A Mind of Our Own

Reflections

2008-06-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I blog therefore what I could reflect from creating this blog is that I have manage to acquire skill in designing for the internet and I learn a lot of issues faced by web designers and publications.

The host of my blog is Blogspot because I find it easy to do my blog there. Blogspot's facilities are very user-friendly for beginner in blogging like me. In this blog, I apply some theories that i have learn in my class. I made sure that the design that I chose for this blog does not cause eye strains for the users, I made sure that this blog is scannable and has good contrast between the background and the foreground. I also apply other elements such as outbound hyperlinks and C-Box to make my blog more interactive. The image that I have in my blog, I made sure that it is source in order to prevent copyright issues.

Blogging is one of the most in-thing to do on the internet because it is very useful. Some use it to do goods like sharing personal experience whereas some would misused the blog like creating a Hate Site. So as a World Wide Web user, it is up us to choose how we wanna use our blog because every blogger has a purpose.

Citizen Journalism

2008-06-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

From Citizen Journalism to Citizen Paparazzi

Citizen journalism is used to describe a form of media that allows the public to become journalist by reporting online (Tryemayne 2007, p. 240) whereas citizen paparazzi is not really a new concept, it is just taking picture using the cameraphones and videophones (Glaser 2005). But the big question is how did the citizen journalism turn into citizen paparazzi?

The very famous incident that cause the citizen journalism to transform themselves into citizen paparazzi was the London bombing. When the victims of the London bombing was in pain and suffering, flashes of light coming from digital cameras, videophone and 35mm cameraphones can be seen all over the place (Glaser 2005). Instead of lending a hand to the victims, the citizen paparazzi were busy taking the best pictures that shows the most gruesome shots of the victims (Glaser 2005). Why were these citizen paparazzi eager enough to get the nicest shots?

(source from: http://www.rwevans.co.uk/~r/rwevans/wevansnet08/p-mid089LondonBombing.jpg )

Example of a citizen paparazzi's picture

The reason why the citizen journalism has change to citizen paparazzi and taking the nicest shot of the situation is so that they can post it in their blogs, wikipedia etc. The picture will help improve the their blog's credibility due to the fact that there is visual proof because according to Nielsen and Morkes (1997) the internet users mostly judge the web's credibility by looking at the quality of the web's content.

In the book, the 'Text Shift: Examining the reading process print, visual, and multimodal texts', Walsh (2006) describe that "written part is only one part of the message, and no longer the dominant part" therefore therefore they are striving to get the best pictures and why they are turning into the citizen paparazzi. If citizen journalist include pictures in their document, it will make the reader's life easier because the according to Karen Schriver, it is faster to search for a specific information by looking at the graphics instead of the prose.

But overall before becoming a citizen journalist or a citizen paparazzi, we have to be a decent human being. Instead of taking gruesome pictures of the victims, we should help them out and respect what they have been through.

Reference List:
1. Glaser, M 2005, 'Did London bombings turn citizen journalists into citizen paparazzi?', Online Journalism Review, viewed 12 June 2008,
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050712glaser/

2. Morkes, J and Nielsen, J 1998, Applying Writing Guidelines to Web Pages, viewed on 10 June 2008
http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/rewriting.html

3. Schriver, KA 1997, 'The interplay of words and pictures', Dynamics in Document Design: Creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York, ch. 6 pp. 361-441

4. Tremayne, M 2007, Blogging, Citizenship, and the Future of Media, Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, New York

5. Walsh, M 2006, The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 24-37

Game Design Causes Aggression and Violence

2008-06-11T05:24:00.000-07:00

What does all these three games have in common?

(source from: xbox360.ign.com/articles/838/838366p1.html)

Grand Theft Auto (GTA)is a game that was designed and created which allows the players to play a role of a criminal that can roam freely around a city and causing crimes such as bank robberies and assassination etc at the same time.

(source from: http://www.nuttersmark.com/images/blog/top5games/doom1.jpg)

Doom is a 3D graphics, networked multiplayer game that allows the player to be the first person shooter.

(source from: http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p46/gilcarlesso/f49498363.jpg)

Counter Strike is a game that allows you to kill terrorist because the players are first-person shooter. This game is quite similar to Doom.

Violent Games

The answer is violence. I have played two out of the three games mention above, which is Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and Counter Strike (CS) and I have to say these games should not be played by those who are not mentally mature enough.

These games are meant for people above the appropriate age, somehow children and adolescents manage to get their hands on it. Children and sometimes adults are not aware of the consequences that they might face when they play these games. They might not be mentally and physically ready to be expose to the contents of these games. According to the Bruce Bartholow, conductor of games research, results shows that violent games has effects on the brain that predict aggressive behaviour (BBC news 2006).

The design of these games are getting more and more realistic which makes it more difficult for player to differentiate reality and fantasy/virtual reality. GTA has come out with its latest game which is Grand Theft Auto IV. According to Rory Cellan-Jones (2008), this latest game is "ten times more realistic, immersive and interactive than the original version". As a gamer myself, I have to say that there is a huge difference between the current games and the old games. If we compare the graphics and content, the old games do not contain obscene language and bloody scene in the games but the new games does. Not just that, the new games are now mostly 3-dimensional therefore causing and making it harder to differentiate real life and game life.

Due to the new highly advance graphic design, there are negatives effects on the players. The players has a direct interface with the games, so they can easily get affected by the games just by watching it because there is evidence that watching violence can increase the level of aggression (Kirsh 2006, pp. 130-137). The other thing that we have to worry about is the fact that the players tends to imitate what they see (Krish 2006, pp.130-137) and sometimes they act it out. They imitate because they are confuse between reality and fantasy. This is because games are getting too realistic due to the graphic designs of the games.

Solution...

Game developers or publishers should consider how the readers or in this case the players interact with the product (schriver 1997, p. 362). Even though there is a high demand for violent games in the market, there is a limit to how far you can go with the amount of violence you put in the games.

Reference List:
1. Cellan-Jones, R 2008, 'GTA - The Outrage Fades', BBC news, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/04/gta_the_outrage_fades.html

2. Kirsh, SJ 2006, Children, Adolescents and Media Violence, Sage Publications, Inc, California

3. Schriver, KA 1997, 'The interplay of words and pictures', Dynamics in Document Design: Creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York, ch. 6 pp. 361-441

4. Violent games affects your brain 2006, 10 January 2006 BBC News, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3809188252404769645&postID=1569903926547918886

Can online Encyclopedia be trusted?

2008-06-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

(source from: http://ucmerced.citris-uc.org/system/files/imce-u10/Wikipedia-logo.png)

VS.

(Source from: http://www.webtraderuk.org.uk/_Attachments/Gallery/Shared/10044%20Encyclopaedia%20Britannica.jpg)

As a student, I rely a lot on online information especially when we live in this era where we are very dependent on online resources to do our assignments. Some of the online sources that I highly rely on is the 'WIKIPEDIA' and 'ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA'. According to Diana Reep (2006), a website's content has to be relevant to the users and whether the users need or want the information and as a student I find that both of these sites essential. However my lecturers advised us, the students, not to use Wikipedia but we are allowed to use Encyclopedia Britannica due to the fact that it is considered more reliable and credible when both are compared to each other. But how sure are we that Encyclopedia Britannica is a better source than Wikipedia?

Research Conducted by the Nature

Three years back, The British journal, Nature, conducted a research that examines the credibility and reliability of these two sources. Experts from that research have found that the level of accuracy for Wikipedia is not far apart from Encyclopedia Britannica. The study shows that Wikipedia had 4 errors per article whereas Encyclopedia Britannica has 3 errors per article (zonk 2005) and the type of error is misinterpretation of concepts. According to the BBC news (2005) report, 162 factual errors and false statement was found in Wikipedia whereas Encyclopedia Britannica has 123. Though Wikipedia has more errors when compared to Encyclopedia Britannica, but the difference between the two sources are not that far apart. Therefore Wikipedia is almost as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica.

How can Wikipedia improves on its credibility?

Nielsen and Morkes (1997) stated that credibility of the website is important because online users wouldn't want to feed by false statement. In my opinion, Wikipedia should do a proper citing and referencing for their websites in order to gain the user's trust. Nielsen and Morkes (1997) also said that outbound hypertext links will increase the credibility of the website and make the site more believable. Currently Wikipedia has outbound links in their websites therefore they should maintain that. If Wikipedia follows these instructions, one day it might be accepted by our lecturers as an academic source for assignments.

Reference List:
1. Morkes, J and Nielsen, J (1998), Applying Writing Guidelines to Web Pages, viewed on 10 June 2008
http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/rewriting.html

2. Reep, DC 2006, Technical writing: principles, strategies, and readings , 6th edn, Pearson Education , Inc, New York.

3. 'Wikipedia survives research test' 2005, 15 December 2008 BBC news, viewed on 10 June 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4530930.stm

4. Zonk 2005, 'Wikipedia's Accuracy compared to Britannica', SlashDot, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/15/1352207&tid=95&tid=14

New Forms of Media Publishing

2008-05-02T03:06:00.000-07:00

Newest Trends
The new forms of media publishing that people are into these days are Photolog and Vlog. One of the famous photolog website is fotolog and for vlog, of course the ever infamous youtube. However we have to ask ourselves what are the benefits and issues surrounding these two newest trends.

Vlog

Benefits - Youtube is a well known vlog in the Wold Wide Web. According to squidoo.com, some of the benefits of youtube is that you can upload videos that allow other other web users to either watch the videos online or download it to their own computer. The greatest benefit is that it is free.

Downside - Though youtube is considered as beneficial to web users but it is not to some companies. Youtube faces a lot of problems dealing with copyright. BBC news (2007) reported that several companies are suing youtube over copyright issues. As reported in the BBC News last year, Viacom which is a company that owns MTV and Nickelodeon, is suing youtube for publishing Viacom's show illegally. A lot of companies are losing money and worried of their existence.

(source from: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/15/1352207&tid=95&tid=14)

publishing videos without the permission of the owner

Moblog

Benefits - The benefit of having photolog is that it allows internet users to share photos with their families and friends online. Therefore they can keep in contact and maintain their relationships.

Downside - The down side of it is that some of the photos you can't distinguish whether it is authentic or fake. According to The Reuters Photo Scandal website, internet users can be mislead by what is presented in the photos. There has been a lot of issues regarding photos that had been edited using photoshop software. Photos can be alter by either combining two photos into one, changing its colours and pixels resolution and even enhancing an element in the photos. Adnan Hajj is a freelance photographer who got into trouble for editing the original photos.

(source from: http://www.edwincarter.me.uk/theory/photos/bb/GiantCat2E.jpg)

an element in the photo was edited

Reference List;
1. Benefits of Registering with YouTube 2008, Squidoo.com, viewed in 1 May 2008, at 2008http://www.squidoo.com/Benefits_of_Registering_With_YouTube

2. Streaming Future for Internet Users 2007, BBC News, viewed in 1 May 2008, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7017794.stm

3. The Reuters Photo Scandal 2006, zombietime.com, viewed in 1 May 2008, at http://www.zombietime.com/reuters_photo_fraud/

4. Viacom will sue YouTube for $1bil 2007, BBC News, viewed in 1 May 2008, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6446193.stm

Designing for Online Vs. Print

2008-05-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

(online)

VS.

(print)

The way audience read online and printing is very different. According to Dr Jacob Nielsen's study, 79% of web users only scan a webpage instead of reading thoroughly. This is because reading from the computer's monitor is 25% slower than reading from print and also staring too long at the monitors can increase eye strain. Based on his study, he found that web readers are three times more likely to limit in-depth reading to short paragraphs than newspaper readers. This is because online content has no 'control' over what the audience has to read. Print content controls what the audience is reading and what they are going to read whereas online content allows the audience to be the active. Example of a badly design websites:

(source from: http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/)

This website demonstrate what makes up worst website.
Click on the picture to further view the website.

Improvement
Ways to improve online content to be more appealing to the audience is by improving its scannability. According to Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006), element such as arrangement and visual appearance of writing contributes to meaning. In the first and second law of Gestalt by Bernhardt (1986), stated that balance or equilibrium with other elements in the field and a good contrast is important so that the audience doesn't have to strive for closure. According to Nielsen, the information displayed on the websites should be simple and precise.

Which is better?
Neither is better than the other because everyone has different interest. Some people prefer reading the print content like newspapers while others prefer reading online.

Reference List:
1. Bernhardt, S.A 1986, 'Seeing the text', College Composition and Communication, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 66-78

2. Kress, G. & V Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading Images, Chapter 6: The meaning of composition

3. Nielsen, J, 1997. How Users Read on the Web. Viewed on 1 May 2008 at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

4. Redshaw, K 2003, Web Writing vs Print Writing, Kerryr.net, viewed on 1 May 2008 at http://www.kerryr.net/webwriting/guide_web-vs-print.htm

Classification of Blogs & Example(s) of Blogging Communities

2008-05-01T07:27:00.001-07:00

Variation of blogging

Subject Matters:

politics
fashion
history
law
technology
sport
travel
food

Media types:

vlog - is short video blog, is a term use to describe a blog that contains video clips. Examples of vlog are youtube.com and veoh.com.

linklog - is a blog that consist of other blogs' URL and you can link to those blogs. Example of a linklog is Lisanova.

sketchlog - is a blog that consists of images, especially sketches and other drawings. Example of a sketchlog is rob-sheridan.

tumblelog - is a short and concise blog that provides little or sometimes no commentary at all. Example of a tumblelog is projectionist.

photolog - is a blog that contains photos, where the photos is the primary element not the text. Example of a photolog is photoshack.

splog - is short for spam blog, it is actually a fake blog solely made to promote affiliated Web sites.

Device:

moblog - is short for mobile blogging. it is a blog where Mobile Phones acts as another device to publish blog entries. Example of a moblog is flickr.

(source from: http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3809188252404769645&postID=668239486628193705)

Status of Publishers:

corporate and business blogs

What is a blogging community and how to create one?
Blogging communities are people who have similar area of interest and discuss in a group or in this case a blog. Ways to created a blogging community is by using hyperlinks, forums, tag links, chat space and comment post. This will allow the audience to be interactive with the blog they are reading and it will help increase the number of viewers.

Reference list:
1. Blogging, The Phenomenon: Text Based 2006, Thinkquest, viewed on 1 May 2008 at http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01130/typesofblogs_textbased.html

2. Hi-tech ways to stay in touch 2007, BBC News, viewed in 1 May 2008, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7082566.stm

3. The 8 different types of blogging in 2008, MakeYouGoHmm .com, viewed in 1 May 2008, at http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20080124/5040/

4. What is Splog? Splog Explained 2005, The Internet Patrol, viewed in 1 May 2008, at http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/what-is-a-splog-splogs-explained

Blogs as Current Phenomenon & Effects on Community

2008-04-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

Blogosphere
Blogging is now considered a huge cyber trend amongst internet users all around the world. Blogging has become a phenomenon for people to build relations and express themselves. According to analyst Gartner, Technorati reported that 100,000 new blogs were being created every day, and 1.3 million blog posts were written.

It was last reported by The Blog Herald Blog Count February 2006, there is an estimate 200 million bloggers in existence. Therefore we can guess that by this year, the number of blogs being created must be huge.

(source from: http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3809188252404769645&postID=1249609799174073926)

number of bloggers by 2006

Blogging Trends
The main blogging trends are social blogging, political blogging and economical blogging. Social blogging consist of personal blogs, community blogs, food blogs, technology blogs and entertainment blogs. Political blogging just focuses on politics and economical blogging consist of blogs that has to do with business and making profits.

According to Microsoft (2006), most Asians does social blogging to maintain and build social relations by expressing themselves and share their lives with family and friends. In Malaysia 44% of bloggers blog about personal stuff and technology, 16% on politics and another 40% on business and corporate as stated by the sabahan.com (2006) website.

United Kingdom bloggers also mostly does social blogging but they vary by a bit to Malaysian bloggers because they mainly blog about technology as said by Stuart Brown.

(source from: http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/article/leading-average-top-blog-trends)

Blogging trends in UK

Effect on Malaysian Communities
Blogging gives positive effects to Malaysian communities because it provides benefits to the community. Example when talking about political issues in Malaysian, the mainstream newspapers are biased towards the government because the newspapers companies are mostly owned by the government. Therefore if Malaysian communities want to know the other side of the story, they can turn political blog like Jeff Ooi.

Reference List:
1. 50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia 2007, sabahan.com, viewed on 1 May 2008, at http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malays
2. Blogging 'set to peak next year' 2006, BBC News, viewed on 1 May 2008, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6178611.stm

3. Brown, S 2006, Leading Average: Top Blog Trends, Modern Life, viewed 30 April 2008, at http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/article/leading-average-top-blog-trends
4. Duncan 2006, The Blog Herald Blog Count February 2006: 200 Million Blogs In Existence, Blog Herald, viewed 1 May 2008, at http://www.blogherald.com/2006/02/02/the-blog-herald-blog-count-february-2006-200-million-blogs-in-existence/

5. Microsoft 2006, Blogging Phenomenon Sweeps Asia, viewed on 30 April 2008, at http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-28-2

The Purpose of This Blog

2008-04-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

This blog will examine current issues that are raised in this new era concerning publications and designs. The primary target audience of this blog are students who are interest to learn and understand the issues about publication and design. Though, this information is also open to people who are in the industry.