Blog is interesting

Blogs which also known as web logs. Blog is a personal diary which is written online. Bloggers will update their blogs frequently. Blog has many functions as it can be a platform for bloggers to voice out their feelings, share information and make discussions. There are many types of blogs such as personal, business, politics and sports (WordPress, n.d.). Everyone has own preferable type of blog. 

Malaysian Food Blog, Travel, Diving and More

KYspeaks.com

It is a blog which mainly introduces various types of food from various places in Malaysia. The blogger visited many states in Peninsular Malaysia and wrote the reviews for the food he had tried. The blog is neat and not so wordy. The blogger introduced the food with words and also clear photos. Besides that, he also provided map and address of the places that he visited. 

Figure 1: the photo of food is provided

Figure 2: location is provided

On the other hand, the blogger also traveled to various counties. He wrote down his dairy on his blog and shared to everyone. This is helpful for those people who plan to have a trip. His writing for the trip was on behalf of others but he shared his experiences sincerely to the readers. 

The blogger shared things in a neat and clear way. He categorized the information that really helps people who do not visit frequently but still can get the information they want easily. The ways of writing and pictures provided have enhanced my viewing frequency. I can say I like this blog quite much.

A good blog

In my opinion, this is a good and attractive blog. Blogger does not disappointed his readers because he had given reviews for various food from various cultures. He not only gives reviews for Chinese food, but also Malay, Indian, Japanese and other delicious food. He likes sharing because he not only provides food photos and location, he also tells the reader of the prices of food and photo of menu in his blog. This is one of the ways to help readers to make consideration before they visit the places. 

What is considered as bad blog?

Bloggers have their own way in writing and designing their blogs. In my opinion, there is no bad blog. But, there are some kinds of blog which I do not like. I do not like the blog which are too wordy and dull in design. When there is much information, the writer should categorize the information and put subtitles. Besides, I do not like the blogs which are full of negative messages, such as people who share their personal bad feelings and emotions only.

Everyone has the rights to share feelings and information in a blog. However, we should write our works originally and prevent being copycats. Blogging is beneficial and interesting. You can learn why people blog from here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-dekmezian/why-do-people-blog-the-be_b_8178624.html

References

http://blogbasics.com/what-is-a-blog/

https://wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/

http://kyspeaks.com

Derivative works and YouTube

As new media has provided us a platform to share our ideas, knowledge and thoughts, there are different type of social networking sites for us to share something. YouTube as one of the examples. YouTube is a website for users to share the videos or watch the videos from others, which allow people share their creative contents throughout the world.

Amogood 谷阿莫

Among all the channels I have subscribed, I would like to talk about a channel called 主频道【谷阿莫】 which is operated by Amogood. This YouTuber has one million subscribers in his main channel and 65 thousands of subscribers in his second channel. Most of the subscriber are from Taiwan and China, as the delivery language is Mandarin. The community in his YouTube channel are mostly movie goers who like to know more movies which have not been discovered.

Most of the videos from this channel are mainly about a short description of a movie in a few minutes. His way of telling a story about the movie is fast, catchy and humorous by editing the a few scenes from the original movie and making into a compact short video. In the video, sometimes he will share some reviews or his own thoughts regarding the particular movie. This kind of video has impressed a lot of audience. From his video, audience get satisfaction for entertainment and also learn some values he shared. Also, this kind of video allow people to access more movies in different genres. The way he introduce the movie might trigger the inclination from audience to watch the full version of original movie. When this YouTuber get attention from large audience, many other YouTubers follow his way to tell a movie in a few minutes. This has promoted a growth in creative content in YouTube as many laymen start making videos and upload to YouTube.

However, the way that he took the scenes from the original movie and edited into a new video has been criticised. Some argue that he violated the copyright law as he used the actual scenes that been taken down from the original movies. So, here is a question arise: Does this kind of video violate the copyright law on the internet? For this, he purposely made a video to talk about this. From that video, he told that some companies are pressing charges against him. Therefore, he explained that all of his work is derivative work whereby he only used 10% of the original movie which are downloaded from internet for free. Also, he believed that his work is qualified to be under fair use defence as he expressed his viewpoint to the world, review and explanation about movie from his works without getting any fees from the audience. Amogood also claimed that YouTube has finally acknowledged his works as derivative work which is non-infringing by cancelling the ban recently.

Video by Amogood explaining the right of derivative work.

What is derivative work?

In these years, the derivative work has been addressed by related party. According to US Copyright Office (2013), derivative work is a work derived from or based on one or more existed works. It includes translations, abridgments, musical arrangements, art reproductions, motion picture versions of literary material or plays, and condensations of preexisting works. Another common type of derivative work is a “new version” of a preexisting work where the editorial revisions, elaborations, annotations, or other modifications represent, overall, an original work.

In order to be copyrightable, a derivative work must include some of a preexisting “work” and add in new element of original copyrightable authorship to that work. This kind of right is often regarded as the adaptation right.

FAQ from YouTube about derivative work.

In summary, society nowadays do not understand fully about derivative work. The attention to derivative work on online creative communities has been focused in these few years. YouTube, as an online video sharing website, should play an important role in regulating the use of derivative work instead of blindly banning the videos. Hopefully in the near future, there will be more derivative works showing on YouTube.

For more readings about copyright act on the internet, you can go to the links below:

Copyright and YouTube: Pirate 's Playground or Fair Use Forum?

Understanding Copyright Law in Online Creative Communities

Blogs and site that relate women’s group and movement

Blogs and site that relate women’s group and movement

JASS Website

https://justassociates.org

Angry Malay Woman- a Malaysian feminist blog

https://dgreymatter.wordpress.com/

AWAM Websites

http://www.awam.org.my/

What are this website and blog about?

JASS websites, AWAM websites and Angry Malay Woman blog are example of feminist website and blogs. Feminist website and blog presents the issue of feminism through spreading ideas, debates, awareness, opinions and feminism knowledge through the Internet.

As information, JASS is about women movement website and it was established in 2002 year. The main vision JASS is dedicated to a feminist vision of social and political transformation where all people live with freedom, dignity, respect and well-being.

Alicia Izharudin is the blogger for angry Malay woman - a Malaysian feminist blogs. She is Senior Lecturer of Gender Studies at University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. All her blogs are writing about gender and Islam issue in Jakarta, gender inequality, women movement in Indonesia and etc.

On the other hand, AWAM is the non-profit organisation websites in Malaysia. It is the organisation that upholding equality, rights and ending gender-based violence for all.

Who these sites primarily address?

With feminist blogging and websites, it creates a platform to women speaks up their opinions, thoughts and beliefs. Hence, is seen as an effective method getting the involvement in others or getting the attention to politically active people. Typically the contents of this blog and website are discussing current affairs, politics, social and entertainment. Therefore, feminist blogging and website are seen as a public activity that allows anyone to see a situation from a different viewpoint. Thus, it can increase activism.

Who is allowed to participate and how?

As mentioned by Mowles (2008), online social networking has become an increasing part of people’s use of the internet, and activist cultures have developed within these social networks. Therefore, all of this websites and blog are open to women to participate.  However, some of the feminist website also opens up men participant too. For instance, AWAM. AWAM has opened to all age person at the aged 18 and above to participate.  People that share the same goals, mission and values with AWAM are welcome to participate in this website. They can be a membership in this organisation through email awam@awam.org.my.

In conclusion

To sum up, feminist blogs and website speed up the pace of feminist to debate and conversation. In spite of that, it provide opportunity to feminist group to create online communities.

References

http://everything.explained.today/Feminist_blog/

https://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/blogs-and-activism/

Mowles, J. M. 2008. ‘Framing issues, fomenting change, 'Feministing': A contemporary feminist blog in the landscape of online political activism.’ International Reports on Socio-informatics, 5(2), 29-49.

Mobility and the Internet

Mobility, as defined is the ability to move anywhere easily as desired.

It plays an important role and it shows great impact when it is used interconnected with the internet.

There is no doubt that the Internet revolution is making the world an information environment. However, the role of mobility is also playing an important role in this process.

Mobility in technology is often associated with the gadgets for example smartphone. 

As long as a smartphone has an Internet connection, people can do work anytime at anywhere. 

Compared to a desktop which is fixed at a specific location, people will tend to go for gadgets such as smartphones and laptops because it is really convenient and time-saving.

Mobility is the future. Soon, the Internet will be too common and it will become an essential in human's life. When the essential incorporates mobility, it will evolve to become something new.

We always have that kind of demand to stay connected anytime and anywhere. We often link this sense of connectedness with the Internet. We used to say that if we have the Internet, we can be connected to the world anytime anywhere. But I think, there is a lack of acknowledgment towards mobility in this statement.

I have found an article depicting about the mobility and how the world is giving a new meaning to mobility and the role it is playing in this era of technology.

However, The New Meaning of Mobility said that

" We find ourselves tethered in novel ways — not to a hometown, or to a particular social background, but to our devices themselves and the feeling of connection they provide, which we seemingly cannot sit still without. "

Mobility is an element which contributes a lot to the advancement of technology and enables people to stay connected to the world. Ironically, it also one of the elements which isolate us from the world. 

Looking up while looking down

While our real world are slowly growing around us in several aspects such as economic, social, technology and more, the virtual world are developing in a rapid rate too. It is true that we are glued to our smartphones both in public and private nowadays because we cannot escape from the social media due to the desires of  updating ourselves about the most recent news or gossips. However, it is always crucial to be reminded that the Internet and social media should not the focus of our attention in a day and age where everyone put their smartphones in their pockets. Gary Turk had shared his short film to remind us to look up and get a break from the virtual social world. In this short film, along with his inspiring yet sarcasm poem, a love story about the life of a man and woman without the hindrances of social media was told. This short film went viral and had more than 12 million views on Youtube. 

Many of us are not aware that we are getting too much distractions from our gadgets in our daily life and these gadgets are slowly disconnected us from our real world and may eventually ruin our relationships with the people around us. When we look around the most busiest street in the cities, we will find people walking down the sidewalk either has their earphones on or has their eyes fix on that tiny screens that rest on their palms of hands. But, the real problem is none of us think that it is a big deal. These gadgets obsessions could actually get us killed if we are being too distracted and ignoring the real environment around us. For instance, there were people that got hit by the car while they were looking at their phones and not paying their attention to their surroundings.

Moreover, always looking at the information in the small frame may let you ignore the important massage sent to you within the people in your surroundings. Whenever you heard the notification or ring alert from your smartphones, you will automatically respond to it no matter where you are(even in bathroom)and what you are doing (even in the middle of talking with someone)to check the new messages or posts from the social media.  A new word "phubbing" is even created to describe those actions which people are too busy to look at their phones in every moment of their life . Imagine you are talking with a phubber, then you will know the feelings that being ignore as compare to one's smartphone. Here I share an interesting article about how smartphone could actually ruin your personal relationships in your daily life.
http://liveboldandbloom.com/10/relationships/how-smartphones-could-be-ruining-your-relationship

To sum up, I am not telling you to quit the social media and the Internet because I am sure no one can do that in this digital age. I am just telling all of us to try to put down our gadgets and look around the surroundings. Maybe we will some surprising moments and pretty scenery from that. If you are wondering how you can get rid of this mobile obsession, you may want to look at this article.
http://www.gadgetsnow.com/slideshows/7-ways-to-get-rid-of-smartphone-addiction/photolist/53604482.cms

Hope you are free to make good use of your time and share good moments with the people around you without the use of your gadgets.








   

Types of News Website Nowadays

News blog: The Guardian’s blog

Online only news site: Malaysiakini

Example of online counterpart of a print newspaper: Borneo Post Online, Berita Harian Online, and Sin Chew.com.my

What constitute good and bad practice in online news?

Good practice- tell the truth

As a journalist, it is important to tell the truth to the readers because nowadays many people depend on the online news. According to Amanpour, the CNN’s anchor, journalist should be truthful, not neutral. There are differences between truthful and neutral. Truthful is bringing the truth while neutral can be creating a false equivalence between this and that side. You can find the truth and there are facts.

Bad practice- spread the news that has not been confirmed

Sometimes when they receive the news that has not been clarified, in order to be the first people who report the news, they regardless of the authenticity of the messages. They just report the news. This leads the unconfirmed news is spread out that can mislead a lot of people. The news has not been confirmed may be real and may be false.

What extent online news reader allowed to comment on the news?

In Malaysia, there are many laws that restrict the freedom of speech such as Defamation Act 1957, Communication and Multimedia Act 1998, and Sedition Act 1948. Because all of these acts, the readers are scared to comment on the news. Here I have provided an example of comment of a news and the person was sued by Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib sued Malaysiakini for libel. For the case, Najib was suing Malaysiakini editors not for publishing a libellous news story but for allowing libellous comments to be posted on their website. Najib’s lawyers highlighted numerous inflammatory comments in the articles published by Malaysiakini. One of the comments, written by Anonymous, criticized the moral competency of Najib, suggesting the prime minister “has many skeletons in his closet”.

Choose one of the 3 sites you suggested above.

In my opinion, I will suggest online only news site such as MalaysiaKini and Free Malaysia Today. According to the Fang (2015), The Malaysiakini group (Malaysiakini.com, KiniTV.com, and KiniBiz.com) is one result of that boom. Founded in 1999, it now hosts Malaysia’s leading independent news website in English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil, and has a reputation for regularly covering subjects and viewpoints—including voices critical of the government—deemed taboo by the mainstream broadcast and print media.

Some of the newspapers in Malaysia may attribute to issues on credibility as some people think that the mainstream newspapers are too pro government and serve as the propaganda tools. The news on the online counterpart of a print newspaper is same with the news in the printed newspaper. When the news in the newspaper have the credibility issues, the news on the online also have the same problem.

The online news sites are more fair and objective in their news articles and provide more comprehensive coverages and controversial issues. The printed newspapers and their website fail to provide sufficient information because they perceive more censorship or legal restrictions than online news websites. I believe that the news websites present different viewpoints, are more critical, have more in-depth analysis and online writers are relatively free from interference than the mainstream newspaper website.

References

Shuwei., F. (2015). Can Malaysia’s Leading Independent News Site Survive a Censorship Law?

https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/can-malaysia-s-leading-independent-news-site-survive-censorship-law

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/kristine-marsh/2016/07/21/cnns-christiane-amanpour-journalists-should-be-truthful-not

Internet Addiction and Depression?

Have you ever heard the term ‘Internet Junkies’? Are you one of them? Well, internet junkie is another term refer people who addicted to internet.  According to the Urban Dictionary (n.d), internet junkie is people who addicted to internet and they will suffer from withdrawel symptoms when they could not connect to internet. Moreover, internet junkie also is a person who is lack socialising in the ‘real world’, they only live in their virtual world.

So, are you one of the internet junkies?

Photo credits: The Odyssey Online

According to the short survey our group has made, most of our respondents are quite addicted to the internet. Total respondents of our survey are 80 respondents, female is 57 people and male is 23 people. The age range of the respondents is between 10 to 30 years old.

Time Spent Online Longer Than Originally Planned	Number of respondents
Yes	66
No	14

In our survey, we found out that 76.3% of respondents spend more than 3 hours online, while there is only 1 person who spends less than 1 hour. In 61 respondents who spend more than 3 hours online, 47 of them consume internet to check their social media and for entertainment purpose, while only 13 of them use it for assignment or work purpose. From the finding, we can see the pattern of the internet users which most of them spend it for entertainment purpose. Moreover, the pattern of time spent for internet usually is longer than they original planned.

Question is, how does internet addiction can link to depression?

Photo credits: What Doctors don't Tell You

The research conducted by Lawrence Law, psychologist at Sydney’s University of Notre Dame’s School of Medicine found out that the teenagers who spend excessive amount of the time on internet have potential to develop depression compare to teenagers that spend moderate time on internet. Internet junkie feel irritate when they are not using internet besides lose desire for normal interaction with people surrounding them. In Law’s study, he pointed out lack of sleep and stress from online games is one of the reason teenagers develop depression. His study also said that the teenagers with internet addiction problem is more to be depressed which 2.5 times higher than other teenagers.

In our study, we also found out that people often feel insecure when they are unable to connect to internet. 43.7% of the people feel insecure when they cannot connect to the internet. 30% of them feel very moody, depressed and irritable when they decrease their internet consumption.  The factors of their insecurities is due to they feel they will miss out important things from internet and outdated when they are unable to connect to internet. Internet has become part of their everyday life. It is a tools for 60% of the respondents to escape from their problem.

In a nutshell, most of the respondents are very depend on the internet. Most of us cannot survive without internet. To close this topic, here is the documentary about the ‘Web Junkie’. 

Reference

Urban Dictionary. (n.d.). Internet junkie. Retrieved from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=internet%20junkie

Elements Behavioral Health. (n.d.). Internet addiction linked to depression. Retrieved from https://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/mental-health/internet-addiction-linked-to-depression/