sabrinazulk

[sabrinazulk]

Weekly Topic: Global Social Media: CHINA

Today, China has the world’s only internet companies that can match America’s in ambition and reach.

The Chinese Internet ecosystem

There are a lot of unique technology in China since China is the most high-tech country in the world. One of the famous unique technology in China are the Chinese internet ecosystem. The Chinese internet ecosystem are unique because it has their own platform. For instance, instead of using WhatsApp, China are using WeChat and Tencent QQ, instead of using TikTok, China are using Douyin, instead of using Facebook and Twitter China are using Sina Weibo (Ho et al. 2019). The reason why china has their own internet ecosystem is because it is easy for their government to control their people and the government do not want their people to be influenced by other country such as U.S.

Is China’s AI technology the answer to the future?

China’s artificial intelligence technology might be the answer for leading the innovative world. According to Jing & Dai (2018), china has invested in artificial intelligence such as cloud and big data, smart cars, quantum and high-performance computing, leading electronic materials, strategies technologies, smart robotics and smart medical devices. The development of artificial intelligence (AI) or technologies which perform tasks that are characteristic of human intelligence such as understand language, recognising objects and sound has been one of China’s national strategies. However, Trumps gets into a trade fight with China which he wants to make sure he is not penalising Chinese companies but also working to actively support US companies facing increased competition from China. In my opinion, yes China’s AI technology is the answer to the future. For example, China is using Artificial Technology in classroom which can detect student’s attention. 

Is the Social Credit System a way to instil good behaviour and provide safety to citizens? At what cost?

Based on Ma (2018), social credit system is a system where the government of China plans to rank all its citizens based on their social credit by 2020 and to monitor the behaviour of its enormous populations. The purpose of the system is to keep trust is good and breaking trust is bad. In addition, people can be rewarded and punished according to their scores. The scores can increase, and decrease based on how the person behave.

If the scores is less than 400, there will be punishment like banning citizens from flying and getting the train which the government restricting their travel, throttling the internet speeds, banning their children from entering the best schools, prevent the citizen form getting the best jobs, keeping out the citizen from the best hotels for the citizen to released stress, getting the dog away from the citizen, citizen named publicly named as bad.

If the scores is more than 400, the citizen of China will be rewarded like get a discount on energy bills, rent without deposit, get better interest rates at the bank, get a free holidays in the best hotel in china and there is a list for a good citizen which reportedly get citizens more matches on dating websites. (Ma 2018)

Is the Social Credit System a way to instil good behaviour and provide safety to citizen in China? In my opinion, it depends because it a way to instil good behaviour and provide safety to citizen in China but it can be not accurate because it measured by the system  and where citizen in China are more high-tech where the system can be hacked. Besides, the perks of being a good citizen are less than being bad citizen.

In conclusion, China has unique ways to control their people in order to develop good behaviour for their citizen.

References List

Ho, CK, Soo, Z, Deng, I 2018, China’s internet ecosystem model increasingly being copied globally, South China Morning Post, viewed on 21 November 2019, https://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/article/2155155/chinas-internet-ecosystem-model-increasingly-being-copied-globally>.

Jing, M & Dai, S 2018, Here’s what China is doing to boost it artificial intelligence capabilities, South China Morning Post, viewed on 21 November 2019, <https://www.scmp.com/tech/science-research/article/2145568/can-trumps-ai-summit-match-chinas-ambitious-strategic-plan>.

Ma, A 2018, China has started ranking citizens with a creepy ‘social credit’ system, - here’s what you can do wrong and the embarrassing, demeaning ways they can punish you, Business Insider, viewed on 21 November 2019, <https://www.businessinsider.my/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4/?r=US&IR=T>.

#mda20009 #digitalcommunities

[sabrinazulk]

Social Gaming

source: 123RF

As you can see, the picture above shows the very beginning stage of playing when we were still a child. The activity of playing games were introduced to us since we were kids to developed the our very basic skills. According to Ginsburg (2007),  by playing, children’s cognitive ability, physical movement, interactions and emotional well-being can be developed and improves. Besides that, playing aid the brain development of a child because while playing, they tend to discover new things along the way and learn problem solving skills which will develop new competencies that increases their confidence. 

As stated by Ludens (1938), it is a free activity with some sets of boundaries that promotes some sorts of social grouping among children, where everyone get together during their free time to play. However, day after day have passed by, the concept of ‘play’ were taken into another level which is also known as video gaming among children, teenagers, young adult or even adult. 

So, how does video gaming improves social skills and creates a gaming communities itself? 

Most games nowadays allows player to actually have conversation with each other through the writing/audio chat features that most games have these days such as PUBG. Free Fire Minecraft, Clash of Clans and more. A gamer can be anywhere they want at any time and still be able to play together with their friends at the same time. It also enable gamers to collaborate with other gamers  where eventually improves their social skills and form a community among themselves. 

source

Monetization? How is it a thing right now? 

In my opinion, YouTube is that one app that I will spend most of time with every single day. Not specifically watching video games but is aware of the excessive amount of gaming videos, tutorial and so on. The video content can be contrast very clearly of the differences between a gamer youtuber who play because they love to play games and a gamer youtuber who play just for the sake of earning money. Due to that, I think that the community is now consist of increasing numbers of members that are money-centered instead of being in the communities for the game itself. 

Other than that, e-games that organized huge battle with astronomical amount of money prizes does also attracts many of the new gamer into the industry. It is not so much about the game anymore but the money where children dropped out of school for that, parent were left confused whether to let the children to stay in school or to master the game and earn the money(better than any decent job could offer), affecting the mental health of the gamer and more. It creates some sort of addiction in within a person and it should stop. 

Who is responsible tho? 

The creator? The government? 

It is unreasonable or irrelevant that most people are depending on the game creator itself or the government to solves this game addiction problems that most children faced. There are a lot of things that both parties had done to encounter this issues, for example,there are consoles designed to be functioning only for a certain of time, control access to certain content and so on. The government had also imposed age limit to enter a cybercafe which is 18 years old an above and children below  the age of 18 years are allowed but with parent guardian. 

For me, after went through a discussion with my fellow classmates and lecturer, I’ve come to thinking that parent really is the first person who should regulate the time spent on games by their children. I mean, who bought the device? The parent. Who paid the telco bills/wifi? The parent. Who is the nearest to them? The parent. There’s a saying that says “ It’s better to start young” which I agreed upon as parent should set an example for their kids to follow. Parent should set boundaries to let their children knows the limit and encourage them to experience the outside world as well. 

In conclusion, gaming is not an unhealthy activity as it brings a lot of benefits towards the player. However, at some point, if it was not properly done or control by the player itself, it might leads to an unhealthy practice and could harm the player. 

[sabrinazulk]

Weekly Topic: Social Gaming

Does monetisation (or attempts to monetise game play) affect the growth of organic, grassroots (gamer) communities?Are gaming communities becoming less about play and more about monetisation?

What is Social Gaming? 

Social gaming is the context of game industry for video games played on social network services such as Facebook (Paavilainen et al. 2013 p. 3). The most popular category of application on the site are gaming platform after launched on 2007.  There are five factors to differentiate social gaming which are turn-based, awareness of others’s action in games, casual gaming, multiplayer and based on social platforms.Basically, social gaming is a structured activity which has the features to engage with one another in the games. It basically games where the player can communicate with each other by chatting or talking. It must be multiplayer and have one or more of the features.

Does monetisation (or attempts to monetise game play) affect the growth of organic, grassroots (gamer) communities?

In my opinion, monetisation does affect the growth of organic grassroots communities where the developer of the gamers can increase their profit by monetisation in the social gaming. In my opinion, free to play (F2P) and in-App purchased are most effectively strategies to generate more profit for the developer of the game. For instance, PUBG Mobile games earned profit more than $1 Billion in 2018 (Parab 2019). In order to improve the gaming experience, the developer need to include in-App purchase to enhance the gaming experience to develop more features in the game for the gaming communities. For instance, in PUBG Mobile most of the players are upgrading the wardrobe for their avatar in the game which will leads people to spend money in the game, season passes are bundles of perks which players have to subscribe RM 40 per season. In-App purchase are generating positive profit for the developer which help the developer to upgrade the features in the game application (Ye 2019).

Are gaming communities becoming less about play and more about monetisation?

No, gaming is not becoming less about play and more about monetisation. Facebook are paying people who play live-streaming games in Facebook which have a lot of viewers and comments. YouTube are also paying their vlogger who vlogs on how the players play the game and most of the famous player are being sponsored by variety of gaming company. Thus, most of the players love to upgrade their rank, avatar, increase their lives which leads to addiction to the games. Based on Nikita (2015 p.10), monetization system has directly influence over the game content and the value that it provides. In this case, most of the players are influenced to upgrade their avatar for example buying accessories for the gamers, buying “life” for the players to continue playing the games.

References List

Nikita, K 2015, ‘Monetization in Games’, Lahti University of Applied Sciences, vol. 1, pp. 1-40.

Paavilainen, J, Hamari, J, Stenros, J & Kinnunen, J 2013, ‘Social Network Games: Players’ Perspective, Simulations and Gaming, vol. 11, pp. 1-27.

Parab, P 2019, Pubg Corp Earned Almost $1 Billion in 2018: Report, Gadget360, viewed on 16 November 2019, <https://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/news/pubg-corp-earned-almost-1-billion-in-2018-report-2027537>.

Ye, J 2019, How PUBG Mobile become a billion-dollar game,Abacus News, viewed on 16 November 2019, <https://www.abacusnews.com/games/how-pubg-mobile-became-billion-dollar-game/article/3030297>

#mda20009 #digitalcommunities

[sabrinazulk]

Weekly Topic: Fandom & Fan Activism

Tumblr is currently the preferred social space for fans, how do these fans formulate the boundaries of their community? Are media representations of fans as ‘weird’ and ‘overly emotional’ fair? What is your own experience of fandom?

What is Fan?

Fan is a short form for a fanatic which it originally defines as the terms of unwavering, uncritical belief in religious. However, fanatic means particularly admiring a person, sport, object, music, lifestyle and more (Segerina 2011).

What is Fan Activism?

Fan activism can be defined as a form of civil engagement and political involvement which emerges from the passion of fandoms and fan culture.  Fan activism is more to engaging and addressing to social, civic and political issues (Vilenchik et al. 2012)

Tumblr is currently the preferred social space for fans, how do these fans formulate the boundaries of their community?

According to Hillman et al. (2014, p. 1-2), most people who involved in online fandom communities are using Tumblr’s website to participate in fandoms and interacted within the Tumblr community. Tumblr fandom users displaying and presenting a unique culture which is different from other social media websites. The fandom fans formulate the boundaries of their community communicating and set the rules for their community to behave in the social media such as Tumblr. Regulates rules and set guideline in community in order to have an appropriate community in social media. On the other hand, fans in Tumblr create more circle of their fan’s community by three phases which are discovery, 24/7 online and motivations. The first stage is discovery where the users joined Tumblr not specifically to joined and participate in fandoms, however as they began to follow one another, most of the users familiar with the fandoms through their dashboards. It increases cross-pollination in Tumblr website which users will ask for suggestion for new fandom community and most users seems to be interests in the community. The second stages, 24/7 online, where the users or fans always engaging in the Tumblr to keep the community alive. Lastly in third stages, where there are strong feels around one true pairing, recognition and shows officials and being able to be more ‘real’ because of anonymity and the ability to participate in community of something users interested.

Are media representations of fans as ‘weird’ and ‘overly emotional’ fair? What is your own experience of fandom?

In my own opinion, it is not fair for the media to state fans as ‘weird’ and ‘overly emotional’. The fans are the people who adore and interested with their own celebrity or things such as football fans, motorsports fans and others which for me it is normal to be a fan of something. However, if the fans are too addicted and overly emotional it can be toxic to the individual. So, keep supporting what you adore and love but not too much till can make you stress and depressed or somehow can turn you into a psycho. For instance, John Lennon was killed by his fans because of his notorious observation that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. However, Chapman (obsessed fan of John Lennon) was also offended by Lennon’s apparent hypocrisy about materialism when he is in fact was rich. However, Chapman pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison (Khumalo, 2019). Honestly, I have never experience of fandom because for me I do not have time to overly attached to any celebrities, but I keep on supporting the celebrities that I adore such as buying their merchandise and attend their concert if I have time.

In conclusion, be a good fan and always support them in whatever condition but do not overly attached and addicted which will cause you stress and depressed. 

References List

Hillman, S, Procyk, J, Neustaedter, C 2014, ‘Tumblr Fandoms, Community & Cultures’, Proceedings of the Companion 2014, CSCW Companion, pp. 285-288.

Khumalo, A 2019, 7 Crazy Stories of Celebrities Who Were Killed By Their Fans, Listverse, viewed on 9 November 2019, <https://listverse.com/2019/10/12/7-crazy-stories-of-celebrities-who-were-killed-by-their-fans/>.

Segerina, A 2011, ‘Fanaticism- Its Development and Meanings in Consumers’ Lives’, Aalto University of Economic, pp.1-101.

Vilenchik, N.K, Schultz, J.M, Weitbrecht, C & Tokuham, C 2012, Experiencing Fan Activism: Understanding the Power of Fan Activist Organisation through Member’s Narrative, Transformative Works and Cultures, vol. 10, pp. 1-4.

#mda20009 #digitalcommunities

[sabrinazulk]

Weekly Topic: What is Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding? Are they the same?

In era filled with fake news, what effect can this have on crowdsourced information? Can crowdsourcing actually overtake traditional funding mechanism for the creative industries? In times of need (social and political), can social media movement like #Pulangmengundi (Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding transportation to mobilize youths to vote benefit communities?

What is crowdsourcing?

According to Hargrave (2019), crowdsourcing is people who works which involving work information or opinion from a large group of people who submit their data on the internet such as the social media and smartphones application. It is a task on the voluntary basis or sometimes freelancers will get paid by participating in the crowdsourcing. For example, Waze is the traffic application, which encourage the drivers to reports on the traffic, accidents or incident which provide the real-time updated information to the application users.

What is crowdfunding?

Based on Smith (2019), crowdfunding is the process of raising funding online. In the vast networks like social media, crowdfunding can make use of the easy accessibilities on social media. Besides, in social media, the crowdfunding websites can easily bring the investor and entrepreneurs together which has potential to increase entrepreneurship by expanding the pool of investors beyond the traditional circle of owners, relatives and venture capabilities.  For example, of crowdfunding websites are Kickstarter and IndieGoGo has attract hundreds of thousand people invest in the huge project. There are three types of crowdfunding which Is donation-based crowdfunding, reward-based crowdfunding and equity-based crowdfunding (Miller, 2019). Donation based crowdfunding is a campaign in which there is no financial return to the investor or contributors. For example, of fundraising is for disaster relief, charities, non-profit and medical bills. On the other hand, reward-based crowdfunding involved individual contributing to the business in exchange for reward for example the product or the services the company offer, however there is no financial or equity return. This approach is popular option in platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Lastly, the equity-based crowdfunding is the campaign that allows the contributors to become part-owners of the company by trading capital for equity shares. The contributors will receive a share of the profits in the form of dividend and distributions.

In era filled with fake news, what effect can this have on crowdsourced information?

In the era of modern technology, there are a lot of fake news going viral on social media where most people love to believe it without further investigation. Besides, crowdsourced are still in investigation to prevent more fake news. The effect on crowdsourced are people will believe the false news in social media like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit and more. However, there is advantages of crowdsourcing for company and organization which it can benefit the organization to engage people across the enterprise, it can cultivate a culture of innovation, combat disruption with employee brainpower, invite customers to contribute ideas and embrace new methods of driving growths through innovation (Tucker 2019). However, there is also disadvantages which crowdsourcing can be subjective or error-prone which it can be time-consuming, and it can be relatively costly where human need to be paid (Marcus et al. 2013)

Can crowdsourcing actually overtake traditional funding mechanism for the creative industries?

In my opinion, crowdsourcing can overtake traditional funding mechanism for the creatives industries because crowdsourcing is more widely use in the internet and social media where more people can access to the internet rather than traditional funding mechanism.

In times of need (social and political), can social media movement like #Pulangmengundi (Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding transportation to mobilize youths to vote benefit communities?

In my opinion, social media movement like #Pulangmengundi can be a crowdsourcing and crowdfunding transportation to mobilize youths to vote. Crowdfunding has created an easier online platform for people to access funds and in the event such as #Pulangmengundi, there was a lot of tweets where people want to assist other people (in-term of financial) who studies or work at other countries to come back home and vote for the election day in Malaysia. However, it is also connected with crowdsourcing where people can give their information to strangers who want to assist them in term of financial.

In conclusion, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding are inter related with one another and both aspect can be a social and business interaction.

References List

Hargrave, M 2019, Crowdsourcing, Investopedia, viewed on 30 October 2019, < https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdsourcing.asp>. 

Miller, Z 2019, Which type of crowdfunding should you choose for your business, The Balance, viewed on 30 October 2019, <https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-type-of-crowdfunding-to-choose-for-business-985191>.

Sethi, J. R 2019, How citizen investigators can collaborate on crowdsourced fact-checking, viewed on 30 October 2019, < https://theconversation.com/how-citizen-investigators-can-collaborate-on-crowdsourced-fact-checking-76890>.

Smith, T 2019, Crowdfunding,Investopedia, viewed on 30 October 2019, < https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/crowdfunding.asp>.

Tucker, B. R 2017, How Crowdsourcing Can Enhance Innovation Performance, Forbes,<https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertbtucker/2017/06/16/how-crowdsourcing-can-enhance-innovation-performance/#38bd00ee54df>.

#MDA20009 #DigitalCommunities

[sabrinazulk]

Weekly Topic: Trolling and Social Conflict? Have you ever involved in trolling and social conflict?

Does internet or social media governance work? Is there any certain platform more susceptible to trolling and hate? 

Hello everyone! In today weekly topic, we are going to discuss on trolling and social conflict in social media. I have never experienced in any digital citizenship such as trolling and social conflict in social media. However, there are a lot of trolling and social conflict occur in the social media which causes negative and bad influence to others.

 What is trolling and social conflict?

In the context of the web, trolling is the behavior of the person responding to online content or comment in purpose to attack others on social media (Rouse 2018). Besides, when a person is attacked on social media for their belief, thoughts and opinion it is also known as trolling (Gordon 2019). For example, of trolling in social media are the argument are endless in the comment box from both sides trying to get a rise out of the other. Another example of trolling is when someone make a wild and offensive comment like commenting on his or her body shaming is trolling. On the other hand, social conflict is intentionally taking into account other selves, power is a capability to produce the effect 

  Does internet and social media governance work?

Internet and social media governance work in social media because of the information can be accessible easily in the internet and most of the leader, president, prime minister is using social media in order to reach out to the people. However, there are three main issues that people love to troll which is politics, racism and religions. For example, politics in social media. There are a lot of trolls on politic in social media and we can see a lot of trolls on politic in social media when there are elections. Most of the people love to comments with annoying speech and give bad opinion on certain issues online.

 Is there any certain platform more susceptible to trolling and hate? Why?

In my opinion, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit are more susceptible to trolling and hate because in social media like twitter, facebook and reddit most of the people can relate and give a comments and tweet on the bad things on the certain issues which will cause the trolling and hate among each other. In twitter and Facebook people is more susceptible to trolling because it is easy for people be an anonymous to troll others on social media. Based on Klenman 2014, 28% of Americans admit to participating in malicious online activity directed at somebody they did not know including making fun of strangers and deliberately making controversial or inflammatory statement meant to annoy strangers.

Conclusion

Lastly, trolling leads more to negativity which leads to social conflict. Back to the first questions, I have never encounter social trolls in social media but I have seen people trolling each other in social media with the post which is public in social media. In my opinion, keep your social media private to prevent people troll you which leads to negative consequences like poor self-esteem, depression, anxiety and more.

References List

Gordon, S 2019, How to Deal with Internet Trolls, VeryWell, viewed on 25 October 2019, < https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-to-deal-with-internet-trolls-4161018>.

Klenman, A 2014, 28 Percent of Americans Admit to being internet trolls, HuffPost, viewed on 25 October 2019, < https://www.huffpost.com/entry/internet-trolls-survey_n_6014826>.

Rouse, M 2018, Trolling, TechTarget, viewed on 25 October 2019, < https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/trolling>.

#MDA20009 #digitalcommunities

[sabrinazulk]

Is Tumblr a blog or social networking site?

Blogs in general are formulated to allow users to reflect on their self expression through their content, and is lengthy when compared to other social networking sites. Blogs at current have revolved and expanded into various different themes such as news and entertainment blogs, food and beauty blogs which are the most trending. Blogging also allows users to be emotionally vulnerable by articulating and conveying an illness they maybe having, something they are trying to overcome or is currently going though such as depression, suicidal thoughts, or even abuse. since the majority of users in Tumblr are of the young generation it is more likely to highlight teenage issues, controversial topics and also taboo topic which will be brought up that may or may not be sensitive. 

Keep reading

[sabrinazulk]

DIGITAL ACTIVISM

As a prominent social media user I myself have come across various petitions present in social media platforms that I have participated in or signed up for. Lets begin with defining what activism actually is; activism in general terms refer to the act of taking action in favor of required change on social terms. Acts of activism indefinitely occurs in many forms and is often related to ways in which societies can change through social, economical and environmental impacts fo example, (Permanent Culture now). The notion of protesting is quite similar to activism but the concept of activism does not involve or promote and encourage violence or death whereas, protests can be quite violent and turn out to be endangering to the lives of protestors as well. 

Ever since the surge in the use of social media platforms internationally, many forms of activism is seen on the various social media platforms as of recent years. Last year marked the fifth anniversary of the introduction of the hashtag #Blacklivesmatter which has been a prominent concept in the formation of various protests and activism in the years that followed. Along with this particular hashtag various others hashtags came into play such as #MeToo which gave rise to controversy and also an increase in the use of social media platforms for activism and engagement in political terms,( Anderson et al, 2018). It can be advantageous thing to use online activism to bring about change in the various issues we face nowadays. Greenpeace for example which aims to eliminate the damage done to the environment through targeting the major corporations that causes the most damage to the environment through pollution for example. The group 350.org was created to gather environmental activists where they encouraged to participate in online campaigns which were organized in opposition to coal or gas projects to encourage societies and communities to achieve cleaner environment and reduce environmental damage. 

Now lets talk about the notion of online activism, where the voices of the people have been brought forwards through social media. Online activism allows potential activists to engage and increase the overall strength of their networks, appeal. Online activism allows a certain amount of confidentiality when compared to protesting which is performed out in the open in front of a larger audience on the streets, or in shopping malls in the form of riots for example. Despite the advantages of online activism as shown above, the notion of online activism may create “social stereotypes” such as environmentalists or feminists which may even lead to them being arrested due to breach of certain laws derived through the usage of social media platforms for acts of activism, (Ghobadi 2018). 

In my opinion, the concept of online activism can be used in both good and bad ways. If used the right way it can bring about vast changes on political, social and economic grounds, within legal obligations and online activist parties should make it an aim to not create violence among groups and send out the wrong message instead attempt to reach their goal peacefully. 

References 

Permanent culture now, “Introduction to Activism”, viewed 8th October 2019, <https://www.permanentculturenow.com/what-is-activism/>

Anderson, M, Toor, S, Rainie, L and Smith, A, 2018, “Activism in the Social Media Age”, viewed 8th October 2019, <https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/07/11/activism-in-the-social-media-age/>

Ghobadi, S, 2018, “Going viral: what social media activists need to know”, viewed 8th October 2019, <http://theconversation.com/going-viral-what-social-media-activists-need-to-know-96043>

[sabrinazulk]

WHAT IS TUMBLR?

IS IT A BLOG OR A SOCIAL NETWORK SITE? 🤔

Firstly, what is a blog? A blog or in another term is a “web log” is a form of website where users use it for commentaries, reports on events, or others like posting of photographs and videos. Well, bloggers depict a blog as “an automated weblog publishing tool”. It has the power of an instant communication to allow the bloggers to express and post their thoughts like in diaries or journals when they feel like it. The blog can be personal, creative, educational, or professional depending on what the blogger wants their blog to be (Boyd 2006).

And, what is a social network site? A social network site is an instrument that enable communication, interchange subject and cooperate in numerous methods. People across the world uses it in their everyday social activity to connect with other people be it near or far. The social network site is a trend amongst the young adults according to the research. The use of social media to maintain the conventional offline networks and has become a norm in the community and the usage of it only increases over the years (Sharma & Godiyal 2016, p. 157).

So, what about Tumblr? Tumblr is both a blogging platform and a social network site, which it is also refers as a platform of short-form microblogging. This network has millions of users, using the platform to write entries, post photographs, video clips and such that and share it with their friends and/or followers (Boone 2019). As a platform in an advancing community, Tumblr offers a place or space to discuss issues associated to personality, body image and sexuality freely. The laidback content balance of Tumblr has its good side and bad side for the users. The good side is that it discussed content like explicit sexuality for healthy sex practices, sexual discovery prospects and ingenuousness of taboo dialogs, for instance, sex work. However, the bad side of its relaxed content is that the disturbing content specifically child pornography and Nazi activism. Thus, the reason for the new policy of Tumblr which bans not safe for work (NSFW) content in order to create a “better, more positive Tumblr” 👍 for the community (Sands 2018). 

Tumblr is both a blog and social network site depending on the user on how they want to use it. It is a platform to share the users’ stories, moments or such with their friends and/or followers.  

References:

Boone, B 2019, How Tumblr Works, How Stuff Works, viewed at 27 September 2019 <https://computer.howstuffworks.com/tumblr.htm>.

Boyd, D 2006., “A Blogger’s Blog: Exploring the Definition of a Medium”, Reconstruction, Vol. 6, No. 4.

Sharma, S & Godiyal, S 2016, ‘A Study on the Social Networking Sites Usage by Undergraduate Students’, Online International Interdisciplinary Research Journal, Vol. 6, Issue 3, pp. 157-163.

Sands, M 2018, ‘Tumblocalypse: Where Tumblr And Its Users Are Headed After The Ban’, Forbes, viewed 27 September 2019 <https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonsands/2018/12/20/tumblocalypse-where-tumblr-and-its-users-are-headed-after-the-ban/#5761d2027020>.

[sabrinazulk]

POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

The growth of social media has an impact on the political parties especially in participating the citizens to their campaign or sorts. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Wikipedia, Instagram and YouTube are the top activity on the web commonly use by the citizens today. They spend more time on these social medias to connect with other people in the community. Although this shifting environment are known by the politicians, they are still grasping on the idea of how social media works. But, back during Obama’s election campaign, he utilised the social media to engage with the citizens because he recognized the influence of countering offline work alongside an online campaign. His whole campaign strategy is with the use of social media such as fundraising (Effing, Hillegersberg & Huibers 2011, p. 25-26).

Since then, the involvement of the politics has intensified in the practice of social media, which is to cater new paths for political organization so that the citizens can partake in it. The use of social media in political organization has influence more youths to be involved in this campaign be it online or offline. Through social media, the youths have access of the information about the politicians regarding their views, opinions, political interests and so on to have better knowledge and have more choices on their involvement in politics (Abdulrauf, Hamid & Ishak 2017, p. 1-2). Additionally, governance is the approach of organizations or countries in managing the system at maximum level (Cambridge Dictionary 2019). I think that the politics are about governance because the politicians need the citizens to behave accordingly to the laws and policies that they create, but they also need to cater to the needs of the citizens. It should work both ways.  

SARAWAK FOR SARAWAKIAN MOVEMENT The Sarawak For Sarawakian movement is also using social media to reinstate the position of Sarawak as equivalent associate alongside Malaya, as they are the original founders of the Malaysian federation in 1963. The new generations often carry on the fight through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to clarify the anger and discontent (Chin 2019).  There are many other movement or activism that the young generations start up through digital media to support their cause. This is because digital media has become a norm to connect with others especially when they want others’ supports.

These movements have been politicised because it does involve the politics as they need to hear the voices of the citizens or people to serve the people’s needs especially for the country.

      REFERENCES:

Effing, R, Hillegersberg, J & Huibers, T 2011, ‘Social Media and Political Participation: Are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Democratizing Our Political Systems?’, International Federation for Information Processing, Vol. 6847, pp.25-35.

Abdulrauf, A, Hamid, N, A & Ishak, M.S. 2017, “Cognitive Engagement and Online Political Participation on Social Media among Youths in Malaysia: The Moderating role of Political KnowledgePreview the document”, SHS Web of Conferences, Vol. 33, pp. 1-7.

Cambridge Dictionary 2019, governance, viewed 2 October 2019 < https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/governance>.

[sabrinazulk]

Weekly Topic: Activism and Protest? Have you ever involved in digital citizenship like activism and protest?

How might activist use social media in future?  How does graffiti/street are become symbols of a protest?

Hello! Welcome back to my weekly topic and today we are gonna discuss on the digital citizenship on activism and protest? To be honest, I never involved in any digital citizenship like activism and protest. I am afraid that I will give a wrong opinion to protest on certain issues even if I know that anyone have right to give their opinion on certain issues.

What is activism and protest? Are they the same?

Based on Svirskly 2010, Activism is defined as campaign or an action of people to change the political or social change. Freedom rising, climate change, the power of protest thus is some example of the activism of the social change (Ted 2019). However, protest involved a group of people or union to gather and show that they are against the idea of certain issues which some of the protest are cause by the racism or war. In protesting, the are a lot of activity that they can do such as riot, sing a song which show what the protester feels and want, writing a letter, showing the banner and more (White 2016). Activism and protest more or less the same but different in some ways for example activism do not cause any injury or dead but unfortunately protesting can cause dead and injury.

How might activist use social media in future?

In the modern era of technology, social media is one of the media which used widely by activist in social movement such as activism and protest. One of the famous examples is #Metoo which raising awareness to women who suffered from sexual harassment, sexual violence abuse and rape. Tarana Burke one of the activist started the #MeToo more than 10 years ago, there is 7 positive changes that comes from the #MeToo movement which are state banning nondisclosure agreements that cover sexual harassment, state introducing protection to more workers, legal defense fund has helped over 3,600 people who seek for justice From Time’s Up, tipped minimum wage is gaining steam, congress has reformed some of its process for staffers reporting sexual harassment, survivor are getting financial restitution, America have changed how they think about the power (North 2019). It future some of activist in social media might give a good influence and good impact of the movement. In my opinion, if the person knows how handle activist professionally in social media it might give a good impact such as #MeToo movement by Tarana Burke.

How does graffiti/street are become symbols of a protest?

Graffiti is a secret language which has its own message. How does graffiti on the street are become symbols of protest? It become a symbol of protest when the message is about the politic or a social change. For example, in Iraq that showed Trump with Swastikas. It knocked the U.S president for his anti-immigration stances. Trump passed a travel ban on 2017, barring the refugees and travel from six countries Muslim-majority countries and the critic are called the ban of anti-Muslim. Iraq was originally part of the ban countries (Difazio 2017).

In conclusion, activism and protesting in social media has its own advantages and disadvantages, It depends on the person who post or share the activism and protesting in social media.

Reference List

Difazio, J 2017, Trump Graffiti Blasting the World Appears Around the World, International Business Times, Viewed on 12 October 2019,<https://www.ibtimes.com/trump-graffiti-blasting-president-appears-around-world-2575862>.

North, A 2019, 7 Positive changes that have come from the #MeToo movement, TheVox, viewed on 12 October 2019, <https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/10/4/20852639/me-too-movement-sexual-harassment-law-2019>.

Svirsky, M.G 2010, ‘Defining Activism’, Deleuze Studies, Vol. 4, pp. 163-182.

White, J.R 2016, ‘Introduction: Protest and Activism Without Organisation’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol 36, pp. 1-12.

#MDA20009 #WEEK6 #digitalcommunities

[sabrinazulk]

Weekly Topic: Political Engagement? What do you think about politic in social media platform?

Is politic just a governance, or is it more? When does social movement become politic?

Hello! and welcome back to my weekly topic, so today we will discuss on what is politic? What do you think about politic and politician who are using social media platform? Most of the politician using social media such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more. In United States, we have Donald Trump, Barrack Obama whom are the president of United States which have social media. Why? Why most of the politician in the world have social media? In Malaysia, we have Najib Razak and Tun Dr Mahathir which also have social media. In Australia, we have Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull which also have social media platform. What do you think of the politician which having social media? In my opinion, maybe they want to have a greater audience and to socialize, interact and communicate with people? Wait… Which party component did you chose last general elections? Are you satisfied with how they rule the country? In modernize society and advancement of technology, the use of social media for political participant has increase. many of the politician aims voters from youth and young. By having social media, the politician can connect with the young voters and read the opinion from all the society because social media can help the politician reach out to greater society. So... This week we will discuss about the politic in details.

POLITIC ENGAGEMENT?

According to Fitzgerald 2013, political is defined as art of the government which have a compromise and consensus, public affair, conflict resolutions and also have a power and the distributions of the sources. Politic is important because it affects all of us. In my opinion, politic will affect all of us that is why political is important and people have to choose wisely which politician is deserves to serve the world. Whether we like it or not, government and politic plays a huge role in our daily lives, from paying the food you eat today and the phone you allowed to purchase now. Politic impact various choices that we make so we have to understand the laws and how the politic give a huge impact to us as a society. Political is more not just the governance, this is because political can cause a lot of issues such as the Iran War, the fight between the Kashmir and India, the Hong Kong Protest and more. What is political engagement? Therefore, political engagement generally is working for a campaign, volunteering for a campaign, contribute money to candidate and voting (Political Polarization in the American Public, 2014).  Political engagement is important because it is a primary source of information for current and future legislation, helps in decision making, creates connection with society which the government able to work to making the world a better place. In this case, most of the politician are using the social media platform to reach out the world and connected with the society in order to keep the society updated on what is going on with the world.

Political Engagement in Social Media?

Based on the statistic in Malaysia, the use of social media for the political engagement is increasing and more online participation in political in social media among the youth in Malaysia. Social media has influenced more youth in Malaysia to engage with politic through a social media platform where the youth can gain more information from the social media and also can indirectly influence by the politician to engage with the politic and most of the youth are using Facebook and Twitter to participate online (Abdul Rauf et. al 2017). In my opinion, as a youth I have fear to participate with political engagement whether it is online or offline because I’m afraid I have wrong political opinion or idea which will lead to people are judging and whatever I have tweet or share will spread or viral.

WHEN DOES SOCIAL MOVEMENT BECOME POLITIC? SHOULD IT BECOME POLITICISED?

 Firstly, what is social movement? In my understanding, social movement is like a rally or a campaign which is illegal protesting to the politician with their own follower and issues.  According to Imphonopi et. al 2013, social movement is an instrumental in risking social change, regime change and cause an impact to the policy space in many societies. There is a different between the collective behavior and social movement. Collective behavior is an action which more spontaneous such as riots, mobs, mass fad, trend, mass hysteria and public opinions (Imphonopi et. al 2013, pp. 77). However, in social movement it is not a political party or any interest group but social movement are involved in conflictual relations with clearly identified opponent are linked by dense informal networks and share a distinct collective identity and social movement be thoughts of organized yet it is informal social entities that are engaged in institutional conflicts that are goals. In social conflict there are four stages which is emergence, coalescence, bureaucratization, and decline. However, collective behavior is also considered as a social movement in the society because it involves movement of the society protesting on the certain issues and goals. Example for the social movement in Malaysia is “Bersih” which in English it means cleans. According to The News Strait Times, 2014, Bersih is basically social movement from 2007 until 2016 consisting 84 non-government organsatiion which has one objective to reform the electoral process in Malaysia led by Maria Chin form Women’s Development Collective. The goals for this social movement is to fulfill their 8 demands which include update the electoral roll to remove “Ghost Voter”-deceased person, multiple persons registered under a single address or non-existing address, reform of postal ballot to allow voting not only for Malaysia Citizens living abroad but also a country who cannot vote in their constituency on polling day. In my opinion, social movement is only a campaign which they want the politician to agree with their demand and follow what the people want it is not a politic but indirectly become politic because of their demand is followed by the politician to stop the rally, riots, strike and protest from 30000-50000 of people and joined by the opponent parties.  One of the examples of video on Bersih Rally in Malaysia shows

In conclusion, political engagement is important for everyone because it will affect and give huge impact in all of us. It is a great idea to involve politic in social media which most of the youths can start their engagement with the politic through the social media and politician also have the advantages to have a greater and bigger audience in social media. Political is not just a governance it because it is affected us in a different way not only affect the laws and legislation of the do’s and don’ts.

References List

 Fitzgerald, J 2013, ‘What does “Political’’ Mean to You?’, Springer Science and Business Media News, New York, Vol. 10, pp. 453- 477.

“Section 5: Political Engagement and Activism’’ 2014, Pew Research Center, 12 June 2014, viewed on 5 October 2019, <https://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/section-5-political-engagement-and-activism/>.

‘What you need to know about Malaysia’s Bersih Movement’, The News Straits Time, 27 August 2015, viewed on 5 October 2019, < https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/what-you-need-to-know-about-malaysias-bersih-movement>.

Abdul Rauf, A, Abdul Hamid, N, Ishak, M.S 2017, ‘Cognitive Engagement and Online Political Participation on Social Media among Youths in Malaysia: The Moderating role of Political Knowledge’, Web of conferences, Vol. 10, pp. 1-7.

Imhonopi, D, Onifade, A.C, Urim, M.U 2013, ‘Collective Behaviour and Social Movements: A Conceptual Review’, Research on Humanities and Social Science, Vol 3, pp.76-85.

#MDA20009 #DigitalCommunities #Week5

[sabrinazulk]

WEEKLY TOPIC:  WHAT IS BLOG? WHAT IS SOCIAL NETWORK? & WHAT IS TUMBLR?

IS TUMBLR A SOCIAL NETWORK SITE OR BLOG?

In the modern era of globalization that we are in today, the world is rapidly changing in many ways including the way people interact with each other is also different from time to time. It is interesting how people in 1950s using mailboxes, telephone, newspaper, radio and more instead of phone or just like in the Harry Potter movie which is in 2001 (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) which Hogwarts School are using birds to send the mail to Harry Potter. In 2019, there are more technologies which helps us to communicate with other people for example like social network and social media. There are a lot of social network such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and etc that helps people to communicate with each other in order to sharing the information or receiving the information.

What is Blog?

Based on Rettberg (2013), blog is used to be a social media before there are other social media like Facebook and Twitter. However, blogs are still consider a backbone of social media because most of the activity on social media like Facebook or Twitter are basically from blog which we can share opinion, picture and gif on our personal things but however in Facebook and Twitter there is a word limit which make blogging is different than the social media. There are three main types of blogging which is a kind of diary blogging, filter blogging and topic-driven blogging. In diary blogs or known as the personal blog is about the diarist share their life to public. Moreover, filter blogging is different from the diary blogs or personal blogs, filter blog are focuses on the political views or political knowledge (Wei 2009). Overall, blogs are a “web” and “log” where it is an online diary which people share on certain thing to a selected community and connected publicly to the public

 What is Social Network Sites (SNS)?

Basically, social network is a website where enable people with similar interest share their information in social network (Rouse, 2014). To define what is social, social is when you are socializing with people by sharing information and receiving information from them. However, network is defined as a platform inside the website which connect people with similar interest. So, social network is where a modern web-based communication which enable people to socializing in the social network by sharing and receiving the information (Nations 2019).

What about Tumblr? 

There are a lot of blogging website in the social network sites (SNS) but Tumblr is the most popular blogging website which Tumblr can attract more younger generation to share the information. Tumblr is one of the tools which helps the their users to know more about blogging where Tumblr is similar with Facebook and Twitter which make it more fun and interesting. 

In Tumblr, there are more trends and a post can go viral and spread easily to public (Moreau, 2019). There are many communities in Tumblr, for example a fan of Art, Photography, Poetry, Writers and more. Besides, Tumblr is a blog which embedded with the text, image, animated GIFS, videos and more. In fact, Tumblr also is a safe space for users to show their creativity (Collins, 2019) 

Is Tumblr a social networking site or blog?

Back to the question, in conclusion, Tumblr is a blogging platform and also a social networking site.  Which enables people to blogging and also socializing in the digital media platforms.

References 

 Collins, K 2019, Tumblr’s a rare safe haven amid all of internet ugliness, Cnet, Viewed on 28 September 2019, < https://www.cnet.com/news/tumblrs-a-rare-safe-haven-amid-all-of-the-internets-ugliness/>.

Moreau, E 2019, How to Use Tumblr for Blogging and Social Networking, LifeWire, viewed on 26 September 2019, < https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-tumblr-4049305>.

Nations, D 2019, What is Social Network, LifeWire, viewed on 26 September 2019, < https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-social-network-explaining-the-big-trend-3486616>.

Rouse, M 2014, Social Networking, TechTarget, viewed on 26 September 2019, <https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-networking>.

Walker Rettberg, J. (2013), 'What is a Blog' ch1; and 'Blogging Communities and Networks', ch 3 in Blogging. (2nd edn) 

Wei, L 2009, ‘’Filter Blogs vs. Personal Journals: Understanding the Knowledge Production Gap on the Internet”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 14, pp. 532-558.

#mda20009 #DigitalCommunities