Reflection

Throughout this course, I have improved my skills in design, as well as increase my knowledge on the theories and concepts and as well as issues in the publication world. Examples of what I have learnt include the power of new media, social issues behind publishing, the danger of the Internet and the concept of composition in design. Moreover, the practicality of this course made me realize that design isn't as easy as I thought it was. Therefore, I would recommend that people to not underestimate design and publishing.

I am more analytical now when comes to design and publishing. For instance, I don't look at magazines or the newspapers the same way as I did before the start of the course. I would study its' form and function and apply the theories of design as I look at it. This subject has provided me useful knowledge that will assist me in my future undertakings.

(image source: http://www.centralcoastoutdooradventures.com/)

Fighting complexity with blogs

The newspaper journalism business is a very complex process. It involves reporters, editors, news managers, graphic editors, picture desks, numerous layers of people and printing technologies. But that’s not all, there is a sales department, administration department, circulation department and etc. Furthermore, digitalizing only increase complexity. This is because it involves shooting videos, creating animations and visualizations to attract readers. Which is why many newspaper businesses run blogs, it is a powerful tool of simplification that does not require the complex process of newspaper publishing (Legrand 2010).

newspaper journalism is a complex process

(image source: http://www.beautysnob.com/2009/04)

Blogs are seen as an easy tool to retrieve and report information because it’s low cost in distribution and production, its really simple syndication (RSS) features which makes data search easy, it creates a very powerful push-pull concept and it doesn’t require a newsroom full of people to blog, just one person will do. (Baltatzis 2006 & Legrand 2010). If you choose to search through the blogosphere and subscribe to their feeds, you are more likely find your desired information that is up to date. (Nauhton 2006 & Legrand 2010), which is why the blogosphere is described as a marketplace for ideas and networks. The trend of blogging is changing power structures in journalism and is providing the public the opportunity to be citizen journalists (Legrand 2010).

Blogspot.com in one the blogs that provides free blogging

(image source: mymall.netbuilder.com.my)

The utilizing of blogs by newspaper businesses can generate an evolution of an interesting relationship between conventional journalism and blogging (Naughton 2006). Newspapers businesses should blog because it increases their legitimacy and connects them with more people through referrals and networking. Not only does it connect them with new readers, it also keeps the old readers loyal, thus boosting the number of readers of that company (Baltatzis 2006). There are already many newspapers that started their own blogs, for example, Financial Times’ FT Alphaville, and Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital. These blogs are good at reporting news and interacting with their commuities in a lively way, and it is anything but complex, for both the readers and the bloggers (Legrand 2010).

Wall Street Journal's blog, Allthingsd.com

It is important that we equip ourselves with knowledge regarding media and communication, so we can survive the greater complexity of tomorrow’s media. Just like how big and complex organizations use blogs to fight complexity (Legrand 2010).

blogging saves time and energy as compared to newspaper journalism

(image source: http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/09/30/its-time-to-relieve-the-stress-of-rss-newspapers-make-your-own-readers/)

References:

Baltatzis, P 2006, Is Blogging Innovating Journalism?, Innovation Journalism, Vol. 3, No. 4.

Legrand, R 2010, Newsrooms Should Use Blogs to Battle Bloat, Complexity, Media Shift 22nd April, as viewed 13th November 2010, < http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/04/newsrooms-should-use-blogs-to-battle-bloat-complexity112.html >.

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging new media ecosystem, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Beware of Fakes on Twitter!

Twitter, a free micro-blogging and social networking service that enables its users to send and read messages of up to 140 characters to their followers and people their following respectively, these messages are better known as tweets (Ahmad 2010). With 105,779,710 registered users, an estimate of 300 000 people signing up everyday (The Huffington Post 2010), Twitter is known as a popular source of information and communication that is globalizing the world. However, Twitter.com is not a reliable source of information.

The Twitter bird, one of Twitter.com's popular logos

(image source: http://seevirtual.wordpress.com/ )

Hackers and impersonators are causing a rapid decline in Twitter’s credibility. On Twitter, anyone can sign up with his or her desired username and profile picture to portray someone else, or hack into someone’s account and pretend to be that person. For example, Britney Spear’s twitter account was hacked into 3 times, and one of it portrayed her as worshiper of the Devil (Leyden 2009). These actions are possible because of Twitter’s poor verification system, as it is impossible for Twitter’s relatively small staff to verify each and every user (Owen 2009).

A print screen of Britney's hacked Twitter account. The Tweet that the

hacker posted up was 'I give myself to Lucifer every day for it to arrive

as quickly as possible. Glory to Satan!'

(image source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/12/spears_twitter_hack/)

These actions can be seen as a parody or a threat to many, because if identity stealers are serious about ruining one’s reputation, they can go to the extend of addressing personal issues to cause extreme humiliation and distress. However, parodies can be a healthy way of poking fun, but only if it does not cross the boundaries of impersonation (Owen 2009).

hackers and impersonators imposes a threat

(image source: http://perso.wanadoo.es/dbo_castilla/varios/varios-ingles.html)

Twitter’s unreliable source of information can also affect journalism. For instance, an impersonator of the Dalai Lama opened a Twitter account portraying to be the Holy Dalai Lama. When several journalists and bloggers found out, they immediately reported the the Dalai Lama’s debut, only to correct their reports when it was revealed to be fake. This incident. This situation draws attention to journalist’s respect for the integrity of information. "News is very different now and you want to get the news out there as quickly as you can," she said. "And though it's no excuse, there aren't people in the middle of the night standing by their phones to verify a story.," quoted by Lidja Davis, regular writer for ReadWriteWeb (Owen 2009).

An impersonator of the Dalai Lama

(image source: http://pondstonecommunications.wordpress.com/category/social-media/)

As Twitter and the trend of citizens journalism continues to rise, the importance of understanding how it works becomes more important. We should all be cautious and understand the lack of integrity of information that we find on Twitter because not only may the news be unreliable, but so are the user’s identities.




References:
Ahmad, A 2010, Is Twitter a useful tool for journalists?, Journal of Media Practice, Vol. 11, No.2, pp. 145 – 155.

Bosker, B 2010, Twitter User Statistics Revealed, The Huffington Post 30th April, as viewed 11 November 2010 < http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/14/twitter-user-statistics-r_n_537992.html >

Leyden, J 2009, Twitter fights celeb imposters with Verified Account scheme, The Register 8th June, as viewed 12th November 2010, < href="www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/12/spears_twitter_hack/">www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/12/spears_twitter_hack/ >.

Owens, S 2009, How Celebrity Imposters Hurt Twitter's Credibility, Media Shift 20th February, viewed 12 November 2010 < http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/02/how-celebrity-imposters-hurt-twitters-credibility051.html >

Sexism in Advertising

Definition of SEXISM

1: prejudice or discrimination based on sex; especially: discrimination against women

2: behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex

(source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sexism )

According to Enloe (1989), gender relations ‘makes the world go round.’ It is hegemony that masculine dignity and feminine sacrifice are seen as essentials to sustain the works of the world order (Cohen & Kennedy 2007). This form of advertising reinforces the ideology that the male gender is the more dominant one, and has an advertising discourse that sexism works.

Gender stereotyping in advertising is not a new issue, there have been, and still are numerous ads that have a sexist or insulting tone or content to it and it is mainly affecting women. The widespread usage of these images has been accepted as part of the landscape of modern times and is recognized as an effective form of marketing (Perera 2010 & Gifford n.d.).

The concept behind this peripheral route of advertising is that sexist ads may not directly make the audience want to buy the products, but it will gain their additional attraction time to expose them to the products (Artz, Munger & Purdy n.d). According to Lundstrom and Scilimpaglia(1977), four of the most used gender stereotypes of women in advertising are:

1. That a woman's place is at home.

2. That women don't make important decisions.

3. That women are dependent on men.

4. That men regard women primarily as sex objects.

Examples of sexism in advertising include WKD’s world cup advertisement, with their slogan: "THE OFFSIDE RULE FOR GIRLS: IF THE FLAG'S UP, IT'S OFFSIDE," which insults the intelligence of women (Perera 2010). Another example is Hoover advertisement for their vacuum cleaners, which reinforces the ideology that women are responsible to clean the house. However, the most used form of sexism in advertising is the hegemony of idealized bodies and sexuality (Artz, Munger & Purdy n.d and Lundstrom & Scilimpaglia 1977). For examples of ‘sex sells’ ads, click here.

WKD's advertisement that portrayed male dominance

(video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGCax1MQi_Q&feature=player_embedded )

Hoover's advertisement that portrays women's

responsibility as the cleaners of the house

(image source: http://beverlyhillshoneys.com/category/battle-of-the-sexes/)

Sexism in advertising is constantly degrading women, it generates the audience’s negative feelings towards women from the ads and is causing a continuous struggle for gender equality (Cohen & Kennedy 2007). The first step to reducing or eliminating these practices is for consumers to complain and demand authorities, such as UK’s The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), to regulate this form of unethical publishing (Perera 2010). In order to achieve social cohesion and social progress, society should learn and recognize boundaries, such as the fine line between sexy and sexism, to avoid further gender bias and discrimination.

(image source: http://www.cafepress.com/+no_to_sexism_35_button,306046026)

References:

Cohen & Kennedy 2007, Global Sociology, Palgrave Mcmillan, New York.
Gifford, A n.d., 15 Ads That Prove Sex Sells, InventorSpot, as viewed 11th November 2010, <http://inventorspot.com/articles/ads_prove_sex_sells_5576?page=1 >.

Merriam-Webster 2010, Sexism, as viewed 11th November 2010, < http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sexism >.

Perera, K 2010, Time to kick sexism out of advertising, Guardian 29th June, as viewed 11th November 2010, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/29/kick-sexism-out-of-advertising >.

Artz, N, Munger, J & Purdy, W 1999, Gender Issues in Advertising Language, Women and Language, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 20 -26.

Lundstrom & Scilimpaglia 1977, Sex Role Portrayals in Advertising, Journal of Marketing, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 72 – 79.

Facebook and the Rights to Privacy

The theory of ritualized media – ‘the media are not just consumed for informational or entertainment purposes, they are also habitually used as part of people’s everyday life routines, as diversions and pastimes’ (Debatin et al. 2009).

Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site with over 50 million users worldwide is a globalizing trend in modern times. The usage of Facebook has become a habit for many and the statistics of Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD) patients are increasing over the years since its launch in 2004. Despite the danger of addiction, Facebook is often criticized for their privacy shield. (ABC 2010 & Renganayar 2010).

one of Facebook's logos

(image source: http://www.tcd.ie/disability/projects/DS3/index.php ).

Facebook has admitted that it as been breaching privacy policies by allowing user information to be spread to advertising companies. It was found that many of the social networking sites’ popular applications access information about the members of Facebook and their friends, to companies to build detailed databases for online tracking purposes. Authorities of Facebook.com declared that the social networking site will take action against these issues, and will disable applications that is involve in the violation of the privacy policies (ABC 2010).

A Facebook user's personal information being accessed

(image source: http://danielfive.com/facebook-design-sucks-facebook-users-facebook/)

The Facebook iceberg model illustrates two parts of Facebook usage, the visible part and the invisible part. The visible part, innocent user profiles and social interactions are only a small part. Whereas the invisible part of the iceberg illustrates the filtering of personal information and the data from interactions from the visible part, for business purposes (Debatin et al. 2009).

The Facebook Iceberg Model

(image source: Debatin, B, Lovejoy, J, Horn, A & Hughes, B 2009,

Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences,

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 15, pp. 88.)

Besides using Facebook unethically as a tool for business growth, it can also impose greater danger. For instance, one cannot control the postings, stalking and information extraction of third parties. In a case study, an unknown person hacked into Brian’s Facebook account. The hacker changed Brian’s “interested in” to incorrectly imply that Brian was gay, changed his password, his ‘interest in,’ his profile picture to an inappropriate one and also targeted his friends. The hacker made comments on the walls of Brian’s friend’s to further imply that he was gay, and also tag Brian’s girlfriend in a picture of a donkey. These were publicly humiliating for Bryan (Debatin et al. 2009 & CBSNewsOnline 2010).

(image source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/s/sexually_harassed.asp)

Many Facebook users understand these dangers, but their high gratification in ‘Facebook-ing’ overweighs the high risk of privacy invasion that not only affects the user, but his/her friends and family as well (Debatin et al. 2009). In my opinion, users should make full use of the privacy controls to prevent invasions.

References:

ABC News 2010, Facebook admits privacy breach, ABC 19^th October, as viewed 10^th November 2010, < http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/19/3042594.htm >.

CBSNewsOnline’s channel 2010, YouTube, as viewed 10^th November 2010, < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GimEDFj4Hno&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh+div-1r-3-HM >.

Debatin, B, Lovejoy, J, Horn, A & Hughes, B 2009, Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 15, pp. 83 – 108.

Renganayar, C 2010, Do you have Facebook Addiction Disorder?, New Straight Times 1^st August, as viewed 10^th November, < http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/02cdsns2a/Article/ >.

New Forms of Media Publishing

The latest trends in the media ecosystem today have improved the way people communicate and the speed of information retrieval, making the world a smaller place. These new trends include micro-blogging, social networking, blogging, vlogging and digital photography, just to name a few. Whoever has access to the Internet world today will have the power to broadcast their materials, share information and connect with people. These latest trends contributes to this benefit by allowing them to communicate information in more ways than before. Furthermore, the success of these trends has generated more softwares, websites and internet users to enlarge the network community (Naugton 2006 & Wherley 2009).

(brandingbrand.com)

The emergence of social networking sites and alternative online newspapers can be seen as a mark of the end of journalism, or a start of an evolution of a new relationship with journalism (Naughton 2006). Sites like Twitter informs users of what's happening in short sentences, to attract readers and making information circulation faster, hence the emergence of the popularity of Twitter. However, micro-blogging does not provide information that are as reliable as journalism. Journalism involves discipline, explanation, analysis and context (Bunz 2009), something Twitter doesn't seem to have (or at least not always). Journalism and social networking can complement each other in providing information to the public, which is what http://www.twitterjournalism.com/ is about.

(arkarthick.com)

Social networking is transforming politics, because it expands and improves the public sphere. Debates, statements, forums, influential pictures and videos can all be broadcasted o published on these sites. Politics can also use these sites to inform, discuss and announce. Freedom of speech is also enhanced, because people have the rights to post whatever they want (this differs in different territories), as thoughts, and expressions of an individual cannot be legislated, only behavior can. However, individuals should be cautious of what they post up in the open, because nobody will be able to tell what will go wrong when these information or materials are accessible to such a big audience (The Oracle 2009).

(http://www.markcrummett.com/mcart/notwands/pages/Freedom%20From%20Speech.htm)

References:

Bunz, M 2009, How social networking is changing journalism, as viewed 30th September 2010,<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/sep/18/oxford-social-media-convention-2009-journalism-blogs>.

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging new media ecosystem, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The Oracle 2009, Social Networking's Freedom of Speech Implications, as viewed 30th September 2010, <http://www.lockergnome.com/theoracle/2009/03/19/social-networkings-freedom-of-speech-implications/>.

Wherley, K 2009, Use Social Media to Reach your Ausience, as viewed 30th September 2010, <http://brandingbrand.com/blog/use-social-media-to-reach-your-target-audience/>.

Blogging Communities

(brandingbrand.com)

A community is a group of individuals that expresses their collective identities and share similar attributes, each community has its own boundaries and structure. A blogging community is a community where bloggers share what they blog about and contribute via comments and networking (White, 2006).

(myblogiseasy.com)

There a several ways to create a blogging community. According to Darren Rowse (2008), these actions include:

1. Interaction with other bloggers on blogs (commenting, asking questions, answering questions)

2. Give readers something to do on your blog(s) or do a project they can participate in
3. Lead and be the example for your readers, or invite readers to do so
4. Link to reader’s blogs
5. Publicize reader’s weblogs

(marketlikeachick.com)

Furthermore, e-facilitation and e-community specialist, Nancy White (2008) discusses the three types of blogging communities.

1) The Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community

The writers of these blogs have full power and control over the topics and materials posted on these blogs, they can remove reader’s comments and censor materials from selected readers. This is because these blogs are the owned solely by the writer(s) or their organization. Readers of these blogs will get to know more about the blogger and their readers as well through comments.
Example: http://www.downes.ca/me/articles

(http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/)

2) Central Connecting Topic Community
A network formation linked by a shared passion and topic and creates membership (community) through subject matters. As this network grows, it is likely that sub communities will be formed. These are separate blogs using different tools linked together through hyperlinks in blog rolls and blog posts, tagging, aggregated feeds, trackback and comments.
Example: http://globalvoicesonline.org/

(http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/)

3) Boundaried Communities

A single site or platform that hosts a collection of blogs. Readers are typically asked to register to join this community and are offered to create a blog after that. Bloggers can easily access other blogs within the communities and they link mostly within the community, this makes internal connections denser and faster, and also build communities.
Example: http://www.shareyourstory.org/

(http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/)

With the understanding of these patterns of weblogs, we can strategically use it for further community development. They can be used in terms of their social architecture, technology/design, subject matter and other issues.

I will now discuss the structure of Malaysia's famous blogger, Kenny Sia’s blogging community.

(http://julianhopkins.net/index.php?/plugin/tag/research)

Kennysia.com is a one blog centric community, readers not only get know the author, Kenny Sia, but also other readers as well through commenting. The author has full control of what is written in his blog, he can choose to remove comments or censor materials from particular readers. However, readers can determine the topic on the blog if a influential relationship between reader and author is formed. Kenny Sia holds full power in his blogging community, therefore the community will be likely to shatter unless readers can find a link to each other. These kind of blogging communities can grow overtime, the amount of comments can turn out to be over-whelming. This community grows with the assistance of links from blog rolls, subscriptions and reader's networks.

References:

Rowse, D 2008, How to Build Community On Your Blog, as viewed 27th September, <http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/04/26/how-to-build-community-on-your-blog/>.

White, N 2006, Blogs and Community- Launching a New Paradigm for Online Community?, as viewed 27th September 2010, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>.

Hampton, J 2004, Seven CommunityDefinitions, as viewed 30th September 2010, <http://www.community4me.com/comm_definitions.html>.