Category: online

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Hong Kong media media psychology online technology

The end of TV? Broadcast crisis in HK

By Stephanie Szeto @stepszeto

 

There are only two free-to-air terrestrial television stations, Television Broadcasts (TVB) and Asia Television (ATV), in Hong Kong.  Owing to the financial crisis in past quarters, the ATV has been struggling with fund raising endeavour, in coping with consecutive financial loss and failure to pay salaries of hundreds of employees.  The posts on Facebook could tell that Hongkongers attributed ATV’s failure to their outdated drama genre and mismanagement. Media commentaries presented that their management should take the responsibility because the crisis originated from the internal organisational issue (Jin, Liu, & Austin, 2014).  Some people expressed views on posts that demanded ATV to give up their fight and the government should order ATV to surrender its free-to-air TV license to the Hong Kong Television Networks (HKTV, mentioned in the previous article).  As Lee (2004) found that Hong Kong audiences’ reactions to public media crises has become emotional and may explain the negative and less sympathetic comments of Hongkongers’ harsh reaction to the fall of ATV.

 

Some Hongkongers, alternatively, attributed the downfall of ATV to its fierce competitor, TVB which was assumed to monopolise the TV industry.  However, as Atkins (2010) mentioned that the impact of crisis is not limited to one organisation, TVB was also suffering from the decline of TV industry, despite reaching its peak in the 90s.  Today, the 24/7 access online providing abundant supply of entertainment, such as YouTube and iTunes, is the main culprit for downfall of TV industry.  During the dispute over free-to-air TV licence to HKTV, Mark Lee Po-on, TVB’s General Manager, claimed that there was not enough advertising revenue to support newcomer to the TV media market.  It may be the reason why there were internet rumours about reciprocal relation between TVB and the government that TVB delivered pro-government perspective to the audience and the government denied to issue a free-to-air TV licence to HKTV.

 

While people continue to discuss online about this evolving media crisis in Hong Kong, we will wait and see if there is any relationship of the ongoing situation with the heated debate of the 2017 political reform of the Hong Kong SAR which has been a focus of attention from a number of international media. One is sure that social media will be something we may continue to watch on.

 

 

 

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@salfordpsych applied psychology brain and behaviour community engaging people Hong Kong media mental health online OUHK political psychology technology

New media and new perspectives on the crisis in Hong Kong

by Stephanie Szeto (@StepSzeto)

Stephanie Szeto

 

 

 

 

 

The high penetration of the new mobile technology and social media enables some Hongkongers, who don’t have much prior knowledge of computer, to access internet media and enjoy spontaneous mobile mass communication, such as Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.   In past few decades, only few TV media existed in Hong Kong. Television Broadcasts (TVB) is completely monopolising the media market as Asia Television (ATV) produces limited domestic programmes and is facing major financial problem that has to terminate some news broadcasts.  People are now used to read news from wide variety sources for having different perspectives, for example independent press, rather than from the traditional mass media, such as the two existing free-to-air terrestrial television stations, (TVB) and (ATV). Young people are more accessible and develop critical views to various news angles and discover nested interests of different media stakeholders may affect the political stands or economic positions of various commentaries or social media blogs.

 

In last October 2013, tens of thousands of protesters marched to the government headquarters of the Hong Kong SAR claiming the violated Hong Kong’s core values of freedom as the monopolisation of existing TV public media eventually led to rejection from the government in issuing an additional free-to-air TV licence to the Hong Kong Television Networks (HKTV).  The march originated from a social action organised with the help of a Facebook page claiming to gather ten thousand of HKTV supporters and simultaneously gained nearly five hundred thousand LIKES.  Facebook has become a powerful social media to magnify the tearful speeches of HKTV staff and celebrities that were spreading quickly on the web which explained the underlying nested interests of politicians in rejecting the license application.  Protesters claiming that, despite a 85% of respondents in a public survey conducted by The University of Hong Kong indicated more free-to-air TV choices, the government turned down HKTV’s application as a result of politically decision.  Mr. Ricky Wong Wai-kay, the boss of HKTV, presented that he would create a station that will truly belong to Hongkongers by giving alternative choice, such as ‘dark’ comedy and drama, which allows different political satire may capture the popular sentiment.  Therefore, Hongkongers believed that the government was crushing the city’s core values of freedom and vowed to have social movement against the media monopolisation.  Wong questioned whether Hong Kong was still governed by the rule of law and the HKTV, in the end, resorted to broadcast by over-the-top online platform.

 

With more easy access to online platforms, Hongkongers are now relying less on traditional TV news as they believe it offers more pro-government perspective to the audience.  On the other hand, posts of independent press and internet radio have acquired a higher share of media influence.  This situation is confirmed by the findings of crisis communication research that some people give higher level of credibility to new media than to traditional media in terms of having different perspective of the crisis (Jin, Liu, & Austin, 2014). One would see the new media has become a real battle ground for people to exert their political influence and gaining publicity through the emerging mobile technology.

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learning media psychology online psychology twitter

The Self Online Week 2013

By Jenna Condie

This is short notice but I am relying on the power of social media to spread the word fast.  I am giving my annual #TheSelfOnline lecture tomorrow morning Monday 22nd April 2013 10-12pm in L312 for students visiting from Xaverian College.  If you are free, Psychology at Salford students are welcome to attend, especially those thinking about increasing their online presence for a summer of graduate job searching.  Also, I’m sure Xaverian students would really like to meet some of you too.

I am also giving the lecture on Friday 26th April 2013 to Level 4 students on the Individual Differences module at 10-12pm in MS G21.  Again if you are free, students in other year groups and on our masters courses are welcome to attend.  Please email me if you would like to attend this one j.m.condie@salford.ac.uk.

Here’s what’s in store:

I’ve titled this post The Self Online Week 2013.  If you can’t make it to the lectures, why not add your thoughts or questions around your online presence on Twitter using this tag #theselfonline.  If you do one thing this week, Google yourself and see what you find. If you do another, check out LinkedIn.

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@salfordpsych engaging people online twitter

Five Reasons to use Twitter

By Hannah Smith a.k.a. @hannahbubble on Twitter

I loved curating the @salfordpsych account last week. I wanted to take part as I think there needs to be a greater sense of community within the Psychology department at Salford, and I want to contribute to that. Anyone who is thinking about curating should definitely have a go, using the @salfordpsych account instead of my own for a week really made me focus on ensuring my tweets were personal yet suitable for a professional audience. I do believe that Twitter is a great tool for networking, not just within the Psychology department but outside of it as well. One thing I think @salfordpsych could do next would be to collaborate on a magazine type publication, similar to The Looking Glass from the Institute of Psychiatry which I tweeted about. This could give us an opportunity to reach people who aren’t on social media, as well as reaching a wider audience within the university e.g. other programmes.

 

If you aren’t on Twitter yet, why not?! Here are my top five reasons why I think you should be.

  1. Twitter is a great place to continue discussion which may have been raised in lectures, for example using a hash tag such as #devpsy for a module on developmental psychology.
  2. Following on from this, it is also a good place to ask your fellow students questions, or even your lecturers!
  3. If you present yourself as professionally-minded and emphasise your interest in psychology, Twitter is a useful tool for developing connections with people working in the industry.
  4. You might even get work experience or a job offer from this! For example @sophcoulson tweeted last week about her wish to gain a post as a research assistant, which will hopefully lead to an offer of some work.
  5. Finally, follow any interesting accounts that you find. I follow lots of psychology-related Twitter accounts and have found research I can use in essays, inspiration for my dissertation and also some ideas for my career path.

If I haven’t managed to convince you, check out the @salfordpsych account and have a look for yourself at the sorts of things you can find on Twitter.

Top Tweet of the Week:

 

 

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events guest speaker online psychology seminar series relationships

How does virtual infidelity lead to jealousy? Psychology Seminar Series

Tomorrow afternoon, Dr Martin Graff is delivering a talk entitled ‘How does virtual infidelity lead to jealousy?’ as part of our Psychology Seminar Series at the University of Salford.

Martin is a Chartered Psychologist, Reader in Psychology, and Head of Research in the School of Psychology at the University of Glamorgan.  His research interests centre on the psychology of online behaviour and range from the cognitive processes involved in online learning to the formation and dissolution of romantic relationships online.   Martin tweets @martingraff21.

The seminar is taking place in Allerton Building L420 at 4pm-5pm. All welcome. If you would like to find out more about the event, please contact Dr Catherine Thompson at c.thompson@salford.ac.uk.

This is the third talk in our series this year.  More to come in 2013…watch this space!