Makkal Osai suspended
A local Tamil newspaper Makkal Osai, was suspended 30 days. This was done by the Internal Security Ministry. The newspaper had been supended due to the publishing of a cartoon picture of Jesus Christ holding a cigarette in one hand and a can of beer in the other on its front-page. The picture was could threaten public security, harmony and morality, or seriously disturb the thinking of the people, or that contravened the law and threatened public or national interest (Star, 2007).
In a multi-racial country like Malaysia, everybody has to respect each other. The citizens must compromise with each of the races and religious differences. Religion is a very sensitive issue in Malaysia. It is important for newspaper journalist to be more concern of the quality of the information and be aware with the communication environment (Kent, 2007).
Document designers should reference to the personal knowledge, believe, attitudes, and values in order to produce a good document (Shriver, 1997, p.372). Media ethic is relative and situational. It is said that media ethics has a diverse character, tailored to fit the particular mass medium, the particular person, the particular stage in a country’s development and the particular type of government at the time (Merrill, 2000).
Malaysia is an Asian country where the mutual respect for each other is very strong. Thus, the offensive picture is considered as unethical and disrespectful for the believers.
In conclusion, the Makkal Osai case is an example of unethical cultural context issues. Other publishers should treat this issue as a warning and should be aware and sensitive of their readers.
Reference
Kent,J 2007, ‘Anger at Malaysia 'Jesus cartoon' ’, BBC News 23 August 2007,viewed 8 June 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6960220.stm
Merrill, J 2000, ‘Media ethics in Asia: between relatively and absolutism’, Regional Seminar on Media Ethics, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,viewed 8 June 2009,
http://dr.ntu.edu.sg/bitstream/10220/3162/1/AMIC_2000_SEP11-13_07.pdf
Shriver, KA 1997, Dynamic in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York
Star 25 August 2007, ‘Makkal Osai suspended’,viewed 6June 2009,
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/25/nation/18696017&sec=nation
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Web Communication Experiment: Blog vs. Facebook vs. Twitter
There is currently a booming in the social network websites. Users are still confused on picking which social network websites is the most useful for them. Examples of these websites are; blog, Facbook, and Twitter.
Key Element of the Blog, Facebook and Twitter
The CEO of facebook Mark Zuckerberg (2008) said, facebook appeals to people who are looking to reconnect with old friend and family members or find new friends online; the mash up of features like email, instant messaging, image and video sharing, etc. feels familiar, while Twitter is a bit harder to get your arm around at first.
Twitter.com sends information in byte-size chunks and uses your updates as jumping off points to other places. These updates also will let others know what you're up to at any given moment.
Blog is establishing and maintaining a presence in cyberspace- which is exactly what social networking is about. Whether the blogger is an individual or a corporation, government, or other institution, the idea is the same: establish and spread a presence around the world is exactly what bloggers are doing.
Different Communication Styles for Different Social Settings
For Facebook users; they chat with old friends and acquaintances, they check out photos and profiles of themselves and friends. Also in the setting, users tend to feel more relaxed. A profile is just like a cyber-room where you can decorate.
Twitter allows someone to meet people make other people meet them. Here, users can stand out from the crowd, make an impression, self-promote and make new connections.
As for blogs, it is up to the bloggers themselves to set the social settings.
Reference List:
Fox New, 2008, Face CEO to Scared Users: Trust Us, viewed on 12th June 20099 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,494804,00.html
Twitter.com, 2009, About Twitter, viewed on 12th June 2009
http://twitter.com/about
Key Element of the Blog, Facebook and Twitter
The CEO of facebook Mark Zuckerberg (2008) said, facebook appeals to people who are looking to reconnect with old friend and family members or find new friends online; the mash up of features like email, instant messaging, image and video sharing, etc. feels familiar, while Twitter is a bit harder to get your arm around at first.
Twitter.com sends information in byte-size chunks and uses your updates as jumping off points to other places. These updates also will let others know what you're up to at any given moment.
Blog is establishing and maintaining a presence in cyberspace- which is exactly what social networking is about. Whether the blogger is an individual or a corporation, government, or other institution, the idea is the same: establish and spread a presence around the world is exactly what bloggers are doing.
Different Communication Styles for Different Social Settings
For Facebook users; they chat with old friends and acquaintances, they check out photos and profiles of themselves and friends. Also in the setting, users tend to feel more relaxed. A profile is just like a cyber-room where you can decorate.
Twitter allows someone to meet people make other people meet them. Here, users can stand out from the crowd, make an impression, self-promote and make new connections.
As for blogs, it is up to the bloggers themselves to set the social settings.
Reference List:
Fox New, 2008, Face CEO to Scared Users: Trust Us, viewed on 12th June 20099 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,494804,00.html
Twitter.com, 2009, About Twitter, viewed on 12th June 2009
http://twitter.com/about
The power of a picture
In the olden days, text use to be an important part of learning. Currently in this new modern society, people are already shifting from reading text based print to multimodal text. In the realm of literacy education there is much discussion of the textual shift, and thus 'paradigm shift' that has occurred for today's students whose environment is filled with visual, electronic and digital texts (Walsh 2006).
Let’s try to imagine reading a book just filled with words for an hour or two, doesn’t an illustration will refresh your mind? Nowadays, many people prefer text with pictures to make the understanding process easier. Today, we are moving towards a decade that has a decrease control of language in the public media and increase importance in visual communication (Kress and Leeuwen, 1996).
Summary
From the media report from abc.net; Photography has the potential to create an impact among audiences. The interviewee, Kelly Hussey-Smith is convinced that nothing can create an impact on readers as intensive as a photo essay. As the saying goes, every picture has 1000 words. Photograph can produce own message based on the photographer when they are driven by the situation of the scene to create an interpretation for the world to understand (Socialism.org, 2000).
Personal opinion
Photos nowadays have potential to create a good message. Sometimes words cannot explain the details that are provided in a picture. Human beings construct a mental space when they look at a picture whereby the brain is undergoing a thinking process to explain the meaning of the picture (Oakley, 2005).
References
Funnell, A 2008, The Power of Photograph, Media Report, viewed 6 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2447666.htm
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1996, Reading images: the grammar of visual design,‘Chapter 1:The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication’, pp 15-42, Routledge, NY.
Oakley, Todd 2005, ‘Implied narratives in medical practice,’ in Language & Literature, vol. 14, no. 3, p.295-310 Socialismtoday.org 2000.
The Power of Photography, Monthly Journal, Issue 50, viewed 8th November 2008, http://www.socialismtoday.org/50/photography.html
Walsh, M (2006), Australian Journal of Language and Literacy "The 'textual shift': examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts" Vol 29, no.1, p.24-37
Let’s try to imagine reading a book just filled with words for an hour or two, doesn’t an illustration will refresh your mind? Nowadays, many people prefer text with pictures to make the understanding process easier. Today, we are moving towards a decade that has a decrease control of language in the public media and increase importance in visual communication (Kress and Leeuwen, 1996).
Summary
From the media report from abc.net; Photography has the potential to create an impact among audiences. The interviewee, Kelly Hussey-Smith is convinced that nothing can create an impact on readers as intensive as a photo essay. As the saying goes, every picture has 1000 words. Photograph can produce own message based on the photographer when they are driven by the situation of the scene to create an interpretation for the world to understand (Socialism.org, 2000).
Personal opinion
Photos nowadays have potential to create a good message. Sometimes words cannot explain the details that are provided in a picture. Human beings construct a mental space when they look at a picture whereby the brain is undergoing a thinking process to explain the meaning of the picture (Oakley, 2005).
References
Funnell, A 2008, The Power of Photograph, Media Report, viewed 6 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2447666.htm
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1996, Reading images: the grammar of visual design,‘Chapter 1:The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication’, pp 15-42, Routledge, NY.
Oakley, Todd 2005, ‘Implied narratives in medical practice,’ in Language & Literature, vol. 14, no. 3, p.295-310 Socialismtoday.org 2000.
The Power of Photography, Monthly Journal, Issue 50, viewed 8th November 2008, http://www.socialismtoday.org/50/photography.html
Walsh, M (2006), Australian Journal of Language and Literacy "The 'textual shift': examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts" Vol 29, no.1, p.24-37
Emoticons and email etiquette
As the technology growing fast, there’s an impact on the communication tools. One of the medium of communications is the e-mail. E-mail has becomes an essential tool for business, social, educational, and personal purpose. Some advantage of the email is that they are quick and easy to get about (Tuffley & Griffith University 2008).
However, with a good thing always comes a bad thing. Even e-mail may cause problems. For example, email can create misperception for the receiver. This is because; the receiver might interpret the email from their own perspective without knowing the sender’s intention. Professor Byron also said that it may damage the relationship (Emoticons and email etiquette 2007). Since there was inability for many people to interpret accurately the intention of the email, Scott Fahlman of the United States created the ‘emoticon’. It is icons which act as emotional markers in electronic communication. However, emoticons also have some negative issues.
There are some negative impact appeared from the raise of emoticons (Walther and D’Addario, 2001). The argument is that it may shift the message in the direction of negative element. Zimmerman and Perkin (cited in Shriver 1997, p.373) stated that visual messages need to be revised depending on the local culture.
Different culture has different perception. People make meaning as members of a particular culture, a particular society, and a particular community (Schirato & Yell, 1996). Therefore, writers need to think about the cultural issues first, they should think of the readers of the writing. It is important to understand email etiquette. This is to minimize the problem of misinterpretation and misunderstanding in the publishing.
Reference
Emoticons and email etiquette 18 October 2007, ABC radio national, the media report, viewed 6 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm
Schirato,T & Yell,S 1996, ‘ Chapter 3: Communication as Social practices,’ Communication and cultural literacy ,Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, New South Wales
Shriver, KA 1997, Dynamic in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York
Tuffley, D & Griffith University 2008, ‘Email Etiquette (Netiquette)’viewed 8 June 2009, http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~davidt/email_etiquette.htm
Walther and D’Addario 2001, ‘The Impacts of Emoticons on Message Interpretation in Computer-Mediated Communication’ Social science computer review, Sage Journal Online, viewed 7 June 2009, http://ssc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/19/3/324
However, with a good thing always comes a bad thing. Even e-mail may cause problems. For example, email can create misperception for the receiver. This is because; the receiver might interpret the email from their own perspective without knowing the sender’s intention. Professor Byron also said that it may damage the relationship (Emoticons and email etiquette 2007). Since there was inability for many people to interpret accurately the intention of the email, Scott Fahlman of the United States created the ‘emoticon’. It is icons which act as emotional markers in electronic communication. However, emoticons also have some negative issues.
There are some negative impact appeared from the raise of emoticons (Walther and D’Addario, 2001). The argument is that it may shift the message in the direction of negative element. Zimmerman and Perkin (cited in Shriver 1997, p.373) stated that visual messages need to be revised depending on the local culture.
Different culture has different perception. People make meaning as members of a particular culture, a particular society, and a particular community (Schirato & Yell, 1996). Therefore, writers need to think about the cultural issues first, they should think of the readers of the writing. It is important to understand email etiquette. This is to minimize the problem of misinterpretation and misunderstanding in the publishing.
Reference
Emoticons and email etiquette 18 October 2007, ABC radio national, the media report, viewed 6 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm
Schirato,T & Yell,S 1996, ‘ Chapter 3: Communication as Social practices,’ Communication and cultural literacy ,Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, New South Wales
Shriver, KA 1997, Dynamic in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York
Tuffley, D & Griffith University 2008, ‘Email Etiquette (Netiquette)’viewed 8 June 2009, http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~davidt/email_etiquette.htm
Walther and D’Addario 2001, ‘The Impacts of Emoticons on Message Interpretation in Computer-Mediated Communication’ Social science computer review, Sage Journal Online, viewed 7 June 2009, http://ssc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/19/3/324
New forms of media publishing
With technological advancement everyday, there is more and more type of trend that surfaced to gain information. Written text is only one part of the message, and no longer the dominant part (Walsh, 2006). There is a lot of new type of media publishing. And, the audience nowadays is two ways audience which means they choose their media and they give feedbacks.
When it comes to the current trend in media publishing, youtube is the good example because it is a video sharing website where users upload and share their videos. It has also a broad variety of user-generated video content, including music videos, movie clips, and TV clips. This enables the users to obtain information or communicate. Textual shift is taking place from monomodal to the multimodal that includes more than one modes of communication (Walsh 2006).
Youtube is a very powerful tool but there were also issues pertaining to it. Inappropriate content is one of them. This is where users can watch and give opinion on some offensive content. Users might abuse their freedom of expression by intruding someone privacy or creating hate.
References
Walsh, M 2006, The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy.
Classification of Blog and Blogging Communities
Blogs are getting more difficult to classify into variety of types and subject. Generally, there are six major categories of blogs (Technorate.com, 2008).
They are:
1. Lifestyle
2. Politics
3. Business
4. Technology
5. Entertainment
6. Sports
According to Wikipedia (2008), there are 5 categories of blogs:
1. Personal blog: individual ongoing diary or commentary
2. Corporate blog: business, marketing, branding or public relations purposes
3. Blogs by Genres: focus on particular subject, example: fashion, travel, food, and etc.
4. Blog Media type: vlog, linklog, sketchblog , photoblog, tumblelogs.
5. Blog By Device: moblog
By media
1. Vblog ( Video Blog, example Youtube)
2. Linkblog ( Collection of links or URLs, example Jeremy Zawodny's linkblog)
3. Spblog ( Spam blog, example thespamweblog)
4. Sketchblog ( Collection of sketches/ drawings, example Kristen's Sketch-blog)
5. Photoblog ( Collection of photos, example msnbc photoblog)
6. Podcast blog( Collection of audio recording especially in MP3 format, example podcasting tools resource for podcasting)
Blogs differentiation by type of publisher
1. Business blog (example American Business blog)
2. Corporate blog
To identify a unique blog, the majority of the type of post or entries has to be taken into account. Most people have a look at the topic, style, or format. For example Lonely girl15 from Vblog from the format video. Photoblog is where the authors would use it as a medium to posts. In my opinion, a bog that is updated primarily from a mobile device, and generally( but not always) while the author is on the road or traveling. Moblogs are usually photo and video rich, rather than text intensive. Moblogs are generally run from a phone, but they can also be run from a laptop or web- enabled PDA; the definign element of a moblog is that it is used to "blog away from the desk."
Blogging Communities
A Blogging community is formed by people with similar interests joining together to discuss further about their interest. The methods are by the tagging, comments and chat box in blogs bloggers interact with each other. MyBloglog is an example of a blog community.
It is stated that blogs is a social networking system which allow people to connect to each others. They also gain information on them and their blogs. It is also a network where blog publishers are able to access information they seek on their readers. Kirkpatrick (2006)
Reference list:
Blog directory, 2008, Technorati, viewed on 5th June 2009 at http://technorati.com/blogs/directory
Funnell, A & Davies, A 2008, A taxanomy of blogs, The Media Report, access on 4 June 2009,
Kirkpatrick, M., 2006, MyBlogLog: Readers Network Around Their Favorite Blogs, TechCrunch , viewed on 5th June 2009 at http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/19/myboglog-readers-network-around-their-favorite-blogs/
Wikipedia 2009, Blog, access on 4 June 2009,
They are:
1. Lifestyle
2. Politics
3. Business
4. Technology
5. Entertainment
6. Sports
According to Wikipedia (2008), there are 5 categories of blogs:
1. Personal blog: individual ongoing diary or commentary
2. Corporate blog: business, marketing, branding or public relations purposes
3. Blogs by Genres: focus on particular subject, example: fashion, travel, food, and etc.
4. Blog Media type: vlog, linklog, sketchblog , photoblog, tumblelogs.
5. Blog By Device: moblog
By media
1. Vblog ( Video Blog, example Youtube)
2. Linkblog ( Collection of links or URLs, example Jeremy Zawodny's linkblog)
3. Spblog ( Spam blog, example thespamweblog)
4. Sketchblog ( Collection of sketches/ drawings, example Kristen's Sketch-blog)
5. Photoblog ( Collection of photos, example msnbc photoblog)
6. Podcast blog( Collection of audio recording especially in MP3 format, example podcasting tools resource for podcasting)
Blogs differentiation by type of publisher
1. Business blog (example American Business blog)
2. Corporate blog
To identify a unique blog, the majority of the type of post or entries has to be taken into account. Most people have a look at the topic, style, or format. For example Lonely girl15 from Vblog from the format video. Photoblog is where the authors would use it as a medium to posts. In my opinion, a bog that is updated primarily from a mobile device, and generally( but not always) while the author is on the road or traveling. Moblogs are usually photo and video rich, rather than text intensive. Moblogs are generally run from a phone, but they can also be run from a laptop or web- enabled PDA; the definign element of a moblog is that it is used to "blog away from the desk."
Blogging Communities
A Blogging community is formed by people with similar interests joining together to discuss further about their interest. The methods are by the tagging, comments and chat box in blogs bloggers interact with each other. MyBloglog is an example of a blog community.
It is stated that blogs is a social networking system which allow people to connect to each others. They also gain information on them and their blogs. It is also a network where blog publishers are able to access information they seek on their readers. Kirkpatrick (2006)
Reference list:
Blog directory, 2008, Technorati, viewed on 5th June 2009 at http://technorati.com/blogs/directory
Funnell, A & Davies, A 2008, A taxanomy of blogs, The Media Report, access on 4 June 2009,
Kirkpatrick, M., 2006, MyBlogLog: Readers Network Around Their Favorite Blogs, TechCrunch , viewed on 5th June 2009 at http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/19/myboglog-readers-network-around-their-favorite-blogs/
Wikipedia 2009, Blog, access on 4 June 2009,
Monday, June 15, 2009
Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits to the community
The picture of an increases size of blogosphere.
(source: Technorati 2008)
(source: Technorati 2008)
It is a phenomenon non like any other. Everyday, the blogosphere; which meant ‘the sheer numbers of blogs that users have published’ (comScore Networks, Inc. 2005) continues to rapidly increase daily. From the year 2002, Technorati (Technorati, Inc 2009) had recorded more than 133 million blogs. It is a truly global phenomenon: Technorati tracked blogs in 81 languages in June 2008, and bloggers responded to the survey from 66 countries across six continents.
There are a few types of blogging topics. This includes professional and non professional topics. In
In
Blogging can bring positive impacts to the professional and personal life. Personally, bloggers are enabled to increase their social life by making more friends, and bringing them closer with family members and friends. They also can to get more time with their hobbies. For Professional life, many of these bloggers from corporate or individual notices positive impact from their blog. A survey shows that half of them are better known in their industry and one out of four used their blog as a resume enhancement (Technorati 2008)
Reference
Bowers,C & Stoller,M 2005, ‘ Emergence of the Progressive Blogosphere: A new force in American politics,viewed 7 June 2009, http://commonsenseblog.typepad.com/common_sense/files/The-Emergence-of-the-Progressive-Blogosphere.pdf
Ferdig, RE,Ph.D &Trammell,KD 2004, ‘ content delivery in the blogosphere’, The Journal online, University of Florida, viewed 6 June 2009, http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5006872677
Norton,K 2004 , ‘ Blogs: creating democracy and ensuring access’, viewed 7 June 2009, http://www.kellegous.com/scratch/2004/cms790/blog-access-draft.pdf
Technorati 2008, State of blogosphere, viewed 7 June 2009,
http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/the-what-and-why-of-blogging/
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