Blogging was never any intention on mine. But when I found out that most of my friends are blogger themselves, there was an urge or trial. At the same time, while pursuing the program I enrolled in, (Bachelor of Arts, Communication & Media Management) in Taylors College Petaling Jaya I was required to prepare a serious Weblog. Hence, TMS. This has totally given me the edge of learning and creating and giving Blogging a shot.
In the process of learning and creating this Blog, I Have learned so many important things when producing a blog. For example, when creating a blog, design is one of the important elements. In order to attract reader to visit your blog, one must ensure that the blog is interesting, be it from colour scheme, age layout, down to the choices of words used.
When everything is perfectly chosen, reader with be intrigued and will always come back for more. For this early stage of mine, I welcome any comments and critiques in order to improve myself in this “blogging industry”. As Rebecca Blood said, “Blogs will ultimately provide a space for changes, particularly for marginalised voices”. Thank You.
-N-
Tun Muhamad Sayid B. Tun Hisan
Rebecca Blood, 2002. ‘We’ve Got Blog: How weblogs are Changing Our Culture’ Perseus Group, p17-20.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
VC plants seed in newbies
Article taken from theStar online dated November 18th 2009
A VC or Venture Capital is a type of private equity which aids companies or organisations in their early stages. A VC would normally aid these organisations with cash funds, with the return of holding a share in the company they aided. VCs also do not only choose any random company. They prefer companies involved with high technology such as biotech and ICT.
Recently in Kuala Lumpur, a number or 20 start-up companies has been highlighted by the VCs during the 6th MSC Malaysia Innotech event. These companies are among the top growing company in the technology industry. The purpose for the investments of VCs in these types of companies is to ensure the growth on technology in Malaysia.
Hence, with the growth of technology, we are able to connect even more efficiently with the whole world. Not only that, any industries in Malaysia will soon be better.
In my opinion, with these aids, Malaysia will not only be improved biotechnical-wise, but also in business, entertainment and the media industry.
A VC or Venture Capital is a type of private equity which aids companies or organisations in their early stages. A VC would normally aid these organisations with cash funds, with the return of holding a share in the company they aided. VCs also do not only choose any random company. They prefer companies involved with high technology such as biotech and ICT.
Recently in Kuala Lumpur, a number or 20 start-up companies has been highlighted by the VCs during the 6th MSC Malaysia Innotech event. These companies are among the top growing company in the technology industry. The purpose for the investments of VCs in these types of companies is to ensure the growth on technology in Malaysia.
Hence, with the growth of technology, we are able to connect even more efficiently with the whole world. Not only that, any industries in Malaysia will soon be better.
In my opinion, with these aids, Malaysia will not only be improved biotechnical-wise, but also in business, entertainment and the media industry.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
"Canon to Arm Students With Photo Skills"
Summary of the article, taken from Star Online, dated 13th November 2009:
As we all know, Canon is one of the biggest camera manufacturer in the Globe. Canon Malaysia o the other hand has decided to work closely with one of Malaysia’s most recognized university – Lim Kok Wing University of Creative Technology. This is with the aim to improve the students to improve their photography skills.
More than 9,000 students will be aided through this collaboration of giants. In the efford, there will be seminars, workshops, exhibitions and even contest will technical support provided by Canon (M). These statements were taken from Canon Malasia assistant director, Simon Wong.
Students will not only get to learn the tricks of the trade theoretically, but also hands-on. In addition, students will get the chance to interact and learn from experts who will be willing to share their wisdom and knowledge.
Soon, there will hopefully be more and more professional photographer on Malaysia. With these set of skill, some would be able to penetrate and venture into photojournalism. As mentioned in the earlier post, I believe that with this step of skill enhancement, Malaysia’s photojournalism can be improved for the better.
Canon To Arm Students With Photo Skills, online, retrieved on 13 November 2009, from http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2009/11/13/technology/20091113095202&sec=technology
As we all know, Canon is one of the biggest camera manufacturer in the Globe. Canon Malaysia o the other hand has decided to work closely with one of Malaysia’s most recognized university – Lim Kok Wing University of Creative Technology. This is with the aim to improve the students to improve their photography skills.
More than 9,000 students will be aided through this collaboration of giants. In the efford, there will be seminars, workshops, exhibitions and even contest will technical support provided by Canon (M). These statements were taken from Canon Malasia assistant director, Simon Wong.
Students will not only get to learn the tricks of the trade theoretically, but also hands-on. In addition, students will get the chance to interact and learn from experts who will be willing to share their wisdom and knowledge.
Soon, there will hopefully be more and more professional photographer on Malaysia. With these set of skill, some would be able to penetrate and venture into photojournalism. As mentioned in the earlier post, I believe that with this step of skill enhancement, Malaysia’s photojournalism can be improved for the better.
Canon To Arm Students With Photo Skills, online, retrieved on 13 November 2009, from http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2009/11/13/technology/20091113095202&sec=technology
Friday, November 13, 2009
The power of photograph
“A journalist tells stories. A photographer takes pictures of nouns (people, places and things). A photojournalist takes the best of both and locks it into the most powerful medium available - frozen images”. Lester (1995) on the other hand suggested that photojournalism is the profession in which journalists make news-editorial images for print and broadcast media.
A picture says a thousand words. That is how powerful an image is. With the addition of well chosen, significant texts, that could be able to educate, persuade and even entertain us.
“Images evoke almost immediate emotional responses among viewers and images have tremendous impact” -Lester, 1995.
As proven the power of photojournalism, there are some who misused the power spoken to their own advantage. This is normally used for business and not to inform. For example, entertainment magazines tend to use the power of photojournalism to influence its reader into buying their product. They use powerful images; scandalous images. As we are well informed, sex sells. Therefore, most photojournalist tends to use images that have to do with sex, if possible. If not, they use images of prominent names in sensationalizing the story.
For instance, OK! Magazine published Michael Jackson’s death photo on their cover. According to Snead (2009), OK! Magazine reportedly paid over $500,000 for the controversial "last" picture of Michael Jackson being carried on a stretcher, possibly dead. Why do they think that this would sell?- because since the death of the King of Pop, there are no images captured of him. Until this image was revealed, OK! Magazine was willing to pay a huge sum of money to obtain it, knowing it will be sensational.
Most reader and especially fans are furious about the act taken by OK! Magazine. Humanly, it is unethical to use a picture of a diseased for a cover. Let alone putting thoughts in the reader’s mind and spreading word of the dead.
According to Lester (1995), displaying violent, sensational images for economic reasons, violating a person's privacy before the judicial process can function, manipulating news-editorial pictures to alter their content, stereotyping individuals into pre-conceived categories and blurring the distinction between advertising and editorial messages were journalism concerns in 1895, are important topics in 1995 and will be carefully considered issues, no doubt, in 2095.
Lester, PM 1995, Photojournalism Ethics Timeless Issues, Fullerton.edu, viewed on 12 November 2009, http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/photoethics.html.
Snead, E 2009, OK! cover of Michael Jackson's death photo stirs controversy, Zap2It.com, viewed on 12 November 2009, http://blog.zap2it.com/thedishrag/2009/07/release-of-michael-jacksons-death-photo-stirs-controversy-.html
A picture says a thousand words. That is how powerful an image is. With the addition of well chosen, significant texts, that could be able to educate, persuade and even entertain us.
“Images evoke almost immediate emotional responses among viewers and images have tremendous impact” -Lester, 1995.
As proven the power of photojournalism, there are some who misused the power spoken to their own advantage. This is normally used for business and not to inform. For example, entertainment magazines tend to use the power of photojournalism to influence its reader into buying their product. They use powerful images; scandalous images. As we are well informed, sex sells. Therefore, most photojournalist tends to use images that have to do with sex, if possible. If not, they use images of prominent names in sensationalizing the story.
For instance, OK! Magazine published Michael Jackson’s death photo on their cover. According to Snead (2009), OK! Magazine reportedly paid over $500,000 for the controversial "last" picture of Michael Jackson being carried on a stretcher, possibly dead. Why do they think that this would sell?- because since the death of the King of Pop, there are no images captured of him. Until this image was revealed, OK! Magazine was willing to pay a huge sum of money to obtain it, knowing it will be sensational.
Most reader and especially fans are furious about the act taken by OK! Magazine. Humanly, it is unethical to use a picture of a diseased for a cover. Let alone putting thoughts in the reader’s mind and spreading word of the dead.
According to Lester (1995), displaying violent, sensational images for economic reasons, violating a person's privacy before the judicial process can function, manipulating news-editorial pictures to alter their content, stereotyping individuals into pre-conceived categories and blurring the distinction between advertising and editorial messages were journalism concerns in 1895, are important topics in 1995 and will be carefully considered issues, no doubt, in 2095.
Lester, PM 1995, Photojournalism Ethics Timeless Issues, Fullerton.edu, viewed on 12 November 2009, http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/photoethics.html.
Snead, E 2009, OK! cover of Michael Jackson's death photo stirs controversy, Zap2It.com, viewed on 12 November 2009, http://blog.zap2it.com/thedishrag/2009/07/release-of-michael-jacksons-death-photo-stirs-controversy-.html
Friday, October 16, 2009
“Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming”
Originated as “The Facemash” Facebook is one of the phenomena which hit the world since Napster. Facebook is a global social networking website which is own privately by Mark Zuckerberg. Myspace are among the top competitors to Facebook but it seems today, that Facebook is still on the roll. Though, there are a few times which Facebook faced a clitical conflict with it’s “devotees”.
One of the main problems which caused the trouble was the upgrading or “makeover” of Facebook layout design. The purposes of the changes are actually for the good of the users themselves. “We want to make sure it is easy for people to push and pull information in the form of bite-size content rather than quickly” said Chamath Palihapitiya, Vide President of Marketing, Facebook. Although the change is for the best of the users, elements of layout should also be taken note of.
“You can click over and view the real-time stream. One problem though is that the Live Feed continues to refresh as new posts are entered. Each time that happens the screen changes focus and you have to scroll to figure out where you were when your reading got interrupted. Facebook needs to figure out how to stream the updates without refreshing the screen or changing focus while you're in the middle of reading.” –Tony Bradley, PC World.
Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming,http://www.australiaanit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html
Monday, October 12, 2009
New forms of media publishing
As time evolves, technology tends to expand. Hence, media publishing changes. The combination of digital convergence, personal computing and global networking seems to have ratcheted up the pace of development and is giving rise to
radical shifts in the environment (Naughton, John 2006).
The new media nowadays has altered several “traditions” which was practised before. Books are example of a ‘victim’ in the evolution of media publishing. Before the year 2007, people use book to fill their minds with knowledge, to entertain and so on. Until the year arises during a particular month, the Kindle e-book was introduced. Also known as the “E-book” (electronic book) it has certainly changes the norm of using the normal physical books. According to Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, the e-book is expected to overtake the traditional page-flipping books.
"The Kindle E-book"
radical shifts in the environment (Naughton, John 2006).
The new media nowadays has altered several “traditions” which was practised before. Books are example of a ‘victim’ in the evolution of media publishing. Before the year 2007, people use book to fill their minds with knowledge, to entertain and so on. Until the year arises during a particular month, the Kindle e-book was introduced. Also known as the “E-book” (electronic book) it has certainly changes the norm of using the normal physical books. According to Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, the e-book is expected to overtake the traditional page-flipping books.
"The Kindle E-book"
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Designing for print vs. Designing for online
Online medium and print medium are two of the same, but there are also differences in those two; the design. Online medium and print may consist of the same contents. Never the less, when designing, designers need to consider a few principles for each format.
For print media, there are usually longer paragraphs. This is because in print, it involves a huge canvas which does not limit the words. Online media on the other hand, considers the space. Therefore, shorter and concise paragraph is used due to the space limit. Due to the limitations of words used in online media, a word document should have fewer terminologies rather than print. The inverted pyramid technique is normally used whereby the important gist of the content lies in the earlier part of the document. Hence, informal and simpler language is recommended. For print media, authors are able to mingle with words knowing that there are fewer limitations of the words.
Although the technology today is advanced comparing to the olden days, readers TODAY still prefer reading hard copies rather than online soft copies. This is due to the fact that with hard copies, readers are able to read it whenever, and wherever they want to. Unlike online media, they are probably restricted by coverage and in some cases, supporting technologies.
Radshaw, K 2003, Web Writing vs. Print Writing, Kerry.net, viewed on 17 November 2009, http://www.kerryr.net/webwriting/guide_web-vs-print.htm.
For print media, there are usually longer paragraphs. This is because in print, it involves a huge canvas which does not limit the words. Online media on the other hand, considers the space. Therefore, shorter and concise paragraph is used due to the space limit. Due to the limitations of words used in online media, a word document should have fewer terminologies rather than print. The inverted pyramid technique is normally used whereby the important gist of the content lies in the earlier part of the document. Hence, informal and simpler language is recommended. For print media, authors are able to mingle with words knowing that there are fewer limitations of the words.
Although the technology today is advanced comparing to the olden days, readers TODAY still prefer reading hard copies rather than online soft copies. This is due to the fact that with hard copies, readers are able to read it whenever, and wherever they want to. Unlike online media, they are probably restricted by coverage and in some cases, supporting technologies.
Radshaw, K 2003, Web Writing vs. Print Writing, Kerry.net, viewed on 17 November 2009, http://www.kerryr.net/webwriting/guide_web-vs-print.htm.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Blogging Communities
According to Wikipedia, a community is defined as a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment; intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness. Same goes to bloggers - a blogging community can best be defined as a group of people with similar area of interest and discuss in a blog (Anthony, 2009).
How to create a blogging community?
• Take the lead and be the community that you want your readers to be – Readers follow the lead of bloggers in how they’ll interact with each other
• Q&A’s – able to interact with readers; opinions and comments
• Link to reader’s blogs
• Reciprocate with the readers, vice -versa
• Recognize and cite your readers
• Allow comments for everyone
One of the world’s most prominent blogging communities is Global Voices. The purpose of the community is to “shine” those who has talents and skills but with not recognized. The community provides platform for these bloggers to penetrate and excel in their fields. This community is operated by volunteer authors and part-time editors.
“Global Voices seeks to aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online - shining light on places and people other media often ignore. We work to develop tools, institutions and relationships that will help all voices, everywhere, to be heard...”
Anthony 2009, What is a Blogging Community?, The Travel Tart, viewed on 25th September 2009, http://www.thetraveltart.com/what-is-a-blogging-community/.
About Global Voices, Viewed on 24th September 2009,
http://globalvoicesonline.org/about/
How to create a blogging community?
• Take the lead and be the community that you want your readers to be – Readers follow the lead of bloggers in how they’ll interact with each other
• Q&A’s – able to interact with readers; opinions and comments
• Link to reader’s blogs
• Reciprocate with the readers, vice -versa
• Recognize and cite your readers
• Allow comments for everyone
One of the world’s most prominent blogging communities is Global Voices. The purpose of the community is to “shine” those who has talents and skills but with not recognized. The community provides platform for these bloggers to penetrate and excel in their fields. This community is operated by volunteer authors and part-time editors.
“Global Voices seeks to aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online - shining light on places and people other media often ignore. We work to develop tools, institutions and relationships that will help all voices, everywhere, to be heard...”
Anthony 2009, What is a Blogging Community?, The Travel Tart, viewed on 25th September 2009, http://www.thetraveltart.com/what-is-a-blogging-community/.
About Global Voices, Viewed on 24th September 2009,
http://globalvoicesonline.org/about/
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Classifications of Blogs
Blogs can be classified under various different groups or classifications. It depends on the subject matter or content of the blogs. These subject matters include personal, politics, business, private, sports, interactive, military, non-profits, and reviews (Wordpress, n.d.). Due to different contents, the media types also differ. Vlogs or video blogs, Linklogs, Moblogs and Microblogs are among the types of media featured in blogs. For example, ‘Vlogs’ are blogs which consists of videos. Linklogs on the other hand are blogs for links. These types of media types somehow cater to certain audience.
Vlog: YouTube, Blogging Heads
Linklog: Twitter's Linklog
Photoblogs/Sketchblogs: MSNBC's Photoblog/ Bearskinrug
Moblog: Moblog
Tumblelog: Mix media blogs or tumblelogs are a popular form of multimodality on blogs. The integration of text, visuals, sound bits, videos, links and many more can be expected.
Even so, bloggers nowadays tend to combine their styles. This somehow makes their blogs more interesting than they already are. On the contrary, it makes identifying unique types difficult. In my opinion, we can easily identify the types of blog just by glancing through its content. For example, by reading the introductory part of the blog, if not images and such, we would be able to identify the type of the blog because most blogs use the introductory part as an abstract to the whole thing.
Vlog: YouTube, Blogging Heads
Linklog: Twitter's Linklog
Photoblogs/Sketchblogs: MSNBC's Photoblog/ Bearskinrug
Moblog: Moblog
Tumblelog: Mix media blogs or tumblelogs are a popular form of multimodality on blogs. The integration of text, visuals, sound bits, videos, links and many more can be expected.
Even so, bloggers nowadays tend to combine their styles. This somehow makes their blogs more interesting than they already are. On the contrary, it makes identifying unique types difficult. In my opinion, we can easily identify the types of blog just by glancing through its content. For example, by reading the introductory part of the blog, if not images and such, we would be able to identify the type of the blog because most blogs use the introductory part as an abstract to the whole thing.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Blogosphere & Benefit To The Society
Blog is one of the biggest phenomena mainstream media has ever taken. People who practise blogging are called “bloggers”. Bloggers themselves consists of hobbyist, professionals, part-timers and self-employed bloggers. According to John C. Dvorak, there are thousands of blogs on the net today. Technorati reported that 100,000 new blogs is created every day and 1.3 million blog post written (BBC, 2006).
Perez Hilton, TMZ are among the most popular bogs in the U.S. The local scene on the other hand, Kennysia.org, Sapiens Bryan and Hemmy.net are among the top blog sites. These blogs are either personal or informative blogs.
Blogging does not only cater to hobbies and leisure; it benefits its audience as well. Blogging can also be used for business. According to a SEO, J. Cricket Walker, “Often your blog takes care of the “trust building” aspect of things long before people arrive at my site. Also, vice versa, people who visit my blog from my website will also develop trust”. Hence, the marketer and clients with create a mutual understanding and comfort among them so that a business deal can be initiated.
Walker, J.C, 2005, Website Development Training, retrieved on 16 September 2009,
http://www.website-development-training.com/benefits-of-blogging/
Dvorak, J.C, 2002, The Blog Phenomenon, retrieved on 17 September 2009, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,12899,00.asp
Crosby. C, 2009, Technorati’s Stae of the Blogsosphere 2009, viewed on 17 September 2009, http://www.slaw.ca/2009/11/09/technoratis-state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/
Perez Hilton, TMZ are among the most popular bogs in the U.S. The local scene on the other hand, Kennysia.org, Sapiens Bryan and Hemmy.net are among the top blog sites. These blogs are either personal or informative blogs.
Blogging does not only cater to hobbies and leisure; it benefits its audience as well. Blogging can also be used for business. According to a SEO, J. Cricket Walker, “Often your blog takes care of the “trust building” aspect of things long before people arrive at my site. Also, vice versa, people who visit my blog from my website will also develop trust”. Hence, the marketer and clients with create a mutual understanding and comfort among them so that a business deal can be initiated.
Walker, J.C, 2005, Website Development Training, retrieved on 16 September 2009,
http://www.website-development-training.com/benefits-of-blogging/
Dvorak, J.C, 2002, The Blog Phenomenon, retrieved on 17 September 2009, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,12899,00.asp
Crosby. C, 2009, Technorati’s Stae of the Blogsosphere 2009, viewed on 17 September 2009, http://www.slaw.ca/2009/11/09/technoratis-state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The Good Ones
What is a good document?
A good document is measured through the clarity of the document and whether the audience understands the document or otherwise. In the presentation prepared by my group titled "Learning for doing: Interpreting static texts via rhetorical analysis" by Todd Oakley, certain adjustments are needed with guidence from the readings given.
According to Anderson (Putnis & Petelin 1996), a good document design creates a clear-cut informative content to the audience which shows the effectiveness of the document achieved. In other words, an effective document should not be "swarmed" by irrelavant points or designs. If so, viewers will face a hard time deciding on which to emphasize more rather than having a positive perception towards the documents. For instance, if a docment is clustered with too many word or image, the viewers will have no interest in the document because the viewer may lose concentration or focus of the main point of the document.
Reep (2006) pointed out that there are four types of format elements which should be consider : white space, colour typographic and also cues. Therefore, elements in a document such as headings, boldface, and others must be consider where it could assist the audience to outline the document easily. White spaces create a more comfortable scene where viewers will not feel as clustered with other colors. Thus, viewers can easily focus on the points following the sequence and concentrate on the points.
References
Putnis & Petelin, 1996, Professional Communication, Principles and Applications, Writing for Communicate, Prentice Hall, Sydney.
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, 2006, The Semiotic Landscape in Reading Images, Routledge, New York.
Reep, Diana C., 2006, Technical writing :Document design, Ch. 6.
Kim Sydow Campbell, Coherence Continuity and Cohesion, accessed on 10 September 2009, http://bit.ly/1Ixmdf.
A good document is measured through the clarity of the document and whether the audience understands the document or otherwise. In the presentation prepared by my group titled "Learning for doing: Interpreting static texts via rhetorical analysis" by Todd Oakley, certain adjustments are needed with guidence from the readings given.
According to Anderson (Putnis & Petelin 1996), a good document design creates a clear-cut informative content to the audience which shows the effectiveness of the document achieved. In other words, an effective document should not be "swarmed" by irrelavant points or designs. If so, viewers will face a hard time deciding on which to emphasize more rather than having a positive perception towards the documents. For instance, if a docment is clustered with too many word or image, the viewers will have no interest in the document because the viewer may lose concentration or focus of the main point of the document.
Reep (2006) pointed out that there are four types of format elements which should be consider : white space, colour typographic and also cues. Therefore, elements in a document such as headings, boldface, and others must be consider where it could assist the audience to outline the document easily. White spaces create a more comfortable scene where viewers will not feel as clustered with other colors. Thus, viewers can easily focus on the points following the sequence and concentrate on the points.
References
Putnis & Petelin, 1996, Professional Communication, Principles and Applications, Writing for Communicate, Prentice Hall, Sydney.
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, 2006, The Semiotic Landscape in Reading Images, Routledge, New York.
Reep, Diana C., 2006, Technical writing :Document design, Ch. 6.
Kim Sydow Campbell, Coherence Continuity and Cohesion, accessed on 10 September 2009, http://bit.ly/1Ixmdf.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
The Purpose
TMS (Tun Muhamad Sayid) was created in the idea to share my point of view and understanding towards the subject Issues in Publication and Design (IPD). Communication students, be it from Taylor's College or other colleges with similiar aims would be the best target audience for this blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
