Reflections

In creating this blog, I have come to realization that there are many aspects of modern journalism that are taken into account in publishing and designing a document. I undertake a lot of research in publishing this blog for I know the professional ethics and morale is not a joke.

Schriver (1997) state that in order for a message to be delivered effectively, both texts and images must be present. I have put several pictures in the post so that the readers will understand more clearly about my posts. 

Creativity in publishing a document, freedom of speech, as well as ethics are important things that designers need to look into before publishing a document because they can't just simply publish documents without considering the public that are going to view their documents.

Reference:

- Schirev, KA 1997, 'Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Text For Readers', Wiley Computer Publisher, New York, USA.

A New Form of Satire

Take a look at this http://twitter.com/rioferdy5 and this http://twitter.com/rioferdinand5. See the differences? How about this http://twitter.com/justinbieber and this http://twitter.com/justin_bieber15. Again, see the differences? Yes, if you are on Twitter and follow one of these celebrities, you might notice that one is a real account and the other is a fake account. We can notice whether the account is a real or fake by noticing the "Verified Account" logo on the top of the celebrities' profiles.

Notice the blue ticked "Verified Account" logo on the right side, on top of the celebrities' profile.

This is not a new issue. It has been around for quite some time. And sometimes these fake accounts have more followers than the real accounts. But why? According to Berry (2010), these fake twitter accounts reveal the viral power of satire. The influence of the fake accounts relies on the real-world renown of the company they’re satirizing but the fake accounts receive far more engagement, have a higher network score and generally have more Twitter influence. Another example is when an impersonator of Kanye West started creating profile under the artist name. The artist then posted in his blog that he doesn't have a Twitter account and that who uses his name in Twitter had been irresponsible and deceitful to the faithful users. Twitter responded by removing the fake account the same day the entry of the blog was posted (Issac, 2010).

Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone stated that these impersonators express skepticism whenever someone claiming to be a celebrity joins the service. Since there are many new users that signed up for Twitter everyday, it is impossible to monitor the impostors. Twitter have to rely on the person who is being misrepresented contacting the company. Stone also said that these fake accounts might be parody and it can be used for healthy expression if it is done right and does not cross into impersonation. Stone also encouraged celebrities not only to join the service but also to run their account themselves. The problem for Twitter is that if enough "fakesters" cause havoc, people will lose trust in the system, something that's hard to win back online (Owens, 2009).

References:

- Owens, Simon 2009 'How Celebrity Imposters Hurt Twitter Credibility', MediaShift viewed 12 November 2010 <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/02/how-celebrity-imposters-hurt-twitters-credibility051.html>

-Issac, Mike 2010 'The Most Notorious Fake Twitter Accounts', Forbes.com viewed 12 November 2010 <http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/02/bp-angelina-jolie-technology-twitter.html>

-Berry, Megan 2010 'When Fake Twitter Accounts Beat Out Their Real Counterparts', Klout viewed 12 November 2010 <http://klout.com/blog/2010/06/when-fake-twitter-accounts-beat-out-their-real-counterparts/>

Forget Blogs, Let's Tweet!

In an era where information spreads quickly among individuals, many people keep themselves updated with latest news, gossips, rumors as well as trends. How do people manage to do that? The answer is simple, Twitter.

We all know that this particular microblogging phenomenon has increased rapidly during these past few years. Fleet (2009) states that corporations seem to be much more willing to sign up for Twitter than they are to set up blogs. Many major corporations in the world have signed up for Twitter, such as Ford, General Motors, Dell as well as small companies like Natura Mattresses.

In Malaysia itself, Twitter has become the media for the citizens to update themselves with recent political issues. For example, during the trial of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, it is stated that Twitter provides "live" updates of the trial (The Malaysian Insider, 2010). 

So what is it that makes people are so into Twitter rather than blogs? There are several factors that I would like to highlight. First, mobility and speed. We can access Twitter anywhere and anytime we wanted. Today, telecommunication technology has allowed people to access internet via their mobile phones. Twitter, which is designed specifically for mobile phone users, allows its users to access it almost anytime they wanted and anywhere they are. There are many types of Twitter application that we can download and install in our mobile phones. For example, there is UberTwitter for Blackberry users, Twitterific for iPhone users, and many more such as Mobile Tweete, Digsby, Seesmic, and Snaptu. These applications allow Twitter users to update and send tweets via their mobile phones.

UberTwitter for Blackberry. Image source : http://blackberry-soft.com/2010/07/23/ubertwitter-beta-8-now-available-for-download/

The second factor is that Twitter requires less commitment than blogs. Fleet (2009) said that writing a blog post requires 20 minutes to a couple of hours, depending on its content. However, Twitter takes just a little of our time. This shows that Twitter's appearance require much less of a commitment than writing a “traditional” blog. Usually people update their blog once in awhile or routine, depends on the popularity or the importance of the posts. Twitter, is constantly updated. Each day, there would be multiple posts, and sometimes it might reach over a hundred post.

The third factor is information content. Blog gives an in-depth detail regarding an issue, while Twitter just provides the "headlines" or "big-picture" of an issue. However, many people use Twitter to promote their blogs or websites. Also, it is said that Twitter users can get updates on what they think or feel about particular issue and it is inclusive. This is something that newspaper or televisions can't do (The Malaysian Insider, 2010).

So, these are my thoughts on why Twitter is more chosen these days as a media of information rather than blog. I personally think that blog itself is a good example of media since it provides in-depth information on issues. However, Twitter for me is a way to gain quick information when I'm not in front of my computer, or not reading a newspaper because I can access Twitter from my mobile phone.

References:

- Fleet, Dave 2009 'Blogging Vs. Twitter: A Different Kind of Commitment' viewed 12 November 2010, <http://davefleet.com/2009/02/blogs-vs-twitter-different-commitment/>

- Zahiid, Syed Jaymal 2010 'Blogging is so yesterday, politicians turn to Twitter' The Malaysian Insider 11 February 2010.

Sexism Advertising

Take a look at these pictures.

Image source : http://www.clickliverpool.com/business/business-news/129469-laddish-ads-demeaning-to-women.html

Image source: http://pinkstinks.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/off-side-rule-for-girls/

Okay, so those are WKD beer ads. They recently put up the billboards around England in their campaign for the World Cup 2010 last summer. We might think the ads are funny. But if we carefully look into the words, does it feel a little bit awkward?

Yes, it is demeaning. It is unjust. And it's sexism. How does a beer manufacturer come up with such advertising? And to the shocking part, its in England! Where men and women worship football like its a religion. Sport England’s Active People survey in 2008 tells us that 260,000 women and 1.1 million girls play some form of football in England and that there are 26 million females playing across the world, of which 4.1 million are playing affiliated football (PinkStinks, 2010).

Sexism in the media is overlooked so much but it’s still giving small girls the impression that they will grow up to be house-wives living just to cook, clean and look after their children and husbands (BeyondJane, 2010).

Perera (2010) states that, there's nothing particularly new about advertising that plays on gender stereotypes. Many ads have a sexist and offensive tone or content. Usually this is hidden behind a semblance of subtlety: the nakedness of the female character is loosely connected to the product in question; the gender stereotype is reinforced in an indirect or "knowing" way.  We've largely come to accept these images as part of the landscape of modern life, images women may resent or feel intimidated by in silence but which we also fear will leave us accused of over-reaction if we voice our concerns in public. 

Reference:

- PinkStinks, 2010, 'Offside Rules for Girls', PinkStinks, viewed on 12 November 2010, <http://pinkstinks.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/off-side-rule-for-girls/>

- shhark, 2010, 'Sexism in Advertising', BeyondJane, viewed on 12 November 2010, <http://beyondjane.com/women/sexism-in-advertising/>

- Perera, K 2010, 'Time to kick sexism out of advertising', Guardian.co.uk, viewed on 12 November 2010, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/29/kick-sexism-out-of-advertising>

Facebook and Privacy Breach

In recent news, The Wall Street Journal reveals that the most-used social networking, Facebook, violates privacy policy. The newspaper stated that it found out that the applications in Facebook turns out to provide the users' names and in some cases, the users' friends' names to companies that build detailed databases on people in order to track them online (ABC News 2010).

Facebook is the most current social networking that was used by hundreds of millions of people all around the world. I have a Facebook account myself. Mostly, I used it to keep track of current events, friends birthdays, playing games as well as uploading photos. One thing I do realize that in Facebook, most people provide their personal information on the profile page. This way, their peers will know how to contact them, what are their preferences, and many more. However, recent issues regarding privacy breach has made changes in Facebook on how their users privacy can be protected.

Facebook is known for its third party applications that are accessible by its users. Most apps aren't made by Facebook, but by independent software developers. According to Steel & Fowler (2010), several apps became unavailable to Facebook users after the Journal informed Facebook that the apps were transmitting personal information; the specific reason for their unavailability remains unclear. The information being transmitted is one of Facebook's basic building blocks, the unique "Facebook ID" number assigned to every user on the site. Since a Facebook user ID is a public part of any Facebook profile, anyone can use an ID number to look up a person's name, using a standard Web browser, even if that person has set all of his or her Facebook information to be private. For other users, the Facebook ID reveals information they have set to share with "everyone," including age, residence, occupation and photos.

In responding to this issue, Facebook has then created a control panel that lets users see which apps are accessing which categories of information about them. It indicates, for example, when an application accesses a user's "basic information" (including a user ID and name). However, it doesn't detail what information friends' applications have accessed about a user. Also, Facebook has been reported disabling thousands of applications that violates its policies.

References:

- ABC news 2010, Facebook admits privacy breach, viewed 12 November 2010, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/19/3042594.htm>.

- Steel, Emily & Fowler, Geoffrey A. 2010 'Facebook in Online Privacy Breach', The Wall Street Journal, viewed 12 November 2010, <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558484075236968.html> 

New Forms of Media Publishing

In the current state where the world is constantly changing and information travels faster than ever, there are new forms of media publishing that we can see nowadays. Examples of these new media are Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and many more. People can access information freely nowadays and they don't depend on one source of media publishing. By using Facebook, people can build a social network among friends. Twitter, a new media of microblogging, allows fast information exchanging between individuals. And lastly Youtube allows people to upload a video log so that it can be shared and viewed  by others from around the world.

However, as appealing as it looks. There are issues in several countries that limits user to actually publish articles in certain medias. The government of the country might view the articles as threat to the nation. For example, in Cuba where media publishing is strictly monitored by government. Any form of publishing that contains misleading thoughts will not be published. In China, media publishing is used to express concern on society benefits rather than political critics.

Like many kinds of media publishing, Twitter has become the rising media in the world nowadays. Because Twitter can be used with ease on both PCs and mobile devices, and because it limits users to very short messages of 140 characters or fewer, it has become one of the largest platforms in the world for sharing real-time data. As Twitter grows, it will increasingly become a place where companies build brands, do research, send information to customers, conduct e-commerce and create communities for their users.

References:

Loewenstein, A 2008, 'The Blogging Revolution', The Media Report, viewed 30 September 2010 http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2351985.htm

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1901188_1901207_1901196,00.html

Blogging Communities

As stated in Wikipedia, blogging community can be defined as several online communities which exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers.

A blogging community is essential to being a successful blogger. Not only are you showing off yourself, your product or services to the world but you are also creating a name and reputation for who you are and what you have to say. Having a community of your peers who enjoy what your blog has to say and respect you as part of the blogosphere goes a long way. (Nikki, 2008)

Below are steps on how to build a blogging community:

1. Start by reading other blogs, we can get a feel for what we like in a blog. We might also discover blogs that we share common interests with. 

2. Leave comments on other blogs. By leaving comments, it shows that we pay more attention that just reading the blog. If you include your URL, others will find it easy to locate you.

3. Reply comments on your blog. People wanted to be heard when they post a comment in your blog. The reply doesn't have to be lengthy. A simple "Thank you for visiting my blog" is sometimes enough. It shows that we engage with our readers.

4. List your blog in internet directories. By using search engine such as Google, it may bring many results.

5. Write as often as possible. This way it will keep your readers at your blog longer and at the same time providing them with variety of topics in your blog.

6. Make your posts entertaining. We don't want our readers to be bored of our posts. Keeping them entertained is one thing, but we also should develop our skill in writing over time.

7. Market your blog. Link your blog to forums, discussion rooms, message boards, or even place signature link at your email.

According to Arren(2009), there are several blogging communities provided by the internet for enthusiastic bloggers. Most blogging communities have similar features, and it provides benefits if you choose the right one and it should bring pleasure in your blogging. Some examples of blogging communities are Livejournal, Xanga, BlogFeast, Revenews, BlogCatalog, Freelance writing job and Greatest journal.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Nikki, 2008 'How to Build Blogging Community' eHow.com viewed on 30 September 2010 http://www.ehow.com/how_2152382_build-blogging-community.html

Arren 2009, 'Blogging Communities for the Blogging Enthusiast', Web Business Wiz, viewed 30 September 2009, http://www.webbusinesswiz.com/blogging/blogging-communities-for-the-blogging-enthusiast/.