Cyberspace: The bad stuff

Learning about cyberbullying and cyberterrorism this week has felt like a trip back in time to the 9th grade. During that time for me in highschool, social media platforms were just beginning to get popular and people were experimenting. Due to... This resulted in many failed attempts by the school to control these events (silly reenactment plays, workshops, brochures for parents etc). What the school did not realise, was the enormity of this issue.

There are a couple of aspects that make cyberbullying such a difficult form of bullying to a tackle. Originally, people were able to  capture and contain bullies fairly quickly because remarks came directly from an identifiable source. However for bullying that is conducted over the internet, it is almost impossible to contain because it is everywhere and anywhere. Cyberbullying is far more intrusive than it’s predecessor because it continues outside of the school yard or workplace, into the privacy of individual’s homes (F Mishna 2009 p. 1224). The other main difference is that cyberbullies are basically anonymous, they ‘hide behind their keyboards’ (F Mishna 2009 p. 1224). This provides them with a sense of security and power that they do not have in reality. However it should be noted that this is a perceived anonymity because there are  certain technological methods of uncovering these individuals (F Mishna 2009 p. 1224).

I certainly remember many experiences of cyberbullying in my class, luckily it was never directed towards me and I never published any. Why? Because I don’t have that much hatred or jealousy for anybody!

The other main concern of cyberbullying is that it is, essentially, a lesser form of cyberterrorism. Terrorism is defined as ‘the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims’ (Oxford Dictionaries 2014). When combined with cyberspace, it can result in violence against people or property or significant feelings of fear for individuals (Denning 2000).

Learning that fear is one of the qualifying effects of cyberterrorism, it reminded me of the final scene in Sherlock Season 3 (spoiler alert). In this scene the villain, Moriarty, hacks the entire digital television network in Britain to send a brief and scary message ‘Did you miss me?’ (Sherlock 2014). The tone, style and context of the message successfully strikes fear into the viewers. Thus, a perfect example of cyberterrorism.

Moriarty (Sherlock 2012)

Media philosopher Howard Rheingold identified that virtual communities would bring democracy and equality through the impossibility of face-to-face prejudice when communicating online (Rheingold 2008 p. 03). Whilst there are many examples of the effects of this optimism, nothing can be totally perfect. There are always going to be saints and sinners, in reality, online and in a total hyperreality. Rheingold has the right idea - optimism is the best mindset to spread. Keep up the positivity people!

References

Denning, D. E. 2000. CYBERTERRORISM. [online] Available at: http://www.cs.georgetown.edu/~denning/infosec/cyberterror.html [Accessed: 1 Feb 2014].           

Mishna, F., Saini, M. and Solomon, S. 2009. Ongoing and online: Children and youth's perceptions of cyber bullying. Children and Youth Services Review, 31 (12), p. 1222–1228.   

Moriarty. 2014. [image online] Available at: http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s129/sherlock/news/a434725/sherlock-moriarty-actor-andrew-scott-rules-out-return.html [Accessed: 1 Feb 2014].       

Oxford Dictionaries. 2014. Terrorism: Definition of Terrorism. [online] Available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/terrorism [Accessed: 1 Feb 2014].   

Rheingold, H. 2008. Virtual communities - exchanging ideas through computer bulletin boards. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 1 Available at: http://jvwr-ojs-utexas.tdl.org/jvwr/index.php/jvwr/article/viewFile/293/247 [Accessed: 13 Nov 2013].Watts, M. (2003). Interlude: A Conversation with Howard Rheingold, Founder of the Well, an Online Community.New Directions For Teaching And Learning, (94), 69-74   

Sherlock Holmes. 2012. [DVD] United Kingdom.

Produsage and the Cat

What the hell is produsage?  Produsage describes the process of producing and using, simultaneously, in an online environment (Bruns, A 2007). The term was developed when Web 2.0 and social media combined, allowing people to ‘collaborate in the development and continuous improvement of a wide variety of content’. (Bruns & Schmidt 2011).

My main experience with produsage has been Wikipedia. Wikipedia allows people not online to consume content, but it also allows them to write and edit the content. This results in greater user empowerment. For me,it makes me feel two things; firstly, it makes me feel free that I am able to edit and contribute to information. However it also makes me sceptical about the information - where has it come from? Is it true and reliable? I believe this scepticism is beneficial because it’s important to know where you’re getting your information from.  

There are a couple of key benefits to produsage. Firstly, because the information is always evolving, it is far less likely than traditional publications, to have inaccurate or out of date information (dwn24 2010).  Another benefit is that it allows almost anybody to publish something (dwn24 2010). This demolishes the traditional producer-consumer structure and allows for greater equality in the mediasphere (Miller 2011 p.87).

The major obvious limitation of  produsage is that innovation is essentially abolished. Crowd sourcing information frequently results in generalised, average and dull information (dwn24 2010). It’s the opinion that is most popular. For this reason, I strongly believe that produsage should definitely not be the only source of information, going forward.

evil_thoughts_kitten. [image online] 2010

For example, produsage sourced information regarding cats might find that ‘kittens are cuddly’. However this might not be true! What if there is some genius scientist guy out there that finds the opposite? If produsage was our only source, his voice would never be heard! Disastrous!

Media educator and philosopher,  Henry Jenkins, theorised that participatory culture encourages civic engagement and provides a strong support platform for sharing ideas and creations (Jenkins 2009 p. xi). This is evidently true for collaborative platforms like Songkick; a website which crowd sources information to provide its users with the most accurate dates and locations of concerts. Songkick goes one step further into produsage: when a user submits that they are attending a concert, it publishes a list of how many people are expected to attend that concert. Thus, by using Songkick, you’re simultaneously producing information for Songkick!

Songkick Logo 2014

References

A, B. 2007. Produsage: Key Principles |. [online] Available at: http://produsage.org/node/11 [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].       

Bruns, A. and Schmidt, J. 2011. Produsage: A Closer Look at Continuing Developments. [online] Available at: http://www.academia.edu/2342247/Produsage_A_Closer_Look_at_Continuing_Developments [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].       

Hidden Track. 2011. songkick_logo. [image online] Available at: http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/daft-punkd-songkick-coachella-info-bad-data/ [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].           

Jenkins, H. 2009. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture. [e-book] Cambridge, Massachusettes: MIT Press. p. xi. Available through: Google Scholar [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].           

Mighty Distractable. 2010. evil_thoughts_kitten. [image online] Available at: http://mightydistractible.blogspot.com/2010/10/curses-foiled-again.html [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].

Miller, Vincent. Understanding Digital Culture. "Convergence and the Contemporary Media Experience." Sage. 2011           

Nicholls, D. 2010. Produsage – Important or just widespread?. newmedia10dwn24, [blog] 17 March, Available at: http://blogs.cornell.edu/newmedia10dwn24/2010/03/17/produsage-important-or-just-widespread-dan-nicholls/ [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].

Simulacra and Habbo Hotel

I remember, the first online replication of society that I participated in was Habbo Hotel, back in 2003, when I was  10. At the time, I did not think in depth about the fact that it was a representation of reality, I just got involved because it was a fun, social networking game.

Habbo Hotel Avatar

This week, we learned about the game Second Life. I found it quite easy to wrap my head around the concepts because the the game is similar to Habbo Hotel in that is is a multi-user, online platform that is built of virtual commodities (Lehdonvirta 2009).  After reading ‘The Roles of Social Worlds and the Rules of Game Worlds’ (Meadows 2008), it got me thinking about consumerism culture in the virtual context. Habbo Hotel asks its users to pay real money to the website in order to buy virtual commodities, such as couches and bars, which increase the character’s popularity and social status. Could virtual consumption become a replacement for materialism and consumerism in years to come? If the naivety of users and popularity of such programs such as the Sims, Second Life and Habbo Hotel continue to grow, I think ‘yes’, unfortunately.

Baudrillard, the French philosopher, theorised that there was, no longer, right or wrong representations of reality, only simulations (Mann, 1900). Thus, the people experiencing hyperreality in programs like Second Life are neither accurate or inaccurate representations of themselves, rather, they are simply simulations. I feel this allows for more freedom when analysing the concepts of hyperreality.

My Netflix Avatar

The other main topic that was discussed this week was Avatars - digital representations of ourselves. One of my favourite media philosophers, Howard Rheingold, theorised that meeting people online would make prejudice impossible because one can not see another’s face (Rheingold 2008 p. 03). Whilst this is mostly true for online relationships, I do wonder, will virtual prejudice become common practice? If I have an ‘unfashionable’ avatar, will I give off the wrong impression?  Read more about Rheingold in my previous blog post.

Image of Netflix avatar

TELL ME: Do you think that virtual prejudice will become ‘a thing’? Have you already experienced it?

BACK CHECK: Last week I said I would elaborate on my opinion about Julian Assange and Wikileaks after watching the documentary ‘We Steal Secrets’. My opinion? Still on the fence, but slighty for Assange. His ideals of freedom of information are revolutionary and very inspiring. However I do feel uncomfortable with his willingness to hurt innocents with the information.

References

Lehdonvirta, Vili, Terhi-Anna Wilska, and Mikael Johnson. "Virtual consumerism: Case habbo hotel." Information, communication & society 12.7 (2009) p. 1059

Mann, D. 2007. Jean Baudrillard: A Very Short Introduction. [online] Available at: http://publish.uwo.ca/~dmann/baudrillard1.htm [Accessed: 7 Jan 2014].

Meadows, M. 2014. I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life. [e-book] Berkeley: Pearson Education. Available through: Swinburne Online Learning Materials http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/book/web-applications-and-services/9780321550231/copyright/copyrightpg#X2ludGVybmFsX0J2ZGVwRmxhc2hSZWFkZXI/eG1saWQ9OTc4MDMyMTU1MDIzMS8y [Accessed: 7 Jan 2014].

Rheingold, H. 2008. Virtual communities - exchanging ideas through computer bulletin boards. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 1 Available at: http://jvwr-ojs-utexas.tdl.org/jvwr/index.php/jvwr/article/viewFile/293/247 [Accessed: 13 Nov 2013].Watts, M. (2003). Interlude: A Conversation with Howard Rheingold, Founder of the Well, an Online Community.New Directions For Teaching And Learning, (94), 69-74

Wikileaks: Activism or Hacktivism?

Wikileaks is that controversial topic and organisation that appears in the News every other day, and with good reason. It’s one hell of a debate that people and countries cannot agree on and more than that, many individuals cannot make up their mind either! My friends and I seem to have inconclusive opinions on the matter. This post attempts to touch on both sides of the argument.

Many people see Assange as an activist and a hero, he exposes lies and hypocrisy (Ashong 2010). Optimists believe his platform for publishes secretive documents as a way to increase government transparency and equality. It’s easy to get behind this argument - freedom of information and such.

Assange and Wikileaks can also been seen as detrimental hactkivists and whistleblowers for an abundance of reasons. The main ones being that it can compromise national security and it is an invasion of privacy (Wilton 2010). One of the detriments I found most interesting was copywriting. If Wikileaks publishes a book or a document, it is essentially pirating (Rosewall 2010 p. 27). Assange’s popularity definitely is not helped by behaviours such not voting in the recent Australian election when he wants to become Prime Minister (Hughes 2013).

Assangerbach (BBC, 2013)

There are elements of Wikileaks that are supported and by the theories of Henry Jenkins. Jenkins’s key focus throughout his works is media convergence and he says “media convergence is more than simply a technological shift” (Jenkins 2004 p. 34). Wikileaks wholeheartedly embodies this by creating political and social turmoil by interconnecting information, media content and communication technologies. Jenkins also theorised how media convergence forces the relations between producers and consumers to change(Jenkins 2004 p. 40). This is highly evident in Wikileaks in that it allows an entirely new set of consumers - people who were never meant to read such documents.

Future Gaze: With the huge amount of accusations towards Julian Assange it is difficult to see Wikileaks’s popularity continue to rise, unfortunately. I feel that Government organisations will eventually find a loophole through which they can seize Assange and shut down Wikileaks altogether, unfortunately. However even if it does get shut down, another organisation will surely pop up in its place.

I think increased government transparency is a healthy thing for society however if it has the potential to compromise national security, then such documents should be less easily accessible. That said, my opinion on the matter is still not fully formed.

TELL ME: Are most of the people you know for or against Wikileaks?

CHECK BACK: I am watching the documentary ‘We Steal Secrets’  this week and I will post my opinion afterwards, to show if it has changed!

REFERENCES

Ashong, D. 2010. The Truth About Transparency - Why Wikileaks Is Bad for All of Us. [online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derrick-ashong/the-truth-about-transpare_b_789196.html [Accessed: 5 Jan 2014].

BBC. 2013. Julian Assange refused to meet Benedict Cumberbatch, email reveals. [image online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24471659 [Accessed: 6 Jan 2014].       

Jenkins, H. 2004. The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 7 p. 34, 40. Available from: doi: 10.1177/1367877904040603.       

Julian Assange Interview on 60 Minutes - ninemsn 04 August 2013. 2013. [video] Tony Hughes.       

Rosewall, I. and Warren, M. 2010. Wikileaks: The Truth or Not. [e-book] Melbourne: Edith Cowan University Research Online. p. 27. http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=isw [Accessed: 5 Jan 2014].       

Whiton, C. 2010. Why Do We Keep Ignoring the WikiLeaks Threat?. [online] 25 October. Available at: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/10/25/christian-whiton-wiki-leaks-ignore-threat-obama-democrats-congress-iraq-war/ [Accessed: 5 Jan 2014].

Politicians? Nay, Pop Stars

This week we touched on the huge phenomenon that is political campaigning by way of social media. This topic is far too extensive to be fully covered in a blog post so I am just going to mention a few interesting facts.

Firstly, with the success of social media campaigning in the 2013 Australian Federal Election (Swan and Visentin 2013) and the 2012 American Presidential Election (Kennedy 2013) it is fair to predict that this tactic will develop and potentially prevail. For campaigners, having an active and dominant presence on social media can effectively assist in winning an election (Swan and Visentin 2013).

For individuals, part of this boils down to seeing who your friends support, or as Labour’s online campaigning consultant, Jessica Stanley, puts it, “If your friends are seen to like Rudd, it makes it easier for you to like him'' (Swan and Visentin 2013).

This was interesting to me because in hindsight, I was really subjected to this during my first voting experience this year. On my Facebook I saw a lot more Labour supporters voice their support and this made me more obliged to vote left. Luckily I did some research and found the Liberal Party’s online presence more thorough and persuasive. From my point of view, Kevin had the popularity but Tony had the better presence.*

Campaigners must essentially ‘perform’ on social media platforms in order to win over the voters. I like (nay, hate) to think of campaigning as an ‘Australian Idol’ type competition where audience is the population and the three main judges are traditional media who scrutinize their performances. The campaigners must be active, interactive and personable and they must prevail on a variety of stages (YouTube, Facebook & Twitter).

 

‘Politician-Pop Stars’, Banks, O 2013 

To end on a positive note, I loved learning that the smaller political parties tend to produce more innovative and riskier ads because they have less money for mass marketing (Swan & Visentin 2013). They rely on “images or videos to be entertaining enough that people pass them on to their friends” (Swan & Visentin 2013). This fact alone makes me a little fonder of their efforts!

*This in no way is indicating my preference or that I favored one campaign over another.

References

Australian Labour Party. 2013. All In Good Time. [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAAKqP-UuXQ&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLy_ysNWHoI2KLtmplN9bRSySZQgsUWrAv [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].

Kennedy, K. 2013. Use it or Lose it: Social Media in the 2012 Election. [online] Available at: http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/social-media-role-young-voters-increase-future-US-elections-Obama-Facebook-Twitter [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].

Swan, J. and Visentin, L. 2013. Political heavyweights are online, upfront and in your face Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/political-heavyweights-are-online-upfront-and-in-your-face-20130807-2rgpc.html#ixzz2pf41RdjW. [online] 8 August. Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/political-heavyweights-are-online-upfront-and-in-your-face-20130807-2rgpc.html [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].

Images Used to Create ‘Politician-Pop Stars’, Banks, O 2013 

Ashtar Command. 2012. Seven Stages of Life. [image online] Available at: http://www.ashtarcommandcrew.net/group/selfrisingspiritgoup/forum/topics/seven-stages-of-life [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].

Martin, I. 2013. Rudd and Abbott. Let the battle (lines) begin. Cartoon.. [image online] Available at: http://laberal.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/rudd-and-abbott-let-battle-lines-begin.html [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].

Perth Audiovisual. n.d. Shure 55SH Vocal Microphone. [image online] Available at: http://www.perthav.com.au/audio-visual-hire/audio-equipment/microphones [Accessed: 11 Dec 2013].