Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Reflection

Based on the several previous postings, it really does important to view these document designs if I intend to make a blog regarding my preferable topics. As Sheridan (2010) indicated, a “good document design is the key to accessibility”. Although I’ve been a sense of understanding that document designs are quite important as the first impression to others, but when I actually went into these processes in creating and designing the documents myself, I found that I'm still have lots of things to learn as there are still many details that I might need to have lose sight of as I’m really lack of experiences in such of works.

As Walsh (2005) stated, “a conceptual framework for reading multimodal texts needs to include an understanding of the affordance and the processing of different modes”. I can’t be say that I’m currently expert, but somehow I understood that it would be a benefits, or I can say that an additional advantage that would assist me to grab the attentions of the viewers before entering to my topics of discussions.





References

  1. Sheridan, J. 2010, ‘Good document design is the key to accessibility’, AGIMO, [online], Available at: <http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/2010/11/30/good-document-design-is-the-key-to-accessibility/>, [Accessed on 15th November 2011].

  1. Walsh, M. 2005, ‘Literacy and learning with multimodal texts: classroom glimpses’, Australian Catholic University, [online], <http://www.literacyeducators.com.au/docs/Reading%20multimodal%20texts.pdf>, [Accessed on 15th November 2011].

The Evolution of Online Video

As indicated in the issue, people today are busy with their daily life and gained lesser time to wait for news that costs longer reporting. Hence, due to the development in communication technologies, most of the viewers are more likely chose to hear or watch the news they prefer as long as it’s time-saving and they able to capture the key messages, especially through online videos (O’Neill 2011). In such circumstance, viewers can be easily blinded by the authenticity of the news reported as the online media might used some diverse ways to cover some news, which the origin messages of the news might have been twisted as most of these news are actually selling ads (O’Neill 2011).
Even so, I would also prefer to use online media to view the news. Instead of saying the online videos are covering news, I would rather say that the news which reported online are getting shorter time as it is fast, rapidly spread and discussed, thus gained the fast responses from the online users. Somehow, online videos could be also act as viral which the political videos can be shared by those bloggers or other social media thus changed the dynamics of the political campaigns (Wallsten 2009, p.41). For instance, two videos could be comparing as below:

The original news reported from TV3 of Malaysia Bulletin News:

The spoof video which edited by online users:

The origin of the video could be formal and solemnness. However, the edited video would be more noticeably than the normal video of course. Consequently, this could create topics of discussions for those supporters and non-supporters of the subjects in the video as it could also raise the effectiveness to cut through the attentions of the viewers when they saw many responses or comments that criticism the videos (Lin & Peña 2011, p.20). Hence, when the video was then wide-spread amongst the social media, it could be say that that particular video would act as an advertisement that can be easily reinforce by the viewers.
In fact, with these shares of information has also allowed the viewers to create topics and linkage between the potential networks as they can greet and comment through the social media such as Facebook or Twitter (Boyd 2011, p.45). In another word, the roles of online video have been diversified as people used it in many ways of purposes.




References
  1. Boyd, D. 2011, ‘Chapter 2: Social Network Sites as Networked Publics’, A Networked Self: Identify, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, NY London, [online], Available at: <http://viralmedia.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/45052678/A%20Networked%20Self-Identity,%20Community%20and%20Culture%20on%20Social%20Network%20Sites%20%5B2011%5D.pdf#page=26>, [Accessed on 12nd November 2011].

  1. Lin, J.S. & Peña, J. 2011, ‘Are you following me? A content analysis of TV Networks’ Brand Communication on Twitter’, Journal of Interactive Advertising, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 17 – 29, American Academy of Advertising, [online], Available at: <http://jiad.org/download?p=150>, [Accessed on 14th November 2011].

  1. O’Neill, M. 2011, ‘85% of Media Websites Now Use Online Video To Cover News’, Social Times, [online], Available at: <http://socialtimes.com/85-of-media-websites-now-use-online-video-to-cover-news_b60505>, [Accessed on 14th November 2011].

  1. Wallsten, K. 2009, ‘”Yes We Can”: How Online Viewership, Blog Discussion, Campaign Statements and Mainstream Media Coverage Produced a Viral Video Phenomenon’, YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the US, pp. 39 – 62, [online], Available at: <http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=jitpc2009&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com.my%2Fscholar%3Fstart%3D10%26q%3Donline%2Bvideo%2Bcover%2Bnews%26hl%3Den%26as_sdt%3D0%2C5%26as_ylo%3D2010#search=%22online%20video%20cover%20news%22>, [Accessed on 15th November 2011].



The Seriousness and Importance of Plagiarisms

With the widespread access of the Internet today, online postings has become one of the leading trends for users such as authors, journalists, politicians and others  to publish or share their information. Somehow, as the online search engine do mix and match for the relevant searched issues, it is hard for these publishers to guarantee their assets for being stole or imitated by other users online. 


I can assure that most of the people do understand the seriousness of getting plagiarism. However, although they understood the regulations, these users don’t abide it but continue to commit the same actions without the originals’ citations. As More& Shelar (2011, p.466) and  Adhikari(2010, p.77) indicated, plagiarism can be referred as the act of take over from the writings, ideas, methods of another person, without the acknowledgement of the originals and use the works as one’s own, which happened to be an act of fraud or copyright infringement. However, thanks to also the rapid development of technologies, plagiarism detectors or checkers were invented to “determine the extent of originality of and plagiarism in the specimen articles” (Japos,Gutierrez & Tubongbanua 2011 p.52) that able to protect the originals’ assets.

But ultimately, the most important thing is still the self-consciousness of those referrers when they intend to use others’ ideas as their own. As Bartlett & Casselden(2011 p.35) supported in guiding the originality of students’ works, “students should take ultimate responsibility for ensuring their work avoided plagiarism, and that this responsibility followed the provision of plagiarism instruction/guidance from the academic institution”. In such circumstance, when a student’s works occurred in plagiarism, he/she would be accused and got penalty of 0 marks for their works, or even got blacklisted that might influence the future potential employment opportunities of the student. But, what if the plagiarisms that accused in the society? The aftermath of the deceivers could be sued by the originals or imposed a fine through those rules and regulations of copyright, as reported in the news of ‘Copy Mart sued for copyright infringement’ (Kettering, 2011).


Of course, I’m not saying that it is wrong to take the ideas from others, but instead of using the same sentences, words, or writing patterns, the referrers could cite the works and add on his/her personal ideas or opinions in criticism to come out something new that might different that the originals. 





References

1.  Adhikari, N. 2010, ‘Avoiding Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism’, Journal of Nepal Paediatric Society, vol. 30, Issue 2, pp. 77 – 78, [online], Available at: <http://www.uj.ac.za/EN/Faculties/humanities/about/HumanitiesStaff/Documents/Plagiarism/Avoiding%20Plagiarism%20and%20Self%20Plagiarism%20-%20Neelam%20Adhikari.pdf>, [Accessed on 9th November 2011].

2.   Bartlett, R. & Casselden, B. 2011, ‘An investigation into the attitudes of academic librarians towards Internet plagiarism of HE students’, Library and Information Research, vol. 35, no. 110, pp. 29 – 42, [online], Available at: <http://northumbria.openrepository.com/northumbria/bitstream/10145/142311/2/bartlett_Internet%20plagiarism%20of%20HE%20students.pdf>, [Accessed on 14th November 2011].

3.  Japos, G.V. Gutierrez, B.A & Tubongbanua, J.B.P. 2011, ‘Efficacy of Plagiarism Detection Software for Quality Assurance of a Research Journal’, IAMURE: International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, vol. 1, pp. 48 – 60, [online], Available at: <http://www.eisrjc.com/journals/journal_1/iamure-vol-1.pdf#page=56>, [Accessed on 14th November 2011].

4.     Kettering, S. 2011, ‘Copy Mart sued for copy infringement’, The Spectator, [online], Available at: <http://www.su-spectator.com/news/copy-mart-sued-for-copyright-infringement-1.2632624#.TsExm0Mr2so>, [Accessed on 14th November 2011].

5.    More, T & Shelar, V. 2011, ‘Plagiarism and Copyright Violation: A Need of Information Literacy Framework towards Ethical Use of Information’, 8th International CALIBER 2011, INFLIBNET Centre, Ahmedabad, pp. 465 – 478, [online], Available at: <http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/dxml/bitstream/handle/1944/1640/48.pdf?sequence=1>, [Accessed on 8th November 2011]. 




The Trends of Source Online Vs. Printed Resources

As the invention of  iPad (Apple Inc.) and tablet PCs appeared in the market today, e-books has become one of the trends which also arise that pace with the development of these advanced technologies. Instead of selling printed books that costs higher price, many organizations chose to transform these printed books into e-books that are more cost-savings, environmental friendly, updated and also easy viewing through those electronic gadgets (Capeloto 2011). For example, Amazon.com and MPHonline.com.




However, as a student, I’m still preferred printed textbooks as I can have my own handwriting towards the key points that I intend to drop down. However, as authors and journalists need time to form their ideas and prepare for publishing, the information of these publishers might have been outdated during preparation as the progress of information updated is running fast in the world today (Harris2010).

Somehow, even the old information probably still useful in some respects, however, when new information comes in, the printed publishing might lack of time or just in time to publish when that particular information started outdated; Thus, misleading in others (Cameron & Richardson 2011), or they might have to search again for the latest news throughout other resources such as Google.com.

Targeted the people who are more prefer printed textbook like me, since it is the electronic gadget era, iAnnotate application was then created that provided markup tools such as highlighting, underlining, bookmarking, free form drawing and note-taking, which can be use on iPad (Bush & Cameron 2011, p.57). As it’s a nature of human that always pursuit of new thing, it is more encourage for most of the people to use the electronic gadgets to update their information and knowledge quickly instead of looking forward for printing publication.

Ultimately, in order to catch up the latest information, students are more likely encouraged to own themselves tablet devices that provided multi-modal functionality to support their personal studies and classroom learning (Bush & Cameron 2011, p.134)






References


1.   Bush, M.H. & Cameron, A.H. 2011, ‘Digital Course Materials: A Case Study of the Apple iPad in the Academic Environment’, UMI, Dissertation Publishing, [online], Available at: <http://gradworks.umi.com/3457459.pdf>, [Accessed on 14th November 2011].

2.    Cameron, S. & Richardson, S. 2011, ‘Evaluating historical information on the web’, skills4study.com, [online], Available at: <http://www.palgrave.com/skills4study/subjectareas/history/evaluating.asp>, [Accessed on 14th November 2011].

3. Capeloto, A. 2011, ‘How e-Textbooks, Online Modules Could Keep Journalism Education Current’, MEDIASHIFT, [online], Available at: <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/08/how-e-textbooks-online-modules-could-keep-journalism-education-current237.html>, [Accessed on 14th November 2011].

4.  Harris, R. 2010, ‘Evaluating Internet Research Sources’, VirtualSalt.com, [online], Available at: <http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm>, [Accessed on 14th November 2011]. 


Discrimination of Media Report against Women

Due to the ‘traditional practice’ for not publishing the image of women, an Orthodox Jewish newspaper, Di Tzeitung has removed the presence of the US secretary of the state, Hilary Clinton and the counterterrorism director, Audrey Tomason in a historical image which also known as “The Situation Room” in their media report.  

Such report could be said as cultural conflict for the Jew’ readers as they acknowledged the standard for women in different “terms” based on their religious instructions (Rich 2011), as it’s been the convention for the newspaper to avoid publishing women in the media report for some time. In my perspective, I think it is really an insulting matter as I don’t think the abilities of women should be ignore or being underestimated especially in the world today.



As Wiesner-Hank(2011, p.357) agreed with Iriye & Saunier’s (2009) statement, the presences of women in politics are still evolving, which occurred to be the term of ‘Transnational History’ in order to “move between and across different polities and society”. In such circumstance, there must be reasons why it takes long time for women to switch their roles either to involve in the politics field today, or occur in the business field as the dominant females. According to Ford (2010, p.5), as women are more emotional and hold different comportments toward their appropriate roles, even the capabilities for women to master in politics might also strong enough, however, their attitudes considered as distractions that might lead women to made some irrational decisions.

Somehow, according to Rich (2011), the standards of women are much higher than the Western civilization through to 20th century. For instance, although Judaism women are discouraged to engage in advanced studies, the rights of Judaism women were more powerful than expected as they can choose their life partner and have their own properties. Even so, based on the cultural practices over the years, the primary responsibility for Judaism women was mainly wife, mother or keeper of the household (Rich 2011). In another word, instead of indicating the standard of women is low, the cultural of Judaism prefers to acknowledge these as the nature roles of women.

As indicated in the article, the Jewish newspaper was then apologized due to the cultural offensive. Even the cultural of Judaism think that the publishing of women in the newspaper is immodest, but such cases happened for those who are practicing matriarchal society, they’ll think it might be another religious conflict in another point of view. 






References

  1. Ford, L.E. 2010, ‘Women and Politics: The Pursuit of Equality’, Wadsworth Publishing Company, [online], Available at: <http://books.google.com.my/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Ni0inG4e0AoC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=equality+of+the+sexes+politics&ots=PEkhrKtMtt&sig=iEuUFGHntccRHYJXD_j2iA4KRdY#v=onepage&q=equality%20of%20the%20sexes%20politics&f=false>, [Accessed on 8th November 2011].

  1. Iriye, A. & Saunier, P.Y. 2009, ‘The Palgrave dictionary of transnational history: from the mid-19th century to the present day’, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, [online], Available at: <http://www.cemh.umn.edu/news/documents/Wiesner-CrossingBorders.pdf>, [Accessed on 8th November 2011].

  1. Rich, T. R. 2011, ‘The Role of Women’, Judaism 101, [online], Available at: <http://www.jewfaq.org/women.htm>, [Accessed on 8th November 2011].

  1. Wiesner-Hanks, M.E 2011, ‘Crossing borders in transnational gender history’, Journal of Global History, vol.6, pp. 357 – 379, London School of Economics and Political Science, [online], Available at: <http://www.cemh.umn.edu/news/documents/Wiesner-CrossingBorders.pdf>, [Accessed on 8th November 2011].

Friday, August 26, 2011

Screen vs. print document design

For screen (webblog) design, there are two issues indicated by Jonah (2007), as it is hard for people to read online information rather than print document and most of the people viewed through the page partially. Hence, the design of screen must contain several important elements in order to overcome such matters to attract the interest of reading of the readers. 

First, typography. As Bear (2011) indicated, fonts that looks nice on print might be difficult to read on screen, unless the font itself have been designed earlier and stored in the system.


Secondly, graphics. For print document, you can draw any shape or whatever design you like (even it is not a wonderful design); however, for screen, you'll have to learn some programs to create and design and this would cost plenty of time. Unless, the graphic itself can be re-use again and again, drawings of print would be hard to imitate as the actual same for the next. 


Thirdly, colour. On the screen, colour is usually a browser-safe colour schemes, which might be cause readability differences on print compared with screen. 

Next, navigation. Hyperlinks which able to link from one page to another fasten the time of searching information compared with print. 


Last, page composition. In print design, page printed are standardized as people viewed the design in the same size, colours, etc. Meanwhile for screen design, it can be dynamic and flexibly change the fonts from time-to-time based on the designer himself/herself. (Source from Bear 2011)








References:
1. Bear, J.H. 2011, 'Print Design vs. Web Design', about.com, Retrieved from <http://desktoppub.about.com/od/transitionprintweb/tp/Print_Design_vs_Web_Design.htm> [Accessed on 26th August 2011]
2. Jonah, 2007, 'Document Design: Blogs vs. Print', red dot semiotik: sociopolitical and electronic publishing commentary in Singapore, <http://semiotik.wordpress.com/document-design-blogs-vs-print/>[Accessed on 26th August 2011]

New forms of media publishing

When we talking about new media, it is no longer the desktop or laptop we've having now, but some innovative items such as iphone, ipad or smartphone which allowed the users to use internet and thus connect and publish or share their information directly whenever or wherever they are, etc. 

According to Hibbert B (1999), there are two things which driven the rise of new publishing technologies, which is cost-saving and the creation of new opportunities. As mentioned, it is cost saving due to the budgets which have been removed such as  printing costs, advertising costs, etc. Moreover, sellers which have not much budgets but they wish to open a store could be done through new media as they would have less risk to enter/exit the online market, thus cost-efficient. 

Other than that, as internet is fast and vast, the new forms of media publishing allowed the users get to see or update themselves the news or information in every moments. For instance, we do not have to wait for the next day to see for the hot news but only browse through the website to get the up-dated information we wish to see. 



There are several examples of new media, which includes:


(a) Online newspaper, magazines, books



(b) Youtube (Videoblog)


(c) Google, Facebook, Twitter 

In another word, as long as there is an internet connection, new media publishing is an alternative options for people to work out their update their knowledge and able to communicate throughout worldwide. 






Reference:
1. Hibber, B 1999, 'Publishing and the media industries in the digital age', The Journal of Policy, Regulation and Strategy for telecommunications information and media, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 393 - 403, Retrieved from <http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/journals.htm?issn=1463-6697&volume=1&issue=5&articleid=873838&show=pdf> [Accessd on 26th August 2011]. 

Explain briefly types of blogging communities & methods to build blogging communities. Then, discuss the structure of one blogging community in brief.

Types of Blogging Communities

According to White (2006), there are three types of methods that build up these blogging communities, which are One Blog Centric Community, Topic Centric Community and Boundaried Community


As White (2006, p.9) indicated, one blogging community is usually a basic form of blog for readers to comment and get to know the authors but also the community of commentors. Somehow, there is an issue in such community. Even the commenters could response with the bloggers, they did not possess the capability to control the topic. 

Methods to build Blogging Communities

According to Shupe (2011) , there are five tips to build up the blog communities. First, get involved. Participate to promote your blog. Build up more interest topics or comments which able to lead the attention of the communities as "you're always there!" to update the blog. Secondly, offer new value. For those Collaborative blog, they can post up some additional benefits for their readers especially up-to-dated information so the readers would be willing to browse the blog daily. Thirdly, hold a contest. Incentives are always one of the most effective way to attract public. Publishing through Tweet it and Facebook, could be another advance method to build your community. Next, choose the right network. There are several great sites which allowed the bloggers to enter, such as lowyat.com, jbtalks.net, etc. These forums have some similar features as blog however gathered higher rate of people. Hence, instead of your own blog, these forums are other options for communities building. Lastly, make your blog earn money for you. This can be done through placing some affiliate advertsings at the sidebar of your blog. 


Ways to grow your blog audience
More and more and more... 
(Source from  http://redheadva.com/)




References:
1. Shupe, R. 2011, '5 Ways to Build Your Blog Audience', Business 2 Community, Retrieved from <http://www.business2community.com/social-media/5-ways-to-build-your-blog-audience-046823> [Accessed on 21st August 2011]. 

2. White, N. 2006, 'Trying to Explain. Blogs and Community:Launching a New Paradigm for Online Community?', Australian Flexible Learning Framework, 11th edn, pp. 1 - 41, Retrieved from <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/The%20Knowledge%20Tree%20Ed%2011.pdf> [Accessed on 25th August 2011].




Classification of blogs & opinion about the most appropriate classification approach

Classification of Blogs
According to Belardo (2011)there are five types of blog which are common seen to use by most of the bloggers.




Type 1: Collaborative Blog


Blog which has multiple authors. Articles posted are usually need at an agreed upon decision making. More likely used between the editor and its writer. Contain rules or guides in such blog. 



Type 2: How To / Tutorial Blog

Step 1.. Step 2..

Blog which the authors used to give instruction in how to do/process something, or to teach people in detailed regarding some particular topic the authors interested. Step by step instructions are usually given as a tutorial section to lead an understanding for the readers. 



Type 3: Travel and Cultural Blog

blog design

Blog which for authors who loved to travel share their journeys and experiences. No technical expertise is required as the original form of author which performed are usually the best presentation to capture the attention of people who are interested in travel and cultural.



Type 4: Fashion and Lifestyle Blog


This kind of blog is generally like to look good. Authors can make some recommendation based on their wearing experience, or some more introduce new fashion/current trends which what is going on to the fashionita recently, etc. 



Type 5: Personal Blog


Most common type which used by most blogger. Authors are usually the type which likely to voice out their experiences. A range of personal information such as about me, hobbies, interests, etc. Any of the details which the author is willing to share. 



My perspective 
Besides the basic types of blog which I’ve provided above, there are still various types of blogs which existed throughout the global networks. For instance, political blog, gossip blog, etc. (Can be refers to Rowse 2005).  
Depends on the preferences of the blogger himself/herself, these blogs could be performed in multiple forms as people have different perspectives in expressing their opinions.  






References:
1. Belardo, M 2011, The 5 types of Blogs | Which One Suit You Best?, Ink Rebels, Retrieved from <http://www.inkrebels.com/insp/the-5-types-of-blogs-which-one-suits-you-best/> [Accessed on 26th August 2011].
2. Rowse, D 2005, 20 Types of Blog Post - Battling Bloggers Block, Problogger, Retrieved from <http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/11/29/20-types-of-blog-posts-battling-bloggers-block/> [Accessed on 21st August 2011] 



Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits of blogging to the community

Current Blog Phenomenon
With the media revolution and the rise of global networks, the emergence of the contemporary world today brought out many new things, and blog was one of them.

As a matter of fact, blog phenomenon can be said as a common phenomenon today which indicated a new way of life, work, learning and communication as it is getting accepted and used by most of the internet users, which they are also known as Bloggers (Tan, Na & Theng 2011, p.425). Other than that, blog provides a platform for individuals as a new means of expression, which these included wisdom and ideas to voice out, as it highlighted the right of every citizen's freedom to speech. 

I need to speak out loud!!!!
(Source from http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2011/02/promoting_voice_over_demos.html)

Benefits of Blogging to the Community 
On the other hand, getting blog for community through global networks removed the barriers of sociality amongst the countries as the relationships between bloggers and readers can be connected through their postings worldwide. In another word, we can make friends globally via literature. Through the postings by the bloggers, people can share, discuss and learn from others' experiences who possessed different background and cultures, thus get to know convergence friends and managed to get in-depth communication, or as we can say, exchange ideas to have the same aspirations and persuasion.   

We're staying in the same planet...
(Source from http://mygenerationsdigitalreporter.blogspot.com/2010/06/internet-today-by-sara-takaki-and-sonia.html)

As mentioned by Karger & Quan (2004, p.214), Web logging ("blogging") has turned out to drag out multiple functions instead of just the origin purpose of Web, such as semantic blogging. The semantic blogging which usually used by bloggers has become one of the key interpretations for current phenomenon which bloggers can directly blog the articles that they're interesting to share with users who blogged their blogspot. (Karger & Quan 2004, p.215)
In another word, user-friendly metaphor which bloggers apply into their blogs today seem could probably gain more attention and likeable from the readers. 







Reference:
1. Karger D.R. & Quan, D. 2004, 'What Would It Mean to Blog on the Semantic Web?', S.A.Mcllraith et al. Edn, pp. 214 - 228, The Semantic Web, Retrieved from <http://www.simonegrassi.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/lcqgewykavhvle8y.pdf> [Accessed on 7th November 2011]
2. Tan, Luke Kien-Weng Na, Jin-Cheon & Theng, Yin-Leng 2011, Influence detection between blog posts through blog features, content analysis, and community identity, 'Online Information Review', vol.35, no.3, pp.425 - 442, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Retrieved from <www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm> [Accessed on 23rd August 2011]