Reflection

Blogging

(Source: http://fan.kaspersky-sea.com/pjchallenge/)

I used to blog last time, but since the technology has improved, I spend more of my time in sharing through Twitter or Facebook. But sometimes it does feel good to blog. I use blog to share my stories or experiences. So, when I was assigned to do the academic blog, it is not a new thing for me. However, I still need to find out some informations, readings or resources that related to the issues I was going to discuss about. Besides, writing personal blog is different with writing the academic blog, so some good blogging skill might be needed.

Blogging is not simply about typing and posting, but to have a good quality of blog, you need to learn how the blog is working. According to Justin Tsan (2007), a good blogger is someone that are willing to learn about the basic of web technologies before they blog. Besides that, we need to understand about the existence of social culture issue and how it affects the way you blog since weblog could be accessed internationally.

Blogging is a new form of communication nowadays where people could share their thoughts, discuss it, and put some comments on the post. However, before creating a weblog, the author need to identify the type of his/ her blog, and its purposes, so the message could send clearly to the reader. Happy blogging!

References:

Tsan, J, 2007, Qualities Of A Good Blogger. Qualities Of A Good Blogger. 8 Nov. 2007. EzineArticles.com. viewed June 16, 2010, http://ezinearticles.com/?Qualities-Of-A-Good-Blogger&id=823015

The Trend of Photo-Manupulation

Photo-Manupulation

(source: http://yahyasheikho786.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/when-alarmists-talk-perfect-sense-about-cyberwar-“imagine-no-lines”-beyond-the-beyond/)

Photo-manupulation has been around us since the technology of creativity improved. The invention of some software has allowed people to manipulate document or pictures (photographs). The impact of visual on a viewer comes directly from the old belief that said, “camera never lies” (Lester 1999). Further, on the chapter, Lester explained that camera has faithfully and unemotionally captured a moment in time. The improved and advanced technology allows them to easily manipulate pictures or photographs. Back in the past, camera might never lies, but today,

pictures might say the untruth. However, manipulating the photographs is prohibited regarding the ethical of photojournalism. Therefore, the Webster University Journal stated some ‘Do’s and Don’ts” guidelines in editing photographs in their article “Policy for the Ethical Use of Photographs”.

DO:

• - Burning and dogging to control tonal range
• - Color correction
• - Brightness/ contrast control
• - Cropping and frame photos to fit layout
• - Touch of dust and stretches

DON’T:

• - Changing color other than to restore the looked of subject
• - Flopping a photography
• - Cropping a frame to alter its meaning
• - Adding/ removing object within frame

Do not assume that expert will not make any mistake. Experts are human too, who makes mistake, unconsciously. Since there are some issues of misinterpretation and misunderstanding the object regarding the photo-manupulation, it has been prohibited to the ethical of publishing. So, it is wise when you take some political ethics before expressing the creativity into photographs. Creativity is not necessarily need to be negative.

References:

Lester, PM 1999, Chapter Six: Picture Manupulation, Photojournalism Ethics, viewed June 16, 2010, http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/chapter6.html

Policy for the Ethical Use of Photograps, Webster University Journal, viewed June 16, 2010, http://www.webster.edu/~barrettb/journal_ethics.htm

Enlighten Your E-mail with Emoticons :) ;D

Smiley Emoticons

(Source: http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-4499969-emoticons.php)

Everybody tend to be in a rush. Open their e-mail, read it fast, reply, and click 'send' button. Unconsciously, we might sending the wrong signal to the readers. We could not expect people to read the way we read. People in a good mood might read differently with the people in a bad mood.

Will Schwalbe, a New York Publisher, said that e-mail is not just an e-mail. E-mail is actually a a symbol of how you treat other people. You do not need a formal e-mail or sentences to make people feel good reading your e-mail. Some of them might do not even know how to write a proper e-mail. According to Netwriting (2007), you just need to keep your e-mail brief and to the point. Certain e-mail might looks boring and dull with just text in it. Therefore, in 1982, Scott Falham introduced emoticon that has smiley face (Wikipedia 2010). Picture could say a thousand words, that is why we love emoticons nowadays. An emoticon of cute yellow smiley smiling is better than a word smile. Putnis & Petelin (1996, pp.297) stated that all texts contain explicit or implicit traces of other texts. Certainly, simple emoticons would brighten your simple e-mail. Nobody knows when your smiley emoticon might cheer up someone's bad mood :)

Using Emoticons in Instant Messaging (MSN)

(source: http://www.sherv.net/article106.html)

References:

Davis, A n.d, Emoticons and Email Etiquette, ABC.net.au

Netwriting 2009, The Art of Writing Good Emails, viewed at June 15, 2010, http://www.netwriting.co.uk/2007/05/21/the-art-of-writing-good-emails/

Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, Professional communication: principles and applications, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Wikipedia 2010, Emoticons, viewed at June 15, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticon

Don't blog your story, Tweet it!

People used to connect to others through mails or Facebook, but here is Twitter, the latest social networking tools that allows the users to share anything, in anywhere and anytime, any second. Twitter means sharing the news. Even the politician like the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, has more than 19,000 followers on his twitter. He also use Twitter to promote his campaign on One Malaysia and his website.

Benefits of Twitter: Networking. (Source: http://www.twitip.com/benefits-twitter/)

Besides it is useful for some research tools, the Twitter subscribers can get update on what they think or feel on particular issue or topics, which we believe that any media like televisions or newspapers cannot do in a short time. Even some magazines or companies start their publishing and advertisement on Twitter, for example: Seventeen Magazine, NY. Twitter does not limit the users in connecting with other users, by just simply clicking the follow button. You can meet other talented, smart and insightful users on Twitter. Seventeen Magazine could easily get their reader latest comments, idea, or critics on the content of the magazine in Twitter (which you will need at least a week by using post-mail).

World's is changing so fast where we can't hardly keep up (sometimes). Keep it up now with the Tweety birds!

Reference:

Rowse, D 2010, 5 Ways I Benefit from Twitter, Twitip, viewed on June 15, 2010, http://www.twitip.com/benefits-twitter/

Zahid, S J 2010, Blogging is so Yesterday, Politicians Turn to Twitter, The Malaysia Insider, February 11, 2010

Trust = The Best Social Networking Policy?

Social networking has become part of our daily life. People used to connect with their friends through it, instead of phones or mails. It is not surprising when Facebook and Twitter hit their user capacity in the recent years. It is obvious that people want to be heard and seen, no matter teenagers, adults, parents, or elder people.

However, the larger the user of the social networking, the larger it gets for others to read their personal information easily. There is when the social networking finds its fall. David Hobson wrote in the Press Distribution that privacy is the major downfalls in the social networking. For instance, in Facebook, the user gets to fill all his/ her personal information from address, age, birthday, until personal interest. This privacy issue has its proved. Couple months back in Indonesia, a high school girl reported missing after she arranged some meeting with a guy she met in Facebook.

Some studies also show that Facebook gets negative feedback recently. Because of that reason, Facebook change their privacy setting last December that will not captured questions about location-based services (Kang, 2010). Ever since then, the privacy gets better and 50 percent of its user pinched their profile settings into more private setting. Instead of losing its user, on the other hand, Facebook increases in its user members.

Since the case of Facebook (and also Google), the FTC become more concern about the social networking privacy and take it into account more aggresively. Even though people loves being heard or seen by other people, but some privacy would be even nicer!

References:

Hobson, D 2010, The Fall of Some Social Networking Sites, Press Distribution, June 11, 2010, viewed on June 15, 2010 http://www.pressdistribution.net/10217/the-fall-of-some-social-networking-sites

Kang, C 2010, is Internet Privacy Dead? No, just some more completed: researchers, Washington Post, March 15, 2010