Reflection

The creating of this blog has been a wonderful experience as it gives me a new knowledge about the principles of document design and various publication issues. Schirato & Yell (2000) mention same message may be interpreted differently based on the reader's beliefs and values. Thus, I have taught to be aware and sensitive to cultures so that I will not offend my readers that might come from different backgrounds.

Besides, this project has improved my ability to design web document, helping me attract people’s attention while striving to be constantly interesting. Indeed, texts and images should complement each other as they are equally effective in delivering meaning in document design (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).

Being a responsible and ethical blogger, I know that I should not commit plagiarism in order to avoid defamation and copyright infringements. At last, I hope that this blog provides sufficient insight based on my knowledge, and is beneficial to my audiences.

(Source from: Mycrap. tumblr)

References

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, ‘Chapter 5: The meaning of composition’, Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 2^nd edn, Routledge, New York, USA.

Schirato, T & Yell, S 2000, Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, 2^nd edn, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards.

Differences between fair use of copyrighted material and plagiarism

Source from Stutterstock

The birth of Internet has made life easier for users; a wide range of information will pop up on the screen just by clicking the mouse. However, there is a growing concern about the unfair use of copyrighted material whereby people do not often seek permission before using the material, which has certainly led to the rise of online plagiarism.

An article ‘Copyrighted material: fair and unfair use’ which was featured in a blog post by Pichon revealed that, Wayne Hoehn was sued by a copyright holding company for reposting a copyrighted article on a discussion site. Owing to his posting was not correlated to any commercial purpose; he was then pardoned by judges.

Generally, those who copy and reproduce copyrighted digital content without permission are deemed to be doing something illegal. The copyright fair use law allows public to copy or distribute copyrighted materials in a reasonable manner without the owner's permission (Stim, 2011). To avoid the misinterpretation of ‘fair use’, copyrighted works can only be used for specific purposes such as criticism, teaching, news reporting, comment, scholarship and research (Blackboard Inc, 2000).

(Source from: Maisagonzalez)

Instead, plagiarism has a different meaning, which is representing someone else's work as your own (Blackboard Inc, 2000). Plagiarism occurs when someone fails to credit the works of another author when using their information. According to the discussed article, some editors willing to oversee minor plagiarism especially when a deadline is due. Presnall (cited in Snow, n.d) explains that ‘although the technology of catching plagiarism currently has the upper hand, the technology of cheating will eventually evolve to beat it—which will lead to more sophisticated detection systems, leading in turn to better cheating systems’. Thus, the problem of plagiarism will not come to an end.

In conclusion, we should have a basic understanding of what is fair and unfair use of copyrighted materials so that we aware of what we can or cannot do with other people’s work. Being an ethical and responsible blogger and journalist, we should follow the appropriate ways when using other’s material to avoid plagiarism and being sued by the company and creator.

Reference
Blackboard Inc 2000, Copyright, fair Use, & Educational Multimedia FAQ, viewed 15 November 2011,

<http://www.ccsj.edu/blackboard/BB%20copyright_fair_use.pdf>.

Pichon, F 2011,'Copyrighted material: fair and unfair use, World Editor Forum blog posting', 22 June, viewed 15 November 2011,

<http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2011/06/copyrighted_material_fair_and_unfair_use.php>

Snow, E (n.d), Teaching Students about Plagiarism: An Internet Solution to an Internet Problem, viewed 15 November 2011,

<http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol2_issue5/Teaching_Students_about_Plagiarism-__An_Internet_Solution_to_an_Internet_Problem.pdf>.


Stim, R 2011, The 'Fair Use' Rule: When Use of Copyrighted Material is Acceptable, viewed 15 November 2011,

<http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/fair-use-rule-copyright-material-30100.html>

‘Racist’ Ramadan ads was taken off the air by Media Prima

Advertising can be used in several ways such as promoting products and services or sending out messages to influence one’s thinking. Based on ethical advertising standard, any form of discrimination with components based upon race and religion should not be included in advertisements (International Charter, 2011). However, this has become a major issue in Malaysia’s advertising industry.

An article ‘Media Prima pulls out ‘racist’ Ramadan ads’ which was featured in The Malaysian Insider online newspaper on 2 August 2011 reported that, Media Prima has been heavily criticized by the Malaysian public in releasing the Ramadan commercial that tinged with racism and sexism on the 8TV channel. A Chinese girl depicted as being obnoxious, openly eating and wearing revealing clothing in public during the fasting month was deemed offensive by the public.

According to Schriver (1997), message interpretation may be differing depending on the reader's background knowledge, attitudes, and values. In this case, the offensive Ramandan commercial has been interpreted differently by the Muslim and non-Muslim. The 8TV chief executive officer claimed that the purpose of commercial was to advise non-Muslims on how to behave during Ramadan. However, for non-Muslim, it has been viewed as a racist advertisement, insulting and disrespectful to their culture and belief.

Synder (2011) explains establishing a private and internal ethics discussion would prevent companies from pull ads attacked by the public. Since there are multiple ethnics and cultures in Malaysia, advertisers must fully understand and take the situational and cultural context into account before making an ads and releasing it to the public so it will not misinterpret the intended meaning behind the commercial by the target audiences. 

In conclusion, it is important to be sensitive and aware of potential advertising restriction, particularly in areas with diverse cultures and beliefs. Doing proper research before releasing an advertisement might prevent a potential public backlash. Failure to do so will result in a public protest, leading to a loss in company reputation, such as in the case of Media Prima.

References
International Charter 2011, Ethical Advertising Standard, viewed 15 November 2011,

<http://www.icharter.org/standards/eas405/>.


Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics In Document Design: Creating Text for Readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.


Synder, W 2011,'Making the case for enhanced advertising ethics', Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 51, no.3, pp. 477-483.


Yow, HC 2011,'Malaysia: Media Prima pulls out 'racist' Ramadan ads', The Malaysian Insider, 2 August, viewed 15 November 2011,

<http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/print/malaysia/media-prima-pulls-out-racist-ramadan-ads/>.

Social Media has contributed to the success of Egyptian revolution

Today social media has been widely used as a powerful tool to bring social, economic, cultural and political change in many parts of the world (Cruz, 2011). As new technology and politic become more interlaced, many activists has started using this new online tool to make their voices heard to the world for political reform.

An article 'How Social Media Is Keeping the Egyptian Revolution Alive' showed how social media, citizen journalism and crowdsourcing have kept the Egyptian revolution to succeed in removing the President Hosni Mubarak in power despite the army effects to remove social networking sites and block the Internet access.



(Source from: cyg-x-1.deviantart)



(Source: mideast. foreignpolicy)

According to Habermas, the normative notion of the public sphere are developed as part of social life where citizens can discuss and exchange views on important issues such as political matters in order to form public opinion and achieve common good (Thornton, 1996). Social media such as Twitter and Facebook have contributed to the success of the Egyptian revolution as it allowed activists to plan campaigns against the army and authorities. It is clear that the social media plays a role in the democracy process within the participation of public sphere.

Besides, citizen journalism has been a growing phenomenon that allows the masses to post and share pictures or articles about politics and current event globally in minutes, keeping the government transparent. As a result, Twitter has worked in the Egypt society to reveal the wrongdoings of their government. This can be called a form of crowdsourcing, which is ‘a way to harness collective intelligence for journalism, as readers’ donations accumulates into judgments about the issues that need to be covered’ (Aitamurto, 2011, p. 429). 

In conclusion, social media has been taking over the role of conventional media in delivering news and messages to wider audiences. The dispute in Egypt has displayed the strength of Twitter and Facebook for both informing and organizing people. Blogging and citizen journalism for social justice has brought in online activists to strive for freedom and democracy in the Egyptian Revolution. Indeed, social media make it possible to find out what was going on in Egypt to its citizens and other part of the world. 

(Source from: Jadaliyya)

References

Aitamurto, T 2010, The Impact Of Crowdfunding on journalism,online, viewed 14 November 2011, < http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/09/how-social-media-is-keeping-the-egyptian-revolution-alive256.html>.

Aitamurto, T 2011, ‘The Impact of Crowdfunding on Journalism’, Journalism Practice, vol. 5, no 4, pp. 429-445.


Cruz, T 2011, Notes on social media and political change, viewed 14 November 2011,

<http://asiancorrespondent.com/57483/notes-on-social-media-and-political-change/>.

Thornton, A. 1996, Does Internet create democracy, viewed 14 November 2011, <http://www.zipworld.com.au/~athornto/thesis2.htm>.

An image of Hillary Clinton and Audrey Tomason being deleted in Orthodox Jewish newspaper

In this digital age, photojournalism is always replete with photo manipulation. Although ‘technical advancement has helped photojournalism be more effective in many ways, it has created ethical challenges in making deception and less transparent’ by eliminating or adding element to a picture (Quinn & Spence, 2004).

An article 'Orthodox Jewish paper apologises for Hilary Clinton deletion' which was featured in Guardian Newspaper on 10 May 2011 reported that, New York based Di Tzeitung newspaper has apologised for digitally removing an image of US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton and the counterrorism director, Audrey Tomason in the photograph of White House Situation Room during critical moments of the raid with Obama national security team. 



(Source from The Guardian)
Before





(Source from The Guardian) 
 After

Schirato & Yell (2000) explain meaning in the same texts or pictures can be interpreted differently based on different cultural and situational context within a community. Hence, it is understandable why the altered picture of two women has been interpreted in a different way by Jewish and non-Jewish community.

Based on Orthodox Jewish culture, showing women images are considered ‘immodest’. They respect Clinton for her accompliments, not how she looks like. According to CNN (Ravltz, 2011), Di Tzeitung claimed that it is religiously mandated and they have the right to edit under the rights protected by U.S Constitutional. However, it has caused a misunderstanding to non-Jewish community as it was perceived as disrespectful to women.

Indeed, photojournalist must uphold the standard of ethic as a industry and profession (Bersak, 2006). Despite the code of ethic, they must be sensitive to the situation and cultural background to meet the expectation of different ethnics. In this issue, Di Tzeitung has respected the Jewish law by not publishing the women figure; however, it has given false intended messages and evoked dissatisfaction among non-Jewish community.

In conclusion, picture manipulation should be avoided if possible; however, a mark represents manipulation should be showed clearly if it is done of neccessity (Harris, 1991). Thus, in this case, the editor should state the altered picture as an edited version in a caption or an accompanying text to avoid any misinterpretation.

References

Bersak, DR 2006, ‘Ethics in photojournalism: past, present, and future’, MSc thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, viewed 1 November 2011, <http://web.mit.edu/drb/Public/PhotoThesis/>.

Harris, CR 1991, ‘Digitization and Manipulation of News Photographs’, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 164-175.

Quinn, A & Spence, E (ed) 2004, Manipulation Photojounalism: Is it ethical? Is it corrupt, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, The Australian National University.

Ravltz, J 2011, ‘Religious paper apologizes for erasing Clinton from iconic photo', Cable News Nework, 9 May, viewed 14 November 2011,

<http://religion.blogs.acnn.com/2011/05/09/religious-paper-cuts-clinton-from-iconic-photo/>.

Schirato, T & Yell, S 2000, Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, 2nd edn, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards.

The Guardian 2011, ‘Orthodox Jewish paper apologizes for Hillary Clinton deletion’, The Guardian, 10 May, viewed 14 November 2011,<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/10/jewish-paper-apologises-hillary-clinton>.