Why would users like to be YouTubers?

As we are living in the information age, digital economy leads to the rise of digital labor.

Digital labor provides the effective social activities which are not generally regarded  as work, such as the increasing participation on social media websites.

YouTube is the leading video sharing online media platform around the world. It allows users to create original content and interact with others on the platform, aiming to advance the public freedom of sharing opinions and expression. So YouTube is a large digital labor market.

As YouTube claims that everyone could speak and share opinions freely on this platform,most YouTubers begin to create videos for their interests.  Being a YouTuber can satisfy users’ need of expression and interaction with others.

It is win-win strategy that YouTube helps users become famous. YouTube devotes services  to boosting the consumption of videos by analyzing user data, which means that the complex algorithm system of YouTube usually recommends specific interesting videos to people, which can satisfy their demand. Compared to other video sharing   websites, YouTube has the best efficient algorithm system. Therefore, YouTubers are more likely to be popular than other bloggers on other social media platform.

When YouTubers become the Internet celebrities with millions fans, they usually Monetize track in two main ways, which helps them become high-income class. First, they will collaborate with fashion brands. For example, they may not only display advertisements in their videos, but also provide jointly-designed products. Second, they will set up their own studios with an experienced team, developing from amateurs to  professional bloggers. The studios take charge of professional videos, business negotiation about high advertising revenue, create their own brands and sell products. A large number of their fans will support the sale.

Extra reading:

YouTubers are known for youthful exuberance. So what happens when one gets seriously ill?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2018/05/08/youtubers-are-known-for-youthful-exuberance-so-what-happens-when-one-gets-seriously-ill/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7c15d91618f7

 

DATA JOURNALISM

Data journalism is a new form of journalism based on big data. Data journalism integrates technology and media, which is the inevitable trend in recent years. Data journalism usually describes issues or predicts events through analyzing big data.

Compared to other reports, data journalism could achieve public trust easily. People would feel that the analysis of big data seems more authoritative. In addition,  the big data in reports could predict some issues effectively.

However, data is not always  accurate，and journalists should distinguish the real data and fake data. Complex information context may produce a great deal of incorrect data. If gatekeepers do not check the reality of data, fake news would be produced and spread quickly. For this reason, it is important to check and analyze data in  coverage in order to prevent social panic caused by fake news.

Data news is not as interesting as other reports, which is boring for the public. As most audiences do not accept high education,  data analysis is difficult for them to understand. So data news may not be popular among people.

Data journalism is a new kind of coverage, which could be improved in the future. As advanced technology has influenced everything in our daily life, it is necessary to combine technology with journalism. How can we improve data journalism? First, journalists should be responsible for reports and audiences, and they should  check data in news carefully. Second, a viable tool used for checking data is required. Last, journalists should use easy and interesting words to  write data news, which helps audiences understand easily.

Extra reading:

How to be a data journalist:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/oct/01/data-journalism-how-to-guide

Abuse of big data causes privacy disclosure

In recent years, big data is a popular tool used in business, because that could help companies analyze their target audiences. Online and mobile media are the main information platforms offering big data, disclosing the privacy of users.

Abuse of big data has been a serious issue. Some companies offer big data to researchers, but more companies sell user data as production for seeking profits. Advertisers believe that big data could help them reach their target audiences efficiently, so companies could sell user data at good price. As people basically do everything through online and mobile media such as Facebook and Instagram, user data could bring about the privacy exposure. For example, their address, contact numbers, occupations and friends could be disclosed by user data, which  increases the risks in their social life.

 Voice phishing is one of the risks caused by abuse of big data, which results in the serious economic loss. Voice phishing is based on the victim details offered by big data, which could achieve victims’ trust and cheat their money. More importantly, privacy disclosure leads to significant criminal behaviors. Offenders would search for victims by buying big data from companies, and find places that victims usually visit for robbery or murder.

For this reason, we should avoid abuse of big data by building more regulations about the use of big data. The government should ban companies to sell user data relates to citizen’s safety. The Chinese government has claimed that the government departments websites should protect citizens’ privacy. Moreover, people should realize the importance of online personal information protection.

Relevant reading:

The 5 worst big data privacy risks (and how to guard against them):

https://www.csoonline.com/article/2855641/privacy/the-5-worst-big-data-privacy-risks-and-how-to-guard-against-them.html

Chinese Walled Garden

A plenty of researchers have claimed that an open and free Internet is so important for human being, while China still builds the walled garden on the Internet. As China focuses on the Internet development in recent years, people may wonder why Chinese walled garden was built.

The Internet develops rapidly in China with a large number of users. However, information explosion leads to various websites that offer different services including inappropriate contents such as violence and sex. Although the Chinese government set up the Internet police department which is in charge of fighting the Internet criminals, the department is not able to prevent the increasing number of criminal contents on the Internet.

 

Walled garden is used as an effective way to prevent users to access inappropriate websites in China. For example, porn is legal in other countries, but it’s illegal in China. For this reason, walled garden is required to block the foreign websites involved porn.

However, Chinese walled garden has a negative impact on social media. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram connecting people around the world are blocked by Chinese walled garden, because of some debates against China on these platforms. Despite that, if China allows users to access these social media, better communication among different races and culture integration could be seen in the future.

Due to the special international situation, Chinese walled garden is beneficial to the Chinese Internet development. But it’s not a long-term strategy. Walled garden is the expedient in the process of Chinese development. A relative free and open Internet may come when China has the complete regulation and the Internet management.

Extra reading:

Universal Windows Platform – Walled Garden vs Open System:

https://www.infoq.com/news/2016/03/msuwp

Filter Bubble On Mobile Media

Algorithm culture is a form of New Media Age. As a technical tool, algorithm brings about success of many online media corporations. In China, Toutiao app and Kuaishou app become quite popular mobile media platforms because of algorithm system. However, we should pay attention to the risks of algorithm on new media, such as filter bubble.

Kuaishou is a mobile media application sharing videos in China, which uses algorithm to offer audiences information of their personal interest. Currently, Kuaishou is widely criticized by Chinese mainstream media including CCTV and punished by the government, because algorithm contributes to a great deal of inappropriate information on this platform.

For instance, teen mothers aged 13 to 18 upload a lot of videos to strut their unusual life, which is the most controversial issue on Kuaishou. Kuaishou always pushes audiences similar content when algorithm system finds where audiences’ interests lie in. Therefore, teen mothers’ videos spread widely.

Many users celebrate a 14-year old mother on Kuaishou

 

Some argue that the concentrated content of teen mothers on Kuaishou could result in serious negative consequence that teenagers may imitate these young mothers.

This case of teen mothers’ videos on Kuaishou is an example of filter bubble. Algorithm could not only offer our interesting information but also narrow our horizon. It’s important that people need to receive diverse information which could build up developed knowledge.

How can we deal with filter bubble? Despite the negative factors of media control, I agree that the government limits media appropriately, which prompts media companies to take responsibility of the public and adjust business model, media strategy and content. Moreover, audiences should search the arguments from the other side, getting out of filter bubble. Finally, we can improve algorithm instead of banning it, enhancing the diverse content on media

 

Extra reading:

Vice dares Facebook users to burst the filter bubble by liking posts they hate:
https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/vice-dares-facebook-users-burst-filter-bubble-liking-posts-hate/1461691

BRANDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

As we know, social media is more and more popular around the world, which has been  the significant advertising space. There are a large number of successful cases of advertisements on Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Weibo.

Many brands prefer to advertise their new product on these social media. For example, Beyonce introduced her new brand called Ivy Park on Instagram through giving celebrities new products, which helps Ivy Park rise to frame. Today, I would like to talk about how Durex advertises itself on Weibo.

In the past, people felt awkward when they talked about sex in public. This is kind of  Chinese traditional culture, which still has influence on current society. As a sexual health brand, Durex has to improve public acceptance. When social media become popular in China, Durex found a great chance to advertise itself and contact with consumers.

Durex usually  posts very fabulous and  interesting  soft advertisements on Weibo that is the biggest social media in China. These advertisements humor the most popular and timely topics, which attracts  young generation’s attention. The advertisements of Durex on Weibo make audiences feel funny , and prompt them to discuss the topic on Weibo without awkwardness. More importantly, Durex reaches  target audience in this way, which means that this brand improves its popularity and impression among young people .

Durex succeeds to improve reputation by managing brand on social media, and enhances the relationship between brand and consumers. In addition, Durex got the chance offered by social media, and social media also benefitted from the excellent content created by Durex. This is a win-win cooperation.

Extra reading:

6 Content Lessons from Durex for long-lasting engagement:

https://www.socialsamosa.com/2017/04/content-lessons-durex/

  

SOCIAL MEDIA AND FAKE NEWS

The prosperous social media brings about a lot of conveniences, but it also causes some controversial issues. Fake news is the significant issue which bothers many social media platforms. Especially, Facebook is widely criticized, because of the fake news circulated on the platform.

Facebook is the most popular social media platform around the world, which is a great contributor to global online communication. This means that Facebook could also have the significant negative impacts on global social communication, such as low public confidence in the government as well as social panic. For instance, due to the counter partisanship,  Donald Trump, American president, was censured by the fake news circulated on Facebook. This indeed confused the public, and influenced the the US presidential election. Similarly,  many countries’ reputations are damaged by a great deal of fake news on Facebook.

The strong power of Facebook intensifies the risks of fake news, leading to serious social panic. The majority of American prefer to get news on Facebook, and they always transmit shocking news that may be false reports. As audiences cannot distinguish fake news on social media, most people might believe that and become panic.

In recent years, Facebook implements several measures to address the issue of fake news. The company develops a system that can filter the news with repeated headings and suspicious sources. Moreover, Facebook would highlight the uncertainty of suspicious news when audiences read news on Facebook. In conclusion,  the development of social media has challenged contemporary journalism, indicating that a journalistic innovation is required.

Extra reading:

Facebook to remove fake news about dead woman on Brazil judge’s order:

https://www.smh.com.au/world/south-america/facebook-to-remove-fake-news-about-dead-woman-on-brazil-judge-s-order-20180329-p4z6wb.html

THE DARK SIDE OF UGC

Users generated content(UGC)  is any form of content created by users, which brings about a trend that users prefer to create content online than just get information on the Internet. It stems from the Internet web 2.0, and contributes to a great deal of famous media corporations, like Youtube, Bilibili and Youku.

KathleenLights,the most popular blogger on youtube

UGC has been the main supplement  to online platforms, including some content types like blogs, videos, novels and so on. Because of seeking profits, media becomes business, indicating that UGC is also business. Recently, UGC helps a lot of bloggers on Youtube  rise to fame and become high-income. First, bloggers attract public attention by uploading some interesting original videos. Second, due to the large number of their fans, lots of advertisers tend to cooperate with bloggers. Finally, bloggers could earn a lot money by uploading videos including advertisements.

However, economic profits lead to the dark side of UGC which includes plagiarizing and inappropriate content. Some users usually borrow others’ excellent ideas and reproduce the  videos and novels. Another factor causing plagiarizing is the law of copyright with legal loopholes in many countries, especially in global south. On the other hand, some users upload the inappropriate content such as sexy and violent videos and pictures, which could satisfy their need.

The dark side of UGC undermines the Internet environment, leading to social inequitable issues and  teen crimes. Governments should set down policies and improve the law of copyright to manage UGC, which may address the issues.

Extra reading:

How Brands Use User-Generated Content: 3 Interesting Examples:

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/user-generated-content-examples/214876/

Users like you? Theorizing agency in user-generated content

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443708098245?journalCode=mcsa

 

Digital self on social media

The significant transition to new media is gradually completed in a few years. As media is regarded as business now,  developed technology and consumer culture contribute to the development of  new media. Social media are the vital  forms of  new media, which could offer consumers better service. They are also the new forms of connectivity, because people could keep contact with others on the platforms, even strangers. Social media are very popular around the world, such as Facebook, twitter,Weibo and WeChat.

Digital self has been a debate in current  media studies. Social media have become  the main sources of information, which means that people generally post information about themselves and get news on social media. For example, your avatar could be analyzed from the Internet data including your browsing history and what you like or dislike. Furthermore, people could manage the digital self in order to introduce themselves to other people online. The pictures or opinions on social media are selected by users, which could show the open side of life. This brings about some issues like fake identity, privacy disclosure and so on.

Fake identity can be made up easily on social media, which undermines social life online. As people tend to make new friends on the platform, they may be cheated by cheaters and criminals. On the other hand, users prefer to post everything in their life, like the places where they have been to. This tendency might lead to the exposure of their privacy, which means that home addresses, occupations, family members could be disclosed to the public.

In conclusion, we cannot stop the trend that people would like to share life on social media. The world is becoming connected in this way,but governments should consider the control in social media which could address the issues, and create a clean Internet environment.

 

How your digital self could ‘live’ on after you die

Sina Weibo–a case of media convergence

With the globalization and marketization development , online and mobile media convergence occurs in the recent years. I would like to discuss one of the successful cases of  media convergence in China, Sina Weibo. Weibo is the most popular online social media in China, which is also a famous  mobile media corporation with  an app on smart phones, like Facebook and Twitter. What’s the reasons of Weibo’s success?