Reflections

Blogging is no doubt a communication tool which needs to be intentionally design to communicate its idea to its audiences.  A successful design attracts attention, adding value to the message (Thomas, Saxby, Jones, Carruthers, Abal & Dennison  2006).

 In this blog, I have considered the principles of design to better allow my readers to understand. I’ve incorporated social semiotics theory to deliver maximum impact of my message to my readers.  According to Walsh (2006) we need to understand a social purpose of a particular text and its cultural context, and this understanding will be link to our own purpose using in using the particular text (Walsh 2006).

Throughout this course of my assignment I’ve learn that ethics in blogging is just as important as other type of medium because it involve stakeholders. Ethical behavior strives to respect the claims of every stakeholder (Plaisance 2008).

 This has been a great journey exploring blogging and these skills will greatly enable me to be more effective in the marketplace.

 Reference list

Plaisance, P.(2008) Media Ethics: Key Principles for Responsible Practice,  California: SAGE

Thomas, J. , Saxby, T. , Jones, A. , Carrythers, T. Abal, A. & Dennison, W. (2006) Communicating science effectively: a practical handbook for integrating visual elements, Oxford: Alden

 Walsh, M. (2006) The Textual Shift: Examining reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, [e-book]

Available at: UniSA Digital Library

http://newcatalogue.library.unisa.edu.au/vufind/Record/918157

[Accessed at 14 June 2010]

Pirates of Virtual world

One of the most caring things that we can do is to share. While many consider sharing is caring, the creative industry thinks that sharing is a form of copyright infringement. What is known as sharing is piracy in the virtual world. One of the few pioneers of virtual sharing was Napster.

Napster introduced the peer-to-peer sharing which allowed users to share music for free to others. On an edition of Media Report, IT journalist Patrick Gray explained the history and issues of file sharing. Napster popularity was partly due to it being something which people have not seen before. The huge part of its success is that it allows sharing which is “free” which also is why its users were a mostly student. One major issue which Napster has to face was “Copyright infringement” which is also the reason it closed down its services (Gray 2008).

(Napster attracted 1.6 million simultaneous users during the height of its popularity in February 2000)

Copyright law grants creators of the original work of art the exclusive rights to make and distribute copies of their work (Weissman& Jermance, 2003). This law however makes file sharing illegal thus Napster, a harbor for illegal activities.

Some may argue that peer-to-peer sharing is a form of infringement and some may think that it is totally fine because it belongs to their friend. An interesting comment was made during the Napster controversy saying “It is totally ridiculous for charging us if our friend shared music with us. It’s like making us pay for trying our friend’s pants”.

In a perspective of a student, I do agree that file sharing causes harm to the music industry but file sharing is also a social connection where student does need to pay a lot. Examining student behavior, they would prefer to share file because it’s relatively cheaper and its part of their social life to discuss about the latest music (Noam 2008).

I however believe, this issue is a dilemma we have to face where we can’t simply make a decision. Proper regulation should be in place in order to protect the music industry while still providing a benefit for music lovers in this cyber age.

Judging from the rise of many peer-to-peer sites such as bitTorrent and Kazaa, I think these pirates are share to stay until a proper system is there to stop them from terrorizing the music industry.


Reference List
Media Report (2008) The rise and rise of file sharing, [online]
Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2376707.htm
[Accessed 15 June 2010]

Weissman, D.& Jermance, F. (2003) Navigating the music industry: current issues & business models, Milwaukee: Hal Leonard

Noam, E. (2008) Peer-to-peer video: the economics, policy, and culture of today's new mass medium, New York: Springer

Look Who’s Cooking?

(Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai)

Food is probably one of most talked about subject in a conversation; at least for an Asian culture. It is our favorite subject to talk about whether it is about a recipe sharing, venue of a nice eating place or a famous dish. Our knowledge of food has increased over the years due to what we know as cook shows and food reviews.

There is a relationship between food and media which we see today that gave way to so many medium (Newspaper, television, blogs) which the topic is food. In an edition of Media Report, Presenter Anthony Funnell bought this topic up “Food and the media” to explore the relationship between food and the media. In his show he interviewed 3 people in the food industry questioning them on how has media play a role in the food industry. In their comment they states that media allows people to know more about food and has made food shows into an entertainment where people enjoy. The media has also made chefs more than chefs but celebrities. How is it so? The answer is the media impact.

Media are available to keep you informed, make sure you’re entertained, and most importantly, sell you products (Biagi 2007). If I relate this to the food industry; media would inform people about food, entertain people with food programs and most importantly sell food.

The media has affect almost every expect of our lives for example in the way we eat, talk, work, study and relax. In a study made by Shirley Biagi, adults spend more than half of their waking lives with the media (Biagi 2007). It’s no wonder we’re so impacted by it.

Food lovers such as I would probably spend a quarter of my waking lives looking for the best food in town. Media educates (Logan 2008) which in relation is food. People who watch food program would probably be a food scholar knowing food analogy better than any chefs.

As for the food industry, they would probably thank the media for giving them a shot to glory. I personally can’t live without the media. It is what they call as information hunger.

Reference List

Biagi, S. (2007) Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media, Belmont: Thompson

Logan, S. (2008) Asian communication handbook 2008, Singapore: AMIC

Media Report (2008) Food and the media, (Internet)

Available at:http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2009/2436729.htm

[Accessed 13 June 2010]

Die another Day: Print News is still alive.

Source: Google images

The internet, one of man’s greatest invention and also the most uncontrollable medium of information. The internet gave way to so many possibility of how to information would be presented. We no longer need to walk to the nearest bookstore to obtain newspaper but all we need is a click on the mouse and ‘voila!’ our daily news on out computer screen.

Talks of how print materials are getting unpopular have been going on since information has been presented online. There are a lot of rumors going on that print is already losing a lot of money and will die pretty soon. These speculations however are being challenge by an article written by Michael Josefowicz (2009) “The Fallacy of the 'Print Is Dead' Meme” as he explained that how these prophesy of print materials are dying aren’t entirely true. He argued that the "End of Print" is a meme that has gained ascendancy in an environment of disruptive change in the communication ecology. It's similar to the dot-com boom meme that bricks-and-mortar stores were doomed and would soon disappear. (Josefowicz 2009)

Jeff Gomez (2008) “Print is Dead: books in our digital age” states that print is not yet dead but however sick as newspaper, books, dictionary and etc readership has decline over the years and more people are beginning to turn away from traditional method of reading to reading online. (Gomez 2008)

Source: Google Images

I however agree on Josefowicz argument that the print is dead rumor is totally absurd but I have no doubt that it has been impacted by internet. Printed material however has a value which an electronic device, however elaborate it may be, cannot match (Thompson 2005). Books have a certain physical feel which readers love about. Well if isn’t used for reading at least it’s on the shelf making your study room look great.

To me, I admit I’m transferring to the digital world for information but I won’t say books will depart from me. Novels are still enjoyed best on print that digital. You won’t see Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Ring and etc on any digital form anytime soon as long as readers habit of reading doesn’t change.

Print is not dead but they are definitely suffering losses which make print sick. Books will continue to stay, at least on our shelf but never disappeared just like how ancient Roman books are right now.

Reference list

Gomez, J. (2008) Print is dead: books in our digital age, New York: Macmilan

Josefowicz, M. (2009) The Fallacy of Print is Dead Meme [internet]
Available at: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/04/the-fallacy-of-the-print-is-dead-meme117.html
[Accessed 12 June 2010]

Thompson, J. (2005) Books in the digital age, Cambridge :Polity Press

Who’s the real deal in Twitter?

The emergence of Twitter has sparks new heights in internet blogging as bloggers no longer need to write long wordy article type of blog to tell the whole world what’s going on in their life but short sweet simple tweet which sums up what they need to say. Given its simple sign up and 140 words limit, its no wonder why caught many peoples including celebrities themselves hooking into the microblogging phenomenon.

Twitters ease of accessibility is also its downfall as it does not require much information during the sign up which led to many fake accounts which mainly are imposters of celebrities or prominent figures. In an incident where an imposter created an account stating that he was the Dalai Lama caused many to believe that he was the real deal which even mainstream media has been deceived. There were many other cases of celebrities being targets of imposters. According to Shawn Owens in his article “How Celebrity imposters Hurt Twitter’s Credibility”, he stated that given the relative ease to sign up on most platforms and the lack of verification needed, brands and individuals are having to swat down daily attempts to sabotage their reputations (Owens 2009).

(Fake Dalai Lama Twitter page)

In one of my readings by Ken Knapton, the danger of social networking sites is the fact that there is a high degree of trust inherent in connections (Knapton 2009) which explains why people would believe when some imposters comes up to say that he is somebody famous.

I however believe that we as users should not only blame the system for being weak or faulty for cases such as these but we should be equipped knowing that the internet isn’t a safe playground. I would adapt to Vivtoria Roddel suggestion, people must depend on ourselves against cyber crime prevention and protection as each of us does with everyday situation to prevent crime (Roddel 2008). Yes, there should be more security measures taken by Twitter but as individuals, self protection is needed.

While there is some truth that Twitter credibility is tarnished by acts of imposters but its no argument that its popularity continues to sky rocket. This is just a reminder that, we as internet users has to be on guard on anything we see on the net.

Reference list

Knapton, K (2009) Cyber Safety: maintaining morality in a digital world, (e-book) Springville: Cedar Fort
Available: Google Books
http://books.google.com/books?id=BRG_qrKkCzkC&pg=PA91&dq=internet+safety+for+twitter&hl=en&ei=WZwMTMDEDYy3rAeT1OWHDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
(Assessed 7 June 2010)

Owens, S. (2009) How celebrity impostors hurt Twitter's credibility (online)
Available: http://bloggasm.com/
(Assessed 7 June 2010)

Roddel, V(2008) The Ultimate Guide to Internet Safety, (e-book) Morrisville: Lulu Press
Available: Google books
http://books.google.com/books?id=RBquVIvTfI4C&pg=PA217&dq=internet+safety+tips&hl=en&ei=ZKEMTK-EMIK8rAf3sfWnDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=internet%20safety%20tips&f=false
(Accessed 7 June 2010)