SOME FINAL THOUGHTS - REFLECTION

Understanding on a good design form has been fully applied on my weblog. I can clarify that blogging may be consider as a good form of communication for me. By sharing my thoughts, opinions, discuss and comment on some issue, series of action while writing this blog has directed me towards specific target. It is more to the research related issue. As I gather all the information needed to support my arguments on media and publishing issue, a good blogging skill has been obtained as i maintain this weblog. Neilsen (2005) claimed that 'a weblogs consider as a special genre of a website by which special characteristic and the usability manner must be fully considered'. I have put my concern in this usability matter to my reader by providing the useful links that they might be need to get more reading on what i've decide to write, as well as some useful navigation gadget like; comment box, and ABC news channel gadget. 

Looking at the ethical integrity, when we retrieve information from other sites or journal an appropriate citation, quotation should have be provide in order to avoid ethical issue such as ; copyright infringement, just like what King (2010) said, 'in order to prepare and submit a manuscript for a publication, a proper ethics procedures should be considered important in it. Washington (2005), discussed about C.O.B.E (Code of Blogging ethics), reflected some element of ethical blogging;

• Promote interactivity, be interesting, entertaining and relevant. 
• Promote free expression, by not restrict the access of my blog, comment box are essentially provided as well.
• strive for the factual, this is where we need to avoid deceiving others and be accountable on what i am going to post.
• Transparency, by providing the purpose of this blog and  the affiliations of the blog.
• Promote human element in blogging, minimize harm and responding to any comments given.  

References

King, C,R, 2010, Ethical Issues in writing ad publishing, Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, vol 5, No. 3 retrieved on June 16 2010.

Nielsen, J 2005, ‘Weblog usability: the top ten design mistakes’, Useit.com, viewed 13 June 2008, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html

Washington, M, 2005, C.O.B.E Revised: Form-Based Duties in Blog Ethics, retrieved on June 16 2010, from http://blogethics2004.blogspot.com/

FARMVILLE ICE-CREAM AND SLURPEES exclusive find @7-eleven stores

Farmville got its official ice-cream and Slurpees? Who Don’t know Farmville? It is a real-time farm stimulation Facebook game which I used to play before. This is one of attractive headline that I read from The Star Online Tech on May 2010, with its short heading ‘Farmville ice-cream, anyone?’ has personally attract me to read more on this familiar game. Now it is officially come out with its own ice cream plus slurpee that we can find in 7-eleven stores in Unite States. It stated that by buying that food product, the customer will be given a code that can be used to redeem an in-game object for the game.  Thus all this promotion will be publicize on the web, Tv, print ads to support it deal with 7-11. (The Star, tech central 2010).

source : http://kotaku.com

I just amazed of what they do with their Farmville brand. I did admit that the smart marketing mind of zynga (game developer) to promote their game through ‘junk food’ which is everybody like it! Especially children, it is cooperating with 7-eleven that has around 7000 stores around the nations. Farmville itself got 82, 4 million active users and 23,9 fans in Facebook application. It was just one year since Zynga launched Farmville on June 2009 last year and now they bring that game content to the real world. Takahashi (2010), he stated that Zynga is showing the maturity of social games there is where they start to reach the social market. Parents should start to worry about this, there will be bunches of new junk food being introduced by Zynga.

A thought for me to slot in that  This marketing intelligence will be continuing this is what we called as competitive market industry, there are thousands and millions of game industry out there competing for their popularity and fight for survival.They will try to promote their game with the power of 'advertising'. UC Davis a public health researcher found that children already saturated with television content and message about unhealthy food. Farmville vanilla icecream with it colourful packaging obviously will attract the children. Cassady (2010), a senior author author of the study of public health in UC Davis stated that their previous research that food advertising on television programming for children is dominated by high-fat quick-service food and high-sugar cereals and candy. Jayc4life (2010) give comment on this issue stated that But what will be next after this? Zynga does some sort of crazy deal with Starbucks to dole out Cafe World merchandise? Mafia Wars-branded air soft and paintball guns? 


However i believe that The consideration on developing guidelines for advertising their products to children must alway be maintain. Government should step in and set requirement for food companies that targeted to children in account of prevent the risk in having another generation of youngster at high risk of unhealthy eating. 

References

Health.am, 2010, Online games new marketing tool for unhealthy food, retrieved June 16 2020, fromm http://www.health.am/ab/more/online-games-new-marketing-tool-for-unhealthy-foods/

Takahashi, 2010, Zaynga, 7-Eleven to promote facebook game, retrieved June 16 2010, from http://games.venturebeat.com/2010/05/23/zynga-cuts-a-big-deal-with-7-eleven-to-promote-its-facebook-games-in-stores/

TechCentral.my, 2010, Farmville ice-cream, anyone? Retrieved June 16 2010, from http://techcentral.my/blogs/dllfiles/story.aspx?file=/2010/5/31/it_blog_dll_files/20100531121104&sec=it_blog_dll_files

WHEN THE GAMES START PLAYING YOU

I would like to share a case that happened recently in March 2010, a very bombing case that hit the worldwide headline. Have a brief summary about this case. I read this article in BBC News published on 5th March 2010 with headline “S  Korea child ‘starves as parents raise virtual baby’ too excited and were addicted to the internet, the couple neglected their infant by just fed the baby once a day. Police officer claimed that the husband has lost their will to live a normal life after losing their job and started to indulge themselves online. A popular role-playing game Prius Online which allow the player to nurturing a virtual girl called as Anima. – BBC.co.uk

Source : billmullins.files.wordpress.com

I would like to argue that this issue is strongly related to the real world escape way by joining the virtual world. This is all might be start from the pleasure that a person find by having an online identity. The addiction process is slowly shape through the enjoyment that they’ve obtained which at the end it will ruin a person real life by suffering mental health problem such as anxiety and depression. Suler (2002), stated that one of the interesting thing about internet is the opportunity provided to present themselves in a variety different way. You could alter yourself in terms of changing your age, personality, physical appearance, as well as gender. David SmallWood claimed that addiction treatment programme manager in London believed that the adolescents who gain their status through online expertise that they couldn’t get in real life and that’s the reason why they turned addictive on that particular game. (The Australian, 2010).

I would like to add in that Cyber addiction is just like the addiction for Cocaine. Refers back to the case above, the couple who get depressed after lost their job, spending most of their time in cyber world and neglected their baby for the sick of virtual baby is just the too irony. Steve Pope (2010), a therapist gives his opinion on the increasing numbers of youngster cyber addiction that most of them get themselves into situation whereby a game as an escape from the real world and they get hooked on the release of adrenaline it gives. In fact, spending two hours on game station is equal with a line of cocaine in the “high” it could produce.

To be concluded, this cyber addiction can be considered as the fastest growing addcition in the country. It is affected young people mentally and psychologically. Some people might criticize that the game company should take action and responsibility in this issue in consequence the game makers intentionally design their product with addictive quality.

References

BBC.co, 2010, S Korea child ‘starved as parents raised virtual baby’, retrieved June 15 2010, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8551122.stm

Parfitt, B, 2010, Gaming Likened to cocaine addiction, retrieved June 15 2010, from http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39153/Gaming-likened-to-cocaine-addiction

Lep.co.uk, 2010, Gaming addiction grips youngster, retrieved June 15 2010, from http://www.lep.co.uk/lifestyle/gaming_addiction_grips_youngsters_1_773488

Seib and Dayton, 2010, When games start playing you: cyber addicts, retrieved June 14 2010, from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/when-games-start-playing-you-cyber-addicts/story-e6frg8y6-1225869381676

Suler, J.R (2002), 'Identity Management in Cyberspace', Reviewed on 13th June 2010:

http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html

THE FUTURE OF UNREALISTIC WORLD - DIGITAL MANIPULATION

CAN YOU STILL BELIEVE ON WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THE MEDIA?

source : www.hemmy.net

I have read an interesting article on The Australian news (click open the article), that is written by Nicola Berkovic on October 2009 with the title “Realism in models to get tick of approval”. Mainly this article is talk about the encouragement that must be done for the industry to start using natural and realistic image for their publication. Editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, Mia Freedman and Sarah Murdoch, well-known the models and television producer has show their severe support on this issue. Murdoch did appear on the cover of week’s Woman’s Weekly Magazine with an untouched photograph. 

source : http://www.news.com.au

A serious respond showed from Kate Ellis, Federal Youth Minister on this “unhealthy epidemic” of negative body image issue.

“It’s a serious issue which is affecting the health, the confidence, the productivity of thousands of Australians” Ms Ellis said.

From my experience, looking every single stop of along the street there is no way we cant find  "advertisement billboard". especially clothing, fashion, beauty related ads, the models face  are perfectly shining like no one i ever met. the shape of their body, face are totally lovely. However i know that all of that are about PHOTOSHOPPED, ILLUSIONS!, their face and body are being manipulated perfectly including their shadow. Talking about the art of photo manipulation, It has been used for propaganda as early as 1930s, which has been existing long before digital era (studiopix, 2010). In Entertainment industry, to publish a un-retouch picture is so ‘uncommon and bizarre’. It can be argued most entertainment company (magazine, advertising, fashion, beauty, etc) has make use of some attractive models and celebrities, the use of computer-manipulated features imagery, edited on their skin-toned, Their hips, waists, tights and arms are shaved into inches are believed will make the subject seems to be more “appealing” and as desirable as possible (Lim, 2010).

My opinion regarding this issue, I am strongly agreed for the legalizing of the guidelines that will be a mandatory for all industry. Ethical consideration must be precedence in terms of their product publication, the use of image and the message that the industry try to deliver so that it would not harm society health.

A research also has been done regarding on the history of digital imagery technology that written in a book by William Mitchell (1992), which explanation on the technology that actually raise the misinformation and visual falsehood on the audiences. He labelled the very frequent digital retouching as a "change of physical appearance". (Messaris, 1997). There we around 90% of commercial were being retouched by digital effect. Research by Reaves, et al (2004), show that audiences do not often have opportunity to view image clearly as the results of digital manipulation. They also argued that Media has big impact on woman’s eating behaviours which had led to body dissatisfaction, and low self esteem. One of the most killing eating disorder disease is anorexia nervosa which resulting in death around 20% of its victims (Thomsen, McCoy & Williams, 2001).

For the conclusion on this issue, an interesting video below has actually received quiet a lot of good respond in the YouTube; it hits over 11 Millions views. The creative video was produced for Dove Self Esteem campaign with objective is change the perception of beauty from ultra-thin models with perfect features to making every girl and woman feel positive about her looks, no matter what they are. this might be consider as a good strategy for anti negative body image campaign.

source : YouTube.com

References

Berkovic, N, 2009, Realism in models to get tick of approval, retrieved June 15 2010, from

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/executive-lifestyle/realism-in-models-to-get-tick-of-approval/story-e6frg8k6-1225791914269

The Australian News, 2009, Model Sarah Murdoch in non-airbrushed image on Australian Women's Weekly, retrieved June 15 2010, from

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/model-sarah-murdoch-in-non-airbrushed-image-on-australian-womens-weekly/story-e6frfmqi-1225791726642

Lim, S.S, 2010, A Mysterious World – Fashion Photography,retrieved June 16 2010, from http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Mysterious-World---Fashion-Photography&id=4440100

Messaris, P, (1997), Visual Persuasion; The Role of Images in Advertising, Sage Publication, California.

Reaves, et al, (2009), If looks could kill: Digital Manipulation of Fashion Model, retrieved  June 16 2010, from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t775653682

Studiopix, 2010, Photo Manipulation Was Around Long Before Photoshop, retrieved June 16 2010, from http://www.studiophix.com/blog/?p=1

Thomsen, S., McCoy, J., & Williams, M (2001). Internalizing the impossible:Anorexic outpatients’ experiences with women’s beauty and fashion magazines. Eating Disorders, 9, 49–64.

NETWORKING USE FOR NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS

A media report transcript retrieved from ABC Rational Radio with the title ‘Networking for good’, interview between Antony Funnell and Bill Strathmann to discuss about how the non-profit organization use the technology and social media technique in order to expand their donor-base and engage their supporter. Here is the summary, In 2008, "connecting up" conference has bring all non-profit organizations together in developing their technology capacity. Bill Strathmann, the CEO of 'Network for Good' believed that the use of new IT Technology and other Social Media tools will be more effective than the traditional non-profit organizations that are under-resourced. It served as low cost platform, it do help a lot in 'online fundraising'. Another good point of using web 2.0 technologies is the word "engagement" can be done easily with the audience that at the end will become non-profit supporter. The supporters will not just only donating their money, yet they will be supportive enough to lend their voice and passion to reach out their family and friends. Which at the end the supporter will be a powerful, authentic messenger for the organization. (ABC.net, 2008).

The relation between supporter and their supportive passion can be linked to "Participatory Culture" (Jenkins, 2005), stated that participatory culture is by when a member are free to contribute by which their contribution will be appropriately valued. It considers of sharing one's creation with others, contribution is a matter, some degree of social connection are shaped between the members.

source : www1.networkforgood.org

 

Above is the screenshot of Networkforgood website. Well-established with it simple and straightforward content, the website allow public to sign up as member. Effectiveness is created by provide them article regarding on ‘What is happening currently around the world’ such as; Wildlife welfare, disaster. Which different donating techniques are provided such as; Gift card for charity, Monthly giving, and charity Badge, a special online badge that customized for the supporter.

"IT IS ABOUT CONVERSATION, ASKING QUESTIONS AND LISTENING"

 Social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, blog are being effectively used in order to spread the workload in non-profit organization. Looking at Malaysia itself, non-profit organization like SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal) has showed it successful term in using IT technology. Effectiveness has showed from the feedback and action from the society to start adopting and Stop the cruelty towards the animal.

Source : http://www.spca.org.my/ 

 

SPCA websites are established in a good manner by providing useful links and information. 50% of the websites filled by the pictures of the homeless animal, volunteer service activist, which is believe to bring sympathy impact to the audience. Effectiveness of the websites also shows by providing Supporter with different methods in term of volunteering and donation e.g.; SPCA wishlist, Charity shop. Updating on the on-going campaign and can be gained from the website itself or the links SPCA Facebook and YouTube.

Win-Win situation has been obtained between both SPCA and Malaysian society. It shows from the archive of media coverage on SPCA activities, over 8,000 subscribers on SPCA Facebook, the increasing of volunteer service and the pet adoption amount. I believe that the existence of web 2.0 technology will able to help the development of non-profit organizations. Consider the technology as the "middle man” tool that confront 'giver' to the one that ‘needed’ from around the world.

References

ABC.net, 2008, Networking for Good, retrieved 4 June 2010, from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2269688.htm

investor.com, Non-profit Organisation Definition, retrieved 14 June 2010, from http://www.investorwords.com/3331/non_profit_organization.html

Cravens, J, 2010, Non-profit Organisations and Online Social Networking; Advice and commentary, retrieved 14 June 2010, from http://www.coyotecommunications.com/outreach/osn.html

Jenkins, H, et al, 2005, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, retrieved 14 June 2010, from http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf

SPCA.org.my, 2010, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, retrieved 14 June 2010, from http://www.spca.org.my/v51/

DESIGN FOR SCREEN GENRE

Design for PowerPoint Slide

Bear, Jacci, H. (2010) stated thatThe main purpose of PowerPoint slides is to deliver your purpose to the audience. Match the design with your purpose will be necessary for the designer. is it to persuade? entertain? inform? or sell? the using of colours, clip art and template must always be consistent with your purpose.  

Reep,Diana,C. (2006) also stressed that every document design always refers to the physical appearance. the written text must work together with its presentation in order to deliver informations for audience.

Reep also defined four design principles: Balance, Proportion, sequence and consistency by which a designer must consider in order to create the 'look' they want for a document. By using my own presentation slides to provide critical point of view on how good PowerPoint slides will looks like. 

figure 1.0

figure 2.0

figure 3.0

Balance, in every design, having comparable visual 'weight'. design for the PowerPoint slide should not too pack and not too empty. "the most relevant law is that of equilibrium, or pragnanz, which suggests that items in a visual field strive for balance or equilibrium with other items in the field" (Bernhardt, A. 1986).

Look at figure 1.0 and 2.0 above, the structure of the element is balance including the color of  the background. using colorful design on the left side will able to draw attention, and freshing  the mind of the reader. as well as i am using white color background to balance up all the elements in the slide. providing white space in order to create balance and proportion for the slides. 

providing enough white space for reader in order to help them to process the text efficiently as well as rests readers' eyes and direct them to the important information (Reep, 2006).

Proportion, its all about the size and placement of the element in a design. compare both figure 2.0 and figure 3.0, the size of text in 3.0 is not as much as 2.0.  it is design so in order to avoid monotonous for reader (reep, 2006). The heading size will be so much bigger than the text. that is created in order to emphasize more on it. in figure 3.0, there is 2 columns table. the amount of space for the column must be balance up as well.

Sequence, the arrangement of the design must be in correct order. people always tend to read from top left and end up in bottom right. both figure 1.0 and 2.0 have good sequence arrangement in it. starting from the top with the most important element (heading) and continue with detail explanation on the heading/ topic.

Consistency, similar feature in a similar style (reep, 2006) included: margin, typeface, indentations. A fourth law of gestalt, the law of similarity, suggests that units which resemble each other in shape, size, color,or direction will be seen together as a homogenous grouping. (Bernhardt, A. 1986). in my slides, i only use 2 color text (purple and black). and 1 typeface (Constantia). same type of bullet, as well as same size of the margin. 

References


Bernhard, A, S (1986), Seeing the Text, College Composition and Communication, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Feb., 1986), pp. 66-78, National Council of teachers of English.
Reep, D. C.( 2006), ‘Chapter 6: Document design’ in Technical writing: Principles, strategies and readings, 6th ed., Pearson-Longman, New York.
About.com. 2010. Before You create a PowerPoint Presentation. retrieved on 15th April 2010, at
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/microsoft/bb/powerpointrules.htm

NEW FORMS OF MEDIA PUBLISHING

New media impact on Journalism world

"it's a truism that our communications environment is changing" (Naughton, 2006) that is what happen with media publishing system nowadays. Traditional media (print media) to new media (online, broadcast). (Walsh, 2006) also stated that there are the paradigm shift (Bearne, 2003) has occured for today's environment filled with visual,electronic and digital text in which referred to 'multimodal' (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001).

In depth discussion 

Newspaper designers always play with huge canvas and the design of newspaper can be more striking and yet intricate and pack much more impact than a web page (Neilson, 1999).But since New Media is starting to dominate the communications environment, writing and designing for new media will be totally different from traditional media. in early years media print newspaper, reader tend to read linearly (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006) The relationship between the reader and the text within the whole reading process is a two-way recursive and dynamic interaction that occurs within both an immediate and wider socio-cultural context (Walsh, 2006). Both traditional media and new media can be classified as multimodal text (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006). the element of both text and picture can be find in the traditional print media. but if we compare to new online media we can find more elements in it included sound, animation, picture, text, video and so on. 

Naughton, J. 2006, in his journal of Blogging and Media Ecosystem he stated that the arrival of new media publishing form represented the first revolutionary transformation of our communications environment. people tend to learn very fast how to use this new media form that also caused of cultural changes as well. he also stated that there is a 'wipe out' scenario by which a product of mindset that sees the world mainly in terms of market and market share. e.g when the web arrived, people predicted that it would wipe out newsprint. The crisis of print media might be occur when people tend to interact more and get their needs from new media (broadcast media - TV).

New Media Form of publishing

YouTube

source: http://blogoscoped.com/files/youtube-tv-1-large.jpg

YouTube is One of most popular form of Vblog form of publishing in World Wide Web. People start to use  YouTube for various interest and purpose. The popularity of YouTube videos accounted for 60% of the online viewing market. according to Mahalo, in 2006 there are more than 100 million videos were being watched daily and there were over 65,000 videos were being uploaded every month.


 Below will be some benefits that we can get from YouTube marketing according to Hilton, M. 2010 are:

1. Free of Charge, and it shown for free to everyone around the world
2. Viral effect, video that is interesting and get positive respond from viewer will be easily become popular.
3. Climbing up the ladder in Goggle's SERPs (Search Engine Result Page)
4. You got your own Channel! and people might subscribe into your channel.

e.g VEVO

Source http://cdn.erictric.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/VEVO-Channel-on-YouTube.jpg

YouTube issues

1. Copyright violation, consider that YouTube will bring benefit to most of its user and viewer. but how about some Companies that their copyright issue has been violated by YouTube users? YouTube itself has treated this issue as a major issue until now. in BBC news (2007), stated several companies were suing YouTube over copyright issues. YouTube has actually took action on it in January 2009, some videos with copyright issue might be displayed in half portion only, without sound, or pulled entire of the video.


2. Controversy issues, Several countries like Iran, Turkey, Morocco, China, Brazil and Pakistan have banned YouTube due to violation of their local laws.
Febuary 22, 2008, Pakistan Telecommunication blocked access on YouTube content on the government order that has actually caused 2 hours blackout for whole World Wide Web YouTube. Four days after that, Pakistan Telecom removed the ban right after YouTube took action to remove controversial religious comments that made by Dutch government official concerning Islam.
some school also banned the YouTube side in their classroom due to violation act and videos that students might be access in the school.

References

Hilton, M. 2010. Benefits of Using YouTube Marketing. retrieved on 14th April 2010, at

 http://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-of-Using-YouTube-Marketing&id=1884558

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006. Reading images. Chapter 6: The meaning of composition

Mahalo.com, 2007 - 2010. YouTube, retrieved on 14th April 2010, at

http://www.mahalo.com/youtube

Naughton. J, 2006. Blogging and Emerging Media Ecosystem. pg 1-10. 
Nielsen, J 1999, Print vs. web design, online, retrieved 14th April 2010, at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html.

Streaming Future for Internet Users 2007, BBC News, retrieved on 14th April 2010, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7017794.stm

Walsh, M. 2006,” ‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process 

with p

rint, visual and multimodal texts,” Australian Journal of L

anguage and Literacy, vol.29, no.1