Truly a Fruitful Journey

Indeed, throughout the process of completing this whole weblog, I have gained a vast array of insights. First of all, as a blogger, I learned that there are certain criteria that I need to consider while blogging. As proposed by the model of A Bloggers' Code of Ethics by Cyberjournalists.net (2003), I learned that an ethical blogger must:

• Be honest and fair
• Minimize harm by respecting your readers
• Be accountable 

Hence, for all of the materials that I have used in supporting my arguments, I have given proper credits for all sources. Moreover, I have carefully selected the types of images and texts in composing all of my postings to ensure that the materials that I have chosen is appropriate to be used in the current context.

In terms of my weblog design, I have taken into account Jakob Nielsen's Theory of Usability in ensuring the user-friendliness of my weblog. Thus, I have included blog tags, links for further references, blog archive, and hyperlinks to ensure my readers will have a "pleasant journey" while they are exploring my blog.

In a larger scale, I have acquired the fundamental skills needed in a document designer. In terms of writing, Putnis and Petelin (1996) stated that grammatical errors and other sentence structuring errors must be avoided. Hence, I will always proof read my materials before publishing it. Next, as texts and visuals work hand-in-hand in delivering effective messages (Shriver 1997), I have incorporated images in my weblog postings to guide my readers' understanding. 

Lastly, I was also exposed with some of the current issues that surround the media and publishing field. With that, I am more aware of the issues that affect both fields. 

Truly, it was a fruitful journey for me. And, I hope the same as well for you, my readers.

References

Cyberjournalists.net 2003, A Bloggers’ Code of Ethics, viewed 11^th June 2011, <http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/000215.php>.

Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, Writing to Communicate, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Shriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Publication, New York.

Say Hi to the All New Learning Environment!

With technology, we are "spoiled" with the privilege of experiencing a new dimension of education, whereby typical classroom tools such as whiteboards have been replaced with new tools of learning, such as online study mode. With that, education are no longer bounded within classroom walls. An example of an education provider that utilizes such mode of education is University of South Australia.

 

(Image source: University of South Australia 2011) 

Such changes of learning environment are also seen in the learning environment of children. On 17th May 2011, Pbs.org (2011) published an article, 'Children's Magazines Cater to True Early Adopters with Mobile Apps', which discussed about the prevalent changes in children's learning environment, whereby even their learning materials are being digitized nowadays!

In the article, it was stated that interactive elements, such as texts, videos, and graphics are being incorporated in children's learning materials and such materials are now being made accessible through iPad, as well as other technological devices. 

Moreover, by collaborating technological devices such as iPad and iPhone into delivering interactive educational materials to children, the article also highlighted that such learning environment acts as catalyst that supports children's growing and learning stage because it provides them with the opportunities to explore, learn and play by themselves (Deiner 2010).

Clearly, children's learning environment has undergo a drastic change, which what professionals and researches label such developments as genre change. According to the Genre Theory, the collaboration and synergy between genres and media is one of the main factors that support such changes in genres (Chandler 2000).

Hence, it explains why children's learning materials are now filled with multimodalities, whereby different modes of delivery are being synchronized simultaneously in delivering messages (Walsh 2006). An example of such digitized children's magazine is Zamoof!. Targeted towards children from 7 to 13 years old, Zamoof! is filled with 76 colored puzzles, quizzes, and other interactive elements which promises fun learning to its readers (Magazine Group n.d.).

(Image source: Magazine Group n.d.)

Additionally, children are also able to have access to such learning materials at their own conveniences. Hence, it also further enhances the usability of the learning materials. As explained by Jakob Nielsen's Theory of Usability, document designs which support users' usability will help in engaging its users' interest because it simplifies things for the users (Ilner 2004).

With that, it explains why such new learning materials are so popular among children nowadays. Well, it's time for us to say "Hi" to the all new learning environment! 

References

Chandler, D 2000, An Introduction to Genre Theory, viewed 11^th June 2011, <http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html>.

Deiner, PL 2010, Inclusive Early Childhood Education: Development, Resources, and Practice, 5^th edn., viewed 11^th June 2011, <http://books.google.com.my/books?id=nr9wQx_bv2kC&pg=PA265&lpg=PA265&dq=does+digitized+children+magazines+encourages+learning&source=bl&ots=P_3tHGyKGA&sig=bYkuSCImTJnw70IBwEeSdp68GZ0&hl=en&ei=6PfyTbzPG8TTrQe-zNDzBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false>.

Ilner, S 2004, Can usability theory by Jakon Nielsen be applied to online entertainment design or do better alternatives exist?, viewed 11^th June 2011, <http://www.refracted.co.uk/StephThesis.pdf>.

Magazine Group n.d., Zamoof! Kid’s education and entertainment magazine, viewed 11^th June 2011, <http://magazinegroupdigital.zinio.com/browse/publications/index.jsp;jsessionid=430529AE111FA4172B7F48CDDAF19420.ns101-e02?prnt=cat1960018&productId=500246744&categoryId=cat1960076>.

Pbs.org 2011, Children’s Magazines Cater to True Early Adopters with Mobile Apps, viewed 11^th June 2011, <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/05/childrens-magazines-cater-to-true-early-adopters-with-mobile-apps137.html>.

Walsh, M 2006, 'The '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.

More than Just a New Media Ecosystem

Whenever I come across worth to-be-shared music videos, I will always share it with my friends and families by posting a link of it on my Facebook account. Undeniably, social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter have relatively made sharing easier, doesn't it?

As explained by Hobson (2005), the emergence of new media has created the 'new water cooler' for the community to interact with each other at anytime and anywhere. Thus, creating an ecosystem for new communities in the digital world (Aids.gov n.d.).

 

(Image source: Blogworld.com 2010)

Apparently, the emergence of such media ecosystem also forms a new platform for the public to voice out their political opinions. On 28th February 2011, TechCentral (2011) released an article, 'Social media, cellphone video fuel Arab protests', which reported on how social media played an essential role in supporting the anti-government protests in Cairo, Egypt.

In the article, it was stated that protesters were using their cellphones to document the demonstrations (via images and videos) against their rulers and such documented materials were posted on social networking sites. Additionally, recorded videos of the rally were even aired on Al-Jazeera.

Moreover, images and recorded videos showing security forces using harsh treatments towards the protesters even earned international disapproval and critics over the government's ruling. Wael Ghonim, the Google executive and cyberactivist who was the leader of the rally commented that without the existence of the new media, the rally would not even be so successful. 

With that, existence of social media has created a new public sphere among the political community. As defined by The World Bank (n.d.), public sphere is defined as a platform for the community to come together freely to discuss and to identify the current societal problems. 

Jurgen Habermas, who is an expert in the study of public sphere, explains through his Deliberative Democracy Theory that through the existence of public sphere, it encourages active participation among citizens in the political arena (Kellner n.d.). And with the existence of internet, media plays a crucial role in the development of such public sphere (Thornton n.d.).

Moreover, Habermas stresses that such public sphere also encourages the formulation of public opinions; hence, enabling actors outside the public sphere to play their roles in the distribution of political powers (Schulz 1997).

With the help of social media, public are able to be more open in voicing out their political opinions. With that, it enables the government to be more alert towards its publics' voices because negligence of such situation could be severe. Hence, emergence of social media has added a new vocabulary of democracy for us, which is 'cyberdemocracy' (Thompson 1995). 

References

Aids.gov n.d., What is New Media, viewed 10^th June 2011, <http://aids.gov/using-new-media/basics/what-is-new-media/>.

Hobson, N 2005, The New Media Ecosystem: Conversations, Influence, and You, viewed 10^th June 2011, <http://www.nevillehobson.com/pubfiles/downloads/051020_NewMedia_FEIEA.pdf>.

Kellner, D n.d., Habermas, the Public Sphere, and Democracy: A Critical Intervention, viewed 11^th June 2011, <http://www.davidtinapple.com/comaff/Habermas_Public_Sphere_Democracy.pdf>.

Schulz, W 1997, Changes of Mass Media and The Public Sphere, viewed 11^th June 2011, <http://www.javnost-thepublic.org/media/datoteke/schulz-2-1997--4.pdf>.

TechCentral 2011, Social media, cellphone video fuel Arab protests, viewed 10^th June 2011, <http://techcentral.my/news/story.aspx?file=/2011/2/28/it_news/20110228100840&sec=it_news>.

The World Bank n.d., The Public Sphere, viewed 10^th June 2011, <http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTGOVACC/Resources/PubSphereweb.pdf>.

Thompson, JB 1995, The theory of the public sphere: a preliminary assessment, Polity Press, Cambridge.

Thornton, A n.d., Does internet create democracy?, viewed 11^th June 2011, <http://www.zipworld.com.au/~athornto/thesis2.htm>.

Thinking of Doing the "Magic of Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V"? Well, Think Again!

Apart from juggling between assignments' datelines, another issue that always concerns me is the issue of plagiarism. Plagiarism has been taken seriously by most education providers because as explained by University of Birmingham (n.d.), plagiarism is unethical because it constitutes as a form of misconduct.

With the free access to 'digitized information', it is hard to prevent plagiarism from being escalated further (Smith 2008). At such, Walden (cited by Pecorari 2008) mentioned that such situation has alarmed education providers to be sterner in preventing plagiarism. Hence, plagiarism detecting software such as Turnitin has been widely used in the education field.

 (Image source: Turnitin 2011)

Surprisingly, plagiarism is also being highly stressed by professionals in the publishing field. On 2nd March 2011, BBC Magazine (2011) has released an article, 'Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom', which reported that the German defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has resigned from his position as he was found plagiarizing his doctoral thesis. Moreover, the article also highlighted that the London School of Economics is currently investigating Saif al-Islam's (son of Colonel Gaddafi) PhD thesis for plagiarism offense.

Apparently, even newspaper outlets practice unethical publishing. In one of Media Watch (2010)'s episodes, it was reported that The Australian has been found plagiarizing one of ABC News' news article. Such plagiarism act has caused The Australian to release a public apology and the in-charged copy editor has been reprimanded. 

Principles of Ethical Publishing in the International Journal of Cardiology have clearly outlined 7 principles in guiding publishers to practice the act of ethical publishing (Coats 2009). Generally, all of the policies prohibit publishers to use other authors' materials (even self materials from prior work) without using proper citation and consent.

Additionally, in the 36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conferences, it was argued that one of the causes that lead to more plagiarism cases is because of the differences of how each culture within a community define what plagiarism really is (Gotterban, Miller and Impagliazzo 2006).

With that in mind, Gotterban, Miller and Impagliazzo (2006) added that as compared to the implementation of ethical publishing principles, the existence of strong bodies or organizations that is against the practices of plagiarism through the implementation of legal laws and actions would be a better choice to curb plagiarism.

Well, I have to agree with that because through the existence of such said organizations, at least publishers will have to rethink again when they would want to put the "magic of Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V" into practice.

References

BBC Magazine 2011, Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom, viewed 9^th June 2011, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12613617>.

Coats, AJS 2006, ‘Ethical authorship and publishing’, International Journal of Cardiology, vol. 131, no. 2, pp. 149-150.

Media Watch 2010, Copy-Cat Copy-Editor, viewed 9^th June 2011, <http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2901878.htm>.

Pecorari, D 2008, Academic Writing and Plagiarism: A Linguistic Analysis, viewed 8^th June 2011, <http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=404953&sectioncode=26>.

Smith, WS 2008, Plagiarism, the Internet, and Student Learning: Improving Academic Integrity, Routledge, New York.

University of Birmingham n.d., Guidance Notes on Plagiarism, viewed 9^th June 2011, <http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/internal/students/plagiarism.htm>.

When Being "Funny" Isn't "Funny" At All

Sometimes, certain people may have different understanding or interpretations about the meaning of an image although they are basically looking at the same image. Well, it happened to me a few times. 

As explained by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), visual communications can be understood differently within a community because of the differences in ‘social semiotics’ that each individuals in a particular community has. Hence, it explains the reasons why we might have different interpretations towards an image.

Moreover, Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) also added that the placement of visuals can only be understood if it is placed within a given context, which he referred it as ‘the semiotic landscape’, because contexts play a role in shaping our interpretations of what we see (Berger 2008).

On 14^th March 2011, The Star (2011) published an article, ‘Berita Harian issues public apology over tsunami cartoon’, which reflects on the importance of considering the situational context in constructing images for publications. In the article, it was mentioned that Berita Harian has issued a public apology over the publication of its cartoon strip, which illustrates the tsunami and earthquake disaster that hit Japan (refer to image below).

(Image source: Myvisitingcard.com 2011)

It was also noted that the cartoon strip were ‘distasteful’ and ‘insensitive’. Personally, I feel that the cartoon strip is really insensitive towards Japan's situational context because it somehow portrays the meaning of how helpless Japan is in handling their current disaster, whereby even a superhero, "Ultraman" needs to run away from being hit by the tsunami.

Schirato and Yell (2000) explained that audiences interpret the context of a text based on the aspects of the situations, which include:

• what is going on, and where
• those involved
• the role of the text in the situation
• the other texts which are related to the current text
• the wider social and cultural context

Hence, document designer will not be able to have the full control over the meaning that he/she is trying to communicate to its audiences because such meanings are subjective from one audience to another audience.

Perhaps, the main purpose of the cartoon strip published by Berita Harian was merely for "entertainment" purposes. However, considering the situational context of the images when it was being published, it have caused much unexpected controversies for the newspaper outlet. With that, document designers should always consider the situational context of an image before publishing it to ensure that the image is appropriate and ethical to be published.

References

Berger, J 2006, In no other form of society in history has there been such a...density of visual images, viewed 7th June 2011, <http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MC10220/visper06.html>.

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2nd edn., Routledge, London.

Schirato, T & Yell, S 2000, Communication and culture: an introduction, viewed 7th June 2011, <http://books.google.com/books?id=x0eCjzs0bhwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false>.

The Star 2011, Berita Harian issues public apology over tsunami cartoon, viewed 7th June 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/14/nation/8262608&sec=nation>.

Today's Forms of Media Publishing

Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) pointed out that communication modes have shifted from the "old literacy" to the "new literacy". Hence, our current learning environment are filled with multimodal texts, which incorporates a collective of modes, such as usages of images and sounds in delivering messages (Walsh 2006). 

Such changes of communication modes also exist in the field of media publishing. The existence of Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, as well as online news portals have altered the roles of the traditional media by creating a new trend for media publishing. As explained by Naughton (2006), such new media ecosystem exists due to digital convergence, personal computing and global networking.

For a better understanding, consider Twitter as an example. With the existence of Twitter, it changes the environment of news reporting as most newspaper outlets, such as The Star  and Berita Harian are using Twitter to inform the public about the latest local news headlines and updates.

(Image source : Twitter 2011)

Moreover, in a larger scale, Cashmore (2009) mentioned that Twitter is also proven to be very efficient in disseminating globally-significant news, such as the Japan's tsunami and earthquake crisis. Besides than The Star, CNN also uses its Twitter account to provide constant updates on the Japan's crisis to the public. According to CNN (2011), the Japan's crisis has contributed to a total of 314 tweets in their two Twitter accounts. Furthermore, it was also mentioned that posts concerning the coverage on the Japan's crisis were also being re-tweeted at 198% more than the total of the re-tweeted tweets for the Egyptian's crisis coverage.

At such, it clearly proves that the existence of Twitter has altered the communication pathway in the media ecosystem, specifically in news reporting, whereby news can be disseminated even faster and more efficient as compared to the traditional media.

References

Cashmore, P 2009, Michael Jackson Dies: Twitter Tributes Now 30% of Tweets, viewed 28^th April 2011, <http://mashable.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-twitter/>.

CNN 2011, CNN.com sets global records for Japan coverage, viewed 4th May 2011, <http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/04/cnn-com-sets-global-records-for-japan-coverage/>.

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2nd edn., Routledge, London.

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, viewed 28^th April 2011, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>.

Walsh, M 2006, 'The '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.

The Blogging Communities

Blogs also creates another dimension for the society through the creation of blogging communities, which can be defined as a platform for individuals that share similar interests to connect and exchange ideas through the usage of blogs (Owyang 2007).

A blogging community can be created by including comment tabs, integrating RSS-feeds, listing blogs in directories, as well as including blog tags (Kinkeldei 2007). Additionally, interactive elements such as weekly polls and quizzes can also help in creating a blogging community (Rowse 2009). 

According to White (2006), there are three types of blogging communities; One Blog Centric Community, Topic Centric Community and Boundaried Community. In the interest of Boundaried Community, this blogging community includes a collection of blogs and blog readers within a particular site (White 2006) (refer to image below).

(Image source : White 2006)

An example of such blogging community is Share Your Story, which is a site for parents with prematurely born babies and babies that are under the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to share their experiences and supports among each others (Share Your Story 2011).

(Image source : Share Your Story 2011)

The blogs actually acts as a whole ecosystem for the members as internal communication pathways, such as community chats and live chats are available for the members to communicate among themselves. 

Additionally, the site also incorporates a discussion board, which is known as the "Parent to Parent" section. Furthermore, as the community members are within a defined boundary, they are also able to have free access to other members' blogs. Hence, RSS-feeds are being less emphasized within this community.

Share Your Story also exercised power of control of the site by imposing several rules and regulations, as well as guidelines in posting among the community members. As for the community members, they have the power to monitor the comments that are being posted on their blogs, as well as the power to decide their preferred posting habits.

References

Kinkeldei, B 2007, Whitepaper Blog Communities: Forging Connections and Promoting Growth Through Blog Communities, viewed 26^th April 2011, <http://www.21publish.com/pub/21publish/blogging-whitepaper.pdf>. 

Owyang, J 2007, Defining the term: Online Community”, viewed 26^th April 2011, <http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/12/28/defining-the-term-community/>.

Rowse, D 2009, 8 Tips for Building Community on Your Blog, viewed 26^th April 2011, <http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/02/28/8-tips-for-building-community-on-your-blog/>. 

Share Your Story 2011, About Share Your Story…, viewed 26^th April 2011, <http://www.shareyourstory.org/webx/Share%20Home/about.html>.

White, N 2006, Blogs and Community, viewed 26^th April 2011, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>.