Author: Laxmi

Posted in DIGC202

The Internet of Things (IoT)

Posted on by Laxmi

These days everything is connected to the Internet from our phone and computers to our lights and pretty much everything that we use in our everyday life. The term “Internet of Things” has become an increasingly growing topic of conversation both in the workplace and outside of it. 

What exactly is the “Internet of things” and what impact is it going to have on us, if any? 

Simply put, the Internet of things (IoT) is the concept of connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet (and/or to each other). This includes everything from mobile phones, coffee makers, washing machines, fridge, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and pretty much everything you can think of.  This also applies to components of machines, for example, a jet engine of an aeroplane or the drill of an oil rig. 

If it has an on and off switch then chances are it can be a part of the IoT.  According to Gartner, there are more than 12 billion devices that can currently connect to the Internet, and researchers at IDC estimate that by 2020 there will be 26 times more connected devices (some even estimate this number to be much higher, over 100 billion).  The IoT is a giant network of connected “things” (which also includes people).  The relationship will be between people-people, people-things, and things-things. Gartner also says that the consumer applications will drive the number of connected things, while enterprise will account for most of the revenue. IoT adoption is growing, with manufacturing and utilities estimated to have the largest installed base of Things by 2020. The McKinsey Global Institute predicts that the innovation enabled by the internet of things is expected to drive as much as an additional $6.2 trillion in value to the global economy by 2025.

Back in 1999, when the term IoT was created by MIT researcher Kevin Ashton back in 1999, the technology didn’t exist to make the Internet of Things a reality outside a very controlled environment, such as factory warehouse. But now the IoT can be applied to material objects to the internet- ranging from shoes to umbrellas or things like transportation networks: “smart cities” which can help us reduce waste and improve efficiency for things such as energy use; this helping us understand and improve how we work and live. Take a look at the visual below to see what something like that can look like this..

The reality is that the IoT allows for virtually endless opportunities and connections to take place, many of which we can’t even think of or fully understand the impact of today and it opens the door to a lot of opportunities but also to many challenges at the same time. For instance, security is a big issue. With billions of devices being connected together, people will face trouble to make sure that their information stays secure and it will be easier for people to maybe get access to your entire network just by sampling hacking into your washing machine. And the issue of privacy and data sharing is a whole other story.

There’s no question that security is a big issue but, it’s not that different than handling your online banking or giving your credit card to any online shopping platform. You need to have the necessary security protocols in place. Putting IoT to work for your business offers an array of opportunities as well as a heightened need to protect what you’ve put in place. But you need to think about how you can leverage those benefits today because its connectivity is already here and growing quickly.

REFERENCES 

Posted in DIGC202

The Phenomena of hacking and cybercrime

Posted on by Laxmi

In this 21st digital era, we are surrounded by computer technology which obviously has brought great benefits to us but at the same time, it has also brought some negative impacts like hacktivism, cybercrimes cases. 

The phenomena of hacktivist and cybercrime were founded by a hacktivist group called Anonymous back in 2003. They are widely known for publicized distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks on government, religious and corporate website with whom they have political disagreements. Even if the information is extremely decentralized, they can distribute it in a large quantity. This way they can keep the operation running even if someone is arrested for what is deemed as illegal activity (Sands, 2016). With around 20 members in Hong Kong, they are best known for their cyberattacks on the FBI, the Visa credit-card network and electronics giant Sony. 

So what is DDoS and who would carry out such attack? 

A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is an exceptionally malicious form of cybercrime where the hackers’ end goal is to take down a website or flood a corporate network with malicious traffic (such as incoming messages, fake pockets or requests for connection) to deny legitimate traffic and so take it offline (STAGE2DATA).

It could be anyone cyber-criminals or disgruntled employees. Perpetrators execute DDoS attacks for a variety of reasons, such as extortion, revenge, or politics. One of the examples of DDoS attack in Hong Kong was the PopVote DDoS attack which was carried out in 2014 and targeted the Hong Kong-based grassroots movement known as Occupy Central. The movement was campaigning for a more democratic voting system.

The attackers sent large amounts of traffic to three of Occupy Central’s web hosting services, as well as two independent sites, PopVote, an online mock election site, and Apple Daily, a news site, neither of which were owned by Occupy Central but openly supported its cause. Presumably, those responsible were reacting to Occupy Central’s pro-democracy message. The attack barraged servers with packets disguised as legitimate traffic and was executed with not one, not two, but five botnets. This resulted in peak traffic levels of 500 gigabits per second. According to the Hong Kong Law, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer said: “Anyone convicted of accessing a computer with dishonest or criminal intent under Section 161 of Chapter 200 of the Crime Ordinance faces up to five years in jail.”

Moving onto cybercrime, it is a criminal activity that is committed or facilitates through a computer, networked device or a network that can be either attack against computer hardware and software, financial crimes or the abuse of young people in the form of ‘sexploitation’ (Interpol 2014). According to the U.S. Department of Justice cybercrime is divided into three categories: crimes in which the computing device is the target, for example, to gain network access; crimes in which the computer is used as a weapon, for example, to launch a denial-of-service(DoS) attack; and crimes in which the computer is used as an accessory to a crime, for example, using a computer to store illegally obtained data.

cyber attack concept with hacker in grey hoody with laptop and multimedia icons on screen. digital dollar sign background.

Some of the well-known primary impacts from cybercrime act is financial, which many people have fallen victim of and it can include many different types of profit-driven criminal activity, such as ransomware attacks, email and internet fraud and identity fraud, as well as attempts to steal financial account, credit card or other payment card information. Cybercriminals may target private personal information, as well as corporate data for theft and resale.

Just like any other people I’m sure we all have also experienced cybercrime attack in a form of phishing emails or scam calls in the name of my bank account, where they give you a link to access and in order unlock the access you’re asked to update your security details. Crimes like this have become common now we can also see all the involved authorities like banks have taken this issue seriously by trying to improve their banking securities and fraud-fighting effort to help their customers from getting tricked. But despite their effort we still see many Internet users fallen into this kind of scam. 

In our digital modern world internet piracy is another new form of robbery which is described as the acts of copyright infringement, which is theft, but more complicated than that in the eyes of the law. Copyright is a form of intellectual property and is designed to give the originator of material such as music and movies, the right to be paid for their work and have control over the distribution and selling of their copyrighted material (SafeInternet.org). Internet piracy is when someone knowingly and deliberately carries out an act of copying and distributing something over the internet for others to view, without the express permission of the original owner of the material. 

There are numerous motivational reasons why someone would choose to do this but one of the main incentives seems to be price, due to an unwillingness or even inability to pay the price requested by the legitimate seller. Another key factor seems to be consumers desire for immediacy. When the latest box-office blockbuster is released e.g. “Frozen 2”, there are many movie fans online who simply don’t want to wait any longer than they have to in order to see it, which leads some unscrupulous distributors to encourage internet piracy by illegally copying the film and distributing without permission which affects the sales of music and film industry.

REFERENCES 


Posted in DIGC202

Digital Resistance: Hacktivism, Whistle-blowers

Posted on by Laxmi

“Hackers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help.”

Eric S. Raymond 

Hacktivism is a term that been heard by many people over news and articles and people seemed to be concerned about it. For people that may have never heard of it or don’t have a clear idea of it, hacktivism is a fusion of hacking and activism. It requires the use of computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends. As defined by Wolchover (2011) it is “a modern form of protest in which savvy programmers use their hacking skills to fight back against social and political injustice”. So why does hacktivism takes place? it usually occurs when the people feel like there is injustice happening and people are not being treated equally that is when hacktivist/ whistle-blowers use digital tools to pursue political ends and expose a person or organization that partakes in criminal behaviour. Their social agenda is in the public interest.

One of the best examples of hacktivism and whistle-blowing is probably WikiLeaks, a non-profit media organization founded by Julian Assange with the aim to disseminate important news and information that the government has been keeping from the public (Wikileaks 2011). WikiLeaks managed to get international recognition by publishing private and confidential documents of a few prominent public figures and governments of the United States, Africa and Western Europe (Fenster 2011). For example, in 2010 WikiLeaks released around 400,000 secret US military logs detailing its operations in Iraq (Fildes 2010) and also a classified U.S. military footage from an attack in 2007 in Baghdad by a U.S. helicopter that killed a dozen people including two journalists (Radford 2010). Those who exposed argued that the hacktivism was illegal and while the mainstream audience was pleased to see what was hidden from them all this time and finally they were able to see it coming to the surface. 

Wikileaks is all about making sure everyone gets the chance to voice out their opinion and know the truth by providing original and trustworthy news/ stories because as said by Julian Assange (the first person to do so hacktivism) such actions can improve transparency and help us build a better society. But is the question is it ethical for Wikileaks to hack into the government and companies secure system to disclose all the private and confidential news to the public?

Everyone has a different opinion and they are entitled to it, while some people think the hacktivists like Assange are doing a great job by revealing all the secret documents that the government has been trying to hide away from the public but some are against this kind of act as it is illegal. As Fester (2011) said, Wikileaks creates a dangerous and illegal disruption to state security and operations because they simply disclose and disseminate important news and information. They have also been criticized for their lack of journalistic ethics as they put individual informants as well as military operations at risk (Vaulasvirta 2012).

Anonymous, another active hacktivist group who are known for publicized distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks on government, religious and corporate website. They have managed to hack social media accounts associated with ISIS, taken a stand against the KKK, and attacked major credit card companies for not accepting WikiLeaks donations (Jochem, 2015). 

So why is the government so concerned about the groups like Anonymous, Wikileaks? It is particularly because these groups are showing another side of the story that usually been hidden from us and they’re making us think critically and question the government. These groups bring out stories, news that’s usually not covered by the traditional media. 

All in all, I would say its partly good to see Wikileaks exposing secret documents, news to the public as they believe that everyone should have the right to know the truth. The need for transparency is up to that would affect our lives, the need to know what threats are upon us, and the need to know if our government is doing their job. 

And let’s face it, sometimes that is the only path to justice. Even Snowden’s actions — whether you disagree with him or not — led to some startling and relevant revelations about our government’s surveillance programs that otherwise may not have happened had he not broken the law (Benkler, 2011).

But people also need to be more considering and try to understand that if the government or a particular organisation doesn’t want us to get access to certain documents or news they must have a solid reason behind doing so. 

REFERENCES

             Wolchover, N 2011, ‘Best Hacks by the Hacktivist Group’, accessed 

Posted in DIGC202

The emergent trajectories of protest movements

Posted on by Laxmi

Connectivity is power, and with social media acting as the main organizational tool to communicate with each other, people can share their content in a matter of time. Within moments of big events happening, tweets, Instagram, Facebook posts are circulated, responses and comments made and the originating content is highlighted. We see that the power of social networking has 3 main roles which are to inform, to inspire and to invite people to do something about the situation as showcased in the Euromaidan protest. It all started when a Ukrainian journalist and activist Mustafa Nayem frustrated with the President Viktor Yanukovych decided not to sign the association agreement with the European Union, instead chose to have closer ties with Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union wrote a Facebook post asking others who shared his frustration to comment on his post. 

So how did the role of social media help the Euromaidan movement? 

There were mainly three mechanisms by which social media had affected the protest participation and development: by providing tools for organizing protests; by facilitating the spread of information related to protests; and by building networks that could sustain the protest movement.

The most direct role for social media was organizing protests and mobilizing participation. It is difficult to get the precise effect of social media on motivating participation. But according to survey research conducted during the protest, around  37.2% of people reported coming to protest, at least in part, as a result of reading on Facebook that their friends were going.  Facebook seems to have been the primary site on social media for the organization and coordination of resources and events, although Twitter and VKontakte also played a role. The main Euromaidan page garnered an extraordinary number of followers, setting a record for its growth in followers for Ukraine. Within two weeks, the page had over 125,000 followers, and these numbers continued to grow over the course of the protests. 

Beyond organization, social media also served as an information source. For example, the EuroMaidan Facebook page was the dissemination of information. Most of this information was in Ukrainian or Russian and was directed at informing a domestic audience about the ongoing protests. This was also a role played by online media sources such as Ukrainska Pravda, and by streaming video sites such as Hromadske TV, which served to provide ongoing live coverage in the local language. Beyond the domestic audience in Ukraine, social media (particularly Twitter) were able to play key roles in spreading information about the protests abroad. 

There were several important notes to take away from the role of social media during Euromaidan. Most importantly, the social media was a key tool used for organizing the protest and that at least some of the efforts organized online would have been impossible or extremely difficult using traditional means of organization. Such as the ability to accept donations online, to coordinate carpools across long distances, and to generate widespread shows of support from around the world are all hallmarks of the digital nature of the movement. The movement was largely leaderless, but not disorganized, ideologically diverse but not uncooperative, and, perhaps most importantly, it was able to topple the government.

REFENCES:

Posted in DIGC202

Bridges made of pebbles

Posted on by Laxmi

With the traditional news media outlets like TV, radio and newspaper there are certain implications like the long tail, data aggregation and citizen journalism. Firstly, the Long Tail is a way marketing functions and works on the Internet. Its a concept defined by Chris Anderson to describe a business model used by the majority of Internet firms and eCommerce stores.

For instance, the online shopping platform like eBay it provides verities of an item for people to choose from and they have managed to attract all types of customers because they don’t have to worry much about the rent. As they collect the internet aggregate data together, it is easier and more convenient to get to the sources quicker than the traditional media.  Citizen journalism is a range of web-based practices such as people will choose to use iPad or iPhone to access to the Internet and get the latest news anytime whereby ‘ordinary’ users engage in journalistic practices (Goode 2009).

What’s the concept of the bridge of pebbles?

For example let’s say when something newsworthy happens immediately, with the introduction of social media we have a constant stream of the snip of information coming at us. We can get access to that immediately but it doesn’t necessarily give us the full story whereas if we wait a little bit longer the information gets aggregated into a more complete narrative. And the better understanding of the story itself. So it’s the difference between getting immediately or getting something later but more accurate. The idea of bridge pebble is idolization of what citizen journalism is and can be. The fact that all these little tiny pieces of information be tweets, videos, event photos to create a story and narrative of what’s happened to the news.

We often see news websites invading tweets in their stories using the story to flow. They start with this is what happened and a better tweet saying here’s the full story of the scene from someone that was at the scene rather having an image from a source to pay and get that image/ story. One of the benefit of the social media is that even though you’re getting immediate responses which are often quite brief and don’t give you the full story through time, you can build a strong understanding of the topic because the sense of community in places like Twitter is that the most important information will get pushed to the top whereas the unimportant tends to get pushed away or deleted.

Once you start compiling the stories into this bridge of pebbles more reliable information of the stories that’s where all the unwanted information get filtered out. The cohesive story put together by all the tiny little pieces of information spread across social media is something the technology has created and very important in the way news today just because of the nature of the social media on how rapid and how much information goes through it. The people that aggregate and build this story, it is important to get the full insight we get the full story out to the audience.  

REFERENCES

Posted in DIGC202

The opposing user philosophies of the iOS and Android mobile operating systems and devices

Posted on by Laxmi

When it comes to smartphones, usually there’s a sense of superiority depending on phone choice. Talking about phone choice, iOS and Android are the two current dominant giants in the tech field. Google the creator of the Android OS and Apple the iOS. They are the top contenders for sale and managed to grab people’s attention with their rise of smartphones. It has also led to a massive rivalry as people often argue on which platform to choose. To ensure that you make the right choice on which one to get can be very difficult. Well to make your life easier, I’m going to list out some factors to consider. 

First of all, an operating system as it is a software that manages computer hardware which provides appropriate mechanisms to ensure the correct operation of the computer system and to prevent user programs from interfering with the proper operation of the system. It acts as an intermediary between the user of a computer and computer hardware. Its purpose is to provide an environment in which a user can execute programs conveniently and efficiently. Moreover, you should about the technical factors, the business factors and the audience factors. 

iOS is a closed source operating system and is only dedicated to Apple products which also means that the installation software can only be downloaded through Apple’s official store. To reduce the risk of infection from malicious software, it been officially reviewed by Apple with complete control over platform, content, and users. 

One of the benefits of iOS closed source operating system is that its less confusing and provides a unified experience as almost everything from features to layouts are chosen by developers, it can provide a standard experience to each user. Moreover, the closed source operating system can increase the revenue, because the developer can charge other developers the cost of using the API and eliminate competition by not letting designers copy their designs.

In contrast, Android is an open and free operating system. Being a part of Google and an Open Source Operating System it is customizable, the developers can modify the codes, download or post or change for the official/ unofficial Android market with no limitations to choose from a variety of apps.  Which means that it also has higher chances of getting in trouble.  

The Android provides specific application programming interface (API) which supports common media file formats e.g. MPEG, MPEG-3, MPEG-4, H.286, AAC, JPG, PNG, GIF. Whereas the iOS being closed source operating system only provides a standard design which is only accessible for Apple products such as the iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch/ TV. 

At the end of the day, its all on a person’s choice. If you want something simple, standard and expensive device to show off to your friends you get and iOS. And if you want something less pricy, complex and common device then you go for the Android.

REFRENCES

Posted in DIGC202

The rise of digital feudalism

Posted on by Laxmi
Classes of Digital Feudalism. Lords of the manor: companies who own and manage platforms. Major gentry: companies with business models based on the manor platforms. Minor gentry: “influencers” who drive users to spend more time on the site. Serfs: people who submit to data collection for the right to exist in digital space

Taking as step back to 14th-15th Century Medieval Europe, feudalism is described as a structural social system under which the King would control all of the land and would hand out this land to nobles, knights, and eventually peasants. All this system was implemented just so he would receive protection, support, and overall control of how that land was used. He would act as the centre or hub and live off the labour of his peasants. 

You might be thinking what’s the point of bringing out old history. How does this former system relate to us in 2019?

Dusting off our history books, in today’s modern tech era, we still uphold the same structure emerge called digital feudalism where the big data acting as the modern day king controls the flow of information. In this structure, the investors (kings) grant resources to the tech entrepreneurs (nobles, knights), who then build software for the masses to use. If you find the you can’t relate to either of these roles, then chances are you’re a modern-day digital serf. The federal lords are tech giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft. We, the users of such giants, are the peasants, working under the reign of such massive companies. They are successful because of our labour, our participation, our attention.

These big data gatekeepers maintain “walled gardens” where they help us control and share our content while gathering large amounts of data from us. We can say the walled garden is beneficial to us as it provides the users protection, high quality free services to keep the interaction flow smooth. However, at the same time we pay for our own data so technically its not completely free. We also unknowingly place a large amount trust into these controllers. For instance, we’re quick to check off terms and agreements, provide our information (gender, phone number, etc.), and allow apps to access our exact location and camera roll. And it seems like the Facebook is more familiar with our personal information than any of our family members or relatives as it knows our every personal information, relationships as well as the health status.

An image designed to show the structure of digital feudalism by The Grand Optimist

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that we are definite a bunch of peasants in the Internet garden. With the information that we feed them, it has led to the rise of digital feudalism.  All in all, just like the 14th-15th Century Medieval Europe Feudalism, the digital feudalism in no different with its closed, hierarchical and centralised system. But, the difference is that the people are now willing to share their data with the companies. We got so comfortable with this system that we forgot to question is it actually risky or not. 

REFERENCES

Posted in BCM232

The concept of Orientalism?

Posted on by Laxmi

In a very simple word, Orientalism is a lens through which people view the world which presents the “West” as being dominant over, or more civilized than, the “East.” However according to a book “Orientalism”, written by Edward Said, he defines it as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, ‘mind,’ destiny and so on.” It is a culturally imposed system of thought that controls what can be said, written and understood about the Orient from a Western perspective. A way of seeing imagines, emphasizes, exaggerates and distorts differences of Arab peoples and cultures as compared to that of Europe and the U.S. It often involves cultures other than Western culture as exotic, backward, uncivilized, and at times dangerous. 

Orientalism provided a rationalization for European colonialism based on a self-serving history in which “the West” constructed “the East” as extremely different and inferior, and therefore in need of Western intervention or “rescue”. The goal of Orientalism is not simply to create a fictitious account of the “Eastern” world. Instead, Said stated it should be seen as “a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between ‘the Orient’ and ‘the Occident.’” In the quote below, Said furthers this thought with a statement that highlights the impressive scale of this topic:

“My contention is that without examining Orientalism as a discourse one cannot possibly understand the enormously systematic discipline by which European culture was able to manage—and even produce—the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post-Enlightenment period.”

In a very simple word, Orientalism is a lens through which people view the world which presents the “West” as being dominant over, or more civilized than, the “East.” Orientalism is ultimately about power, it can be seen through the sudden fame of it in the international markets especially in China. One of the most interesting things about Hollywood’s increased dependence on international markets has been that the industry has had to slowly but seriously reconsider its audience, no longer able to depend on old assumptions that the world, and the massive viewership of China, in particular, will line up to buy the same stuff it has always been hawking.

For instance, Orientalism enlightens, the continued demonisation of Eastern men who allegedly forced their women to veil, and simultaneously also explains the Western fascination with belly-dancing over all other expressions of Arab culture. Looking from an Orientalist point of view, the Eastern men are viewed as violent, regressive and opposed to liberal thinking; the women are an object of desire. Both are reductive images which reflect not so much the reality of ‘Oriental’ men and women as they do the Orientalist’s need to place himself in a position of control over the Orient. Once we become aware of the Orientalist perspective, its manifestations are not particularly difficult to identify, and they appear everywhere.

For instance, the success of the Fast and Furious franchise and Black Panther abroad just serves as more evidence that the long-held myth that whiteness is all that viewers abroad want is simply that — a myth. But Hollywood has also made more direct if still clumsy and pandering attempts to woo Chinese audiences. Now, the markets are forcing Hollywood to think of audience other than the Westerns and give more thought on what could be offensive to other culture group and that executives and directors acknowledge them not as abstract concepts or tradition-bound communities, but as modern, messy markets.

Another example, 2015 the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute presented an exhibit that was, literally, about Asianness as an outfit. “China: Through the Looking Glass” was a sprawling exhibit about Eastern-inflected fashion from Western designers that attracted everyone’s attention and one of the most iconic moment when Rihanna stepped up wearing that yellow gown made by Guo Pei, one of the few Chinese designers featured in the exhibit, it’s striking not just for its loveliness but because it feels like an untrammelled moment of cultural intersection in a way that so much of the discussion that’s had in the film does not.

In contrast, it was an extravagant ode to orientalism, something the exhibit acknowledged in its introductory text, which explained that the aim of the show was “to propose a less politicized and more positivistic examination of Orientalism as a site of infinite and unbridled creativity.” The distance between East and West, spanning perspectives that are often perceived as monolithic and dramatically opposed, diminishes. It seemed like it was being presented in a thematically fraudulent way, pretending that something inherently political can be neutralized to make everyone involved more comfortable. Even a show that explicitly acknowledged orientalism couldn’t figure out how to talk about it.

References

Brewer, B. (2019, July 9). Orientalism as an Issue in the Media and Beyond. Retrieved October 25, 2019, from https://chicagomonitor.com/2019/07/orientalism-as-an-issue-in-the-media-and-beyond/.

Willmore, A. (2018, April 4). Orientalism Is Alive And Well In American Cinema. Retrieved October 24, 2019, from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alisonwillmore/isle-of-dogs-jared-leto-orientalism.

Posted in BCM288

The Hallyu Wave

Posted on by Laxmi

Most will agree that Hong Kong is a hub of countries from all over the world but in recent years the Korean culture has swept Hong Kong with its popularity and there is no denying in that. Be it from fashion, lifestyle, makeup, hair, clothing, music, food to name few. If we look at the ladies here in Hong Kong you can see that a lot of the ladies get their fashion inspirations from the Korean culture. There are tons of Korean branded/ inspired stores in HK, especially in New Town Mall or D2 mall, Mong Kok for a cheap price. We even have our own little K-Town in Kimberly Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, where you can find tons of amazing Korean restaurants, food and snack shops. One of the favourite Korean restaurant “Ssal Bori Ssal” is also located there; they have a very authentic, tasty Korean food there. We can also observe a massive unmatched devotion and support from the Hong Kong people for K-pop as we can see that the annual Mnet Asian Music Awards which is one of the biggest Korean music festivals, chose to host the show in the city for four consecutive years. 

The Korean culture is also known as the “Hallyu Wave” was first introduced in the late 1990s and was doing pretty well in Asia. However, it took a whole another turn when a Korean singer Psy’s “Gangnam Style” became a huge trend. His quirky infamous horse dance took over the whole world and millions of people were following and recreating the infamous dance moves. Now, the Hallyu wave doesn’t seem to rest as we watch the infamous BTS (a boy band group) perform and receive a Billboard Music Award Black Pink (a girl group) performing in Coachella. Moreover, it has also grown through the introduction of food; Korean BBQ, I bet a lot of people are drooling over the idea of it right now 😀 Reality shows such as the infamous Running man, Masked singer and last but not the least Korean Dramas aka K-Dramas. With the showcase of theses celebs and programmes, it got more apparent when they started airing on Netflix where all the enthusiastic devoted fans welcomed it with great response.  

So, what got the Hong Kongers hooked into the Hallyu wave?

We were discussing this question during one of our tutorial class and few of my classmates said that they prefer to watch the Korean shows and dramas because they are more authentic, entertaining and they have more content, unlike the local Hong Kong shows. I totally agree with them because when I watch the Korean shows and dramas I find myself enjoying it eagerly looking forward to the next episode. They have original shows which were later franchised to other countries such as the ‘’Running Man, Masked Singer” etc. We can also see the growth in South Korea’s growth in soft power; the “intangible power a country wields through its image, rather than through hard force”. Now, the people around the world can be seen taking a great interest in Korean culture and history. For instance, one of my friends is trying to learn Korean just so she doesn’t have to always look for the subtitles and understand what her favourite idols are saying. And what’s even more fascinating to see is that this interest came mainly through entertainment. 

According to the Young Post article “Why is K-pop so popular in HK?”, “ Humans are drawn to beautiful things, and Korea is an expert at making things beautiful.” I think this statement is absoulately true if you look at the Korean celebs and the k-pop idols, everyone is gorgeous. Most of them look like they just came out of a comic book, with no flaws in their outer appearance.  This is why the Korean fashion and makeup markets have seen a boom in their economy. 

Judging from all the heat, it seems like the Hallyu wave is here to stay. With its increase in popularity and the devoted fans, we will not be saying bye to the Korean Wave anytime soon.

References: 

Cheung, C. (2018, November 14). Why is K-pop so popular in Hong Kong? Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://yp.scmp.com/entertainment/music/article/105959/why-k-pop-so-popular-hong-kong.

Posted in BCM232

The Netflix Effect

Posted on by Laxmi

We all are well aware that the entertainment is a fast-growing business and with the Netflix, in current demand, the cable companies might have to change the way they do business. So what exactly is Netflix? How did Netflix manage to become so popular? 

Founded in 1997, Netflix started as a service website providing online services by renting DVD via mail. Later in 2007, it launched a mobile media where the customers could watch movies or TV shows through any of their smart devices such as the TV, computer, tablet, mobile phone.

The users loved the new service because it was simple and easy to use; all you have to do is log in to your Netflix account via smart device and watch various movies, Tv shows, documentaries by genres or names. Unlike the TV cables which only creates limited productions such as Dramas, Netflix provides various range pf programmes in different languages to cater to its users. And it encourages its users to stay connected and watch the next episode by automatically playing the next episode in a series, or suggesting other films based on earlier viewing behaviour.

Netflix also allows its users to download the content and watch it offline which is one of the great options especially for people who can only get access to the Internet through Wi-Fi or have slow Internet and have trouble streaming the shows and movies. Netflix got your back and made sure that their users get to enjoy no matter where you are. 

Bonus point, Netflix is commercial-free, yes you read that right. In a media market where we get interrupted by commercial every other minute while watching videos, Netflix has heard our prayers and took the commercials out. And in 2013, Netflix also started adding its original content to compete with TV networks and cable TV. Originated in the US Netflix is available to most of the world but some of the content varies by the region you live in which is one of the biggest flaws of Netflix. 

The sudden popularity on Netflix had threatened the TV Industries. Netflix has shown an aggressive global expansion strategy with service to stream films and TV shows to homes and mobile devices at any time for a low cost. For instance, let’s look at Hong Kong. According the South China Morning Post, ever since, the launch of Netflix in 2016, the “Asia Television, also known as ATV, and fellow free-to-air broadcaster and market leader Television Broadcasters Limited, or TVB” and Now TV has struggled to keep up with the competition and turn a profit or have seen falls in earnings.

Compared to other markets, Hong Kong may be a small market but the interest of the media lovers and foreign firms reveals its vitality. In today’s, competitive environment the TV market cannot afford relax, they have to invest, embrace new technologies and be creative. Now only the markets that best meet the customers; demands will thrive.

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