Reflection

I have learned that in publication, layout design is as important as content as they complement each other to help deliver messages effectively. Having this in mind, I will use information value to present different meanings, create importance with saliency and to connect and disconnect elements with framing in my future documents. (Kress & van Leuween 1998)

As I always blog about my short film production, I have now learnt to write things the way my readers would understand. I must connect with my readers through their situational and cultural context. I also must write carefully when writing critiques as so to avoid offending, discriminating or misinforming my readers.

Design theories are also incorporated in my production blog where I used information value, saliency and framing for easy navigation and reading. I have lots of images to compliment what I write as readers do like to see more of whats happening than reading!

Before I end this post, IPD has taught me a lot and have taught me well. I have learnt a lot of things that will be put in to my future works.

Are Citizen Jounalists Bad?

Anyone, including you, me, your neighbors and friends can be a citizen journalist. A citizen journalist collects and disseminates information about anything ranging from events to people, trends, issues and politics. With the development of technology, citizen journalists are increasing in its popularity through the internet via blogs. It is so easy for anyone to take a picture on the streets and upload it on the internet and social net working websites for dissemination.

Many of them now report from the scene via wireless internet or 3G. Journalists feels that this is an issue as they are afraid that these citizen journalists do not know how to apply objectivity in their reports and they may not know how to report based on the code of ethics of journalism as required for professional news reporting.

There is nothing wrong with citizen journalism; in fact, it has been widely encouraged for people to report and share information. How do we know what is ethical to be published and shared with the world?

However, there is nothing wrong with citizen journalism. In fact it is encouraged as many people will know what is happening all around. But how do they know what is ethical reporting? Differentiating between what should be reported and what should be not?

Here’s some basic reporting ethics from SaveTheMedia.

Try not to report anything that would hurt another person or cost someone their future, career or relationship. If you really have to report something you saw, at least get both sides of the story before writing about anyone that could put them in a bad light. This also means that you would give a source where there are sufficient chances to respond to your report.

An example of this would be the Tampines Junior College students who were reported to have been “heavy petting at the back of bus number 12″. The netizen had snapped a picture and posted it on a popular local forum. He/she had not bothered to get find out what was going on and did not think of the consequences before posting it online. His / her actions had resulted in the both Junior College students getting them fired from their student councillor titles for something that they might not have done in the first place. This incident was reported on Asia One.

Don’t publish what you will not want to see published on the newspapers. This would mean no publishing of inappropriate use of language, pictures or videos. Simply put, do not publish anything that would cause discomfort to those whom are reading or viewing it.

Be honest when you are writing the story. Admit your mistake if you have said something wrong. If you misunderstood something, acknowledge it. If you inadvertently wrong someone, apologize and try to fix it.


Gina Chen, 19 October 2009, viewed 13 June 2010

AsiaOne, 21 Jan 2009, viewed 13 June 2010

New Media is not Evil

The sudden rise of online activities such as blogs and twitter are posing a threat to many journalists as these new media portray the end of traditional journalism and hence losing their jobs. (Rowse 2007) However, after reading the transcript of The Media Report, Paul Bradshaw showed journalists 10 reasons that they should be cheerful of the new media. (Funnell 2008)

The whole transcript is basically about the presenter, Antony Funnell interviewing Paul of the 10 factors why journalists should not be afraid of the convergence of new media. I feel that journalists and publishers should not be threatened as there are a lot of users out there that just favours the fresh feeling of newspapers every morning. As Heilbut (2010) mentioned, internet news is not a good substitute as our eyes will be tired out after staring on the screen for too long.

Don't you think is just hard to read?

Moreover, everyone has to understand that there is a difference between reading text on the computer and reading something physical. Walsh (2006) mentioned that literary text like newspapers and books serves a totally different purpose as compared to hypertexts and online text publishing.

With the help of technology, journalists can make more wonders for readers as country to country borders are not a hindrance anymore. With the creation of Skype, Windows Live Messenger, e-mail and blogs, there is no need for expensive calls or snail mail anymore.

Journalists and publishers are still a important as we need them to produce the ever lovable physical newspapers that we read during breakfast!


Funnell, A 2008, The blogging revolution, the media report, viewed on 12 June 2010

Lowenstein, A 2008, The blogging revolution, readings, viewed on 12 June 2010

Olsen, L & Huckin, T 1991, technical writing and professional communication, 2nd edition, Mcgraw and hill, new York, pg 230-232

Wyld, D 2007, The blogging revolution: goverment in the age of web 2.0, IBM Center for the business of government, viewed on 10 June 2010

Is Privacy Still Ours?

As the rising rates on internet crimes like identity thefts, scams, spamming and stalking, the online community is worried about the stand on internet privacy. Are we still in control of our privacy?

Cecilia Kang (2010) wrote about the public awareness the display of their intimate information, which worries and enrages the users as it invades their privacy. Facebook implemented a high-privacy setting change which allowed their users to have a control over what information to display and not to display after user complaints in December 2009 (Kang 2010). Moreover, the Federal Trade Commission is hovering over online privacy concerns, and is being pressurized aggressively by private attorneys to address complains of user’s privacy invasions by Google Buzz and Facebook (Kang 2010).

Google Buzz

Facebook

We have to face the fact that the existence of blogging allows bloggers to share personal information with the online world. As a teenager, not only does sharing information allows us to meet more new people, but also being heard makes it more worthwhile. It has long been a normal phenomenon since blogging has been commercialized. While Kang (2010) mentioned that users are finding it hard to maintain their privacy, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook gave his opinion that users are becoming comfortable not just with sharing information, but more openly and willingly with other users. This normality has grown with time. Facebook has set the public setting as default as a reflection on the normality. (Kirtkpatrick 2010)

Kang, C 2009, Is Internet privacy dead? No, just more complicated: researchers, The Washington Post, viewed 13^th June 2010, .

Kirkpatrick, M 2010a, Facebook’s Zuckerberg says the age of privacy is over, ReadWriteWeb, viewed 13^th June 2010, .

Kirkpatrick, M 2010b, Why Facebook is wrong: Privacy is still important, ReadWriteWeb, viewed 13^th June 2010, .