digital-communities2022

[digital-communities2022]

Week 10: Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live Streaming

Taylor delves into numerous topics including broadcasting ourselves, Games matter, historical snapshots and different methods that have been utilised, as well as a general overview of her thoughts and experiences within the ever-growing industry. Taylor is an American Sociologist that specialises in researching the culture and communities of esports and live streaming. Taylor claims that her own draw card to viewing e sports as it is live streamed is the fact that there are usually thousands of others viewing in real time and everyone is communicating to each other, through different messaging platforms, Taylor likens it to being there in real time with a group of friends essentially.

Some of the biggest broadcasting applications and sites are Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and ,Electronic sports league to name a few. These sites boast up to 2.2 million unique broadcasters or streamers each month, along with up to 10 million users per day. Viewers and fans are able to donate money, subscribe to channels and become moderators of chats that are utilised to communicate with the individual that is streaming. 

Taylor claims that scholars and researchers in the gaming industry are not doing enough to connect their specified domain to public interest, resulting in cultural matters unfolding in predominantly leisurely activities. 

A study conducted in 2021 by Reesha Ghandi, Christine L. Cook and others as a department of informatics at New Jersey Institute of Technology aimed to explore discussions about mental health in gaming live streams to better understand how people perceive discussions of mental health in this new media context. The study consisted of 25 participants all that were familiar with Twitch or stream on the platform, they were required to answer questions relevant to mental health occurrences while live streaming. Then participants were asked to describe conversations they had seen or been a part of regarding mental health on twitch. 

Once interviews had been completed the authors of the study reviewed all answers and questions. The results showed that 14 out of the 25 participants witnessed or were a part of conversations while the streamer was playing a game instead of say chatting with fans or watching a video. Results also showed that conversations initiated in the chat were either addressed and changed the topic of the stream to suit that conversation or some streamers simply acknowledged said a few words then continued on with their stream. 

Ultimately, the study concluded that twitch has been highlighted as a platform for mental health discussions, both between streamers and their viewers, as well as between fellow viewers. 

Wohn, D.Y. and Freeman, G., 2020. Live streaming, playing, and money spending behaviors in eSports. Games and Culture, 15(1), pp.73-88. 

Edge, N., 2013. Evolution of the gaming experience: live video streaming and the emergence of a new web community. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 4(2). 

Taylor, T.L., 2018. Watch me play: Twitch and the rise of game live streaming (Vol. 13). Princeton University Press. 

Gandhi, R., Cook, C.L., LaMastra, N., Uttarapong, J. and Wohn, D.Y., 2021. An exploration of mental health discussions in live streaming gaming communities. Frontiers in psychology, 12, p.751.

[digital-communities2022]

Week 9: Instagram Filters

Instagram has become arguably the worlds most used social media platform once purchased by Facebook. This doesn’t automatically give the app a green light to do whatever they like, and if the app will benefit everyone. 

Filters have been around for a few years now, becoming popular first on snapchat. Instagram and basically every other social media platform has implemented filters to keep up with competition. 

The filters are mainly used when users are taking a selfie, and filters range from makeup touch ups, animal faces, quizzes, and many more. However, users have become increasingly accustomed to using said filters to enhance their appearance. Some filters may hide acne and blemishes or completely change an individual's face shape. Through users become accustomed and used to the features, when a specific filter is not on they can feel, down, saddened, and hurt by their actual appearance. Potentially leading to some mental health issues like depression. 

Ultimately, filters are intended to be fun and playful outlets from people’s busy lives, however, they can take a turn for the worse when they set unrealistic standards and make users accustomed to an individual that isn’t themselves.

Frederick, D., Forbes, M., Jenkins, B., Reynolds, T. and Walters, T., 2015. Beauty standards. The international encyclopedia of human sexuality, pp.113-196.

Hu, Y., Manikonda, L. and Kambhampati, S., 2014, May. What we instagram: A first analysis of instagram photo content and user types. In Eighth International AAAI conference on weblogs and social media.

Reece, A.G. and Danforth, C.M., 2017. Instagram photos reveal predictive markers of depression. EPJ Data Science, 6(1), p.15.

Youn, A., 2019, June. What is the ideal Instagram filter?. In Aesthetic Surgery Journal Open Forum (Vol. 1, No. 2, p. ojz019). US: Oxford University Press.

[digital-communities2022]

Week 8: Body Modification on Visual Social Media

The rise of social media platforms and influencers impact on the general public has changed the lives of many. Whether it is through inspiring them, teaching them, even being there for them, influencers are able to have a huge positive impact on everyday lives. However, the implementation of photo editing applications have had a substantially negative outlook on typically harmless applications and sites. 

Many influencers gain notoriety which then leads to mass amounts of following, as a result brands seek to partner up so more individuals are exposed to the brands service or goods. This leads to said influencers utilising apps like photoshop and tune up, which the influencers will change how their bodies look in order to keep the sponsorship. 

These warped pictures do not represent accurate body standards for audiences to look up to and strive for. Thus, leading to many different side effects like body dysmorphia. 

Lee, M. and Lee, H.H., 2021. Social media photo activity, internalization, appearance comparison, and body satisfaction: The moderating role of photo-editing behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 114, p.106

[digital-communities2022]

Week 7: Digital Citizenship and Conflict: Social Media Governance

Through social media’s powerful influence on globalisation and interconnectedness more people can reach each other quicker and easier than ever before. 

This also means bullies are able to reach helpless individuals quicker, through sites like Instagram and facebook, users phone numbers can be easily accessed through profiles; this results in bullies finding easy vantage points to send hate messages, threats, and hurtful messages. This is usually done in relation to the content that is posted (victim in this case).

To negate the ease that bullies have of collecting phone numbers and other personal information. The sites and applications should restrict how easy the information is collected. Whether it is through more options for users or more security protocols behind the app, like increased cyber security.

Slonje, R., Smith, P.K. and Frisén, A., 2013. The nature of cyberbullying, and strategies for prevention. Computers in human behavior, 29, pp.26-32.

Linke, A. and Zerfass, A., 2013. Social media governance: Regulatory frameworks for successful online communications. Journal of Communication Management.

Flew, T., 2015. Social media governance. Social Media & Society, 1, p.205

[digital-communities2022]

Week 6: Social Media Influencers and Slow Fashion Movement

Fashion is one of the most exciting and non stop industries in the world, with runway brands like Dior and Gucci regularly owning fashion week. However, on the opposite side of the spectrum are fast fashion brands like Shein and Fashion Nova. These brands pump out millions of items per year in extremely low sustainable areas around the world, producing insane amounts of waste every year. 

Recently some influencers on platforms like instagram and twitter are utilsing their following to address the issues of fast fashion. Some influencers provide more sustainable alternatives to their following and some even started their own brands to fill the gap in the market (affordable clothing sourced sustainably)

Ultimately, fashion sustainability is on the rise due to individuals and corporations with large followings talking some sense into their audience.

Pookulangara, S. and Shephard, A., 2013. Slow fashion movement: Understanding consumer perceptions—An exploratory study. Journal of retailing and consumer services, 20(2), pp.200-206.

Cataldi, C., Dickson, M. and Grover, C., 2010. Slow fashion: Tailoring a strategic approach towards sustainability. 

[digital-communities2022]

Week 5: What is Digital Citizenship?

A digital citizen can be classified as anyone that utilises the internet to source and produce information effectively and regularly (Mossberger et al 2007).

Through the uprise of internet, forums, discussion rooms, and digital communities, individuals are able to feel at home online depending on what sites they frequent. Hence the title “digital citizenship”. 

Through digital citizenship many people are able to share their views on politics, social agendas, and prettu much anything that there is a discussion on. From this there are endless amount of free resources available online from, tertiary education to videos on how to change a car tyre. 25 years ago none of this would have been possible. However, since almost everyone on earth has access to the internet we are all essentially one uniting group of people that like to share their opinions, resources and expertise, in most cases to help others. 

Mossberger, K., Tolbert, C.J. and McNeal, R.S., 2007. Digital citizenship: The Internet, society, and participation. MIt Press.

[digital-communities2022]

Week 4: Reality Television

Many people utilise reality television as a means of entertainment and fulfillment for their everyday life. Whether it’s through characters, settings, or incited drama (Kavka 2019). 

Popular shows like big brother and married at first sight, like to use drama whether it’s scripted or unscripted. The drama is brought up by a clash in personalities most of the time, and throughout the show the producers will keep running off this for as long as possible to ensure maximum viewership. reality tv can also be a playground for bullying, where the participants on the show are able to be judged at free will by the watching general public (Graham et al 2011). 

Ultimately, the upside of reality television for many can be the utter downfall for some. Whether it’s through bullying, political views or social agendas. The producers of these shows need to be more accountable for their participants health and safety.

Kavka, M 2019, ‘Reality TV  its contents and discontents’, Critical Quarterly, Volume 60 Issue 4, pp. 5-18. 

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

[digital-communities2022]

Week 3: Digital Community and Blogging (Tumblr)

Digital communities or online communities are usually gathering sites where numbers of people ranging from tens to millions interact with each other. Some popular sites utilised are Reddit, Discord, Facebook, Twitter, and many more. Topics on the aforementioned sites range from Politics, Business, Animals, Gaming, Comedy, and almost anything you can think of. (Mendes et al 2004). 

However, one site in particular (Tumblr) has become ever increasingly popular, due to a multitude of factors ranging from non age restricted posts (prior to 2022), to not being able to verify real identity, as well as being a prominent site for social groups to be formed. The site only recently implemented age restricted posts due to backlash from the community. This has seen a lot of users change platforms to sites like reddit and twitter which offer the ability to post all while keeping the anonymity aspect. 

Mendes, M.J., Suomi, R. and Passos, C. eds., 2004. Digital communities in a networked society: e-commerce, e-business and e-government (Vol. 139). Springer Science & Business Media.