Social media in China

China is the world’s most populated country, with over 1.3 billion people. It also maintains the world’s second largest economy, on track to become the largest by 2016. The country has 560+ million internet users – more than any other country – and the average user spends more hours per week online than with TV, print, and radio combined. Despite this high amount of time spent online, adoption of major digital and social platforms in China has been limited. Many Google properties including YouTube, Blogspot, and Google+ are blocked to regular web browsing, along with Facebook, Twitter, and others. Instead, Chinese users spend their time on country-specific sites like Kaixin, Douban, and Jiepang.

China’s social media sites are similar to US sites and analogies can help keep things straight, but they have different capabilities and user bases. “Weibo” is the Chinese word for “microblog”. Known as the “Twitter of China”, Sina Weibo  is actually much more than just that – it has over twice as many users as Twitter, and it’s used by more than 22% of the Chinese Internet population of almost 540 million people! Sina Weibo was well ahead of the game in providing users with the ability to include images and video – far before its Western counterpart, Twitter.

And don’t forget: during the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony, Twitter recorded almost 10 million related mentions. Sina Weibo? 119 million. The biggest day in the history of US e-commerce was Cyber Monday 2012, with an estimated record US$1.5 billion in sales across online retailers in a single day. Last year, Taobao doubled that on Singles Day (11/11), seeing US$3.06 billion in sales.

QQ is an abbreviation of Tencent QQ, a widely popular instant messaging service. By Last September, there were 784 million active user accounts with approximately 100 million online at a time. According to Alexa Internet rankings, the QQ webisite ranked 8th – moving it  ahead of Twitter.

PengYou, meaning “Friend”, was developed by Tencent to be a “facebook-like” site. Although, PengYou has less active users than its direct competitors Reren and Weibo,  because of its multiple platforms, it’s the biggest online community in China in terms of  registered users.

The Chinese have created their own networks, just like facebook, Myspace, Youtube and foursquare – but with more users – which is why every global company needs to pay attention to these sites.

Exremists groups

What is extremism, and who are extremist groups I here? I was asking the same question I have never heard or seen the words that form groups such as ‘Hammer Head Skin Nation’, ‘Stormfront’ and ‘National Alliance’, these are extremist groups from across the world, that have been around for many years.

Extremism is the real enemy of our times, and it is the enemy of all people. Throughout history there have been many extremist philosophies, religions, and styles of governance. White extremist groups are driven by things like; racial purity, anti Semitism, political hegemony, anti liberal and anti government, which are usually violent and un-welcomed.

Extremist groups utilise the Internet to send out messages and to recruit new members into their groups. They use social media platforms such as Facebook, Blogs, Myspace and YouTube to recruit new members due the fact that there are millions of users logging onto these sites daily, with having links on webpage’s etc groups such as the National Alliance is linked to basically every white extremist group and or organization on the internet today. The Southern Cross Hammerskin heads are the Australian arm of the Hammerskins, they follow the 14 words which are "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." AKA "the 14 words". It is scary to know that we have this group in Australia carrying out their polices of the 14 words. The skin head started in the 1960's which had heavy British mod and Jamaican rude boy influences, they eventually they spread across the world.. and yes into our very own country!

People are involved with groups everyday across the globe i.e. associations, organisations, such as sporting events, schools groups etc. These are things that we do in our personal time for self satisfaction, they are usually non associated with intended violence or hate against others, as our sporting groups, school groups etc are usually all multicultural… Are extremist groups the same? NO … hate groups such as the Skin Heads and KKK (Ku Klux Klan) pick on homosexuals, Asians, and are anti-black towards anyone that is not of the same European race as them, basically extremist groups such as the skin heads are just pure racist!.

Second life

life beyond a reality

Ever wanted to escape the world? To be and do whatever you wanted and express yourself without any boundaries in a place that’s carefree and others are there to join you to view your expressive mind and creativity? If so then Second Life is definitely something you should experience. With its unlimited creativity and freedom along with the variety of different characters in this community who joins in on this experience, Second Life is a gem.

Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. Second Life users; interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore the world (known as the grid), meet other residents, mingle, partake in individual and group activities, and create a whole other life!

In the beginning I thought the attraction was one of self consciousness; someone’s ability to morph themselves into an alias that replicated a person they wished they were. They take the form of an avatar and create friendships and have sex via this virtual world, to compensate for their lack of, within the real world. Yet after some very INTERETSING research I found there is a whole other side to this world, that sees a boom in advertising, companies marketing and even a currency that can be converted into US dollars (ABC net, 2012).

According to Lee (2003) creating and playing with an avatar can be

·      Projection of idealisation of the self

·      Experimenting with identity/ies

·      Merely a pawn – ‘a means to an end’

I feel to be able to create a second life is a great escape from the real world. You aren’t committing a crime or harming anybody else by doing it. So why not….

Sources:

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20070319/default_full.htm 

Lecture 9 lecture slides

google images

wikipedia

Produsage

Bruns explores the concept of 'produsage' as a model for understanding the collaborative content creation offered in today’s information environment and the rise of the informed an active consumer or user. He defines 'produsage' as an interactive culture that sees a shift from teams as producers to the collaborative engagement of online users in a shared project. Further, he recognises that 'produsers' together openly participate in the construction of online and social spaces such as YouTube, Wikipedia and collaborative citizen journalism sites such as All Voices.

The inception of online video-sharing website Youtube, which allows users to distribute creative content and participate through ranking videos, reconfirms the ideals fundamental to ‘produsage’: breaking down the barriers between producers and consumers (Bruns, 2007: 2). A parody of One Direction's 'What makes you beautiful' by Fitzy & Wippa reveals the capabilities to re-use and rework existing content into new work. By drawing on the lyrics of One Direction's music, and fusing it with their own singing and musical style, the youtube video creates a new work. Through these lenses, we can see the new avenues and new-found levels of control provided to the public to develop their own creative content.

Wikipedia an online encyclopedia allows any web user to constantly contribute, update and rework pre-existing entries made by other ‘produsers’. With its slogan ‘the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit’, the site encourages users to contribute to its informational sphere.

All Voices, which allows users to collect and reproduce articles from anywhere in the web onto the site. Bruns states that these open source sites employ its users as journalists and commentators to freely commentate and provide supplementary video or audio content, which once again disrupts the once hierarchal realms occupied by mainstream media elites.

Sources:
http://www.allvoices.com/
http://produsage.org/node/94
http://www.onedirectionmusic.com/au/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJO3ROT-A4E
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Introduction

Social Media and Politics

Now that Facebook has over 1,000,000,000  and there are 554,750,000 active twitter users. It is a no brainer that the use of social media and politics has increased. There is no doubt that social media had a huge impact on the recent elections. In 2008, there were about 1.5 million election-related tweets. In 2012, there were 31 million. The population of people using social media has changed since that time as well. In 2008, much of social media was dominated by younger demographics. Now it reflects the population as a whole. More than half this population engaged in some sort of election-related social media behaviour. 

But it’s not enough to look at these changes and talk about social media as just a new platform. Social media is not a change in technology, it is a change in how people communicate. This change has to be reflected in how candidates behave, not just online but everywhere. If a politician makes a mistake during the election that mistake so quickly becomes viral. Because someone somewhere would've been able to record it on their smartphone then post it up on to youtube and before you know it it has had over 1000 hits. 
So here is a question for you. Is social media offering us new ways to interact with, influence and keep watch over our politicians? Or is online ‘slacktivism’ replacing physical campaigning and political activism?









References:
http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/
businessweekly.com

Is Julian Assange a whistleblower, activist, terrorist or hacktivist?

Question. How does a man born in Australia become wanted by the United States? Claim asylum from Ecuador in an embassy based in London in order to avoid extradition to Sweden?The answer? That man is Julian Assange founder of Wikileaks

Julian Assange "used his genius IQ to hack into the databases of many high profile organisations". So is he a whistleblower, activist, terrorist or hacktivist?

This is how I see it; he goes about his work by revealing wrongdoing (whistle-blowing), acting out against governments especially the US government in hope of making a change (activist), and he does all of this through the use of computers and computer networks, as a means to protest (hacktivist/ terrorist). 

Personally, I believe Julian Assange to be brave, intelligent, and admirable.  He possesses many qualities I associate with heroism. As well, however, he is flawed and has made some poor decisions regarding his own public image, which I think have had a seriously adverse effect on attaining his larger goal of justice through transparency.  He has, unfortunately, managed to put himself in a position that diverts attention from the work.  And the work is admirable



Sources: 
http://www.biography.com/people/julian-assange-20688499
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenberglas/2012/08/20/in-praise-of-whistleblowers-yes-even-julian-assange/

Future gaze: how might social media contribute to activism in future?

 Digital activism is empowering individuals to make some changes

The argument that social media fosters feel-good clicking rather than actual change began long before Malcolm Gladwell brought it up in the New Yorker — long enough to generate its own critical term. “Slacktivism,” as defined by Urban Dictionary, is “the act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem.”If you only measure donations, social media is no winner. The Australian Red Cross, for instance, has 45,636 ‘likes’ on Facebook, more than 4,500 followers on Twitter, and a thriving blog. But just how much do online donations account for?
Here a few successful campaigns from the last year…

Kony 2012 campaign had a 30-minute YouTube that we all sat down and watched. When usually most of us could only watch a YouTube for about 5 minutes. This YouTube kept us engaged the whole time, they made it personal, and they made you feel a sense of urgency to act quickly. It definitely made me donate $30 to receive a Kony 2012 pack.   

Gay Marriage Equality - Celebrities are behind this campaign which helps get the message out a lot quicker.

The aim of this campaign was to create awareness of the launch of "Bully" a documentary on childhood bullying and to build a community against bullying. Here's how the campaign was implemented on Twitter:

They made this message very touching and personal. However, it was very strategical move to take this message to social media, where the filmmaker could truly reach the target demographic. Some might call the success of the campaign unexpected, but it was an awareness tactic that was extremely successful. It serves as a key example of how Twitter, as a network, can be used to amplify a powerful message.

Even this morning we already have have seen post being shared for the Boston bombings

 All of these campaigns have been very impressive and memorable.

The internet always plays a critical role in any idea, report, campaign. It allows us access to a lot of people. However, social media is a movement still in its early stages. Facebook launched in 2004, YouTube in 2005 and Twitter in 2006. Let's give the tools a little while to grow before we start judging them.

That entire liking, following, joining, signing, forwarding, and clicking, has a lot of potential to grow into big change.  We are now already seeing what an impact it is making on society and I truly feel it has the potential to create more awareness on important issues.

Sources: The New Yorker, Urban Dictionary, Twitter, Google Image, Mashable