digital-comm-discussions

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Week 8 Discussion: Gaming communities, social gaming and live-streaming

Gaming communities allow for people to interact without judgement and connect in an engaging interactive way. Most online gaming communities allow you to remain anonymous, there’s also rarely any profiles where likes or the number of comments gains you popularity. However with this anonymity poses a risk to peoples safety as predators often engage on online platforms like this to interact with younger children or people who are less vulnerable, some gaming sites allow for a channel of communication through live stream or live chat. There has also been discussion of cyber bullying within gaming communities. 

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Week 7 - Instagram Filters

Instagram filters started out as colour changing filters or graphics added to the picture such as sparkles or glitter, they've now evolved into filters that remove or cover natural features of the face or make the face look like a perfectly surgically curated face. Throughout this weekly lecture it discussed how filters have the ability to change one's own self perception of their own body and face and damage what we people see as ‘attractive’ (Coy-Dibley 2016, pg 8). 

Coy Dibley explores the notion of  ‘digital modification simply enabling us to reach normative ideals.”  (Coy-Dibley 2016,pg 1)  Young women in particular are faced with these ideals and how they must change their natural faces to fit and appear more like these filters. 

The question of whether regulations should be placed is often discussed but we may have to wait a few generations to see any changes. 

References: 

Coy-Dibley, I. (July, 2016). “Digitised Dysmorphia” of the Female Body: The Re/Disfigurement of the Image . Palgrave Communications. 2:16040 doi: 10.1057/palcomms.2016.1,40

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Week 6 - Body Modification and its role on social media

Social Media, in particular focus, Instagram in this discussion, is used as a platform to promote an individual's profile. Similarly, businesses can promote their products on instagram as a form of marketing as well as a new way to connect and engage with their patients and peers” (Basa 2020). High profile individuals, influencers, can do this with both paid and unpaid promotion. With body modification becoming increasingly popular through injections, surgeries, treatments and filters there is no question that by displaying this to a large audience on instagram is influential whether intended through paid promotion or not. 

As body modification, particularly plastic surgery, becomes more common and normalised on platforms such as instagram, it raises the question, why do we celebrate modified beauty over natural beauty ? 

Reference:

Basa K, Spiegel J 2020, ‘Facial plastic surgery on Instagram: What is trending? What is working?’ Aesthetic Surgery Journal, 2020-12-18

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Week 5 Digital Citizenship, Hashtag Publics, Political Engagement and Activism

Digital Citizenship is the human engagement of technology platforms, social media in particular to interact with; current issues, society and politics. It is the act of having the required skills to be able to interact with digital communities and communicate online. 

The emergence of hashtag publics assists with engagement particularly political engagement. Hashtags are used by using familiar words linking to a topic or a series of posts connecting all similar content, allowing for audiences to connect and engage with this discussion, topic or idea. Popular political hashtags tend to go viral and appear as trending on platforms such as twitter and instagram the more people engage with them and use them. This in turn increases the platform of the political campaign/ activism. 

We have seen this viral/trending recently with political activism of the Black Lives Matter BLM movement. 

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Week 4 Digital Community and Fandom

This week had a strong focus on reality tv, which is characterised by a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or sometimes humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded. By careful contortion created by producers, what is actual reality in comparison to a curated reality is now difficult to decipher for viewers.  These artificially manipulated situations are created to produce drama in hope that viewers become captivated, passionate and opinionated about the ‘characters’ on the show ultimately creating a space of fandom and community. 

Graham and Hajru mention in their journal the “political dimension” (Graham and Hajru 2011, p. 19) reality tv holds and how it can spark debatable discussions within the tv show cast but also within the fandom and digital community. 

This was brought to our awareness in the week 4 discussion groups by Tiana and Jessica who lead the tute discussion and used the MAFS 2021 episode involving the task where contestants were asked to rank the other contestants. 

The tute question: Reality tv means getting people to do all sorts of interesting things for entertainment purposes, but is asking contestants to rate every one of the opposite genders in order of hotness taking it too far?

From the group discussion and feedback it seemed as a collective generation we are aware of the curation of reality by producers and the effects this can have on viewers and the cast. 

References: 

Todd Graham and Auli Hajru Reality TV as a trigger of everyday political talk in the net-based public sphere , European Journal of Communication 26(1) 18–32, 2011. 

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STAGE ONE: How does Tumblr function as a digital community?

Social Media is considered a digital community as a whole and within that community are sub communities, Tumblr has created a space that allows for multiple safe spaces and communities,  Tumblr is considered “an alternative world, where disparate people come together over mutual passions and desires” (McCracken 2020, pp. 2-3). Tumblr functions as a microblogging platform that has enabled it to create fans who are focused on the use of hashtags, ‘ask’ and ‘reblog’ functions (McCracken 2017, p. 41), which has created spaces within the Tumblr community including ‘fandoms’. 

When comparing Tumblr to alternative digital communities including the likes of Facebook which has been characterized  as “conservative,” (Keller, 2019, p.2)  we see why Tumblr is still thriving and encouraging a safe digital space. Tumblr’s anonymity and  ‘ reliance on pseudonymity” (McCracken 2020, pp. 3-4). allows for its users to post and join discussions on topics they are passionate about, sometimes controversial without feeling at risk, they can experiment, release creativity, share opinions and experiences without fear of judgement. 

Whilst there are multiple communities on Tumblr thriving off freedom of speech, feminist politics is one that almost is selective to Tumblr in its full capacity as Tumblr fosters the space feminist politics requires in order to be discussed. 

‘I argue that teenage girls strategically choose how to engage with feminist politics online, carefully weighing issues like privacy, community, and peer support as determining factors in which platform they choose to engage.’ (Keller, 2019, p.2) 

Tumblr may not have the numbers that Facebook and Youtube have, but what it has over those two platforms is a safe community that protects individuals identity without compromising freedom of speech. 

References: 

Keller, J 2019, ‘ “Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms’, Social Media + Society, vol. 5, no. 3. 

McCracken, A 2017, ‘Going Down the Rabbit Hole’, in A Cho, L Stein & N Hoch (eds), A Tumblr Book: Platforms and Cultures, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 

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Contemporary Feminism and Social Media: (WEEK 3)

1. Contemporary Feminism uses social media to highlight current events and issues (campaigns) that have not been published in mainstream media, they bring attention to incidents that the general public may have been unaware of, this often happens in online 'safe spaces' for example Facebook Group 'Melbourne Gal Pals' where women share information that may help out another woman, including safety tips, positive reassurance, advice and tips.

Instagram account 'Feminist' has stated in their bio 'We exist to amplify the voices of a diverse network of change makers, activists and creators' with a following of 6.4 million 'Feminist' shares posts in regards to current events, protests, inspirational posts.