Expression of Censure

Throughout the entire blog postings made and as time flew. I realise how difficult it was in working continuously assignments after assignments and that proper time management was required. With numerous research needed to be conducted to increase credibility and to avoid plagiarism, it was indeed a growth in my researching skills but this was the hardest task in completing the posts as I have to dig deep in order to full understand the issues. Moreover, by enabling myself to be exposed and open to these researches, I indeed realise when it is proper to use formal languages and increase my formal reading skills. 

Source: Kaalchakra Spirituality

Despite the fear to enter online communities, I not only develop in communication techniques but also enable me to be more open in terms of perspective, culture and background. By the end of the blog posts, I learn how to publish news online, to meet reader’s interest and expectations, be more reasonable socially and to solve problems. This reflection period is indeed essential and worthy. As Albert Einstein says, “Without deep reflection, one knows from daily life that one exists for other people”.

References:

1. Einstein, A 1921, Quotation, Thinkexist, viewed 8^th June 2011, <http://thinkexist.com/quotation/without_deep_reflection_one_knows_from_daily_life/15653.html>

New Media Qualities; Multimodality; New Forms of Journalism

The Source of Japan's Disaster from Tsunami

Japan’s earthquake disaster ranked top 3 recording back to 1900 as one of the most tremulous earthquakes with the magnitude of approximately 9.0 , resulting in 686 death tolls confirmed by the government of Japan (Electric.Co.UK News, 2011).

Top Ten Largest Magnitude Earthquakes

Location		Date	Magnitude2
1.	Chile	May 22, 1960	9.5
2.	Prince William Sound, Alaska	March 28, 19643	9.2
3.	Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands	March 9, 1957	9.1
4.	Japan	March 11, 2011	9.0
5.	Kamchatka	Nov. 4, 1952	9.0
6.	Off western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia	Dec. 26, 2004	9.0
7.	Off the coast of Ecuador	Jan. 31, 1906	8.8
8.	Offshore Maule, Chile	Feb. 27, 2010	8.8
9.	Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands	Feb. 4, 1965	8.7
10.	Northern Sumatra, Indonesia	March 28, 2005	8.7

Source: National Earthquake Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey

In the article by Dorian Benkoil titled ‘How Social Media, Internet Changed Experience of Japan Disaster’ on March 15 (MediaShift, 2011), the author was wrecked when the news of Japan came but to his amazement, the news travelled very quickly due to the contribution of media technology today. Within a few hours after the calamity occurred, news and videos of the incident was updated all over the TV and the internet. Videos taken from Youtube, cell phones and video cameras together with news, status updates and tweets from social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter were the major contribution for the news spread haste (Protalinski, 2011). As agreed by Pegoraro (2011), after the author woke up, news and updates were all broadcasted in Twitter via phone mobile. News channels had even more contribution from newly recorded videos instead of replaying the same video clip since videos are continuously being updated with a total of 16,000 videos uploaded before the earthquake halt (Blackburn, 2011).  Thanks to media technology, people from all over the world are able to actually see and hear what the victims in Japan are going through (Benkoil, 2011). 

How News Spread Begin With Mobile Phones

Source: Huffpost Tech

After the massive earthquake, nuclear reactor sectors were affected which caused radiation to spread (Dzieza, 2011). Once again, media technology help spread the word with social sites, online news, and even mobile chatting applications such as Blackberry Messenger (BBM). Media today play a significant role in giving the public a freedom of speech as they provide their experience (Benkoil, 2011).

Media Broadcasting Brings More than News.. Emotions Too

Source: World News

A news as huge as this would definitely be attention grabbing as it involves lives. People today are their own media whereby they are able to spread and inform instead of the media experts alone. I think the media helps in conveying messages from the public as well as leak information from the government. With the increment of multimodality, the public is able to gain a better understanding too. As supported by Walsh (2006), multimodality are becoming more common today and with the variety of modes to inform the public, the better the understanding and the news spread would be.

References:

1. Benkoil, D 2011, How Social Media, Internet Changed Experience of Japan Disaster, Mediashift, viewed 4^th June 2011, < http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/03/how-social-media-internet-changed-experience-of-japan-disaster-074.html>
2. Blackburn, B 2011, ‘Japan Earthquake and Tsunami: Social Media Spread News, Raises Relief Funds,’ ABC News 11 March, viewed 4^th June 2011, < http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/japan-earthquake-tsunami-drive-social-media-dialogue/story?id=13117677>
3. Clarke, T 2011, ‘Japan Earthquake Results in Many Deaths and Fear of a Radiation Leak,’ Electric Co UK News 14 March, viewed 6^th June 2011, < http://www.electric.co.uk/news/japan-earthquake-results-in-many-deaths-and-fear-of-a-radiation-leak-12341958.html>
4. Dzieza, J 2011, ‘Japan Nuclear Crisis: Will the Radiation Spread?,’ The Daily Best 15 March, viewed 7^th June 2011, <http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-15/japan-nuclear-crisis-will-the-radiation-spread-to-the-united-states/>
5. Infoplease, n.d., The Ten Largest Earthquakes Since 1900, viewed 4^th June 2011, < http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763403.html>
6. Pegoraro, R 2011, ‘Japan earthquake shows how bad news travels fast, and first, online,’ The Washington Post 11 March, viewed 4^th June 2011, < http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/japan-earthquake-shows-how-bad-news-travels-fast-and-first-online/2011/03/11/ABiCG2Q_blog.html>
7. Protalinski, E 2011, How news of Japan’s earthquake, tsunami spread on Facebook, ZD Net, viewed 4^th June 2011, http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/how-news-of-japan-8217s-earthquake-tsunami-spread-on-facebook/787>
8. Walsh, M 2006, ‘The ‘textual’ shift: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts,’ Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 24-37. 

New media Ecosystem; New Media Qualities & Freedom of Speech & Public Sphere

Protests At Cairo By Libyans
Source: The Libyan Youth Movement

Everyone today is media experts themselves. Cell phones are a must in today’s public sphere which is now turning into a media sphere. In the news article by Tech Central titled ‘Social media, cellphone video fuel Arab protests’ (Tech Central, 2011), continuous clips of videos was recorded of the on-going demonstration in Cairo. The protest occurred in the gates of the Arab League headquarters with over hundreds of Libyans demanding for the imposition of a no-fly zone in Libya (AhlulBayt News Agency, 2011). The anti-government protesters led by Wael Ghonim, Google executive and cyberactivist, had superiority in power from the people and media. As argued by Mathews (2007), technology creates online communities which are now prevailing in society such as social networking. Ghonim (2011) further asserts that without the existence of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and Youtube, there wouldn’t be any protest.

Wael Ghonim, Leader of Protesters ,Google Executive and Cyberactivist
Source: Wiki Noticia

The expansion and trend of social networking sites are on a steep rise due to the unlimited capacity the internet is able to withstand. With the tremendous value of population accessing these social networking sites a day, it will not cease and that is the main purpose of those sites (Qurashi, 2009). Moreover, ever since the creation of social networking sites mainly onto the practice of posting images such as Posterous and Tumblr, the context of the information being share is more convenient and easily understood with the additional comment feature which is perfect for media sharing with Facebook and Twitter too. (Maltoni, 2010).

It is believed that young people play a dominant role in development due to the growth of youthful energy and how sophisticated younger generations are today with the connectivity towards their cell phones (Tech Central, 2011). There are more ways than publishing today when people can actually have immediate discussions with the expansion of all these social connectivity which enables each and every individual to share their opinions, thoughts, locations, experience, interest and more (Armano, 2010).

Source: Vector Stock

Social Networking sites and internet mobile usage is indeed crucial in staying updated and keeping in touch with the latest trends and happenings. Moreover, almost all social networking sites today comes together with many visualization aspects which is interesting to the readers. Hence, with media playing that part in videos, images and drawings more people will be involved. As suggested by Reep (2006), we have to use more document ‘image’ in order to grab reader’s interest.

Reference:

1. AhlulBayt News Agency 2011, ‘Libyan in Egypt protest outside Arab League; League still divided over no-fly zone,’ 12 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://www.abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&Id=230971>
2. Armano, D 2010, ‘Everyone is Media,’ The Influencer Is You, 10 July, viewed 3^rd June 2011, <http://influencers.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/07/everyone-is-media.html>
3. Maltoni, V 2010, Public Relations in an Everyone is Media World, Conversation Agent, viewed 3^rd June 2011, <http://www.conversationagent.com/2010/03/public-relations-in-an-everyone-is-media-world.html>
4. Mathews, C 2007, Discovering the Power of Social Networking Sites, CIO, viewed 3^rd June 2011, <http://www.cio.com/article/136450/Discovering_the_Power_of_Social_Networking_Sites>
5. Reep, D 2006, ‘Document Design,’ in Technical Writing, New York, ppl. 133-172
6. Tech Central 2011, ‘Social media, cellphone video fuel Arab protests,’ 28 February, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://techcentral.my/news/story.aspx?file=/2011/2/28/it_news/20110228100840&sec=IT_News>
7. Qurashi, A 2009, ‘The Power of Social Networking Sites,’ Blog By Adeel Qurashi, 17 April, viewed 3^rd June 2011, <http://adeelq.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/the-power-of-social-networking-sites-2/>

2: Ethical Publishing Principles, Plagiarism; Copyright & Regulations

The Art of Copy & Paste
Source: Geek System

The issue of plagiarism is indeed taken seriously due to Copyright infringements and has to be correctly cited and referenced when the work of others has been taken as a source of credit.

German's Defense Minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
Source: Ziko's Blog 

This case, which brought to Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, German’s Defense Minister, being stripped off his master’s degree due to the plagiarism scandal in BBC’s News Magazine article on ‘Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom’ published on 2^nd March 2011 (BBC News Magazine, 2011). This eventually led to Mr. zu Guttenberg’s resignation despite the encouragement given by his fellow soldiers not to resign as mentioned by Mr. zu Guttenberg himself, “I have reached the limits of my strength” (ABC News, 2011).

The 39 year old German Defense Minister is believed to be the country’s most political idol (The Guardians, 2011) with great charismatic skills in buying the hearts of his people and proficient in politics whom had plagiarize over half of his PhD thesis which was completed five years ago from Professor Barbara Zehnpfennig who is a host in academics and journalist (ABC, 2011). According to Professor Zehnpfennig, a great deal of the thesis was taken word by word by Mr. zu Guttenberg with just a minor change whom also changed the year of his thesis (ABC, 2011). 

Professor Barbara Zehnpfennig
Source: n-tv

Mister zu Guttenberg apologized for his act in obeying the terms of citation and full reference. Bayreuth University chancellor, Ruediger Bormann, stripped off his title during a news conference and mentions that Mister zu Guttenberg has breached the agreements to a serious matter (The Star, 2011). Despite his apology, he was arrogant and in denial when the issue was brought upon him as he could not take the storm from the media and political groups which led him to admitting his mistakes (ABC, 2011). At the Defense Ministry, Guttenberg came clean saying “I was always ready to fight, but have to admit I have reached the limit” to the reporters (The Star, 2011).

It is important to credit the work of others by providing correct and full referencing with citation as it is a violation which is taken seriously by others especially in academic degrees. What Karl-Theordor zu Guttenberg committed unwise. It can also be seen the power of media to begin with, is superior. People want to hear what the media has to say instead of the government (Answers.com, n.d.).

References:

1. ABC News 2011, ‘German minister quits amid plagiarism scandal,’ 1 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/01/3152396.htm>
2. Answers.com, n.d., ‘How is media stronger than government?’, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_is_media_stronger_than_government>
3. BBC News 2011, ‘Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom,’ 2 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12613617>
4. Kettle, M 2011, ‘Angela Merkel: uncharismatic leader who dominates German politics,’ Guardian 17 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/17/angela-merkel-germany-christian-democrats?INTCMP=SRCH>
5. Kirschbaum, E & Stonestreet, J 2011, ‘German minister in plagiarism row stripped of PhD,’ The Star 24 February, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/24/worldupdates/2011-02-24T020437Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-551059-2&sec=Worldupdates>
6. Santow, S 2011, ‘German Minister resigns over plagiarism,’ ABC Net, viewed 3^rd June 2011, <http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3153225.htm>
7. The Star Online 2011, ‘German minister resigns amid plagiarism scandal,’ 1 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/1/apworld/20110301194928&sec=apworld>

1. Visuals & Situational Context; Ethical Publishing Principles

After the tremendous fatal disaster on Japan’s earthquake on March 11^th 2011, there was a major global discrimination towards Berita Harian’s cartoon comic drawings which was published on 13^th March 2011 pertaining to Japan’s tragic tsunami incident (Associated Press, 2011). The public, of course, was enraged by this foolish action that eventually led to a proposition to boycott this company for the childish behaviour when the world is grieving and sympathizing over the many lives lost (The Australian, 2011).  This “tasteless” action, as commented by Yow (2011) resulted in a forced apology by the public and government for turning this into a joke and was given a strict warning by the Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais as it was regarding compassionate concerns which led to the apology of Berita Harian’s front page on 14^th March 2011 (The Star, 2011).  In Yow and Wong’s article, 'Berita Harian issues apology over tsunami action' on 14^th March, Berita Harian published their apology on Twitter, their website and Facebook fan page at approximately 2pm for insulting the loss and by implementing the use of Japan’s ideal cartoon hero, Ultraman, whom was cowardly running away from the gigantic waves of tsunami.

The Cartoonist, Mohd Zohri Sukimi, otherwise known as Zoy. Zoy's Expression to Japan's Earthquake
Source: Malaysia Kini

                In my personal opinion, it is indeed foolish and a lack of maturity level to publish this silly ridiculous comic and what’s worst is it was accepted by Berita Harian’s editor to go on with it. This little ‘joke’ was insensitive and it is easier to say sorry but what about sympathizing in the first place. This not only gave a bad impression to Malaysia but it dropped it to a lower level making the world interpret Malaysians to be crude and uncivilized. Another matter is the power of people is far superior when united. As enforced by Ghonim’s statement (2011), “Power of the People is Stronger than People in Power”. Despite the massive case, Berita Harian could not be punished as it does not violate any laws under the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984 or Communications and Multimedia Act as mentioned by Datuk Seri Dr Rais (The Star Online, 2011).

References:

1.             Associated Press 2011, ‘Malaysia paper apologizes for comic tsunami image’, 14 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110314/ap_on_re_as/as_malaysia_japan_earthquake>
2.       Ghonim, W 2011, ‘Power of the People is Stronger than People in Power: Egypt, World Revolution’, Leak Source, viewed 3^rd June 2011, <http://leaksource.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/wael-ghonim-power-of-the-people-is-stronger-than-people-in-power/>
3.             The Australian 2011, ‘Malaysian paper sorry for the tsunami action’, 14 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/malaysian-paper-sorry-for-tsunami-cartoon/story-fn3dxity-1226021224356>
4.        The Star Online 2011, ‘Berita Harian given a stern warning: Rais’, 14 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/14/nation/20110314182705&sec=nation>
5.       Wong, P.M. 2011, ‘Berita Harian issues public apology over tsunami action’, The Star Online 14 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/14/nation/8262608&sec=nation>
6.      Yow, H.C. 2011, ‘Berita Harian apologises ‘tasteless’ tsunami, The Malaysian insider 14 March, viewed 3^rd June 2011, < http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/berita-harian-apologises-for-tasteless-tsunami-cartoon>