Reflection

Less than 4 months, I have post at least 9 blog posts with different topic. As for over all, I have learned a lot about the media issue, blogging, and design for web print. For me, blogging is interesting and challenging. I could express my idea and argue about any issue that I think I don't like. Bloggers have the freedom of speech on communicating towards the viewer yet they also have the code of ethics. According to Dube, J 2007, Bloggers should be honest and fair in gathering, reporting and interpreting information. They also must respect towards sources and subjects as human beings. Therefore, in each of blog post that I wrote, I have given references list to respect and give credits towards the sources that I took.

Moreover, by adopting Morkes, J and Nielsen J (1997) on designing web pages, and supported by Reep, 2006, on principles design, therefore, in this post I have tried to give point form or subheading to attract readers attention on reading my blog. On top of that, like Schriver 1999 said that picture and text will contruct the making meaning, the blog posts have a subscription and explanation on the pictures that provided. Besides that, to maintain the principles design and attract viewer attention to stay longer into my blog, I have maintain the proportion, balance, sequence and consistency of this blog. Lastly in order to keep my blog alive, chat box is provided and I hope viewers can dropped by and give any comments about this blog.

Finally, it can be concluded that blogging is a hobby for me, reading is a must, and arguing with any theoretical supported is a law in this issue publication and design. I have learned lots from this subject. I hope my viewer could find any useful information towards any issue.

References:

Dube, J 2007, A Blogger's Code of Ethics, retrieved online on 16 June 2010, from: http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/000215.php

Morkes,J and Nielsen, J 1997, Concise, Scannable, and Objective: How to write for the Web, retrieved online on 19 April 2010, from:http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html
Reep,D C 2006, 'Chapter 6: Document design' in Technical writing: Principles, strategies and readings, 6th ed. Pearson Longman, NY.

The Value of Emoticons

Do you know that, 25 years ago, Professor Fahlman from University Carnegie Mellon, came out with his idea of smiley face and now it became popular? Emoticons are a smiley face which could be simply made by typing a colon, a hyphen and hen parenthesis with little icons designed to be used for online communication. (The Media Report, October 2007)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/domness/3270483716/in/photostream/

Why emoticons are available inside an email?

Hariss, D 2009, stated that the internet “counter-culture” used the idea of emoticons to stimulate some of the cues you would use in a face-to-face conversation, and reduces the likelihood of being misinterpreted. For me personally, inserting emoticons into the email is interesting. It’s like describing your emotions towards the receiver. Hariss, D 2009 agreed that by using the common smiley faces appropriately can markedly improve the clarity of your message and it can allow you to express a wider range of sentiments and emotions in what you write. However, a suggestion from emailreplies.com, 2008, it better doesn’t use emoticons if you are not sure whether they know what it means.

How to use it?

According to the media report interview, Generation Y who grew up with texting, instant messaging, emailing, and social networking make them cares more about the proper etiquette than the older generations. By putting inside the context, we need to consider that e-mail has two functions according to the target audience which are casual and conversational email and professional email. Dumbrava, G 2006, suggested that the basic rules to be observed when writing or responding to potential employers, co-workers, colleagues or business members, the email sender should avoid using emoticons, misspellings and poor grammar, and capitalization. In the order word, to be considered as the generation Y, we need to more care on the proper etiquette especially in professional e-mail.

Source: http://college.monster.com/benefits/articles/301-entry-level-business-etiquette-101?page=3

I believed the value of emoticons is a positive cost. There is no harm to use emoticons in an e-mail because I think it’s a freedom way to express your self during the conversation with your receiver The only thing that we need to learn is how to use it in a proper way and for the right type of work.

References:

Dumbrava, G & Koronka , A 2006, Writing for Business Purposes: Elements of Email Etiquette', Annals of the University of Petrosani (Economics), vol.6, pg.61-64, retrieved online on 15 June 2010, from: http://www.upet.ro/annals/pdf/Annals-2006.pdf#page=61

Email etiquette, retrieved online on 15 June 2010, from: http://www.emailreplies.com/#top

Harris, D 2009, Electronic Mail Etiquette,

retrieved online on 15 June 2010, from: http://www.pmail.com/etqtte.htm

The Media Report 2007,Emoticons and email etiquette, retrieved online on 15 June 2010, from: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm

Google and the 'Elephant Library'

As the generation Y-ers who like to consume any advanced technology, I would like to say that Google is one of the most powerful search engine that I preferred. Imagine when your tutor ask you to provide at least 5 references in your essay writing, will you go to library and borrow the 5 thick books and bring it back home? For me personally, google-ing is more effective rather than finding manually inside your text book. According to NPD, 95% of google users finding what they are searching for all or most of the time, and eight in 10 users choosing Google because it delivers the best results.

NPD Online Research, in which Google placed first overall among 13 search and portal sites for user satisfaction and loyalty.

The Elephant Library

A reading from The NY Times article 'An Elephant Backs Up Google's Library', discussed about google books library project that gives users access to the complete text of books that are in the public domain, and the snippets of books that are protected by copyrights. The library project called as Hathi Trust, which is means in Hindi for elephant, an animal that is said to never forget. It includes libraries at 12 Midwestern universities like the University of Michigan, the University of lowa and the University of Illinois, plus the 11 libraries of the University of California system. They aimed to make easier for people to find relevant books especially the books that they wouldn't find any other way such as those that are out of print. Meanwhile, its respecting authors and publishers' copyrights.

The Google Books project is aiming to scan and digitise millions of titles, making them searchable online

Sources: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/651136/Google-Books-project-to remove-European-titles.html

How Google Books Library Project does looks like?

Full view: we can available to see every pages of the books because it's out of privacy or the publisher/author has asked permission for fully viewable

Limited Preview: only can see a limited number of pages if the publisher/ author has given permission

Snippet View: similar like a card catalog, only can allow to display a few sentence that you search in context.

No Preview Available: we only able to see basic information about the book.

Source: http://books.google.com/googlebooks/screenshots.html#fullview

And it affect us!

Lots of controversial happened towards this project in term of copyright law. A comment from Nick Taylor, president of the New York - based Authors Guild, "This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law," which is seeking class action status. "It's not up to Google or anyone other than the authors, the rightful owners of these copyrights, to decide whether and how their works will be copied." However, when we look at the viewer side like me, I won't think so much about the law, as long I could enjoy the efficiency that google gave to me.

Like Cope & Kalantiz, 2000, said, in the realm of literacy education there is much discussion of the textual shift, and thus 'paradigm shift' (Bearne, 2003) that has occurred for today's students whose environment is filled with visual, electronice and digital texts, those texts that are referred to as 'multimodal'. This is the reason why lots of people will like to go for internet and google as the preference.

Supported by Morkes & Nielsen 1997, in their study of how people read on the web, they found out that people prefer to scan rather than read, want text to be short and to the point, and detest overly hyped promotional writing. In this case, Google has tried to shift the theory from Morkes & Nielsen because Google used the full-text searchable as possible through a virtual or electronic card catalog. In the other words, it has fit the convenient for reader to find out the key point on the reading itself. I think Google has affect the readers and block us from reading a text if it wanted to. Therefore, I think Google and the 'Elephant Library' has succeed finding the demand of the generations Y wants.

References:

Google Books Library Project - An enhanced card catalog of the world's books, retrieved online on 15 June 2010, from: http://books.google.com/googlebooks/library.html

Helft, M 2006, An Elephant Backs Up Google's Library, retrieved online on 15 June 2010, from: http://bit.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/an-elephant-backs-up-googles-library/

Mills, E 2005, Authors Guild sues Google over library project, retrieved online on 15 June 2010, from: http://news.cnet.com/Authors-Guild-sues-Google-over-library-project/2100-1030_3-5875384.html

Morkes J & Nielsen, J 1997, Concise, Scannable, and Objective: How to Write for the Web, retrieved online on 15 June 2010, from: htpp://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html

Press Center 1999, Google Ranks First Overall in Third-Party Survey of Search and Portal Users, retrieved online on 15 June 2010, from: http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease9.html

The truth behind the War Photograph

There is something unique and different case from media report ABC news, an interview on October 2007 about “The power of photograph” that I would like to share. It’s about the ‘War Photo Limited Gallery’ in Cortain port city of Dubrovink by photojournalists Wade Goddard and Frederic Hanrez had display war photographs of conflict between Israel and Lebanon. They believed through this gallery can communicate the reality of the war’s violence and injustice in many places where basic rights of humanity is being a question. Photojournalism as the skill of story telling through photograph that could transcend cultural and language bounds are being a hot career currently (Kenneth, F 2009). Wilson, B 2003, stated that the number of photojournalists has increased about 40% in 1996.

I would adopt Wolf and Grotta (1985) acknowledged that photographs are powerful tools of communication. I agreed that it is a good thing to use photographs to share your thoughts and opinion towards the public because images could evoke emotional responses among viewers. However, in these advanced technology, photojournalists must aware of the ethical decisions on what to shoot, what to use, and when images can be altered. According to Burkholder, C 2009, photojournalists must be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of the subjects and also respect the integrity of the photographic moment. In fact, the demand for attention-grabbing photos as photojournalists makes accuracy as a major ethical issue in photojournalism field. This is because sometimes the picture that you took could cause harm to the object of the photograph because of over expose. According to Vision on in the UK, underexposed: “Pictures can lie and liars can use pictures”, in the other words, photojournalists could manipulate in order to deceive the viewer from their own perspectives.

How can war photograph can "lie to" the public?

"Fallen Soldier", 1936, by Robert Capa - Spanish Civil

Sources: http://ethicalmartini.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/iconic-falling-soldier-staged-yeah-we-know/

The fallen soldier is one of the greatest war images ever has shown that he's being fatally shot or just staged scene. Lately, a Spanish researcher found thae picture was about 35 miles away from where previously thought. This new information has reignited debated about whether the photograph is genuine.

Taken by Lebanese photgrapher, Adnan Hajj, 2006, Beirut

Source: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archieve

The photograph of news agency Reuters that taken by him was discovered that he apparently added dark smoke (right) to the the image. This manipulation was considered as a violation of its standards.

Iranian missile photo - 2008

Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008045953_iranphoto11.html

The photograph at right side was apparently altered to show a fourth missile lifting off. Analysis's believed that the photo was altered to conceal the misfiring of one missile and to make Iran's military seem more powerful.

From the examples above, we can see on the truth behind the war photographs that are not accurate because of the manipulation from the photojournalists itself. As the consumer of the photograph, we might not know about the truth behind the scene on how photojournalists try to make up the photograph to tell the world that war is injustice. Unfortunately, I guess some photojournalists are just over excited and twist the truth through manipulation and lie to the public.

References:

Burkholder, C 2009, Online Journalism Ethics: Photojournalism, retrieved online on 14 June 2010, from: .

Lester, P 1999, Photojournalism an Ethical Approach: Chapter Five – Rights to Privacyhttp://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/chapter5.html>

Mitchell, S 2002, Beyond the Lens, retrieved online on 15 June 2010, from: http://www.worldpress.org.Europe/665.cfm.

Patterson & Wilkins 2008, Media Ethics: Issues and Cases, 6^th ed, McGrawHill: NY, p.239.

The Media Report, 2007, The Power of Photograph, retrieved online on 14 June 2010, from: <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm>.

Wilson, B 2003, Careers in Photojournalism, retrieved online on 14 June 2010, from: <http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/arts/photography/fieldskinds/photjournal/careers.htm>.

It's New ! - Social Shopping

Are you the follower of online shopping?

The 'paradigm shift' described from human habit towards online shopping obviously is become a buzz nowadays. Consumers are increasingly swapping the crowded stores for one-click convenience, as online shopping beomes a safe and popular option. According to the recent global survey conducted by Nielsen company, 2008, 85% of the world's online population has used the internet to make a purchase, and up 40% from two years ago, and more than half of Internet users are regular online shoppers, making online purchases at least once a month.

Vincent, K 2007, stated that the boundaries of social networks and internet shopping have vague to give as a new world of social shopping. The social shopping relays an e-commerce method of traditional shopping in which consumers shop in a social networking type of environment. In his website, Kasteler, J 2009, stated that social shopping is still trying to hit mainstream because compared to many web 2.0 sites, social sites are slowly growing.

The concept of this social shopping network is through online research and peer to peer recommendations that could deliver credibility.

Sources: http://searchengineland.com/why-you-should-get-involved-with-social-shopping-e-commerce-20-22995

Some of the examples:

Kaboodle: helps you to create shopping lists and share lists and other recommendations with friends and the entire community.

The site has been describes as the billboard charts of shopping which allows us to create our sorts list of products.

This is hot sites could allow us to interconnected "hives" of their favorite finds.

Through the examples from this social shopping, I believe through the paradigm shift that human did, from traditional shopping until online shopping, and now social shopping could give some opportunity for us. According to Gardon, 2007, Social shopping sites are an open door for entrepreneurs. In the other words, it create the marketing opportunity to go in and advertise using social networking. Ms. Evans said that social shopping sites would also have to be vigilant against featuring stale products — a particularly inconvenient issue for fashion merchandise — because retailers typically carry such products for about 12 weeks.

In conclusion, I am personally like the concept of social shopping, because of the combination from web 2.0 could make some opportunity for us. It might not as popular as the other social networking like facebook or twitter or online shopping, but I believe this social shopping will be a new trend in the next few years later to build buzz into your product.

References:

Nations, D, 7 Essential Social Shopping Websites, retrieved online on 14 June 2010, from: http://webtrends.about.com/od/socialshopping/tp/7_essential_social_shopping.htm

Nielsen 2008, Trends in Online Shopping, retrieved online on 14 June 2010, from: http://th.nielsen.com/site/documents/GlobalOnlineShoppingReportFeb08.pdf

Tedeschi, B 2006, Like Shopping? Social Networking? Try Social Shopping, retrieved online on 14 June 2010,

from: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/11/technology/11ecom.html?_r=1

Good Design for Screen Genre

Critique on Power point slides about good design

In work world or education world, power point slides is a common things. By using power point on presentation, we hope that our audience could be informed, clarity and understanding. Designing your power point slides in the right track will catch audience attention. Morkes, J and Nielsen J (1997) found out that 47% higher when the text was scannable in web pages. How about print document? Readers also tend to read scannable on finding the information that they want. Therefore, document designer need to understand the principles of design to reflect the qualities of your document towards your audience. (Reep ,2006)

Balance - the comparable visual "weight" on both sides of a page. In #1 example is a theory slides whereby it full of text the topic could make the audience boring. Reep (2006), readers do not only read the printed words, but they also read the visual presentation of text. Therefore, in power point slide show, too many words /clutter is not a good design because readers are tend to be scannable (Nielsen 1997).

#1


#2

#3

Proportion - refers to the size and placement of text, graphic aids, and format elements on the page.

-Point form
-Key words/highlighted color
-White space between the theory and the text, it looks more proportion and make the reader more atractive.

To avoid monotonous for readers, it could be interfere with the typeface. Benhardt, A (1986) . In one design, 2 or 3 typeface are maximum.Like #2, the title and words are using different typeface and size. So that, readers can differenciate the topic and the points. If we do more than that, your design will look un-proportion. (#2).


Sequence - refers to the arrangement of design features.

Topics are introduced and broken down in the initial section, Bernhardt, A (1986). Like in #1 and #2, the arrangement of design features are based on the sequence which are start from the topic, point, and example.

Consistency - refers to presenting similar features (margins, typeface, indentations) in similar style.

Reep (2006) stated that, to increase the ability of readers to remember the important, highligthed sections. In every slides, the key point are highlted. The slides show also using the same background and font size.

In coclusion, no matter in the print or online design, document designer need to understand the 4 basic principles design by Reep, D (2006).



References:
Benhardt, A S 1986, Seeing the Text, College Composition and Communication, vol 37, pp.66-78.
Morkes,J and Nielsen, J 1997, Concise, Scannable, and Objective: How to write for the Web, retrieved online on 19 April 2010, from:http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html
Reep,D C 2006, 'Chapter 6: Document design' in Technical writing: Principles, strategies and readings, 6th ed. Pearson Longman, NY.
Schelle, T 2009, The purpose of a Power Point, retrieved online on 19 April 2010, from: http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Purpose-of-a-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=2576848

New Form of Media Publishing

In the beginning of 21 century, the combination of digital convergence, personal computing and global networking seems to have ratcheted up the pace of development and is giving rise to radical shifts in the environment. (Naughton, J 2006). Like Walsh (2006) said the textual shift to be multimodal text (those texts that have more than one 'mode', so that meaning is communicated through a synchronisation of modes). For example: the old media shift to new media, whereby print newspaper altered to online newspaper.

New Media ecosystem

Naughton, J 2006 claimed that the new media ecosystem will be richer, more diverse and complex because of the number of content producers and the density of the interactions between them and their products. John Battelle, found out that the dramatic effects that powerful search engines such as Google are having on the advertising and marketing industries that could threaten the other companies. Internet is also making much harder for companies to keep secrets. In the real facts, nothing is secret in new media ecosystem. Like Naughton,J (2006) claimed, user-generated text whereby users could published, share, and make available to the world.

A new trend in New Media ecosystem.

However, in new media itself, lots things had shifted. Hopkins, found out the growth of blogging has slowed down, but the total number of blogs is still growing. (NST, 2010). It due to the inconvenient of blogging, such as html code in error, or blog takes quite a lot of work especially on adding pictures into your blog. In contrast with 'Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube' as in a new trend in the new media. The microblogging sites which enable easy and quick upload of brief text updates, pictures, and videos . It also consider as Moblog, where people are free to upload their photo, status, or video through mobile phone. The more easy and fast, people tend to seek for that.

Twitter is changing the communication way

The 'Paradigm shift' from old media to new media, effected the conventional journalism. Based on the current ages users especially youth tend to prefer twitter as a substitute of blogs. Twitter is a social networking and microblogging to send a message to the other users which nowadays you can do through mobile phone updated (Moblog).

Source:http://teacherspodcast.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/twitter-bird.png

Benefits:

• Social Networking, with 140 words, we can post up our idea, mood, or status.In twitter, freedom of speech is open.
• Fastest information: Michael Jackson death, twitter was the first updated information accordingly before he passed away.
• "Twitter Vote Report" - an open source software program that merges internet-based data with reports from election poll monitors to produce a real time report of where and when fraud might be happening. It was used in 2008 US elections, India, and Afghanistan.
• Alternative of new media, eg: when journalist were banned from reporting the events in Iran, some Iranians via twitter to tell the world what was going on.

Some issues towards Twitter:

1. Security issue: Twitter brings convenient towards the user such as tweets, follow and comment. However, the current facts about security issues is being obvious. Twitter was hacked and 33 major Twitter accounts were made to post fake tweets including Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Rick Sanchez, and Facebook.

Barack Obama twitter account was hacked by someone irresponsible

• Over-crowded: The 'in' of twittering among the community caused the traffic system will be crowded. The result , audience will tend to give more bad reputation on twitter in the end.

User of twitter are angry because of the error from twitter for last several days
Sources: http://twittown.com/social-networks/twitter/twitter-blog/more-twitter-problems

• Copyright issue: The terms of service from twitter, make it really clear that anything you post out is your own rights. In the other words, any idea that you brought up towards the public through twitter doesn't have any copyright. Anyone could copy paste your post without your knowledge even though it is just 140 limitation words.

• Manipulation: Even though users will get fastest information through twitter, however the reliability is still question mark. Someone could change the information value and publish it since twitter is limited on the words terms.

References:
Bailey, J 2008, Copyright and Twitter, retrieved online on 19 April 2010, from:

http://www.blogherald.com/2008/05/05/copyright-and-twitter/
Blog, Security Issues Plague Twitter, retrieved online on 19 April 2010, from: http://www.bloggersblog.com/blog/106091

Maher,H 2009, Twittering The Tryants:New Media's Role in Authoritarian Regimes, retrieved online 19 April 2010, from: http://www.rferl.org/content/Twittering_The_Tyrants_New_Medias_Role_

In_Authoritarian_Regimes/1860083.html Bloggers

Nauhghton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, retrieved online on 19 April 2010, from: http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html

Blogging Community

Sources: http://www.erikcunningham.com/blog/images/Link_Network.jpg

Blogging community refers to online community of people who share interests and activities, and are exploring the others. Blogosphere is used to describe the online community of bloggers and the content they publish. White,N(2006) claimed blogs as personal publishing platforms, but community always found its infrastructural roots in forums and email lists, or online conversation. Blogster is one of a good examples of blogging community. There are 75,153 bloggers are joining this community with different types of blogs based on their interest.

To create a blogging community we need:

- Permalink or a permanent and direct link to a particular blog post.

- Q & A sections or comments, so that your blog will be active.

- Tag or label your topic based on the reader interests.

- Forums

- Aggregated feed (using RSS)

- Sharing through social networking, such as Facebook, Twitter, or myspace.

Blog Communities currently

According to White, N (2006), she found out that there are three main patterns wide variety of blogging communities based on technology/design, social architecture, subject matter, and lifecycle.

3 different types of blogging community

1. Single Blog/ Blogger Centric Community

- Well known as 'a list bloggers'

- Owned: one owner or organisation that the only one can set rules and norms of engagement, and setting the conversation topic / the subject matter. eg: Anecdote

- Overwhelming comments on the blog, or the commentators will add these into their daily reading/shift entirely to the new blog.

2. Central Connecting Topic Community

- A community that arises between the combination of subject matter (domain) and membership (community), e.g: food bloggers (foodproff), or travel bloggers (BootsnAll ravel Blogs)

- No single technological platform.

- To shared with the community, they could link through: hyperlinks, blogrolls, RSS, tagging, trackbacks, and comments.

3. Boundaried Communities.

- Collections of blogs and blog readers hosted on a single site/platform

- Similar as traditional forum, eg. Myspace.com, edublogs

- Tend to: discussion boards, social networking features,wikis, and instant messaging built in.

An Example of the structure of Blogging Community

Based from explanation above, jeffooi.com is one of a good example's blog community in Malaysia. It is one of prominence political blog in Malaysia that have correspondent with Asia's Internet Newspaper, Aggregated Blog & Video (Asian Correspondent). In term of structure of the blogging community, jeffooi.com fall in category central connecting topic community (White, N 2006). He still maintain his own blog, but he also have taking a part on Asian correspondent. The communities form within the network as people find more specific niches and interests.

An example of Jeffoi's blog by implying technology aspect in central connecting topic community blogs.

The recent comments, where the members of community will give comment based on the topic that interested.

This is where members will learn and support each other idea.

References:

Powell, F 2009, Blog tips: A glossary of blog terms, retrieved online on 19 April 2010, from:http://businessblogschool.com/business-blogging-tips-a-glossary-of-blog-terms/

Rowse, D 2008, How to Build Community on Your Blog, retrieved on 19 April 2010, from:http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/04/26/how-to-build-community-on-your-blog/

The Motive Web Design Glossary, Web log (blog), Blogging, Bloggers, Blogosphere, retrieved online on 19 April 2010, from: http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/blogs.php#types

White, N 2006, Blogs and Community-launching a new paradigm for online community?, retrieved online on 18 April 2010, from: http://kt.flexibelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial-11-editorial/blogs-and-community--launching-a-new-paradagim-for-online-community