For our film project, we decided to use the brand NYX because we all enjoy their products and what they’re brand stands for. We picked TikToks as the format for our videos because NYX as a brand reaches a younger audience, so we felt as if it would make sense to make content for them on a platform that would reach their intended customer base. Along with that, the company itself is already incredibly active on TikTok, so we would be matching the way they already market their products. Their TikToks are fun and adventurous so we figured that creating a TikTok challenge would be the most appropriate way to match the brand’s aesthetic and we thought it would be a creative way to stay on top of current TikTok trends. We wanted to make this challenge as fun as possible while making sure it would look like a campaign that NYX would come up with themselves. We wanted to showcase different adventurous or daily activities that women go through daily to prove the makeup can withstand anything, but also adding a bit of fun and fantasy with the inclusion of the pop culture reference of Squid Games. We also decided to use the song “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus to make it seem as if the song was made specifically for the company and the campaign, much like ELF’s “Eyes, Lips, Face” TikTok challenge. NYX as a brand is all about encouraging women to be the best that they can be and embracing their beauty. That is why this series highlighted products from the “Can’t stop, won’t stop” line. We think the #Unstoppable not only matches with the name of the products as well as it is a feeling that we want to instill into the people who use these products. This campaign is meant to convey the values of confidence. The tagline “Makeup as unstoppable as you are” is meant to show that the makeup is supposed to complement the already natural beauty and confidence that is already within the woman wearing the makeup.
Month: January 2022
Weibo’s “Super Topics”: A Community as the Commons-Based Media Resource
When Twitter is the leading microblogging platform in worldwide, Weibo still occupies the largest share of the Chinese market. The operation mode of them is pretty similar, but the conversation I want to bring today is about a unique feature of Weibo, the “Super Topics”.
Left: The Category of Film
Right: The Category of Celebrity
The super topics presents in the same form as hashtags, but it is much more than a hashtag. Each super topic has a page, which allows users who share the same interests and thoughts to post in this page. Everyone could set up a super topic page on any topic, as long as it meets up the community code. For example, the advertiser can open a super topic page to promote their product. But advertisers need to pay a fee to the platform to gain exposure. However, the majority of super topic is individual-based and there is no fee needed to open. One of the most active categories is the fandom-based super topics. This kind of super topic could be described as a commons-based media resource, since it not only allows users share the information of stars, but also encourage them to produce more content in the way of peer production.
There are several approaches to describe fandom-based super topics as a commons-based media resource:
Firstly, according to Yochai Benkler, the peer production is driven by intrinsic and self-interested reason. The labor that people provide in peer production is voluntary and used to meet their own needs. The popular of fandom-based super topics is closely correlated with Chinese fan culture. Under this circumstance, fans are willing to dedicate their labor for the super topic page for free. It is not just about finding people who admires the same idol. Some businesses will use the data of super topic as an important indicator of the popularity of celebrities. Therefore, many fans put their leisure time in promoting idols in the super topic community, in order to create more business opportunities for idols.
Secondly, as mentioned before, the commons is not simply about “sharing”. In addition to the update of celebrities’ itinerary and the expression of worship, another important component of super topic is the derivative work made by fan. Cai Xukun’s super topic is a representative example of peer production, who used to rank the first in super topics for hundreds of weeks.
Even as an outsider, like me, would feel impressed for the energy that fans devoted in these works. However, their hard work did enrich the content of super topic, making the super topic a more sustainable community.
And thirdly, a common-based media has high degree of autonomy and operates under the guideline made by users themselves. In super topic community, everyone could apply for the position of host. The assessment criteria of host are activation and contribution to content production. The responsibility of a host is to ensure that the content of the super topic conforms to the community’s norms, and to discover high-quality posts so that more people in the community can see it. In addition to this, a super topic’s host is often an organizer of onsite event. For example, there is a fan meeting, a host can distribute the works to other fans: live streaming of the event, photography, post-editing of the materials and content delivery to different platforms. It may sound like the duty of agency company, the difference is that fans have more freedom of creation and they are not getting paid.
Overall, fandom-based super topic not only provides a platform for fans to express their love, but also stimulates the emergence of many excellent derivative pieces. This fully demonstrates how common-based media platform can integrate resources and facilitate content production.
Working in the Digital Economy
“The division of labour … as one of the chief forces of history up till now, manifests itself also in the ruling class as the division of mental and material labour … while the others attitude to these ideas and illusions is more passive and receptive, because they are in reality the active members of this class and have less time to make up illusions and ideas about themselves.”
—— Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
I remember on my recent lecture, our instructor said a word that impressed me: If you are not paying for a product, you are the product. This is not a new theory but it incurs a profound reflection when I give it a second thought. When we have countless free ways to kill time today, how much invisible labor have we paid?
To answer this question, firstly, we need discuss what social media platform is. When I started to use social media about ten years ago, I was amazed by how these free apps allow me to see my friend’s life updates and get instant conversation with them. Now I am a heavy user of these apps. But I find these apps are pushing different advertising contents to me every day. When I want to quit using them, I realize that I can’t do it. As Nicole S. Cohen says in her article, social media platforms are designed to make advertising more personalized and user- specific, its priority is not for people’s communication convenience. When users think they are enjoying the free services, they are actually both commodity and workers. What they pay is their own attention, time, and sometimes personal information. At the same time, those labour is sold at a marked price to advertisers by platforms.
And, I’m saying, the digital labor exploitation is real. With the emergence of platforms like TikTok, it requires more labor to gain likes (for people who wants to be an influencer). You need the ability to shoot the video and edit it, even write the script. Here is a guide of how to be TikTok famous:
The big companies weave a shining and fancy dream for the users, lure them to become an influencer. Millions of people were attracted by this low-threshold opportunity and put effort into it. There is a living example in my life: I have a friend who wants to be an influencer and have made many attempts on this path. Every time I ate with her in a restaurant, she would spend a lot of time photographing the food and the environment. In the past, all she needs just nice pictures, but now with the popularity of TikTok, she often asks me to take videos for her. Sometimes I think she is very hard, since she can’t completely relax during leisure time and enjoy delicious food.
However, some people would argue this deal is pretty fair. While we labour on social media, we also get many services with no charge. Also, many people become an influencer through these platforms, and earn a considerable income even in part-time. The big Internet companies provide a platform and open to everyone.
I also agree with this idea that, we are not laboring for nothing. But I want to point out, DON’T TAKE IT AS A REWARD. The question is: do we really need all these platforms and technologies? I mean, we didn’t ask for these services at the beginning. These services were the product of technological development and then used by big companies to make profit. As we gradually get used to this environment, there is no other choice for us. Like Marx mentioned, we the audiences are the passive and receptive one. We are not in control of the progress, and all the leisure and convenience provides by the platforms are incidental.
About few months ago, Facebook changed their name to Meta, and launched the Metaverse which aroused a heated discussion around the world. I think this is a very adventurous exploration in the history of technology, and could be a whole new chapter of social media. Along with this, I can see there is a further exploitation of users by the digital economy.