Reflection

After blogging about the past few entries, I felt that as a blogger we have to know the social semiotics function before we can start posting. Social semiotics is defined as the way people make meaning on a certain matter (Schirato and Yell 2000). So as a blogger, I must always be aware on the type of words that I am going to use in my blogposts before posting it or it will cause some misunderstanding.

A blogger must also have a blog with a design that is user-friendly and simple so that the readers will not have trouble navigating around the blog (Reep 2006). Using that statement from Reep, I designed my blog to be simple with just a few colours so that it does not confuse the readers and I have included some labels in the sidebar for easy navigation. I also learnt that a blogger has to be knowledgeable about the culture that they are in so that they do not get in trouble for using the wrong terms (Schriver 1997).

References

• Reep, D 2006, ‘Document Design,’ Technical Writing, vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 133-172, New York.
• Schriver, K 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures,’ in Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York, ch. 6, pp. 361-441. 
• Schirato, T and Yell, S 2000, Communication and culture: An Introduction, 2^nd edn, viewed on 11 June 2011, http://books.google.com.my/books?id=x0eCjzs0bhwC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=schirato+and+yell+on+context&source=bl&ots=1HAIVUbhv0&sig=tLFOc7uQ5CAKC3ekRLw6XhNVYWA&hl=en&ei=_IjzTfGgII3QrQes0dDzBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false .

Fast and instant.

Source: http://i.usatoday.net/news/gallery/2011/n110311-tsunami/n110311-aerial-pg-horizontal.jpg

With the new technology available now, news and social interaction can travel almost in an instant. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are easily accessed using smartphones such as the iPhone and Blackberry. People can receive updates from all around the world with a few clicks and this especially became useful during the earthquake and tsunami disaster happened in Japan.

In an article written by Dorian Benkoil titled ‘How Social Media,Internet Changed Experience of Japan’, he described how he could receive information, live images and videos on the Japan earthquake immediately just with the use of new technologies and social networking sites. Thanks to that he never felt more connected than he ever had before (Benkoil 2011).

So how did all this happen? It is due to the new form of journalism that evolved from traditional journalism. Journalists now are using modern tools to broadcast news. Journalists can find experts of a certain field without actually meeting them in person, through the internet (Pavlik 1997). For example, if a journalist is not able to be in Japan to get the statistics on the amount of casualties that happened or the rate of the earthquake and tsunami, they could always go to news websites or websites that belong to scientists who happens to be investigating the earthquake to get the updates.

But even if Twitter is so fast and brief in giving updates on certain events, some of the updates are not necessarily true or could just be rumors. Updates presented on Twitter are not credible and there are no links there to prove its credibility (Rosen 2011). So a journalist still has to do some research to verify the statements provided in Twitter and social networking websites such as Facebook unless there is a link provided there already to prove its credibility.

References

• Benkoil, D 2011, ‘How Social Media, Internet Changed Experience of Japan,’ Public Broadcasting Service 15 March, viewed on 12 June 2011, http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/03/how-social-media-internet-changed-experience-of-japan-disaster-074.html .
• Pavlik, J 1999, ‘New Media and News: Implications for the Future of Journalism,’ New Media & Society, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 54-59, viewed on 12 June 2011, http://nms.sagepub.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/content/1/1/54.full.pdf+html .
• Rosen, J 2011, ‘The “Twitter Can’t Topple Dictators” Article,’ Press Think 13 February, viewed on 12 June 2011, http://pressthink.org/2011/02/the-twitter-cant-topple-dictators-article/ .

Angry Birds are taking over!

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ykBniggeLfnkFH2hLOsz-g4OCPkf-CLyvqjenTvfKaMz_HA6s5_nS1b9HxELNfAPUgm37kPHJMLAHDogYb-pukzHbx7QeISO1GkG3c0wsdsw3iW7jS2vWLzLQcG15xCRb6cwWLWrYNA/s1600/angry+birds.png

We all know what Angry Birds are and apparently it is so famous that you can see shops all over the country selling its soft toys, key chains and collectibles. This mobile phone game is played by millions all over the world on their smart phones and just recently it even can be played on Google in High Definition.

In the article titled ‘Angry Birds: 200m downloads are the tips ofthe mobile gaming iceberg’ written by Stuart Dredge, he explained how the Angry Birds phenomena is going strong and the recent Angry Birds Rio which was inspired by Rio the movie has generated about 35million downloads. Researches did by Distimo and Newzoo on seven countries such as USA, UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands has brought conclusions that more than 63 million users of the iPad, iPhone and/or iPod Touch downloads about 2.5 games a month.

Since it is so well-known and everyone can play it since it is free, surely the design of the game is created to be user-friendly so that no one will have trouble when playing it. It uses a simple start page, visual imagery and sound effects also to attract users to download the game (Walsh 2006).  

How did it get so famous? Rovio, the creators of Angry Birds has used viral marketing in order to promote this mobile phone game. The six principles of viral marketing are giving away products or services, providing effortless transfer to others, scaling easily from small to very large, exploiting common motivations and behaviours, utilizing existing communication networks, and taking advantage of other’s resources (Wilson 2005). To relate this to Rovio in promoting Angry Birds, they provide the game for free that is why many people are able to download it, it is also easily found to download in the Android market or Apps Store, it started from mobile applications to now a game that can be played in Google, since most people are looking for a mobile phone game that can entertain them for hours by downloading this game they can be entertained, when people who played this game loves it then they will share it among their family and friends and through social networks and this will help to spread the Angry Bird game, and since Rovio has partnered with Google, they can now use Google to gain more downloads and fans.

References

• Dredge, S 2011, ‘Angry Birds: 200m downloads are the tips of the mobile gaming iceberg,’ Guardian.co.uk 19 May, viewed on 12 June 2011, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2011/may/19/iphone-game-stats> .
• Walsh, M 2006, ‘The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts,’ Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 24-37.
• Wilson, R 2005, The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing, Web Marketing Today, viewed on 12 June 2011, http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles.htm .

Its just a book!

Source: http://media.themalaysianinsider.com/images/uploads/2011/january/10/interlok.jpg

To me, books contain stories that are imaginations or experiences that the author had and to be able to share their stories to the public is a big achievement and honour to them. But some authors are being pushed back due to censorship of certain countries. 

            In the article titled ‘Book, a unitytool’ written by Melody Woon, she reported that after 40 years of the book ‘Interlok’ being sold in bookstores all over Malaysia, the books are then reclaimed by the government because of the words used by Abdullah Hussain, the author are ‘ugly’ and caused some racial tensions among the Malaysians (Woon 2011).

            The author should have knowledge of the culture about which words to use that will not trigger any problems with the public or the government (Schriver 1997). But he has the knowledge and he is just voicing out his opinion on his experience during that era but due to the sensitivity of racial issues in Malaysia, the government stopped his books from selling to the public. It took over 40 years for the government to realize that the book contains racial stereotyping in the book and this banning of his books is relatable to the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia (Woon 2011).

            Freedom of speech is defined as the right to express one’s opinion without getting restrained by the government and the censorship (Bowers 2006). In Malaysia, it seems that the term freedom of speech is not even applicable; the government has the power to control people from expressing their opinions, for example the author of Interlok and the famous Namewee. Malaysia has many laws that have been created to restrain people to express their opinions such as the Sedition Act, Printing Presses and Publication Act, Official Secret Act and many more. Therefore, the act of freedom of speech in Malaysia will never be successful with the government who created so many laws to control the media.

References

• Bowers, J 2006, Censorship and Free Speech, The Ethics of Modern Communication, Fair Use, viewed on 12 June 2011, http://www.jerf.org/writings/communicationEthics/node5.html .
• Schriver, K 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures,’ in Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York, ch. 6, pp. 361-441.
• Woon, M 2011, ‘Book, a unity tool,’ The Star Online 13 March, viewed on 12 June 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2011/3/13/education/8216396&sec=education> .