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Week 10: Social Media Governance

As our real lives continue to become more and more enveloped by our online lives, similarities between real life and the digital world further connect, with this, a wide expanse of views and opinions are voiced in online spaces. Nothing is perfect and while the internet enables us to follow the things we are interested in and presents a world of possibility free from our day to day lives, it has increasingly become a more dangerous place for many people. Daily, many suffer from online abuse, sexism, racism, misogyny and various attacks, and while sites like Facebook pride themselves on a certain amount of freedom of speech, online abuse continues to flourish. The online landscape is hard to monitor, for a public post, reporting the issue can get an induvial banned. Preventing abuse online is a difficult task, since there are so many users and different understanding of what is offensive. The reasons behind people using social media to insult and abuse is because one, they don’t have to face a real person and can stay somewhat anonymous and two, that there is very little consequence for actions taken. “Social media challenges the legal understanding of social speech. By its boundless form, social media naturally brings about comparisons amongst different locales” (Alam, I, Roshan, LR, & Siddiqui, F 2016, 350-363) Abuse is predominantly targeted at women by men, large percentages of women have had to deal with the manosphere, the manosphere is a large, worldwide group of men that believe in the superiority of men over women and constantly abuse women online. Social media platforms can have their own moderators, like Facebook groups where a moderator can ban abusers or those who spread/create abusive content. As for the future of online governance, experts are concerned about the effect that the internet is having on women in particular “There is only so much an individual can do and we must all campaign for change, forcing governments and technology companies to put protection in place.” (Plan International c. 2020). To allow everybody to feel comfortable online, significant change needs to be made.

References:

Alam, I, Roshan, LR, & Siddiqui, F 2016, "Free vs hate speech on social media: the Indian perspective", Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 350-363. https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/docview/1844293269?pq-origsite=primo

Plan International c. 2020, Free to be Online?, Plans International, p. 5 https://swinburne.instructure.com/courses/33896/pages/week-10-readings?module_item_id=1919468)

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Week 9: Slow Fashion

With the internet’s accessibility to most people, it allows for expression of interest in particular fields, enabling people to discuss and present their values that matter to them as individuals. Social Media Influencers do this on a larger scale in order to inform or present issues that they are invested in, like the Slow Fashion movement. The Slow Fashion movement is based around the idea that clothes shouldn’t be worn once then thrown away, but rather, it covers ideas like sustainability and ethical warnings/considerations to consumers. Slow fashion is designed to combat the ideas of Fast Fashion, with the fashion industry exploiting third world counties with workers subjected to poor work environments, child labour and extremely low wages to create the cheapest clothing possible, Influencers have taken matters into their own hands to promote products that don’t engage in the same activities, encourage recycling of clothes and expose the wrongdoings within the fashion industry. Clothing has to be designed to last as well, slow fashion expects the products to be durable as well as using recycled or environmentally sustainable material in order to decrease waste and maximise usage. Amongst the already long list of expectations, slow fashion also takes into account “Sustainable fashion has a local focus thereby not only supporting the local community and creating jobs, but also reducing transportation millage and costs.” (Lai, Henninger & Alevizou 2017) Through social networks, influencers have created various options to buying new clothes, lone being trading through their media platforms. Influencers have now become increasingly responsible for the promotion of ethically made products and followers of these influencers trust them over large companies, while it depends on the authority of the voice, followers put trust into influencers based on minimal factors. “SMI [Social Media Influencers] trustworthiness mediates the relationship between SMI power and consumer attitudes toward the brand” (Nafees et al. 2021) Gaining in popularity, Slow fashion runs through social media and allows consumers and influencers to interact and trade clothing while spreading information around the issues within the fashion industry.

References: Lai, Z, Henninger, CE, & Alevizou, PJ 2017, An Exploration of Consumers’ Perceptions Towards Sustainable Fashion – A Qualitative Study in the UK’ in “Sustainability in Fashion A Cradle to Upcycle Approach”, Palgrave

Nafees, L, Cook, CM, Nikolov, AN & Stoddard, JE 2021, “Can social media influencer (SMI) power influence consumer brand attitudes? The mediating role of perceived SMI credibility”, Digital Business, vol. 1, no. 2

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Week 8: Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live Streaming

Gaming, while often perceived as an antisocial activity, can offer many chances to create communities and engage with other like-minded people.  Players often become part of a group that socialises over a particular game or around the wider topic of gaming. Gaming communities are created when gamers communicate with each other around the issues that surround games, or literally anything else, creating friends that might not necessarily be limited to location or be met in person. This is often done through various platforms of social media, including primarily but not exclusively discord which is designed specifically for gamers. An offshoot of gaming, created by the community, is the now popular and ever-growing use of streaming. This is where gamers film themselves playing through games on YouTube or Twitch to communicate with a fan base, there fans can contribute money, but also comment and support the gamer as a community. Similarly, E-sports are a live event where gamers physically come together to watch or participate in the tournament, playing against other players much like sporting events. Through streaming, high level gamers are “broadcasters the opportunity to interact with their audiences in real time through a synchronous chat window.” (Taylor 2018 p. 6)

While gaming has many forms, in the early 2010’s was expanding through social media sites such as Facebook, allowing Facebook users to play against their friends in smaller, easier to access games. The ideas behind the games are that they are fast, fun and made to played in bite sized chunks. This also massively expanded who gamers were in the eyes of creators, which in term meant that the ideas, stereotypes and tropes around gamers expanded and became more inclusive and encompassing as well as the community widening to accommodate a more diverse range of people.

References: Taylor, TL 2018, ‘Broadcasting ourselves’, in Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming, Princeton University Press, pp.1-23

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Week 7 - Filters

Filters are a relatively new concept and technology within social media platforms, primarily Instagram and Snapchat, used to alter one’s appearance through taking a photo with an adapting filter. As it is quite new, the effects of filters may be not yet known to the wider public as filter creators are quickly creating and releasing content with not much thought into side effects. This worldwide obsession with filters and the way users look through them has caused a wider societal impact on issues surrounding body image. It is argued that filters are used primarily to beautify people and underneath, often push hegemonic beauty ideals that are having damaging effects on mental health and people view themselves (particularly women). Often filters are pulling from western norms; shrinking noses, softening edges and even lightening skin, which platforms have been criticised for whitening/westernising the looks of filter users. Filters are affecting the female image by “transcending digitized-image are being considered in relation to specifically prescribed types of femininity within a Western, patriarchal, mainstream or “malestream”, heterosexual society.” (Coy-Dibley 2016, p2). This effect is called Digital Dysmorphia. Digital Dysmorphia is the term used to explain the societal pressure for women conform to a set standard of beauty ideals and using filters through digital platforms to attain them, however they cannot look like this all the time, only through filters. Much like body dysmorphia, Digital Dysmorphia is a mental health issue for many women, who are expected to look a certain way to fit in or to feel accepted, however, this is often unattainable. While filters are enjoyed by many in and are often used for fun and as AI further develops, it could present interesting developments in technology, the negative effects of this technology are affecting society and reinforcing hegemonic, but hazardous ideals. References:   Coy-Dibley, I 2016. ‘“Digitised Dysmorphia” of the Female Body: The Re/Disfigurement of the Image’, Palgrave Communications, pp.2 <https://swinburne.instructure.com/courses/33896/pages/week-7-readings?module_item_id=2080455>

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Week 6: Body Modification on Visual social media

With the ability to create a following and audience for yourself through Instagram or another social media platform, creators have to capture the interest of viewers. The Influencer is a relatively new idea that forefronts the hegemonic beauty standards and commodifies them, usually using their body to create and develop a fan base, as well as selling products. These are called ‘Microcelebrities’ as their identity and presence are almost purely online. Microcelebrities, engage in this type of work through ‘aesthetic labour’ which ultimately promotes unhealthy beauty standards. Aesthetic labour is the idea that influencers and microcelebrities can embody these ideals through plastic surgery, photoshopping and using particular products and accessories to create a seemingly perfect look. This has had side effects, for today’s youth in particular, feel the need to look like influencers which makes consumers want their products in order to look like them. This ends up resulting in consumers reaching for an unachievable goal (without plastic surgery or photo editing), this can have psychological effects on the followers. In terms of influencers and the effects that social media has had on people’s perceptions of their own body image, “42% of surgeons report that their patients are seeking aesthetic surgery to improve their appearance on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and other social media channels” (Dorfman et al. 2018, p 332–338). It is found that Male and Female influencers use the platforms in completely different ways. Men are usually doing something and partaking in some sort of activity, this presents them as strong, athletic or hard working which reinforces masculine ideals. Women, however, are often presented as the product and are constantly objectified. As a business model, influencers are successful in creating a strong and loyal following, however this is having large negative effects on the wider society through its pursuit for perfection.

References: Dorfman, RG, Vaca, EE, Mahmood, E, Fine NA & Schierle, CF 2018, ‘Plastic Surgery-Related Hashtag Utilization on Instagram: Implications for Education and Marketing’, Aesthetic Surgery Journal, vol. 38, no. 3, pp 332–338

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Week 5 Summary: Hashtag Publics, political engagement and activism.

DIGITAL CITIZENS:

In the today’s digital world, we are forced to adapt and learn new skills in order to properly use these platforms. This makes users ‘digital citizens’, the term is used to describe individuals that have taken part in the large societal shift onto the online world and with this there are particular skills like digital literacy, being able to navigate the internet and understanding online safety etc. needed to interact and engage with online content. With these skills, audiences become immersed and can access information and do countless other things, which makes them digital citizens. We engage with Social Media daily and through it we are interacting with others, interacting with political and non-political content/institutions and participating in a wider discussion within the public sphere. According to Vromen society’s relationship with social media uses ‘digitally based mechanisms to engage in politics and express points of view’(Vromen 2017). This all helps to benefit society and the communities involved.  

HASHTAG PUBLICS:

For more topical and precision on social media, people use hashtags to define a particular topic. Through the use of hashtags, people can express ideas and discuss one singular aspect of worldwide issues which creates a “hashtag public”. This is the idea that a public can form interact or debate, narrowing issues down or creating a community based around a particular issue. 

POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT AND ACTIVISM:

Both of these terms, Digital Citizens and Hashtag publics, can relate to political engagement and activism. Through the use of social media and the internet, publics are able to congregate ideas, establish opinions, debate and discuss as well as share knowledge and inform. Thanks to social media platforms, conversations are started around issues that may not talked about or are picked up on by publics, as well as this politicians can use these platforms to connect to their audiences. Similarly, activists can use platforms to unify messages and cultivate an audience. With the ability to reach masses easily, the use of social media surrounding activism in the 21st century has streamlined the process and makes it more accessible to publics.

In todays world, becoming a digital citizen is essential to engage with the public sphere and interact with institutions. Through social media and the internet we can see publics becoming involved with discussions around politics and utilising these platforms to empower their voices. 

REFERENCES: 

Ariadne Vromen (2017) intro, Digital Citizenship and Political Engagement The Challenge from Online Campaigning and Advocacy Organisations London : Palgrave Macmillan

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How does Tumblr function as digital community?

Tumblr is a social media platform created in 2007 by David Karp, like many other platforms Tumblr has the option to post text, use videos and photos, and users interact with each other through similar means like following, liking, messaging and replying. However, the platform offers a more aesthetic take on social media, using hashtags to congregate similar content while a user builds a blog based off any subject. “Tumblr’s interface and affordances attracted users who wanted more creative agency and a more egalitarian, non-hierarchical, uncensored media environment.” (McCracken, Alison 2020, pg.6,). The site is less focused on the identity of the user compared to platforms like Facebook, there is more option to stay anonymous and create a blog that does not necessarily reflect someone’s self. This option for privacy and the adoption of the platform by groups of niche users and minorities has led to Tumblr becoming a safer area for these groups than more mainstream social media sites. In terms of its user base, “ 19.4% identified as nonbinary, with a further 8.6% choosing to describe their own gender identity,” (Byron et al. 2019, pg.2241) With a large community of LGBTQI+ users, the site is a “particularly safe space for trans and gender-diverse self-representations compared with dominant platforms like Facebook and Instagram” (Byron et al. 2019, pg. 2243) As a digital community Tumblr has enabled the voices of users that may not have had the confidence or feared push back on more mainstream platforms. Tumblr’s users feel safe, and with a loose amount of restriction on what content is put on the platform, a wide rage of diverse communities has been able to connect, interact and enjoyed the space. While Tumblr is made up of these various small groups, it still remains one of the largest and most used social media sites.

References:

Byron P, Robards B, Hankel B, Vivienne & Churchill B ‘“Hey, I’m Having These Experiences”: Tumblr Use and Young People’s Queer (Dis)connections.’ 2019 International Journal of Communication 13. pg 2239–2259

“"Hey, i'm having these experiences": Tumblr use and young people's queer (dis)connections.”

McCracken, Allison. a Tumblr Book: Platform and Cultures. E-book, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2020,

https://www.fulcrum.org/epubs/8s45qb61c?locale=en#/6/14[McCracken-0007]!/4/2[ch01]/20/4/12/1:861