Is YouTube being Tubeless??

YouTube has grown enormously in recent years. YouTube is a popular web video sharing site that lets anyone store short videos for private or public viewing. Well a lot of people are using or viewing this for different reasons. And videos posted up on YouTube can be good and bad.

Well the fact the viewing the videos are free, anyone can have access to it, even small children. well all the contents varies from any genre you want to find. There are millions of videos to choose from. from the educational to violent and seditious videos. so is YouTube good or bad?

this is one of the videos that children can get access to.

According to Kress & van Leeuwen (1998) readers interpret texts and images depending on their social and cultural background. For, example parents from a Western background might allow the kids to watch all these sexy scenes, because their culture is like that. On the other hand, for cultures like Chinese, Indian and Muslim which are more conservative, they would be shock to see that their children exposed to these sexy scenes.

Well some people used YouTube as an entertainment tool, some use it to make themselves famous by doing weird stuffs. Some got famous, some got violent. In YouTube, there are a lot of explicit videos that can be viewed. It is so easy to upload the video, and in minutes, thousands of people would have viewed the video. Just imagine the video was about someone famous having an affair with the janitor.

There are a few cases where people make fun of politicians via YouTube. In the local arena, a guy sang our national anthem while modifying some lyrics to tell what he feels about his country which is so true. All the videos can be detrimental to someone's life or image.

The guy who got "sang" the national anthem

So once again the it all boils down to the users responsibility and maturity. So parents be careful when you let your child wonder around the internet. Because you never know, he might see someone 'Tubeless'.

References:

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Chapter 7: Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Bell, A & Garret, P (eds) 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 186-219.

YouTube.com, 2007, 'Negaraku', viewed 4 November 2007;[internet], http://youtube.com/watch?v=tF7fbQdBoYw

YouTube.com, 2007, 'Sexy Scenes', viewed 4 November 2007;[internet], http://youtube.com/watch?v=tF7fbQdBoY/sexy

Internet Freedom??

Just imagine every time you want to proceed to the next page it takes like a minute to change. Well with some pages are banned from viewing, it might irritate users. some people mis-use the internet instead of appreciating the amazing technology that made life so much easier for people.

There are so many issues surrounding the internet, the government had set up a task force to regulate internet sites with pornographic and seditious content. So much for the internet freedom and the "Multimedia Super Corridor"(MMC). some people use internet to do illegal activities.

And the recent Nurin's case, some people leaked out her pictures which caused a lot of controversy. So are people appreciating the internet or abusing the internet? Well many will say they appreciate the internet, because the internet made lives so easy. we don't have to wait weeks to send a letter across the ocean. It will only take a mere seconds to send a e mail

With the recent fuss about the censorship law for the internet, finally the government decided to just set up a task force to "keep an eye" on sites. Just imagine every website you go s blocked or being filtered. Than what is the use for internet?

With new laws for internet users and also bloggers, there isn't much of a freedom we have. We are being controlled every words we type or publish. People who uses the internet must be responsible for their action. Sometimes we cannot blame the government for implementing laws that are absurd, but its sometimes there are some morons that do stuff that hurt people or they are illegal.

So internet freedom is still there but users have to be more mature in using the internet for a better cause.

Media Violence

Entertainment companies are always using 2 things to attract viewers, firstly is obviously sexy girls and the second is VIOLENCE. It is proven that television and gaming violence can influence young kid to try out what they see or play.

According to University of Michigan professor L. Rowell Huesmann, argue that fifty years of evidence show "that exposure to media violence causes children to behave more aggressively and affects them as adults years later."

This is issue have been discussed for a long time. A lot of parents and social community argued that the media is to blame for all the violence in the world today. Movie and game producers don't care about the content as long as the their product sells, they will use whatever content to make it sellable.

Violence in the media can be defined in to types; whether in acts such as killing, fighting and gang rape or verbally abusing people using vulgar language or sexually abusing. There is a thin line in the connection between media violence and aggression.

The ever so famous Scarface, Tony Montana played by Al-Pacino as a famous mafia.

For example movies like scarface, 300, the hills have eyes and many more. These movies are mostly blockbuster films. Scarface have been a hit since the 1980's. Many believe that this violent movies are the cause of the increase of crimes because people are young people are becoming more aggressive.

This movie is banned in certain countries because of violent scenes and sensitive issues

And as for video games, kids tend to play violent games. They like to hold guns and just kill everyone they see. It's fun in their point of view. Games like Postal 2, The House of Dead, Resident Evil and many more. Even Scarface is made into a video game.

There are a lot of research being done to conclude this issue. Much of research has been guided by social learning theory developed by Albert Bandura. Social learning theory suggests that one way in which human beings learn is by the process of modeling.

In criminology, Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess (1966) developed social learning theory to explain deviancy by combining variables which encouraged delinquency (e.g. the social pressure from delinquent peers) with variables that discouraged delinquency (e.g. the parental response to discovering delinquency in their children).

Social learning theory is compatible with a variety of other theories of aggression and a diversity of research methods, For instance, neurophysiological theory and research.

So until today there is no conclusive answer to this issue. But users and parents do have the choice whether they want to follow what they see. They should know what is right and what is wrong.

References:

media-awareness.com, 2007, 'Media Violence', viewed 4 November 2007;[internet],http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/violence/index.cfm

media-awareness.com, 2007, 'Research on the effects of Media Violence', viewed 4 November 2007;[internet], http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/violence/effects_media_violence.cfm

Wikipedia.com, Akers, Ronald L. (1973), 'Deviant Behavior: A Social Learning Approach',viewed 4 November 2007;[internet], http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_learning_theory

Are newspaper really newspaper??

What are the roles of newspaper, obviously report on the truth about the story. Some newspaper in some countries are reporting the truth but not the whole truth.
Firstly, what is the media's purpose and why are they doing it? The reason why news media is not able the whole truth is because some news media are own by one person or the government.

For example, Rupert Murdoch who owns Fox news, majority of news media in Australia and more. If something bad happen to his company or himself, would he allow the reporter or newspaper to tell the whole truth.Yes probably there will be some information that will be published but somehow some information that are virtually important are not published. Sometimes that one information that is not mentioned can change the whole story.

News media that are partially owned by the government have the utmost control over some sensitive issues. The news media does not care about the public interest at all.For example, the recent march of Malaysian lawyers which they call "Walk of Justice". There are some points that i would like to mentioned. Firstly is that the news was not on the front page of some news media. And the most funny thing is that they didn't post pictures. Isn't pictures one of the most important things to compliment the story. a picture paints a million words.

According to Kress & van Leeuwen (1998) visuals create a balance in supporting the text and the message that are published. Visuals are important, if gives the readers a gist of what is happening and also with visuals, it will attract readers at a glance.

An example:

The Star’s quote

“When lawyers walk, something is wrong ... that means we would like to see changes,”

International Herald Tribune’s quote

“Lawyers don't walk every day. When lawyers walk something's wrong," she said, adding that the credibility of the judiciary has suffered since 1988, when constitutional changes reduced judicial powers, giving the government the upper hand in making decisions.”

Another flaw in this issue is that, the local news media did not even mention anything about the presence of riot police with rifles and batons. The differences of views for readers who actually read other news media that mentioned the riot police and the readers who read the local news media. Their views on the issue will be so different. So why is the government not publishing the pictures of riot police and the lawyers who marched?

Picture from a local media

Picture taken from Reuters..the full picture.Look at the banner.

Picture taken from Reuters with riot police.

The three pictures above will give you the whole idea of the issue i am talking about. Do people wonder the news credibility? Readers have the right to know the whole truth. So the issue of this can only be resolved with the people knowing the whole truth.

References:

reuters.com, 2007, 'Malaysia lawyers hold rare demonstration for reform' , viewed 3 November 2007; [internet], http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSKLR19425220070926

thestar.com,2007, 'Lawyers walk for justice', viewed 3 November 2007; [internet], http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?=/2007/9/27/nation/19006597&sec=nation

introduction

-the "public's diary"- (purpose)

Most people blog is to share their thoughts and views about their day or lives. Some even 'gossip' about politics and issues surrounding the community. Some people even blog to inform people about the latest issues,news and technology or better said current affairs. Some bloggers make blogging their profession and even became a celebrity through blogging.

A perfect example, Xia Xue who is one of the most famous blogger in Asia and also our very own Kenny Sia who has taken blogging to the ultimate level.

-genre of blogs-

There are a lot of different types of blogs available. Different blogs have different purpose for different kind of users and readers. These are the different types of blogs.

By Media:

• vlog
• linklog
• sketchlog
• photoblog
• tumblelogs

Blogs can also be differentiated by genres. there are a few genre which are :

• fashion blogs
• political blogs
• travel blogs
• niche blogs
• project blogs

The PHENOMENON of blogs.....

Blogs have become an integral part in the society today. Blogs are being used as a marketing tool in today's society. Prominent bloggers are now being sponsored or paid by corporate organizations to have their name, logo or products displayed at their blogs. This has become a effective way to boost publicity. Most bloggers use blogs to share their experience in life or a certain skill they have.

For the youths, it is normal to have a blog and by having a blog they can keep in touch with their friends and the latest happenings in the world. As for business people and corporate organization, blogging is a way to communicate with their customer and also to receive feed backs and also to promote their latest product via blogging. It has become a successful tool for organizations to use blog as one their marketing tool.

The latest usage of blogs is that bloggers reports news that newspaper cant publish in their media. And some journalist acknowledges the bloggers news. The world is so big and there are new news happening every second. it is impossible for journalist to report or know the news. So bloggers are so called "part time journalist".

-the bloggers-

Bloggers are determined depending on their interest and purpose of using blogs. Therefore similar groups of bloggers form a community of their own. This bloggers in their own community share thoughts and gives opinions based on their personal views. By doing this they can update themselves with the current affairs. For political bloggers, they share their thoughts about the political scene in their nation.

As we all know that for some countries, it is defamation to talk about political stuff. As for sensitive issues to be discussed, people have the choice to enter the blogs pertaining sensitive issues. This is happening now in the world, where people talk about politicians. For example, the infamous Jeff Ooi who is recently charged with defamation. Jeff Ooi is famous for his views on Malaysia's political scene.

- print design VS online design -

Print design varies from online design. The reason it is design different because of the way people read it. According to Nielsen (2007), people read 25% slower online and therefore need the contents online to be half as short.On the other hand, print is more informative therefore readers can take their time to read. The reading pattern between print and online is also different. Online pattern is usually a 'F' where print is usually a 'Z' pattern. Therefore, the document layout is design according to the pattern.

The one thing that they have in common is the signifying system in the layout which are information value, salience and framing. both print and online practice this theory.

REFERENCES:

Dictionary.com, 2007, ‘Community’, viewed on 3 November 2007; [internet], http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/community

Nielsen, J 2007, ‘Writing for web’, viewed 3 November 2007; [internet], http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/

Wikipedia.com, 2007, 'Types of Blogs', viewed 3 November 2007; [internet], http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs#Types

Purpose

The intention of this blog is to share my views on blogging and document designing and publication. Blogging and publishing issues will be discuss throughout my postings in my blog. My blog's primary target are tertiary level students and readers who have interest in document designing. Therefore, all my postings would be much related to the current media trends and issues that the world is facing now.

I hope my blog can explain and also inform people about the importance of knowing the current media issue that is surfacing. If issues are not managed properly, it will be come crisis