Week Ten–Digital Citizenship and Conflict: Social Media Governance

We are living in a world where social media governance has become more important than ever. It beggars belief to see the conflict, online harassment and trolling that is prevailing on every social media platform imaginable and in every way, shape and form as seen by Anita (Sarkeesian 2012) in her powerful Ted Talk response to the online abuse she endured over the internet.

The question of who controls the internet remains conflicting as many of the big wigs strive to control, two of these being Facebook and Apple. The public and private sector industries might well develop standards with many countries taking different approaches to internet regulations. So it is not hard to see why online harassment is prevalent today along with the notion that perpetrators are generally thought of as individuals involved in gaming culture harassment. More often than not these perpetrators  are working with organised networks such as the Cyber Mob as detailed in Anita’s Ted Talk (TedxWomen 2012). 

The Feminist Media Studies of (Marwick & Caplan 2018, p. 545) suggests that online harassment frequently happens to women whose profession is in the public, two of which are politicians and journalists. An example of this was illustrated recently when Australian media outlets reported the Victorian MP Jane Garret’s story. The politician called out trolling, taking a public stance against online vitriol as the government refused to release a report into sexism and bullying into Victoria’s fire services (Sakkal & Ilanbey, 2021).

The article goes on to say that a person claiming to be a member of the United Firefighters Union set up a social media account anonymously called EBA Truth targeted the politician with over 90 Twitter posts related to the Country Fire Authority dissension where she was recently compared to a dog. Descriptions of earlier posts calling her a ‘rat’, ‘liar’, ‘psychopath’, and ‘self-serving wrecker’ brought a response from the minister saying she was “beyond sick of it” and that “the right to be safe at work is fundamental as any (Occupational Health and Safety) rights, that the women’s rights movement has fought long and hard for” (Sakkal & Ilanbey, 2021).

 Marwick, A & Caplan, R 2018, ‘Drinking male tears: language, the manosphere, and networked harassment’, Feminist Media Studies, vol.18, no. 4, pp. 543-559. 

Sakkal, P & Ilanbey, S 2021, ‘Victorian MP calls out trolling as government refuses to release sexism report’ 19 May 2021, The Age viewed 20 May 2021, <https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/doggy-rat-liar-former-minister-calls-out-trolling-as-sexism-report-deadline-looms-20210518-p57sz3,html>

Sarkeesian, A 2012,TEDxWomen, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wKBdMu6dD4&ab_channel=eugenedebs>.

Week Nine–Digital citizenship case study: Social Media Influencers and the Slow Fashion Movement

The slow fashion movement is not a new phenomenon with earlier attempts that were once thought of as passing fads but a need within the industry that continues to increase in importance (Henninger 2017). Stimulated by heightened awareness and evidence of huge global consumption, made easy because of access and affordability of clothing is what is known as fast fashion. Reports that the British government and fashion companies now consider the slow fashion movement as serious (Lai et al. 2017), prompting the formation of a number of global sustainability campaigns one of these a leadership forum Global Fashion Agenda, formed with the intention to move the fashion industry towards becoming sustainable (Xiaopei Wu & Li 2019). 

It seems that the fashion industry is not answerable to governments as there appears to be no national or global policies on sustainability that the industry is required to adhere to. According to (Xiaopei Wu & Li 2019) global clothing consumption doubled from 50 billion pieces of clothing sold in 2000 to over 100 billion in 2015. Governance related to sustainalbilty has some high-end designers questionably putting themselves out there as being part of the slow fashion movement with an introduction of sustainable garments and catchy labels like Conscious Line (Lai et al. 2017). In the past there have been different forms of sustainability concerning environmental, social and economic surges through protests about unethical working conditions and anti fur campaigns (Lai et al. 2017).  But there is so much more than these two factors that need to be considered before the fashion industry can be considered sustainable. As digital citizens we are now provided with adequate opportunities online to actively research and support clothing organisations that are part of the slow fashion movement. 

One example is Alp N Rock who has recently sent their members a personalised email with a link to its sustainability report (Alp N Rock 2020/2021). The report speaks of the organisation’s commitment to environmental and social sustainability, listing its many achievements. The two collections that Alp N Rock launched in 20/21 featured use of sustainable and environmentally friendly materials, a spring collection using Tencel and clothing in the fall/winter collection was made using organic cotton, recycled polyester, bluesign certified materials and prima loft recycled eco down. The company has a clean office initiative through waste reduction, energy use, increased recycling and eco friendly supplies for offices. Alp N Rock pays fair wages to their staff who work in a safe environment and does not tolerate discrimination. A partnership with Room to Read for a goal to send 500 girls to school has grown to  688 girls becoming educated with plans for continuing support.               

Alp N Rock, 2020/2021, ‘Sustainability Report’ viewed 17 May 2021,<https://view.publitas.com/alp-n-rock/2020_sustainability_report/page/1>.  

Henninger, CE, Ryding, D, Alevizou, PJ & Goworek, H 2017, ‘Introduction to sustainability in fashion’, Palgrave.  

 Lai, Z, Henninger, CE & Alevizou, PJ 2017, ‘An exploration of consumers’ perceptions towards sustainable fashion – A qualitative study in the UK’, Sustainability in Fashion, Palgrave and Macmillan Ltd. 

Xiaopei Wu, JX & Li, L 2019, ‘Sustainability initiatives in the fashion industry’ Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.  

Sharks and Tigers joined at the hip on possibly the last Ramp to Ramp swim in our magnificent Murray River for the season.

Week Eight–Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live Streaming

The gaming industry is now a popular activity with upwards of two billion global users (Newzoo 2017). There are many components attached to gaming, some are legal and governance challenges, the definition and history of games, games culture and community and community gaming and social communities. According to (Consultancy.com.au 2021), the Australian gaming sector revenue was worth less than $3.2 billion in 2019, with a new figure of $3.4 billion reached owing to the COVID - 19 crisis. While the functions and benefits of gaming have been studied for decades only a small amount of research specifically focusing on the playing of video games has been done (Granic et al. 2014). 

An original research article Juliane (von der Heiden et al. 2019) identified how an association of positive influences and relationships improved focus, multitasking and working memory as benefits of video gaming problem with a caution that if used heavily the user might suffer consequences. Added to this gamers have been known to suffer from psychological symptoms of daydream-like behaviour, inability to cope, negativity, low self-esteem, seeking solitude and difficulties in performing at school. The study found the gamers choice of genre helpful in developing an understanding between video gaming and psychological health, also assisting to develop interventions for psychological problems associated with potential problems related to gaming (von der Heiden et al. 2019).    

The once held belief that gaming was “intellectually lazy and sedating”, has been found to be the opposite. Isabela (Granic et al. 2014) revealed that playing games can promote a broad range of cognitive skills adding that gaming could promote persistence, motivation and optimism in the player that carries into work and school contexts. Further to that, Ian (Bass 2020) found in his research ‘The Potential of Video Games for Enhancing Teaching History’ that video games are an engaging way to improve the value of learning, with (Metzger & Paxton 2016), supporting the need for history teachers to be aware of the influence that gaming and play may have on a students thoughts about the past with a possibility that their learnings have come from video games and not the teachers or textbooks. Historian Dawn (Spring 2014) supports the idea of the production of video games as a way to create and present original historical scholarship.  

Consultancy.com.au, 2021 ‘Australia’s gaming industry grows to $3.4 billion amid Covid-19’, 7 February 2021, viewed 5 May 2021, <https://www.consultancy.com.au/news/2954/australias-gaming-industry-grows-to-34-billion-amid-covid-19>.

Granic, I, Lobel, A & Engels R 2013, ‘The benefits of playing video games’, vol. 69, no. 1 pp. 66-78 American Psychologist.

Metzger, SA & Paxton, RJ 2016, ‘Gaming history: A framework for what video games teach about the past’ Theory & Research in Social Education, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 532-564.

Newzoo, 2017 ‘Global games market report: trends, insights and projections toward 2020’, viewed 5 May 2021, <https://newzoo.com/products/reports/global-games-market-report/>.

Spring, D 2015, ‘Gaming history: computer and video games as historical scholarship’, Rethinking History,  vol. 9, no. 2. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

von der Heiden, JM, Braun, B, Müller, KW & Egloff, B 2019, ‘The association between video gaming and psychological functioning’, Frontiers Psychology. 

Conceptual Map of the Main Genres of Video Games (With Examples) Organized

Note. The figure is not empirical but conceptual and is intended to demonstrate the variety of ways video games engage their users. Some genres have been necessarily excluded. The same game (Halo 4) was intentionally repeated to illustrate that many games have the option of being played in either a single- or a multiplayer mode. *MMORPG  massive multiplayer online role-playing game.

Granic, I, Lobel, A & Engels R 2013, ‘The benefits of playing video games’, vol. 69, no. 1 p. 70, American Psychologist.

Week Seven–Digital Citizenship and Software Literacy: Instagram Filters

An analogy comparing coffee filters and filters used for effective augmented reality occurred through a number of this week’s readings. Coffee filters block unwanted elements from being poured into the cup while retaining quality and flavour, while augmented reality filters are used to digitally alter images, body or facial parts that the social user dislikes and would like to perfect.      

The analogy is helpful in making sense of the way that social media users percieve themselves and the lengths that many go to, to digitally alter their real selves by virtually modifying what they do not like about their bodies to then create a perfect digital self. Isabelle (Coy-Dibley 2016, p. 2) argues the need for more discussion around the progression of the age of digitised beauty, apace with an increase in a person’s capacity to technically alter their personal selves and what this might be doing to women’s relationships with their bodies.   

Susie (Orbach 2009) makes an interesting point about the diet, food, style cosmetic surgery, pharmaceutical and media industries that depicting how bodies are for show and can make a person feel that our bodies are “sites for reconstruction and improvement”, unlike digital changes where a person can alter parts of their bodies that they dislike at no cost, they are limited by the amount of money they have to spend within these industries.This again leads to the subject of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), a condition that  was first described as  “dysmorphophobia” in 1891.The word “dysmorphia”comes from a Greek word meaning  misshapeness or ugliness (BDD Foundation 2021). 

Technology now enables individuals to reimage their bodies as they see fit to do so. Instagram was the first of many sites where filters have become a part of popular visual culture (Rettberg 2014). Today’s pressure to be beautiful brings us to a more recent condition named “digitised dysmorphia”. Isabelle (Coy-Dibley 2016, p. 9) identifies her concerns that the need for individuals to reach these high beauty standards is creating pressure to achieve not only the physical but a high image standard, that is distressing and requires more consideration.     

Coy-Dibley, I 2016, “Digitized Dysmorphia” of the female body: the re/disfigurement of the image, Palgrave Communications.  

BDD | History of Body Dysmorphic Disorder, viewed 29 April 2021, <https://bddfoundation.org/resources/history-of-bdd/>.

Orbach, S 2009 ‘Bodies’ Profile Books, London.

Rettberg, JW 2014, ‘Seeing ourselves through technology: How we use selfies, blogs and wearable devices to see and shape ourselves, Palgrave Macmillan, London.  

Week Six–Digital Citizenship and Health Education: Body Modification on Visual Social Media

Australians have generated some truly inspiring public health campaigns over the years, achieved through hard work combined with technology through social media.The humble Movember movement began in 2003 and by 2019 had grown to include 21 participating countries with over 6 million dollars raised with Mo Bros shaping their moustaches for the month of November alongside their supporting Mo Sisters. Funds that are raised are prioritised for solutions in addressing men’s health locally and globally for three important men’s health issues mental health, suicide prevention, prostate and testicular cancers (Movember 2019).

After Garry Larkin’s father Barry died by suicide in 1996 Garry began an ‘R U OK Day’ of action campaign (R U OK 2021). Through social media the campaign aims to prevent suicide by encouraging and empowering Australians to reach out to family and friends who could possibly be struggling using a four-step model (Ross & Bassilios 2019). The first step suggests that people ask a person “how they are going”? The second step is to listen with no judgement. An important third step is to motivate people to take the step in seeking professional mental health assistance and the fourth is to follow up and check on the person after the initial three steps (R U OK 2021).  

While positive health campaigns continue in their popularity throughsocial media platforms there are ideas of a different type of public health campaign promoting aesthetic templates where a person changes their appearance by editing online or physically (Mavroudis 2020). There is a risk that this type of  behaviour may lead to a body image standard that is not possible to achieve and has the physical and social potential to become unhealthy, sometimes resulting in a common but not often recognised condition known as ‘body dysmorphic disorder’ (BDD). 

A person with BDD disorder might see themselves or parts of their body as abnormal or not attractive. While it is comforting to know that treatments are available for BDD, it is a condition that can choose anyone, suggested Doctor Katharine (Phillips 2009), who supported a factual published systematic review finding, identifying BDD sufferers with higher degrees of suicidality than other psychiatric disorders identified as high risk. In his lecture Johnathon (Mavroudis 2020) believes that body dissatisfaction had become a social problem because of social media, suggesting the need for more regulated public health campaigns by online influencers.

A conversation could change a life | R U OK?, viewed 20 April 2021, <https://www.ruok.org.au/>.

Mavroudis, J 2020, Week 6, ‘Digital Citizenship and Health Education: Body Modification on Visual Social Media’, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 12 April 2021, viewed 17 April 2021.

Movember, 2019, History, viewed 20 April 2021, <https://au.movember.com/about/history/>.

Phillips, K 2009, ‘Body Dysmorphic Disorder’, viewed 19 April 2021, WebtoMed, <https://www.katharinephillipsmd.com/>.

Ross, A & Bassilios, B 2019, ‘Australian R U OK?DAY campaign: improving helping beliefs, intentions and behaviours, International Journal of Mental Health Systems, vol. 13 no. 61.

Week Five–What is Digital Citizenship? Hashtag Publics, Political Engagement and Activism

A digital citizen has the skills and know how to use digital technology, to partake, create or consume digital content and communicate through technology. In this digital age, it is more important than ever to be digital citizens and why digital citizenship is now taught in Australian schools. The Australian Curriculum (Digital Technologies Hub 2020) supports the teaching of digital citizenship in responsible behaviour of digital technologies with a clear focus on not misusing technologies to the detriment of others, including online etiquette with knowledge and resources for students in online safety. 

American and Australian politics has a colourful history in the digital sphere, none more so than during the election process with politicians and voters sadly lacking evidence in digital citizenship. Social media platforms are used for hashtag publics, activism, political engagement and activism enabling candidates to engage in election campaigns, providing channels for voters to activate conversations with constituents, inform political views and information including fundraising (Nelimarkka et al. 2020). 

While digital technology has provided opportunities for professionalisation in past United States election campaigns, more recently the trend has gone from a more professional or polished––to amateurish or authentic, where in 2016 the Trump and Clinton campaign used social media primarily as their marketing tool (Enli 2017), often doing their own social media tweets. 

The #auspol hashtag was used during one of Australia’s political bloodbaths where the country found itself in the position of having five prime ministers in five years. Professor of media and communication at Queensland University of Technology Axel Bruns (Bogle), who had tracked the #auspol for many years prior, suggested that while not every Australian political conversation takes place under the #auspol hashtag, it is a generic platform where vibrant debate can take place and “it is part of the political furniture in Australia”. 

Bogle, A ‘#auspol: The Twitter hashtag Australia can’t live without’, 21 March 2016, viewed 5 April 2021, <https://mashable.com/2016/03/21/twitter-australia-auspol/>

Digital Technologies Hub, 2020, Digital Citizenship, <https://www.digitaltechnologieshub.edu.au/teachers/topics/digital-citizenship>.

Enli, G 2017, ‘Twitter as arena for the authentic outsider: exploring the social media campaigns of Trump and Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election’, European Journal of Communication, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 50-60, SAGE Publishing.     

Nelimarkka, M Laaksonen, SM, Tuokko, M & Valkonen, T 2020,  ‘Platformed interactions: How social media platforms relate to candidate–constitute interaction during Finnish 2015 election campaigning’, pp. 1-17, Social Media + Society, Sage Publishing. 

BON VOYAGE and away they go... Two men, in a kayak are about to cross Bass Strait.

Thank you to everyone for all of your support. The guys have received heaps of messages yesterday from all over. Donations are still coming in. Amazing.⠀⠀

To help us raise funds to aid the work that we and @australiansformentalhealth do, you can visit:⠀

https://www.australiansformentalhealth.org.au/donate 

https://www.facebook.com/Solstice-The-Documentary-52224374498

@alburywodongawintersolstice

Thank you Hume Bank

Week Four–Digital Community and Fandom: Reality TV Case Study

We have been looking at reality TV and fandom this week and the question that has been posed to us is, do we consider reality TV an example of a public sphere? A study by Hilde (Sakariassen 2020), suggests that  the public sphere is an arena where people can connect, where collective opinion is shaped and is a place where publics are able to communicate general interest matters by expressing and articulating their opinion (Habermas 1991). Not all researchers agree with Habermas’ theory. In fact there are some who are of the belief that the “internet-induced structural transformation” ought to be scrapped (Webster 2013). 

Political talk is no stranger to reality TV and recent research suggests that not only are these virtual communities based on shared interests, providing a variety of entertainment, hosting various political discussions ranging from body and health to government and politicians (Graham & Hajru 2005). Reality TV is not restricted to television and has transformed this genre into one of the most vibrant communities on social media. Reality TV can change according to technology and has been reinvigorated by hashtags, Twitter, Instagram Tumblr and the good old podcast. 

Bravo’s The Real Housewives reality series began in 2006 and is a perfect example of how success is created not only from the television series itself but beyond, in what is termed “transmedia expansion”. These include interactive talk shows, blogs, and social media accounts enabling audiences to have an inside look at the supposed real lives of the stylish housewife stars (Arcy 2018). In a paper discussing communities formed around reality TV, Melissa (Sheil 2020) makes a point about the combination of authenticity and mutual exclusivity of promoting reality television working within fandom, as the fans become fully aware that the stars and network are of the belief that they actually know the stars in reality.    

Arcy, J 2018, ‘The digital money shot: Twitter wars, The real housewives, and transmedia storytelling’, Celebrity Studies, vol. 9, no. 4, <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2018.1508951>.

Graham, T & Hajru, A 2011, ‘Reality TV as a trigger of everyday political talk in the net-based public sphere’, European Journal of Communications, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 18-32, <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0267323110394858>.

Habermas, J 1991, ‘The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge Massachusetts, MIT Press.

Sakariassen, H 2020, ‘A digital public sphere’, Medieultur Journal of Media and Communication Research, vol. 36, no. 68, pp 126-146, <https://tidsskrift.dk/mediekultur/article/view/118440>. 

Sheil, M 2020, ‘Reality television fandom on social media: A community of Web 2.0’, 12 May 2020, viewed 12 April 2021, Debating Communities and Networks Conference, Curtin University, <Reality television fandom on social media: A community of Web 2.0 | Debating Communities and Networks XI>.  

Webster, F 2013, ‘What’s the use of the public sphere in the age of the internet? Routledge New York. 

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How does Tumblr function as a digital community?

Founded in 2007 (Press Information Tumblr 2021) Tumblr has been described as “blogging meets Twitter/Facebook” (Power, 2014). With three core guidelines of “express yourself” “be yourself” and “connect with your people” listed on the site’s about page (Press Information Tumblr 2021) the social network “harnesses the enthusiasm around a particular topic and coalesces into a community” (Davies 2013).

As a unique digital platform, Tumblr allows users to foster digital communities by providing a place to easily create and consume content with others who have shared interests (McCracken 2017). Fandom communities have evolved on the platform creating more public visibility, so much so that fans have used their fandom to activate political and industry activism (Morimoto & Stein 2018).  

Originally designed and created as a user-friendly multimedia micro-blogging social media platform by David Karp, Tumblr’s niche lay in allowing users to communicate and network through a wide array of media such as GIF animations, memes, text and videos (McCracken 2017, p. 2). Through its constant stream of content based on a user’s likes and interests Tumblr stimulates intense and rapid experiences of community (McCracken 2017, p. 35).

In an interview with Amanda Brennan, McCracken describes Tumblr as “a platform where people go to share things that they are passionate about” (McCracken 2017, p. 32). Brennan goes on to describes being able to connect on Tumblr over the things you love and suggests that Tumblr is a place that this can be done without being the person you would usually be projecting as being on the outside (McCracken 2017, p. 37). This point from Brennan is of enormous significance when talking to an individual’s sense of community, as the feelings of safety and belonging are central to this.

Davies, H 2013, ‘Why 2013 is the year you need to get serious about Tumblr’, Forbes, 24 January 2013, viewed 31 March 2021, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2013/01/24/why-2013-is-the-year-you-need-to-get-serious-about-tumblr/?sh=35c9e0cd4107>.

McCracken, A 2020, ‘A Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures,  Michigan Press.

Morimoto, L & Stein, LE 2018, ‘Tumblr & Fandom’, [editorial], Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 27, viewed 1 April 2021, <https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/1580/1826>.

Power, JL 2014, ‘Tumblr’, Taylor & Francis Group, Journal of Access Services, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 91-96.

Press Information Tumblr, 2021, viewed 31 March 2021, <https://www.tumblr.com/press>.

An early Murray River downstream with friends #MalvernMarlens