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>

D. New Forms of Media Publishing

What does most or majority of the community do when the moment we wake up? We login to Facebook. Social Media has affect our daily lives in keeping ourselves updated with the latest events or at least to fill in our leisure hours. Thus, affecting our social, online and mobile behaviours (Grove, 2010). These trends vary from tagging such as in Twitter or Facebook to connecting files sharing(Youtube) to group activities(MSN, Yahoo) to connecting locations(Foursquare, meetMoi, Yelp, CitySense) and more (Ziv, 2010).

Source: Mashable.com

With the wide growth of social media networks, news is easily accessible without having to purchase a print version which affects the printing industry on the sale of news papers, magazines and any other sort of hardcopy informative material. Foster (2007) asserts ‘Communities and individuals have a responsibility to choose their media sources wisely’. Today, the once known number one media device was the ‘television’ is now no longer. In the ecosystem, broadcasting in TV is declining but it does not mean it will vanish completely but instead it will continue to exist. This is a process of radical change (Naughton, 2006).

Source: Media Watch

With the new media contributing to society tremendously, some argue that broadcasting online requires a license for video or audio streaming under the rules and regulation of the Broadcasting Act of 1990 in the UK (Internet Rights). Additionally, certain advertisements of streamed media might need regulations from the Independent Television Commision.

Referencing:

1.       Foster,J 2007, The Effects of Print Media on Society, viewed 5^th May 2011, < http://www.ehow.com/list_6311916_effects-print-media-society.html>

2.       Grove, J.V. 2010, 5 Huge Trends in Social Media Right Now, Mashable, viewed 5^th May 2011, <http://mashable.com/2010/08/20/top-5-social-media-trends/>

3.       Internet Rights, 2011, UK Internet Rights Project, viewed 5^th May 2011, < http://www.internetrights.org.uk/factsheets/mediareg.pdf>

4.       Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, viewed 5^th May 2011, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>

5.       Ziv, Y 2010, 5 Trends Affecting How We Connect Through Social Media, Mashable, viewed 5^th May 2011, <http://mashable.com/2010/08/16/trends-connect-social-media/>

C. Explain briefly types of blogging communities & methods to build blogging communities. Then, discuss the structure of one blogging community in brief.

Blogging Community

Readers are able to visit a certain blog to actually form a group which defines community blog (Lim, 2006). By doing so, topics are shared with the aid of blog posts. As a result, blog communities are created and it also helps increase awareness in the community as its subject also relates to the community itself (Avenstar). The types of blogs converge with one and other whether or not it is a Single Blog Centric Community, a Topic Centric Community or a Boundary Community. Packwood (2005) mentions that a community is formed when a certain individual begins to express or share feelings and when people take actions and consideration on who said what.

How Do You Create A Blogging Community?

Not only in blogs, people sought for a certain appealing subject to satisfy their interest. In order to create a community blog, ensure (Rowse, 2008):

• ·         Questions are asks or Feedbacks are given. Comments are important
• ·         Readers participate in projects in the blog
• ·         Linking to reader’s blogs with the aid of permalinks or tags
• ·         To have an interaction device
• ·         To Enable publicity in your readers to make them known

Blogging Communities

Single Blog Centric Community-

The earliest blog community base which the community is able to get to know each other whether or not it is the blogger him or herself or the commentors and readers. The reason why it is referred as a single blog centric community is because this community is controlled by a single organization despite having a large amount of people blogging in the community (White, 2006).

Source: Personalbrandingblog.com

Topic Centric Community-

Group of bloggers who share the same interest and passion in a certain topic which forms a network formation.

Boundaried Community-

Is a collective blog contributed from the community which shares a social networking trait.

You are able to join or create a community blog to expose yourself to a diverse habit, interests and more. Popular blogging community sites such as Techcrunch, Global Voices and BoingBoing are well used today.

Referencing:

1.       Avenstar, Blog Definition 15 Different Definition for blogs.. that’s right – 15!, viewed 5^th May 2011, <http://www.avenstar.net/blogdefinition.htm>

2.       Lim, K 2006, Building Your Blog’s Community Using MyBlogLog, viewed 5^th May 2011, <http://theory.isthereason.com/?p=1091>

3.       Packwood N ,Gurak J, Antonijevic, S, Johnson, L, Ratliff, C & Reyman, J.,  2004, Geography of the Blogosphere: Representing the Culture, Ecology, and Community of Weblogs: Into the blogosphere: Rhetoric, community, and culture of weblogs, viewed 5^th May 2011, <http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/geography_of_the_blogosphere_pf.html>

4.       Rowse, D 2008, How to Build Community on Your Blog, ProBlogger, viewed 5^th May 2011, < http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/04/26/how-to-build-community-on-your-blog/>

5.       White, N 2006,  Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?, The Knowledge Tree, viewed 5^th May 2011, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

B. Classification of Blogs & Opinion about the Most Appropriate Classification Approach.

The growth of the cyber world contributed to the increase of the number of bloggers and blogging in the world. Hence, blogs today are classified into various genres (Belardo, M 2010) such as:

Collaborative Blogs: A blog constructed with multiple links or with multiple authors in support of a certain thesis.

How To/ Tutorial Blogs: Useful informative blogs for the purpose to guide and teach others on a certain subject.

Travel & Culture Blogs: Similar to advertising but promotes a certain location while providing special offers to travel while enabling people to share their travelling experiences.

Fashion & Lifestyle Blog: A creativity sense in dressing in accordance to the latest styles and trends.

Personal Blogs: The most practiced blog among the society mainly teenagers expressing daily routines, hobbies, interesting events and more.

These blogs can comprise multiple topics relating and depending to its subject matter such as politics, fashion, history and law. Blogs today are not only being posted via desktop but also with the aid of mobile devices which gave the term ‘moblog’.

The information projected is also spread with various media types with the help of vlogs, linklogs, sketchlogs, tumblelogs and more where it is in a video format or drawings which are more interesting. Business and corporate blogs also have status in terms of publishment.

According to Margaret Simons (2008), a prominent Australian blogger, Simons came up with nine types of blog which is:

1. Pamphleteering blogs
2. Digest Blog
3. Advocacy blog
4. Popular Mechanics blog
5. Exhibition Blog
6. Gatewatcher Blog
7. Diary
8. Advertisement
9. News Blog

                Blogs today are difficult to classify as they fall upon more than a single genre. As a result, we are able to understand why Simons had created these blog classifications. Although its field is vast detailed and wider compared to the various classifications, it is quite similar. The Diary blog for instance is similar to personal blogging and the pamphleteering blog is similar to collaborating blog. I find these classifications quite alike but the only difference is Simons touched more into a detailed group of categorization.

Referencing:

1. 1.       Belardo, M 2010, The 5 Types of Blogs | Which One Suits You Best?, Ink Rebels, viewed 3^rd May 2011, < http://www.inkrebels.com/insp/the-5-types-of-blogs-which-one-suits-you-best/>
2. 2.       Simons, M 2008, Towards a taxonomy of blogs, Australian Policy Online, viewed 3^rd May 2011, < http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0>
3. 3.       The Media Report 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, viewed 3^rd May 2011, < http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript)>

A. Blogs As Current Phenomenon & Benefits To The Community

According to Hopkins (2009), the size of blogosphere has come into a calculation halt in 2008. Thus, in 2009, there were no statistics provided on the value of the blogosphere ever since. The size of the blogosphere came to a halt with the value of over 70 million weblogs and growing until today although the size is immeasurable (Sifry, 2007).  In 2010, the number of bloggers was not specified. Instead, a survey was conducted among 7,205 bloggers from all around the world by Penn Schoen Berland (Technorati.com, 2010).

Source: 

http://www.leehopkins.com/secondlife/2009/12/26/technorati-and-the-size-of-the-blogosphere-it-cant-be-that-hard-to-figure-out-surely/comment-page-1/

In 2010, a tremendous growth in mobile blogging was the key trend aside from smartphones and tablet markets blogging worldwide including Asian-Pacific countries. Another main unexpected trend was also the usage of blogging by mothers (Sobel, 2010). Due to this occurrence, Technorati has focused the blogosphere mainly on females commencing in 2010.

Source:

                                          http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/page-3/

There are many types of blogging and each serves a different purpose which can either be from informative news to a diary or advertisements and many more. In 2010, Asia scored the highest in terms of blogging followed by Europe and then China (Internet World Stats, 2010). 70% of Malaysians refer online, mainly blogs, during elections to decide who is a better candidate for their up-bringing country (The Star Online, 2008). For China, retail blogging is the best way to sell items which contributes to their growth in economy. China now ranks second taking over Japan's spot in the sector of economy (Hurst, S 2011).

Referencing:

1.  Hurst, S 2011, If You Are Going to Sell in China, Maybe Online is the Best Way to Grow, SDL, viewed 3^rd May 2011, <http://blog.sdl.com/blog/2011/03/if-you-are-going-to-sell-in-china-maybe-online-is-the-best-way-to-grow.html
2. Hopkins, L 2009, Technorati and the size of the blogosphere: it can’t be THAT hard to figure out, surely?!,  viewed 22^nd April 2011, <http://www.leehopkins.com/secondlife/2009/12/26/technorati-and-the-size-of-the-blogosphere-it-cant-be-that-hard-to-figure-out-surely/comment-page-1/>
3. Sifry, D 2007, The State of the Live Web, April 2007, viewed 22^nd April 2011, < http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html>
4. Sobel, J 2010, WHAT: Topics and Trends - Day 2 SOTB 2010, viewed 22^nd April 2011, < http://technorati.com/blogging/article/what-topics-and-trends-day-2/>
5. The Star Online, 2008, Blogging In Malaysia ranks among highest in the world, viewed 3^rd May 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/3/nation/20827588&sec=nation>