Assessment 2 – Finding My Community

Being a part of a community within this day and age is not uncommon. Whether you know it or not, at some point in time, you will have communicated with various other participants in a community. But what is a community? When thinking about my experience over the past few weeks within the Wentworth Community, I have been able to define what I believe a community is.

A community is a shared space (a forum, an online group etc.), where views, values or experiences are similar, thus resulting in conversation between users whether through text, images, videos or the like. This can give rise to the creation of friendships and the expansion of networks.

Through my experience within the Wentworth community, I have come to learn that “we can’t exchange social currency in a vacuum. We need other people” (Oatway, pg. 98). In simple terms, a community cannot exist without people. The Facebook groups that I have become a part of, form a space where people from across the globe can come together to discuss ideas about Wentworth.

As stated in my first post within this assessment, I have been a part of the Wentworth community for quite a while now and thought that because I knew a lot about the show, it would be easier for me to become more involved and to explore whether it is a community. My main points of attack were this Facebook group and this one, as I believed that with over 13,000 members in each, there would most likely be daily conversation happening, as you might expect with any large group. The Facebook groups I joined were both administered groups where rules were set out in the ‘about’ section. I go into a little more detail about this here.

However, despite the fact that I have followed the show avidly for many years, I found it quite difficult to interact with others. I believe that I wasn’t successful for the reason that Season 4 commences on the 10th of May 2016, one day after this assessment is due. As stated in this post, due to the fact that there is so little show content to discuss, unless you are the ‘first’ to see new trailers/images etc., you most certainly will not be able to get much of a following around what you post. I have commented on various posts with little or no replies.

Screenshot of my comment on the post about the new Wentworth trailer.

Screenshot of my comment on the post about the new Wentworth trailer.

As discussed throughout the Network Literacy readings and lectures in Week 2, I used tactics such as posing questions and tagging other users within my comments or posts. By tagging users, it increased my chances of getting some sort of a reply as when you tag someone it gives them a notification, drawing attention to the comment. Questions also give more of a reason for others to share their thoughts.

Screenshot of a Facebook Conversation where I only received 1 like for my comment.

Screenshot of a Facebook Conversation where I only received 1 like for my comment.

Whilst walking around crown, I looked up at the television in one of the bars and noticed that Celia Ireland had won a Logie! I received a few hearts and likes but I'm still waiting for a comment reply!

Whilst walking around crown, I looked up at the television in one of the bars and noticed that Celia Ireland had won a Logie! I received a few hearts and likes but I’m still waiting for a comment reply!

This community is definitely something I want to continue interacting with as it paves the way for networking around one of my favourite television shows. I hope that I will eventually spark some deeper conversation, with the new season commencing tomorrow!

 

Bibliography:

Oatway, J 2012, Mastering Story, Community and Influence: How to Use Social Media to Become a Socialeader Wiley, Hoboken. 97-109.

Last try…

As this assessment comes to a close, I have made a last minute attempt to get more of a following within my community. I just posted this on Facebook, and I hope that I’ll get a reply from SOMEONE. It’s relevant to the TV Week Logies happening this evening, which is certainly exciting for the community due to the fact that two actors from the show and the show itself have been nominated for some awards!

Screenshot of my Facebook Post within the Wentworth Group.

Screenshot of my Facebook Post within the Wentworth Group.

#GOWENTWORTH.

Pros and Cons of being in a community that’s a TV Show…

OK so, as the final few days arise and the due date for this community assessment comes into sight, I wanted to address some of the pros and cons of using a TV show community as my assessment piece.

Before I begin, I must make it clear that Wentworth does not commence until May 10th, 1 day after the assessment is due.

Pros:

  • Part of the cast last night joined various audience members for a special Q&A shown on SoHo AU at 8:30pm. Various questions were asked and answered to all members of the cast, giving the fans of this wonderful community even more to talk about!
  • https://www.facebook.com/BeaSmith/videos/1230778160280723/
  • Here I was thinking, the show won’t even start again until the assessment is over, why have I chosen to become more involved within this community. Little did I think about the fact that whilst the show isn’t on, there are always events on whether that be awards shows or Q&A sessions with the cast. The Logies are this Sunday the 8th of May (which is also Mother’s Day so get prepping kiddies), and Wentworth cast members, Celia Ireland and Pamela Rabe are both up for awards on the evening. There is quite a lot of hype around the fact that either of the actors could win an award, which would be incredibly exciting for the whole cast.
  • Logies Nominations

    Screenshot of SoHoTVAU Facebook Post regarding Logies Nominations for Wentworth cast and creatives.

  • And of course with the regular trailers being released, especially the more in depth trailer shown at the end of the Q&A show on Tuesday evening, there are always questions/comments being raised about what everyone wants/thinks will happen in the new season.

    Discussion with members of the Wentworth Community (including my comment below).

    Discussion with members of the Wentworth Community (including my comment below).

Cons:

  • So as stated earlier, the show doesn’t commence until May 10th and so the whole community is only hyping around short 1 minute trailers released every couple of weeks. This means that if you aren’t the ‘first’ to see trailers/images etc., you most certainly will not be able to get much of a following around what you post. I have attempted to comment on various posts with no reply.
  • Because I have always followed the show from a different aspect to the way in which I am for this assessment, I am finding it very difficult to break into the community. I have always been fascinated by the actors and have always wanted to support all of their works, not just the work they do on Wentworth. This means that trying to spark conversation with new people so soon can be difficult as there is definitely a sense of hierarchy within the community. Both groups have around 10,000+ members, yet I would say about 1000 are probably active avid fans.
  • I have also joined groups that I probably wouldn’t have joined if it weren’t for this assessment. I tend to steer clear of large fanbases as from past experience, sometimes other people can get in the way from the enjoyment of the person/thing you are a fan of. For example, I have always really loved Jessie J and followed her very closely. However I find that often there are a lot of horrible comments/posts between fans about other fans or even Jessie and sometimes that can be hard to deal with. Twitter has always been my ‘go to’ as I enjoy being part of a community space where the talent is actually able to interact as well. With these Facebook groups, it is purely just the fans, so getting comments from the actors/writers etc. is not possible.

Moderation in moderation

In reference to my last post, I would like to raise the issue surrounding Online Privacy in regards to my community. As stated in my last post, I mentioned the fact that Facebook groups were the main space I used to interact with fellow Wentworth Fans.

The Facebook group has a few admins, meaning that a lot of what is posted is moderated. This also means that if you want to get into the group, you must be accepted by one of these further up the hierarchy people.  It’s interesting to think about the way in which communities are an attempt to create a space where everyone who has similar interests/likes the same things are welcome, yet there is a need for ‘acceptance’ into a group.

“I declare that I am an avid Wentworth fan”.

I think it’s important that there is an aspect of moderation as it can stop arguments/comments arising that may not be wanted. However I think it’s also important that we allow some sort of ‘freedom of speech’ within these groups. I know that there are characters in Wentworth that I don’t particularly agree with, but I feel that if I were to raise this, I would most likely cause some sort of prison-like riot, whether online or in real life.

In one of the groups that I am a part of for Wentworth, one moderator recently had a go at all the viewers from the United Kingdom, who seem to flood the group with queries regarding when Season 4 will be released over there. I can understand why the moderators would be angry as the group seems to be flooded with these queries, however I don’t like that there are people who think they can tell people what to do in such a large community, as it makes them seem as if they are better than everyone else… #justathought #newsflashtheyaren’t.

Week 8 is here.

This week in class we discussed the ideas around Online Privacy. Now that we are all venturing into our own communities and exploring ways in which we can interact with people within them, it’s important to remember how our comments can come back to us.

In regards to my community, the main space I use is Facebook. Because I use a Facebook group to interact with fellow Wentworth fans, my name is over every action or word. I need to be careful about my actions as they could potentially come across incorrectly, causing detrimental effects to my current life and future aspirations.

Whilst some extreme cases of issues surrounding online privacy were mentioned in class, I think it’s important to consider them as they remind us as to what can really happen.

One girl mentioned the fact that a woman had tweeted a very racist comment before getting on a flight to Africa, and once she had landed, the tweet had gone viral and she was met with journalists and reporters at the airport.

I will ensure that whatever I do post is still in line with RMIT’s guidelines and it’s something that I would be happy for others to see if it were to be leaked.

 

Update on my little Wentworth community

SO to update you all on my Wentworth Community search, browsing through the ‘Wentworth’ Facebook group that I linked in my blog post earlier this week, a NEW TRAILER WAS POSTED LAST NIGHT ON TWITTER, and as you can probably tell, it’s sent me crazy!

A fellow Wentworth lover friend posted this trailer on Twitter and it made my heart sink. I’m SO NERVOUS about the return of the show on May 10.

So returning to the Facebook post that I first saw the trailer on, I decided to pose a question to those who are within the group, making reference to what my favourite character, Franky, says in the trailer. To give a little bit of context, Franky has recently been released on bail and is now living with the prison’s psychologist. But the trailer shows a side that I never thought I would see. It seems that Franky doesn’t like the outside as much as she liked being in prison.. and it would be interesting to see if she does land herself back into the prison. So I posed the question to see what others think and hopefully will get a reply/get a bit of conversation going.

Screenshot of my comment on the post about the new Wentworth trailer.

Screenshot of my comment on the post about the new Wentworth trailer.

Stay tuned! (Pardon the pun…)

Community or not to community?

Assessment 2 is beaming like a bright light in the distance coming towards us Networked Media children. As it begins it’s decent onto planet “oh my god another assessment is due”, I must begin to investigate a community of my choosing and reflect on the interactions within it.

As a mad lover of the TV show Wentworth, I thought I might delve a little deeper into the community of Wentworth Fans that I am already somewhat involved in.

At the moment, I use Twitter to get involved in the conversations, especially as the Wentworth Twitter account follows me (and therefore I feel obliged to be up to date because I’m one of the lucky 67 accounts that they follow).

But I want to delve even deeper into the community and see more of the world that exists surrounding the show.

A few places that I think I will explore include:

The #Wentworth Tag on Twitter – Whilst I currently use this tag when commenting on the show, it will be interesting to properly read what is out there already/what will come/anticipation (as Season 4 commences May 10).

From first glance, it appears that the most common place for Wentworth lovers to talk about the show are these two Facebook groups:

‘Wentworth’ – https://www.facebook.com/groups/239278402866843/

‘Wentworth TV Series’ – https://www.facebook.com/groups/547193018653526/

With both groups attaining over 13,000 members each, it seems that there are new discussions going every day. I have since requested to join both groups and have been accepted into both.

Screenshot taken on 18th April 2016, Facebook - Accepted into Wentworth TV Series Group

Screenshot taken on 18th April 2016, Facebook – Accepted into Wentworth TV Series Group

Screenshot taken from Facebook on April 18 2016. Accepted into Wentworth Group on Facebook

Screenshot taken from Facebook on April 18 2016. Accepted into Wentworth Group on Facebook

Wentworth Cast Twitter Feed – I have since subscribed to this feed enabling me to keep up to date with what the cast are saying about the show.

#Wentworth on Tumblr – this hashtag allows me to access various different Tumblr accounts that house various different videos, gifs and even comments/fanfics about the show.

The Wentworth Website has a few trailers and links to the Wentworth Twitter account but may not be as useful in regards to finding the community that exists.

It must be noted that the above mediums (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr) are all used to interact and therefore allow for communities to be housed as there is a sense of the ability to comment/like/repost.

/ The Logies and Raising Awareness /

So as many Australian’s know, the inaugural ‘Logies’ of 2015 were held on Sunday evening with some fabulous guest stars including the likes of Ricky Martin and Meghan Trainor who performed their hit songs for the wonderful all celebrity audience.

Some of my favourite actors/singers were absolute stars on the red carpet including Nicole Da Silva (Figure 1), Asher Keddie (Figure 2), the Wonderland cast (Figure 3) and Delta Goodrem (Figure 4).

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(Figure 1)

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(Figure 2)

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(Figure 3)

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(Figure 4)

There was your best dressed, worst dressed and the in betweeners. But the reason for this post is to congratulate the wonderful Carrie Bickmore on her first ever Gold Logie after about 4 previous nominations. Not only has she just had a baby (and she looks smashing (see images below)) but her speech was on a whole other level. Bickmore stated in an interview the morning after on Nova 100 that she was going to do the usual “thank-you” but had already done it before. She tossed up whether to end the night on a sad note with a sad story but decided that this was the best thing to do – and so she did rightly so!

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Bickmore looks stunning after just having a baby.. not even sure how she does it!

The contents of her speech included a blue beanie and a thank-you to her late Husband who died of Brain Cancer. The blue beanie was worn for the campaign ‘#BeaniesforBrainCancer’. Her emotional speech raised awareness for the deadly disease, something that has had many talking since because of how beautiful it truly was.

On The Project the next day, the whole crew wore beanies to raise awareness for Brain Cancer.

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Personally I believe that this was an amazing thing to do. It is so important that we are all aware of how bad these illnesses are, and raising awareness is exactly what we need to do. Bickmore having had personal experience with the illness of course is more inclined to want to raise awareness, however we must respect those celebrities who use their power and fame to go out of their way to raise awareness for any type of illness/charity/cause. It is so important that celebs are doing this as they are often the most reached people in society and therefore their messages are more likely to get across to more people. It could be said that it in fact is easier for them to raise awareness as they are more popular than you and I so I believe that all celebrities should be doing their bit within society.

I hope that in the future I can follow in the footsteps of Bickmore and be as inspiring as her.

Congratulations Carrie. That Logie was so well deserved 🙂