Reflections of a Media Blogger

The cartoon above depicts what I have learnt through this assignment. Throughout the period of updating posts into this blog, I realised that a blogger has to be passionate about the topic he / she is writing about, and self-disciplined  enough to keep coming back to write more. A blogger has to put in a lot of effort to find ineteresting posts to write about, as well as know how to keep it interesting and different from other blogs.

Blogs have a different style of writing from traditional publishings. It is not newspaper report styled, as our opinions can be shown in our blog entries. It is also unlike websites, due to the fact that it can be updated as and when the blogger wants to.

To create this weblog, I had to take into consideration, the design factors. The background colours had to be co-ordinated with the blog layout as well as the font colours. The font had to be easily visible to facilitate reading and understanding. A blog with all words and no pictures or videos would be really boring. At the same time excessive graphics make it too confusing. The choice of graphics is important as the source proves the reliabilty of the pictures or videos.

I believe I have a better understanding of design and publishing in online media now. 

The Future of Blogging - VLog

Blogging always has a trend. At the beginning, there will be many posts. Subsequently, the frequency of the posts die down and becomes stagnant. Either that, or the posts tend to loose steam and start becoming mundane. And then, after some time, the whole trend starts again. It's like a cycle. 

So one may ask, "What is the future of blogging?"

Humans are always trying to make things better and invent new means of doing everything and anything. It is in their quest for novelty that Blogging evolved into Vlogging. So just what is Vlogging?

Though it has been around for quite a while now, surprisingly, many people are still unaware of Vlogging. Like how BLOG is the blend of the term web log, VLOG stands for Video Log. Makes sense, doesn't it?

In blogs, we write. In vlogs, we post videos of ourselves, and we talk. There are plenty of vlogs available in sites such as YouTube. The purpose is pretty much the same. However, the method of projecting our thoughts and opinion differ greatly. 

Here is a short video on the difference between blogging and vlogging, as interpreted by a deaf person. Interesting point of view. Check it out.

Pirates caught on the Net..

 

This image is taken from http://www.shawnhogan.com/2006/06/top-sites.html

The image above shows a breakdown of how Internet Piracy works. With the rise in technology and internet usage, piracy is a very real problem everyone is facing. Such large number of people use the internet and share information and files online everyday, that it is in fact very difficult to put a definite full-stop to online piracy. Piracy is another example of bad nettiquette. Government officials all around the world keep trying to come up with ways to discourage web users from choosing pirated files over original ones.

Blogger Facts -

Take a look at these piracy statistics and the effects of piracy in upcoming years.

This image is taken from: http://www.dgaquarterly.org/BACKISSUES/Spring2010/PiracyByTheNumbers.aspx

Blogging Myths - A personalised opinion?

Everyone is entitled to personal opinions about blogs, and blogs have both positive and negative publicity. Many people who only have exposure to the personal journal sort of blogs, tend to have the impression that they do not have anything to learn from blogs and that it is a waste of time. However, others, who take the time to explore various blogs, and observe the various ways of writing, tend to think that blogs have more to offer than traditional publications. Take the speaker, Scott Rosenberg in the video below for example. He is addressing 10 common myths about blogging, and gives his opinion of it. 

There are other situations where, in the case of fashion blogs, food blogs or the such, the writer acts as a critic. Often, these writers do not strictly follow proper netiquette. Their writing may come across as being defamatory to particular businesses or persons. 

This is an instance where the difference between blogs and traditional publications stands out. In traditional publications such as newspaper articles, the writer should not openly defame any person or business, and the article should be neutral and not opinionated in any ways. However, these blogs have a very opinionated style of writing, which may misguide the readers. 

Readers may find this trend unacceptable at times. But then again, can we blame the bloggers for their individual style of writing?

The Perfect Website

It's not just a white elephant when it comes to the US White House's website. Ranked the highest in Google's page ranking listings, this site anchors many quality links.

Quality link sources come from the number of reputable websites in the web . Having said that, many of you might get to thinking, that by having this link in my or even your blog might increase your page ranking? Think twice. Google's algorithm is set in such a way that it reads whether or not your links going outbound to The White House is actually giving inbound links back to you..

This here, clearly depicts the actual power and amount of growth technology has transformed itself into.

  

Blogger Facts- 

"Did you know that The White House's website is the only website with the highest ranking of 10 out of 10?"

Local & International Media Sources

Local and international media sources are always different from each other. Their news values differ as well. The proximity of the news to us plays a part in some people's reading habits. Others like to be on the ball about what is going on around the globe.

Take, for instance, Chris Anderson's opnion:

Chris Anderson is an author, journalist and editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine.

We can see the differences between local and international news in news websites such as:

1. BBC
2. CNN
3. The Straits Times
4. Today  (Daily Newspaper in Singapore)
   
   

BBC and CNN are international news mediums and publish news in every form, be it written, video or feature writing, from all around the world.

The Straits times is a local newspaper. However, it is the most prominent and widely read local newspaper. Therefore, the contents are mainly made up of local news, but a lot of global news are also covered. 

Today is a free daily newspaper in Singapore. It's main focus is local news, just like the Straits Times. Today also covers some global news but not as much as Straits Times does.   

If we go into detail on the readership for the 4 websites listed above, we will be able to see a noticeable difference in the number of readers from Singapore. Definitely, the Straits Times and Today websites, will not have the variety of readers as BBC or CNN would.



Technological Advances and Netiquette

When you watch videos in YouTube or read an article online, have you ever read through the comments left by readers at the bottom? How ethical are these comments? Are they appropriate to be on a webpage which is frequented by youngsters?

What about the comments on social networking sites or the language people are using nowadays to express themselves in public? It is becoming a trend to be more casual in expressing their opinions, and many people openly show their frustrations towards another person who might have a different opinion from theirs. This brings us to a very prominent question nowadays: Is online media a bad influence to youngsters? How do they use the information online wisely and ethically? 

As a matter of fact, it is not just the youngsters we are concerned about. How many matured adults using the World Wide Web know proper netiquette? With new technologies such as the iPhone and other smart phones, access to cyberspace is at our fingertips...Literally. 

With these kind of technological advances, it is really important that we keep up proper netiquette and educate others about it as well. Check out the video below. It is a simple way to tell others to mind their manners online. 

Blogger facts-
"Did you know that 13% of students in Singapore experience cyber bullying?" Cyber bullying is just one of the many bad ettiquettes on the rise amongst youngsters.