Reflections.

Blogging as said before, is a form of writing and according to Walsh (2005), reading consist of different levels of decoding, the response and comprehension at cognitive levels of analyzing and critique. Some of the things a blogger must be aware of is, there must not be any defamatory material, untruths or blasphemy as this will cause disruptions and conflicts as some of the past journalists and bloggers have done. Putnis and Petelin (1996), believes that writing enables a person to express their thoughts in a more creative and broader manner and it gives you a chance to think before you put your thoughts into words which cannot be done verbally. According to my understanding of Putnis and Petelin, writing gives the writer more expression and time which one who is speaking does not have. A blog should be interesting and engaging, which will attract more readers for the benefit of society.

References

Putnis, P, Petelin, R, 1996, Professional communication : principles and applications,Prentice Hall, Sydney.


Walsh, M, 2005, The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy.

Be careful of what you blog.

In the beginning of the year, a blogger was arrested for defamation of the late sultan of Johor. Aduka Taruna was arrested and charged but this had apparently not tamed and of the angry people out there. He had received death threats for his actions which prove to us that, writing untruths can cause serious consequences.

Blogging is a form of writing in which Putnis and Petelin described that writing, reading, listening and talking are how people use to communicate with each other. Therefore, blogging should be something that shows intellectual writing and thinking instead of nonsensical and insulting writing in which some people use to destroy and disrupt peace. There have been many cases were bloggers are arrested for writing untruths and insulting messages towards a person, a celebrity, towards society, a religion or whatsoever. 

Blogging should either have postings based on facts or personal experiences and should not be misused for improper usage. Words can be used to influence or change the perception of how a person thinks. Therefore, blogging should be a source of good influence and motivation for readers out there.

In this case where Aduka had insulted the King, he has caused problems both offline and in the online media. Writing things based on your own personal judgment to cause harm and conflict should not be written at all, what more posted on the online media where information is disseminated faster with a wider audience. Blogging should be a passion, like writing a book, and one should not take advantage of the freedom of speech online. A blog should not be abused for personal gain or for the disruption of peace among society and country.

References 

Anis, M, Zolkepli, F, 2010, 'Hisham: Blogger must answer for insulting late Sultan', The Star Online, viewed 14 November 2010, < http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/28/nation/5558582&sec=nation >

Chandranayagam, D, 2010, 'Malaysia: Insult to royalty not so easily forgiven', advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org, viewed 14 November 2010, <http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2010/02/15/malaysia-insult-to-royalty-not-so-easily-forgiven/ >

Bitter Twitter.

 Source: http://technorati.com/blogging/article/trouble-deciding-who-to-follow-on/

Source: http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200820/981/Power-of-micro-blogging-demonstrated-in-China-quake

Twitter is fast in becoming one of the largest social networking industries from what is called micro-blogging. A tweet is when a person has short updates on his or her daily life. It has captured the hearts of many teenagers and now, celebrities, politicians and prime ministers are having their own twitter accounts. Though intended for social uses, politicians and other high-ups are using Twitter as a medium to garner the interest and support of their followers. Though it has been highly popular, it has its’ disadvantages when it comes to credibility. 

Over the past year, there have been reports, especially from celebrities, that there are imposters out there who are claiming to be the celebrities themselves. For example, the Dalai Lama had a so-called Twitter account and had many fooled while Miley Cyrus, a famous teenage sensation had her account hacked with un-Miley like things posted on her account.

The Twitter company has commented that this has and will cause a lot of problems as  many will be unable to trust and believe in the system which is a very important thing for the online media which needs the trust of the readers and followers to sustain its’ business. There is a write up about having advertisements placed on Twitter which claims to be a very popular site which will attract advertisers.

Nick Jones, the Managing Director of the I Spy Marketing says that Twitter will have to ensure that the advertisements are reliable and not invasive or interfering. In  my opinion, Twitter should not be a form of information for journalists as they need to source for information that are valid from sources that are credible and trustworthy.

References 

Jones, N, 2010, 'Right to reply: Can Twitter become a Trusted Marketing Channel?', netimperative.com, viewed 14 November 2010, < http://www.netimperative.com/news/2010/april/right-to-reply-can-twitter-become-a-trusted/view >

Companies should use Twitter and Facebook to be trusted by consumers, Ecommerce Journal, 24 June, viewed 14 November 2010, < http://ecommerce-journal.com/node/28568 >

E-books versus Paper books.

Source: http://usedbooksblog.com/blog/category/book-statistics/

 

Source: http://typedesk.com/2009/01/24/e-books-vs-paper-books-whats-your-take/

In this advancing era of technology, it has come to no surprise that almost everything, from shopping to paying your credit cards, has gone digital. Now, the debate has come, whether books, or more specifically, the-old fashion print/paper books will become obsolete, overtaken by the E-books?

In a report by Deborah Cornwall, there are many opinions by people who are working in the print industry, the digital industry and even opinions by the readers and users. In this much debated discussion, many seem to believe that publishers are left with no choice but to go online as they feel that it is their only option is surviving in this industry. Thanks to the launching and introduction of the Amazon’s Kindle Book and the all new Apple iPad which enables the use of E-books available to the masses has been quite a huge hit according to Steve Jobs from the Apple Computers. Many feel that the existence of the E-books is a revolution which will soon overtake the print media but there are still who beg to differ. Though people like Candace Gray who owns a Kindle, believes that this revolutionary object has made things much easier and exciting for her, Louise Adler still believes in collecting books, which are precious and the feeling of keeping this paper, printed books should be cherished. 

In an article written by Raz Godelnik, there is still the debate over which of the two are better in terms of environmental. The author poses two possible outcomes, the paper/print books will and has an effect on the environment as there is a need to cut down trees for paper but the author also argues that the use of E-books also has its’ disadvantages. E-books uses electricity and power, and the disposal of electronic gadgets does harm the environment as well with its’ chemicals and plastic containers. In my opinion, I still believe in having a hardcover paper book as there is a nostalgic feeling in reading and actually turning the pages of a book. Besides, any old and unwanted paperback books can always be recycled.

References

Cornwall, D, 2010, 'E-Books popularity on the rise',abc.net.au, viewed 14 November 2010, < http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2849989.htm >

Godelnik,R, 2010, 'Is E-reading really greener?', Independent Book Publishing Associations, viewed 14 November 2010, < http://www.ibpa-online.org/articles/shownews.aspx?id=2984 >

 

A picture paints a thousand words.

An issue which had almost started a nationwide fight about religion had the people talking about it for quite some time. The accused is the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten while the one accusing and are making a big fuss about it are the Muslim Imams. The crime of the accused is for publishing the 12 caricatures of the Imams beloved Prophet Muhammad. There is a saying that goes like this, a picture paints a thousand words, well, how about 12 pictures? Were the Muslims too sensitive or was it because the Danish were too insensitive?

Source:  http://face-of-muhammed.blogspot.com/

The case had impacted the Danish export industry which is mainly caused by riots, protests and boycotts going on all over the world; the attacks against the Denmark’s Embassy and so on over a misunderstanding in which Samuel Huntington described as the conflict between two different cultures. This disagreement had been caused due to the different natures between the west and the Muslim countries as Peter Mares discussed in his interview with Jytte Klausen, the west practices the freedom of speech with an open mind while in the Muslims’ countries, one must be respectful towards their religion and prophets.

According to the BBC News article that I have found online, there was a write up about the overall incident, in which, some of the Muslims felt that their fellow religious protesters were over-reacting. One of the editors of the newspaper, Carsten Juste, believed that the freedom of speech has been curbed and held back because of religion. The editors of the Jyllands-Posten stand firm in their accusations, defending themselves by saying that their depictions of the Prophet Muhammad were not to insult the Muslims but to experiment about this and as Jyllands-Posten’s culture editor, Fleming Rose pointed out, Islam should not be treated differently from other religion or religious figures as it has long been a ‘Danish tradition of biting satire with no taboos’(BBC News).


References
  
'Danish Imams Propose to End Cartoon Dispute', The Brussels Journal, 22 January 2006, viewed 14 November 2010, < http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/698 >


'The 12 Muhammad Drawings', Face of Muhammad, 31 December 2006, viewed 14 November 2010, < http://face-of-muhammed.blogspot.com/ >


Q&A: The Muhammad Cartoon Rows, BBC News, 7 February 2006, viewed 14 November 2010, < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4677976.stm >

New Forms of Media Publishing.

According to Webopedia, the old media can be referred to the old prints such newspapers, magazines and books while the new media can be seen such as blogs, online forums and many more. Naughton(2006) said that every old media was once a new media, but as we can all see, the so-called "old" media is still thriving and is sometimes even considered to be better than the new media.

The new media has sped up the communication compared to the old media. For example, the bombing of The World Trade Centre, news travelled faster through the use of digital cameras, mobile phones and the internet. These new media's has changes, in a way how fast communication can travel now.  Thanks to the form of media such as Twitter, facebook and blogs, this has caused the world of journalism to lose its readers as now people are living in a world where time is of the essence and therefore opt for a much faster and efficient media.
The issue that is happening to the new media now is censorship problems. Even with the new form of media, we are still limited to what the government want or do not want us to say. The old media has the printing and publishing law and the new media such as the internet has the censorship problem. A very good example is blogger Raja Petra who was sentenced to jail for writing something that has angered the government. In conclusion, there is no such thing as the freedom of speech.

Loone,S, 2008,"Blogger Raja Petra Goes to Jail for Altantuya,"Sloone.wordpress.com, viewed 30 September 2010, < http://sloone.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/be-there-for-raja-petra-tomorrow/ >

New  Media,webopedia.com, viewed 30 September 2010, < http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/new_media.html >

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, Reuterinstitue, viewed 30 September 2010, http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf.

Blogging Community.

A blogging community is where an individual feels a sense of belonging, membership, the influence of others, the emotional connection that is shared within the community and the integration and fulfilling the need of one another(Blanchard 2004). A community is where people gather with a common goal, a shared interest and meet in a place where everyone gather with the same passion(Vinson 2006).

 According to eHow.com, one should expand  and enlarge one's circle of blogs by reading other people's blog and leaving comments on the blogs. Next, each postings on the blog should be interesting and captivating to capture the interest of the readers, therefore building a blog community. As suggested, besides leaving comments and replies, one should leave their own signature link so that other people are able to find and read your blog and in a way, expanding the blogging community. According to White(2006), she mentioned that with the technologies such as blogrings and by having key words, these help people with the same interest to be able to connect and therefore enlarging the blog community.

There are many types of blogging communities which are popular with many such as food blogging community, the photography community and fashion communites. The example of a blog community that I have is a food community such as the Small Small Baker's blog. According to White(2006), this is a topic Centric blog where this is a community which is linked by the same interest and the subject and membership is the network boundary.


White, N 2006, Blogs and community - launching a new paradigm for online community?, The Knowledge Tree, viewed 29 September 2010, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community.

How to Build a Blogging Community, eHow.com, viewed 29 September 2010, <http://www.ehow.com/how_2152382_build-blogging-community.html >

Blanchard,A, 2004,"Blogs as Virtual Communities:Identifying a Sense of Community in the Julie/Julia Project",Into the Blogosphere, viewed 30 September 2010, < http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogs_as_virtual.html#comments1 >

Vinson,J, 2006, "Blogging and Communities",Knowledge Jolt with Jack, viewed 30 September 2010,
< http://blog.jackvinson.com/archives/2006/06/26/blogging_and_communities.html >

Blogs Classification.

Just like fashion, blogs have different styles and classifications. According to McLean,2009, bloggers/ a person who has a blog can be classified into a few categories based on what they write about and how often the blog. First of all, there are the hobbyists in which these people blog about their lives, hobbies or to voice out their opinions about something. These kind of bloggers make up the majority of the blogging world in which their sole purpose in blogging is for the fun and entertainment. The name for this blog as some put it is called the Exhibition blog(Simons,2008).

Next there is the kind of blog that called the advertisement blog where these blogs make it their main purpose is to advertise something, a product, food or even places which they recommend to travel. Besides that, there is a news blog which has information about the latest news, happenings and media conferences(Simons,2008).Such examples that are available in our country is the Malaysian Insider and Malaysia Kini while there are newspaper blogs in other countries which are quite well known is The Big Picture, Washington Wire and many more(Owens,2009).

In my opinion, blogs can be categorised into personal or impersonal/neutral blogs, political and non-political, entertainment or academic blogs. In a personal blog, there are postings about your daily life, friends and things happening around your personal life. A neutral blog is a blog about almost anything from how good the weather is today to how you saw a cat cross the street.  Political blogs are blogs about politics and the government. Entertainment blogs are about fashion, lifestyle and to the newest and latest gadgets while an academic blog is where one can learn and glean useful information from.

References

McLean,J,2009, "State of the Blogosphere 2009 Introduction, Technorati.com, viewed 28 September 2010, < http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction/ >

The Media Report, 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, ABC.com, viewed 25 September 2010, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm.

Owens,S, 2009, "The 50 Most Popular Newspaper blogs",Bloggasm.com, viewed 27 September 2010, < http://bloggasm.com/the-50-most-popular-newspaper-blogs >