Last words...

I was not a foreigner to blogs when I started blogging for my Issues in Publishing and Design assignment but I sure learned a lot from it.

Maintaining a personal blog was one thing but maintaining an academic blog was another thing altogether. I had to make sure all my capitalizations and punctuation was right, I had to refrain from using hyperbole, slang or getting too opinionated when posting on an issue. I had to cite and harvard reference my sources, make sure I had credible research before making a statement or making a conclusion.

I also learned many theories through readings provided by Miss Jenny, our lecturer and how to apply them, among them the importance of composition (Salience, framing and layouts) to help enhance readability. (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006) and how images and pictures can be used to enhance the message you are trying to send. (Schriver 1997) Besides that, how different affordances can be capitalized to increase effectiveness, for example combining audio and visual elements. (Walsh 2006)

With this new knowledge, I hope to have a bright future in the Mass Communications field.

References:

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006, 'Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual', Routledge, London.

Schriver, KA 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures’, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York, pp. 361-441.

Walsh. M. 2006, “‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 29, No. 1, p.24-37

Electronic books: Whats driving their popularity?

According to Mc Quivey, Mulligan and Corbett (2010) of Forrester Research, the digital book market almost surpassed 1 billion dollars this year and is set to surpass 3 billion by 2015. The launch of electronic devices such as the new Apple iPad and the Samsung E6 book reader will further fuel this market making the e-book’s proliferation into the mainstream market even more successful. The popularity of digital books has led to the Times announcing that it will start publishing a e-book fiction and non-fiction best seller list starting next year. (Albanesius 2010)

iPad book reader. Click image for source.

In an interview regarding the steady rise in digital books, Deborah Cornwall (2010) states that although digital books only makeup 6 – 7 percent of the market in US and Britain, most are made between the first 24 hours of a book’s release, this is attributed to the easiness in purchasing books electronically. With just a swipe of a finger, users can now download books titles straight to the device. Another subject Cornwall touched upon in her interview was the convenience of digital libraries that allow you to upload PDF files into your e-book reader immediately and automatically erases itself from the memory when the borrowing time is up.

Books, unlike music and movies have not faced a paradigm shift for hundreds of years. Sony’s digital reading head Steve Haber predicted e-books to be the dominant form of reading within five years. (The Electronista 2010) Three years ago, Steve Haber estimated that it would take 10 years of electronic books to exceed print books, but he now believes that it would only take half the time as digital text has already passed a point of mainstream acceptance. A research by Springer (2010) encompassing 882 respondents at the University of Illinois found that a majority of users use e-books for research and study leaving leisure to play a secondary role. However this may be limited to educational institutions only, Cornwall (2010) states that the majority of e-book readers are middle aged women who read for pleasure.

New technologies and the upcoming gadget savvy generation is only going to contribute to the rising e-book trend. However I still believe we are far off from forgetting books altogether; traditional print books still has its charm and many still prefer the feel of a solid book than one on a handheld electronic device.

References:

Albanesius, C 2010, “New York Times to Launch E-Book Best Seller Lists,” PC Mag, published 11^th November 2010, accessed 13^th Novmber 2010, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372546,00.asp

Cornwall, D 2010, “E-books popularity on the rise,” The 7:30 Report, ABC News, published 18^th March 2010, accessed 14^th November 2010, http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2849989.htm

Electronista 2010, “Sony: e-books more popular than print n five years,” published 3^rd June 2010, accessed 13^th November 2010, http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/06/03/sony.sees.digital.reading.inevitably.taking.over/#ixzz15ElAeV2U

McQuivey, J L Mulligan, M Corbett, A E 2010, “eBook Buying is about to spiral upwards,” Forrester Research, published 5^th November 2010, accessed 13^th November 2010, http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/ebook_buying_is_about_to_spiral_upward/q/id/57664/t/2

Springer, 2008, “The End User Experience,” accessed 14^th November 2008, http://www.springer.com/cda/content/document/cda_downloaddocument/eBooks+-+the+End+User+Experience?SGWID=0-0-45-608298-0

Facebook not so private.

A recent article on ABC News (2010) reports that Facebook has admitted to breaching its privacy policy after an investigation by Wall Street Journal was carried out. Vascellaro (2010) from Wall Street journal states that many of Facebook’s popular application has been transmitting information about the users to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies. She adds that there has been an increase in the number of companies that build detailed databases online and that it is unclear how long the breach has been going on.

In July of this year, Ron Bowes a researcher from Skull Security gathered the personal details of almost a third of all users of Facebook and compiled it in a file which was uploaded to The Pirate Bay where it recorded over ten thousand downloads. (Oswald 2010) Bowes stated that no hacking was needed as all the information was readily available. The lesson here is that if Bowes could do it, so could thousands of others with malicious intentions.

Joy of Tech. Click on image for source.

According to Zheng (2010), personal information has evolved into a valuable commodity for businesses. They use these to learn more about their targeted audience and market the right products to the right individual. While there has long been laws overseas that protect people’s private information like the Data Protection Directive 1995 in the Europe that mandates the use of personal data collected to be restricted to the minimum amount necessary to provide a service. (Duncan 2010) In Malaysia, a law was only established in April this year.

The Star (2010) reports that the Parliament passed the Personal Data Protection Bill 2009 that protected sensitive personal data such as a person’s health information, physical attributes, mental status and religion. According to Zheng (2010), private database collection agencies and credit reference agencies will have to comply with the Act and be monitored. If convicted under the Act, a person found to abuse this personal data faces imprisonment up to two years or a fine up to RM200,000.

Even with this law in place, we still have to play our part in protecting our own personal information. It can be done with the click of a mouse, just go to your Facebook privacy settings and set your information to private and tell your friends to do the same.

References:

ABC News, “Facebook admits privacy breach,” published 19^th October 2010, accessed 13^th November 2010, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/19/3042594.htm

Duncan, G 2010, “EU outlining personal data protection rules,” Digital Trends, published 4^th November 2010, accessed 13^th November 2010, http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/eu-outlining-personal-data-protection-rules/

Oswald, E 2010, “Personal data of 170 million Facebook users exposed, collected and shared without any hacking,” Beta News, published 29^th July 2010, accessed 13^th November 2010, http://www.betanews.com/article/Personal-data-of-170-million-Facebook-users-exposed-collected-and-shared-without-any-hacking/1280439164

Vascellaro, J E 2010, “Facebook Grapples with Privacy Issues,” Wall Street Journal, published 19^th May 2010, accessed 13^th November 2010, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704912004575252723109845974.html

Zheng, J 2010, “Malaysia: The Personal Data Protection Bill 2009,” Eternity in an Hour, published 12^th April 2010, accessed 13^th November 2010, http://jamesesz.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/malaysia-the-personal-data-protection-bill-2009/

Politicians on Twitter: A rising trend.

According to an article in the Malaysian Insider by Zahiid (2010), Malaysian politicians like Anwar Ibrahim, Jonson Chong and even our Prime Minister Najib are turning to micro-blogging services such as Twitter to connect with their voters and update them with current events. This trend started first in America with politicians using Twitter to connect them directly with constituents. According to Oliphant (2009), politician John MacCain former republican nominee for president has over 122,000 followers – the most out of any congressman. Micro blogging can be defined as a networking service that allows people to use cell phones or other internet connected devices to stay updated about a chosen person or event through frequently updated short messages. (Kayne 2010) Twitter allows for people to “Subscribe” to certain figures and receive “live” updates from them.

Screenshots of both Najib and Anwar Ibrahim's Twitter pages. Taken at 7:44pm 11th November 2010

One of the reasons for the rise in the micro blogging trend is because of the rising numbers in 3G mobile users; statistics show that there has been a steady rise in 3G subscribers in Malaysia. (Zahiid 2010) Second, Twitter is popular among Smartphone users because of its ability to convey snippets of information at a time, catering to those with short attention spans rather than blogs with lengthy posts. However, according to Sussman (2009), blogs with more than a hundred views a day received on average 83% of their page views through Twitter referrals. Not only that, Twitter allows for direct unfiltered messages from the source rather than for it to go through other channels and be submitted through gatekeepers that select what news is relevant and what is not.

New media such as Twitter has raised people’s expectations of democracy. According to Meyer (2002) new media has the power to of turning the traditional, hierarchical, one-to-many structure of communication into a many-to-many structure. New media introduces a new different uncensored public sphere that is believed to have the potential to cultivate great interest and encourage participation in the political process which will in turn enhance and improve the democratic process. Alternative public spheres provide alternative views for the people to know how and why they’re voting for who they’re voting for. (Barnett 1997)

Reference:

Barnett, S 1997, “New Media, Old Problems: New Technology and the Political Process”, European Journal of Communication, Sage Publications, 12^: 193, accessed 7^th October 2010, http://ejc.sagepub.com/content/12/2/193.full.pdf+html

Kayne, R 2010, “What is Microblogging?” Wise Geek, published 3^rd October 2010, accessed 6^th November 2010, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-microblogging.htm

Meyer, T 2002, “Media Democracy: How the media colonize politics”, Blackwell, Malden.

Oliphant, J 2009, “Politicians using Twitter in growing numbers,” Chicago Tribune, published 5^th March, accessed 6^th November 2010, < color="black">

Sussman, M 2009 , “Day 5: Twitter, Global Impact and the Future Of Blogging - SOTB 2009,” Technorati, published 23^rd October, accessed 6^th November 2010, http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/#ixzz14yDN6OWW

Zahiid, S J 2010, “Blogging is so yesterday, politicians turn to twitter,” The Malaysian Insider, published 11^th February, accessed 6^th November 2010, http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/Blogging-is-so-yesterday-politicians-turn-to-Twitter/

Ethical Blogging

Early this year, a Malaysian man was arrested for making insulting remarks over the passing of the Sultan of Johor, Almutawakkil Al-Allah Sultan Iskandar ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail in his blog. (The Straits Times 2010) The blog post received over a thousand comments, mostly condemning his actions and there were over 30 police reports lodged against the blogger in Johor by both politicians and members of the public.

A mock "Wanted" poster made by a blogger. Click to go to source.

As far as blogging etiquette or even everyday conversation goes, it’s pretty obvious that making baseless crude remarks about anyone is not very ethical. According to Babb (2007), there are ten rules of ethical behaviour in blogging one of which is to not invoke personal attacks. There are many ways to get your opinion out there in a reasonable way; there is no need for name-calling or accusations. Plus, it affects a person’s credibility when he/she comes across as being too opinionated.

New media is capable of reaching millions of people in a very short amount of time. (Meyer 2002) These technologies can make controversial remarks such as the ones made by the blogger insulting the late Sultan very prevalent and evidence can be hard to erase. For example, although the blogger has since removed the post, he has been quoted many times by multiple other bloggers expressing dissatisfaction- many including screenshots of the original blog and even a scan of one of the police reports with every word in the blog post recorded.

Many people are reassured by the facade of anonymity the internet provides not knowing that there are still ways authorities can track you down. (Goldsmith and Wu 2006) There are regulations in Malaysia preventing you from posting unwarranted hate speech such as the Defamation Act 1957, the Sedition Act 1948 and the Internal Securities Act 1960. The golden rule here is to simply not make crude remarks. Sure the freedom of speech entitles you to your opinions but you need actual proof and plausible reason for saying what you say. (Lee 2007)

References:

Babb, J 2007, “Blogging Etiquettes: Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts”, PC Advisor, published 2^nd June, accessed 6^th November 2010, http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsId=9550&pn=1>

Goldsmith, J Wu, T 2006, “Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World”, Oxford, New York

Lee, MK 2007, “Clarifying Freedom of Expression,” Infernal Ramblings, published 18^th May, accessed 6^th November 2010, http://www.infernalramblings.com/articles/Law/398/

Meyer, T 2002, “Media Democracy: How the media colonize politics”, Blackwell, Malden.The Straits Times 2010, “Blogger held over insult,” published 26^th January, accessed 6^th November 2010, http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_482206.html