Reflection

After taking this course and doing the final assessment, I felt that I have learned a lot about issues in publication and design. There were many new and useful things, which I got out from this subject provided by University of South Australia via Taylor’s Business School.

             According to Schirato and Yell (2000), social semiotics can be summed up simply as the study of how people make meaning, based upon their past experiences, background, education level and culture. 

            Furthermore I learned that, placing elements on different sides and level brings forth different meaning, as Kress & van Leeuwen (2006), states that placing elements on the left is information that are given or already known by the readers, and placing it on the right is new information, something the readers are not aware of or not yet known to them. 

            Thus from the above, you can see the elements that I have learned being applied in my post here and thru out the blog.

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Reference List:

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T., (2006) “Chapter 6: The meaning of composition”, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, London, published by Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, England, pp. 175 – 214

Schirato, & Yell, (2000) “Communication as social practice” Communication and Culture: An Introduction, published by Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, New South Wales, Australia, pp. 43-63

New media qualities; multimodality; new forms of journalism

Section 2, Topic 10:

            On the internet, social networking sites are among the fastest growing segment representing a valuable information source (Jansen, Sobel & Cook, 2011).

Unlike the previous post, which cover the disadvantages of the internet and how it could fuel crisis. This post would cover on how the advancement of technology can create awareness and provide help to the people who needs it most. 

From this article, by Dorian Benkoil, about how reporting disaster in 1995 and in 2011 is so different. In 1995 before the era of internet we have to rely on newspapers and television news to keep us updated with the world, but now internet has become part of our lives and it is something hard to do without, news are being pass around via various websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and these are only a few from the hundreds of sites news can be obtain from.

Facebook:

Sky news' page on Facebook

Twitter:

News agencies using twitter to update followers on the latest on going around the world. And citizen journalism, reporting  to fellow followers on the latest traffic and road blocks around Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

Youtube:

Sky News' channel on Youtube

 

            Here is an example of how an American Youtube user tries to raise funds for tsunami victims in Japan.

According to Mortensen (2011), why sites such as Youtube have become a new source of news is because of its raw footage, which is uncensored and sometimes violent in nature. Furthermore he summed up that citizen photojournalism has the capacity to disclose otherwise unobtainable footage (Mortensen, 2011), fresh as it is, untouched.

From the above pictures and Youtube clip we can how see, how fast news are being circulated and their multimodality (various types elements in a media). With these new media qualities, it is so much easier for general public to gain access to the news, furthermore they can choose what they want to read, and ignore information that they dislike or not interested in. unlike the traditional form, such as radio and television, an user needs to follow the program that have been lined up by the producer. 

Thus in conclusion, we can summaries that this new forms of journalism could be a complimentary service to the existing traditional services or even it could take over as the premier source for news and entertainment.

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Reference List:

Jansen, B.J., Sobel, K., & Cook, G., (2011) “Classifying ecommerce information sharing by youths on social networking sites” Journal of Informational Science, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 120-136 

Mortensen, M., (2011) “When citizen photojournalism sets the news agenda: Neda Agha Soltan as a Web 2.0 icon of post-election unrest in Iran” Global Media and Communication, Vol 7, No. 1, pp. 4-16

New media ecosystem; new media qualities & freedom of speech & public sphere

Section 2, Topic 7:

            From this article by the Star, we can see the bad side of citizen journalism and social networking. As we all know that recently there has been a major uproar in Egypt, where President Mubarak’s government was over thrown by the citizen themselves. Apparently, it all started by one Egyptian man who posted on Facebook, unhappy about their president, it instantly caught fire and spread uncontrollably thru to the citizen, thus the reason for the chaos created. 

            From this article, we can also see the power of social networking and how it could influence so many people, by just posting unhappiness with the government. For better or for worst, in this case it was for worst, as Youtube clips did not help the situation as many clips of protest is being uploaded by the citizen themselves, displaying the brutal truth straight to people’s home on the situation that is going on in Egypt. 

            According to Mortensen (2011), citizen photojournalism, adopts a strategy of publishing it first, and then later validate it later. Furthermore he added that visual testimonies by amateurs have saturated the news media. On top of that he also acknowledges this is a news source. An example of this Youtube clip, captured by a citizen and being broadcast by CBS new channel.

            Again the reason for the active participation of the citizen, is to be blame on technology and its advancement;

Firstly, without mobile phones with camera, amateur cannot be recorded ‘on the fly’, thus it would not be easy for them to start recording anything they like.

Secondly, the power the internet, with this it gave birth to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and the previous king of social networking, Friendster. Furthermore with sites likes Youtube, where a user could easily create an account and start sharing video of any sort except explicit and racist contents. 

            Thus we can deduce that these are perfect match to fuse chaos to the masses, without using much resources, time and even effort. This have create a new way where media is being convey to the public audiences as traditional news channels such as CNN, CBS and BBC have their own Youtube and Twitter to post clips and bits of news.

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Check out how blogs and it structure can affect the community here

Reference List:

Mortensen, M., (2011) “When citizen photojournalism sets the news agenda: Neda Agha Soltan as a Web 2.0 icon of post-election unrest in Iran” Global Media and Communication, Vol 7, No. 1, pp. 4-16

Photojournalism & ethical publishing

Section 1, Topic 3:

            Photos and pictures are a great way to describe and show people about the event or happenings. As nowadays media are becoming multimodal, with more than one element in the particular reading that could inform the readers about what this article or reading is all about (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Pictures and photographs remind us to look at what often we wish to ignore or deny or simply forget (Teichman, 2010) or it could also remind us of the happy times. Furthermore, photography and visual ethics are currently hot topics in the journalism community (Winslow, 2006), which brings us to the next part.

           

Altered picture by al-Ahram, [source: BBC]

Original picture from the White House on 1st September [source: BBC]

            Comparing the photos above, we can see the altered picture is on the left, which was given to the Egyptian citizens and on the right the original photo. I chose to put the altered photo on left as it was given information and the original on the righ as it was a new information for the citizens of Egypt, this is in line with Kress & van Leeuwen’s (2006).   

            Now the issue here is, whether it was ethical for the Egyptian newspaper to do such a thing as this. Due to the fact that it is very misleading, and it could cause the citizen to belief that their leader is keen to resolve the issue, as from the altered picture it shows President Mubarak leading the way for the talks. However in actual fact we can see that he is trailing behind the group suggesting that he is not keen to attend the event. 

            Yes censorship, in some country is important, but this is not it. As we can see that al-Ahram is telling a very big lie to their readers. Furthermore, with the internet, it is very easy for readers to double check their reading materials, whether it is legitimate or just pure hoax. 

            This is not an acceptable, as photographs can cause great harm if they are being manipulated (NPPA), furthermore this is violating the fundamental rights of a human. In Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that, everyone has the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through and media and regardless of frontiers (UN, 1948).

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            For more information regarding on ethics for visual journalism click here.

Reference List:

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T., (2006) “Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication”, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, published by Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, England, pp.16 – 44.

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T., (2006) “Chapter 6: The meaning of composition”, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, published by Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, England, pp.175 – 214.

NPPA, “NPPA Code of Ethics” National Press Photographers Association, viewed on 10^th June 2011, 

[http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/ethics.html] 

Teichman, S., (2010) “Preparing the Next Generation of Photojournalists”, Nieman Reports, Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 41-42

UN, 1948 “The Univcersal Declaration of Human Rights” United Nations, viewed on 10^th June 2011 

[http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml]

Winslow, D.R., (2006) “A QUESTION OF TRUTH: Photojournalism And Visual Ethics” National Press Photographers Association,  published on 2^nd August 2006, viewed on 10^th June 2011, 

[http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2006/08/ethics.html]

Ethical publishing principles, plagiarism; copyright & regulation.

Section 1, Topic 2

‘Plagiarism’ is derive from the Latin word ‘plagiarius’ which means ‘kidnapper’ or abductor’, this it is an act of theft upon someone’s creativity, idea or language, without giving proper credits to the original author (Williams, 2002). 

As we can see from above how easy it is to plagiarize, if I did not put the Harvard in-text referencing, I would be considered as plagiarizing. Furthermore, I got conference proceedings by searching Google, with this keywords ‘plagiarism problems’, and poof it is the third link, in Adobe ‘pdf’ format, ready for my eyes to read from it and use the information contain within it.

 Nowadays a technology advances forward rapidly, it has become easier for people just to search the information they want, just like the BBC news article title says “Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom”, and copy and paste it in to their work without giving credit for the original. 

However it not all bad news, because as plagiarizing is getting easier, so is detecting it. For most of us university students we have heard of Turnitin, it is deem as our worst enemy because of its function. This software, started in 1996, by a group of UC Berkeley researches who needed to monitor the recycling of research papers in their undergraduate classes and it is now serving 130 countries (turnitin.com). Basically it scans students’ work with their extensive database and the software will detect whether plagiarism exist in the students work. It has been said that at least 8 words in a sentence, matching the original source, is require before the system flags it.

According to Anderson and Steneck (2011), one of the harmfulness of plagiarism is, it breaks the ties between a researcher’s idea and the credit justly deserved for it, and at the same time it also distorts the record of who is responsible for the idea. Furthermore, it increases the strain on the system of research publication because it is easy to introduce false information into the scientific system, and distort what is fundamentally based on truth (Anderson & Steneck, 2011).  

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Reference List:

Anderson, M.S., & Steneck, N.H., (2011) “The problem of plagiarism” Urologic oncology, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 90-94

Turnitin.com “About us: Our Company” viewed on 10^th June 2011, 

[http://turnitin.com/static/aboutus/index.php]

Williams, J.B., (2002) “The Plagiarism Problem: Are Students Entirely to Blame?” ASCILITE, conference proceedings, viewed on 10^th June 2011, 

[http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland02/proceedings/papers/189.pdf]