So, I have come to an end as my journey as a blogger. From this blog, I have learnt that I have to be unbiased in writing blogs, as well as to be opinionated in everything and to view things from different angles. Also, most importantly, bloggers have to be ethical journalists of sorts and have to watch what they write and say in case they offend anyone by mistake.
I have also had a brief tango with html and blog design, and learnt that simplicity really is key in a blog design: it's easy on the eyes, and a simple blog is definitely easier to read! I hope that future bloggers who come across this little blog will honestly learn something from it and continue to keep the blogging flame alive.
Farewell, for now!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Youtube and infringement rights
Many videos that are uploaded on Youtube have violated copyrights, and yet, nothing seems to be done about them. Many users have uploaded music videos of bands without permission, and some even have uploaded television series episodes in parts for viewers to enjoy!
Being an avid user of Youtube, this article, written by Sandoval (2006) had caught my eye. Robert Tur, a journalist and a well-known helicopter pilot, filed a lawsuit against Youtube, claiming that someone had posted a video he took fourteen years ago on video without his agreement or consent. Tur accused Youtube of encouraging users to infringe copyright laws. As a result, Youtube removed his video, but Tur asked the court for $150,000 in compensation per every violation and to ban further use of his material (Sandoval 2006).
In my opinion, Youtube should tighten their rules and prevent users from uploading videos that infringe copyright laws. Also, they should do routine monthly checks of their website to look for any stray videos that might be against the law.
Resources:
Sandoval, G 2006, YouTube sued over copyright infringement, ZDNet News, viewed 11 November 2008, http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-148863.html
Being an avid user of Youtube, this article, written by Sandoval (2006) had caught my eye. Robert Tur, a journalist and a well-known helicopter pilot, filed a lawsuit against Youtube, claiming that someone had posted a video he took fourteen years ago on video without his agreement or consent. Tur accused Youtube of encouraging users to infringe copyright laws. As a result, Youtube removed his video, but Tur asked the court for $150,000 in compensation per every violation and to ban further use of his material (Sandoval 2006).In my opinion, Youtube should tighten their rules and prevent users from uploading videos that infringe copyright laws. Also, they should do routine monthly checks of their website to look for any stray videos that might be against the law.
Resources:
Sandoval, G 2006, YouTube sued over copyright infringement, ZDNet News, viewed 11 November 2008, http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-148863.html
Monday, November 10, 2008
Facebook and privacy
The facebook logo.(Image source: http://www.facebook.com/)
The rise of the Internet has brought upon us social networking sites such as Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook, and the latter is still currently all the rage on the Internet. Firstly, here's the tricky question: what is private, and what is not on Facebook, since almost everything is practically out in the open on your Facebook profile.
Holter (2007) asserts that Facebook informs you whenever a friend of yours adds another friend, or if a friend adds you, or if the littlest change happens to your profile. However, in sites like this, the amount of exposure can lead to dangerous consequences.
An article that is to be discussed today highlights the issue of Facebook invading the privacy of individuals written by Chris Vallance on BBC News.
The social networking site will be quizzed about its data protection policies by the Information Commissioner's Office following a complaint by a user of the site who was unable to fully delete his or her profile even though he or she terminated their account. Facebook, however, has stood by its policy and states that it is in 'full compliance with UK data protection law' (Vallance, 2008).
This Facebook privacy issue is further confirmed by Walsh (2006) who states that web design provides factual information in words or graphics with the purpose of giving information to the users on a certain subject. Based on this, it is seen that Facebook is only trying to do the right thing by providing their members' information.
Facebook has provided a remedy, however, by allowing you to alter your Facebook privacy settings to your liking.
References:
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
Holter, E 2007, To Facebook or Not to Facebook, viewed 9 November 2008,
Vallance, C 2008, FaceBook face privacy questions, BBC News, viewed on 10 November 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7196803.stm
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Emoticons :-)
Do you use this :-) regularly? Are they an important part in your emails and whenever you chat online? Do you know who created it, dear readers?
Well read on.
A survey done by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy in the year 2001 states that eighty eight per cent of all Internet users use their email. However, not all of these users know how to use or write an email correctly. A lot of users, according to Greenstone (n,d), simply do not know how to add in emoticons which somehow adversely lead to confusion or causing the receiver to misinterpret a message and therefore gets his or her feelings hurt.
According to the transcript in The Media Report, Funnell (2007) states that many people do not have a clue as to how to interpret what they receive. Someone could take a completely innocent and well-meaning email and instantly misinterpret it as sarcasm. For example, when the email really meant,
"I really had a nice time today,"
a person could also interpret it as sarcasm and anger.
According to Scott Fahlman, a professor who is based at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the basic smiley face could be typed out by simply typing a colon (:), a hyphen (-) and then a parenthesis.
Two and a half decades later, even though the :-) smiley still remains, there is now a whole new generation of emoticons, graphical emoticons with animation, but Falhman still uses the emoticons he created- the smiley face and the frowny face.
the new smiley
(image source: http://ifieverfeelbetter.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/smiley.jpg)
In my opinion, emoticons play a very important part in showing how a person is feeling, especially on hand written items like email, chats and through sms to actually convey what you want the other person to reocgnize how you feel phsyically instead of having the other person misinterpret what you actually feel. I'm an avid user of the emoticon, and I don't intend to stop anytime soon! :-)
References:
Funnell, A 2008, ‘Emoticons and email ettiquette’, The Media Report, viewed 8 November 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm
Well read on.
A survey done by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy in the year 2001 states that eighty eight per cent of all Internet users use their email. However, not all of these users know how to use or write an email correctly. A lot of users, according to Greenstone (n,d), simply do not know how to add in emoticons which somehow adversely lead to confusion or causing the receiver to misinterpret a message and therefore gets his or her feelings hurt.
According to the transcript in The Media Report, Funnell (2007) states that many people do not have a clue as to how to interpret what they receive. Someone could take a completely innocent and well-meaning email and instantly misinterpret it as sarcasm. For example, when the email really meant,
"I really had a nice time today,"
a person could also interpret it as sarcasm and anger.
According to Scott Fahlman, a professor who is based at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the basic smiley face could be typed out by simply typing a colon (:), a hyphen (-) and then a parenthesis.
Two and a half decades later, even though the :-) smiley still remains, there is now a whole new generation of emoticons, graphical emoticons with animation, but Falhman still uses the emoticons he created- the smiley face and the frowny face.
:-)
the old smiley
the new smileyIn my opinion, emoticons play a very important part in showing how a person is feeling, especially on hand written items like email, chats and through sms to actually convey what you want the other person to reocgnize how you feel phsyically instead of having the other person misinterpret what you actually feel. I'm an avid user of the emoticon, and I don't intend to stop anytime soon! :-)
References:
Funnell, A 2008, ‘Emoticons and email ettiquette’, The Media Report, viewed 8 November 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm
Greenstone, B n.d., ‘E-Mail Etiquette’, mainelearns.org , viewed 8 November 2008, http://www.mainelearns.org/ovc/story_files/email_etiquette.pdf
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Journalistic ethics
Dear readers, what comes to mind when you come across the term "ethical publishing"? Surely something along the lines of a carefully written magazine, newspaper or article that does not mention anything that might be offensive to anybody in any way?
On the sixth of February this year, there was an article posted on ABC news titled "Indonesian Weekly Apologizes Over Last Suharto Cover" where an Indonesian weekly was apologizing profusely for publishing something that offended a certain group of people. The Indonesian Weekly, Koran Tempo, had published a sketch of the late Suharto surrounded by his sons and daughters at a table mimicking Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper on the front cover of the weekly, thus causing Christians to complain.
(Image source: http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dUFdkFbDIbYt)
The weekly apologized, stating that they had no intention of hurting Christians, but they were only inspired by the composition of the Leonardo painting, and not the concept or the context of the event told in the holy bible.
A similar case like this incident would be the Makkal Osai case in 2007, where the Tamil daily had posted a picture of Jesus holding a can which looked like alcohol in one hand and a cigarette in another. The Tamil Daily apologized, but in the end their license was still revoked.
(Image source: http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2008/07/15/christians-riot-over-offensive-images-in-india/)
In my opinion, these two newspapers should have been more careful and more observant before posting these pictures, and they also should possess journalistic ethics instead of blatantly posting it and having to take the pictures down and apologizing after it is too late. According to Wikipedia, news should have the principles of truthfulness, accuracy, objective, fairness, impartiality and public accountability in order to be 'newsworthy'.
In the end, as a journalist, you have to watch what you post and stick to your journalistic ethics.
References:
AEDT 2008, “Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover”, ABC News, viewed 6 November 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm
The Star 2007, “Makkal Osai suspended”, The Star Online, viewed 6 November 2008,
The Star 2007, “Tamil daily says sorry over Jesus pic”, The Star Online, viewed 6 November 2008,
Wikipedia, ‘Journalism ethics and standards’, Wikepedia.com, viewed 6 November 2008,
On the sixth of February this year, there was an article posted on ABC news titled "Indonesian Weekly Apologizes Over Last Suharto Cover" where an Indonesian weekly was apologizing profusely for publishing something that offended a certain group of people. The Indonesian Weekly, Koran Tempo, had published a sketch of the late Suharto surrounded by his sons and daughters at a table mimicking Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper on the front cover of the weekly, thus causing Christians to complain.
(Image source: http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dUFdkFbDIbYt)The weekly apologized, stating that they had no intention of hurting Christians, but they were only inspired by the composition of the Leonardo painting, and not the concept or the context of the event told in the holy bible.
A similar case like this incident would be the Makkal Osai case in 2007, where the Tamil daily had posted a picture of Jesus holding a can which looked like alcohol in one hand and a cigarette in another. The Tamil Daily apologized, but in the end their license was still revoked.
(Image source: http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2008/07/15/christians-riot-over-offensive-images-in-india/)In my opinion, these two newspapers should have been more careful and more observant before posting these pictures, and they also should possess journalistic ethics instead of blatantly posting it and having to take the pictures down and apologizing after it is too late. According to Wikipedia, news should have the principles of truthfulness, accuracy, objective, fairness, impartiality and public accountability in order to be 'newsworthy'.
In the end, as a journalist, you have to watch what you post and stick to your journalistic ethics.
References:
AEDT 2008, “Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover”, ABC News, viewed 6 November 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm
The Star 2007, “Makkal Osai suspended”, The Star Online, viewed 6 November 2008,
The Star 2007, “Tamil daily says sorry over Jesus pic”, The Star Online, viewed 6 November 2008,
Wikipedia, ‘Journalism ethics and standards’, Wikepedia.com, viewed 6 November 2008,
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
New forms of media publishing: youtube
There are many forms of media publishing, dear readers, and the field has since grown and expanded in the past decade. A few examples of new forms of media publishing are moblogs, vlogs, Youtube, and alternative online newspapers, among others. However, I will only be discussing in-depth about Youtube.
I'm sure all, if not most of you readers are familiar with Youtube? If you aren't, let me enlighten you. It is referred to as a Web 2.0 site because it alters how Internet users participate on the Web. Instead of absorbing content posted by a single person, users are able to post their own and comment on others (Gill et al., 2007). Youtube is the largest video sharing website on the Internet, and it is responsible for sixty percent of the videos watched on the internet. Due to these statistics and the absolute ease of uploading a video, it has gained popularity among businessmen and even politicians!
Youtube is now a big part of internet-driven innovations in politics. Several US political figures used it for various reasons, for example in John McCain's online fundraising campaign in the year 2000 (Cornfield & Rainie, 2006). Brand new President-elect Barack Obama also used Youtube in his electoral campaign, having his own Youtube Channel. Youtube videos could also sway the public's decision in elections because every action is captured on video and the public can be easily influenced. For example, in this video, during the 2nd Presidential Debate this year, Senator John McCain referred to now President-elect Barack Obama as "that one" out loud. In the comments to the video, viewers questioned Senator John McCain's lack of respect for then Senator Barack Obama and some even said that due to this incident, they would be voting for Obama.
Better watch your words, politicians! Youtube's out to get you.
Resources:
Cornfield, M & Rainie, L 2006, 'The Impact Of The Internet On Politics', PEW Internet And American Life Project, viewed 4 November 2008, http://www.pewinternet.org/ppt/pip_internet_and_politics.pdf
Gill, P, Arlitt, M, Li, Z & Mahanti, A 2007, 'Youtube Traffic Characterisation: A View From The Edge', viewed 5 November 2008, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1298306.1298310
I'm sure all, if not most of you readers are familiar with Youtube? If you aren't, let me enlighten you. It is referred to as a Web 2.0 site because it alters how Internet users participate on the Web. Instead of absorbing content posted by a single person, users are able to post their own and comment on others (Gill et al., 2007). Youtube is the largest video sharing website on the Internet, and it is responsible for sixty percent of the videos watched on the internet. Due to these statistics and the absolute ease of uploading a video, it has gained popularity among businessmen and even politicians!
Youtube is now a big part of internet-driven innovations in politics. Several US political figures used it for various reasons, for example in John McCain's online fundraising campaign in the year 2000 (Cornfield & Rainie, 2006). Brand new President-elect Barack Obama also used Youtube in his electoral campaign, having his own Youtube Channel. Youtube videos could also sway the public's decision in elections because every action is captured on video and the public can be easily influenced. For example, in this video, during the 2nd Presidential Debate this year, Senator John McCain referred to now President-elect Barack Obama as "that one" out loud. In the comments to the video, viewers questioned Senator John McCain's lack of respect for then Senator Barack Obama and some even said that due to this incident, they would be voting for Obama.
Better watch your words, politicians! Youtube's out to get you.
Resources:
Cornfield, M & Rainie, L 2006, 'The Impact Of The Internet On Politics', PEW Internet And American Life Project, viewed 4 November 2008, http://www.pewinternet.org/ppt/pip_internet_and_politics.pdf
Gill, P, Arlitt, M, Li, Z & Mahanti, A 2007, 'Youtube Traffic Characterisation: A View From The Edge', viewed 5 November 2008, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1298306.1298310
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Print media vs. Online media
It is a given that different genres of media require different types of designs to meet its audiences needs, for example, online media and print media. It also depends on the user's preferences and liking. Reep (2006), however, reminds us that a design has to be sequenced and balanced so as for the design to be consistent.
In online media, the reader has to focus all of his or her attention on a certain article because his or her experience is very much guided by the publisher, for example lets say he reads until a certain paragraph and then the editor decides to continue the story on a different page. Thus, the reader has no choice but to flip the pages if he wants to finish the story. (Cochran, 2008) Nielsen (1999) claims that print design is two-dimensional and the attention of readers is grabbed easily. However, this comes with a catch: pictures must be strategically placed on the page and they must be eye-catching.
Example of a print magazine layout.
(Image Source: http://www.ginaginelli.com/images/typo_blau.jpg)
However, for web based or online media, is usually in one whole page instead of a few pages. It is very user-oriented and publishers cannot control what they want a user to read. Therefore, they most work at getting a website to be eye-catching and attractive so as to catch the users' atttention. (Cochran, 2008)
Example of an online media layout.
References:
Cochran, R 2008, ‘Print Design Versus Web Design’, Articlesbase.com, viewed 4 November 2008, http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/print-design-versus-web-design-622978.html
Nielsen, J 1999, Differences Between Print Design and Web Design, Useit.com, viewed 4 November 2008, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html
Reep, DC 1996, ‘Chapter 6: Document design’ in Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Reading, 6th edn, Pearson/Longman, New York.
In online media, the reader has to focus all of his or her attention on a certain article because his or her experience is very much guided by the publisher, for example lets say he reads until a certain paragraph and then the editor decides to continue the story on a different page. Thus, the reader has no choice but to flip the pages if he wants to finish the story. (Cochran, 2008) Nielsen (1999) claims that print design is two-dimensional and the attention of readers is grabbed easily. However, this comes with a catch: pictures must be strategically placed on the page and they must be eye-catching.
Example of a print magazine layout.(Image Source: http://www.ginaginelli.com/images/typo_blau.jpg)
However, for web based or online media, is usually in one whole page instead of a few pages. It is very user-oriented and publishers cannot control what they want a user to read. Therefore, they most work at getting a website to be eye-catching and attractive so as to catch the users' atttention. (Cochran, 2008)
Example of an online media layout.(Image source: http://dciwebworks.com/assets/images/rornj.jpg)
References:
Cochran, R 2008, ‘Print Design Versus Web Design’, Articlesbase.com, viewed 4 November 2008, http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/print-design-versus-web-design-622978.html
Nielsen, J 1999, Differences Between Print Design and Web Design, Useit.com, viewed 4 November 2008, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html
Reep, DC 1996, ‘Chapter 6: Document design’ in Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Reading, 6th edn, Pearson/Longman, New York.
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