There are a lot of ‘things’ on the internet, funny videos, blogging sites, live camera footage, the list is almost endless. But when we speak about the internet of things or IoT, what does it mean? Well it encompasses everything connected to the internet but is being increasingly used to define objects that ‘talk to each other’ essentially comprising of devices ranging from simple sensors to smartphones (Wired, 2018).
The best and most prominent example of the IoT in use would be in the ever-growing section of smart home appliances. The idea of a smart home makes a lot of sense, having the ability to control the appliances in one’s home through their phone and internet seems like a natural progression of home design and living. As owning a home is the biggest financial expense of a homeowner’s life, smart home products will attempt to save money, time, and energy, as well as connecting the house to the owners.
The IoT is only becoming larger, it is exciting and a little worrying that one day every single thing we own will have some form of internet connection to it, hope the Wi-Fi doesn’t cut out.
Leveraging off last weeks discussion around hacktivism and hackers comes one of this week’s topics about botnets, and it’s a little scary. A botnet is essentially a network of computers which have been intentionally infected with malware by hackers or cybercriminals, the botnets then perform automated tasks on the internet without the permission or knowledge of the device owner (getsafeonline).
Ways your computer can be infected include opening email links containing a Trojan horse program, visiting a site which is already infected with malware, or even peer to peer spreading, this may be done via a network or infected storage devices.
And the risks can include your computer being infected with spyware to access your data, your computer could be used to infect other devices, or even spam emails.
Interesting to me the similarities between a human virus and a computer virus, the carrier has the ability to infect others, often without even knowing.
Hacktivism is often used as a way to draw the publics attention to something that those doing the hacking feel is an important issue or cause, like the freedom of information or human rights (searchsecurity, 2018). The use of hacktivism is most often seen when targeting government departments, businesses, or public service officials. Hacktivists can work both individually or as part of a larger group who operate in coordinated efforts, with the majority working anonymously.
One prominent hacktivism group I personally have heard about is the group known as ‘Anonymous’. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the group is widely known for various cyber attacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations, and the church of Scientology.
What’s interesting to me is that you would think this type of information would be distributed to the older generation with power and knowledge to take the information and make changes, but I first learnt about Anonymous through TikTok, a platform aimed primarily at children and young adults. Never the less I think if this information is being found and is being hidden from the public, the right people should be held accountable and the art of hacktivism should continue.
For my digital artefact in BCM206 I want to go through the start to finish process of creating an online drop shipping store and marketing it through Facebook and Instagram. This concept for a DA really interests me as I want to experiment with gaining an audience through buyers, I want to create an online store, Facebook, and Instagram page for the product I chose, then use these platforms to interact with consumers and market to them, with the goal being to sell the product.
Through this process of creating my DA I have found it both enjoyable as well as difficult, with a huge amount of time being devoted to researching how to create a store, link products, follow laws, etc. Whilst the store, Facebook page, and Instagram page are all currently public I have not seen any real user interaction, this was planned however as I am implementing my Facebook and Instagram ad strategy this coming week, purchasing five days of advertisement to run across the two platforms, this will give me time to iterate based on the audience’s feedback.
Most of the ideation and development at this stage has been through product research and brand design. This process has led me to research a whole range of topics and has taken up a large portion of my time this semester. Below I will show some images taken throughout this initial process to get my DA to this point, both a look into the research and practical side.
The next week will be where it all comes together and I begin to run ads and receive an audience on my store and social pages, this will be where I gather all my data to complete and evaluate my DA’s success.
I have also screenrecorded my whole process so I can demonstrate my research and practical work in the final DA.
Memes were once seen as funny cat pictures, now meme culture and internet culture has changed, and created platforms for individuals to have serious impact in the world, such as the Hillary Clinton #draftourdaughters campaign run by Donald Trump supporters to sway the opinion of voters.
This begs the question of ‘who can we really trust’, is it someone running to be the president, or is it the internet users who expose them? The answer is, well neither really, both parties lie and manipulate to try and gain an edge, and thus make a large mess of what’s true and what’s false.
It also makes you wonder just how far this could go, and how much the internet and people with no direct coloration to an event can have an impact on how it is seen by others. I think in future political parties and people of high influence will need to create some kind of stamp to show it is what they are truly saying or has come from them, almost like a watermark, but for life.
Memes and internet culture can be creative and funny, we just need to be sure not to give it too much power.
When we use the internet we assume that the power is with the user, we can search for whatever we want, watch whatever we want, and control all our all we do on the internet, but this power to the people mindset may be a false view of the reality.
Digital feudalism stems from the feudalism seen when kings and queens really ruled the world. However, in today’s model of digital feudalism, labour is not the driving force, rather leisure with large internet companies such as google, Facebook, Netflix, etc, being the ‘lords’ who build software for the masses to use, who sign over their rights in a document that many people skip over, the terms of service.
This in turn leads to the “entrepreneurs to use this free labour to generate eyeballs, sell the data, and monetize the wealth for the investor class” explained by Jeremiah Owyang. It begs the question are we essentially the slaves to these organisations, particularly after we have agreed to their terms?
My media niche is a focus on the YouTube group Nelk, a mix of Canadian and American residents the group film videos ranging from vlogs and pranks, to party montages and skits. Due to the nature of the content they upload having strong alcohol, drug, and sexual references throughout, the group make little to no money from YouTube advertisements, meaning they have had to use other methods and platforms to generate revenue.
This is where Nelks ability to move their fans from YouTube onto other platforms has been super beneficial to them, with their own Instagram, twitter, and TikTok account the group is able to communicate with their fans on multiple platforms, this gives Nelk multiple platforms to advertise their online store and online club to their fans.
What I want to research is how Nelk has created this huge and loyal fanbase that is willing to support them financially when most of their content can be viewed for free. This idea of creating a loyal fanbase is nothing new, but the fact that Nelk rely so heavily on fans to financially back them is a really interesting concept to me.
I have found a couple of academic pieces to use as a base level to understanding building up fandom and making them loyal, but the majority of my research will be looking at how Nelk interact with their fans across all of their social channels, and more importantly how the fans respond. This will mean I need to be careful and responsible with how I collect data.
My research will hopefully give me enough information to create a video essay as my DA, using this medium will be a good way to get a lot of information into a smaller DA, as well as allowing me to show off some of Nelks visual content that they use to interact with fans.
The attention economy was atopic explored this week in the lecture, readings, and tutorials, and it really does make you think about what areas your brain subconsciously gives attention to and how company’s or organisations fight for your all important attention. I certainly know I can struggle to keep my attention on one thing for long periods of time (uni work) and can have my attention easily taken by YouTube, TV, or my phone.
A great example I came across of brands trying to gain and keep your attention is Netflix and their targeted thumbnails. This system can change the thumbnail of a show or movie to highlight a certain area or emotion that the user is associated with through their previous viewings.
The growth of social networks and the internet as a whole has given us a whole lot of things to give our attention to, and whilst it is amazing to have a seemingly endless amount of content and information to view, is it too much to take in and too many things to give our attention to?
In BCM241 we were tasked to find our own media niche, an area in which we are knowledgeable and curious, for my niche I chose to focus on the YouTube group NELK, more specifically how they have been able to turn viewers into loyal fans who help to fund the group. I want to focus on why the fan base feel so involved and connected that they are willing to support the group financially through a range of facets, and try to understand what measures the group put in place (if any) to insure fan loyalty and growth.
For this week’s blog post we were tasked with focussing on two things, background academic research and ethical considerations.
Background Academic Research
For this task it is essential to find adequate background research as it helps to frame my research and help to identify what aspects I should be focusing on or looking out for during the research stage. From searching the internet I was surprised how few academic papers had been done on fans of digital creators, there was plenty of resources around sporting teams and creating happy fanbases, as well as a couple celebrity fanbase papers, but I struggled to find much quality research on both fanbases on YouTube as well as creating loyalty with fans.
I think that through my research process I will find certain areas which I may not of thought of before and this may prompt me to search for academic papers with different key words. A couple of the sources I have found however include,
‘How does a celebrity make fans happy? Interaction between celebrities and fans in the social media context’, which is a paper written by Kim Minseong and Kim Jihye which investigates “how structural and situational factors related to a celebrities social media activities can influence fans self-congruity, friendship, quality of life, well-being, commitment and loyalty”. This paper will help build a structure for how NELK interact with their fans through social media as they could be considered mild celebrities with over 5.5 million subscribers.
Another source I found that I think will be helpful is called ‘The Power of Cult Branding’ written by Matthew W. Ragas and Bolivar J. Bueno. The academic journal looks at how 9 magnetic brands turned their customers into loyal followers, with some of their examples being a Harley-Davidson rally or Star Trek convention. This source will help look at the group as a whole and help determine methods they have used to create a large and loyal fan base.
Ethical Considerations
Like all research tasks their must be ethical considerations when it comes to research involving others and this is no different in my research, even though I will not be talking to any fans directly. As I am observing other people’s behaviours and opinions without their knowledge, I will need to ensure that any data taken is done in a fair and anonymous matter. This means using explanations and paraphrasing to communicate the feelings of the fan’s comments, likes, and any other methods I can collect data from, rather than using direct quotes. This too means I will need to do fair research, looking at a range of sources, and not just noting the positive comments for example, but the negative ones too.
This method does not only apply to the fans but NELK as well, as I will need to not only note the positives and what they have achieved but also the negatives and criticism they have received. This will mean I have to remove myself as a fan and try and make observations and take data as a neutral observer to alleviate and biased opinions.
This week’s lecture had a focus on a concept known as the OODA loop, standing for observe – orient – decide – act, and developed by a United States Air force colonel by the name of John Boyd. Designed to help solders think rationally in chaotic situations, the model has been extended to other fields and used by lawyers, police officers, doctors, etc.
In a business and networking situation the OODA loop can be very effective, with social media monitoring being one of the key technologies for creating OODA loops. An excellent example is when the famous 2013 NFL Super Bowl lights blackout, Oreo tweeted “You can still dunk in the dark” and this happened by no accident.
Oreo had set up a media command centre for the match, using monitoring tools to observe the trends on twitter and strike with an excellent tweet. “Because everyone was together, they had everyone in place to jump on a real-time marketing opportunity, which was, how would Oreo see the blackout? And Oreo saw the blackout as an opportunity to dunk in the dark.”, VP of Cookies at Mondelez International Lisa Mann.
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