When I first got the assignment, I wasn’t excited at all as my other classmates are all discussing about it.
I do blog, but I never blog with any blog community before. Blogging wasn’t as easy as I thought of. Moreover, the blogging topic, publishing issues is not a simple topic to discuss on. Although it’s tough, but somehow I think I got my way out. I gained a lot of skills while completing this assignment.
The “Skills”
My most interesting experience was to upload a profile photo on to my blog. This is the first I read at all the instructions given to upload the photo as I do not have knowledge on how to make the photo into a URL. At first, I was struggling to upload the photo because the URL doesn’t work but still I get to solve the problem with some of my patients (actually I m quite frustrated).
Others skills that I learned are like designing the layout, techniques on how to write for web, adding hyperlinks, uploading photos and etc.
The readings on designing web and writing for web are quite helpful as I realized the importance of these techniques and guidelines while doing the assignment.
Overall, I enjoyed doing this assignment and I will continue blogging after this assignment. I am used to blogging with friendster blog and as a first-timer blogger blogging on blogspot, I am quite satisfied with the blog.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Speak Freely on the Net?
Every year, there are numerous debates debating over freedom of speech online. Is there really freedom to speak or write whatever we want on the internet?
Internet or blogs introduced the idea of “uncensored and borderless world”. With internet, everyone in the world regardless of citizenship, race, culture, gender, age and etc can say anything online freely. This was the “ideal” idea that was introduced. But in reality, are such practices practiced online? If there is freedom online, why are authorities of the world still making up laws to protect freedom of speech online?
We can have complete freedom while blogging online, but issues like credibility, privacy may occur. According to Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), anyone has the rights to blog anonymously and to keep sources confidential. If everyone was to blog anonymously and keeps all sources confidential, there is no credibility at all. No one would use work that is written by “unknown” writer. Moreover, there is no trace of sources. Nielsen (2006) is very important web users. He stated it is crucial to use outbound and hypertext links for users to obtain more related information and also check the path and credibility of the materials used.
We can have certain level of freedom, but we cannot have complete freedom. If we have complete freedom on the internet, more issues and problems will occur. We cannot be to extreme! Governments and watchdogs are still needed to gatekeep contents posted on the net.
Readings and References:
Help us Protect Freedom Online! [Online, accessed 5 June 2007]
URL: >http://www.eff.org/br/
Nielson, J. Writing for the Web (9 parts) [Online, accessed 4 May 2007]
URL: http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/
What is Freedom of Speech Online? [Online, accessed 5 June 2007]
URL: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/jmrobins/milieux/index2.html
Internet or blogs introduced the idea of “uncensored and borderless world”. With internet, everyone in the world regardless of citizenship, race, culture, gender, age and etc can say anything online freely. This was the “ideal” idea that was introduced. But in reality, are such practices practiced online? If there is freedom online, why are authorities of the world still making up laws to protect freedom of speech online?
We can have complete freedom while blogging online, but issues like credibility, privacy may occur. According to Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), anyone has the rights to blog anonymously and to keep sources confidential. If everyone was to blog anonymously and keeps all sources confidential, there is no credibility at all. No one would use work that is written by “unknown” writer. Moreover, there is no trace of sources. Nielsen (2006) is very important web users. He stated it is crucial to use outbound and hypertext links for users to obtain more related information and also check the path and credibility of the materials used.
We can have certain level of freedom, but we cannot have complete freedom. If we have complete freedom on the internet, more issues and problems will occur. We cannot be to extreme! Governments and watchdogs are still needed to gatekeep contents posted on the net.
Readings and References:
Help us Protect Freedom Online! [Online, accessed 5 June 2007]
URL: >http://www.eff.org/br/
Nielson, J. Writing for the Web (9 parts) [Online, accessed 4 May 2007]
URL: http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/
What is Freedom of Speech Online? [Online, accessed 5 June 2007]
URL: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/jmrobins/milieux/index2.html
Thursday, June 7, 2007
The Power of Blogs
As we all know, media is a very powerful tool in educating people and instilling new thinking. Blog communities are growing rapidly. Every second, there for blogs registered. Blogs is an alternative channel to disseminate messages.
With blogs and internet, almost every thing is possible. Just a click on the mouse and a search engine, users can get information about every thing. The speed and the amount of information that users get through internet are much better than the conventional ones. Take an example, the VirginiaTech gunshot incident; information on the incident was so vast where just a Virginia word typed in the search engine, the results was shocking!
Talking about the power of blogging, it is so overwhelming. Take an example -- Apple's market cap to plummet by US$4 billion in the span of just a few minutes just because of news posted on a blog.
In the entertainment industry, blogs are very powerful too. Karen Kong, one of Malaysia’s most popular singers, got a recording contract because of her blog. She like other ordinary girl who loves to blog and just within days, her blog was visited by hundred thousands of people.
Looked at the examples that I listed? We cannot underestimate the power of blogs!!!
Readings and References:
Cechols, 2007, The Power of Blogging: $4 million in 6 minuites? [Online, accessed 7 June 2007]
URL: http://9rules.com/apple/notes/3963/
Cechols, 2007, EctoTechnica: Behold! The Power of Blogging [Online, accessed 7 June 2007]
URL: http://www.ectotechnica.com/?p=360
Nolan, C. 2005, Blogs' Power Stretches Far Beyond Politics [Online, accessed 7 "June 2007]
URL: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1748637,00.asp
With blogs and internet, almost every thing is possible. Just a click on the mouse and a search engine, users can get information about every thing. The speed and the amount of information that users get through internet are much better than the conventional ones. Take an example, the VirginiaTech gunshot incident; information on the incident was so vast where just a Virginia word typed in the search engine, the results was shocking!
Talking about the power of blogging, it is so overwhelming. Take an example -- Apple's market cap to plummet by US$4 billion in the span of just a few minutes just because of news posted on a blog.
In the entertainment industry, blogs are very powerful too. Karen Kong, one of Malaysia’s most popular singers, got a recording contract because of her blog. She like other ordinary girl who loves to blog and just within days, her blog was visited by hundred thousands of people.
Looked at the examples that I listed? We cannot underestimate the power of blogs!!!
Readings and References:
Cechols, 2007, The Power of Blogging: $4 million in 6 minuites? [Online, accessed 7 June 2007]
URL: http://9rules.com/apple/notes/3963/
Cechols, 2007, EctoTechnica: Behold! The Power of Blogging [Online, accessed 7 June 2007]
URL: http://www.ectotechnica.com/?p=360
Nolan, C. 2005, Blogs' Power Stretches Far Beyond Politics [Online, accessed 7 "June 2007]
URL: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1748637,00.asp
Online Games SHOULD be RATED too?!
Movies are rated; people aged below 18 are restricted from movies that includes elements of violence, sex and others. But on the other hand, online games are not controlled; almost all online games that comprise of restricted elements are not rated.
Only if a person is willing to spend money in the cyber café, one would have access to any types of online games they like. According to a Top 10 online games ratings done by GameOrge, half or more of these 10 games comprise elements of killings, gun shots, fightings and other violent elements. Some games promote unhealthy habits like gambling, smoking, consuming drugs and etc. In the article, the writer interviewed some younger children and one of them is only at primary level. They spend seven to eight hours a day on online games and at times cyber café is like their home, they eat, sleep, rest there and sometimes eat in front of the computer while playing game.
Authorities of several countries are paying close attention on this issue. In countries like Japan and Korea, the governments implemented policies on how to rate online games. An implication that I personally find quite interesting and effective: in Mainland, China, time- detector is installed into every computer at cyber cafes. If a player played more than three hours, one will lose half of the game assets and will lose all if played more than five hours.
Online games should be rated because not all games are suitable for all levels of people especially the younger generation/ children. Cultural and situational contexts (Schirato & Yell, 1996) combined to produce online games will shape the audience. Children are too young and they do not have the ability to judge what games are suitable for them. Therefore, parents as well as the authority should cooperate to prevent the younger generation to be influence by online games that instills negative portrayals.
Readings and References:
A Chinese News Clipping, taken from TVBS News, Taiwan website [Online, accessed 4 June 2007]
URL: http://www.tvbs.com.tw/NEWS/NEWS_LIST.asp?no=sunkiss20070531193204
About.com: Family Internet: Online Games Aren’t Rated [Online, accessed 4 May 2007]
URL:
Keith, K.L., About.com: Parenting of K-6 Children: Online Games for Kids [Online, accessed 4 May 2007]
URL: http://childparenting.about.com/od/kidswebsites/a/onlinekidsgames.htm
Schirato, T. & Yell, S. 1996, Chapter 5: Framing contexts, Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW, p.90-117
Only if a person is willing to spend money in the cyber café, one would have access to any types of online games they like. According to a Top 10 online games ratings done by GameOrge, half or more of these 10 games comprise elements of killings, gun shots, fightings and other violent elements. Some games promote unhealthy habits like gambling, smoking, consuming drugs and etc. In the article, the writer interviewed some younger children and one of them is only at primary level. They spend seven to eight hours a day on online games and at times cyber café is like their home, they eat, sleep, rest there and sometimes eat in front of the computer while playing game.
Authorities of several countries are paying close attention on this issue. In countries like Japan and Korea, the governments implemented policies on how to rate online games. An implication that I personally find quite interesting and effective: in Mainland, China, time- detector is installed into every computer at cyber cafes. If a player played more than three hours, one will lose half of the game assets and will lose all if played more than five hours.
Online games should be rated because not all games are suitable for all levels of people especially the younger generation/ children. Cultural and situational contexts (Schirato & Yell, 1996) combined to produce online games will shape the audience. Children are too young and they do not have the ability to judge what games are suitable for them. Therefore, parents as well as the authority should cooperate to prevent the younger generation to be influence by online games that instills negative portrayals.
Readings and References:
A Chinese News Clipping, taken from TVBS News, Taiwan website [Online, accessed 4 June 2007]
URL: http://www.tvbs.com.tw/NEWS/NEWS_LIST.asp?no=sunkiss20070531193204
About.com: Family Internet: Online Games Aren’t Rated [Online, accessed 4 May 2007]
URL:
Keith, K.L., About.com: Parenting of K-6 Children: Online Games for Kids [Online, accessed 4 May 2007]
URL: http://childparenting.about.com/od/kidswebsites/a/onlinekidsgames.htm
Schirato, T. & Yell, S. 1996, Chapter 5: Framing contexts, Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW, p.90-117
Monday, June 4, 2007
Old Media to New Media; which is better?
Stephen Shepard’s piece of work discussed the issue of the conventional media changing to the new media – going online as well as cell phones. In addition, he also argued the pros and cons of the issue of old media moving to the new media.
With the advancement of technology, more and more people have access to internet. In order to gain more readership or viewership, media owners, especially the print media are following the trend where they are evolving and changing genres from the conventional form to the electronic form.
With electronic devices, media workers emphasize on multimodality (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Other than texts, there are also images, videos, sound effects, music and etc. All these elements add liveliness and interactivity to the audience. On internet, media workers use intratextuality and intertextuality (Walsh, 2006 p25) to let readers fill in the gaps and allowed readers to hyperlink to other similar and related sites (Schirato & Yell, 1996 p110).
I agree with Shepard (2005) that old and new media each have their advantages and disadvantages. Some form of writings especially lengthy ones can’t work well in electronic devices. Users tend to scan texts when reading on screens because reading on screens is 25 per cent slower than reading on paper (Nielsen, 2006).
As long as media workers fulfill the audience’s demand and at the same time, messages are carried out effectively with high quality, it doesn’t matter what forms are used (whether it is the old media or the new ones)!
References:
Kress, G., van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2nd ed.) Routledge, London
Nielson, J. Writing for the Web (9 parts) [Online, accessed 4 May 2007]
URL: http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/
Shepard, S. 2005, New Media vs. Old - A False Dichotomy [Online, accessed 5 May 2007]
URL: http://www.sajaconvention.org/2005/06/stephen_shepard.html
Schirato, T. & Yell, S. 1996, Chapter 5: Framing contexts, Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW, p.90-117
Walsh, M. 2006, ‘“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
With the advancement of technology, more and more people have access to internet. In order to gain more readership or viewership, media owners, especially the print media are following the trend where they are evolving and changing genres from the conventional form to the electronic form.
With electronic devices, media workers emphasize on multimodality (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Other than texts, there are also images, videos, sound effects, music and etc. All these elements add liveliness and interactivity to the audience. On internet, media workers use intratextuality and intertextuality (Walsh, 2006 p25) to let readers fill in the gaps and allowed readers to hyperlink to other similar and related sites (Schirato & Yell, 1996 p110).
I agree with Shepard (2005) that old and new media each have their advantages and disadvantages. Some form of writings especially lengthy ones can’t work well in electronic devices. Users tend to scan texts when reading on screens because reading on screens is 25 per cent slower than reading on paper (Nielsen, 2006).
As long as media workers fulfill the audience’s demand and at the same time, messages are carried out effectively with high quality, it doesn’t matter what forms are used (whether it is the old media or the new ones)!
References:
Kress, G., van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2nd ed.) Routledge, London
Nielson, J. Writing for the Web (9 parts) [Online, accessed 4 May 2007]
URL: http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/
Shepard, S. 2005, New Media vs. Old - A False Dichotomy [Online, accessed 5 May 2007]
URL: http://www.sajaconvention.org/2005/06/stephen_shepard.html
Schirato, T. & Yell, S. 1996, Chapter 5: Framing contexts, Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW, p.90-117
Walsh, M. 2006, ‘“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
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Introduction
What is Blogging?
Blogging is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order.
“Blogging is an exciting and innovative tool for weblogs. It is your key to easy publishing on the World Wide Web – you can share pictures, video, links, documents, newsletters, opinions and more, with family, friends and colleagues. Now you can have a website without being a Webmaster!” (Blogging.com)
In Malaysia, bloggers normally use blogs as their personal diaries where the postings are about their daily life and the “unknown” area of the blogger.
Purposes behind Blogging Activity & Blogs Classifications
Blogs include a wide range of genre where it includes commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, fashion, law, engineering, certain interest, or maybe some function as more personal online diaries. First, blogs started with only texts but after 10 years of advancement and development, the types or the content of blogs have developed into various types that not only contain texts but also images, videos, music and other mediums.
Most of these bloggers used blogs as a communication channel to communicate with their friends and families. Some bloggers used their blogs for small business where they promote their dresses, accessories and etc. Also, some bloggers start their blogs with some interests and seek for members to join them for discussion and share thoughts and passions.
I personally think that blogs are not a waste of time. With blogs, I can communicate with my friends and family, perhaps make friends from there. Blogs allow people around to know you more and for instance, I can update my friend and family’s news.
Most blogs are primarily textual, but now blogs has various types. The types of blogs available are personal blogs, business and corporate blogs, family blogs, artlog, photoblog, sketchblog, video blogs (vlog), music blogs (MP3 blog), audio blogs and many more.
Blogging Community
There are a few blogging communities, namely Blogspot, Live Journal, Xanga, I’m Vlog, Lifelogger, Multiply and many more.
Communities form around this shared interest and the stronger groups turn interest into a passion. Bloggers need to subscribe to a blogging community so that they belonged to them and get connected with other bloggers and blog community linked them up with common interest, called the “blogspheres”. In the blogsphere, bloggers can exchange thoughts, discuss similar topics and etc.
Writing for print and writing for web is very different.
Printing uses 2-dimensional design format while web uses 1-dimensional or N-dimensional format. The scrolling, hypertexting and navigation bars are the main navigation for web users while page-turning acts as navigation in the print. Print emphasizes high-impact visualization whereas multimedia elements are main focus in web. These multimedia elements are to keep users and engage them with interactions.
Blogging is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order.
“Blogging is an exciting and innovative tool for weblogs. It is your key to easy publishing on the World Wide Web – you can share pictures, video, links, documents, newsletters, opinions and more, with family, friends and colleagues. Now you can have a website without being a Webmaster!” (Blogging.com)
In Malaysia, bloggers normally use blogs as their personal diaries where the postings are about their daily life and the “unknown” area of the blogger.
Purposes behind Blogging Activity & Blogs Classifications
Blogs include a wide range of genre where it includes commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, fashion, law, engineering, certain interest, or maybe some function as more personal online diaries. First, blogs started with only texts but after 10 years of advancement and development, the types or the content of blogs have developed into various types that not only contain texts but also images, videos, music and other mediums.
Most of these bloggers used blogs as a communication channel to communicate with their friends and families. Some bloggers used their blogs for small business where they promote their dresses, accessories and etc. Also, some bloggers start their blogs with some interests and seek for members to join them for discussion and share thoughts and passions.
I personally think that blogs are not a waste of time. With blogs, I can communicate with my friends and family, perhaps make friends from there. Blogs allow people around to know you more and for instance, I can update my friend and family’s news.
Most blogs are primarily textual, but now blogs has various types. The types of blogs available are personal blogs, business and corporate blogs, family blogs, artlog, photoblog, sketchblog, video blogs (vlog), music blogs (MP3 blog), audio blogs and many more.
Blogging Community
There are a few blogging communities, namely Blogspot, Live Journal, Xanga, I’m Vlog, Lifelogger, Multiply and many more.
Communities form around this shared interest and the stronger groups turn interest into a passion. Bloggers need to subscribe to a blogging community so that they belonged to them and get connected with other bloggers and blog community linked them up with common interest, called the “blogspheres”. In the blogsphere, bloggers can exchange thoughts, discuss similar topics and etc.
Designing for Online vs Print
Nielsen (1997) suggested three main guidelines for writing for the web:-
(i) Be succinct – Brief, Clear and Concise.
(ii) Write for scannability – Meaningful and highlighted headlines, coloured keywords, underline and etc
(iii) Make use of hypertext structure – spilt information into consistent chucks with each containing a focal point
Nielsen (1997) suggested three main guidelines for writing for the web:-
(i) Be succinct – Brief, Clear and Concise.
(ii) Write for scannability – Meaningful and highlighted headlines, coloured keywords, underline and etc
(iii) Make use of hypertext structure – spilt information into consistent chucks with each containing a focal point
Differences of online and print designs
Writing for print and writing for web is very different.
Printing uses 2-dimensional design format while web uses 1-dimensional or N-dimensional format. The scrolling, hypertexting and navigation bars are the main navigation for web users while page-turning acts as navigation in the print. Print emphasizes high-impact visualization whereas multimedia elements are main focus in web. These multimedia elements are to keep users and engage them with interactions.
References:
Morkes, K. & Nielson, J. 1997, Concise, Scannable, and Objective: How to Write for the Web [Online, accessed on 1 June 2007]
URL: http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html
Nielson, J. 1997, 'Be Succinct! '(Writing for the Web) [Online, accessed on 1 June 2007
Nielson, J. 1997, 'Be Succinct! '(Writing for the Web) [Online, accessed on 1 June 2007
URL: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html
Nielson, J. 1999, Differences Between Print Design and Web Design [Online, accessed on 1 June 2007]
Nielson, J. 1999, Differences Between Print Design and Web Design [Online, accessed on 1 June 2007]
Purpose
Blogging has become a “hot” activity around the world. Not only youngsters like to blog, nowadays adults or even people who are at an older stage start blogging too. The purpose to start this blog is to firstly communicate with the intended audience. Also, there will be some concepts, theories and applications on the latest publishing or blogging issues. Most importantly, I would like to practice a good blog writings and designing skills which it suits the audience.
Although this is an academic blog where I started it for my assignment, I am presenting it more casually and simple so that everyone can understand easily. The main target would be youths and young adults aged between 15 to 25 years old, at secondary school level and higher learning institute students who blogs and have interest in blogging world while the secondary audience would be adults who are concerned about current issues on blogging as well as the internet.
Although this is an academic blog where I started it for my assignment, I am presenting it more casually and simple so that everyone can understand easily. The main target would be youths and young adults aged between 15 to 25 years old, at secondary school level and higher learning institute students who blogs and have interest in blogging world while the secondary audience would be adults who are concerned about current issues on blogging as well as the internet.
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