Last But Not Least...

From the entire blogging experience I have acquired through this assignment, I have fully well understood that as a blogger, we can be opinionated but we certainly have no rights of

• defamation and copyrights infringements of tarnishing others' reputation or properties.

We should always be conscious of the language which we choose to decipher a message as the tendency of getting sued is always there if we accidentally violated others privacy or status. According to A Bloggers' Code of Ethics (2003), 'bloggers should always be honest and fair in interpreting news, minimize harm to other people and be accountable for the mistakes done'.

When placing the content in each posts, white space is always essential as it guides readers to find information easily. As stated by Reep (2006, p. 158), 'the white space creates a path that guides the reader from heading to text or images'.

Content must also be as concise as possible as readers only scan through the page especially online pages. 'Exhaustive reading is rare among online readers as they would only have to compile key infomation, thus reading the text thoroughly is most unlikely' (Neilsen 2006). Apart from these, as a blogger, it is compulsory for he/she to make sure there are interactivities between readers and bloggers.


References:

Reep, Diana C 2006, Chapter 4: Principles of Document Design, Technical Writing, 6th edn, Pearson Education, New York.

A bloggers' code of ethics 2003, Cyberjournalist.net, viewed 13 June 2009, http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/000215.php

Nielsen, J 2006, F-shapped patern for reading web content, Useit.com, viewed 13 June 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

When Jokes Turn Nasty

When it comes to visual display, viewers interpret in such a way that different varieties are presented. This is due to different sets of wavelengths and cultural positioning so as to get the them familiar with the materials they see. As stated by Schirato and Yell (1996, p. 109), for something to be recognized, 'it must be capable of functioning repeatedly in the absence of an 'original' sender, an 'original' receiver and an 'original' context'.

Upon reading the article by CBS News on how 'New Yorker Obama Cover Sparks Uproar' by disclosing a front cover of Obama in a turban, fist-bumping his gun-slinging wife, I think there are many ways went wrong within the mind settings of these people. Viewers will view this as offensive and media as an irresponsible party. In fact, if at all Muslims were to express their rage and dissatisfaction against the depiction, they have all the rights to do so as the insult was intentionally done towards them though it was meant as a satire.

Picture of The New Yorker's cover:

(Source: The Huffington Post 2009)

I think that editors of The New Yorker should be more sensitive in the aspect of religion matters as it shows utter disrespect to the Muslims and also the their nations as we can see the US flag being burnt in the fireplace.

If anyone is agitated by the publishing of the picture, it shows that not everyone will percieve it as a joke as it was meant to be because according to Schirato and Yell (1996, p. 109), 'For any text to be recognizable and readable, it must draw upon a ready established and shared set of meanings'.

As far as I'm concerned, pictures or visuals are understood by everyone as it is more a form of semiotic compared to texts. People decode visual images easily than to understand words because of language barrier.

• Example, pictures insulting Muslims of being potential terrorists is not appropriate just because of the hijack of the World Trade Centre back in September 11, 2001.

However, on such cases in Malaysia, issues like The New Yorker will never be published as we have strict censorship under the Printing Presses and Publications Acts. As nation of diversified culture, religion is a very sensitive issue. For example, depictions of prophets are forbidden.

• Movies such as 'Passion' and 'Prince of Egypt' are banned due to the fact of portraying what the prophet looked like.
  
• In other case, recently, the use of word 'Allah' was banned for the non-Muslims especially in publications and in Christian literature in fear of confusing the Malaysian-Muslims.

Danish Cartoon Incident 2006 by newspaper Jyllands-Posten enraged Muslims worldwide (but was never published in Malaysia to avoid nation unrest):

(Source: FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog 2008)

It is tolerable for others but not certain religion. In an interview with CNN, Stephan Richter from The Globalist (2006) said, 'Western can tolerate such way of publishing as they maintained an ideology of the separation of church and state whereas Eastern are more conventional'. Beliefs should be respected within the democratic and pluralistic society no matter what the outcome might be.


References:

Allen, M 2008, New Yorker Obama cover sparks uproar, Politico, CBS News, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/14/politics/politico/main4257077.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4257077

Cartoons, religion and free speech - a global perspective 2006, The Globalist, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=5108

Schirato,T & Yell, S 1996, 'Chapter 5: Framing context', in Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, NSW, pp. 109 - 127.

A New Way of Voting!

Imagine walking up or traveling a distance to the designated centre to cast your ballots for your chosen candidates. How tiring would that be and what a hassle as well! Wouldn't it be nice just sitting down, taking your mobile phone, look it up and cast your vote? Simple as that!

Well, 'US Democratic candidate Barack Obama is set to turn the iPhone into a political recruiting tool with an application aimed at getting the vote out [especially from young voters]', said BBC News (2008). 'A note about the software on Mr Obama's blog said: "This tool is designated to help you become more directly involved in our campaign to change the country"'.

I personally think Obama has a very good idea as groups of young people are harder to reach in encouraging them to vote and every single votes matters in pledge to change the government. As they are technologically savvy, voting through phones are convenient, thus achieving votes are much simpler and in volume!

'There would be an application function called 'Call Friends' in the iPhone personal phonebook as to alert the owner's contacts to cast their votes. One of Obama's online campaign team members believed that, a familiar contact to persuade votings would be more valued compared to a request made by any random caller' (Telegraph.co.uk 2008).

This is how the voting page looks like in the iPhone:

(Source: iPhoneDevCamp 2008)

One can interact in this application through Obama's online blog and donations could be made to local Democrat rallies. This genre of application is designed to suit the targeted audience, purpose and context in the society. As said by Schirato and Yell (1996, p. 113), 'genre is a meaning associated with a social purpose and a social function'.

'In order to understand which genres are appropriate to any sicual occasions, one must first be literate within that particular culture' (Schirato & Yell 1996, p. 113). In this case, creating this portable-device voting system is accurate pertaining to its target audiences.

I do hope in Malaysia, there would be such voting system coming up soon so that more citizens could participate without hesitation and votings becomes interesting rather than a burden amongst young voters. As surveyed, approximately 'an addition of 6 million young opinionated, internet savvy voters which include; eligible voters who will turn 21 years of age and those who were late to register are to participate in the next general election in year 2013' (Bakar 2009).

For now, according to The Malaysian Insider (2009), 'UMNO information chief Ahmad Maslan said the party is aware of the important role of the new media in molding the political minds of the young and will use cyberspace to attract voters'.


References:

Bakar, ZA 2009, Analysis: up to Khairy to tap the power of youth, The New Straights Times, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.nst.com.my/Friday/Columns/2533432/Article/index_html

Barack obama brings election campaign to Apple iphone 2008, Telegraph.co.uk, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/3358721/Barack-obama-brings-election-campaign-to-Apple-iphone.html

Schirato,T & Yell, S 1996, 'Chapter 5: Framing context', in Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, NSW, pp. 109 - 127.

Shiels, M 2008, Obama uses iPhone to win support, BBC News, viewed 12 June 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7649753.stm

Umno to use cyberspace to woo young voters 2009, The Malaysian Insider, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/24540-umno-to-use-cyberspace-to-woo-young-voters

The Power of Photographs

'Images have other effects that are different from words, particularly at affective, aesthetic and imaginative levels' (Walsh 2006, p. 29).

Based on the news 'The Power of the Photograph' by ABC Radio National, a Berlin-based documentary maker, Sonia Heizmann reported on a photo gallery she visited in Dubrovnik which was once heavily bombard during the war in the early 1990's. Until today, pictures of captured scenes live among the citizens reminding them of what they had once gone through.

A piece of a photograph is a memory captured forever.










(Source: Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar 2006)












(Source: Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar 2006)

(Source: Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar 2006)

Have you ever wonder why photograph is so valuable to people? It is a form of evident! What you see is what you believe. Photographs evoke emotions because compared to texts, the expressions ladden on the subject's face for instance, gives us the instant need to react. For example, incidents of post-crimes, photographs are needed to assist in investigations.

However, media always sensationalize a certain news by usage of photographs. For example, the former Malaysia's Health Minister, Dato' Seri Chua Soi Lek's scandal picture was everywhere to be found on the internet. With photographs at hand, everyone is entitled to be a 'news reporter'; a medium of transaction to the public. The same goes for explicit photographs releases of popular celebs scandal such as Edison Chen's and Kim Kardashian's. Pictures exposed are picked up by the media.

According to Lester (1999), photographs earned the trust of everyone as 'the impact of the visual image on a viewer comes directly from the belief that 'the camera never lies'. But, these devices (camera) are only ingenuous in the hands which guided them. Nowadays, photographs are used to manipulate the public's trust. This means, it has become an ethical issue among photojounalist.

Lester (1999) also said that 'photographers and editors learned early in photography's history that economic and political gains can be made by photographic manipulations because of a naive and trusting public. Example we can see in Malaysia is the never ending rumours on the murder of Mongolian model, Altantuya Shaaribuu with Malaysia's Prime Minister, Dato Seri Najib Razak. Manipulation of photograph was done on this picture below which caught the entire nation's attention:

Speculation of suspects were Photoshoped dining together
(Source: Anthroblogia 2007)

Though it is downright uncredible and obviously fake, this photograph will somehow cause a stir of political unrest and doubting in the government's administration.

As Walsh (2006, p. 29) emphasized, 'in interpreting meanings from images, we don't need to 'decode the words' as with print, but we do need to be able to 'break the visual codes' in a different way'. This is why, certain photographs may appear to provoke viewers' feelings and certain ones do not as different people percieve what they see differently.

References:

Davies, A & Heizmann, S 2007, The power of the photograph, The Media Report, ABC Radio National, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm

Lester, PM 1999, Chapter six: picture manipulations, Photojournalism An Ethical Approach, viewed 12 June 2009, http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/chapter6.html

Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual shift: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', in Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24 - 37.

The Need to Adapt to A Changing Competitive Environment

An article from Australian IT (2008) entitled 'Facebook Makeover Leaves Some Devotees Fuming' explains the 'disappointment and frustration of millions of Facebook fans when a new layout was introduced for a smoother, quicker, more organized and spam-free format'. According to Wong (2008), 'the main purpose of Facebook's changes was to declutter to a single profile page with different tabs and third-party applications are more hidden'. If it is for the better of the user's, then I do not see why the rebellions are for.

I personally think this new format is very accomodating though at first it may seemed a liltle complicated. But as the saying goes, 'practice makes perfect' and that is how exactly the new Facebook layout is working for me.

The old Facebook layout:

(Source: The World of Midnight 2008)

The new Facebook layout:

(Source: Facebook.com 2009)

According to Schirato and Yell, (1996, p. 109), 'context functions as cultural frames within which to make sense of text, frames which operates through our knowledge and literacy in a variety of other contexts'. The audiences prefered the previous context as they felt difficulties in moving around the website as they are unfamiliar with it.

As supposed to be done, Reep (2006, p. 134) said that, 'the purpose of design features is to direct the attention and guide the reader's ability to easy-understanding of a highlighted, important section of a topic'. However, based on an article from Indiatimes, Infotech (2008), 'users have termed the new design, which has became a default for almost all its members, confusing and non-user-friendly'.

I think Facebook has partly failed in catering to some of its audiences needs becasue there is no changes done to compensate the drastic change of Facebook to these unsatisfied users and this might lead to lost of loyal fans and followers. These people would most likely divert to MySpace and other social networking sites leaving Facebook on the losing end.

Either way, Facebook or its users will have to eventually adapt to each others changes in order to co-exist in a symbiosis relationship.

References

Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming 2008, Australian IT, viewed 11 June 2009, http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html

Has Facebook makeover bombed? 2008, Indiatimes, Infotech, viewed 11 June 2009, http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3548699.cms

Reep, DC 2006, 'Chapter 4: Principles of document design', in Technical writing, 6th edn, Pearson Education, Inc., New York, pp. 173 - 190.

Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, 'Chapter 5: Framing context', in Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, NSW, pp. 109 - 127.

Wong, W 2008, Unhappy Facebook users likely to accept new digs, Chicago Tribune, viewed 11 June 2009, http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/sep/11/business/chi-thu-facebook-redesign-sep11

New Forms of Media Pulishing

Conveying messages to the public now comes in many new forms such as through

• blogs
  
• You Tube
• alternatives online newspapers

We will take an example on the dissemination of information through blogs. In Malaysia, freedom of expression by the media or society is strictly controlled especially if it touches on political issues which may tarnish the current government's reputation. Voices of the opposition parties are most of the time ignored or prohibited to be publish on printed news as most publication companies are owned by the government or sometimes at risk of being shut down if there are contents afflicting the government.

Opinions and consents of the public are much needed to aid in the development of a country. So, blogs are formed to replace the print publication as a medium of interaction. Different types of blogs attracts different groups of readers. Political savvy society will follow up blogs from Jeff Ooi and Malaysia Today to look at two sides of political point-of-views. Other blog such as MyBlog-TV is a platform to provide eyewitnesses accounts on general affairs and issues in Malaysia with an objective to encourage Malaysian to evaluate information themselves. The interaction between readers and texts occurs depending on;

the social and cultural context of reader, the socio-cultural framework of text convention, the purpose and genre of texts, the readers' interest and the immediate situation of when the text is being read (Walsh 2006, p. 25).

Examples of blogs:

The Central Connecting Community
(Source: Malaysia Today 2009)

Blogger Centric Community
(Source: Jeff Ooi 2009)

Beside this, another medium of interaction between people is the You Tube website. It functions as a uploading base for anyone to post up video materials. The comment space provided are for viewers to voice their opinions and widen their networks on topics of interest. Collections of uploads could be videos ranging from political to comedies to cookeries and many more.

The Boundaried Community
(Source: You Tube 2009)

Reference:

Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual shift: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', in Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no.1, pp. 24 - 37.

Classification of Blogs and Methods to Built Blogging Communities

Blogs may touch on the issues of law, politics, fashion, culture, travel or history. We can use them through devices such as the mobile blogging method (moblog) or direct from the computer. Blogs come in varieties such as linklog, vlog, sketchlog, tu,blelog and many more. Some are used for personal advertising, business or corporate and to create an interrelation links between friends.

According to The Daily Edition (2007), blogs are used in two arenas;

• The professional arena which includes sales blogs, departmental discussions, collaboration blogs, relationship building blogs and progress report blogs.
• The recreational arena which includes daily diaries, personal profiles, social news, topical discussions and social updates. Example: Facebook, Twitter and MySpace

Somehow, when being compared with Funnell and Davies (2008), on an interview with author and media analyst, Margaret Simons, a wide range of blogs classifications are lined out. They are;

• Pamphleteering blog - blogs where one or many authors contributes to push a cause. Example: Lim Kit Siang for Malaysia
• Digest blog - guide blog
• Advocacy blog - formed by an organization group such as SPCA
• Popular Mechanics blog - blogs that are specialized in one particular field
• Exhibition blog - blogs which deliver creative ways, procedures or techniques of doing something in interest
  
• Gatewatcher blog - experts to observe the media, trends or politics and give opinions about it such as The Economist
• Diary - personal online blogging on daily life
• Advertisement - advertisers paying bloggers to advertise their ads
• News blog - news breaking blogs such as Malaysia Information Blog

Blogging communities are built based on the enthusiasm people share. For example, people who have great interest in traveling would most likely be a loyal follower of a travel blog to know new places and updates.

In order to create this blogging community, people would first have to an access to link to a certain blog. 'In a blogging community, blogrolls, linkbacks, comments and backlinks are among tools which interconnect people to have in depth discussions and for media in aspect of social and legal causes. Comments provided by people are a way of attracting attention or spark interest among others over an issue' (Vidal 2009).

The 3 types of blogging communities based on White (2006):

1. The Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community - the common type of blogging from single blogger such as Kenny Sia or Perez Hilton
2. The Central Connecting Community - a network formation with links to many other blogs on interest to topics of politics, travels, arts or food. Example: Sapiensbryan
3. The Boundaried Community - place where members are recruited to register and have their own blog. Example: Facebook

On the Central Connecting Community which according to White (2006), 'is community that arises between blogs linked by a common passion or topic...self-focus is not much portrayed, as they topics are more crucial...the rich network of perspectives allows the readers many views on an issues'. In this case, we can look at Sapiensbryan.com where it evolves around hi-tech news, computer and gadgets information. There are many links to other sites relating to the topics and personal details are not enclosed as tech infos are prioritized. Comments from followers on products reviews are well received too.

References:

Classification of Blogs 2007, The Daily Edition, viewed 10 June 2009, http://mediamatters.wetpaint.com/page/Classification+of+blogs

Funnell, A & Davies, A 2008, A taxanomy of blogs, The Media Report, viewed 10 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript

Vidal, A 2009, Blogging communities for the blogging enthusiast, Webbusinesswizz, viewed 10 June 2009, http://www.webbusinesswiz.com/blogging/blogging-communities-for-the-blogging-enthusiast/

White, N 2006, Blogs and community - launching a new paradigm for online community?, 11th edn, updated September 2006, viewed 10 June 2009, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community