simplicity

Bibliography

2008-06-12T06:54:00.000-07:00

Auchard, E, March 19 2008, Face book tries to win back trust on privacy, viewed 5 june 2008.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23430768-5014115,00.html

BBC News UK, Wednesday, 7 November 2007, ‘High-tech ways to stay in touch’, viewed in 30 April 2008http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7082566.stm

Bergstein, B 2008, Grandfather builds Web browser for autistic boy, Yahoo news, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/business_of_life;_ylt=AqwovK9eaZFB5QAtXgR1YcQjtBAF

Blokker, B 2008, Fitna the movie: not hyperbole or metaphor, but repetition, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.nrc.nl/international/article1028543.ece/Fitna_the_Movie_not_hyperbole_or_metaphor_but_repetition

Broder, H M 2008, Mission accomplished for Dutch populist: How a film trigger a global panic, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,542255,00.html

Broder, H M 2008, Mission accomplished for Dutch populist: How a film trigger a global panic; Part 2: Dutch premier: We must consider the consequences of our actions, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,542255-2,00.html

Citizen Journalism 2008, Deteksi Word Press, viewed 7 June 2008,
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/images/set1/internews_165935_1%255B204394%255D.jpg&imgrefurl=http://deteksi.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/blog-dan-citizen-journalism/&h=333&w=500&sz=61&hl=id&start=10&tbnid=gIUackbUp-56zM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcitizen%2Bblogging%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Did

Dearnley, J Feather, J 2001, ‘Chapter 1: Theorizing the information society' in The Wired World: an introduction to the theory and practice of the information society, Library Association Publishing, London

Dearnley, J Feather, J 2001, ‘Chapter 2: A new technology for information’ in The Wired World: An introduction to the theory and practice of the information society, Library Association Publishing, London

Guanipa, C 1998, 'Cultural Shock', viewed on 11 June 2008
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/CGuanipa/cultshok.htm

Herring, S C, Scheidt L A, Kouper I, Wright E (ed), 2007, Chapter 1: Longitudinal Content Analysis of Blogs: 2003-2004 in Blogging, Citizenship, and the Future of Media, Routledge, New York, pp. 1-20.

Iskold, A 2007, Who is blogging and Why? Is the blogosphere in the digestion phase?, viewed 30 April 2008. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/blogging_digestion_phase.php

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, London: Routledge.

Nicole, K, March 24 2008, Private zuckerberg and paris Hilton private pict accessed on face book, viewed 5 june 2008.
http://mashable.com/2008/03/24/facebook-photo-security-breach

Nielsen, J 1997, Be Succint!, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, March 15,viewed 29 April 2008<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html> .

The Gospel according to Jakob: A review of “Designing for Web usability” by Jakob Nielsen 2000, uidesign, viewed on 11 June 2008http://www.uidesign.net/2000/books/webusability.html

Slaughter and ‘submission’: Creator of Dutch film vows sequel despite Muslim deaths threats 2008, CBS news, viewed 11 June 2008http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/11/60minutes/main679609.shtml

Ooi, J 2008, Did blogging matter in the general election?, viewed 29 April 2008.http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/blogging/index.html

O'Shaughnessy, M Stadler, J 2002, Media and Society: an introduction, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, pp. 2-18

Putnis, Peter & Petelin, Roslyn 1996, ‘Writing to communicate,’ in Professional communication, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

'Private' photos made public on Facebook',news.com.au, viewed 5 june 2008.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23430768-5014115,00.html

Reddick, R, King, E, 2001, The Online Journalist: Using the internet and other electronic resources, 3rd edn, Harcourt College Publisher, United State of America.

Reep, D C 2006, ‘Chapter 6: Document Design’ in Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies and Readings, 6th edn, Pearson Education

Repp, D, 2006, ‘Chapter 7: Writing for the Web’ in Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Readings, Pearson Education, US.

Sundar, S S, Edwards H H, Hu Y F, Stavrositu C, 2007, Chapter 5: Blogging for better Health: Putting the “Public” Back in Public Health in Blogging, Citizenship, and the Future of the Media, Routledge, New York, pp. 83-102

Tanner, S Philips, G Smyth, C Tapshall 2005, ‘Chapter 17: Technology’ in Journalism Ethics At Work, Pearson Longman publishing, Australia.

Toor, M L, 1998, Graphic Design on the Desktop: A Guide For the Non-designer, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons., Canada.

Usborne, N, 2002, Networds: Creating high-impact online copy, McGraw Hill, New York.

Williams, K 2003, 'Ways of making you think: Theories of Ideology and Meaning', Understanding Media Theory, Arnold, London, pp. 155-164.

Reflection

2008-06-12T03:39:00.000-07:00

image source: google 2008

Start blogging was a challenge for me as I was not a blogger and not really web-savvy. I started blogging by discussing blogging issues with my friends, consulting to books, and doing an online research about blog and the issues.

Maintaining a blog has helped me familiarize with web blogging, any issue regarding web publishing and multimedia, and ethics in publishing. Moreover it has become a great experience in learning to write academic ands reliable articles for online publication.

I strongly believe blogging should be everyone’s skill as blog has emerged as today’s alternative source of information. By equipping ones with the knowledge of writing and cyberspace world, they will be versatile and can be the product of ready-to-use for the higher requirement of future industries demand.

image source: google 2008

Blog has modified people’s conventional ways in getting and disseminating information. A blogger must seriously consider its main targeted audience and purpose in settling a blog. In my opinion, the existence of blog should encourage more open debate to allow people not only voicing out their opinion but also getting information from different perspective. Moreover, bloggers should be urged to comprehend others culture, reconsidering the document before posting whether it will insult or ridicule others. Therefore, bloggers are not only obliged to write a good piece of informative and accurate document, but also understand and apply journalistic ethics in their articles.

Fitna the movie: twisted freedom of speech

2008-06-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

mage: Geert Wilders, google 2008

Geert Wilders, a Dutch parliamentary member, was the man behind the creation of the controversial short film 'Fitna', linking Islam with terrorism, which triggered protests all over the world (Broder, 2008). Bas Blokker (2008), NRC Handelsbald film critic, provided an overview of the movie; says Wilders tried to prove certain point therefore he did not concern a lot with aesthetics in making his work convincing.

Knowledge lies within individuals who perceive ‘truth’ as very subjective as it is the writer’s personal experience (Putnis and Petelin, 1996, p. 231). Reep suggests in writing for the web or broadcasting a video, the maker should evaluate the clear purpose of its video (2006, p. 181). Reading process, according to Walsh (2006, p. 25), is the integration of socio-cultural and contextual dimension with cognitive, affective, and visual process. Something which is acceptable in one country might be perceived as indecent in others since individual processes information differently.

image: fitna the movie, nrc 2008

At first Wilders managed to publish his ‘creation’ through television however, all stations refused to broadcast it, that eventually left him with one option: broadcast it online. Wilders’ video irritated Muslim religious community and is actually the compilation of pictures uploaded by extremists Muslims (Blokker, 2008) which served as the visual communication like Kress and van Leeuwen (2006, p. 23) says image is the representation of the ‘reality’.

image: nrc 2008

Did Wilders suggest any new ideology? Because he presents his ‘system of thought’ as such, he attached strong emotional and bias idea (Williams, 2003, p. 146). Some pro-Wilders appreciate him for his brave and directness nevertheless others criticise him as insensitive politician who abuses the multiculturalism in Netherlands (Broder, 2008). The debates about Wilders mission to publish that anti-Koran film emerges the question whether there is a hidden agenda or agenda setting that he meant to draw media attention in hammering certain issue (O’Shaughnessy and Jane, 2002).

Does the reaction of this film reflect society’s culture shock toward a sensitive issue document, as referring to Guanipa (1998); culture shock is the feeling of discomfort not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate. In my opinion, Wilders case should be an invaluable lesson for us to learn, when we produce a document, we have to seriously consider the content and purpose. It is not wrong to produce our own perspective over something, however we must further examine whether it will hurt or irritate any parties. Technology supports the information storage, processing, and dissemination in a simple and common way (Dearnley and Feather, 2001, p. 11), so why not we use it for a good reason and benefit everyone unexceptionally.

So, what do you think?

Reference:

Blokker, B 2008, Fitna the movie: not hyperbole or metaphor, but repetition, viewed on 11 June 2008

http://www.nrc.nl/international/article1028543.ece/Fitna_the_Movie_not_hyperbole_or_metaphor_but_repetition

Broder, H M 2008, Mission accomplished for Dutch populist: How a film trigger a global panic, viewed on 11 June 2008

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,542255,00.html

Broder, H M 2008, Mission accomplished for Dutch populist: How a film trigger a global panic; Part 2: Dutch premier: We must consider the consequences of our actions, viewed on 11 June 2008

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,542255-2,00.html

Dearnley, J Feather, J 2001, ‘Chapter 1: Theorizing the information society' in The Wired World: an introduction to the theory and practice of the information society, Library Association Publishing, London

Slaughter and ‘submission’: Creator of Dutch film vows sequel despite Muslim deaths threats 2008, CBS news, viewed 11 June 2008
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/11/60minutes/main679609.shtml

Guanipa, C 1998, 'Cultural Shock', viewed on 11 June 2008

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/CGuanipa/cultshok.htm

O'Shaughnessy, M Stadler, J 2002, Media and Society: an introduction, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, pp. 2-18

Repp, D, 2006, ‘Chapter 7: Writing for the Web’ in Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Readings, Pearson Education, US.

Walsh,M 2006, The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp.24-37.

Williams, K 2003, 'Ways of making you think: Theories of Ideology and Meaning', Understanding Media Theory, Arnold, London, pp. 155-164.

Zac Browser: technology breakthrough for the disabled

2008-06-10T23:24:00.000-07:00

The rapid development of technology which enables the existence of internet might have brought the ultimate simplicity for some group of people in performing their task more efficiently, nevertheless there are some group of people who are disadvantaged by the globalizing process as they cannot fully enjoy the benefit of technology (Schirato and Webb, 2006, p. 71).

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services estimated that 8% of internet users are people with disability which might hinder their full-access to web pages (Reep, 2006, p. 180). One of the forms of disability is autism, which generally affects one’s ability to communicate (Bergstein, 2008). James Ball, an autism-education consultant in New Jersey, said many autism children find chat rooms and instant-messaging causing a lower-anxiety way of socializing compared to engaging in face-to-face communication.

That difficulty is overcome by John LeSieur, the owner of software business in Saint Remi, Quebec, who builds the Zac Browser for Autistic Children (a software programming for autism children) in honour of his 6-year-old grandson. A huge advantage he shares with everyone is free software download.

Zackary, LeSieur's 6-years-old grandson

image source: yahoo news 2008

In designing the program, LeSieur focused at simplifying the experience of using computer for autism children. It presents a hand-picked slate of choices ranges from free public website mainly on educational games, music, and other visually entertaining images. As Nielsen (2000) says navigation buttons should be minimised since you build your web not only for the able but also for the disable (http://www.uidesign.net/2000/books/webusability.html).

This finding is welcomed by Dianne Zager, director of the Center for Teaching and Research in Autism at Pace University (Pennsylvania, Philadelphia). She commented, “LeSieur's approach of limiting distractions and using the software as a confidence-boosting tool is a very good idea.”

How different is the program from the conventionally available?

Autistic children find too many choices is overwhelming so that this program disables keyboard buttons like “Print Screen” and shuts off the mouse’s right button function to eliminate the chance of autistic children lose self confidence after making a counterproductive click. This program provides a bigger-than-normal icon to click, sets the view configuration of no advertisements or other flashing or blinking image, retains users’ self esteem by blocking access to very dark or complicated website.

By the existence of this program, cyber space world should be no longer perceived as horrific for autism children, nonetheless this rare tool can harmonize autism children need of alternative media.

references:

Bergstein, B 2008, Grandfather builds Web browser for autistic boy, Yahoo news, viewed on 11 June 2008

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/business_of_life;_ylt=AqwovK9eaZFB5QAtXgR1YcQjtBAF

Repp, D, 2006, ‘Chapter 7: Writing for the Web’ in Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Readings, Pearson Education, US.

The Gospel according to Jakob: A review of “Designing for Web usability” by Jakob Nielsen 2000, uidesign, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.uidesign.net/2000/books/webusability.html

Recent Loophole of Facebook

2008-06-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton, image source: mashable 2008

The web does modify the traditional paradigm of the way people socializing with others, as we can witness the emergence of social networking sites such as facebook, friendster, myspace, flickr (mainly for sharing pictures). According to Walsh, paradigm shift has filled our environment with multimodality, the mixture if visual, electronic and digital text.

Among all social networking sites, Facebook is generally perceived to be the safest. However, the recent loophole in Facebook’s photo album give us a lesson of privacy. Faceebook loophole was revealed by Bryan Ng (2008), Vancouver computer technician, who managed to gain access to someone’s private photo by manipulating web address and appear as the friend of that person. He successfully viewed private photos uploaded in Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook), Paris Hilton, and Nicole Rithcie profiles.

Jeremiah Grossman (2008), chief technology officer at a Web application security company, says the bottom line in sharing or uploading something online is we publicise it therefore it is no longer private regardless any privacy guarantee. Whereas Reddick and King (2001, p. 19) describe internet as a cyberspace world where nobody owns it, or strictly controls, governs or even takes responsibility for it.

In terms of personal safety in the cyberspace, Dearnley and Feather (2001, p. 38) state there is no absolute beneficial or malicious in the internet, what matters are how society embrace the era of paradigm shift and make use of it for a good reason. Therefore, the recent security loophole case of Facebook can better be a lesson for us to learn and be more alert of any of the consequence of uploading something online.

references:

Auchard, E, March 19 2008, Face book tries to win back trust on privacy, viewed 5 june 2008.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23430768-5014115,00.html

Dearnley, J Feather, J 2001, ‘Chapter 2: A new technology for information’ in The Wired World: An introduction to the theory and practice of the information society, Library Association Publishing, London

Nicole, K, March 24 2008, Private zuckerberg and paris Hilton private pict accessed on face book, viewed 5 june 2008.

http://mashable.com/2008/03/24/facebook-photo-security-breach

March 25, 2008 06:58pm, 'Private' photos made public on Facebook', viewed 5 june 2008.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23430768-5014115,00.html

Reddick, R, King, E, 2001, The Online Journalist: Using the internet and other electronic resources, 3rd edn, Harcourt College Publisher, United State of America.

Walsh,M 2006, The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp.24-37.

Blog boom among politician

2008-06-09T22:23:00.000-07:00

image source: google 2008

Blog once perceived as a mere alternative or underground media which belongs to certain community. However, time by time it shows its prominence and popularity among the majority of people and politicians, Malaysian politician in particular. The recent result of Malaysian General Election has obviously shown the real advantage of blog as it has educated Malaysian citizen more than ever.

According to Ooi’s observation (2008) there are lots of news and commentaries posted on blogs which could not be found in any mainstream media. Furthermore, he perceived it as the actual breakthrough in bringing the new Malaysia, despite the Government see it as a bitter reality as they have no control over media technology.

Usborne (2003) says today's readers are not a mere reader as they have upgraded their status to be an active audience who practice interactivity and share their knowledge with thousands of other people in reaching out more audience. Whereas Dearnley and Feather (2001, p. 11) state that information society place information as its salient part in their life which is supported by technology in processing and disseminating. Whilst Putnis and Petelin (1996, p. 231) argue that according to the expresssive theories, writing is a mean of self-expression of ones feeling, thought, and idea, which is currently practised by Malaysian. They have modified the function of blog to provide readers with alternative news they searched on internet.

Nonetheless politicians have eventually realized the importance of blog regardless their initial claim of blog as simply an arena for liar writers to post their opinion which embarrass and even humiliate politicians. The blogging phenomenon among politicians can be seen through the growing number of politic blog in malaysia, to mention some are:

Screen shot by Jeff Ooi

Rocky's Bru by Ahirudin Attan

Anwar Ibrahim by anwar Ibrahim

Che Det by Mahathir Mohammad

Ranting by Marina Mahathir

On may 2008, MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) president, Dato’ Seri Sammy Vellu encouraged more parliamentary members to start and set up their blogs to reach out more people especially youngsters and to keep them abreast of any state’s issue.

To sum up, nowadays blogs have finally gained its prominence and recognition among politician, even though initially perceived as a mere "irresponsible" alternative media which allows the posting of embarrassing , misleading, and harsh article.

References:

Dearnley, J Feather, J 2001, ‘Chapter 1: Theorizing the information socety’ in The Wired World: An introduction to the theory and practice of the information society, Library Association Publishing, London

Ooi, J 2008, Did blogging matter in the general election?, viewed 29 April 2008.http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/blogging/index.html

Putnis, Peter & Petelin, Roslyn 1996, ‘Writing to communicate,’ in Professional communication, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Usborne, N, 2002, Networds: Creating high-impact online copy, McGraw Hill, New York.

citizen journalism: is here to stay or perish??

2008-06-09T22:15:00.000-07:00

image source: wordpress 2008

Web has emerged as the newest communication medium which offers the ultimate sophistication in getting and disseminating information, moreover opens public discussion on certain issues (Reddick and King, 2001, p. 246). Let us welcome the newest form of citizen journalism, blogging or web ‘logging’. According to Tanner, et al. (2005, p. 229) bloggers are labeled as citizen journalists because their topics are fermented at reporting ground news which eventually make them possible to be the major alternative source of information.

An overview of citizen journalism was provided in deteksi wordpress (2008), citizen journalism might be translated into the action of collecting and disseminating information through a certain media in their individual perspective. The source of their idea might be from what they see, hear, think, etcetera.

According to deteksi wordpress (2008), when a bloggers rewrite what they have witnessed, somehow it weakens the power of the article because the information has traveled to more than one party and might be interpreted differently by each of them. In one side it might help others in getting information from different perspectives. However, since bloggers write it according to what they hear and see, it might be subjective and contain exaggeration, whereby it challenges the authenticity and reliability of that article.

The existence of blog in these days has become the real example of citizen journalism. In addition, as bloggers are becoming more critical source of news (Opshal, cited in Zeller 2005), therefore they must differentiate themselves from the mainstream media in posting news by doing an initial cross checking fact to make an accurate submission (Tanner, et.al, 2005, p. 230). To enhance the blog’s appearance (looks more informative and reliable), bloggers usually upload pictures they snapped using their mobile phone.

In my opinion, citizen journalism should be the balancing tool for people in gaining more comprehensive information. Furthermore, to make them not solely rely on mainstream media in getting information, because at times mainstream media is one-sided in publishing their news. So, how about you, what do you think?

Reference:
Citizen Journalism 2008, Deteksi Word Press, viewed 7 June 2008,
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/images/set1/internews_165935_1%255B204394%255D.jpg&imgrefurl=http://deteksi.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/blog-dan-citizen-journalism/&h=333&w=500&sz=61&hl=id&start=10&tbnid=gIUackbUp-56zM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcitizen%2Bblogging%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Did

Reddick, R, King, E, 2001, The Online Journalist: Using the internet and other electronic resources, 3rd edn, Harcourt College Publisher, United State of America.

Tanner, S Philips, G Smyth, C Tapshall 2005, ‘Chapter 17: Technology’ in Journalism Ethics At Work, Pearson Longman publishing, Australia.

2008-05-06T02:49:00.000-07:00

New forms of media publishing

Technologies perpetually develops and new ways in media publishing invented. By the rapidly growth in the number of computer users, internet has taken its role as the alternative information media publishing. More than that, hand phone has become a gadget with more functions than we could ever imagined before.

Mobile blogging is the newest innovation in today’s media publishing which is very popular among people with camera-featured cell phones. It has has gained popularity among people in New York and Japan. When blogging, people post their commentaries or ideas from their computer, whereas with mobile blogging, people use their cell phone to post their ideas, video or picture straightly to their blog. Blogs as new form of media publishing offers a privilege for the creator to be the content creator. In addition, blogs are also a vehicle for identity self-expressing (Sundar, et al., 2007, p. 85).

Not only we can acquire information in text form, but also video, picture, etcetera.
Here are the examples:
Online Video
Eg.: Youtube, Myspace, etcetera >> provides easiness for people to publish video content online

Online Newspaper
Eg.: The Stars, Jakarta Post, Jawapos, etcetera.

Online Magazine

Eg.: ‘O’ by Oprah Winfrey, Seventeen, Women's Health Magazine

Reference:

BBC News UK, Wednesday, 7 November 2007, ‘High-tech ways to stay in touch’, viewed in 30 April 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7082566.stm

Sundar, S S, Edwards H H, Hu Y F, Stavrositu C, 2007, Chapter 5: Blogging for better Health: Putting the “Public” Back in Public Health in Blogging, Citizenship, and the Future of the Media, Routledge, New York, pp. 83-102.

2008-05-06T01:38:00.000-07:00

Designing for online versus for print

The two images above are good example in showing the difference between designing for printed and online media. It was taken from the same source but published in different genre. In comparison, in printed document, designers fit in text within the allocated space, meanwhile, web document designers have to consider of allocating white or blank space for the readers’ eyes to rest (Repp, 2006, p. 157).

In designing for online sources, designers have to be well-aware of the size of the page, since oversize webpage is difficult to read and cannot fit in some monitors (Toor, 1998, p. 164). Whereas, in creating a printed document, designers should focus on the layout, to attract the readers to keep flipping through the pages.

As Kress and van Leuween says ‘multimodal text’ means a text which contains words and

images which integrate in bringing up the meaning of the document. Printed materials are a form of multimodal text document which meant to be read and carried so the designers have to create a handy document with an appealing layout, whereas for online material readers are suppose to go form link to link (Toor, 1998, p. 163).

Jacob Nielsen, a usability engineer and web-design consultant, says you have to be succinct in designing for web, because readers’ eyes will get tired easily when they read text on screen, furthermore, reading on screen is 25% slower than reading paper. Since skimming is the most common behavior practiced by online readers, the solution is to write no more than 50% of the text for your hardcopy publication. Remember that readers do not like to scroll the page, so keep it brief and concise.

According to eye tracking visualization, readers usually read in F shape pattern (horizontal movement, second horizontal movement, and vertical movement). So that they only skim through some paragraphs to find the information.

Reference:

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘chapter 6: The meaning of composition in Front Pages: Analysis of newspaper layout, in COMM 1033 (UNISA reading library).

Nielsen, J 1997, Be Succint!, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, March 15,viewed 29 April 2008<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html> .

Reep, D C 2006, ‘Chapter 6: Document Design’ in Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies and Readings, 6th edn, Pearson Education.Toor, M L, 1998, Graphic Design on the Desktop: A Guide For the Non-designer, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons., Canada.

2008-05-06T00:21:00.000-07:00

Blogs as current phenomenon

Blog has emerged as a new form of online self-publishing media. In comparison with newspaper, blogs are on the rise, whilst newspaper’s circulation is on decline. Blogs offer new way for people in coming across with ideas, images, sounds, and comments to other network or link (cited in Cunningham and Turner, 2006, p. 272).

Herring, et al., says that blogs gained an immense popularity because it enables simple and inexpensive self-publication, and functions as more flexible and interactive publication format (cited in Tremayne, 2007, p. 3). Furthermore, it allows the provision of hyperlink to other related information sources and visitors can interact and responds by dropping a comment.

According to David Sifry’s post in April 2007, blogosphere has experienced a significant growth. Technocrati, a blog search engine, tracked 112 million blog users in 2007 which means within a minute, in the last 3 years there are approximately 1,5 new blogs created everyday. We can say that as a current phenomenon, it has possessed a huge number of users.

Whereas, within Malaysian community it has brought an impact within society as it allocates a space for freedom of speech. The result of the last Malaysia General Election refelects the outcome of the Malaysian blogging trend as societies at large are more educated and well-informed than ever before.The majority of the citizen had swung their support to the opposition. Primarily because Malaysia’s government strictly censors and controlls the media publication. There were lots of news and commentaries posted on the blogs which could not be found in the mainstream media (Ooi, 2008).

Briefly, by involving self in blogging community, ones possess their opportunity to open their window of knowledge to know more of what is going on, since we can get more balanced information which are not published in the mainstream medias.

Reference:
Iskold, A 2007, Who is blogging and Why? Is the blogosphere in the digestion phase?, viewed 30 April 2008. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/blogging_digestion_phase.php

Ooi, J 2008, Did blogging matter in the general election?, viewed 29 April 2008.
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/blogging/index.html

Herring, S C, Scheidt L A, Kouper I, Wright E (ed), 2007, Chapter 1: Longitudinal Content Analysis of Blogs: 2003-2004 in Blogging, Citizenship, and the Future of Media, Routledge, New York, pp. 1-20.

My blogging purpose

2008-05-05T23:47:00.001-07:00

My primary intention in settling this blog is to get involved in the online community, as well as to share information, and encourage an intellectual open debate. Whereas my primary intended audiences are academic people whose interest in technology and multimedia issues. However, I encourage people in general to visit and read my blog to enhance their knowledge.