Reflection

Issues in publication is quite hard for me before I start learning it. Nevertheless, I have acquired many skills and theories on designing features for example a blogger can use some tables and pictures to present the ideas and this will enhance the understanding of readers. According to Schriver (1997), visual examples are playing crucial role in presenting or publishing.

Besides that, I have also learnt some document design from Reep(2006). She gave me a good concept on designing my blog and my document, for instance the color and proportion balancing.

Apart from these design methods and principles, I have learnt some codes of ethics while I was doing the research. Different countries have different codes of ethics for the journalists to practice. For example, one of the code of ethics from Al Jazeera(2010) is welcome fair and honest media competition but National Union of Journalists Malaysia(NUJM) (n.d) does not have the code of ethics.

All these code of ethics are guide for journalism to publish news articles and pictures. I have learnt how to write ethically and avoid from copyrighted, plagiarism, discrimination and invasion of privacy.

References:

AL JAZEERA 2010, Code of Ethics, viewed 13rd November 2011, .

National Union of Journalists Malaysia n.d., NUJ Code Of Ethics, viewed 13rd November 2011, <http://www.nujm.org/aboutus/body.htm#2>.

Reep D 2006, ‘Principles of document design’, in Technical writing, 6th edn, Pearson Edu, Inc., New York.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.

Ethical Journalism

The article entitled ‘Media Prima pulls out ‘racist’ Ramadan ads’ by Yow Hong Chieh indicates that Media Prima Bhd deleted a controversial series of Ramadan commercials on 8TV channel. This advertisement had drawn much attention from public when it was released. Besides that, there are many complains and criticism from public because the advertisement was about a Chinese girl who eating apple in public and being loud during Muslim fasting month. After that, Media Prima explained that the advertisement is just a suggestion for non-Muslims what to do and behave during Ramadan. Then, the Media Prima chief operating officer Ahmad Izham Omar also calmed the public by updating topics on Twitter. In addition, Media Prima had done the same action last year after the Hari Raya advertisement was released. Apart from pulling out the advertisements, 8TV was fined by Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in 2004 because of the advertisement matter.

Schriver (1997) stated that content is important even if the pictures or images are attractive. Hence, the content not only must be meaningful, but also must be neutral and do not have any bad attitudes towards others.

In addition, there are many codes of ethics in different fields of media. Although the code of ethics is just a guide, I think that it is very important as all these ethics will improve the content or work. To publish news or an advertisement without any criticism and controversy, journalists and advertisers have to obey the ethics, for example, programs should not use language or images in a way which is likely to discriminate against any religious or cultural.

According to Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) (2011), there is a code of ethic to remind journalist do not put unnecessary emphasis on personal characteristics including race, religious belief and others.

Thus, codes of ethics are the guide for producing good context and ethical journalism.

References:

Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance 2011, Media Alliance Codes of Ethics, viewed 13rd November 2011, <http://www.alliance.org.au/media-alliance-code-of-ethics>.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.

No more news articles ??

The article ’85% of Media Websites Now Use Online Video To Cover News’ highlights the survey from DS Simon on the use of video in presenting online news and how the media websites work. The survey which investigates more than 1000 respondents in different fields of media from D S Simon Web showed that video is playing an important role in online media as there are many readers or consumers prefer watching a short news video to reading a long news article.

Dennis and Merrill (2006) explained that new media, also known as new medium, is an interactive form of communication that using the Internet. The characterisation of Internet such as massive storage, easy accessibility and interactivity benefit the users of new media

Besides that, DS Simon survey also found that media websites having a trend of selling advertising as video is a good medium for monetization with pre-roll and post-roll advertising and more.

According to Richard (n.d), online marketing can save the money on traditional advertising such as fliers and newspaper advertisement. I believe that this is the main reason of media selling advertising on the website.

Furthermore, the survey indicated that radio stations, magazines and newspapers are more using third-party video to produce content externally compare to television stations. Additionally, the survey illustrated that almost all forms of media have changed themselves into online networks and the most of the respondents believe that the trend of using online video will increase from 2010 to 2011.

In my opinion, it is true that most of the media are using online video to present the news today. In addition, I think that this online video do really save the time of readers because I am one of them who prefer watching video news instead of reading a long news article. Besides that, video is more useful than news article as video will be more effective in enhancing understanding of readers or audiences. Therefore, the use of video will be increased and the news articles will be less and less in future.

References:

Richard, CA n.d., Benefits of the Internet for Business, eHow, viewed 13rd November 2011, .

Wadsworth,T 2006, ‘Media Bias and Political Leanings’, in Media Debates: Great Issues for the Digital Age,( eds) Dennis,EE & Merill,JC, Thomson Corporation, Belmont CA, USA, pp. 81-91.

Online Privacy

Today, there are many media and journalists get the information and news stories by hacking into the phones and computers of celebrities or people who involved. This action is unethical and illegal in journalism but there is nobody has been charged and no newspapers have yet been identified by the police.

I think these are the main reason why invasion of privacy are being so serious in journalism nowadays. There is an example about Miley Cyrus who is one of the famous actresses was hacked by people in Tweeter. The hacker wrote something bad about Miley Cyrus on the Twitter and this account was suspended by Twitter later.

Referring to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse / UCAN (2011) about online privacy, there are still no actual policies for govern the Internet therefore the Internet still remains largely unregulated. Additionally, laws concerning online privacy are still being developed.

Social Networking like Facebook, Twitter contain information of users or consumers as these sites are to help people to keep in touch with friends and built relationship and connections to other Internet users. According to Pickup (2011), the number of hacks has almost doubled in less than two years since 2009.

Besides that, invasion of privacy is against journalism ethics. Al Jazeera’s Code of Ethics (2010) mentioned that journalist should observe transparency in dealing with the news and its sources while adhering to the internationally established practices concerning the rights of these sources.

In my opinion, although public interest is very important, journalist should use fair, responsible and honest to obtain information and material. They have to treat the audiences with due respect while giving full consideration to individual privacies and public.

References:

AL JAZEERA 2010, Code of Ethics, viewed 13rd November 2011, <http://english.aljazeera.net/aboutus/2006/11/2008525185733692771.html>.

Pickup, O., 2011. Third of teens say they've had their Facebook or Twitter accounts hacked into, according to survey. Daily Mail, [online] (Last updated at 3:53 PM on 6th October 2011). Available at < http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2046045/Third-teens-say-theyve-Facebook-Twitter-accounts-hacked-into.html> [Accessed 13rd November 2011].

UCAN 2011, Fact sheet 18: online privacy: using the internet safely, privacy rights clearinghouse, viewed on 13rd November 2011, from <http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm#Browsing>.

Independent and ethical publishing

Orthodox Jewish paper apologises for Hillary Clinton deletion, this article had attracted public attentions as this photo involved the president of United States, Barack Obama, and his staff though The White house had no comment on the removal of the women from the photo. The article illustrates that the photo published by an Orthodox Jewish newspaper had deleted the images of two women from the original photo. They explained that women’s images should not be published as women should be appreciated and this action is a kind of respect for women. Anyway, The White House which issued the photo had no any reply to this altered picture.

Photojournalism is a type of journalism that using picture to tell a story, so the pictures have to be independent and true (Smith, 2011). Schriver (1997) indicated that pictures are very important in publishing as they can improve the understanding of the readers. In addition, Schriver (1997) highlighted that all the verbal and visual examples have to be selected carefully because the examples will help to increase the trustworthy.

I believe that every country or organization has different ethics and principles in publishing news or photos but I think that removing or editing the photo without the owner’s authority is unfair and it is plagiarized. There is a news article from The Editors Weblog stating that it is fair use of work even though reposting the article in its entirely and without the owner’s authority, but I think that respect and act independently are important to journalists.

According to Society of Professional Journalists (USA), journalists should act independently for example free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s rights to know. Additionally, ethical journalists should treat sources and subjects as human beings deserving of respect.

Hence, publishing some altered picture which containing wrong information is an unrespected action in journalism. It not only involves copyrighted and authority problems, but also against the principles of ethical publishing.

References:

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.

Smith, S.E n.d, What is Photojournalism?, wisegeek, viewed 13rd November 2011, <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-photojournalism.htm >

SPJ Code of Ethics 1996, Society of Professional Journalists, viewed 13rd November 2011, <http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp >

Screen vs. print document design

There are some difference of writing structure and design between online media and print media.

Firstly, the content of online media is short and brief. This is because people scan the page and do not read word by word (Nielsen, 1997). Besides that, he found that readers read half the information only on those pages with 111 words or less. On the other hand, print media provide the detail and explanation. In Nielsen research ( 1997), he stated that web users want to get the fact only but not the explanation.

Secondly, design of screen document is clear and the document does not have too much color. For example, during presentation , the slides should leave some white spaces as it helps people to get the information easily (Reep,2006). Additionally, background of the slides is simple and not colorful. Reep (2006) also indicated that providing picture will enhance the understanding of audience. As for print media, the layout is fixed, for instance, the lead news will be on top while soft news is at the bottom part. Besides that, the heading is required for print media as it can grab the attention of the readers.

Normally, screen design use more visual than print media. This is because screen media have unlimited spaces to share and easily capture the sight of audiences. In contrast, print media more focus on words and content, therefore there are not many pictures on 1 page.

In conclusion, both document designs require simple background, clear content and pictures to make the readers more understand.

Reference List :

1. Nielsen, J, 1997. How Users Read on the Web, viewed on 25th August 2011, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
   
   
2. Reep D 2006, ‘Principles of document design’, in Technical writing, 6th edn, Pearson Edu, Inc., New York,viewed on 25th August 2011.

New forms of media publishing

In 21st century, computer and internet access are playing crucial role in media publishing. Online news , social networking websites and blogs bring a lot of advantages to people. For example, Youtube which is the most popular medium for people to share videos has successfully connected the people form all over the world.

Online newspapers is one of the new forms of media publishing and it does enhance the interaction among the people. Online news provide a platform for public to share their opinions and got the rights to speak without any limitations. Rodman (2008) discusses that readers can communicate and leave response on blog and there is no limitation. Additionally, readers can receive the information in a faster and easier way. People can deliver their content without any cost of printing or broadcasting and some professionals can collect the feedback or access to information everywhere without the barriers of extensive (Dennis and Merrill, 2006).

Facebook is another good example of new forms of media because it alters the roles of advertising and marketing. Facebook is not only a social networking site, but also a medium for people to engage in business. For instance, people can promote their page by advertise on facebook and facebook will send email to every users.

Reference List:

1. Rodman, G 2008, Mass Media in a Changing World, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., New York, viewed on 24th August 2011.
   
   
2. Wadsworth,T 2006, ‘Media Bias and Political Leanings’, in Media Debates: Great Issues for the Digital Age,( eds) Dennis,EE & Merill,JC, Thomson Corporation, Belmont CA, USA, pp. 81-91, viewed on 24th August 2011.

Blogging Communities

Blogging community is a platform which has its own practices and behaviors for people with similar interest to interact with each other on a blog post (Wei,2004).

Blogosphere is a community and as a blogger, they are already in the community.

How do bloggers create a blogger community?

Bloggers have to get more involved within the blogosphere and create connection and relationships with the readers and other bloggers ( Denise,2009).

There are three types blogging communities (White,2006).

1. The Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community

2. The Central Connecting Topic Community

3. The Boundaried Community

The Single Blog/ Blogger Centric Community

( White,2006)

This community is run by an organisation or one owner but may have more than one blogger writing in a blog ( White,2006).

The Central Connecting Topic Community

( White,2006)

This community is a network formation that linked by common passion or topic.Topic centric communities have no single technological platform. What links them is hyperlinks, in the form of blogrolls, links to other blogs within blog posts, tagging, aggregated feeds (using RSS), trackbacks and comments ( White,2006) .

The Boundaried Community

( White,2006)

This community have a collection of blogs and the site or platform is hosted by the readers. The registered members can join the community and create the blog ( White,2006). Normally, these communities have other tools such as chat box, social networking features and so on.

Blogger.com is one of the examples of the boundaried communities. Users can be only create a complimentary blog after they register as a member. Besides that, Blogger.com provides different features for the users such as designing the layout, adding other gadgets, creating chat box and so on.

Reference List:

1. Denise 2009, How do you build community?, viewed on 24th August 2011, http://www.blogher.com/how-do-you-build-community
   
   
2. Wei, C 2004, Formation of Norms in a Blog Community,viewed on 24th August 2011, http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/formation_of_norms.html
   
   
3. White, N 2006, Blogs and community-launching a new paradigm for online community, going communal, edition 11, viewed on 24th August 2011, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

Classification of blogs & opinion about the most appropriate classification approach.

As mentioned in the previous post, there are two kinds of blog - type based and other media. Personal blogs, collaborative blogs, corporate blogs, topical blogs and spam blogs are considered as type based while podcasts and videocasts and photologs are belongs to other media.

Blogs can be categorized by subject matter, device, media type and status of publisher. For example, people share their feelings or opinions by uploading videos to youtube and this is one of the media types in blogging.

There is a taxanomy of blogs by Margaret Simons (2008), she classified blogs into 9 categories:

Pamphleteering Blogs

The digest blog

The advocacy blog

The popular mechanics blog

The exhibition blog

The gatewatcher blog

The diary

The advertisement

The news blog

On the other hand , there is another classification system suggested by Misty Belardo (2010). Author classified blogs to collaborative blogs, tutorial blogs, travel/cultural blogs, fashion & lifestyle blogs, and personal blogs.

In my opinion, Misty Belardo's is better than Simons' one because the latter is more complicated and hard to understand. Belardo classify the blogs according to the content or topic and the target audience is clear and definite. Hence, I prefer Belardo's classification method to Simon's taxamony of blogs.

Reference List:

1. Belardo, M 2010, The 5 types of blogs; which one suits you best?, Inkrebels, viewed on 24th August 2011,http://www.inkrebels.com/insp/the-5-types-of-blogs-which-one-suits-you-best/
2. Simons, M 2008, Towards a taxonomy of blogs,viewed on 24th August 2011, http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0.

Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits to the community

In this digital age, everyone has the internet access , thus , most of the people voice out their feelings, experiences, opinions or thoughts by blogging. Today, it seems like everyone has a blog which contains different kinds of information (Gil Pizano, 2010). According to the State of Blogosphere 2010 from Technorati (Jon Sobel,2010), most of the bloggers are male aged between 18 to 44 and have been blogging more than 2 years. Besides that, Sobel (2010) reports the majority of the bloggers are educated and have college degrees.

(Technorati.com, 2010)

There is another pie chart shows that 65 percent of bloggers are hobbyist who blog for fun without reporting any income compared with part-timers ( 13%) , self-employeds ( 21%) and corporates ( 1%).

(Technorati.com, 2010)

There are various blogging trend in different countries, for instance , Malaysia has the highest ranking of blogging in the world after Indonesia and the European Union. Additionally, mobile blogging is one of the most popular trends these days. Bloggers using the smartphone to update their blog and change the way they blog ( Sobel,2010)

There are several types of blogs such as personal blogs, collaborative blogs, corporate blogs, topical blogs and spam blogs, podcasts and videocasts and photologs ( Blogging the phenomenon ). Corporate blogs and personal blogs which focus on sharing daily experiences and feelings are prevalent in US. Most of the US Bloggers cited their life and experiences as their primary topic and do not quote sources ( Nevillehobson.com, 2006).

Personal blogs and corporate blogs can influence the society or media by sharing ideas as the traditional media lack of freedom of speech. Furthermore, politicians can improve the society by getting the opinions of citizens from their blogs.

Reference List:

1. Blogging, The Phenomenon, Types of Blogs 2006, viewed on 23^rd August 2011,<http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01130/typesofblogs.html>
2. Hobson, N 2006, Latest blog trends from Pew Internet, viewed on 23^rd August 2011, <http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/07/19/latest-blog-trends-from-pew-internet/>

3. Pizano, G 2010, It Seems like Everyone has a Blog These Days, Helpful Insights Online, viewed 23rd August 2011, <http://gilpizano.com/social-media/blog-days/>.

4. Sobel, J 2010, State of the Blogosphere 2010 Introduction, Technorati, viewed 23^rd August 2011,<http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/page-2/>
5. The Star Online 2008, Blogging in Malaysia ranks among highest in the world, viewed 23^rd August 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/3/nation/20827588&sec=nation>.

Purpose

This weblog is one of the tasks in my course. The purpose of this blog is for me to share and discuss the issues in publication and design. The target audience would be communication students or people who interested in publication and design. At the end of this semester, I hope that I can improve my creativity and understanding of the theories and concepts.