they write’ (Walters 2015), their only intent is to ‘derail rational discourse through mindless abuse, needling, hectoring or even threats of violence’ (Dowling 2012).

The truth is, anywhere there’s a comments section, on any website, trolls can be found. The next question is, what can you do about it?

Walters (2015) has a list of suggestions.

Listen and correct mistakes

Ignore them

Respond with facts

Diffuse the situation with humour

Block or ban, when appropriate, or

Come up with your own response.

In regard to the final suggestion, Walters uses the example of Susan Carland who is an Australian Muslim academic and the target of a large amount of trolling. Carland decided to turn the negative energy into something positive.

Another well-known personality who dealt with social media conflict creatively is American comedian Sarah Silverman. With her high-profile career and 12.4 million followers on Twitter, Silverman is an easy target.

In late December 2017, a twitter user named Jeremy left an offensive one-word tweet on a reply she had made to someone else. Rather than deleting or ignoring, Silverman took the time to click on his name and get an insight into his life. She explains that she did this because:

“…I saw it and clicked on u and saw you were just trying to get kicked off Twitter. I saw the rage and pain. And looked at your avatar and just… saw so much in you. In your eyes I guess. Dunno”

She discovered that Jeremy was battling a lot of physical and emotional problems and ‘replied with a series of sympathetic and compassionate tweets’ (Klein 2018). She also ‘rallied her Twitter followers to help the man get medical assistance for his hurt back’. This was successful, as was Jeremy’s ‘GoFundMe’ campaign to help with medical bills. Here’s a partial thread of the conversation:

This story illustrates the finding from the Cornell study mentioned above - most trolls are not psychopaths, but ordinary people in some kind of pain, trying to make themselves feel better by getting a reaction from a stranger. Learning how to deal with them thoughtfully and responsibly, while not feeding them, will help us to ensure that our digital communities are enriching and supportive places to be.

References

Cheng, J et al 2017, Anyone Can Become a Troll: Causes of Trolling Behaviour in Online Discussions, Cornell University Library, viewed 9 January 2018, <https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.01119v1>.

Dowling, T 2012, Dealing with trolls: a guide, The Guardian, viewed 9 January 2018, <https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jun/12/how-to-deal-with-trolls>.

Klein, A 2018, A sexist troll attacked Sarah Silverman. She responded by helping him with his problems, Washington Post, viewed 9 January 2018, <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2018/01/08/a-man-trolled-sarah-silverman-on-twitter-she-ended-up-helping-him-with-his-medical-problems/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_sarah-silverman-2pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.60369fa3c490>.

Walters, K 2015, How to deal with trolls on social media, Hootsuite, viewed 9 January 2018, <https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-deal-with-trolls-on-social-media/>.

I really enjoyed your post. I see bullying from the perspective of a parent, so it was interesting to see the feelings that it invokes in you when you put yourself in the shoes of a parent. I also commented on the inescapable nature of cyberbullying. You could generally leave bullying behind in the school yard when we were children, now it follows juveniles into their homes.  I don’t necessarily believe that cyberbullying is necessarily worse than bullying. I just think that it is not as easy to escape. Perhaps parents need to have stricter controls over the social media that their children partake in. I do with my child as cyberbullying is a concern. 

It is interesting that the few blog posts I have read all refer to cyberbullying of children (myself included). We didn’t seem to take into account cyberbullying in the workplace, for example. Maybe a few of us were more traumatised by bullying in our childhoods than we actually perceived at the time? Food for thought. :)

Leaving Traces: Trolling and social media conflict

Although I don’t have kids of my own yet, I couldn’t bear to think of my child coming home in tears from school at the hands of a bully. In my mind, when I think of the word bully, I think of a big ogre-like kid who is always older (and most of the time less intelligent) staring down at the younger kid/s trying to assert some sort of power or authority. Usually he (or she) is name calling, teasing or making fun of someone else. Whether I have developed this image through various movies and teenage television shows I just can’t help but to think of this type of scenario. Perhaps it’s movies like Mean Girls, where a bunch of stuck up popular high school girls poke fun at other kids because they aren’t ‘cool’ enough, or dress differently. This is how I imagine and first handily remember bullying at school, but for kids these days the emergence of social networking and social media sites means bullying can take place not only in the school grounds, but at home as well from behind a screen. It’s a little more complicated than I first thought and had me wondering is social media making bullying worse?

A Swedish psychologist by the name of Dan Olewus, explains that the act of bullying involves 3 components which are: aggression, repetition and an imbalance in power (Boyd 2014) His definition suggests that bullying involves someone of a differential social or physical power subjecting another to repeated and frequent physical, social and psychological aggression which matches my initial though of a bully (Boyd 2014). Social media sites such as Facebook however, break down barriers such as physical aggression for example allowing anyone with an internet connection to facelessly cyber bully others from the comfort of their home.

Boyd (2014) explains that the visibility of bullying on social media and networked publics adds a new depth as to how bullying is understood and constructed. But is it getting more complex because it’s right there in our face? Even though a victim may not want to talk about it, it’s there for everyone to see. Boyd (2014) also argues that the traditional view of the perpetrator and the victim fails to understand the complexity of online conflicts.  Anything posted on a public forum leaves traces enabling more and more people to witness these acts of bullying. At the same time, these forums create opportunities for others to intervene (Boyd 2014).

Sites such as Facebook and YouTube play significant roles in creating spaces for ongoing interaction and creating content communities, however the visibility of these conversations can cause emotional stress to the victim of bullying (McCosker 2013).

Boyd, D 2014, ‘Bullying: is social media amplifying meanness and cruelty?’, ‘It’s Complicated: the social lives of networked teens’, Yale University Press, USA pp. 128-152. McCosker, A 2013, ‘Trolling as Provocation: YouTube’s agonistic publics’, ‘Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies’, vol. 20, no. 2.

An informative article that clearly defines how social media is being used to as a vehicle to get citizens to support their own causes. I find it very manipulative by politicians, but I am unsure if my opinion is unbiased as both the politicians you mentioned where pushing topics that I was against and I am not a personal fan of either person. If I liken it back to the example I used with how Barack Obama used his social media to further his campaign, I am in awe of what he achieved, but I his message and him as a person resonate with me. So yep, I think I am being far from impartial when I evaluate how these two political figures have used social media. 

Social Media and Politics

Social media tools are becoming increasingly employed by journalists, citizens and politicians around the world. Before Twitter and Facebook, the best way for citizens to get in touch with majority of politicians is via email. Now politicians are utilising social media as a medium to support and supplement their political goals.

Social media platforms allow politicians the chance to have a large following, connecting directly with the public and engage in political activities in new ways. Each platform has it’s option for users to share, like or re-tweet political messages and that has made it easier for politicians to reach out to more voters and supporters. There are many examples of how social media has changed the way in which political communication takes place.  

In 2013, research report by Sauter and Bruns found that social media has increasingly seen as a viable political communication tools for politicians in Australia. The integration of social media and traditional media was widely used as tools for political news reporting. It is becoming evident that these online communication tools play a significant role in setting political agendas and shaping public opinion (Harfoush 2009, Wooley et al 2010). The use of #ausvotes hashtags were organised to cover the Australian federal election in 2010.  Hashtags are simple tools, accessible to all Twitter users, that can be used to coordinate political discussions on the platform (Bruns and Burgess 2010).

In recent proceedings, Australian politician Tony Abbott utilised social media for the ‘No’ campaign during the same sex marriage debate, in an attempt to try and persuade Australians to support the “traditional marriage” between a man and woman. Being a lead spokesman for the campaign, Abbott took to platforms life Facebook, posting numerous “It’s Okay To Vote No” messages, supporting adverts that are against same sex marriage, encouraging his followers to be involved with the campaign and to share this content.

Another politician who has exploited social media platform was Pauline Hanson. Hanson turned to Twitter, in a pursuit to spread her political views and express her goals as a politician. She is currently most known for her political party One Nation, and her beliefs in restricting immigration laws. Due to the unlimited possibilities within social media, it has also allowed Hanson’s passionate supporters and fans to band together and converse in the same political beliefs. This enhances the possibilities of a growing support system and the chances of success as a politician.

Bruns and Burgess (2011) argued that it was not the use of social media by politicians in their campaigning that was important, but it was more of the high levels of discussions and engagement by the Australian public that was noteworthy during their campaigns.

Social media has definitely become limitless and is a venue that politicians will most definitely take advantage of.

References:

Bruns A and Burgess J 2011, #ausvotes: How Twitter covered the 2010 Australian federal election. Communication, Politics & Culture, Queensland University of Technology, 44(2), pp. 37-56.

Harfoush R 2009, Yes we did: An inside look at how social media built the Obama brand, Berkeley, Calif.: New Riders.

Sauter T and Bruns A 2013,  Social Media in the Media: How Australian Media Perceive Social Media as Political Tools, Brisbane: ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, University of Oslo, viewed on 25 December 2017, <http://www.cci.edu.au/socialmediainthemedia.pdf>

Woolley J.K, Limperos, A.M, and Oliver, M.B  2010, The 2008 Presidential Election, 2.0: A Content Analysis of User-Generated Political Facebook Groups, Mass Communication and Society, vol 13, pp. 631-652

Excellent post and a great read! Of particular interest to me, was the information on the Bernie Sanders campaign, He had nowhere near the money or the power, yet he ranked so much better among the younger supporters because of the campaigns clever use of social media and by discussing issues that affect youth. Not dissimilar to my own musings on Barack Obamas campaign in 2008. His YouTube Channel reached a vast audience without costing the campaign large amount of money, whilst targeting the younger voter also through a medium they are intimately familiar with. Perhaps Bernie’s team learned some tips from the game changing Obama Presidential campaign.

How much political influence does social media really have?

When asked what brought him the most pleasure in all the different aspects of his business, Rupert Murdoch replied ‘being involved … in a [political] campaign - trying to influence people’ (McKnight 2013).

Murdoch takes his role as a political influencer very seriously and his media empire spans the globe across print, television and online environments. His favour is sought by politicians and aspiring leaders in the hope that he will write positive things about them, and his print dominance in many markets can be shown to have actually influenced election results (McKnight 2013). But in light of the statistic that in 2017, two-thirds of American adults now get their news not from newspapers or broadcast news, but from social media (Pew Research Center 2017), will his influence be maintained in the future?

Scratching backs. Image Source: NY Mag

Given that the top three most visited news websites in the US are more centre-left leaning politically (CNN, New York Times & Huffington Post) (Feedspot 2017), one could assume that users social media feeds (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) would more be more heavily populated by news that is opposed to the Murdoch ideology. Social media, however, works by friends sharing information that appeals to them - not to mention ‘organisations or politicians who are paying Facebook for their attention’ (Phillips 2016). Enter ‘filter bubbles’. First described by Eli Pariser in his 2011 book about the topic, filter bubbles are media we are exposed to that only reinforce our own opinions, excluding other views. According to Bill Gates, social media ‘lets you go off with like-minded people, so you’re not mixing and sharing and understanding other points of view’ (Gates in Delaney 2017).

Video Source: Quartz Media

Politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn (the British Labour leader) and Bernie Sanders in the US capitalised on their younger audiences consuming their news primarily from social media. While attracting little press attention - Sanders received less than a third of the media attention as Hillary Clinton (Phillips 2016) - their Facebook and other social media mentions vastly outnumbered their opponents. Despite this coverage however, most of the time, thanks to filter bubbles, stories about them were only being seen by audiences who shared the same viewpoint. For those who have a different social media profile to Sanders supporters, their news feeds could well be silent about what he had to say. As we know, both of these men built impressive followings, but were not able to capitalise on it and claim victory. Phillips (2016) notes that ‘social media provides a mobilising force that builds passionate partisanship’. In other words, it does not generally cross over partisan lines. She goes on to say that ‘viral news needs the blood stream of broader media to carry it from one silo to another’. 

With this in mind, perhaps Rupert Murdoch’s days of influence aren’t over yet?

References

Delaney, K 2017, Filter bubbles are a serious problem with news, says Bill Gates, Quartz Media, viewed 5 January 2018, <https://qz.com/913114/bill-gates-says-filter-bubbles-are-a-serious-problem-with-news/>.

Feedspot 2017, Top 100 USA News Websites on the Web, viewed 5 January 2018, <https://blog.feedspot.com/usa_news_websites >.

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