Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Reflection

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.

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.

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

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