This has been indeed been a worrying yet interesting journey. The reason as to why I mixed those two is because I do have a mix feeling inside me right now as I conclude my blog. Taking up this subject, Issues to Desktop Publishing has certainly open my eyes to the world, knowing about the current issue and how we ourselves can be aware and learn from it.
The relationship between texts and contexts is thus an interdependent one. Each affects the other, although it cannot be said either that contexts determine texts, nor that text determine contexts. As Halliday expresses it, 'the text creates the context as much as the context creates the text' (1985:37). I have learn to understand how texts and contexts is vital and it comes together in delivering a message to readers.
I have also learn that in most texts, now involve a complex interplay of written text, images and other graphic or sound elements, designed as coherent (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006). Text and images gives readers a better understanding in reading a written text and referring to a picture.
Upon designing this whole blog, I have learn to use hyperlink to direct from one website to another for more information or for better understanding.
Reference:
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006, 'Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual
communication' in Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2dn edn, Routledge, London.
Schirato, T. & Yell, S. 2000, 'Communication and Cultural Literacy: An Introduction', St. Leonards, N.S.W
Nielsen, J. 2000, 'Chapter 3: Content Design', Designing web usability, New Riders, Indianapolis.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
LimeWire shut down permanently
The ever-famous file-sharing program LimeWire has been permanently shut down after a federal judge found it guilty of assisting users in committing copyright infringements “on massive scale”.
The suit, filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on behalf of eight major music publishers in the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York, charged LimeWire with facilitating “pervasive online infringement”. It also accused LimeWire of allowing and actively encouraging users to participate in music privacy.
The injunction states that LimeWire’s software is used “overwhelmingly for infringement” and allows for infringement on a “massive scale”. It also states that LimeWire “intentionally encouraged direct infringement” by users and marketed it’s software to Napster users, who were “known copyright infringers,” by promoting LimeWire’s infringement capabilities.
Source: Legal Notice
Copyright infringement occurs when one of a copyright owner’s exclusive rights is violated. A copyright is violated when someone copies, distributes, performs or displays all or part of a copyright work without the permission of the copyright owner (Korn). The Copyright Act grants copyright holders the exclusive right of distribution. This means that the copyright holder has the exclusive right to distribute the work “to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending” (Lerner, 2006).
However, according to Hilton, he believes this type of approach is excessive and remarks that “as originally enacted, copyright was designed to balance the limited property right of the author/creator with the long-term rights of the public” (Hilton, 2006). The problem with this whole issue over the years is that copyright has changed in ways that have consistently increased the protection granted to authors without providing increased benefits to the public.
Even so, such as an example of this shows how serious pervasive online infringement can be and that many, especially the younger generations are just downloading music software just for free.
Reference:
Halliday, J. 2010. ‘LimeWire shut down by federal court’ [Online]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/oct/27/limewire-shut-down
Coats,W.S. 2006. ‘Fame Dahling: Rights of Publicity and Entertainment Licensing’ Vol.26 Issue 4, p1-10, 10p
Computer & Internet Lawyer. 2006. ‘Right of Publicity and Privacy Claims Fell within Copyright Subject Matter and were preempted’ Vol.23 Issue 8, p22-24, 3p
Cesarini, L. 2009. ‘From Jefferson to Metallica to your campus: Copyright Issue in Student Peer-to-Peer File Sharing’ Vol.34 Issue 1, p45-54, 10p.
Purewal, S.J. 2010. ‘LimeWire Shut Down Permanently’ [Online]
http://www.pcworld.com/article/208895/
Source: TheNewsofToday.com
Blogging is so yesterday, politicians turn to Twitter
Blogs, once the main source of “alternative” political news and the perfect arena to court public opinion, are giving way to Twitter. Malaysian politician like Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and our very own Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak are active users of twitter.
Internet is widely in use in today technology era. It is able to combine words and images in complex structure with logos, hyperlinks, video, graphic, music and more (Walsh, 2006). Among one of those now is Twitter. The keywords are mobility and speed. Unlike blogs, Twitter’s emphasis on short status updates over often-personal journals has made it more attractive.
Source: Anwar Ibrahim's blog
Source: Lim Kit Siang's twitter
Much is used for both professional and personal interest (Dougherty, 2010). Social networking often involves grouping specific individuals or organizations together. While there are a number of social networking websites that focus on particular interests such as politic.
The popularity and use of social networking web sites (SNWs) is rapidly increasing with these sites fast becoming one of the communication medium of preference for both young and old (Dougherty, 2010).
Twitter has become a new phenomenon. It’s short, attractive and the best way to connect with the people instantly, but still even so, blogs are still relevant. Unlike twitter, the blogs give readers the chance to learn in details what political leaders feel about current issues.
Source: Bruno Peeter. Twitterfact.com
Although Twitter started late in Malaysia, it had it’s rapid growth. The oldest twitter users date back from March 2006. Only 6 months later first users from Malaysia started using Twitter. A first increase in popularity occurred around March 2007. A next increase in popularity of Twitter started from April/May 2008, followed by a next increase in adoption speed from November 2008.
Though some may still agree that blog is able to provide more detail in learning what the political leaders feel about the current issues. Many politicians are turning to twitter because it’s short, attractive and it has the best way to connect to the people.
Reference:
Pelling, E.L. 2009. 'The Theory of Planned Behavior Applied to Young People's Use of Social Networking Web sites' Vol.12 Issue 6, p755-759, 5p, 1 chart.
Dougherty, A.B. 2010. 'Professionalism and Social Networking' Vol.2 Issue 5, p40-47, 7p, 1 Color Photograph, 1 Cartoon or Caricature
Social Networking, 2010. 'What is social networking' [Online]
http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/
Twitter Facts, 2008. 'First state of the Twitosphere in Malaysia' [Blog]
http://twitterfacts.blogspot.com/
Wong, A. 2009. 'Poll: Opinions for Malaysia Top 100 blogs list' [Online]
http://www.riceblogger.com/blogging-news/poll-opinions-for-malaysia-top-100-blogs-list/
Source: http://twitter.com/#!/limkitsiang
Source: http://anwaribrahimblog.com/
TIme to kick sexism out of advertising
During the World Cup fever, the guardian.co.uk has been bombarded with sexist advertisement. One of the ads was from ‘WKD funny football ads’. Yet before we resume “advertising as normal” on our screens and in our street, it’s worth pausing to consider a trend within the industry that World Cup-related ad campaigns have thrown into stark relief: the deliberate and widespread use of sexist material in the name of selling a product. Many ads across the country have a sexist and offensive tone or content. It’s nothing particularly new about advertising that plays on gender stereotypes.
source: Sexist world cup advertising in Lebanon
Take this advertisement for example, the sexist Lebanese advertisements that accompanied all the excitement. Not only do such ads believe the reality that women are actively involved in football (both as players and fans) in greater number than at any time in history. They also deliberately encourage insulting notions of women as stupid, incapable of understanding basic concepts and de factor having no part in the word’s biggest sporting event simply because of their sex (Perera, 2010). Contrary to popular belief, women do, in fact, understand football as well as all the accompanying rules (Daisy, 2010).
The Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) acts as the independent regulator of the advertising industry in the UK. Under the current rules applied by the ASA, there is a particular requirement for ads to avoid causing offence on the grounds of sex. ASA tends to respond to complaints that an ad is sexist and derogatory towards using the term “decency”, “privacy” and “serious offence” without reference to this sex-specific requirement (Perera, 2010).
It’s stated that in the advertising code of ethics, advertising shall not portray people or depict material in a way that discriminates against or vilifies a person or section of the community on account of race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, age, sexual preference, religion, disability or political belief.
Research indicated that advertising in these media has rendered distorted body image ideals as valid and acceptable, contributing to gender inequality and the promotion of “sexism”. Sexism refers to the portrayal of women in an inferior way relative to their capabilities and potential, and is manifested in the depiction of women in clichéd traditional and decorative roles in advertising. (Lysonski, 1985; Pollay,1986).
The advertising industry would better adopt a new paradigm encompassing an improved representation of women in advertising and reflecting their egalitarian roles in the society internationally.
Reference:
Advertising Standard Authority. 2009. ‘Regulation explained’ [Online]
Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010. ‘Time to kick sexism out of advertising’ [Online]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/29/kick-sexism-out-of-advertising
Daisy. 2010, ‘Sexist World Cup Ads In Lebanon’ [Blog]
http://moudz.blogspot.com/2010/07/lebanons-most-sexist-world-cup-ads.html
Plakoyiannaki, E.2008. ‘Images of Women in Online Advertisement of Global Products: Does Sexism Exist?’ Vol. 83 Issue 1, p101-112, 12p, 4 Charts
Dahl, E.2007.‘ The original Sexist Sin: A reply to Neil Levy’ Vol.100 Issue 1, p110-111, 2p.
The Cartoons that shook the world
Four years ago Muslims around the world were protesting against a dozen picture of the Prophet Muhammad that was published by the Danish Newspaper. The incident seems to confirm Samuel Huntingdon’s thesis of The Clash of Civilizations that “great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural” (Huntington 1993:22). He views this mix conflict as a norm by asserting that nation-state’s are new phenomena in a world dominated for most of its history by conflicts between civilizations, however researcher Jytte Kalausen says it’s much more complicated than that, in The Cartoons that shook the World.
According to Jytte Kalausen, “Denmark, like many other European countries, has been really concerned and very upset about the differences between the religious Muslims and the sort of normal lifestyle issues that Danes like to embrace”. For a period of time there had been reports in Denmark that Danish artist had become concerned about really just going about their business insulting religion like they used to because they were afraid of what Muslims would do.
The editors of the newspaper then decided to do an experiment to find out if illustrators for newspapers, the cartoonist, really afraid. So they wrote to all members of the association of the Danish newspaper illustration association and asked them to simply draw the Prophet Muhammad and out of the 44 members, only 12 responded.
However this led to protest across the Muslim world some resorted to violence with instances of police firing on crowds of protestors. This goes for the creators of “South Park” who also published it on their series. The creators of “South Park” could face retribution for depicting Muhammad (Miller, J.R, 2010).
Source: RevolutionMuslim.com posted a warning following the 200th episode of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "South Park," which included a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad disguised in a bear suit.
Free speech has become a platitude. Like human rights and democracy, we’re all in favor of it, but would rather not address the tough calls where core values collide. However, it’s those tough cases, like media competition regulation, the Mohammad cartoons, which define free speech (Cohn, W.A, 2009).
Despite having the freedom of speech to do what they like, whether it’s ethical or not, The Danish cartoonist should be able to be respect the Muslims. It’s things like this that create disunity among the people of the world and to large extend, wars.
Reference:
Miller, J.R. 2010, ‘South Park’ Creators Could Face Retribution For Depicting Muhammad, Website Warns’ Foxnews.com
Castina. 2010, “South Park” Prophet Mohammed Episode “Censored” After Threats From Radical Muslim Group. PopCrucnch.com
http://www.popcrunch.com/south-park-muslim-threats/
Marisol. 2010, ‘Jihad Watch’
Ateist. 2009, ‘Danish Mohammed Cartoons’. Blog
Cohn, W.A. 2009, ‘New Presence: The Prague Journal of Central European Affairs’, Vol.12 Issue 3, pg23-27, 5p
Huntingon, S.P. 1993, ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’ Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/48950/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations
Gregory, S.J. 2010, ‘Transition To Free Speech: A Case Study On Legal Transfers In Jordanian Jurisprudence’. Vol. 31 Issue 6, p2521-2554, 34p
Lungren, D.E. 2010, ‘Congressional Digest’.Vol. 89 Issue 7, p215-219, 3p.
AtheistMediaBlog. 2010, ‘Death Threat For South Park Creators Over Muhammad Satire’. YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVs73i0E1vw&feature=related
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