This assessment evolved into a nostalgic farewell to Beijing for me. It coincided with my final month here after eight years, and I enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with the culture that allured me when I first arrived. In all, I shot video over three days: first on a family trip to the Shijia Hutong Museum, another one afternoon at the Capital Museum, and finally around town for overlay footage and audio. Audio was a key focus for my study of digital innovation, hence the emphasis on the sounds of old Beijing. Appropriately, I was first introduced to Shijia Hutong Museum via digital innovation: the Sinica Podcast (2014). I was captivated by the story of the Beijing Sound History Project, especially the team’s research and care that went into recreating sounds for the museum. Normally when I produce corporate videos, the script is the first thing I write. From there, it’s easy to develop a shot list and get the footage to suit the story. For this project, I flipped the process and went into it with an open mind. I didn’t know what I would experience as a museum visitor, and gave myself about a week to mull on what I’d seen before I attempted the first draft. My script went through a few drafts before I settled on the final version. Despite my tendency to overshoot when on assignment, I was glad to have more footage than I needed during the editing process. Keeping the story flowing was a key objective for me because I knew I wanted to reach a wider audience than unit cohorts. Of course, there were some themes I explored that couldn’t adequately be complemented with footage of modern Beijing. I was thrilled to find a couple of documentaries of Maoist China on YouTube under the Creative Commons filter. Similarly, I managed to source some appropriate images on Flickr to support sounds of hutong hawkers. Popular storytelling motifs in China are rapid transformation and modernisation. In examining Chinese museums, I knew it was important to create context and have a decent hook. The Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong’s famous remark (“if the old doesn’t go, the new will not come”) was used in my video to bookend the message I wanted to share about the importance of constant innovation for museums to ensure their relevance in contemporary culture. In communicating this idea, I tried to balance my scholarly resources from those shared in unit readings (Henning 2007; Black 2012; Conn 2010) with independent, China-focused articles (Varutti 2014; Li 2008). My overarching aim was to give an accurate portrayal of the current situation and, if possible, a glimpse into the future. There were a few challenges I faced in tackling this assignment. Originally, I had wanted to interview curators at both museums, but each said I needed permission from local cultural heritage officials. I also found it difficult to keep my story arc relevant for non-academic audiences, which I tried to negotiate by balancing scholarly references with personalised commentary in pieces to camera and narration. One of my proudest achievements in “learning by doing” for this project was creating the Mao animation at the video’s opening. The idea came to me during the scriptwriting process. While it took far longer to create than sourcing a Creative Commons propaganda portrait, early feedback suggests the effort was worth it. Overall, I’m satisfied with the result of my video. This unit has allowed me to reflect on my own media making and I’ve been heartened by the progress I see in my own videos. I know digital media will continue to be a huge part of my personal and professional life, and the engagement I’ve had with peers has inspired me in my own approach to online communication. (629 words) References Black, G 2012, Transforming Museums in the Twenty-First Century, Milton Park, Abington and New York, pp. 1-12 (available as an ebook via library catalogue). Conn, S 2010, Do museums still need objects? [electronic resource], Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, ©2010. (Baltimore, Md.: Project MUSE, 2012). Henning, M 2007, ‘New Media’ in Macdonald, S 2007, A Companion to Museum Studies, Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, N.J. Li, WC 2008, 'Developments in China’s Digitalized Museums', Museum International, vol. 60, no. 1/2, pp. 59-67. Available from: 10.1111/j.1468-0033.2008.00637.x. [18 May 2017]. Sinica 2014, 'The Sounds of Old Beijing', podcast, PopUp Chinese, 15 October, retrieved 16 May 2017, <http://popupchinese.com/lessons/sinica/the-sounds-of-old-beijing>. Varutti, M 2014, Museums in China: the politics of representation after Mao, Woodbridge : the Boydell Press, 2014. My broader ALC708-related activityIn addition to this blog, my primary activity for ALC708 has been on Twitter. I've followed and contributed to the unit hashtags and shared feedback with classmates on Soundcloud for their podcasts. I've also liked and retweeted others' work in relation to Tiffits challenges to "pay forward" all the positive online support I've received from classmates.
Meanwhile, I've listened to podcasts independently sourced to give myself a deeper grounding into unit concepts. These include The Museum Life and Museopunks, both of which provided solid background knowledge into the topic of my video above. (93 words)
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Photo: Tom Fearon, March 23, 2011, Confucian Temple, Qufu, China.
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” -- Confucius (Lyons 2010, p. 87),
Although the ancient philosopher Confucius never had to worry about cultivating an online identity, his words offer food for thought about how we construct and maintain our digital personas. Until recently, much of my own understanding about my online identity was shaped by imitation and experience. However, in writing this blog I hope to engage in "noble" reflection in the Confucian tradition.
Whenever I start using a new social networking site, my tendency is to do as others do. From adding a song to my MySpace page to sharing photos of Chinese festivals on Weibo, my self-presentation is less in the Western tradition of independently standing out from the group and more faithful to the Confucian concept of selfhood. According to Ho (1995), this involves cultivating an individual identity that is "interwoven with the collective identity" (p. 117).
Screenshot: Tom Fearon Weibo feed: 11/2/2013, retrieved 1/4/2017 ("Today I took mother-in-law to Ditan Temple Fair.")
Although many people imagine they are revealing their "real" or "true" essence when they use social media (Smith & Watson 2014, p. 71), my self-presentation is purposely constructed and situated. My identities are multiple and contextual, maintained discursively in relation to their respective online audiences.
I use Facebook to share family photos, where I have agency determining intimacy with audiences. When I want to share articles or videos I've produced for work, I use LinkedIn where self-promotion has been normalised. And Twitter is my globalised learning community, where I connect with classmates and contribute to conversations about unit concepts. Just as each social networking site fulfills a unique space in my life, so do I convey a unique identity of myself.
A Journey into My Social Media Selves Prezi by Tom Fearon: 5/4/2017.
The management of my multiple selves begs the question: Is it disingenuous to engage in what theorists describe as "calculated" or "manufactured" authenticity (Pooley 2012; Graxian 2003, pp. 10-11)?
As noted by Cover (2014, p. 55), the idea that our use of social networking sites is driven by a common, primary purpose is problematic. Rather than being fixed or static, my online identities are dynamic entities of ongoing construction. This is highlighted not just by my evolving Facebook profile pictures, but by the stark contrasts between my virtual personas. On LinkedIn, I strive to be an ambitious communications professional. On WeChat, I'm a laowai (foreigner) wary of the minefield of Chinese grammar. Although comprising only seven characters, the below post took far more thinking, writing, and rewriting than anything I've ever tweeted. Philosopher Judith Butler's theory of identity performativity is useful in understanding my own social networking habits, particularly the time, effort, and emotional investment that goes into posts like the one just mentioned. Identity and subjectivity is an ongoing process of becoming, she argues, rather than an ontological state of being, whereby becoming is a sequence of acts that retroactively constitute identity (Butler 2007). In other words, my multiple online identities represent "a matrix of acts of profile building, maintenance, friending, updating, tagging, album building, and other networked communication" that contribute to performances of selfhood (Cover 2014, p. 56). There is no one unified "me", but rather a virtual "mosaic" that is constantly evolving.
The Butlarian approach to identity as performative overlaps with sociologist Erving Goffman's dramaturgical account of human reaction. Goffman (1959) argued that we display a series of "masks" to others, enacting roles and staging how we appear to manipulate our portrayal to others.
Although Goffman's theories were inspired by pre-digital communication behaviours, his observations about body language are salient in understanding the projection of our online selves. …the performer can rely upon his audience to accept minor cues as a sign of something important about his performance. This convenient fact has an inconvenient implication. By virtue of the same sign-accepting tendency, the audience may misunderstand the meaning that a cue was designed to convey, or may read accidental, inadvertent, or incidental and not meant by the performer to carry any meaning whatsoever. (Goffman, 1959, p. 51)
An example of this might be a Facebook user "checking in" to a city to let friends know they are there. On one hand, this action could be seen as the user flagging their desire to meet nearby friends without overtly expressing so in a post for fear of excluding anyone. On the other hand, a friend might interpret this as deliberately rude and isolating in lieu of more personal communication.
Through my use of WeChat, I've experimented with "minor cues" of self-presentation to engage with specific audiences. For example, my daughter's Chinese name, Yu Miya, is a homophone of "corn" in Chinese. In the below post, I emphasised this linguistic anomaly using an appropriate emoji that received a positive response from Chinese friends -- and a couple of curious comments from non-Chinese ones.
Arguably, my most "authentic" self-presentation online comes in rare exchanges that, in the words of Smith and Watson, allow "unmediated access to some essence or truth" in a virtual environment (2014, p. 75).
An example of this are the weekly ACL203/708 Zoom sessions, when real-time information flows merge our online and offline selves.
Dialogue in this setting isn't limited to 140 characters, nor is it mediated by the introspection usually invested in social media communication. There is limited "stage management" in our self-presentation because we interact with each other's in-flesh selves rather than our mysterious, animated, or glamorised profile pictures or avatars.
If I had to pinpoint an online identity where I am my "truest" self, it would be on Quora where, ironically, I don't personally know any of my followers. This allows great freedom to explore and contribute to discussions about topics I choose according to my interests. While on Facebook and Twitter my feed is determined by those of whom I'm friends with or follow, on Quora content is curated around my interests. I realised early on that people were curious about the inner workings of Chinese media, a niche area where I contributed an insider's perspective. My answers constitute what Cover (2015, p. 16) notes are performative acts of identification "articulated through frameworks of relationality and belonging".
GIF: Tom Fearon Quora feed: retrieved 3/4/2017 (made using Screencast-O-Matic).
However, even in these seemingly authentic virtual environments the "true" self is elusive. Existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre (1946) believed existence precedes essence. His idea that "man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world -- and defines himself afterwards" (1946, p. 3) is useful in understanding the process of construction and maintenance of my online identities.
The premise of this idea (i.e. we are what we do) connects to the Confucian understanding of wisdom expressed at the start of this blog. The ultimate goal of "defining" ourselves is a perpetual undertaking that involves bitter experiences of living and learning from our online mistakes, imitation of friends and celebrities whose acts of self-presentation influence our own, and reflection of what ultimately defines us. By looking at ourselves and examining what we do and why we do it, we gain a deeper understanding of our "essence" and "true self" in the online and offline worlds. (1,041 words)
My broader ALC708-related online activity
Through my activity on Twitter (@peking_tom), I've been inspired by the conservations of my classmates and have sought to meaningfully contribute to the #ALC708 hashtag as regularly as possible. A summary of my online activity includes:
This week I wrote a couple of articles about students making compelling digital content. The first story was about a dozen seventh-graders providing an “authentic community voice” through Futures Public Radio, an advocacy journalism project modelled on the US-based National Public Radio. The initiative gives students media literacy skills and a solid grounding in audio engineering, video editing, and web design. Each week they pitch and critique story ideas for podcasts, video interviews, written reviews and recommendations, and music performances. Their work and dedication is very impressive.
Of course, it helps that the students are using top-of-the-range audio recording equipment. Their mics and editing programs are probably identical to those used by “This American Life.” Interestingly, they told me they had learned (the hard way) to double check that mics are recording before beginning interviews. It’s a mistake I made a few times in my first year as a journalist, but these kids are getting it out of the way at 13. Their innovation and creativity goes beyond storytelling, however. The FPR logo was designed by students and the theme music at the start of the interview below was composed by "Young Metro" himself, the eighth-grader profiled.
My second group of intrepid storytellers was a high school duo – Tony and Keith, both in grade 10 – who last weekend took out the top gongs at an Asian Film Festival for their documentary about jianbing, a local Beijing street food.
Their documentary (below) packs about as much quality as you can squeeze in to a three-and-a-half minute film. There is superb framing, intriguing interviewees (getting anyone to open up on camera in China takes enormous finessing), and beautiful sound. They even managed to get our veteran high school drama teacher to narrate. His dulcet British tones give the film the air of a BBC masterpiece.
Similarly, these students had access to state-of-the-art equipment (that BlackMagic camera listed in the credits retails for about $7,000). Importantly, they proved they can hold their own with it. By creating digital content with exceptional audio and visual quality, production barriers come down and creative horizons are expanded.
The best analogy I can think of is painting. While I’m not artistic, I would be more motivated to paint well using a professional brush than if I was using Miya’s 10-kuai ($2) disposable art kit (below).
During my interview with Tony and Keith, both mentioned the influence Casey Neitstad had on their work, especially his “grab-and-go” philosophy for filmmaking.
“Sorry, who?” I asked. “Casey Neistat.” “Nightstand?” “No, Neis -… Just type in ‘Casey N’ on YouTube and you’ll find him.”
Casey Neistat (https://flic.kr/p/RkHi57) by bellacastaneda (CC BY 2.0)
I wanted to learn more about the guy behind the dark-tinted sunglasses, who recently sold his video company to CNN for $25 million and boasts nearly 7 million subscribers on YouTube. His channel’s home video, provocatively titled “Do What You Can’t,” is a manifesto for every produser (or wannabe).
The message is as simple as it is compelling: you can do it, especially if someone has told you in the past you can’t. Little wonder it resonates so strongly with adolescents who instinctively test boundaries.
“When you’re a creator, all you need is your phone, an Internet connection, and a great idea,” Neistat declares in the video.
The creative formula is likewise simple: a sharp message, minimalistic graphics, dreamy sequences, trip-hop soundtrack, the digital sovereignty of “me” here – and now!
When I checked out some of Tony’s videos, I found he had mimicked Neistat’s style to a tee. Even the font and codes (VLOG001) that bookend his videos are the same.
Tony admits he is copying Neistat in his first vlog, not that this should be disparaged: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But halfway through the video I found myself asking:
Is individual identity lost (or even relevant) for young digital all-rounders? The race to get “Internet famous,” as Neistat puts it, is driving what feels like a giant, homogenised mess of fun yet hollow videos. Here’s another example. Last year I made a video about a volleyball tournament our school hosted. When I searched for it on YouTube, I discovered students from a Shanghai school who participated in the tournament had vlogged their experience.
It was great to watch at the time. The overall high production quality and simple storytelling in the video took me into the kids' world. However, watching it now it feels indistinguishable from the thousands (maybe more) using the "Neistat template."
Instead of declaring YOLO, maybe the catchcry should be YOPO – you’re only a produser once. Make it count – and make it stand out. Copyright (https://flic.kr/p/4bJQTw) by A. Diez Herrero (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) copyright ˈkɒpɪrʌɪt/ ideology 1. the understanding that the third-party content I’m about to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material is perfectly fine for me to copy, right? For as long as I’ve lived in Asia, my knowledge of copyright has been grounded in the above definition. China, modern cradle of the shanzhai (山寨) or “counterfeit” culture, has no shortage of knockoff products ranging from the sleek to the shameless. This week’s learning has led me to reflect on my own copyright-infringing habits. Indeed, the evolution of Banyan is a good example of how my learning has progressed. From clumsy cut-and-paste to well-meaning yet inadequate attribution, it’s been a work in progress. Therefore, I pledge (another theme of this week’s learning), not to use any more unauthorised, unattributed content. I will further strive to keep my multimedia contributions as original as this writing. Here, for example, is a window into my own encounters with shanzhai culture in Beijing that connect with copyright and the spirit of respecting intellectual property. Other classic encounters I had with copyright hark back to when I worked in Chinese state-run television. Copyright awareness and/or respect was extremely low back then, though it's improved gradually. In my first year, I was editing a documentary that included a song from the soundtrack Forrest Gump (1994). When I asked the producer if we could use the song, she replied matter-of-factly “Of course! Besides, no one will know.” About a year later, colleagues from one of the Chinese-language news channels blatantly inserted a fighter-jet scene from Top Gun (1986) into a news story. The global loss of face for the station set in motion stricter (i.e. actual) copyright processes in broadcast. This week’s interview with Astrid Bovell, Deakin University’s copyright manager, was enlightening. It demystified some of the complexities surrounding copyright and, fortunately, made it less of a scary issue. Some of the key points:
Creative Commons is a licensing system that enables free distribution of otherwise copyrighted work. There was a far better definition given by Jez in this week’s Zoom session, but alas I can’t remember how he worded it. This week was the first I’d heard of Creative Commons, though fortunately I’m not alone. It’s a good solution for using high-quality licensed content, provided you play by its rules. The acronyms that bookend the credit captions was perhaps the most complicated part for me to learn. In a nutshell:
Originally, I was confused about how to figure out what classification an image holds. Then, through some experimentation, I learned you need to click on the link under the date (if using Flickr) that says “Some rights reserved” or something similar. To get a tiny URL, instead of the super long one in the browser, click on the share icon (an arrow, next to the star) and copy and paste it from there. FINAL THOUGHTS
I’ve just discovered this viral video, but my sluggishness is understandable. As someone who just qualifies as a millennial (born in 1984), I belong to the generation that is “entitled, self-interested, unfocused, and lazy,” according to management theorist Simon Sinek.
Speaking on US talk show Inside Quest, Sinek outlines his provocative thesis: fulfilment in work and life eludes millennials, even when their aspirations are realised, because digital media has turned them into new-age narcissists. There are four reasons why they can’t get no satisfaction, he argues:
Naturally, the second category raises an interesting discussion about online identity and our “produsage” habits. Sinek observes that social media allows us to put “filters” on our identity, resulting in the projection of artificially "amazing" lives. It’s a fair point. My Facebook feed is probably like yours. It’s filled with weddings, newborn births, anniversaries, graduations, travel adventures, rainbows, flowers, and kittens. Less attention is given to the bleaker, mundane struggles because, rightly or wrongly, we don’t want a window into that world as an online audience. Stuck in traffic? Don’t care. Relationship on the rocks? You’ll work it out. Pissed off Vanessa in accounts got promoted ahead of you? Boo hoo. But does this rose-coloured virtual world we see and curate really give millennials misplaced bravado in the workplace? Sinek seems to think so: "Everybody sounds tough, everybody sounds like they’ve got it figured out, and the reality is there’s very little toughness and most people don’t have figured out. So, when the more senior people say, 'Well, what should we do?' They say, 'Well, this is what you gotta do' – and they have no clue." (Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace 2016)
This point gets a laugh from the audience, probably because everyone knows someone who fits that description, irrespective of generation.
However, Sinek’s next claim turns up the cringe (and condescension). He bemoans that millennials are “an entire generation who’ve grown up with low self-esteem.” It’s OK, he hastens to add, because it’s not their fault. They have just been dealt “a bad hand” in life.
But has the rise of networked communities, through global flows of information and culture, really contributed to low self-esteem? The opposite is more likely. Making media gives us our own voice, while connecting with others over shared interests, beliefs, and identities distills our own sense of self.
In explaining produsage, Bruns (2008, p. 24) emphasises its benefits rooted in open participation and encouragement of inclusivity. This model facilitates broader knowledge through collaboration. For example, in the Facebook group Podcasts We Listen To I've recommended and commented on episodes and series I enjoy. Members of the group have a unique sense of belonging in communicating with others who share their passion for podcasts. Produsers stand to “derive a sense of personal satisfaction as well as rise in communal esteem from their direct participation” in the process of making and sharing content (Bruns 2008, p. 54). Further to this point, social media empowers us to select what aspects of ourselves make up our online identity. The Internet is a great leveller for people, too. Race, social status, education, politics, religion, sexuality, and other traits that make us unique can be withheld as easily as they are shared. As Reid (1998) points out: “The freedom to obscure or re-create aspects of the self online allows the exploration and expression of multiple aspects of human existence. The research on virtual communities is filled with tales of masks for age and race, gender and class; masks for almost every aspect of identity.”
This idea of selectively choosing what we present online evokes a famous New Yorker cartoon (Steiner 1993):
In a previous unit, ACX701 (Communication Concepts), an assigned reading delved into media convergence with Henry Jenkins. Exploring how changing media is enabling new forms of grassroots communication and collaboration, acknowledged the pros and cons of participatory culture:
“In some of these cases, the call for participation is largely rhetorical, with mechanisms offering only limited and mostly meaningless ways of entering the process, whereas in others, significant shifts are occurring which are providing the people greater voice and influence in the decisions that impact their everyday lives.” (Jenkins 2013, p. 271).
Returning to Sinek’s interview, he proceeds to talk about the dopamine “highs” social media gives users in the forms of replies, likes, follower numbers – and, conversely, the “lows” of being defriended or produsing content that falls flat.
His comparison of social media being a “liquor cabinet” is interesting and will no doubt resonate with parents already concerned with their teens’ digital habits, but the key (as he correctly points out) is balance. A high school senior posting about a memorable Habitat for Humanity trip that took them out of their comfort zone is fine. A PR executive who runs an Instagram account for her infant daughter is, reassuringly, distasteful to most people. Then, there is the argument that digital media has eroded real-world people skills. A final scenario Sinek presents will be familiar to many of us: “If you’re sitting to dinner with your friends, and you’re texting someone who’s not there, that’s a problem, that’s an addiction. If you’re sitting in a meeting and you put your phone on the table, face up or face down, that sends a subconscious message to the room that ‘you’re not that important to me.’” (Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace 2016)
This idea of technology turning us into unsocial droids isn’t a new idea. In a debate about the impact of technology on etiquette and social interaction, US media studies professor Noah Arceneaux pointed out “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Television was going to destroy social interaction, remember that? Now, it’s Web 2.0. But we’ve adopted, we’ve learned how to use all these things and I think, ultimately, anything that allows you to communicate freely and stay in touch with people ultimately is good. (Cavanaugh & Villasenor 2010)
When Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway was shown texting in the Oval Office, was her bigger faux pas texting or putting her feet on the couch? Is it reasonable for a communications professional, a title which we all have to some extent in the 21st century, to regularly eye their phone – or is that an unhealthy addiction?
The Sinek video went viral because his ideas – social media is evil, young people are lazy, we need to rethink corporate culture – resonate with most us on some level. However, Sinek’s message that companies “need to work extra hard to pick up the slack left by broken society and poor parenting” sounds more like the sales pitch of a management theorist and CEO self-help author than accurate assessment of a still-evolving generation. The baby boomers had their own share of “lifters and leaners,” to borrow a Hockeyism, and millennials are no different. And obsession for instant gratification on social media is neither specific to one generation, nor characteristic of all users.
Digital media isn’t to blame for millennials feeling unfulfilled in their personal or professional lives. Few of us achieve such “nirvana” in our twenties or thirties because we’re still figuring out things as we go.
In Chinese, there is a chengyu (idiom) that imparts the philosophy and wisdom of 5,000 years of civilization on almost any situation in life. In understanding why some millennials don’t “unlock” joy or fulfilment immediately in the gamified worlds of life and work we’ve constructed, this particular chengyu comes to mind: 好事多磨 (hǎo shì duō mó) “The road to happiness is strewn with setbacks.” It’s more helpful to view setbacks as character-building challenges rather than traits of selfishness or narcissism.
References
Bruns, A 2008, Blogs, Wikipedia, Second life, and Beyond: from production to produsage, New York: Peter Lang, c2008. Cavanaugh, M, & Villasenor, R 2010, 'How Technology Etiquette and Social Interaction', KPBS, 12 January, retrieved 19 March 2017, <http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/jan/12/how-technology-affects-etiquette-and-social-intera/>. Jenkins, H 2013, 'Rethinking ‘Rethinking Convergence/Culture’', Cultural Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 267-297. Available from: 10.1080/09502386.2013.801579. [20 March 2017]. Reid, E 1998, “The Self and the Internet: Variations on the Illusion of One Self.” In Gackenbach, J. (ed). Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal implications. San Diego: Academic Press. Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace 2016, YouTube, David Crossman, 29 October, retrieved 20 March 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU>.
Over the weekend, I "hired" an artist (my three-year-old daughter, Miya) to give Banyan's homepage a fresh new look. The idea? An original artwork to inspire original thinking.
I shared with her the elements I wanted the picture to capture: creativity, innovation, diversity, global-mindedness – and maybe a tiger. True to the nature of my ALC708 experience, the texta-and-crayon drawing reflects a collaborative effort that includes some unashamed mistakes through experimentation. It features a blue sky (something we treasure in Beijing), a rainbow, characters from our favourite children's books, an aeroplane, and a confused kiwi up the Banyan tree. The drawing is an extension of the "making is connecting" idea from Week 1: specifically, our imperfections in the digital world reveal our individuality and presence. Speaking of experimenting with new media, I also made my first GIF (below) using a short video shot during the creative process. Surprisingly easy (and fun)!
In my last post about the Black Mirror episode “Fifteen Million Merits,” I compared China’s proposed social credit scheme to the merit system miring Bing in his dystopian society. Reading through the study notes this week, I gained another perspective about how both these scenarios fit within the frame of gamification.
Gamification is a new (yet somewhat familiar) idea for me. Working at a school where digital literacy is taught in elementary years, it’s a term I’ve heard (and written about) without any theoretical grounding. I’ve experienced it through apps like Duolingo, which I quit after a month of (unsuccessfully) trying to learn Spanish; my VPN, which helps me circumvent the Great Firewall of China (and, occasionally, gives me free data in a daily lucky draw); and through my Fitbit, a pioneer device in the “gamification of health care.”
I’ve even seen gamification driven by middle school students. Using Minecraft, one group recreated our school campus in stunning detail (that's the cafeteria):
But what does gamification mean? According to TechnologyAdvice (2013), its short-and-sweet definition is:
Applying game mechanics or game dynamics in a non-game context.
Its driven by incentives such as:
All of which motivate actions in different contexts, from education and training to B2B marketing. In ALC708, the unit has been gamified through the “Tiffits” system (see 8:30):
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Have you Googled yourself lately? What results does this obtain? Yes, but I’m not a narcissist (I promise). I’m currently applying for jobs and I know that employers are doing the same thing. Apart from my namesake YouTube sensation, an animated 19-year-old Ed Sheeran fan from the UK, I don’t have too much competition online. Facebook profiles come up first and my personal website isn’t too far behind, despite not investing any real time or effort in search engine optimisation. My LinkedIn profile is also on the first page of results, which is encouraging. 2. Is someone able to find – and easily find – what equates to your virtual CV somewhere online if they wanted to? Yes, which highlights privacy concerns; i.e. having a “public” version without your phone number/s and address and a “private” one for job applications. 3. What benefit(s) might there be for you in becoming (or remaining) an active Twitter user or blogger or even vlogger? Twitter is a good tool to connect with other students and professionals. Blogging and vlogging are also excellent for curating a more intimate public profile through conveying creativity and personality. Using all these platforms is also beneficial in staying abreast of trends and improving writing/multimedia techniques through experimentation. 4. What media forms and platforms would be useful for you to develop a strong professional network and portfolio with? How might you demonstrate proficiency and effectiveness online for future jobs (and job applications)? Vlogging is something I would definitely like to explore. I’ve produced a lot of videos in collaboration with videographers and video editors, and a handful on my own. I’d like to learn more about the craft because professional communicators already need to be digital all-rounders who can write, shoot, edit, and generate graphics. You don’t have to be an expert at all of them, but you need to have some grounding multiple areas. Coding is also something mysterious to me that I’d like to have some basic proficiency in. Again, at our school, kids begin learning these skills at such a young age. Drawing on the example of my British Tom Fearon “brother,” it’s easy to see just how far enthusiasm can drive digital skills. He hasn’t got a background in digital media or communications. He’s fresh out of school, but a look at his channel shows high levels of creativity and innovation. Slick video editing, eye-catching video thumbnails, professional audio and visual production. It really is remarkable (and inspiring).
5. What examples from your personal experience (or knowledge of others’ experiences) can you think of that support the need to rethink the status of media audiences as being merely ‘passive consumers’?
Media audiences are more engaged today than ever. It’s hard to track when the “passive consumer” stereotype died, but if I think back to high school when reality television made its mark on audiences, that might be a useful starting point. Voting out housemates on Big Brother, texting to save contestants on Australian Idol – these were revolutionary advancements to the way we consumed media. Even reflecting on the recent passing of Australian cartoonist Bill Leak, the outrage his controversial Aboriginal cartoon caused demonstrated the myth of the “passive media consumer.” 6. What do you think of the ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ episode of Black Mirror? What ‘messages’ (or warnings) seem to be conveyed in the text? It’s a bleak portrayal of gamification. We think of it mostly as a fun way of self-improvement, but ulterior motives can lurk behind incentives that might not be in our best interests. More analysis in my previous post. 7. Does ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ effectively implicate its audience in the problems of contemporary digital media culture? Or does Brooker go too far and make generalisations about users that don’t take into account some important considerations? As a satirist, Brooker exaggerates the passive audience stereotype to deliver his chilling message about how we are influenced by media. Of course, reality is much more complex. We don’t all think the same or share the same interests, tastes, or media consumption habits. For every fan of reality television, there is another who sees it as mindless triple. For every Twitterati intellectual making their own media, there is the lurking user content to observe with minimal participation. 8. How might you use Twitter effectively? By the way, one of the best ways to gauge this is to observe people who use Twitter effectively (and I don’t mean in the sense of Donald Trump’s tweeting). You could even do some research on the subject – there’s no shortage of bloggers and vloggers keen to share their tweeting tips with you. Share some ideas with your peers using the unit hashtag. How about having a go at creating (and sharing) a Bubbl.us or Gliffy mind map as suggested earlier? For me, effective use of Twitter fits into the strategic use of social media more broadly. I see each platform as an opportunity to cultivate distinct (yet authentic) profiles. On Facebook, I’m a Beijing dad thinking about the big move back home. On Twitter, I have an academic interest in China journalism that I balance with tweets about my profession (and now ALC708 learnings). On Instagram, I explore the daily tension between urbanisation and antiquity in a rapidly evolving city. Each account has a different focus, different profile, different audience. 9. What other microblogging platforms are you aware of or familiar with? Can you find any examples you’ve never heard of? Could you use any of these microblogging sites to your benefit? Without doubt, my most popular microblogging platform is WeChat (known in Chinese as Weixin). It is the app that is perfectly customised for life in China. Its synergy with every aspect of society through e-commerce, instant messaging, microblogging, and (yes) gamification is both incredibly convenient and somewhat troubling. The New York Times made a brilliant video explaining WeChat that I can’t recommend highly enough. It’s the app that has changed China, and could change the world:
FINAL THOUGHTS
It's been great to see this unit coming to life with online activity. While I'm not an educator, I'm a big believer in student-directed learning through creative use of time, technology, and online communities. In that spirit of communication and collaboration, I'd like to plug a couple of classmates' blogs by Jez and Aaron. I'm a I don't really know why I started my blog. In previous units, I kept long, rambling Word documents with weekly study notes in bullet point form. Through Banyan, I'm trying to do the same thing with more critical thinking (and more discipline, polished writing). In truth, it's already feeling like a grind. But it's also been gratifying and I hope that, with time, my writing will become more free-flowing (and hopefully share meaningful insights from personal experience). Thanks to everyone who has commented on, retweeted, or liked my posts so far. It's been a great source of encouragement! Please feel free to offer critical feedback, too, as this is new territory for me and I'm still finding my way. References What is Gamification? 2013, YouTube, TechnologyAdvice, 31 May, retrieved 11 March 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa-rvSbT0rQ>.
It’s been a while since I’ve watched good television. And I mean good television. The kind that stalks you with its chilling acting, corners you with a dystopian plot, then unleashes a haymaker of mind-blowing dialogue, leaving you dazed in your living room questioning everything.
Yeah, I miss those heady days of Ship to Shore on ABC
But this week I found a close runner-up in Black Mirror, aka one of the shows everyone has told me I simply must watch along with Game of Thrones and, a decade earlier, The Wire.
Black Mirror is a non-sequential sci-fi anthology series. Each episode has its own setting, story, and characters, which is good for me because this was my first taste. “Fifteen Million Merits,” the second episode of the first series, was the prescribed viewing this week. It’s felt like a reboot of Orwell’s excellent Nineteen Eighty-Four, bringing back memories of analysing power plays for HSC English. Set in a dystopian future, most members of society wear drab tracksuits and cycle on exercise bikes to power their surroundings and earn currency called "merits." The story is told from the perspective of Bing (the “Winston Smith”), whose dreary life perks up upon meeting Abi (his “Julia,” to continue the Nineteen Eighty-Four analogy).
In true dystopic fashion, reality television dictates popularity as the underlings pedal away on their bikes with wireless earbuds. Sidenote: this episode aired in 2011, almost five years before Apple’s Bluetooth AirPods.
The episode is slow at first. Bing on his bike is monotonous and painfully dull, much like our own daily routines similarly peppered by messages from advertising, social media, and the 24-hour news cycle. Maybe I'm out of touch having lived in a heavily censored society for the past eight years, but is porn really that pervasive in Australia (excluding late-night TV ads, if they're still a thing)?
I had a post-Black Mirror “moment” while returning home from work. In the lift of my building, I had a fresh perspective of the two (yes, two) advertising e-boards that compete for residents’ attention.
Unfortunately, my hand doesn’t wield the same power as Bing's.
The system of “merits” in the show also led me to reflect on news last year that China wanted to introduce its own similar scheme dubbed a “social credit” system. It is a tool of social control whereby every citizen is scored on their behaviour (from spending habits, turnstile violations, even filial piety), with this “score” potentially blacklisting people from jobs, loans, and even air travel. Really. “Fifteen Million Merits” is satire, of course, but it’s a glimpse of how terrifying big data can be (or already is, considering news yesterday that the CIA has hacked smart televisions to spy on citizens). “Stop the world, I want to get off!” as the kids say on social media. Thankfully, fleeting doses of humanity and romance keep the story from being too grim as Bing gives his 15 million merits inherited from his dead brother to Abi so she can appear on Dystopian Idol, aka Hot Shots.
Of course, then comes the gut punch as Abi descends into a porn universe after being drugged on Cuppliance. Bing, now meritless, is tortured with her ads. His anguish sets into motion a brilliant revenge mission (and puts 15-second pre-roll YouTube ads into perspective).
Bing’s monologue at the end – made all the more captivating due to his aloof dialogue earlier – offers retrospection about the modern digital age including the:
FINAL THOUGHTS
The behaviour of the media audience is a particularly useful source of insight into a society’s attitudes, values and interests. One of the striking things about media consumers is their voracious appetite for programs and news stories that portray the extremes of human behaviour — murders, rapes, massacres, accidents, disasters — both natural and man-made. People love to be taken to the very edge of what it means to be human; to explore the limits of human experience and behaviour — especially bad behaviour (which helps to explain the enduring success of the world’s sensationalist tabloid press). References Black Mirror. Ep. 2, Fifteen Million Merits n.d., n.p.: DEAKIN UNIV LIBRARY's Catalog, EBSCOhost, viewed 10 March 2017. Mackay, H 2002, Media Mania: Why Our Fear of Modern Media Is Misplaced, Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. One of my favourite digital media platforms is podcasting. Conversely, my least favourite platform (of any kind) is the one I find myself standing on at 7:00 am and 6:00 pm each day on the Beijing subway. My daily commute occurs in the heart of peak hour, when the Chinese proverb 人山人海 (lit. "people mountain, people sea") comes into vivid focus: Needless to say, it’s a good time to slip in the ear buds and go to my “happy place.” I listen to a range of different podcasts about general knowledge (Stuff You Should Know), true crime (Casefile, Felon), interviews (Conversations with Richard Fidler), journalism (the BBC’s Assignment and Witness), Chinese current affairs (Sinica), and creative storytelling (Missing Richard Simmons). I also try to learn more about what it means to be a professional communicator in the 21st century, which is how I stumbled across InTransition – an apt description of my own life at present. I discovered it via contentgroup, a Canberra-based content marketing firm that came up in a recent job search. Hosted by the company’s founder and CEO David Pembroke (above), the podcast explores trends and strategies of public sector content marketing. A great deal of what’s discussed is interesting to me and, rather than let it suffer the usual in-one-ear-out-the-other fate of other podcasts, I thought it would be useful to record what I’ve learned here on Banyan. My podcast reviews won’t be for everyone; they aren’t related to ALC708 and, while we are all communicators, insights of the craft in a professional context aren’t stimulating for everyone. Mostly, it’s just a way for me to keep my writing “fitness” up and have a place to reference interesting stuff I’ve learned. My goal is to share a review each Friday. This episode of In Transition, the first of the series, features David's interview with Alex Aiken (below), executive director of UK Government Communications. His job is an important one, setting the government’s communication strategy by emphasising three key areas of focus:
But more on him later. First, a more pressing question: what is “content marketing”? Each episode begins with a definition of content marketing inspired by the Content Marketing Institute and adapted by Pembroke: Content marketing is a strategic and measurable business process that relies on the creation, curation, and distribution of valuable, relevant, and consistent content to engage and inform a clearly defined audience with the objective of driving a desired citizen or stakeholder action. So, you might ask yourself, why is this important to governments? Again, the podcast explains: Communication is a fundamental priority for all governments. On a daily basis, all over the world, at a municipal, state, federal, and international level, governments interact with hundreds of millions of citizens and stakeholders, with the objective of building stronger, more sustainable communities, and improving the well-being of citizens. In simpler terms: if a government gets communication right, they can take a big stride to achieving this simple and compelling goal. Content marketing is a dynamic and diverse process that includes:
These elements form the “bigger picture” that content marketers need to envision to effectively engage with stakeholders. This is where Alex Aiken comes into the conversation. He first discussed the ironic failure of his predecessors in communicating their good work to their political masters. The UK government notably slashed its communications budget by half a billion pounds in 2015-16 to see what kind of impact they could still have. He argues communications is a core profession of government, not an “add on.” Its four essential tools are to:
Of course, communications is a changing profession. In future, there won’t be a need for the "Media 1.0 (or even 2.0)" press officers. Legacy skills like writing, crafting, and drafting will still have a role. But the future communicator must be able to analyse data, create great shareable content, and build movements. Leadership is about doing your job to the best of your ability and accepting that we’re better together. Alex Aiken noted how the 2014-16 Ebola crisis presented an opportunity for UK government departments to do just that by collaborating to achieve common goals. Officials from the ministries of health and foreign affairs united. Although they wouldn’t normally identify benefits of working together, both sides devised a communication plan to publicise the threat (or lack thereof) of Ebola in the UK and the government’s efforts to tackle the virus at its source in Sierra Leone. Another example of an effective, collaborative campaign by UK Government Communications was the Disney-Change4Life movement that aimed to encourage children to exercise an hour a day. Disney characters proved popular messengers who connected with children and parents, both targeted stakeholders. The company also earned valuable corporate social responsibility kudos, while the government achieved its objectives by exploiting an established, trusted brand. Like other acronymic strategies, this methodology has its own catchy term: OASIS
And, for good measure, there is also the “Four Is” of core competencies in government communications. As Aiken explains, these relate to roles and responsibilities in communications teams:
Alex Aikan also observes the need for government communicators to put the “public” back into “public relations.” Over the years, it’s a term that has been reduced to “media relations” and even just “press” to the detriment of professional communicators and the public. Government communications is about promoting, explaining, and justifying policies of the day. It shouldn’t be about attacking political opponents or the media, even if US Press Secretary Sean Spicer has his own ideas.
I’m a sucker for a witty meme or gif, especially when its used for strategic communications-marketing purposes. Such social media content represents the modern equivalent of a newspaper headline, possessing the innate ability to hook readers into a message or story through humor, curiosity, or shock.
Yesterday I came across a gem in my Facebook feed courtesy of a friend’s like (another intriguing method of cross-promotion). The company? Australian Bananas, a group promoting the country’s top horticultural industry and highest selling supermarket product. Their social media strategy is interesting – and bold. However, it’s obviously paid off when you count their 227,500 likes (and 220,390 followers). Their content is edgy and hilarious, compelling users to share for the "lol" or "wtf" factor. Primarily, their greatest weapon is the element of surprise; most of us don't expect the Unilad experience on the Facebook page of a major export product. For example, there are videos and gifs that are … … psychedelic:
Credit: Australian Bananas
… piggy-backing on modern memes, like Hide the Pain, Harold:
Credit: Australian Bananas
… and quintessentially Aussie, with slick digital mischief:
Credit: Australian Bananas
There is obvious talent in the comms-marketing team, from the writing (pun-rich posts, sharp and timely admin replies) to the graphic design (creative use of meme/video adaption). The online experience is fun, interactive and, well, just plain bananas. Most importantly, Australian Bananas was willing to take a punt and do something different. In an environment where many communications and marketing professionals are encouraged to “play it safe,” Australian Bananas cast aside fears of public ridicule to venture into creative territory largely uncharted by peer food groups. It’s a decision made all the riskier when you consider their product is a phallic fruit. It’s worth considering Australian Bananas’ success in the context of Week One’s material. The idea that “making is connecting” – i.e. we make new connections by creating new expressive things – is relevant for Australian Bananas. A significant proportion of their content is taking stuff that is out there – memes, videos of real events, gifs – and localizing it to promote their message: bananas are good for you. There is also rich original content that satisfies followers' genuine interest in bananas, like recipes and nutritional benefits. Their success speaks for itself when compared to other Australian food bodies represented on Facebook: Australian Pork, despite its catchy @getsomeporkonyourfork tag, has just 1,600 likes (and, tellingly, last posted three months ago); Goulburn Valley, which tries earnestly (but not overly successfully) to be witty, has 21,445 likes. Even great Queensland rival Australian Pineapples has a mere 24,700 likes, or about one-tenth of Australian Bananas. A notable exception in the Australian food market is iconic spread Vegemite, which has over half a million likes. Like their fruity foes at Australian Bananas, Vegemite's success is owed to high-quality videos, Aussie nostalgia, creative recipes, and celebrity endorsements. There is also the "making is connecting" element through personalized connections with consumers, as evidenced by the customized "your-name-on-your-Vegemite-jar" campaign. Of course, this isn’t the first memorable marketing campaign promoting Aussie bananas. Any kid who grew up in the 1990s will remember this beauty:
Make those (industry) bodies sing!
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