Thursday, June 12, 2008
Bibliography
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23430768-5014115,00.html
BBC News UK, Wednesday, 7 November 2007, ‘High-tech ways to stay in touch’, viewed in 30 April 2008http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7082566.stm
Bergstein, B 2008, Grandfather builds Web browser for autistic boy, Yahoo news, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/business_of_life;_ylt=AqwovK9eaZFB5QAtXgR1YcQjtBAF
Blokker, B 2008, Fitna the movie: not hyperbole or metaphor, but repetition, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.nrc.nl/international/article1028543.ece/Fitna_the_Movie_not_hyperbole_or_metaphor_but_repetition
Broder, H M 2008, Mission accomplished for Dutch populist: How a film trigger a global panic, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,542255,00.html
Broder, H M 2008, Mission accomplished for Dutch populist: How a film trigger a global panic; Part 2: Dutch premier: We must consider the consequences of our actions, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,542255-2,00.html
Citizen Journalism 2008, Deteksi Word Press, viewed 7 June 2008,
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/images/set1/internews_165935_1%255B204394%255D.jpg&imgrefurl=http://deteksi.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/blog-dan-citizen-journalism/&h=333&w=500&sz=61&hl=id&start=10&tbnid=gIUackbUp-56zM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcitizen%2Bblogging%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Did
Dearnley, J Feather, J 2001, ‘Chapter 1: Theorizing the information society' in The Wired World: an introduction to the theory and practice of the information society, Library Association Publishing, London
Dearnley, J Feather, J 2001, ‘Chapter 2: A new technology for information’ in The Wired World: An introduction to the theory and practice of the information society, Library Association Publishing, London
Guanipa, C 1998, 'Cultural Shock', viewed on 11 June 2008
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/CGuanipa/cultshok.htm
Herring, S C, Scheidt L A, Kouper I, Wright E (ed), 2007, Chapter 1: Longitudinal Content Analysis of Blogs: 2003-2004 in Blogging, Citizenship, and the Future of Media, Routledge, New York, pp. 1-20.
Iskold, A 2007, Who is blogging and Why? Is the blogosphere in the digestion phase?, viewed 30 April 2008. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/blogging_digestion_phase.php
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, London: Routledge.
Nicole, K, March 24 2008, Private zuckerberg and paris Hilton private pict accessed on face book, viewed 5 june 2008.
http://mashable.com/2008/03/24/facebook-photo-security-breach
Nielsen, J 1997, Be Succint!, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, March 15,viewed 29 April 2008<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html> .
The Gospel according to Jakob: A review of “Designing for Web usability” by Jakob Nielsen 2000, uidesign, viewed on 11 June 2008http://www.uidesign.net/2000/books/webusability.html
Slaughter and ‘submission’: Creator of Dutch film vows sequel despite Muslim deaths threats 2008, CBS news, viewed 11 June 2008http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/11/60minutes/main679609.shtml
Ooi, J 2008, Did blogging matter in the general election?, viewed 29 April 2008.http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/blogging/index.html
O'Shaughnessy, M Stadler, J 2002, Media and Society: an introduction, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, pp. 2-18
Putnis, Peter & Petelin, Roslyn 1996, ‘Writing to communicate,’ in Professional communication, Prentice Hall, Sydney.
'Private' photos made public on Facebook',news.com.au, viewed 5 june 2008.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23430768-5014115,00.html
Reddick, R, King, E, 2001, The Online Journalist: Using the internet and other electronic resources, 3rd edn, Harcourt College Publisher, United State of America.
Reep, D C 2006, ‘Chapter 6: Document Design’ in Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies and Readings, 6th edn, Pearson Education
Repp, D, 2006, ‘Chapter 7: Writing for the Web’ in Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Readings, Pearson Education, US.
Sundar, S S, Edwards H H, Hu Y F, Stavrositu C, 2007, Chapter 5: Blogging for better Health: Putting the “Public” Back in Public Health in Blogging, Citizenship, and the Future of the Media, Routledge, New York, pp. 83-102
Tanner, S Philips, G Smyth, C Tapshall 2005, ‘Chapter 17: Technology’ in Journalism Ethics At Work, Pearson Longman publishing, Australia.
Toor, M L, 1998, Graphic Design on the Desktop: A Guide For the Non-designer, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons., Canada.
Usborne, N, 2002, Networds: Creating high-impact online copy, McGraw Hill, New York.
Williams, K 2003, 'Ways of making you think: Theories of Ideology and Meaning', Understanding Media Theory, Arnold, London, pp. 155-164.
Reflection
Maintaining a blog has helped me familiarize with web blogging, any issue regarding web publishing and multimedia, and ethics in publishing. Moreover it has become a great experience in learning to write academic ands reliable articles for online publication.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Fitna the movie: twisted freedom of speech
Does the reaction of this film reflect society’s culture shock toward a sensitive issue document, as referring to Guanipa (1998); culture shock is the feeling of discomfort not knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate. In my opinion, Wilders case should be an invaluable lesson for us to learn, when we produce a document, we have to seriously consider the content and purpose. It is not wrong to produce our own perspective over something, however we must further examine whether it will hurt or irritate any parties. Technology supports the information storage, processing, and dissemination in a simple and common way (Dearnley and Feather, 2001, p. 11), so why not we use it for a good reason and benefit everyone unexceptionally.
Slaughter and ‘submission’: Creator of Dutch film vows sequel despite Muslim deaths threats 2008, CBS news, viewed 11 June 2008
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/11/60minutes/main679609.shtml
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Zac Browser: technology breakthrough for the disabled
The U.S Department of Health and Human Services estimated that 8% of internet users are people with disability which might hinder their full-access to web pages (Reep, 2006, p. 180). One of the forms of disability is autism, which generally affects one’s ability to communicate (Bergstein, 2008). James Ball, an autism-education consultant in New Jersey, said many autism children find chat rooms and instant-messaging causing a lower-anxiety way of socializing compared to engaging in face-to-face communication.
That difficulty is overcome by John LeSieur, the owner of software business in Saint Remi, Quebec, who builds the Zac Browser for Autistic Children (a software programming for autism children) in honour of his 6-year-old grandson. A huge advantage he shares with everyone is free software download.
In designing the program, LeSieur focused at simplifying the experience of using computer for autism children. It presents a hand-picked slate of choices ranges from free public website mainly on educational games, music, and other visually entertaining images. As Nielsen (2000) says navigation buttons should be minimised since you build your web not only for the able but also for the disable (http://www.uidesign.net/2000/books/webusability.html).
This finding is welcomed by Dianne Zager, director of the Center for Teaching and Research in Autism at Pace University (Pennsylvania, Philadelphia). She commented, “LeSieur's approach of limiting distractions and using the software as a confidence-boosting tool is a very good idea.”
How different is the program from the conventionally available?
Autistic children find too many choices is overwhelming so that this program disables keyboard buttons like “Print Screen” and shuts off the mouse’s right button function to eliminate the chance of autistic children lose self confidence after making a counterproductive click. This program provides a bigger-than-normal icon to click, sets the view configuration of no advertisements or other flashing or blinking image, retains users’ self esteem by blocking access to very dark or complicated website.
By the existence of this program, cyber space world should be no longer perceived as horrific for autism children, nonetheless this rare tool can harmonize autism children need of alternative media.
references:
Bergstein, B 2008, Grandfather builds Web browser for autistic boy, Yahoo news, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/business_of_life;_ylt=AqwovK9eaZFB5QAtXgR1YcQjtBAF
Repp, D, 2006, ‘Chapter 7: Writing for the Web’ in Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies, and Readings, Pearson Education, US.
The Gospel according to Jakob: A review of “Designing for Web usability” by Jakob Nielsen 2000, uidesign, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.uidesign.net/2000/books/webusability.html
Monday, June 9, 2008
Recent Loophole of Facebook
In terms of personal safety in the cyberspace, Dearnley and Feather (2001, p. 38) state there is no absolute beneficial or malicious in the internet, what matters are how society embrace the era of paradigm shift and make use of it for a good reason. Therefore, the recent security loophole case of Facebook can better be a lesson for us to learn and be more alert of any of the consequence of uploading something online.
Blog boom among politician
Blog once perceived as a mere alternative or underground media which belongs to certain community. However, time by time it shows its prominence and popularity among the majority of people and politicians, Malaysian politician in particular. The recent result of Malaysian General Election has obviously shown the real advantage of blog as it has educated Malaysian citizen more than ever.
According to Ooi’s observation (2008) there are lots of news and commentaries posted on blogs which could not be found in any mainstream media. Furthermore, he perceived it as the actual breakthrough in bringing the new Malaysia, despite the Government see it as a bitter reality as they have no control over media technology.
Usborne (2003) says today's readers are not a mere reader as they have upgraded their status to be an active audience who practice interactivity and share their knowledge with thousands of other people in reaching out more audience. Whereas Dearnley and Feather (2001, p. 11) state that information society place information as its salient part in their life which is supported by technology in processing and disseminating. Whilst Putnis and Petelin (1996, p. 231) argue that according to the expresssive theories, writing is a mean of self-expression of ones feeling, thought, and idea, which is currently practised by Malaysian. They have modified the function of blog to provide readers with alternative news they searched on internet.
Nonetheless politicians have eventually realized the importance of blog regardless their initial claim of blog as simply an arena for liar writers to post their opinion which embarrass and even humiliate politicians. The blogging phenomenon among politicians can be seen through the growing number of politic blog in malaysia, to mention some are:
- Screen shot by Jeff Ooi
- Anwar Ibrahim by anwar Ibrahim
- Che Det by Mahathir Mohammad
- Ranting by Marina Mahathir
On may 2008, MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) president, Dato’ Seri Sammy Vellu encouraged more parliamentary members to start and set up their blogs to reach out more people especially youngsters and to keep them abreast of any state’s issue.
To sum up, nowadays blogs have finally gained its prominence and recognition among politician, even though initially perceived as a mere "irresponsible" alternative media which allows the posting of embarrassing , misleading, and harsh article.
References:
Dearnley, J Feather, J 2001, ‘Chapter 1: Theorizing the information socety’ in The Wired World: An introduction to the theory and practice of the information society, Library Association Publishing, London
Ooi, J 2008, Did blogging matter in the general election?, viewed 29 April 2008.http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/blogging/index.html
Putnis, Peter & Petelin, Roslyn 1996, ‘Writing to communicate,’ in Professional communication, Prentice Hall, Sydney.
Usborne, N, 2002, Networds: Creating high-impact online copy, McGraw Hill, New York.
citizen journalism: is here to stay or perish??
Web has emerged as the newest communication medium which offers the ultimate sophistication in getting and disseminating information, moreover opens public discussion on certain issues (Reddick and King, 2001, p. 246). Let us welcome the newest form of citizen journalism, blogging or web ‘logging’. According to Tanner, et al. (2005, p. 229) bloggers are labeled as citizen journalists because their topics are fermented at reporting ground news which eventually make them possible to be the major alternative source of information.
An overview of citizen journalism was provided in deteksi wordpress (2008), citizen journalism might be translated into the action of collecting and disseminating information through a certain media in their individual perspective. The source of their idea might be from what they see, hear, think, etcetera.
According to deteksi wordpress (2008), when a bloggers rewrite what they have witnessed, somehow it weakens the power of the article because the information has traveled to more than one party and might be interpreted differently by each of them. In one side it might help others in getting information from different perspectives. However, since bloggers write it according to what they hear and see, it might be subjective and contain exaggeration, whereby it challenges the authenticity and reliability of that article.
In my opinion, citizen journalism should be the balancing tool for people in gaining more comprehensive information. Furthermore, to make them not solely rely on mainstream media in getting information, because at times mainstream media is one-sided in publishing their news. So, how about you, what do you think?
Reference:
Citizen Journalism 2008, Deteksi Word Press, viewed 7 June 2008,
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/images/set1/internews_165935_1%255B204394%255D.jpg&imgrefurl=http://deteksi.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/blog-dan-citizen-journalism/&h=333&w=500&sz=61&hl=id&start=10&tbnid=gIUackbUp-56zM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcitizen%2Bblogging%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Did
Reddick, R, King, E, 2001, The Online Journalist: Using the internet and other electronic resources, 3rd edn, Harcourt College Publisher, United State of America.
Tanner, S Philips, G Smyth, C Tapshall 2005, ‘Chapter 17: Technology’ in Journalism Ethics At Work, Pearson Longman publishing, Australia.