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Anderson T, 2007, Blogging is on the brink of a new phase, Tim Anderson's IT Writing, viewed 15 March 2007, <http://www.itwriting.com/blog/?p=155>.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2007, Here Comes the Mobile Phone, Australia, viewed 18 March 2007, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2006/1727252.htm>.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2007, The Blog and Social Justice in the Middle East , Australia, viewed 8 March 2007, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/1855144.htm>.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2007, The Changing Media Environment in Singapore, Australia, viewed 1 March 2007, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/1841546.htm>.
Blood, R 2000, Weblog: A History and Perspective, viewed 5 February 2007, <http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html>.
Clinton, H 2007, Hillary Clinton, MySpace, United States of America, viewed 21 March 2007, <http://www.myspace.com/hillaryclinton2008>.
December, J 2005, The World Wide Web Unleashed', in Living in the Information Age: A New Media Reader, ed Bucy EP, Wadsworth, pp. 165-172.
DeJean D 2004, Domino Blogging: Blogs and Blogging, IBM, viewed 18 March 2007, <http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/blogging/>.
Guardian News and Media Limited 2007, The age of permanent net revolution, The Observer, United Kingdom, viewed 28 January 2007, <http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1723622,00.html>.
Government of Singapore 2004, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts: Parliament Questions, Singapore, viewed 22 February 2007, <http://www.mica.gov.sg/Parliament/Sitting%2019-10-04.htm>.
Inkwell Editorial 2007, Creative & Editorial Freelancing: Industrial Blog on Editorial Freelancing, viewed 15 February 2007, <http://inkwelleditorial.blogspot.com/2007/03/debt-free-living-freelancers-personal.html>.
Lamb of God 2007, Lamb of God, MySpace, United States of America, viewed 1 February 2007, <http://www.myspace.com/lambofgod>.
Nielsen, J 2005, Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes, viewed 16 February 2007, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html>.
Obama, B 2007, Barack Obama, MySpace, United States of America, viewed 21 March 2007, <http://www.myspace.com/barackobama>.
Parker, RC 1990, 'Beginning observations', in Looking Good in Print: A Guide to Basic Design for Desktop Publishing, 2nd edn, Ventara Press, pp. 1-22.
Personal Finance Blogs Aggregrator 2007, The Ad-Free Personal Finance Blogs Aggregrator, viewed 3 February 2007, <http://pfblogs.org/>.
Raffles Muslims Singapore 2007, Raffles Muslims Singapore, Friendster, viewed 1 February 2007, <http://www.friendster.com/25341091>.
Reep, DC 2006, Technical Writing: Principles, Strategies and Readings, 6th edn, Pearson/Longman, New York.
Riverbend 2007, Baghdad Burning, viewed 8 March 2007, <http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/>.
Singapore Press Holdings 2005, Ma'am Does Not Know: I Use Her Photo on a Dating Site, The Electric New Paper, Singapore, viewed 26 March 2007, <http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,125687,00.html?>.
The Sunday Times 18 March 2007, 'MySpace.com gets political', p. 22.
Trunk, P 2007, Networking for People Who Hate Networking, Yahoo! Finance, viewed 21 March 2007, <http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/careerist/27020>.
Trunk, P 2006, The Easiest Instructions on How to Start a Blog, viewed 21 March 2007, <http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/11/10/the-easiest-instructions-for-how-to-start-a-blog/>.
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. 1, pp. 24-37.
Wikipedia 2007, Mass Communications, viewed 12 February 2007, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_communication>.
Links I have included in my posts one way or another
3GSM World Congress <http://3gsmworldcongress.com/index.asp>
CeBIT <http://www.cebit.de/homepage_e>
Friendster <http://www.friendster.com/>
Google <http://www.google.com/>
IT Show <http://www.itshow.com.sg/>
Lilia Efimova: Mathemagenic <http://blog.mathemagenic.com/>
MediaCorp Pte Ltd <http://www.mediacorp.sg/index.php>
Mobile Online Broadband Television <http://www.mobtv.sg/>.
MySpace <http://www.myspace.com/>
MSN Encarta <http://encarta.msn.com>
Peekvid <http://www.peekvid.com/>
Singapore Press Holdings Ltd <http://www.sph.com.sg/>
Starhub <http://www.starhub.com/portal/site/StarHub>
Technorati <http://technorati.com/>
The Simple Dollar <http://www.thesimpledollar.com/>
University of South Australia <http://www.unisa.edu.au/>
Yahoo! Inc <http://www.yahoo.com/>
YouTube <http://www.youtube.com/>
Other links not included in the posts are available at the sidebar.
Images Courtesy of
The Straits Times Digital Life 20 March 2007
Lamb of God, <http://www.myspace.com/lambofgod>
Raffles Muslims Singapore, <http://www.friendster.com/25341091>
Why did I even stop blogging?
Content
Working on this blog has been quite fulfilling. It opened up a world of sites that I normally wouldn't bother to search for. Blogs are just one out of the many existing genres. Even then, the enormity of the blog phenomenon isn't easy to fully comprehend. Thus, I've tried to incorporate theories from readings I've done without sounding too mechanical. Issues of copyright prevented me from solely giving my opinions without references. After all, the University's reputation is at stake if I am deemed to have plagiarised.
Language
Finding a balance between blog wit and assignment essay credibility was difficult. I believe blog language should be witty and just because this is an assignment, it shouldn't be a direct translation from the usual essay documents.
Design
Besides Nielsen, Parker also gave tips on how to design the layout of online documents. I took note of
proportion
to have enough white space and ensure sizes of document elements are based on relative importance and the surroundings; and
consistency
to avoid certain conflicting colours, type fonts so as to prevent viewers from getting eye fatigue.
I tried to crop my posts and have a link which says 'more' so that viewers can choose to read on or not. This will help viewers against scrolling on and on till the next post. But xhtml is a nightmare and I promptly gave up. This is definitely one design issue I wish I had a solution for.
 Source: The Sunday Times 18 Mar 2007Apparently, it's not just bands, artistes and other 'normal' people who want to get to know you. It seems potential US presidents are jumping the bandwagon as well. Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton? Take your pick. This is not a political blog but this instance showcases the ubiquity of MySpace.com. It has come to the point that an online social networking website is regarded as a credible platform to garner political votes. Political figures are no longer adverse to publishing electronically. Apparently, interactivity of the new media has reached new levels. Precisely because the Web transcends physical geography, Americans don't have to wait for these candidates to visit their respective states. It must be tantalising for them to contemplate the chance to interact spontaneously with their possible future President. John December was right when he wrote that: "Today, many people find the Web a valuable way to connect to other people. Remember, the bottom line of the Web is communication." -The World Wide Web Unleashed
Similarly, Jennifer Wilson from HWW puts it as "the rise in what we call the sense of community" during her interview with The Media Report. Does a Barack Obama community has a nice ring to it? Judging by the number of 'friends' each candidate has, Mrs Clinton still has some way to go.
I wonder what exactly can we truly believe in this world.
What: The Media Report discusses about how blogs are increasingly becoming the platform for activists in the Middle East
When: 22nd February 2007
Who: Mona Eltahaway
The blog and social justice in the Middle East
Traditional media vs. Blogs
I believe it can be especially hard to believe blog entries that we come across on the Internet. Even more so after years of consuming current affairs via commercial media. We have generally been led to believe that traditional media such as the newspapers, television and radio news bulletins are credible sources of current affairs. As they say, it takes time to build trust.
Blogs as alternative media
Mona Eltahaway was of the opinion that more females and young people are attracted to blogging because that's where they can be honest and voice out their inner turmoil. If the traditional media won't provide your viewpoint, just provide it on your blog.
As it turns out, more and more people in the Middle East are using blogs to ensure justice is served. The sense of familiarity actually helped these bloggers to bond and have the courage to fight for their rights (which are virtually non-existent). They're fighting to give an alternative view to what we're being fed. The world is none the worse to be provided with such insight.
"Weblogs are no panacea for the crippling effects of a media-saturated culture, but I believe they are one antidote. " -Rebecca Blood in Weblogs: A History and Perspective
A good example of a blog which has been widely publicised and even compiled into book form is Baghdad Burning. Here, the blogger (an Iraqi lady) gave her own accounts of what is happening in Iraq. Viewpoints which are left neglected by traditional media. Therefore, with the proliferation of blogs - platforms for significantly different viewpoints, will more people start to question the authenticity of traditional media?
MSN Encarta :
change (transitive and intransitive verb) - to become different, or to make something or someone different
What: A radio programme The Media Report aired on the Australia Broadcasting Corporation Radio National explored issues regarding the changing media landscape in Singapore and the limits of media liberalisation.
When: 8 February 2007
Who: Sinapan Samydorai, Director of Think Centre; and Dr Cherian George, Associate Professor of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
To follow the above definition of 'change', the Singapore media landscape has changed. There are now two major commercial media companies here - namely MediaCorp Pte Ltd and Singapore Press Holdings Ltd since the media liberalisation in June 2000. Recently, even MediaCorp has jumped the pay-per-view broadcasting bandwagon which hitherto has been dominated by StarHub.
As a result, there is greater content selection with more television channels and newspapers available to Singaporeans. I think the government's aims of media liberalisation have been achieved to some extent. Although I know there are those who beg to differ.
One point discussed during the programme stuck in my mind.
Alternative media may prove to be better at promoting social cohesion than traditional media
Dr Cherian George opined that the former are not commercially driven and will prioritise Singapore's interests compared to the latter. This is something I never thought of before. It's common to think that alternative media are platforms for views different from the PAP. Hence, bringing about less chances for nation-building.
I believe he is basing his conclusions on the premise that bloggers (among other authors of alternative media) feel they own their blogs and the opinions held in them. This sense of ownership (and not the ability to earn profits) may be the driving force to push for ideals that they want.
Do you think media liberalisation in Singapore still has a long way to go? What kind of media will be regarded as being truly liberalised?
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