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Week 11 : Global social media: China

For this week’s topic, I would be talking about Media in China, what are the roles and how it affects the mindset of the people of China. Ok, to begin, I only got perspective as a tourist in China, but when years passed by and doubts, through Digital Communities tutorials started since day 1, I really have been thinking about it, the transparency, voices, bias and ideology in media, , it really got me thinking about China when I was there. I actually did not realize how fake it got when I was in China 10 years ago compared to the China now visited 2 years ago. So, I don’t have any experiences in rural China or any information about them because from what media/research say, China media shows prosperity in their country rather than being poor and hungry. But to me, in the main tourist provinces, they really cannot talk negatively about their country even if they wanted, the tour bus was probably being watched when the tour guide touched politics slightly and I could see they didn’t go further in about it because there are eyes watching. Yes, they actually proudly say that their tech is superb and always better in 10 years’ time, and for being a copy cat of American tech, as they claim that Americans gave these workers the knowledge how to make the tech and replicate it for the country to use. However, this is all context without research as this is what several tour guides has claimed during the tours I’ve been to.

I don’t really have a lot of China or overseas friends, only met one during my Primary school years, as a kid, smartphones weren’t cheap enough for everyone or stable for the public yet, so we do not know the existence Weibo, Taobao, Baidu or WeChat yet. So, he was going back to China at the end of year 6 of our studies, my dad and his dad are really good friends, we wanted to stay in touch, until… he told me, China doesn’t have Facebook anymore, I was like, then how am I going to contact you? So, he introduced me to their app, QQ, it is like an email, example of emails like Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo. That’s when I then found out China closed their social media from the world, but the world could use their app to communicate to friends from China.

Same like today, when you want to see entertainment content from China, you use TikTok, WeChat and Weibo to look for entertainment from influencers or known as KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders), they are people or organizations with strong social status with good examples like political figures, columnists and social media celebrities. Personally, I do not use any of these, but I do follow a media called South China Morning Post. They do post some believable things and there are unbelievable as well, sadly don’t recall many news that I read online.

App controlling in China is very well heard of, but however, I feel the same when I use other social media apps as well, creating ads just for your preference. China media control on the other hand, it’s not all that simple, their system can censor post the government think its offensive or do not bring good values to the country, almost like imperfection is not an option or simply put it, perfectionist. As the very role of media in China is to instruct and educate the people morally as journalists are expected to promote certain “good” values and habits and discourage the “bad” ones.

In conclusion, a lot of things are hidden by the government either for the good of the public or making things worse, but for China, its not like they have a choice for transparent governing and media, are they good with what they have? I assume majority uses VPN too to access things outside from their own country as well, but so do we use VPN to access other countries webs as well. Due to language they actually don’t really the need for western apps to be left out, they almost got anything out of everything especially entertainment like idols, tv shows, movies, animations and social media platforms. It may affect some who are against the laws, but those unaffected actually goes on like us in our normal lives. 

This is the end of the blogs, and I really enjoyed this class a lot where I learnt tremendously about the world and issues we face, it really has opened up our cooped up minds of what we get and believe instead of looking only into one perspective, some things are hard to agree but the class teaches a sense of respecting others’ opinions as others might also have a hard time agreeing with you. I sincerely thanks everyone and Dr. Bertha for having this class despite being it being it on an online class session and covid-19 situation. 

List of references

Crampton, T,” Social Media in China: The Same but Different”. Thomas Crampton, viewed 20 November 2020. < http://www.thomascrampton.com/china/social-media-china-business-review/>

Social SEO, 2019, “KOL Influencer Marketing in China: What is WeChat, Weibo, Douyin TikTok, and Little Red Book?”. Social SEO, viewed 20 November 2020 < https://hello-73030.medium.com/kol-influencer-marketing-in-china-what-is-wechat-weibo-douyin-tiktok-and-little-red-book-a178cc534924>

Pinxteren, G, V, 2013 “Foreign Media on China: Beyond Positive and Negative reporting”. Clingendael, viewed 2o November 2020 < https://www.clingendael.org/publication/foreign-media-china-beyond-positive-and-negative-reporting>

He, R, “How does the Chinese government manage social media? The case of Weibo”. Reuters institute, 20 November 2020 < https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/how-does-chinese-government-manage-social-media-case-weibo>

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Week 10: Social Gaming  ●﹏●

Social gaming, many people seem to think that it’s a new trendy thing that gives a source of entertainment to the viewers or audience, but it’s not new, gaming has been around since my childhood. I’m a 90s kid by the way. At least back in my days of gaming years ago, during 2009 ish and a girl, gaming was considered tom-boy and nerdy, “anti-social” and so much that you only can interact with people who play games, majority boys, always had to go house to house to use WLAN to play multiplayer and have great times. That’s how I got called tomboy at least by the other female classmates, and sometimes the boys were ashamed that there was a girl and mocked by other guys. Kids mindset back in those days :P 

It wasn’t pleasant to be name-called/labeled but I learned to be myself at least because gaming is a part of me and shaped me into who I am and what I am doing today. You see, it’s not only gaming but also cartoons, elder generation think cartoons or games are for children but think again who actually made these, are they, children? It’s adults who made them possible for children/teens/adults who seek entertainment and visualization and in the present now games/cartoons are better quality such as concepts, stories, visuals, and ideas. So in this blog, I am going to talk about how gaming social has changed over the times and made possible and accessible for everyone.

Firmly, I believe the internet and social media have brought gaming to gain more popularity. This is because the internet is the source for sharing information and thus communication and entertainment are more enabled in this new age.

Here are some videos within this link to show how gaming socially has evolved

https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2016/07/the-future-of-social-gaming

Today, youngsters are very connected to the gaming world and they share their experience on social media as a way to let people know what activities or fun they had. The same goes for streamers who use streaming platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, and Discord servers. How they connect together with their fans is through using social media such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook where they usually tell viewers to follow them or look for updates during their end card of the video or stream.

So, these streamers or Youtubers who enjoy the games they have chosen to play during their recordings, it’s a way that they are playing with fun and at the same time recommending their viewers that this game is fun. Gamers within that community would try it out and share their experience or how to beat the level in the comments section and this is where social media comes to connects this community, a bit like fandom but different.

As a person who grew up with games, I may have been addicted at some point, I wasn’t aware of it but that is how my family perceived it when they tell me, but it’s also a getaway from stress and sadness that I had when I was still schooling from being bullied and shunned by others. I have dreams I would fly and run like crazy with powers, and meeting these online friends one day (I still have contact with them to this very day from 7 years ago). It didn’t shape me into a violent person or anti-social person, I was quite lucky to have met truly nice people and help me gone through those tough times where I couldn’t voice out to anyone, I knew but strangers despite the time difference. If it’s not for them, I wouldn’t have been or what I am today and I really appreciate gaming socially in my heart. Of course, you must be careful who you meet, I have met not very nice ones before and I just treat them like NPCs/Bots.

 It true, gaming was not like how it was before, started out with communities that were cool and fun, however slowly, with more and more audience joining and all so different from every perspective, people don’t tend to get along even if you thought this person is interactable. Identities are hidden, words may wrongly be interpreted, one wrong move and you are stalked by media or backlashed for the smallest reasons. Not everything in unicorns and rainbows, same as real life, if something is public, you got to know that millions of eyes are watching because the internet, stalkers, and everyone can access your information.  I know this is truly bias to social gaming goodness, this is what I have seen, what I experienced, and what I truly believe, some may have not this type of experience but I feel grateful I did and able to share.

Feel free to comment on this post, let me know your experience in gaming socially good or bad, there are still things we can learn every day and share together :D

[usagiwusagi]

Week 9: Fandom ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ

The topic I would like to talk about is Fandom. Fandom is a really a controversial topic, apparently for me, I have no fandom to be with because I personally am not into mingling with a bunch of people who like the same thing yet all with different opinions and perspective. I prefer to keep what I imagine and a boundary to respect the artist and the viewer in my own view. For example, your product as in talents/arts is great and I like it, Great! You have gained me as a follower and viewer, if I get the opportunity to support you through merchandise affordably and have some use to me, I will think about purchasing it. However not to the point of extreme fans level, I have nothing against extreme fans, I think they are cool, it meant that the artist has changed something in their point of life. Alright, this is roughly how my opinions on fandom is like, now to the facts!

What is Fandom???

I have to admit, I was confused about this word too, until I had this class.

It is and fan culture where the community built on their enjoyment in books. Movies. Tv shows, bands, sport teams and many more and even politics. So interestingly, fandom culture are examples of Participatory culture, and what is that?

Participatory culture is whereby the consumer not only consumes the media but creates at the same time. As most of the fans culture have elements of participatory culture in a form of creative or artistic production. For example, time and time you would see people drawing portraits, merchandising, tributes and expos which leads to the term fan fiction, fan art, fan videos, cosplay and more.

According to Jenkins (2009), participatory culture consists of:

1.      low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement

2.      Strong support for creating and sharing one’s creation with others

3.      Informal mentorship where the most experience members will pass on the knowledge to novices

4.      Members believe their contributions matter

5.      Members have a degree of social connection with one another and care about member’s opinions about their contribution.

Okay enough insights, How is it affecting social media and their users?

2020! Mix feelings about this year, question is how did fandoms cope with covid-19? So many fans communities all with their own genuine kind of struggles. Live shows cancelled, tv shows delayed and many plans were cancelled.

Social media, internet and online communities are the ones playing the roles of filling up the anxious fans. It creates a sense of virtual connections while being safe and maintaining social distancing/ zero contact with other peers.

Another example are online games with a fan base, Animal Crossing, people who loves these game, can go online and play together in a virtual world, build farms, send gifts, catch fish, and even play musical chair together, its like a stimulation in real life and it helping people cope with covid-19 it is not based on an artist/role model but the game that made small communities among each other in the virtual world with people who have Nintendo Switch consoles.

In conclusion, fandom is a space where people can enjoy themselves in a community full of like minded people, not everyone can understand each other, and that’s where boundaries come in as well, it may sound like a barrier for better opinions or educating the wrong. You can’t really know what is going on in anyone’s mind online unless you are face to face with the person to make them realize they are disrespecting or crossed the line. Fandoms are very much online based, everyone puts a suit of character when they are online. If you are able to change toxicity online then great, keep on doing what you do, if you cant and u end up in a rabbit hole, simple just unplug. No one can hurt you when you are not online. That’s all, take care yallz.

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Week 8: Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding (◕ω◕✿)

Hi everyone! Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding are the topics that I am going to discuss about more into gaming and design on how social media is related. So crowdsourcing and crowdfunding in my knowledge, it was a mouthful and I didn’t bother to know the terms, however, later did I realize it is everywhere, it is just written in many different terms, known roughly by contest, survey, volunteer, donate, Kickstarter, GoFundMe and Research and Development (rnd).

Let’s try dissecting these two!

So, what are the differences in Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding?

So, according to Hargrave (2019), not only is information, opinions and obtaining work/job from various people submitted through social media, but also the Internet and smartphone apps. Majority of the people involved in crowdsourcing are paid freelancers or volunteers.

An example in the design field, usually to gather the best outcome for the job in big companies or less strict companies who looks for talent or experience in freelancers, they hold out competitions with attracting prizes to gather artists or designers they desire for the job. It sounds like free labor, natural selection or survival for the fittest kind of job, but in a sense, it is the fastest way to weed out the weak and see results immediately rather than going through thousands of resumes. It gives the company an advantage to know that the person applied for the competition is interested rather than job driven for money.

As for gaming, a recent new viral game called “Genshin Impact”, it is great that everyone enjoys this game (I really like it too!) as it’s completely free to play, with such a cool concept, for a free game, in-game purchases are investable and are hot deals, I have a feeling the company is receiving the funds well too. So, large quantity of players come with so many opinions, critiques and feedbacks even though it is still just version 1! miHoYo, the company that made mobile game “Honkai Impact 3” and now the lovable “Genshin Impact” which is cross-played upon many devices, they care about the players, they listen and have conducted so many surveys and received feedbacks just to improve the gameplay. It is a way, to gather information, bugs and mechanics in a game to be able to pass them on to their team of developers to digest and fix the inner problems.

Here’s a video to support my opinion where they talk about crowdsourcing in design 😊

Next, crowdfunding is using a small capital from a number of individuals to support and finance a new business venture. It makes use of the accessibility of the networks through social media, and websites for crowdfunding. This brings investors and entrepreneurs together to expand the business further through online basis.

An example for this through observation in the design community, artist who do merchandising for quite some time and wishes to expand their audience range usually have a hard time reaching out locally and requiring a higher capital to create new merchandise with higher quality. So, going online is a way to attract customers (investors). A crowdfunding platform called Kickstarter, is quite popular for backing up expensive handmade/ customed items, this allows the artist to know the number of backers that support the project. If the target reaches, the artist commence the projects with the pre-funds, if it doesn’t, money will be automatically given back.

Not only art is using Patreon or something better as a source of income, receiving funds from fans who enjoy what they do, as gaming or content creators alike use this platform to engage their audience with extras (more than the usual contents). It is a much more stable source than content creator platforms, because the fans are the one investing and it goes directly to them.

I hope I have explained the basics of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding in my point of view. There is pros and cons, however, I felt like, this is a way of business and how people make income at least online that I have encountered. We just have to know what is right and wrong way of business and investing.

 Take care everyone, get rest and drink wateeer :D

[usagiwusagi]

Week 7: Public Healthcare and Social Media ˚✧₊⁎( ˘ω˘ )⁎⁺˳✧༚

Hello everyone, on to today’s topic, I am going to talk about is healthcare in social media. I am going to touch on some of the advantages and disadvantages. Information on health is very accessible on the web, as soon as you have line and a search engine to look up whatever we are concerned about. For example, if you have some unusual symptom that we encountered one day, we could quickly self-diagnose ourselves to either know the most common sickness or a sudden jaw dropping answer, cancer/death in the end. Here are reasons why there are pros and cons.

First of all, how is social media used in healthcare?

According to Moorhead, social media platforms provides: -

-        Information on wide range of issue encountered by the public

-        Answers to medical questions from peers or professionals

-        Easier conversation between patients and health professionals.

-        Collection of data on patient experiences and opinions

-        Health intervention, promotion, and education to the public.

-        Reduce illness shaming

-        A mechanism for online consultations for convenience of the patient and professionals

2.65 Billion people worldwide were using social media in 2018 and to be increased by 3.1 billion by the year 2021. Majority of the people use internet to make a  healthcare-related search in the past year. Study also showed that 63% chooses to use one provider (loyalty) over another because of the consistency of the provider. With face to face out of the way, digital makes communication easier and 42% of the adults wants to follow/ be friends with their healthcare professionals on social media. It reaches more audience and have the ability to spread awareness/information to variation of people to perceive the information.

While there is so many good, there is also the cons and holes in the usage of social media for healthcare.

False information is the main key battled for a long time wherever there is social media and information, somehow it takes the truth 6 times longer to get into people’s head and false news gets retweeted faster than the truth. Three quarters of information shared among the the top 10 stories in 2018 were misleading and false.

There is no control in everyone’s information being spread and once it out there, it will always be in the internet.

Yes, communications barriers are brought down, however, these professionals don’t just stay home and reply messages all day long, they only appear when they have leisure or time to sustain those questions, so it’s not an immediate thing.

Ah yes, the dangers of self-diagnosing is a very common culture, its quick and efficient, however, everyone is different, one general answer can create stress to 74% of these people because there is no proper examination as well, only can play the guessing game which creates further anxiety.

 There are both pros and cons associated with using social media as a healthcare organization. But there’s always good and bad things associated with anything you do. I still feel that, there is a reason why doctors and patients need to meet up, the doctor spends his days studying how to save people, and its an organic thing, it’s life. Digitally, you as the patient can always hide things that you think it does not matter but it is that little thing (unusual symptom) that will create the big issue later. It is not to say real life you cant hide, but I am sure that there is a sense as a human that you are always seeking help and dependent on someone, and physically you know you are paying this guy to help you too. 

Take care and stay safe everyone! and thanks for reading up till here :D 

[usagiwusagi]

Week 6: Activism  ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ

Today, on this topic, I shall share my opinions about #blacklivesmatter but more to discrimination issues in Malaysia. First and foremost, I am not a person of dark skin color but I am person with a race, which like many others face discrimination. I want to say, everyone is a little racist/dividing in their heart, it’s just a matter of showing it out or not, but not to say we are born like this, but more of an environment, history, where you live and social privilege kind of factor.

For some reason, the upbringing of elders saying this indirectly or directly to youngsters like us, “this race is lazy, this race only wants money, this race is superior, this race is leeching of the other race” is somehow similar to showing white is friendly and black do bad stuff, it is very stereotypical and people think it won’t affect the future in the long run, but in fact it does. At least in my area where I live, people say we are in harmony, that is simply because, we are docile people, we don’t want to interrupt or cause trouble if we want to make interaction or make a move.

Now that is out of the way, I want to try relate the issues that is happening around the world with what is also happening in Malaysia. For example, the George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin case, the innocent boy was shot to death just because he was going to sleepover at his friends, because of the reckless move made by the Zimmerman, who though was asked to not act when he contacted headquarters. Martin was shot without second thought by the officer on watch and it quite clear he made reckless assumptions. In relation to Indian communities in Malaysia, they consist of 7% out of Malaysian population, however they have the highest death rate by police custody.

Social Media and movements

However, to connect people about these cases, in my opinion, social media has brought justice to increase awareness publicly and allowing people to relearn cultures that they did not know. That is, if they followed the right content and did their research.

Why I say this, it quite the same reason in my field of study (Design), people tend to not research (too lazy too) and they get the info from what they see. One click is all it takes to get the latest info and not digging more to know the reason why and how. Same goes for the media/editors, they write the trendiest thing happening and some will do research and some do not, which is frustrating because maybe the money or fame factor is all in their head.

[usagiwusagi]

Week 5 ╰(・∇・╰)

Politics and Social Media

My opinions on politics are rather vague, it can be either a very serious thing that can affect the future of the people and their country or it can be watching a bunch of elder adults bickering at each other. Honestly, I am coming into the ‘age’ where I must know something about politics but I want to give my view on politics in these past few years because as a teenager in Malaysia as so far as I know, it is an adult thing and we shouldn’t join in or much less looked down upon because we lack knowledge of it. However, which social media more open and accessible to everyone, this is actually how I get to know more about politics not only in Malaysia but other countries as well without the hassle of asking the adults on their political view as it can so one sided.

Political voices in social media

In principle, political voice enables people to pursue the goals and aspirations that they value, and to seek redress when an injustice is perceived. As Amartya Sen has argued, the importance of participation in one’s development through open and non-discriminatory processes, to have a say without fear, and to speak up against perceived injustices and wrongs are fundamental freedoms that are integral to one’s wellbeing and quality of life, as how clean politics should be. In  my opinions, clean politics does not exist, as humans are manipulative, seek power and recognition as it makes them feel like they did something right and have followers with the same ideology.

However easier said than done, according to Kearney, we are not necessarily getting farther and farther apart, it is just the people in the middle are becoming quieter and more withdrawn. If you fail to consider all the people in the middle who do not care about politics as much, it seems like there is a clearer division when there is not, so social media might be artificially creating this sense that we are becoming more polarized.

Right or wrong of politics in social media?

 “Voters generally favor policies that enhance their own well-​being with little consideration for that of future generations or for long-​term outcomes. Politicians are rewarded for pandering to voters’ immediate demands and desires…” said by Dambisa Moyo in her book Dead Aid (2009).

In social media, the proliferation of personalized media diets increasingly means that voters cling to their own facts, assumptions, and beliefs. By “media diets”, people live in their own “bubble”, only listening to like-minded people.

So, in the end, is it right or wrong? There is no right or wrong, everyone is different, different ideology, different preference and many more different from each other. It is just the matter of fact who is capable and competent to lead a country and everyone just wants benefits from the government to survive in society.

However, the sad thing is what I believe, what if none of the politicians are good? Do u vote for the worse or the less bad? It limits the choice in a way that it either divides people or connects people. Are the people manipulated by politicians on social media? Are the people thinking for themselves or others? These are questions I ask myself and I still can’t answer them today.

[usagiwusagi]

Week 4 : Is Tumblr a blog or a social network site

Introduction to my current knowledge

First and foremost, I am a new user to Tumblr, everything function is so new to me, but the platform is not however. From a new user point of view and it would just scratch the surface of Tumblr in general, it feels like a social network site rather than a blog as people has gotten used to posting in other platforms and may brought this habit into Tumblr. When I heard Tumblr, friends tell me it can be a good experience or just horrible that is why I was afraid of using. However, this is my opinion before any deep research.

  Let’s stop and think what is Tumblr in general?

Tumblr is a blogging platform for people, brands and businesses, as they can share, repost, like, and comment as well to bring engagement in their community to attract alike (Kumar 2018). The contents in Tumblr are so wide, it can appeal to anyone with or without the right interest. Often times post can be seen with trending memes, GIFs in relation with the post, unlimited blogs and ideas and a huge variety of photos and videos (Saige 2019).

  Difference between Social networking and Blogging

Blogging has become a mainstream source of information and a way to keep everybody up to date around the world. Through blogging, businesses saw a positive way to improve their customer’s level of satisfaction. Blogs assist companies in keeping clients and customers up to date. Also, the more people that visit your blog, the more exposure and trust your brand gets. (Anya, 2020)

  With reference to Daniel (2020), participating in social networking, it means you're using social media sites, also known as social networks, to connect to others. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are some of the more popular platforms for social networking.

 What do people usually post ?

According to Alex, visuals are a key factor to good post and attracting people in to engage the people Tumblr is dedicated to people sharing what they think is cool and interesting. So while you should focus on publishing your own original content, you should also spend a good amount of time curating relevant content from others that your audience might find intriguing.

By playing around with different pieces of content and see what combination excites your audience the most. As with all of your social media efforts, by keeping an eye on what your audience is responding to and what they’re not, you can continue to reframe your approach accordingly.

  In Conclusion

In conclusion, I really think as long what the user feels like using to make it appropriate and aesthetically pleasing for the audience and user, anything between blogging and social networking will work with the right audience, right content and charismatic vibe.