The Nature of Social Interaction

In 1993 Howard Rheingold’s book ‘The Virtual Community’ proposed that Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) would radically change the nature of social interaction in a positive way. It would be positive because it would reverse the trend toward privatisation and alienation of developed societies; it would allow citizens to challenge the hegemony of established political power; virtual communities were seen as a place that would lead the user to post-modern sensibilities.

Today the online world is very different compared to the ideas in the 90s, with the nature of social interaction becoming complex with problems arising in relationship maintenance, legal and political obligations, moral responsibility and cultural understanding. Fiona Martin describes in her article that with the growth of the read / write web is causing businesses to assess their online communication strategies and consider the perceived risk in the development of social relationships. Who would of thought that positive potential of social interaction world would turn out like this?

Today with social media becoming an integral part of society, companies who have not integrated social media within their organization are not out of the loop, but mute to online conversations which can lead to disastrous results. For example, two Domino’s employees recorded themselves breaching several food health and safety regulations and then posted the video on YouTube. The video quickly went viral with millions of views. Domino’s waited a few days before responding to the video, by which time most of the damage to the Domino’s brand was done.

The unplanned communication regarding, Domino’s led to the downfall of share price and loss of customer loyalty. It was however the use of planned communication through the creation of a twitter account and a public apology placed on YouTube that put the company back on the road to public recovery. Because of the nature of social interaction, reputation management has become a major challenge online. It has caused a shift from not only regulating others but regulating ourselves.

Don’t DIS my Sociability

Mature aged man with a disability operating touchscreen computer.

Social media has given Internet users endless opportunities to connect, talk, share photos and videos, but there is still a disconnect for disabled users. For disabled users who may have physical or intellectual disabilities social media accessibility is out of reach for most of them.

Social media must improve accessibility for disabled users and work towards being an inclusive platform. Natasha Mitchell shares in her interview with Dr Scott Hollier, Project Manager at Media Access Australia on Sociability: how accessible is social media? that social media today is equivalent to being a basic human right and access to the Internet is an essential service for all users. She shares that for web developers and graphic designers who contribue to the issue who do not comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are like architects who forget to design a wheelchair ramp for disabled users to access the front door.

Goggin & Newell state in their article on ‘The Business of Digital Disability’ that the difficulty of social media inclusion lies in the problematic nature of accessibility as a concept. Accessibility by design is self-regulated and is a reflection of social relations. Accessibility will either facilitate inclusion or exclusion and Goggin & Newell promote the importance for digital disability inclusion in the design process.

People with disabilities still face a long struggle for digital ability inclusion with the creation of inaccessible technologies like the iPhone which has no raised or recessed buttons and inaccessible social media content being produced like the Facebook Homepage for Android devices. Many blind and vision impaired users have found the platform largely inaccessible through screen readers. But there is hope for the disabled user with Facebook rectifying the issue and working towards making the Homepage compatible with screen reader to enable blind and vision impaired users greater access to the social network and its services. As well as the development of the world’s first tactile smartphone, tailored to the blind user with braille buttons and audible content.

Hopefully more companies like these will work towards reducing exclusions and create a gateway for participation and accessibility for all users.

Multicultural Media in Australia

Media plays a significant role in regards to multiculturalism in Australia. Media provides representations and frameworks which shape our understanding of different races, ethnic and religious groups. It has the power to reflect culture or fame into fame public debate and contribute to racism.

Tanja Dreher’s article on ‘White Bread Media’ talks about both the positive and negative potential of the media’s representational function in multicultural Australia. She shares an example of the media under scrutiny for the under-representation of people groups on commercial TV, with Firass Dirani, Australian Actor, who accused TV producers of a ‘White Australia’ policy, claiming that all-Anglo family soaps like Neighbours don’t reflect todays multicultural society. She also shares how multicultural groups in community media are speaking up and talking back to help shift multicultural representations in the media with the example of the Muslim TV show, Salam Cafe which uses self-reflexive comedy to break down mainstream representations of Islam which is often exacerbated in the media. Both of these examples show us that media definitely has the power to frame culture whether its through mainstream or self-representation sources. It also shows just how much media matters in creating a multicultural profile for Australia.

Sukhmani Khorana’s article on Ethnic diversity on Australian television shares how TV shows like MasterChef are working for change by diversifying representations of culture not only in food but in the people, with Asian and Muslim contestants. I think its important for Australian media to diversify its representations of culture because of its power to frame multiculturalism. In todays media people are stereotyped, racialised or misrepresented in the generalisation of culture. Australian media definitely needs to extend its representations of culture to avoid the ‘White Bread Media’ debate and reflect a true representation of our multicultural complexities. I can’t wait for new TV shows to emerge in the future that reflect todays Australian modern family.