Reflection

Overall, I have learned a lot in this Introduction to Publication and Design course. In this weblog, I gained a lot knowledge through all the informations that I provided in my writing. I have learned about blogs as current phenomenon and the benefits of blogging to the community. I also realized the different type of classification of blogs and opinions about the most appropriate classification approach as well as how do readers perceive blog credibility and how am I going build credibility for my blog. Furthermore, there are many new forms of publishing these days to deliver message and news such as facebook, blog and twitter. Besides, I also learned that different things has its’ own advantages and disadvantages such as the screen vs. print document design and the E-book evolution. Nevertheless, the vlog assignment has made me learned a lot such as the video maker editing that I have never bother to use before this. Lastly, thanks to all the readers that read my blog.

Copyright- All rights reserved

Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of original work. It can be easily understand as non plagiarism, like what we encounter while doing our assignments in the sense that the idea or sources that we get from others have to be quoted or cited with the acknowledge to the owner, we can’t just steal it and treat it as our own source of work and idea, it is not fair to the owner. Nowadays, most people search for journals and books from google scholar and google library project as people tend to be lazy to borrow books from the library. The technology advancement and creation of internet has allowed people to search for any information they want as easy as fast just through online. I personally have been using google scholar and online universities library whenever I do my assignment and homework, it is very useful to my study life as a lot ideas and information can be found with just a click and I did cite the ideas that I stole and sources that I copied to give an acknowledge to the author.

With the advancement of internet, it is much easier and less noticeable when you copy books in soft copy. However, if big company do so, their mistakes will be widely notice and get sued immediate. Such as in the article of ‘Google reaches Library Project settlement in court case with publishers’, a copyright problem is occurred to Google company as they copied other universities online library sources and make it part of their library sources, providing it free to access for everyone. This created the anger towards publishers that are involved as it affected their business through the violation of copyright. Copyright is a law to control and restrict people from plagiarising the work of the creator. In the end, the settlement is solved where google is still allow to go on with their Library project but only provide viewing for certain parts of the online book. In conclusion, it is easy to just copy other people’s work without thinking how much time and effort people had actually spent in doing that. Thus we should support original or to give a acknowledge to the author if we cited their ideas to show respect towards their work.

Reference:
http://www.piperpat.com/IPInformation/Introduction/WhatisCopyright/tabid/92/Default.aspx
 Harris, P 2012, ‘Google reaches Library Project settlement in court case with publishers’, theguardian, 4 October, viewed 8 November2012, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/04/google-library-project-settlement-court-case-publishers >

Halt over anti-Islam film

The prime minister of Pakistan has ordered Youtube to stop anti-Islam films or any uploaded videos from the communities that were made either intended or unintended that showed disrespecting to the Prophet Mohammad. Any things that cause disrespect and violate the human rights in terms of religious value, cultural and political issues that affected own country, our government has the right to ban or censor it. In the article “Pakistan's PM orders YouTube halt over anti-Islam film”, the take down order is proposed because the video shows offensive to Islam, it has created the anger of the Islamic countries and people, causing the reaction of violent behaviour from the Islamic people that felt affected.

The 911 incident that happened at the world trade centre has caused prejudice into Muslim since then. It is been assumed that the Islam is a violent and cruel religion. The Muslim people are often criticized as dangerous and scary man. It causes racist and stereotype issues. Racism can be understood in two ways, different race will have different characteristics; one is better than the other, and another meaning is prejudice and inequality based on race.

We should not discriminate and prejudice towards any religions, not only Islam. Every religion had the rules of prohibit human against the act of violent, its just that certain people gone down the wrong way of in believing their religious, hence we cannot make assumption by saying all the Islam are behaving violently. There are the good ones and bad one, prejudice and discrimination towards any races or religions have to be stop as it is offending.

Since there are so much discrimination and prejudice on the Muslims, many video had been made to Youtube or blog to voice out their feelings and dissatisfaction and try to correct people's point of view towards the Islamic. Everyone has the freedom of speech based on different cultural and religious, but if your content of speaking seems to offend other religion or races such as insulting and criticize, then this is definitely inappropriate. In conclusion, everyone should respect each other no matter what nationality, cultural, religion, race and background you came from.

Everyone is equal.

Reference:
Reuters 2012, ‘Pakistan’s PM order YouTube halt over anti-Islam film’, Reuters, 17 September, viewed 8 November2012, < http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/17/film-protests-pakistan-idUSL3E8KH9Z020120917 >

Edited pictures violates photojournalism ethics and principles

In the olden days, pictures are unable to Photoshop and it close to impossible to produce special effects for a picture. But nowadays, it is not surprise to see edited pictures in magazines, banner and etc. When the technology has improved, it is common for journalist to edit pictures to show a better image to the audiences. It is common as even ourselves, we edit our pictures to get rid the ugly blemishes on face, slimmer arms and etc. However, it is claim to be violating the photo journalism ethics if a picture is edited by journalist.

Magazine Editor of the New York Times discuss about the ethical level of editing pictures in the article “Who can improve Nature”. We often see retouch pictures of models in magazines, their body measurement such as bust and hips size is enhanced and face has been touch up to an almost impossible smooth complexion. But sometimes, it is view as unethical to edit images for certain people as they tend to reflect what they see is not the real thing, felt like has been cheated. How readers illustrate is based on beliefs to the author’s intention, knowledge of the topic and representation of the text, stated Shriver (1997). Different background of people has different judgement, it depends whether it is decide to be ethical or unethical. Thus the violation of photo journalism ethics can be diverse too.

According to Walsh (2006, p.6), he stated that “Images have other effects that are different from words, particularly at affective, aesthetic and imaginative levels.” If a picture has been edited to create good purpose and intention, or even trying to create message of awareness, then it is most probably acceptable. For example this pictures below, it carry the massage telling us to conserve electricity. If the light is on, then it kills the fish inside.

In my opinion, if picture is edited for non good purposes, creating fake images and cause unfair to people in some circumstances, then it does violate photo journalism ethics. For example the picture(a) below shows very unethical in the way that it’s been edited too much, you can’t even see the guys face and also, changed too much of the originality skin color that may cause criticize of racism. The picture(b) is acceptable because they made the picture look better than how they look before, teeth is fixed and her hair looks better, hence their appearance won’t look uncomfortable. Overall, it is best to avoid the dark side of photography and use editing technology wisely.

 

Picture (a)

 Picture (b)

Reference:
http://asiasphotojournalismblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/photo-manipulation-and-ethics.html
Haughney, C 2012, ‘Who Can Improve on Nature? Magazine Editors’, The New York Times 20 July, viewed 8 November
Walsh, M 2006, “Textual shift: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 29, no1, p.24-37
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design, John Wiley & sons, New York, USA

E-book evolution (Screen vs Print)

The advancement of technology is getting better and better these days. It improves our favourite gadgets such as laptop, ipad and mobile phones almost on a daily basis.  Any information that you want to know can just easily go online and search for it. Searching information through online is fast and efficient compare to the print materials as we don’t have to purposely go to that particular store to purchase the books/magazines/newspaper and etc. And thus this saves our time. Besides, supports environmental friendly as we tend save the usage of papers by not purchasing the print materials. More and more people are adapting to the use of internet due to the technology revolution, hence the print materials such as books/magazines’ sales fall dramatically because of the overtake of evolution of e-book, stated the article of ‘The e-book evolution’.

However, e-book is only doing well in certain countries as it is not widely adopted by everyone yet. Some poor and undeveloped countries, they would stay with print materials as they don’t have internet. Or often, behaviour is unanticipated. Some people still preferring print book even though they know they can read the book through online. This is best to apply to the older folks said Penman (1998), as they can’t really catch up with the advancement of internet rather feel more comfortable to stay with print materials. But e-book is better compare to print book in certain aspects, such as it has bigger font size allow people to see clearer and read it easier, and also allow publisher to insert link and video to provide some interesting external content. Based on a research, it says that younger people these days like to search and read information from their cell phones and ipad. According to Penman (1998), young people prefer pocket size books because it is easy to carry, thus these high tech gadget suits perfectly for them. Even though some gadget such as ipad and laptop might be heavier compare to a book, but those gadget has other function such as games, apps, or able to call and text, thus is the best option for people’s convincecy. In conclusion, different audience have different perception of preferable way of reading. However, e-book stands high among younger generation because they have more knowledge about the use of internet and like to spend a lot of time surfing on the net.

The advance of technology gadgets allow us to read books online.

References:

http://theamazingandroid.blogspot.com/2012/10/top-5-mobile-software-for-book-lovers.html
OON, Y 2012, ‘THE E-BOOK EVOLUTION’, OON YEOH NEW MEDIA GUY, 4 JULY, VIEWED 8 NOVEMBER2012, < HTTP://OONYEOH.SQUARESPACE.COM/SUN-COLUMN/2012/7/4/THE-E-BOOK-EVOLUTION.HTML>

Penman, R 1998, 'Document structures and readers' habits', Communication news, vol 11, no. 2, pp. 1 & 10-11.

2(d):New forms of media publishing

The improvement of media technology makes life much easier for people nowadays. Back then, radio and newspaper is the only way for people to get the latest news. But today there are many new forms of media to deliver message and news such as facebook, blog and twitter. These new media are interactive methods of communication that requires the use of Internet. With the existence of social networking sides, it is faster in helping broadcast of news or information. We able to get the news within minutes or hours as normally we only get our news a day after an event happened. Besides, these new media is no longer a one way communication; it involves the process of exchanging messages, focusing on the interaction between the sender and the receivers.

Facebook and twitter is not just only just grouping friend together, twitter is now rather more of a communication service than a true social network because it focuses on creating a stream of information that resembles a conversation. Besides, facebook allow us to share trending videos and news around. Often some people who never read news and probably don’t know what’s going around the world, they actually get to know some of the shared news through facebook. Certain news that we read from newspaper about accident or fighting, sometimes we able to watch its’ video that had been captured by someone or CCTV on youtube which can aid the news by showing clearer sight of what happen. Also, these new media allows people discuss the issue by dropping a comment regarding about how they feel or think of the news.

This is a car accident news on Youtube, Ferrari taxi fatal car crash in Singapore. We able drop comment and discuss about the tragic news.

This is a video from Facebook, a husband who hit his pregnant wife in their shop. It shows a clearer view of how it happens compared to the newspaper.

Reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJxmqObbOA4
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=102017999950924

2(c) How do readers perceive blog credibility & how do you build credibility for your blog?

There are millions of blogs in this world and the sad truth is when someone visits a blog, they decide whether they should read or run in a few seconds. Thus credibility will play a vital role in whether your blog is successful or not. Reference.com stated qualities that make up what is known as credibility include the education or experience to back up one's claims of expertise. It is something that is earned and acquired over time. Credibility is more like a linear scale on which others give you a rating. How do readers perceive blog credibility? It will depend what elements from your blog is attractive enough to catch their attention stop by, whether is your interesting stories, your expertise, your blog design, or you have such information/facts that worth their time to read, and etc.

It is important to build qualities that will make people visit to your blog again. The quality can be based on numbers of elements. The writing skills and design of blog is vital. For example, some writers write it in a way that able to create sense of humor even is expressing in the form of text. Besides, title of the blog post must be catchy to grab one shot look attention. Also, writer who writes about fact and truth will create more credibility as readers expect a lot of honesty with product information, brands, issues, what they usually can’t see from the magazine or news. Futhermore, a blog with nice and unique design certainly caught people attention to stop by and further take a look of your content. In addition, you can provide links to other community at the side of your blog to allow readers have the options of reading other popular blogs other than yours. We can also provide a chat box for discussion. Chatbox does perceived blog credibility. Sometimes even a reader didn’t drop a comment to your blog, they still tend to take a look of what people have talked about in the discussion box.

A very nice blog design.

Spot the Chatbox as well as links to other communities at the right side of the blog.

(Malaysia famous blogger http://www.chuckei.com/)

Reference:
http://www.reference.com/browse/credibility?s=t
http://diythemes.com/thesis/trust-triggers/

2(e) Screen vs. print document design

Screen design and print document design can be very different although both of them have mutual extraction eg: type of color, text, size, and graphic use. The easiest way to see the differences is comparison between the online news and the ink print newspaper.

Print document design

Screen document design

Firstly, we can look at the color. Screen design definitely attract more people looking at the pictures and graphics because it has more vibrant color compare to print document. Besides, it has higher resolution and thus provide a clearer outlook to the audience.

Secondly, the writing structure. For the screen design, we can write it in any way or style that we like. And for the font size, it can be adjust to how big or small you like. Unlike the print document design, they have to follow the procedure of formality in terms of the design and style.

Thirdly, for the screen design, we can put hyperlink in some sentence for further information. Besides, we can also insert along video and music to enhance the news as well as a chatbox for people to leave comment about how they feel, or suggestion regarding about the news. However, many people still like to read newspaper in the old ways which is printed way because if we read from screen computer, we have to scroll up and down and this tend to make us read slower. Print newspaper have a well-organized system in its layout which enable reader to read on it without any hassle because it content is usually fit into a specific size of paper such as A5 with words and picture only.

2(b)Classification of blogs & opinion about the most appropriate classification approach

There are many blogs out there and for each and every blog, their design and style as well as content are different. Sometimes is hard to classify them into a particular category. As we can see from wordpress.com, they have highlight a few blog categories that are popular such as the personal blog, business blog,  politics blog, sports blog, how to-tips and reviews blog, expertise blog, gadget blog and so on. However, some blogs may have classified as violate blogs such as blogs with the primary purpose of driving traffic to affiliate programs and get-rich-quick schemes, blogs that promoted private copies of ebooks, movie and music, and scraper blogs which is blog that take content from other blogs and re-publish it without permission.

In my opinion, classifying blog using subject matter will be easier for people to find information eg: politic, history, fashion, law, device. For example if your blog is about mobile, make up tutorial, fishing, or pets care, people can easily search what they want from Google; just type in the subject you are searching with the word blog, then list of blogs that related to the particular topic will appear. Overall, determine the purpose of your blog before you get started and consider what you hope to accomplish and what is the best platform will be for your particular type of blog is the best way of classification approach.

This is an example of subject matter classification. I type in dog care in the search, and this blog is one of the blog that appear in the related blog list.

Reference:
http://funstufffordogs.wordpress.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/?There-Are-Many-Different-Types-of-Blogs&id=1958111
http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/

2(a): Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits of blogging to the community

Blogs are widely used as a communication tool in the worldwide today. People create blog to share their thoughts, interest and knowledge with others. Blog is also used by companies to display their thought of leadership and expertise. From the 2011 blogging statistic, it is stated that there are estimated of 164 millions blog in the world and the US has about 49% of the blogging population worldwide. Below is some interesting fact regarding blog.

Besides, blogs are now considered an important part of companies’ participation online and no longer the preserve private personal blogger. Blog is a nothing but a free website and it is definitely the cheapest way of sending messages out to the community for the marketers.  In addition nowadays for businesses, many of them also use weblogs to publish and advertise their product to attract more customers.

The benefit of blogging is that people can share their personal information and experience with people across the world. Those who have read your blog post can drop a comment or opinion and this can actually provide the blogger extra information or suggestion for reference neither its good or bad feedback to improve further. Besides, businesses can use blog to promote their products or services to increase of brand awareness and exposure. Those who are don’t know the particular function of certain products or services can actually get a good description from your business blog. Generally, blog act as a great advertising and communication tools without a single cost and some blogs can even help you to earn money if your blog has loads of traffic.


Reference:
http://www.rightmixmarketing.com/right-mix-blog/blogging-statistics/

Purpose of my blog

The purpose of starting this blog is to discuss media and publishing issues. In this blog, we will also able to see phenomenon and benefits of blogging. People who are interested in the related topic about designs as well as students and friends who are taking this course are expecting to view this blog.