This is Farewell!

Welcome to my final blog for this unit.  I’ve actually quite enjoyed this unit as it didn’t feel so much like studying though I’ve learnt so much.  I went in with an open mind wondering what a unit labelled ‘social media’ could teach someone that grew up with it and I was pleasantly surprised.  I not only learned more about social media and the devices that enable it but also a great deal about myself as the unit required self-reflection.

From blog 1 regarding mobile devices I was introduced to the work of psychologist, Sherry Turkle where I made the startling admission that I was uncomfortable with solitude (TED 2012).  In her TED Talk, 'Connected, but alone?' Turkle (2012) stated ‘being alone feels like a problem to be solved’(TED 2012).  I realised this was true that I hide within my phone seeking company through text messages and social networking.  Turkle (2012) made another alarming point that deeply resonated with me that ‘people can’t get enough of each other as long as they can have each other at a distance in amounts that they can control’ (TED 2012).

Who would’ve thought that a unit on social media could make you aware of how much you valued your relationships in ‘real’ life whilst cautioning against the hazards of being permanently connected to your ‘second life’. Simulacra does have its benefits though such as its applications in business, science and medicine.  Though I’ve realised the importance of being able to ‘unplug’ as previously my day looked a little like this:

·         Wake up and check my Facebook newsfeed, go on Instagram

·         Go to work

·         Lunch: Eat, Facebook and Instagram

 

·         Work

·         Get home and check my Facebook

At this point there are some days I don’t go on Facebook (shocking I know) and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m busy juggling work, university and relationships (I can hear my mother’s voice in my head right ‘idle hands idle mind') or if it’s because I’m more aware of my relationships in real time.  We’ll go with the latter (and not tell my mother).  I find it astounding that at lunch I don’t have my phone out and I’m participating in conversations.  Though I find I’m competing for their attention against their mobile devices (how rude!). 

Though I have to marvel at the ever changing nature of technology that enables these devices and how the technology from the humble land line has evolved into the portable mobile phone and that too has evolved into the smart phone which has a myriad of applications encompassing our social networking ‘needs’, television, internet (I’d be lost without google), music and games. 

I’ve also found fascinating how ICT (information communication and technologies) tools could be used to promote transparency and reduce corruption within the government.  I was interested to find that governments actually release their own ICTs such as e-government (Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes 2010, p.265).  They release information such as their expenditure which reduces the risk of wasteful spending on projects as the public are making them accountable (Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes 2010, p.265). 

 

I actually plan to do a little more research on the subject as most of the information I found was in regards to American ICTs.  I want to know where my tax dollars are going Julia!  As a little side note I think if the government really wanted to reduce corruption they would promote these websites as it’s all well and good that they have them but what good are they if they’re not receiving hits?  I guess that’s why we have whistle blowers like Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks team to keep the government honest.  Though the question is do they go to far? There has to be a rational limits regarding ‘maximum public disclosure’ and that the public’s ‘right to know’ as it could possibly jeopardise national security and/or our relationships with other countries (Kinsman 2011, p.46).     

Social media is a great tool for providing everyday people with a platform to speak and for the dissemination of information though as with everything else there are implications for a society that communicates via social media.  Social media may facilitate cyber bullying and extremist hate groups recruiting children.

 

CyberBullyHelp states that social media can allow a bully an anonymous way of targeting their victim where they can hide behind fake profiles or even use someone else’s identity (Pagatston 2011).  Cyber bullying is quite repetitive in nature as we’re constantly connected to our devices we’re giving cyber bullies a 24/7 all access pass (Pagatston 2011).  Cyber bullying is also repetitive in nature as the victim can read/see the message/photo/threat multiple times and this can also be shared throughout the cyber bully’s social network and the victim’s network as well (Pagatston 2011). 

 

Social media may also facilitate the process in which extremist groups target and recruit children attempting to force their ideologies upon impressionable minds.  I believe that we can combat the dark side of social media through a more increased presence in our children’s online lives and also through continual education of online safety for all (not just children).  This is due to the fact that technology is always changing and we must be vigilant of new dangers and threats to ensure the protection of our online safety. 

It’s not all doom and gloom though the future of social media is bright revolutionising the way we communicate socially and in business on a global scale.  We’re starting to see the effects of Web 3.0 and soon we’ll be able to go into our social networking sites and not have to search for what we need.  In fact I was talking to one of the business manager’s at work who regaled me in a story about when he became engaged and changed his relationship status from “in a relationship” to “engaged” (on Facebook).  He told me the change of relationship status triggered an advertisement for a wedding photographer to appear in his side menu.  This illustrates the very point that social media is already catering to us as an individual based on our likes, dislikes and relationship status and as technology increases in the social media field it’s only going to get bigger and better.

 

So this is farewell (at least on this blog anyway) and I wish you all luck with all your future study endeavours and social media engagement.

 

 

      (alvarezanamaria 2011)

Reference List

Bertot, J, Jaeger, P and Grimes, J 2010, 'Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E-goverment and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies', Government Information Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 3,, pp 264-271 viewed 19 January 2013 http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0740624X10000201/1-s2.0-S0740624X10000201-main.pdf?_tid=6cc2aca2-773a-11e2-9e19-00000aab0f01&acdnat=1360910539_286d64a5b0e5cf7f6a966aeea7aa6be1

Kinsman, J 2011, TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCE: THE WIKILEAKS SAGA, viewed 19 January 2013 http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/feb11/kinsman.pdf  

          

The Dark Side of Social Media

Last year my phone was playing up and so my sister performed a factory reset and I lost all my contacts.  So I constructed a Facebook message with people that were previously on my contact list or people that I would like to reconnect with asking them to ‘PM’ (personal message) me back with their number.  Unfortunately people added their phone numbers to the bottom of the message and so people received a great number of notifications and there were some people (namely two) that said some nasty things.  I frantically went into damage control mode personally messaging the two girls apologising for the message as I did not intend for it to clog up their inboxes.  This story of cyber bullying unlike many others has a positive ending as both girls had apologised and more interestingly one girl had not sent the message at all it was her boyfriend. 

CyberBullyHelp states that in both cyber bullying and traditional bullying the behaviour of bullies is aggressive, repetitive and power based and the person being targeted has a difficult time defending themselves (Pagatston 2011).  Though bullying is often repetitive, cyber bullying is particularly repetitive in nature as the victim can view the message (sent from the bully) multiple times and I must admit I did read those words multiple times worried that my other Facebook friends would see (Pagatston 2011). 

A key difference between traditional bullying and cyber bullying is that with traditional bullying the bully is usually known whereas, through cyber bullying the bully can hide behind fake profiles or in my case use other people’s identities (Pagatston 2011).  Often cyber bullies would say and do things they wouldn’t normally do believing that they have anonymity, can hide behind the computer screen and believe that they won’t get caught (Pagatston 2011).  The International Business Times (2012) reported this was the case with 15 year old Sheniz Erkan, who took her own after have been victim to constant abuse in the schoolyard and online (Paredes 2012).  Her brother acting as a representative for her family urges parents to be more involved in their children’s online life in order to protect them and stop cyber bullying (Paredes 2012).  He says that ‘kids can just hide behind their keyboards, write whatever they want without worrying about the repercussions’ (Paredes 2012).

(clker)

Unfortunately the dark side of social media extends beyond cyber bullying we must also guard our children against extremist hate groups.  First Monday states that white extremist hate groups attempt to attract children with text, MP3 music and games (Rae and Marsh II 2001).  Though the efforts of these hate groups attempt to recruit children to adopt their ideologies the websites are more reactive than aggressive (Rae and Marsh II 2001).  For example the World Church of The Creator has produced a website Creativity for Kids that offers downloadable ‘white pride’ colouring pages and crosswords (Rae and Marsh II 2001).  This white-extremist group does not promote diversity in race and colour and are anti-everything except white (Rae and Marsh II 2001).  This particular website places emphasis on ‘white pride’ and doesn’t particularly take an aggressive stance on the issue (Rae and Marsh II 2001).

Howard Rheingold envisioned a world where the ‘virtual community’ could exist as a place where people could come together based a common interest (Rheingold).  However, Rheingold took a more utopian view towards the virtual community as opposed to white extremist groups such as the World Church of the Creator who spruik messages of ‘white pride’ to children.

Currently there are extremist watch groups that keep white extremist groups in check however, if we were to see the dark side of social media noticeably shrink in the future our efforts must start at home.  Parents should have more of a presence in their child’s online life if we are to protect them against cyber bullying and extremist groups.

 

Produsage

One of my absolute passions in this world is perfume.  I love everything about it from the science, the bottle design, the perfume advertisements and most importantly the actual fragrance.  I am that passionate about it that I’ve started a blog (the emphasis being on started, I’ve been busy with university).  I rarely use other people’s work for my blog though sometimes I need information on specific notes in perfume and will use content from fragrance experts.  This technically makes me a produser where I utilise the tool Blogger.com to produce content sometimes manipulating already developed content to create a new product disrupting the normal production chain that is producer creates content and uses a distributor to deliver it to the consumer who then receives and consumes the media (Next.com 2010).  Axel Bruns (2010) notes that consumers like myself are not advising producers of what content they want to see but are rather generating it themselves (Next.com 2010).

However, if I do use content from another producer I will heavily reference it as leading the public to believe the content to be mine is unethical and I’d hardly like it if this were to happen to me.  Axel Bruns (2007) in his paper, Produsage:Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation notes that produsage has a devastating effect on production industries (i.e. music, journalism, software and broadcast industries) that are experiencing great difficulty in not only retaining existing customers but also attracting new customers (Bruns 2007, p.104).  Bruns (2007) highlights that produsage has now placed production industries in the difficult position of having to reinvent themselves to remain profitable (Bruns 2007, p.104). 

Perhaps they should take some advice from American politicians.  The book, Campaigning forPresident 2008 details how in 2007 presidential candidate Mitt Romney launched a video creation contest giving supporters access to hundreds of photos and video clips so that they could create an advertisement to boost Romney’s profile and assist him in winning votes (Johnson 2009, p.151). 

Even though Romney lost the presidential race he cleverly used bilateral communications where the focus is shifted off solely broadcasting messages to the public and actually involved them in the creation of the message that was being broadcasted to them and this would’ve assisted in attaining votes for the candidate (Johnson 2009, p.151).  Romney encouraged what media theorist Henry Jenkins (2010) calls a participatory culture; where the consumers of the message become producers they take media into their own hands and create media with the content Romney has provided them with therefore becoming produsers (DML Research Hub 2010).  This is quite clever as Romney has control of what content can be utilised within the message and as it’s a contest he (rather his staff) get to screen the messages before they’re released. 

I think produsage will continue well into the future and gain momentum as social media technologies advance making it easier for consumers to produce content and if production industries wish to remain profitable that perhaps they need to take their cue from Romney and utilise bi-lateral communications.  Producers could put media into their consumers hands allowing them to create content on their behalf because let’s face it the producers are the ones marketing to the consumers and the consumers know what they want.     

Just for your entertainment here's a little something that isn't Romney's best interest but demonstrates produsage where the produser discredits Romney using Psy's Gangnam Style. Enjoy!

 

CollegeHumor's Favorite Funny Videos

Living a 'Second Life'

I have a confession and I’m actually a little ashamed of it.  In my final year of high school I was addicted to… Farmville…

Well there you have it, out in the open for everyone to see.

Games such as Farmville, Second Life and The Sims use simulacra which according to Plato is a term used to describe a false copy of something (Mann).  These games provide a copy of society in an online environment where people are substituted with avatars.  thefreedictionary.com describes an avatar as a moveable character the user controls (Farlex Inc. 2013)

In Farmville I created an avatar in my likeness and through my avatar I built my farm from the ground up, building fences, acquiring animals and planting and harvesting crops.  The crops themselves depending on the plant would take from a half-hour to three days to grow.

Theorist Baudrillard argues that ‘in a world dominated by media and the internet the idea of a ‘true’ or ‘false’ copy has been destroyed and all we have left now are simulations of reality which aren’t any more or less ‘real’ than the reality they simulate’ (Mann). 

Though I was quite addicted to the game I didn’t feel the need to push my obsession to the next level and actually pay for additional things for my avatar.  It is argued that these hyper reality games are simply replicating our consumer driven society, however I think it is a little more complex than that.  It’s not uncommon in these games for people to exchange their hard earned cash for the equivalent of the game’s currency.  Julian Dibbell (in the documentary You Only Live Twice) (2007) states that people become that invested in the game socially and psychologically that they are willing to pay for these fake things and actually perceive it as an investment (Four Corners 2007). 

You Only Live Twice explores this social and psychological investment in the game Second Life where people become quite attached to their avatars living through them and value the social relationships forged with other people’s avatars (Four Corners 2007).  The documentary’s presenter, Ticky Fullerton experiments by adopting her own avatar and soon becomes attached to the avatar taking the insults and compliments it receives quite personally (Four Corners 2007).

Businesses and chain stores are starting to move into games such as Second Life taking advantage of people’s attachment to their avatars.  People such as Veronica Brown have found Second Life to be quite lucrative for them and are able to draw a substantial income from it (Four Corners 2007). Brown became quite successful designing bridal and evening wear for people’s avatars (Four Corners 2007).  Chain stores such as American Apparel have also set up shop within Second Life where you enter the store, click on a piece of clothing and two images appear, on your left a piece of clothing to purchase for your avatar and on the right a version for you which can be purchased and delivered to your door (Four Corners 2007).     

 As great as it is for businesses to take exploit people’s attachment to avatars it’s important to examine what this is doing to our real world relationships.  On games such as Second Life, users’ avatars can meet each other forging social relationships online (Four Corners 2007).  Psychologist, Sherry Turkle (2012) explains the implications of these online relationships she states that people are afraid of intimacy and that ‘people can’t get enough of each other as long as they can have each other at a distance in amounts that they can control and an effect of this is that we sacrifice conversation’ (TED 2012).

One may argue that through games like Second Life people can converse with other users however, these conversations can be edited and retouched; Turkle emphasises that with conversations that take place in the real world you can’t control what you’re going to say, you can’t edit or retouch (TED 2012).

Taking this all into consideration will we all end up living a ‘Second Life’?  Will the way people work, play, socialise and develop relationships all move online?  In a way I think this has already occurred people often work and communicate through email, people shop online,  play virtual games with each other and socialise and develop relationships through Facebook and Twitter.  Conversely, my job (in banking) is customer centric and internet banking has not eliminated my role (for now) and I much prefer the instant gratification of shopping in a store and I communicate with family, friends and my partner through technology but I will annoy them if I haven’t seen them face-to-face in a while.  I can’t imagine living in a world where people all live a ‘second life’ to be honest I have a hard enough time navigating my first life with work, university and different relationships I haven’t even been on Facebook today.

***The author of this blog would like to disclose that she does not use Farmville anymore and this was just a phase***  

 

(iPad News Daily 2002)

 

The Need To Know (WikiLeaks)?

In 2010, the organisation WikiLeaks released 250,000 diplomatic US cables for the world to see (Kinsman 2011, p. 45).  These cables (messages between diplomats and the government) contained information on geopolitics, smugglers, ex-military fixers and corrupt politicians and businesses (ref).  US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton believes that the leak ‘puts people’s lives in danger, threatens our national security, and undermines (US) efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems’(Kinsman 2011, p.45).  Former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin likens WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (and his team) to terrorists like Al-Qaeda (Kinsman 2011, p.45).  Though I wonder if she is still sore about WikiLeaks hacking her Yahoo (email) account (Wachter 2010).

 

(Ted Goff 2008)

It is unclear as to if the leaks have endangered any lives though she does raise a valid point there must be a limit to ‘maximum possible disclosure’ as the US (or any country in fact) needs to be able to communicate in confidence and in turn protect the information they receive in confidence (Kinsman 2011, p.46). 

The cables have proved to be quite embarrassing for the US as they have revealed confidential information about international relations, one cable describes the German foreign minister as ‘incompetent, vain and critical of the US’ (Kinsman 2011, p.46).  It reminds me of the common adage ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it at all’.  Messages such as this are perhaps interesting to the public but they aren’t really ‘need to know’. 

However, social media does play a vital role in disseminating information and reducing corruption.  In terms of fighting corruption, social media can empower users giving them a platform on which to speak (Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes 2010, p.264).  It also allows users to collaborate and connect with each other and form what Howard Rheingold calls a virtualcommunity (Rheingold).  A virtual community involves people coming together, in an online environment based on a common interest and in this case it would be political activism (Rheingold).  Social media also allows users to participate both in the creation of media and the ability to share this media and other information.  Social media sites such as WikiLeaks fosters what media theorist, Henry Jenkins calls participatory culture (DMLReseachHub 2011).  Assange and his WikiLeaks team take it upon themselves to be whistle blowers or digital activists (I’m sure the government believes them to be hacktivists) they take media into their own hands, producing and sharing media in their efforts to make a difference; holding the government(s) accountable for their transparency (DMLResearchHub 2011).

With all of this said governments are becoming more forth-right with sharing information with the public, encouraging transparency through the implementation of information communication and technology (ICTs) tools such as e-government sites (Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes 2010, p. 265).  In their bid to reduce corruption many nations have released these e-government sites giving public information on things such as how the peoples’ hard earned tax money is being spent (Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes 2010, p.265).  As the public can monitor the government’s expenditure it eliminates spending on wasteful projects (Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes 2010, p.265).

As long as people feel that the government is keeping public ‘need to know’ information from them, sites like WikiLeaks will continue to exist.  Even after all the ‘government attention’ WikiLeaks have confirmed that Assange has not been arrested yet (WikiLeaks 2012). 

 

Though the question remains is Assange a whistle blower, activist, terrorist or hactivist?

Comment below and tell me what you think

 

References

Bertot, J, Jaeger, P and Grimes, J 2010, 'Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E-goverment and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies', Government Information Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 3,, pp 264-271 viewed 19 January 2013 http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0740624X10000201/1-s2.0-S0740624X10000201-main.pdf?_tid=6cc2aca2-773a-11e2-9e19-00000aab0f01&acdnat=1360910539_286d64a5b0e5cf7f6a966aeea7aa6be1

Kinsman, J 2011, TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCE: THE WIKILEAKS SAGA, viewed 19 January 2013 http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/feb11/kinsman.pdf   

Wachter, P 2010, Just Who is Julian Assange, the Man Behind WikiLeaks?, Aol News viewed 19 January 2013 http://www.aolnews.com/2010/07/26/just-who-is-julian-assange-the-man-behind-wikileaks/

 

Vote 1 for Social Media!

I recently went into a local election where I had no idea who the candidates were or what they stood for.  In the weeks coming up to the election I tried to find out.  I went through my usual channels I asked my friends, my family and then I went to Google.  I even tried watching the local news hoping that I could get some information but there was nothing… 

Come Election Day I voted for the names I liked the best and I wasn’t the only one.  My Facebook Newsfeed echoed the same concern, we the younger voters (even the more mature voters) had no idea who was to run our city and what they stood for.

Contrary to popular belief young people do care who is running their country (or their city).  In the book Millenial Makeover: How a Generation is Remaking America Mohammed (2006) said

‘Young people are not apathetic.  They don’t suffer from a lack of interest, but suffer from a lack of access’ (cited in Winograd, Morley Hais and Michael 2008, p. 164).

Let’s discuss a lack of access.  Young voters aren’t inaccessible when at any given time of the day they are connected to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  Perhaps the younger voter is not accessible in a way that Australian politicians are promoting their cause. 

The younger generation of voters are defined by sharing.  They feel the need to share whatever comes to mind at any given time enabled by social networking sites (Winograd, Morley Hais and Michael 2008, p. 167).

Most recently a YouTube video captured by the ABC (2012) of Prime Minister Gillard’s speech went viral.  She gave a speech labelling opposition leader Tony Abbott as a misogynist defending both herself and the women of Australia against alleged sexist remarks made in the past.  The West Australian (2012) reported that the video resonated so strongly with the Australian public the video was viewed more than 300,000 times on YouTube within the first day and made its way into international headlines in the U.S, Canada, India and South Africa.

According to social media expert Dean Power the sharing of the video was key to its success.  The more a video is shared, the more likely it makes it onto most watched lists and through the velocity of sharing it gets even more attention as it becomes famous on the internet.

Politicians may be feeling the pressure that they need to provide entertainment as well as credibility.  As Ms Gillard has just proved the public responded when she stood up for what she believed in.  She delivered a speech that was both passionate and eloquent.  There wasn’t anything humorous about the speech, she was authentic and it’s this authenticity that the Australian public responded to. 

In the book Campaigning for President (2008) Garrett M. Graff, author of the ‘The First Campaign’ observed the working of American presidential candidate Howard Dean’s campaign in 2004 he noted that

‘Dean didn’t master the technology, but he understood the energy  that was going on online’(cited in Johnson D 2008, p. 153). 

It’s this energy and passion that grips people emotionally and makes people want to support a candidate and if social media is used the candidate’s message will reach more people.   

Graff made the important point that

‘Now as the media and media choices change, so politics must change’ (cited in Johnson D 2008, p. 153).

In 2007 the Australian Labour Party tried something unheard of in Australian politics they launched the social media campaign Kevin ’07.  The campaign involved YouTube videos, text messages, blogs and the infamous Kevin’07 t-shirts.  Though not nearly as sophisticated as American social media campaigns this was a new way of attracting the public particularly the younger vote. 

During Barack Obama’s election campaign the website MyBarackObama was set up where the user can register to vote and contact others within the site sharing their opinions and organising events persuading the undecided to join Obama’s campaign.  This is what theorist, Howard Rheingold describes as a virtual community as people are uniting online and coming together based on the common interest of their political party (Rheingold).

The communities are a part of what theorist Henry Jenkins calls a participatory culture (DMLResearchHub 2011).  They are participating in a cause that they believe in producing and sharing media creating these events and showing support through email, Facebook, Myspace, YouTube and creating entities such as ObamaGirl trying to persuade the undecided or the ‘non-believers’ to convert.

This year the Prime Minister must set a date for the federal election and judging from Julia Gillard’s and Tony Abbott’s Facebook pages (152, 201 fans & 27,946 fans) social media doesn’t appear to be their angle.  To capture the votes of the younger voter and the time poor it is imperative that they move some of their campaigning online and perhaps employ the participatory culture tactic as Obama did, letting his supporters boost his profile.  However, Australia has a long way to go before politicians start using the sorts of social media campaigning that American’s have adopted.  As they say Australia is 10 years behind America (maybe in this case 20).  Thanks for having a try Kevin!

(Hawkins 2012)