Reflections

After blogged 9 postings regarding issue in publication and design, I have learned skill of research, critical reading and thinking, analyzing an issue from varied angle, as well as giving personal opinion with supported credible source of an issue.

Main theories that has been applied in all post such as:
· Good principles and elements of design in technical writing
· Audience, purpose, and cultural context
· Ethical in publishing and photojournalism
· Reading images

As a blogger, I follow code of blogging ethics suggested by Martin Kuhn (cited in Burkholder, C 2009) such as promote interactivity, promote free expression (by encouraging comments from readers), strive for factual truth, be as transparent and accountable as possible (by citing and link all sources referenced in each post), promote human element in blogging (by linking to other blogs and responding to comments regularly).

As suggested by Reep, DC (2006, p 181) I include elements below in my blog:
· Purpose of the blogs,
· Adjust the content for my target audience,
· Provide links,
· Follow website writing style (short paragraphs for easy reading),
· Provide graphics for illustration and salience purposes, and
· Provide links to assist reader’s needs.

Last but not least, this assessment has opened my eye of wider world of modern publishing and social networking together with its advance development and controversy. And I find it really interesting and useful for my future life and career.

References:

Burkholder, C 2009, Citizen Journalism: Blogging, viewed 13th June 2009, http://www.journalismethics.ca/citizen_journalism/blogging.htm.

Reep, DC 2006, Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Readings 6th ed ., Pearson Education, New York.

Power of Photographs and Ethics in Photojournalism

It’s seemed that photo has made a controversy again. April 30th, 2009, AC published news entitled ‘Nikki Catsouras Car Crash Photos and the Dark Side of Humanity on the Web’. The grisly photos of the accident have been distributed through internet even sent to Nikki’s father through email as a joke.

According to Walsh (2006, p. 29), interpreting images is unlike decoding words, it has different effects, image particularly has aesthetic and imaginative level. Aesthetic and imaginative level is differ from one person to another, as for some people the grisly picture is such a joke, but for Nikki’s father of course it would never been a joke.

Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006, p.19) argued, visual express meanings belonging to and structured by cultures in particular society ‘subjectively’ and ‘objectively’. Additionally they explained that images have and need both angles of vision to achieve perspective, and spatial dispositions of elements to achieve meanings of syntactic relations, unlike language.

When the news stated that ‘Nikki Catsouras was killed in a horrible car crash …,’ we can imagine what has happened, but not so much impact. See the picture below or open the link to ‘More pictures of Nikki’s accident’ (warning: some pictures might be very disturbing), and you can feel the different impact.

I think some picture not meant to be public consumption, there is certain rules and ethics that guide the usage of photo in media.

Ethics of Photojournalism

According to Carolynne Burkholder (2009) today, the ethics of photojournalism goes far beyond the ethics of newspaper photo, differ with the straightforward role of old photojournalism. Furthermore Burkholder listed 3 main issue in photojournalism such as manipulation of digital images, intrusion into privacy, and graphic or shocking images.

Based on Baradell and Stack (2008), altering and staging photographs such as retouching, recreate news evens for the photos, and removing or adding object, is unethical. I personally agree with this statement as with the advance technology we have today, manipulate picture is always possible, and manipulation means ‘telling no truth’.

Second is issue with privacy, this issue is related to citizen journalism and paparazzi role. This is a major issue that cannot be restrict fully, again due to technology, anywhere and anytime people can just took any pictures only with cell phone without permission.

Third, in case of shocking images, Society for Professionals in Journalism listed some sample of guidelines regarding dead body picture as below:

• St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch – Avoid use of photos of dead bodies (especially local) unless covered. Of course, there will be exceptions that must be cleared with the managing editor.

In conclusion, picture has power to create big impact (positive and negative). This is why there are some ethics restricted in using of pictures in media in order to encourage the original role of picture in media and eliminate misleading or offending.

References:

Baradell, S & Stack, AD 2008, Photojournalism, technology and ethics: what’s right and wrong today?, viewed 13th June 2009, Black Star Publishing Co., Inc, http://rising.blackstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/photoethics.pdf.

Burkholder, C 2009, Online Journalism Ethics: Photojournalism, viewed 13th June 2009, http://www.journalismethics.ca/online_journalism_ethics/photojournalism.htm.

Engel, H 2009, Nikki Catsouras Car Crash Photos and the Dark Side of Humanity on the Web, viewed 13th June 2009, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1700423/nikki_catsouras_car_crash_photos_and.html?cat=14.

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

Society for Professional in Journalism 2006, Photojournalism Ethics Guidelines, viewed 13th June 2009, http://www.concernedjournalists.org/photojournalism-ethics-guidelines.

Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual shift: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', in Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1.

Controversy of New Facebook

On September 11th, 2009, ABC News site published a news, ‘Facebook makeover leaves some devotes fuming’, regarding the launch of new-look Facebook which followed by 100 million users fuming. According to The California firm, the new site has faster, more streamline and spam-resistant format. Confirmation from Facebook developer (2008) said that the new design enables Facebook members use tabs to give priority to up-to-date pictures, messages, or ‘feeds’. New Facebook, which is motivated by users feedback, still preserved the old Facebook application, like ‘walls’ and ‘graffiti’, and make pages livelier, better organized, and give people more control over software application they want to install. However, many users feel unsatisfied with the sudden changes and opines that the changes are horrible through ‘Who hates the new Facebook format’ forum.

New Facebook vs Old Facebook

According to Smashing magazine (2008), the element determines the success of failure of a web-site is usability. Both versions of Facebook have usability, proper navigation, interactivity, fresh (showing updates), and salience in their design. Here is some changes happened in Facebook:
First, new Facebook has used tabs generally to shorten the length of page and information overload. I-Com Solution.com (2009) stated that one of element of good website design is shorter page as viewers love to click rather than scroll.

Second, new Facebook reduce the freedom to rearrange the placement of your profile page. This is considered a flaw because research on users by Smashing magazine (2008) said that users want to have control, and Facebook just reduce the power of user control through the new version.

Third, there is addition of bookmarks section. This is a good development as it improves navigation function.

(Source: http://www.cdiabu.com/blog/post/rules-for-website-redesign.php)

Next, Previous Facebok had given a free opportunity for all users to customize their own profile page, they can rearrange the placement of any feature that they want to have in their page. But suddenly, when the new design of Facebook has been applied fully, users find out that thy own page has been changed and rearrange without asking their approval. Moreover, after so long the user played facebook daily and get used to the old placement and navigation, the new layout and arrangement makes things look complicated because the user has not enough time to adapt and have to get used to it all over again. I think these are the main reasons why so many people complain about the new changes, in other word, it is an issue or familiarity.

However changes will always has its pros and cons, especially in internet world with its huge range of international audience who share different personal values, culture and background. Diana Reep (2006, p. 55) suggested for author who has international audience should research specific communication customs and expectation of the audience. But of course author can’t please each audience expectation due to the various culture and background.

Related article and link:
• Geekadelphia Rants: Top 5 Reasons Why New Facebook is Better
• ‘Who hates the new Facebook’ forum

References:

AFP 2008, Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming, viewed 12th June 2009, http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html.

Reep, DC 2006, Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Readings 6th ed ., Pearson Education, New York.

Smashing Editorial 2008, 10 Principles of Effective Web Design, viewed 12th June 2009, http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/31/10-principles-of-effective-web-design/.

Wachtel, J 2009, Elements of Good Website Design, icomsolutions.com, viewed 12th June 2009, http://www.icomsolutions.com/elements.htm.

Ethical Image in Publishing and Cultural Context in Print Media

There was an ethical publishing issue occurred in Indonesia, last year. According to article in ABC News titled ‘Indonesian weekly apologizes over Last Supper Suharto cover’, Tempo chief editor, Toriq Hadad, was apologizing on their ‘unintended’ mistake which offends Christian community. The cover of Soeharto sits on Jesus position, followed by his children sit on the Jesus’ disciples position was inspired by composition of Leonardo DaVinci’s painting, and not in the context of the last supper event told in the bible.

(Source: http://www.daylife.com/photo/0eFc8M781o4C1)

According to Reep (2006, p.38) ethics is a broad terms which refer to vary principles based on someone’s culture, religion, and personal value. In this case, Toriq Hadad (Muslim) see Leonardo’s last supper only as a piece of famous art, with Jesus inside the picture as a significant leader for his disciples. Then he connected Soeharto, who is a significant leader as President of Republik Indonesia for 32 years, with the role of Jesus.

However, Indonesia is a country that adopted freedom in following any of 5 determined religion, including Christian. Seeing this cover, audience who has different religion (Christian) and personal value with Toriq Hadad, perceived the cover differently as Jesus is not only a significant leader to them, but also as God’s only son who died for them after he had his last supper with His disciples. Last supper itself is a meaningful significant event that is celebrated by Christian every year. Of course Christian community opines that the cover is unethical when Tempo made Soeharto, who has bad reputation because of corruption, as if he equal to Jesus, the God’s only son.

This is proving Reep’s argument that someone who shares different personal value (culture and religion) will define term of ‘ethic’ differently.

I think media can try their best to hold the list of publishing ethics (e.g. to be unbiased; tell the truth), but in term of social ethics (e.g. to minimize harm), there will still be controversy to certain images or writing as the author and the audience interprets differently according their own history, culture, and background.

From the audience side, Schriver (1997, p.367) argued, when readers use available sign they don’t arrive at ‘the meaning’ but rather to guess for the most appropriate meaning to the situation.

In the other hand, the author also has to adjust the content of the piece and put consideration on the potential audience’s demographic and psychographic background. Deni Elliott and Paul Martin Lester (2002) affirmed that visual message has great emotional power, and to deal with ethical aspects of visual presentations, the author has to have reason in using such picture as well as reflect whether the image is likely to cause harm.

In conclusion, issue of image ethics publishing can only be reduced with consideration from both author and audience, although the author role here is bigger as he/she is the one who determine the content of media.

Related link:

• Journalism Code of Ethics
  

References:

AFP 2008, Indonesian weekly apologizes over Last Supper Suharto cover, ABC News, viewed 5th June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm.

Elliot, D & Lester, PM 2002, Visual Communication and an Ethic for Images, viewed 12th June 2009, http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/imageethic.html.

Reep, DC 2006, Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Readings 6th ed ., Pearson Education, New York.

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

Webisodes: New Genre of Entertainment

In an article titled ‘Webisodes for kids’ from abc.net.au, Antony Funnel was interviewing Chris Corbett, the producer of webisodes ‘TinyTown’. According to Corbett, a series of movie length between 4 or 5 minutes is ideal for series in the web or webisodes.

Corbett opines that everything in webisodes should be concise and have momentum to it because the chance of losing audience interest in the web is bigger compared to television audience. This argument is supported by Kung et al. (2008, p.82) who stated that compared to traditional media; internet has improved accessibility and unbundling content, which impact to the increase user choice, but at the same time makes users more dependent on their own information skill.

Webisodes is appealing to its audiences because of its interactivity, story quality, flexibility, and serialization.

Webisodes allows its audience to interact through comments box, and ratings. Based on Peter Putnis and Roslyn Petelin (1996), writing (comment) is audience’s immediate reaction to what’s been consumed because the author is usually not present when the work is viewed. Immediate feedback from audience through comments gives opportunity to increase and enrich the show’s quality. This is also one of the reasons that webisodes story quality is better, which is attract more audience to watch it.

Other reasons is as Corbett says earlier, webisodes can’t afford too much unimportant scene in order not to loose their audience, so it is more concise and to the point. Moreover, this ‘full-meaty’ show is suitable for busy people who look for entertainment in the middle of their hustle bustle.

Furthermore, webisodes is flexible to be enjoyed anytime and anywhere (wherever internet connection is available). Audience can retrieve any episodes of the show in case the audience failed to catch the premier time and re-watch their favorite episodes.

Next is serialization that ties webisodes’ audience loyalty. Serialization creates curiousness which entices audience to the whole shows and demand for more episodes when the storyline is getting interested.

Webisodes effect on mainstream media

The positive effect of webisode is to complement TV shows. As Kung et al. (2008, p. 81) described, internet increases the availability and accessibility of traditional content, content that is distributed via old media, example webisodes that are a converted from TV series such as Simple Life 3, Heroes, Ghost Whisper, and Lost.

Figure 1. Examples of Webisodes

Other positive effect is it supports low-budget production industry. According to Chris Albrecht (2007), the cost can be as low as $500 per episode.

Now on the negative side, Corbett already saw a phenomenon of changes in children attention from television to computer, specifically shows in YouTube, nowadays. I think it not only applied to children but also audience, generally. Webisodes will encourage people watch online more than television, which will affected TV commercial industry, as Kung et al (2008, p. 159) quoted Hare,E who said ‘YouTube looked like the end of commercial TV’.

However webisodes is a new genre which global audiences are trying to adapt to. It might bring total new form of media, or maybe just a complementary of previous media.

Related article and links:
- Webisodes for kids
- TheWebisodes.com
- Webisodes on NBC.com

References:

Albrecht, C 2007, What does it cost to make a webisode?, viewed 11th June 2009, http://newteevee.com/2007/11/28/what-does-it-cost-to-make-a-webisode/.

Kung, L ,Picard, RG & Towse,R 2008, The interner and mass media, SAGE Publication Ltd, Los Angeles.

Putnis, P & Petelyn, R 1996, Professional Communication: principles & application, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

The Media Report 2007, Webisodes for kids, viewed 5th June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2124198.htm.

It's an Era of Twitter!

A new free social networking and micro-blogging service, Twitter, has been recorder to have a growth by 76.8% from February 09 until March 09, with monthly visit rate 6.99% up to 134,536,240 and yearly growth rate at 1,382% (mashable.com 2009). Is it a new trend? Absolutely, yes it is.

Twitter is not only about social networking where people keep updating their friends about their life. It is also a medium where information and latest news is spread to all over the world between seconds (sometimes even before other media actually notices there is such news). It is very impressing to see how fast an info being evolved and commented. And thanks to the advanced technology, people able to tweet everywhere, even in space (e.g. Michael J. Massimino).

Figure 1. Example of twitter page (Source:http://twitter.com/home)

So, how famous is twitter? Guardian.co.uk (Jan 2009), Twitter Fan Wiki (June 2009), and celebritytweet (2009) listed hundreds of prominence people – celebrity, politicians, government officials, popular bloggers, corporation, news agency, musician – all over the world who are actively tweeting everyday, including Asthon Kutcher, the first person who has 1 million followers on April 16th, 2009, and today (June 10th) the actor has over than 2 million followers!

Realizing this phenomenon, twitter is being a proposed as a subject to be included in primary school curriculum in England, together with blogging, Wikipedia, and podcasts (guardian.co.uk 2009).

Related articles and links:
• Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools shake-up
• Tweeting the terror: How social media reacted to Mumbai
• Hubble astronaut send first ever Twitter message from space to say he is ‘enjoying the view’
• Tila Tequila is Dead – Murder Announced Via Twitter (Photos)

• Surgeons send 'tweets' from operating room
• Ashton Kutcher hits 2 million followers on twitter
• Celebrities on twitter
• Twitter Fan Wiki
• Celebrity Tweet

Here are some Malaysian prominence twitter accounts: Najib Razak, Tony Pua, Lim Kit Siang, Tony Fernandes, The Star, DAP Malaysia.

References:

Curtis, P 2009, Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools shake-up, guardian.co.uk, viewed 7th June 2009, http://aa.mc582.mail.yahoo.com/mc/welcome?.gx=0&.rand=4dhcnc5a4r7ip.

Schroeder, S 2009, The Web in Numbers: The Rise of Social Media, mashable.com, viewed 9th June 2009, http://mashable.com/2009/04/17/web-in-numbers-social-media/.

Schroeder, S 2009, The Web in Numbers: Twitter Phenomenal Growth Suddenly Stops, mashable.com, viewed 9th June 2009, http://mashable.com/2009/06/09/web-in-numbers-may/.

Taxonomy of Blogs and Blogging Community

First, Margaret Simons, a writer of Understanding the Media in Australia, tries to classified blogs with terminology adapted from past printing press classification. The classification is as below:

•Pamphleteering blogs, digest blog, advocacy blog, the popular mechanics, the exhibition, the gatewatcher blog, the diary, the advertisement, and the news blog.

Then the second one, Wikipedia, site compilation of many source, divided blogs into personal and corporate blogs with further classification as below:

• By genre - political, travel, fashion, education, niche, music, spam, family.
• By media type – videos, links, sketches, photo.
• By device – mobile device (mobile phone, PDA).

I personally think that the first classification by Margaret is the most effective. It is classified based on the specific function of the blogs overall and from point of view of the blogger. Means that the blogger decide what type of blog that he/she wants his/her blog is perceived as.

Meanwhile, Wikipedia divides its classification through three categories that a blog can be classified as more than one classification depends on the category. Example: a personal mobile photo fashion blog.

Blogging Community

According to Nancy White (2006), there are three main patterns in blogging community. One of those is topic centric community. It is a community network formation starts between linked blog with common passion or topic. And technology through tools able to keep this community alive and even bigger by shared tag, key word, mark post, discussion board, and comment section.



Example: see illustration below shows the network formation between three culinary blogs which each of them have many links to other related culinary blogs, start from high-class food art until homemade food blog.



Last but not least, seeing those facts, I strongly agree with Nancy’s opinion that said, “Community is alive and well in the blogosphere.”

Reference:

Simons, M 2008, Towards a taxonomy of blogs, viewed 7th June 2009, http://www.creative.org.au/webboard/results.chtml?filename_num=229836.

White, N 2006, Blogs and Community –launching a new paradigm for online community? viewed 7th June 2009, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community.

Wikipedia.org 2009, Blog, viewed 8th June 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog.