Blogging, though common among many of my friends, was a world I never ventured into. Creating this blog was an interesting experience for me. Although I encountered various problems during the creation of my blog, I found out that blogging is not difficult to do. Soon, I was familiar with the functions of Blogger and could post my information on my blog without much trouble.
I have to admit that I use to be ignorant about the many theories and issues regarding publication and design before the creation of this blog. Now however, I find myself more equipped with the knowledge of this aspects and how they apply to our daily lives. These theories guided me throughout the creation of the blog. For example, I learned that including visual aids such as images and videos alongside the text, created multimodality which is an effective way in engaging readers.
I realised that blogging allows me to interact freely, with the use of a chatbox, to my classmates. They and also other people were able to comment on my posts and tell me their opinions and thoughts on the issues discussed. There are hyperlinks included in my posts, enabling readers to link to the original websites and articles for further details. This form of interaction allows the reader to move from easily from one site to another, to avoid feeling constrained to my blog.
Blogging is a global phenomenon and more and more people join the blogosphere every day. Although freedom of speech exists among bloggers, there must also be a sense of ethics and cultural sensitivity when expressing thoughts and ideas online. Privacy of other bloggers must be respected and copyright infringements avoided. These simple measures will allow both the bloggers and readers from encountering problems.
This blog has not only been an enlightening educational opportunity. It has also opened my eyes to a whole new world. The world of blogging. I am now one of the many people who blog and am able to fully appreciate blogs. It will definitely be something I will invest more time and effort in from now on.
Sourced from: www.masternewmedia.org/news/2007/01/23/how_to... Camera phones are being used to tell the news. Journalists have an important role to play, in the conveying of news to the mass audience. In this digital age however, the traditional roles of journalists have morphed to suit the needs of people. Hence, the emergence of citizen journalists.
Ordinary members of the public are being given the chance to put their thoughts and opinions out in the world for all to see. News was now “being produced by regular people who had something to say and show, and not solely by the ‘official’ news organizations” (Gillmor 2006).
Tsunami 2004
The shocking 2004 Asian tsunami was the spark which exploded citizen journalism into the international arena. Digital technologies such as the Web, blogs, digital cameras and camera phones, enabled people at the scene of the disaster to capture the scene as it was occurring (Outing 2005). The first wave of buzz immediately after the tsunami struck South Asia, was one of concern regarding the loss of lives. As information poured in however, curiosity began to take over. People all over the world were interested in learning more about the “giant walls of water” that had struck the region (Srinivas 2005).
The dire conditions during the tsunami and in its aftermath were a hindrance to many professional journalists. Eyewitnesses were the main source of information distribution and were able to share their “heart-wrenching stories, photographs and videos with the rest of the world” (Outing2005). These forms of delivering the news were more effective than merely written articles. This is because; “the combination of movement and sound” of multimodal texts with electronic enhancements causes the interaction between the content and audience to improve (Walsh 2006).
Scoopt
In the wake of the Asian tsunami, many news organisations have been out to “exploit mobile snaps and videos” (Ethics Issues for citizen snappers 2005). Kyle MacRae the creator of the agency Scoopt, says that while the photographs and videos were in high demand by the media, these organisations were not willing to pay the citizen journalists for their efforts. Authenticity of the photographs was also constantly being questioned. Scoopt functions both with professional and amateur photographers, but is always careful to authenticate their material before releasing it to the public (Ethics Issues for citizen snappers2005).
Mainstream media
Although most of the materials obtained from eyewitnesses are published on specified blogs, there are several media outlets which use the citizen journalists to their full potentials. The BBC News Online, has done the best job of incorporating citizen journalists into their network. The Guardian, Time.com and MSNBC.com are other such examples.
The lives of people are altered permanently by natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes. With the birth of citizen journalism, survivors will be able to tell their part of the story and create a connection between them and the rest of the world. Citizen journalism is here to stay and will continue to gain popularity in the future.
5. Walsh, M 2006, ‘Textual Shifts: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, pp.24-37.
Researching for relevant information on assignments is part and parcel of the lives of college students. As a student myself, I am constantly surfing the Internet to access the many articles available on the web. One of the first sites I usually refer to is Wikipedia, the haven for all students in crisis.
A wiki is a website which ‘allows anyone who visits to quickly add, delete or edit its contents’ (Lamb 2006). Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia, the most popular wiki available on the web. It ranks in at 37 on the list of most visited sites, according to research engine Alexa.com. Most people turn to the Wikipedia for their main source of information, as there are a wide range of topics available on the site. The Encyclopaedia Britannica on the other hand, is recognised to be a prominent source for accurate and credible information. Instead of being open to all members of public for contribution and editing, this encyclopaedia is updated by professionals and qualified editors (Terdiman 2005).
The Issue
In the year 2005, Wikipedia was made the target of media scrutiny, when its credibility was thrown into question. An article was released on the site involving an American journalist, John Seigenthaler with the murder of John and Robert Kennedy (Cauchi 2005). The inaccuracy of the article sparked outrage. The credibility war between these two encyclopaedias then began with the scientific journal Nature, which decided to conduct a study on the content of both encyclopaedias. For the study, 42 articles were taken from both the sites – “one from each site on a given topic”- and reviewed by a field of experts (Terdiman 2005).
Major problems with concepts: Both sites had a record of four errors each.
Minor inaccuracies: The average science article in Wikipedia had four whereas Britannica had three.
Other mistakes: Factual errors, omissions or misleading statements were more obvious in Wikipedia with 162 in that site and 123 in Britannica (Cauchi 2005).
Although Britannica emerged as the victor, its counterpart Wikipedia was not far off shot.
Summation
Although Wikipedia has endured heavy criticism by many, it still remains as a popular site to seek information. Its user friendly language adheres to the needs of the people. Lannon (2006) explains that most people expect to understand a document after reading it just once. Excessive details put them off, therefore concise and layman terms as on Wikipedia, draws them back to the site. Besides that, Wikipedia also provides many hyperlinks to other sites related to a particular article. As Nielsen & Morkes (1997) say, hyperlinks will add to the credibility of a site and this is important as users do not want to be fed with false information. It is evident that Wikipedia will continue to be used by many and hopefully in the near future will gain the recognition it deserves.
Be it Rock, Hip Hop or Pop, music fans around the world constantly scramble in their rush to listen to the latest songs from their favourite artists. It is obvious that music is an important part of people’s lives. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the rate of music downloads from the internet has been steadily increasing over the years.
Downloading music from the Internet is not a daunting task and most people do it on a daily basis. The emergence of peer-to-peer (P2P) files sharing sites such as Napster and Gnutella has further eased this transaction of music. This however, has caused various issues involving copyrights infringement to rise to the surface. “Much of the music being swapped between computers is copyrighted, and swapping those songs can be considered piracy- violation of the copyright of the artists or recording companies who own it” (Straubhaar & LaRose 2005).
Napster at its peak moment had 30 million people “swapping” 3 billion songs at any given time (Dembart 2001). In the year 1999, Napster was charged with a lawsuit by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) of infringing on two copyright laws: the rights of reproduction and the rights of distribution (Peters 2003). Although the court did not rule in favour of Napster, the site has not disappeared from the sphere of the Internet; it has since become legal and charges a fee for the downloading of music from its site.
The illusion that copyright infringements would end with the closing down of Napster however, has been squelched with the uprising of Kazaa.Kazaa adopts the similar methods of P2P as Napster, with the ‘slight’ exception that it is recognised as a legal site. This shocking difference is because Kazaa does not have music downloads, opting instead to allow users to share music with the use of their software (Maier 20004).
RIAA’s studies and research have shown a slight decline in the sales of CDs, causing them to be concerned about their revenue and that of the artists. In a bout of frustration they have resorted to harsh measures in overcoming the issue of illegal music downloading. For example, RIAA filed almost 400 lawsuits against consumers with more than 1000 music files in their hard drives (Maier 2004). Their “scare tactics” have not been taken well with artists however. Chuck D of rap group Public Enemy says, “Lawsuits on 12-year-old kids for downloading music, duping a mother into paying a $2,000 settlement for her kid? Those tactics are pure gestapo.”
Reality
It is without doubt, that music piracy will continue to occur in the years to come. While I myself advocate the need to buy original music, I do realise that in reality it is much easier and cheaper to obtain it online. Hopefully if the music industry reduces the cost of CDs, more people will begin to pay for their music, instead of “stealing” it.
2. Maier, TW 2004, ‘Arresting Kids for Downloading Music; The recording industry is blaming illegally downloaded music for its declining CD sales and is threatening to make teen and preteen music pirates walk the plank’, BNET, 16 February, viewed 11 June 2008, <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_2004_Feb_16/ai_112938307/pg_1>.
3. Peters, M 2003, ‘Problems and Solutions on Peer-to-Peer Networks’, United States Senate, 9 September 2003, U.S Copyright Office, Washington, viewed 11 June 2008, <http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat090903.html>.
Creating friendships with people from all over the world use to be an unrealistic view to most people. Now however, with just the click of a mouse, teenagers are able to communicate with teens from other countries. How is this possible? Networking sites such as MySpace and the recently popular Bebo site provide teens with the space to mingle and make virtual friends.
What exactly is Bebo?
Bebo claims to be “the next generation social networking site” providing services such as blogs, photo postings, profile pages and a recent addition of instant messaging and voice chats. Bebo has taken off well in Britain and had attracted 22 million subscribers by the year 2006 (Sands 2006). This teenage parallel universe however, is not without its share of problems.
The temptation of getting attention from others is irresistible to most teens. Schoolgirls post albums of themselves skimpily dressed in swimsuits and costumes, with their personal details made available for all to see. “Police have claimed more than 50,000 potential sexual predators are scouring the internet at any moment in time” (Sears2006). The lack of safety features on Bebo against these predators has sparked concern among many parents. Their main question being: “who is reading the stuff on the site and are they genuine”? (Sands 2006).
The minimum age of having a Bebo account is 13. The site does not ask for proof of age however, allowing young children to become members. Bebo allows users to create a fictional life and post false information about themselves. This has led to several cases of rape such as the one involving Lee Costi, 21, who had sex with two girls aged 13 and 14 after meeting them in an online chatroom (Sands 2006).
Copyright infringement
Its a common issue with most online network sites and especially so with Bebo. The only safety measure on the site against photograph laundering is to block users from viewing your profile. Bebo has been quoted as saying “Do not post anything on your homepage unless you are 100% sure you would like to share it with the entire community”. Jonathan Bailey 2006, says this echoes the argument most “copyright foes” make which is: “If you post something to the Web, you should expect it to get stolen”. Instead of taking measures to protect users, Bebo turns to victim blaming.
This is an example of photo infringement. The original picture has been taken apart and used in various contexts.
The language used on Bebo is easy and often mirrors instant messaging. These enables users to scan the text and get the information on the site quickly, without actually having to read it word for word (Nielsen & Morkes 1997). This will attract users to return to the site, causing this online community to continuously expand.
In my own opinion, the problems with Bebo can be fixed with just some consideration on the part of Bebo’s Webmaster. If Bebo hopes to gain an edge over its competitor MySpace, addressing these issues would be the best way. Teens will continually communicate using these sites, so making it safe for use is essential for the users and Bebo itself.
As a 21 year old student of communication, research and writing are necessities of the trade. Expressive writing however, is my true passion. With this blog, the many significant and trivial thoughts flitting through my mind will finally be jotted down. A haven for my writing..
