Media

"If one morning I walked on top of the
water across the Potomac River, the
headline that afternoon would read:
'President Can't Swim.'"
-Lyndon B. Johnson (1908 –1973)

Reflection
Monday, April 23, 2012, 2:00 AM

Social media is a powerful tool that had evolved over the ages. While there had been constructive use of this tool, there had also been much abuse. Ahn (2011) concurred to this, stating that social media on its own does not cause impacts on psychological well-being, social capital, or learning. It is instead, the society’s culture and the way of communication of the people that is likely to have resulted in the outcomes as mentioned before. Thus, it is imperative to understand the processes that led to the misuse of social media today.


Famous quote from the movie 'Spiderman'. Obviously these people have not watched the movie. Just kidding~



One of the processes that led to people abusing this power of new media and the Internet is the online disinhibition effect, which is as Suler (2004) explains, states that people feel more comfortable in the cyber space and so express themselves more openly. According to Suler, this effect is a double-edged sword and can be further classified into benign disinhibition and toxic disinhibition.


Benign disinhibition is when one shares personal information, and adopts a hypersonal model of goodness, while toxic disinhibition is when one behaves rudely, and explore what we in real life often deem as immoral or sinful, such as sex and violence.


Benign disinhibition is the initial drive behind the popularity of social media. People harness the interconnectivity and the ease of interaction of social media to empower themselves as individuals. Social media becomes a tool for people to express themselves on a platform where there is equal participation between users. However, this process is entirely subjective, as individuals have the agency to utilize social media for their own means, as demonstrated by toxic disinhibition.


Toxic disinhibition occurs largely due to the sense of online anonymity. Protected by the veil of anonymity, users are bolder, and in some cases, create a totally different persona, as demonstrated by what Lori Drew did in the case example of Megan Meier. Because of the anonymity, one feels the sense of detachment from the real self, giving a feeling of boldness that they do not have to be responsible for their behaviour online. This makes them more willing to be aggressive towards others as in the case of cyber bullying.


I HATE YOU!!!! I'll post it on your Facebook and you can't do anything about it =P



Another reason behind toxic disinhibition is that lack of immediate effects. With the use of social media as an intermediate medium, immediate response, such as the facial features and expressions of the target party, is not seen. Hence, possible implications such as non-verbal stimuli cannot be observed, like in the April Teo incident as mentioned before. Such is the case of cyber bullying: the bully is unable to see the immediate effects on the victim, and so would carry on with his aggressive behaviour, often leading to undesirable consequences.

It is thus critical to identify the affected groups of people who are exposed to social media abuse. One of these groups is the youths aged between 15 and 24. The youths are one of the highest users of social media and yet, the most impressionable, who are still unable to tell right from wrong. This immaturity makes them especially vulnerable to social media abuse, either as initiators, or as victims.


As the data have shown, youths in US have high usage of social media. This trend is probably similar in most developed countries.



The government has come up with solutions to educate youths on proper internet etiquette and protocols. As part of a campaign to increase awareness of cyberspace safety for youths, Media Development Authority (MDA) held a cyber wellness campaign on 17 February 2011 that lasted for 3 months and focused on the following: privacy, gaming & internet use, cyber bullying & positive netiquette, cyber safety, handling inappropriate content, cyber security and copyright.


Roving bus that brings the cyber wellness message around!

However, there is no absolute evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of this campaign, and thus render the effects of it questionable. Furthermore, the campaign only lasted three months, which is too short a timeframe to observe any form of changes. Also, rather than a bus that moves around to the different schools, a permanent school-based program could be implemented. It is imperative to educate students about responsible and ethical use of social media as part of holistic education. Other possible solutions could be creating pages on the social media platform that the youths use. In so, there is an interactive component between the state and the youth population, mediated by social media.


If we look at the 2 statistics with the largest sample size, we could see that cyber bullying rates have dropped in US. Perhaps we could learn from them on what they have done?



Thus, social media experience could be improved by both state initiated solutions, as well as individual – driven actions. Such social processes may not fully eradicate the harmful abuses of social media, but provide knowledge to users to better identify, and how to better mitigate it.




References:

1. Suler, J. (2004). The online disinhibition effect. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 7, 321-326.
2. Ahn, J. (2011). The effect of social network sites on adolescents’ social and academic development: current theories and controversies. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(8), 1435–1445.
3. Research Data from: http://cyberbullying.us/research.php

Implications of Social Media – The Good and The Bad
Sunday, April 22, 2012, 11:38 PM

So after all these discussion, what exactly defines social media? According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), social media refers to ‘a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content’. It has changed our way of life completely from the way our forebears expressed themselves. The speed at which information is disseminated about ourselves and the way said information is controlled (or not) now is a given in our daily lives.


Previously ‘expressing yourself’ might have been in the things you wore or did with the groups you went out with, but that has a whole new meaning now. Expressing yourself now not only refers to the plane of your physical existence, the persona you create online has increasingly grown in significance as well.


First let us go over what I call the “Good” (decidedly, anyway) part of social media.


Communication
Social media allows us to keep in touch with our distant friends through mediums like Facebook or Twitter, thus eradicating the need to ever maintain a well-worn phonebook filled with numbers and contacts painstakingly and lovingly written like how our parents’ generation does. Our friends can not only visually see us through uploaded photographs of ourselves, they also get to know of our random ramblings and even things as inconsequential as what was for lunch. This is so much of our lifestyle that even celebrities are joining in the fun, tweeting about their lives and opinions to fans.


A celebrity tweet site that features the different celebrities' official Twitter.



Sharing of ideas
Social media also gives us the opportunity to share our ideas with the world. While most of us are not as flamboyant as Natalie Tran to share our personal views over YouTube, there are many who will identify with me about sharing their thoughts over a personal blog (perhaps private to themselves and maybe a selected fortunate few).


Information and opinions online
A decade ago, to get surveys done, one might have to be off to pound the streets, asking passers-by for their opinions. Luckily now all that needs to be done is to just poll our peers over various forums or even via personal survey sites. The ability to harness opinions over social media is an important one, whether for businesses or for sociologists who need feedback. Even our Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong created a Facebook page just days ago – to engage young voters of course.





Advertising
Lastly, advertising opportunities. Granted the advertising model of social media tries to be unobtrusive as possible, without it a lot of things cannot exist. Even to a micro scale, when I am trying to get my group of friends to go on an outing, I can get the word out (advertise) through social media (my Facebook groups) as well.


While there are now these conveniences not previously available, there are also appalling things, the "Bad", that can happen over the internet that we must also acknowledge exist, for example, things like:


Cyberbullying
We have instances of people who have taunt their classmates in school, and even after class hours, continue to do so in their online postings. I can only imagine it must be horrible for a child to be faced with bullies with no respite even at home. One such case would be that of Miss April Teo, who had posted opposing opinions in an online forum. She suffered a backlash of flaming, insults, digitally altered pictures and name-calling. It got so bad that she cried to sleep and made a police report. Was the reaction by the netizens to her comments necessary? If they did not agree with her, they could have simply rebutted her and move on, but instead they went on to attack her personally with information of her from the forum registry. Is this right? Abusing the power of social media that enables us to share our information?


Fake Identities
People can be anyone they want to be on the internet, which may seem to be innocuous enough. However, when used with malicious intent, may lead to disastrous results, like in the 2007 case of Ms Lori Drew. She had posed as a boy, "Josh", online to befriend Megan Meier, who had had a fall-out with her daughter. She wanted to find out what Megan, had said about her daughter. Megan, 13, had talked online with "Josh" for more than a month. She later committed suicide the day after the “friendship” abruptly ended with “Josh” calling her a "liar". A simple case of a fake identity used with a hidden motive could cause serious repercussions, in this case, the death of a young teenager.


Fake news
The Foxconn Report by This American Life released by a reporter created an everlasting image about poor china workers and their horrible conditions in their factories. But guess what? That emotional drama that went viral on our social media turned out to be fake news. While real conditions were not far off and it did help raise the minimum wages for the Chinese workers, its original story was in fact, not true. The reporter only wanted to break a big story to get his name out there. Thankfully, the news was eventually retracted by This American Life and cleared up. Sometimes, it is all too easy to blindly follow something emotionally-charged that we are not sure of, and especially online, where these “news sources” are not the most trustworthy.


Privacy Issues
One’s private life is no longer as private over the social media. As Erin Bury, Sprouter community manage puts it, “Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it.” One would have to constantly watch their back to ensure that they do not say or do anything that they do not want to be held responsible for. Teachers cannot post of themselves partying on their Facebook pages; children of public figures have to watch themselves and what they post. Look at the Wee Shu Min elitism controversy in 2006, she had made the famous comment on her blog, “get out of my elite uncaring face”, and immediately faced backlash from the netizens about her attitude, eventually involved her politician father, Wee Siew Kim, to make a public apology. While it was insensitive of her to make such remarks, it seems like there is no freedom and respite for these people as individuals in the name of societal values.


A cartoon drawn based on what Wee Shu Min had blogged



All in all, there are implications as to how social media has – and is – forever warping the world. This not only has impact on a broader society, many of us are directly involved in its winds of change as well. It would be fascinating to see where technology will bring us next into the future.


TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!!!





References:
1. Kaplan, A. M. & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons 53(1): 59–68

The Plus One - Game-Changer
Sunday, March 11, 2012, 10:10 PM

Well, now that we have our two steps, let’s take a look at the game-changer that really got things moving.


The internet has changed the world in a big way. Even this report is done via a blog.


Anyway, we considered:


Step 1: The ease of communications in today’s world
Step 2: The way media has evolved from being purely informational and objective to one that is subjective and fantastical in nature.


The catalyst here really is the internet. With the internet, everyone gets:


Step 1: A platform
Step 2: A chance to share what they think


Wikipedia can be updated by anyone. Google works on a most hits basis. Anyone can post videos of themselves at an activity. And too many people who shouldn’t be tweeting do.

This is a video of Natalie Tran, an Australian Youtuber giving a talk at Ideacity. You rock, girl!


Sure lots of good gets done - such as the sharing of ideas, the surge in creativity and a platform to reach the world in an unprecedentedly cheap and immediate way due to the advanced technology we are enjoying now; but that does not rule out the negative effects as well, like the profiteering of companies and exploitive individuals, or the loss of privacy.


Something completely unimportant or private can be sensationalized over the internet.


Just look at Tammy, a 17-year-old from a local tertiary school that had her sex videos spread like wildfire back in 2006. The news really rocked the online community back then and it truly was Singapore’s first reality check about the loss of privacy – information was no longer private, even on one's personal mobile device.

Tsk Tsk. Kids these days XD

Giddens (1990) described globalization as 'the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa' – and now with the internet, said intensification has really been increased exponentially. As Marshall (1962) described, “medium is the message”, the medium in which a message is expressed changes how it is perceived. These quotes reflect just how social media worked.


Riots and looting can be sparked off with nothing but anger and declarations of gathering. Gary Fisher tweets that he is going to be cycling - and thousands show up with their bicycles to ride together. Politics used to be discussed over coffee, now they are archived in forums worldwide.


The London Riots! What a mess!
A policeman's rape comment sparks a series of slutwalks! OMG!

This is the power of social media. That is the force by which the world changes, accelerated exponentially by the tools of man making it all possible.


Reference:

1. Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
2. Marshal McLuhan (1967) The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects with Quentin Fiore, produced by Jerome Agel; 1st Ed.: Random House; reissued by Gingko Press, 2001 ISBN 1-58423-070-3


“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”

- Jeff Bezos, CEO at Amazon.com




Social Media Revolution: Step Two
, 8:22 PM

Keeping in mind that information dissemination eventually became ‘media’, it makes one wonder. If media was meant as a way of spreading information around, how did it (or at least part of it) become the manipulative, 'propagandesque' mass of data it is now?


As how my generation puts it – because someone found out they could!

Troll Face: Because I can =D

After seeing how communication came about, the next important thing to go through is how these messages started influencing the views of the masses.


The Bobo Doll experiment by Albert Bandura (1977) says we learn through watching others. The introduction of cinema in the 1890s allowed the world to see various facets of life they never would have the chance to see otherwise. And they learned.

The Bobo Doll Experiment

These new films depicted real-life scenarios over the next decade, until someone realized that stories could be told through films. These films were shaped by the dreams and imagination like those by Georges Melies introduced in the 1900s.


Snow White (1937) was then made an animated film, igniting a frenzy of similarly fantasy films to be supplied to the public. These fantastical films were well-received, and society started to demand entertainment instead of education. People wanted to see happy endings and uplifting stories instead of the doom and gloom of the Great Depression.


The sudden boom of these feel-good movies may be due in part to the media industry wanting to cash in on the demand for a diversion, by the public from the severe economic crisis that they were facing. The media used these movies to plant notions of happiness into people’s mind. In short, the Agenda Setting Theory, where the media portrays what is important to the masses. (McComb, Shaw, & Weaver, 1997).

Cinderella's happy ending - Brings tears to my eyes T.T


Due to the changing mindsets of the masses during the post-war era in 1950s, more and more ideas were accepted socially and fed into peoples’ minds. Plots involving racism, gore, etc; all became possible basis for films and songs to be made and churned out to the public.


And so, the media influence continues.



More examples of iconic movies or even songs reflective of their times:
Beatles (1964) – The counterculture movement of the 1960s, era of 'free love'. People were becoming more accepting and open minded.


Grease – Musical (1971) Movie (1978) – Grease – Represents the working-class youth subculture known as the greasers, usually working class ethnics.


Pretty In Pink (1986) – Preppy Culture – Represents shallow and transparent group primarily concerned with extrinsic things


Spice Girls – Wannabe(1996) – Represented the ‘Girl Power’



References:

1. Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. General Learning Press.
2. Mccombs, M, Shaw, D.L., Weaver, D (1997). Communication and democracy: exploring the intellectual frontiers in agenda-setting theory. Mahwah, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. p. 29.ISBN 9780805825558





Social Media Revolution: Step One
, 8:03 PM

The 2+1 Of Social Media

Ever wondered how social media came about? Before our current world of Memes, Apps, ‘likes’ and tweets, to name a few, how did people get to know each other’s lives?



Being curious about what the older folks think, I asked an uncle about the evolution of social media. He said: “Simple lah, before Facebook, were Friendster and MSN messenger; and before that, were ICQ and IRC; before that, were the pager and phone cards; and then before that, was house-phone lor!”


Uncle used to be popular on this, or so he says.


The world is fast becoming a ‘global village’ - a term coined by Marshall McLuhan(1962), that demonstrates how fast information is now passed from one geographical region to another with increasing speed. Today we have achieved such a high level of efficiency, that unlike the past, we are able to send word to each other over the slightest whims at affordable to no cost.


Gripes on Facebook updates about cravings or even the weather are so common. A decade ago, I would be hard pressed to find messages like this on pagers. Can you even imagine sending letters or telegrams to each other saying (and I quote) ‘Hungry... AND NO FOOD AT HOME T.T’.


Anyway.


The media evolution came about with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid 15th century. The ability to replicate and disseminate word, instructions and information at a rate like this to the masses revolutionized the messenger system. This spreading of information became the first main function of media, which later led to the Gutenberg revolution, marking the beginning of mass media.


That’s right, globalization and revolutions brought about the new levels of communication we have today, not because we bought phone cards and pagers, Uncle. 


References:


1. Marshall McLuhan (1962) The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man; 1st Ed.: University of Toronto Press; reissued by Routledge & Kegan Paul ISBN 0-7100-1818-5