Experience Made Who I Am

I am merely a beginner on document and blog writing. I understand that on this new media ecosystem (Naughton, 2006), blog is a crucial instrument, as it functions as a public sphere and sharing medium (Gimler, 2001). However, throughout the course, I have learnt various concepts to be applied on professional blogger and features writing. While creativity is highly appreciated on the industry (Sheehan & Morisson, 2009), I have to adjust my materials to reader’s behaviour, knowledge and vocabulary and also their values. In order to do that, the first thing to do is obviously determine my targeted audiences and their age range. As claimed by Penman (1998), an adult reading habit is different with youngsters or senior citizens. Hence, aside from attractive design to capture reader’s interest, their characteristics and daily manner are also crucial on document and blog writing (Schriver, 1997; Kress & Van Luween, 2006; Reep, 2006).

References

Gimmler, Antje 2001, ‘Deliberative democracy, the public sphere and the internet’, Philosophy & Social Criticism, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 21-39.

Kress, G & Van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, New York, USA.

Naughton, J 2006, ‘Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem’, Reuteurs, viewed on 7 April 2012, http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design, John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA

Sheehan, K. B. & Morrison, D. K. 2009, ‘The Creativity Challenge: Media Confluence and Its Effects on the Evolving Advertising Industry’, Journal of Interactive Advertising, vol. 9, no. 2.

Penman, R 1998, 'Document structures and readers' habits, Communication news, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 1 and 10-11.

Reep, D. 2006, ‘Document Design’ in Technical Writing, 6^th Edn, Pearson/Longman, New York, pp. 133-172.
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Ads is Not Only Read by You

The majority of Malaysian Muslim citizens shocked with a feature on Star Newspaper edition 10 August 2011. As reported in an article titled, Home Ministry reprimands The Star over supplement, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein admonished the column ‘Dining Out’ where The Star inserted an advertisement of pork cuisine in 2011 Ramadan Fasting season. The Star executive director and group chief editor Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai has met numbers of executives to clarify the error and sincerely apologize after the editorial mistake to Malaysian Muslim practitioners. As a precaution, He claims to suspend the supplement editor in charge for the article.

Experts advised that texts which are served simultaneously with figures and pictures have to complement each other, meaning the image assists the message deliverance by functions as an illustration (Kress & Van Luween, 2006; Reep, 2006). Visual figures aid readers to capture the main idea of the words and also to attract their attentions to the prime article (Reep, 2006). Advertising system which is a form of multimodal text (Walsh, 2006) indeed has to be carefully composed, consider its relation to the audience’s perspective.  The act of interpretation of one picture is based on knowledge, behaviour and values of the readers, which is variable depends on their society (Schriver, 1997; Walsh, 2006). A portrait of pork dishes in Ramadan period might be perceived normal for Christian or Buddhist readers, but it is considered rude for Islamic citizen, for their sacred belief of pork as abstinence meal.

I personally agree with the publication ethical system where an advertisement construction has to be adjusted to meet society’s cultural context. Since religious aspect influences most of the grounding value on one particular community, it is closely linked to their daily manner and also buying habit (Milenkovic, 2009). As a newspaper editor in Malaysia, where Muslim is a dominant religion, I believe we have to respect their fundamental norm by producing a non-offensive advertisement or features. Thorough content checking is also recommended to prevent such incident to be occurred in the future.  

References

Kress, G & Van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, New York, USA.

Milenkovic, Mirjana 2009, Global Advertising in Cultural Context, Diplomica Verlag Gmbh, Hamburg.

Reep, D. 2006, ‘Document Design’ in Technical Writing, 6^th Edn, Pearson/Longman, New York, pp. 133-172.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design, John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA

The Star 2011, ‘Home Ministry reprimands The Star over supplement​’, The Star Online, viewed 10 June 2012, < http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/8/16/nation/20110816224605&sec=nation>.

Walsh, M 2006, ‘Textual shift’ in Examining the Reading Process with Print, Visual and Multimodal Texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no.1, p. 24-37.

'I Just Want A Great Photo...'

A picture is worth thousands words. The saying might be the reason behind the Photoshop image on Kim-Jong Ill Funeral. As cited on North Korea Restores Order to Kim Funeral With Photoshop, There are couple changes on the funeral procession photo sent by North Korea's state news agency than the one originally taken by Japanese agency Kyodo News. It is believed that North Korea was using Photoshop, Image editing software, to visualise a sense of order in the memorial photo by cutting several people who were out of assembly line while the motorcade passed by. The European Press photo Agency (2011) decided not to publish the image as they consider it is a violation to EPA code of ethics.

On the other hand, aesthetic is also important in the case of media representation (Roblekc 2010). Since, imagery is crucial in newspaper production, the utilization of Photoshop functions to portrayed taste and beauty, which are the main factors to capture reader’s interest (Lodriguss, 2006). Nevertheless, apart from amusement-driven publication, images and figures are considered educational and informative. Hence they have always to be reliable and honest. These types of illustrations play a major role on engraving history of one country and to mobilized public opinion (Winslow, 2007). Digital Manipulation will lead to a critical effect on distorted history or mass misconception (Katzenstein, 2010).

Personally, I agree on the statement that publishing ethic is important and need to be incorporated on journalism industries. Civilians are likely gain their daily knowledge mostly from media in the shape on screen based broadcast or printed publication (Critcher, 2003). Hence, journalists as the suppliers have the responsibility to provide the truth (Becker & Hagamon 2003). Nonetheless, there are exceptions where image editing practice for media is acceptable, for instance to maintain individual’s privacy or solely as a form of art to entertain readers. Photoshop is applicable as long as the editor’s main purpose and method are well explained, not intentionally mislead or deceive the consumers (Roblekc 2010). 

References

ABC News 2011, ‘North Korea Restores Order to Kim Funeral With Photoshop’, ABC News, viewed 9 June 2012, < http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/12/north-korea-restores-order-to-kim-funeral-with-photoshop/>.

Becker, H. S. & Hagamon, D. 2003, ‘Digital Image Ethic’ in Image Ethics In The Digital Age, University of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Critcher, C 2003, Moral Panics and The Media, Open University Press, Buckingham.

Katzenstein, Bill 2010, ‘Ethical Issues in Photography’, Shutter Release, viewed 9 June 2012, http://www.iconicphoto.com/featured-articles.htm.

Lacey, D. 2010, ‘Photojournalism ethics’, The Canadian Journalism Project, viewed 9 June 2012, http://j-source.ca/article/photojournalism-ethics-0.

Lodriguss, Jerry 2006, ‘The Ethics of Digital Manipulation’, Astropix, viewed 9 June 2012, http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/ETHICS.HTM.

Roblekc 2010, ‘Ethical Issues in Photojournalism’, JournalistJan, viewed 9 June 2012, http://journalistjan.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/ethical-issues-in-photojournalism/.

Winstow, D. 2007, ‘Photojournalism Ethics: "The Problem Seems To Be A Lot Deeper"’, News Photographer magazine, viewed 9 June 2012, http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2007/06/ethics01.html.

A Little Peek-A-Boo Which is Apparently Too Much

The assumption of ‘Sex Sells’ (Reichert & Carpenter, 2004) is still embraced by media as a topic that draws human attention. However, several institutions believe that a line should have been drawn for it is applied on advertising industry- to which extends usually exploits female as a sexual objects and often portraying a figment of woman as a submissive creature. On The highly sexual art of selling perfume, Author Sarah Oakes (2012) is questioning the method on marketing perfumes by many high-end brands which are considered inappropriate, since most of the targeted audiences are young costumers.

Blair et al (2006) agreed that sexual approach indeed helps lifted marketing chart on particular segment of products, such as beer, car and ironically female necessities. Aside from products, these pictures also serve as a fantasy for consumers, shaping a thought that they could imitate what is portrayed by the ads after purchasing the certain items (Blair et al, 2006; D’Enbeau, 2010; Rachel, 2009). For example, by wearing a specific attires or cologne, a woman could mirror their public figure since she felt they are using the same products. This is a main reason behind a celebrity endorsement system on media. However, these images often are portraying a misinterpretation on stereotypes and society system which possibly leads on forming a widespread misunderstanding regarding the roles of woman should perform within home, workplace and even surrounding (Gengler, 2011). This kind of advertising might provides the idea of being sultry or dressing provocatively in order to be respected and accepted on community.

I opine that controversy within advertising is inevitable, since advertising industry’s main goal is to create sensation and attractiveness. While it is true that a perfume is merely grooming us on our smell senses, a different concept in creative industries are highly recommended (Sheehan & Morrison, 2009). As for the negative images in media, I believe consumers have to be selective on absorbing the imageries presented and setting a roper mind-set towards the illustration. 

References

Blair, J, Stephenson, J, Hill, K & Green, J 2006, ‘Ethics in Advertising: Sex Sells, but should it?’ on Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, vol. 9, no1.

D’Enbaeau, Suzy 2010, ‘Sex, Feminism, and Advertising: The Politics of Advertising Feminism in a Competitive Marketplace’ in Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 53-69.

Gengler, A. M. 2011, ‘Selling Feminism, Consuming Femininity’ on American Sociological Association, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 68-69.

Oakes, Sarah 2012, ‘The highly sexual art of selling perfume’, Daily life, viewed 31 May 2012, < http://www.dailylife.com.au/dl-beauty/the-highly-sexual-art-of-selling-perfume-20120518-1yvd4.html>.

Reichert, T., & Carpenter, C. 2004, ‘An Update on Sex Magazine Advertising’ in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 81, pp. 823-837.

Rachel, 2009, ‘How has feminist media theory discussed media representations of women? Which of these theoretical observations do you find most convincing?’, rachaelx.jigsy, viewed 2 June 2012, http://rachaelx.jigsy.com/entries/general/how-has-feminist-media-theory-discussed-media-representations-of-women-which-of-these-theoretical-observations-do-you-find-most-convincing.\

Sheehan, K. B. & Morrison, D. K. 2009, ‘The Creativity Challenge: Media Confluence and Its Effects on the Evolving Advertising Industry’, Journal of Interactive Advertising, vol. 9, no. 2.

Pirate Bay; Right or Wrong?

In this globalization era, internet is now become a crucial part on our daily life. Functions as a sharing medium, Internet provides its users with gazillions information and entertainment, with a shape of music, movies, news and other types of data. However, in several countries, this distribution interactive perceived as an act of infringement to the initial creators, since the sharing system is costless method. Reported on British internet firms ordered to block Pirate Bay, United Kingdom (UK) government demand its five internet service providers, listed Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media to blocked ‘The Pirate Bay’, a Swedish derived file-sharing site in February 2012.  BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor (2012) accused the aforementioned site to demotivate UK’s artists and many media industries jobs, such as musicians, sound engineers and video editors. 

Nevertheless, numerous ‘The Pirate Bay’ supporters assert that wide sharing content activities will not strike these entertainment productions, instead giving an advantage on their advertisement program (Gopal & Gupta, 2010). Customers are likely using a data downloaded freely in internet as a sample before they buy the actual product on the store (Little, 2011). Through these sites, creative manufacturers are actually given the chance to broadcast and promote their items wider and faster (Lohman, 2007).

To conclude, Piracy has always been a never-ending debate on media industries. In my point of view, internet functions as a public sphere (Gimler, 2001; Papacharissi, 2002) where we can share and communicate internationally, a larger scale of sharing activities we do with our friends. As a matter of fact, cinemas and CDs sales are never decreased, rather entertainment businesses are increased since the internet and content-sharing are first introduced (Taylor, 2012). Hence, manufacturers are suggested to adopt with internet generation (Gayle, 2003) and bringing the concept as their benefits, while consumers are expected to be aware and appreciative with their effort.

References

AFP 2012, ‘British internet firms ordered to block Pirate Bay’, MyMalaysiaNews, viewed 9 June 2012, http://www.mymalaysianews.com/technology/2693-british-internet-firms-ordered-to-block-pirate-b.

Gayle, G. 2008, ‘Media Piracy and Copyright Infringement in the Film Industry’, Yahoo Voices, viewed 9 June 2012, http://voices.yahoo.com/media-piracy-copyright-infringement-film-1296131.html?cat=15.

Gimler, Antje 2001, ‘Deliberative democracy, the public sphere and the internet’, Philosophy & Social Criticism, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 21-39.

Gopal, R. D. & Gupta, A. 2010, ‘Trading Higher Software Piracy for Higher Profits: The Case of Phantom Piracy’, Management Science, vol. 56, no. 11, pp. 1946-1962.

Little, R. 2009, ‘The Positive Effects of Movie Piracy’, Yahoo Voices, viewed 9 June 2012, http://voices.yahoo.com/the-positive-effects-movie-piracy-8024526.html.

Papacharissi, Z. 2002, ‘The virtual sphere: The internet as a public sphere’, New Media & Society, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 9-27. 

Taylor, N. 2012, ‘The big question: is blocking Pirate Bay right?’, MSN Tech & Gadgets, viewed 9 June 2012, http://tech.uk.msn.com/features/the-big-question-is-blocking-pirate-bay-right.