Reflection

From the findings of researching on the publications and design, overall the build up of a blog is fun and interesting. It is not easy to build up a blog, Alex (2008-2009) mentioned that is the key factor to keep d blog on the run is to have the consistency to write about the contents and keeping up with the latest trend to write on the newest news are also equally important.

Source: Google (2009)

There are man different types of blogs around the blogging era, but the most preferable blog I would choose is the blogs that have the mixture of pictures and words together. Interplay of words and pictures are the best sequence besides then video blog (vlog). Both Shriver (2007) and Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) agrees that the words complement the pictures by explaining what the picture means and the picture is to give readers a visual impaction for them to visualize.

Source: Google (2009)

List of References:

Alex, 2008-2009, How to Build a Community Around Your Blog, Blogussion.com, viewed 21st of November 2009,

<http://www.blogussion.com/community/build-community-around-blog/>

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading Images: The Grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, London, chapter 6: ‘The meaning of composition’

•Shriver, K.A 2007, Gluing their Eyes to Your Screen: Typography Matter, KSA Communication Design & Research, Inc., viewed 22nd of November 2009.

<http://www.stc.org/edu/54thConf/dataShow.asp?ID=135>

Media or publishing issues: Libraries Warn of Censorship, Privacy, Cost in Google’s Digital Library

Books are usually able to be obtained from the University campus or the Government library or also in the public library. But thanks to the help of technology, books are being able to be access in the Internet.

The Real-life library

Source: Google (2009)

There are many types of online library that th Internet have but the most exclusive library would be known as Google and Google Scholar. According to Scholar (2009), Google scholar is known to provide a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. In addition, one of the main features is the "search engine that helps the users to look across articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions from academic publisher until other websites to provide the users in finding the relevant work across the world of scholarly research" (Scholar, 2009).

The new online library

Source: Google (2009)

Many authors have been filing copyright of authors against the online libraries. Copyright is known as the legal right granted to the author or the original creator of a product to be publish, produce and sale (Answers.com, 2009). Copyright is one of the issues that online libraries might face for the present time and future. But according to Thomas (2009), copyright is only to protect the works of an author but not to have the restriction of publishing.

According to Snyder (2008), Google are able to publish 20% of the entire text of a copyright protected book after Google made a deal with the authors and the publishers by creating "Book Right Registry" to settle the law-suit over its book-scanning project. But according to Singel (2009), it seems that the nation's library association have gone on strike again by saying that the deal by giving Google the control to millions of digitized books might cause the issues of censorship, price of having copyright online and privacy of readers would be breached.

From my opinion, every services made by any firms would tend to rip out some profit from their investors. For example, the "Book Right Registry" that was created by Google is to banish the copyright law of the original books as the authors are able to publish their books online and able to rip the profits from the Internet advertising and also the sales of online books from Google. It is just the beginning of the process to start up the "Book Right Registry". Thus, I believe that the authors will lose out a big time if the authors were to pull out from the Google's plan in registering books online.

List of References:

Answers.com 2009, Copyright, Britannica Concise Encylopedia, Answers Corporation, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.answers.com/topic/copyright>

Scholar, G. 2009, About Google Scholar, Google, viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/about.html>

Singel, R. 2009, Epic Center: Libraries Warn of Censorship, Privacy, Cost in Google's Digital Library, Wired.com, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/libraries-warn-of-censorship-privacy-cost-in-googles-digital-library/>

Snyder, C. 2008, Epic Center: Google, Authors and Publishers Settle Bool-Scan Suit, Wired.com, viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2008/10/google-authors/#previouspost>

Thomas, G., F., Jr. 2009, Copyright on the Internet: Copyright is to exclude not to publish, Franklin Pierce Law Center, viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://www.piercelaw.edu/thomasfield/ipbasics/copyright-on-the-internet.php>

Media or publishing issues: Web Doesn't Belong To Net Libertarians

The users of internet is growing day by day. From the previous posting, Nielsen Online (2009) had developed a statistic charts on the amount of users and the growth of internet users by percentage.

Source: Internet World Stats

Since the internet or also known as the web is usable in many different regions, the informations on the internet are available for everyone whom surfs the internet.

But where does all the informations or databases come from?Are the informations given out by the net libertarians or its' shared by users and organizations based on the particular topic?

According to Hamilton (2009) whom made a report on the issues of censorship from Charles Sturt University, Hamilton (2009) also mentioned that the extreme libertarians and ISP executives who dominated the filtering process of internet debate are often indulge in absurd exaggerations. Because the internet i wide so it is hard to impose an internet filter system as it might slow down the internet speed and the cost of attaining an internet connection from home would be more expensive (Hamilton, 2009).

One of the issues that has arise is Internet censorship is known as the publishing or the or accessing of the Internet would be suppress or controlled by the government within the country by controlling the Internet access to another country's website (Answers.com, 2009). Furthermore the "Founding Father of the World Wide Web (www)" Dr. Vint Cerf mentioned that the government could not suppress the Internet because the Internet is made and held by the private sectors reported by (Fonseca, 2007). Therefore, it is hard to stamp the Internet filtering because it is out of the government's control. Dr. Vint Cerf also provides a solution for the matter by establishing a union of government such as United Nations to suppress the Internet and conduct the filtration might be the best solution.

No Censorship Picture

Source: Google (2009)

But in my opinion, I think that the Internet have too many problems to deal with, which is also agreed by Davis (2009). In additional, Davis (2009) also mentioned that there is a possibility that the inter-cloud of the Internet problems following the foot steps of the Internet problem that took place 30 or 40 years ago.

Freedom of Expression

Source: Google (2009)

First of all if the government decides to adds the Internet Filtering, the free of speech in the Internet would be challenged and most of the users of internet would not want to be restricted with a filter from doing or surfing the websites they want. Pornography existed centuries ago and it would be hard to cut it off from the Internet. But pornography is one of the reasons why females are being treated as sexual objects mentioned by van Mill (2008). Furthermore, it degrades status of citizen of a woman van Mill (2008) added.

In conclusion, Internet filtering would be having pros and cons. Filtering can be considered costly and it might do more harm then good.

Examples of Internet protesting against censorship

Source: Google (2009)

List of References:

Answers.com, 2009, Internet censorship, Answers Corporation, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.answers.com/topic/internet-censorship>

Fonseca, P. 2007, Cerf sees government control of Internet failing, Reuters,com, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1420689320071114?sp=true>

Hamilton, C. 2009, The Australian - The Heart Of The Nation: Web doesn't belong to net libertarians, Charles Sturt University, News Limited, viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/web-doesnt-belong-to-net-libertarians/story-0-1111118869227>

Nielsen Online 2009, Internet Usage Statistics-The Internet Big Picture: World Internet Users and Population Stats, International Telecommunication Union, Mini Watts Marketing Group, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm>

van Mill, D. 2008, Freedom of Speech - Democracy and Free Speech: Demoncratic Citizenship and Pornography, Stanford Encyclopedia Of Philosophy, viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freedom-speech/>

Davis, L. 2009, Vint Cerf: Despite Its Age, The Internet is Still Filling with Problems, ReadWriteWeb, viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/vint_cerf_despite_its_age_the.php>

Media or publishing issues: Power of Photograph

In every lives of many people, every photographs are the closes memories or touch that a person can share or remember. A photograph or picture can tell many things based on the interpretation of a persons' experience and knowledge (Shriver, 1997). According to Farlex (2009), photograph is known as 'an image, especially a positive print, recorded by a camera and reproduced on a photosensitive surface'.

This how Abraham Lincoln looked like before (left) and after (right) manipulation

Source: Google (2009)

The report of Heizman (2007) on th power of photograph or pictures of war affects the townsfolk of Dubrovik in Croatia. The War Photo Gallery was made by Wade Goddard and Frederic Hanrez by posting pictures in the gallery to remind the governments that war would contribute into discouragement and heart breaking situations for the families that is being affected. Furthermore in the report, a man said that pictures are more impressive than words and the man added that the children's' eyes were filled up by the feeling of terrified and frightened by th picture. The statement made by the man has a common belief of the expressive power of visuals that are agreed by both Walsh (2006) and Shriver (1997). But the interpretation of the visuals are usually up to a person to evaluate or judge as many people have different ways of thinking and different pictures moves different people around.

Picture that indicates the real photo

Source: Google (2009)

In addition from the report of Heizman (2007), a women mentioned that the war has caused misfortunes and destroyed the lives and the families in the city. Furthermore, Shriver (2007) mentioned that visual impression helps to shape up the users' experience either in reading or non-reading material.

One of the issues that had arose in the report by Heizman (2007) is picture manipulation. In such the pictures of war should not manipulated like in the case of Adnan Hajj who is a Beirut-based freelance photographer who worked for The Reuters news agency in 2006 reported by Associated Press (2006). Adnan Hajj was found guilty for manipulating the two photos of the Israeli Military action in Lebanon that had occurred during August 2006 reported by Reuters (2007).

Is the picture real or manipulation? (Figure out!)

Source: Google (2009)

I personally think that picture manipulation is easy to use and it is a powerful tool to alter the digital images taken from the digital cameras and supported by both Schneider and Chang (2000, p.1). Due to the uptake of the picture manipulation, the news organizations should be more wary about the pictures submitted by their photographers in order to cut down the problems that will arise by the pictures. Therefore, it is very important that pictures should not me manipulated and it should stay as original as possible.

Manipulated picture of the eyeballs on the hands

Source: Google (2009)

List of References:

Farlex 2009, Photograph, TheFreeDictionary, Farlex, Inc., viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.thefreedictionary.com/photograph>

Heizman, S. 2007, Media Report: Power of the Photograph - Transcripts, ABC Radio National, ABC, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm>

Press, A. 2006, World News / Mideast & N. Africa: Altered images prompt photographer's firing, msnbc.com, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13165165/>

Reuters 2007, Article: Reuters toughens rules after altered photo affair, Reuters.com, Thomson Reuters Corporate, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL18678707>

Schneider, M., Chang, S., F. 2000, A Robust Content Based Digital Signature For Image Authentication: Motivation, Columbia University, Image and Advanced Television Laboratory, pg. 1-4, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://74.125.155.132/scholarq=cache:ZX1DHfgsVFAJ:scholar.google.com/+picture+manipulation+issues&hl=en&as_sdt=2000>

Shriver, KA 1997, Dynamic in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York

•Walsh, M. 2006, Textual shift: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, p.24-37.

New forms of Media Publishing

Ways of Internet connecting every nation and region

Source: Google (2009)

Internet has been introduced to the public in the early 90's (Answers.com, 2009). Furthermore, the amount of Internet users doubles up every 6 months or 200 days (Maven, 2006).

The examples of popular social networking sites in cover page

Source: Google (2009)

With the technology advancements now a days, it seems that the Internet is providing the users with better application enhancement such as the introduction of new social networking that have been globally adopted in many countries such as Facebook, blogging, Twitter and many more.

One of the examples of Video Blogging (vlog)

Source: Youtube (2009)

But Twitter seems to be the most prevailing social networking amongst the group to me. Twitter's founder was Jack Dorsey and Twitter's project starts since 2006 (Malik, 2009). Since the introduction of Twitter until March 2008, the number of Twitter users are 1+ million from the report of Arrington (2008).

One of the Twitter logos

Source: Google (2009)

According to Wikipedia (2009), Twitter is known as a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables the users to send and receive messages through tweets. Tweet are text-based that enables the authors to post up to the maximum of 140 character in their profile to be read by the readers.

Twitter provides speed, multi-modal with non-website based alerts and also community publishing mentioned by Nate Ritter in the report of Verclas (2008). Furthermore, with the assistance of speedy postings on the web, Twitter is a great tool for the emergency situation such as journalist can report the happenings of natural disaster instantly to alert the residence or people.

How Twitter works as the social network

Source: Google (2009)

But Twitter will also have its bad moments if the false news of a celebrity is spread on Twitter, the news might bring problems to Twitter for not filtering the news because the posts will be moving too fast. Furthermore, pictures are not available for posting on Twitter.

But from the findings of Malik (2009), Twitter might become the next hot platform on the web.

List of References:

Answers.com 2009, WikiAnswers: When did the Internet become available to the public?, Answers Corporation, viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_did_the_Internet_become_available_to_the_public>

Arrington, M. 2008, End of Speculation: The Real Twitter Usage Number, TechCrunch, viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/end-of-speculation-the-real-twitter-usage-numbers/>

Malik, O. 2009, A Brief History of Twitter, WordPress.com, The GigaOM Network, viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://gigaom.com/2009/02/01/a-brief-history-of-twitter/>

Maven, R. 2006, Blogosphere doubling in size every six months, E-consultancy. com Limited, viewed on 20th November 2009,

<http://econsultancy.com/blog/150-blogosphere-doubling-in-size-every-six-months>

Wikipedia 2009, Article: Twitter, The Free Encyclopedia, MediaWiki, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter>

Verclas, K. 2008, Twitter for Organizations #1: Guest Blogger Nate Ritter, MobileActive.org, MobileActive, viewed on 23rd of November 2009,

<http://mobileactive.org/twitter-organizations-1-guest-blogger-nate-ritter>

Media or publishing issues: The Blogging Revolution

Due to the advancement of technology these days, it seems that the internet is being used nearly by everyone around the world. According to Spooner (2003), the adult internet users in United States have seen to be growing from 50% in year 2000 to 59% at the end of year 2002. But it seems that the internet users around the world has been growing since year 2000 to 2009 at the growth rate of 380.3% reported by Nielsen Online (2009). And currently the Asia region has the highest internet users of 42.6% around the world regions.

Source: Internet World Stats

According to Loewenstein (2008), a research has been conduct onthe power of blogging between 6 different countries known as Iran, Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt. Loewenstein also mentioned that different region have different law to be followed towards the internet usage that allows the users to blog. For example in China, the users seemed to be seeking for a greater freedom of speech but in actual fact they are okay and happy with their lives except for a certain thousands of users from small towns protests about the corruption of China's government(might be a sensitive issue). Furthermore, it seems that the Cuba country have been given a strict restriction to filter out most of the access to the internet due to the Cuban government policy, U.S trade embargo, and also the personal economic limitations of Cuba.

One of the issues have arose from the topic of Cuban restriction to the internet. Freedom of speech is not attained in Cuba and most of the Cubans in the country have set backs in the era of new technology (OpenNew Initiative, 2007). Freedom of speech is known as the right to express information, ideas and opinions free of government restrictions based on contents (Answer.com, 2009).

Another issue is blogging for the present and future carries a time bomb of the information written by the bloggers. It might be considered as a time bomb because some of the information might be offensive in a cultural way and also it invades the privacy of users (Eysenbach, 2001). Since the blog is made through the internet, anyone around the world can view the informations on the blog if they have access to the internet. Furthermore, Brady (2005, p.7) agreed that because blogs are a type of dynamic interaction for the public in the internet world.

List Of References:

Answer.com, 2009, Freedom of Speech, Britannica Concise Encylopedia, Answers Corporation, viewed 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.answers.com/topic/freedom-of-speech>

Eysenbach, G 2001, Information in Practice: Ethical issues in qualitative research on internet communities, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/323/7321/1103>

Brady, M. 2005, Blogging: personal participation in public knowledge-building on the web, Chimera Working paper Number: 2005,2, University of Essex, p.7, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.essex.ac.uk/chimera/content/pubs/wps/CWP-2005-02-Blogging-in-the-Knowledge-Society-MB.pdf>

Loewenstein, A. 2008, The Media Report: The Blogging Revolution, ABC Radio National, ABC, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2351985.htm>

Nielsen Online 2009, Internet Usage Statistics-The Internet Big Picture: World Internet Users and Population Stats, International Telecommunication Union, Mini Watts Marketing Group, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm>

OpenNew Initiative 2007, Cuba, Creative Common Attribution License, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://opennet.net/research/profiles/cuba>

Spooner, T. 2003, Internet Use by Region in United States: Regional variations in Internet use mirror differences in educational and income levels, Pew Internet & American Life Project, viewed on 22nd of November 2009,

<http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2003/PIP_Regional_Report_Aug_2003.pdf.pdf>