The New Media and the issues it comes with

The media has certainly evolved in the past decade with the emergence of more and more Internet users. Development is rapid with digital convergence, personal computing and global networking, thus causing tremendous changes in the media. The ecosystem has shifted radically with newsprint declining due to broadcast media television being on the rise. However, this has made them adapt rather than to bow out as they now serve as commentators, provide analysis and features of news. (Naughton, 2006) Social networking sites like that of Youtube, Twitter and Facebook have been proven useful for jounalism and communication. 3 years ago, then Prime Ministerial candidate, Kevin Rudd was known to embrace social media, using online sites to communicate and provide feedback to supporters. (Bruns, Wilson & Saunders, 2007) Many journalists also use sites like Twitter or Facebook to share breaking stories. News travel fast online whilst print media takes time to be published and distributed. However, with these sites being available to anyone at anytime, with unlimited use and freedom of speech, there are bound to be controversial issues arising. For example, Malaysian songwriter Wee Meng Chee, or better known as Namewee, has posted controversial videos on youtube of himself rapping about his dissatisfaction about racial issues and poking fun at other races too. This caused an uproar in society as his videos contained vulgarities and obscenities. (Harakahdaily, 2010) This freedom of speech has instead backfired on him many citizens and political leaders took offence in his words.

Source: gvishnu.com

References:

Bruns, A, Wilson, J & Saunders, B 2007,  ‘Citizen Journalism as Social Networking: Reporting the 2007 Australian Federal Election’, viewed 29 September 2010, <www.produsage.org/articles>

Harakahdaily, 2010, ‘PAS youth, Namewee was provoked’, viewed 29 September 2010, < http://en.harakah.net.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1339:pas-youth-namewee-was-provoked&catid=34:primary&Itemid=56>

Naughton, J 2006, ‘Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem’, viewed 29 September 2010, <http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html>

Blogging Communities : Nuffnang

A blogging community is where a group of individuals mainly bloggers with similar goals and interests communicate with one another and share information using blogs. (Owyang, 2007) They are people who are joined together because they enjoy or appreciate the same things. To create a blogging community, a blogger must garner a personal connection with their readers. They must have RSS or feedreaders on their blogs to allow new possibilities to discover and read blogposts. Besides that, web tools like tagging and comment boxes should be added so readers can leave their thoughts. (White, 2006) Moreover, reply to what a reader has said or comment on their blogs in return. This interaction will form a close-knit community as discussion build community. (Mueller, 2009) The types of blogging community include One Blog Centric community whereby the blog hosts a number of bloggers but is owned by a single blogger, Boundaried Community where people join the community then create a blog and Topic Centric community where blogs are grouped according to topics. A popular blogging community in Malaysia is Nuffnang.com. Nuffnang.com is a hybrid blogging community as it is a One Blog Centric community as an individual owns it but it is also Boundaried and Topic Centric community.

Nuffnang also acts as a blog advertising platform whereby new bloggers are able to find people of similar interests by posting up links to their blogs. It is also a money generating tool as bloggers act as an ambassador for companies as they advertise services and products on their blogs.

References:

Mueller, E 2009, ‘How to Create Community on Your Blog’, viewed 29 September 2010, <http://blissfullydomestic.com/2009/how-to-create-community-on-your-blog-for-wordpress-users>

Owyang, J 2007, ‘Defining the term online community’, viewed 29 September 2010, <

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/12/28/defining-the-term-community/>

White, N 2006, ‘Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?’, viewed 29 September 2010, <http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/2006/12/blogs-and-community-launching-new.htm>

Classification of Blogs

Blogs are generally very difficult to be put into their own categories. According to Qu, La Pietra and Poon (2009), the informal, capricious style of writing on blogs makes it difficult to accurately classify them. Simons’ (2008) categorization is too wide. One of these categories is pamphleteering blogs where an individual or many individuals come together to push a cause. The categories provided by Qu, La Pietra and Poon such as personal diary or politics may fall into this category as the content of a blog may be pushing a cause too. In Simons’ article, she has a category called ‘The Diary’ too, in which the blog is made for individuals who make postings about their everyday life and what not. However, this specific genre of blog may also fall into the category mentioned before which is Pamphleteering blog as individuals may post how they have worked for a cause for a day. Besides, Simons has come up with a new category known as the Advertisement Blog which is fairly hard to classify as bloggers blog about their personal lives or social commentaries yet have advertisements on their headers or the sides. The same can be said for News Blogs. Some New Blogs have advertisements on the sides or even after every posting made too. Specificity is key when classifying blogs. Smich (2010) has come up with ten different types of blogs. They are Cultural, Business, Personal, Topic, Collaborative, Science, Eclectic, Directory, Educational and Forum Blog. This is much more reliable.

Reference:

Simons, M 2008, ‘Towards a Taxonomy of Blogs’, viewed 29 September 2010, <http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0>

Smich, M 2010, ‘Different Types of Blogs’, viewed 29 September 2010, <http://myhosting.com/blog/2010/04/types-blogs-2/>

Qu, H, La Pietra, A, Poon, S 2009, ‘Classifying Blogs using NLP: The Challenges and Pitfalls.’, viewed 28 September 2010, <http://www.hongqu.com/publications/Blog_Classification_NLP.pdf&rct=j&q=classifying%20blogs&ei=sf6hTPP_CYuGvAPV_5H-Aw&usg=AFQjCNG0vAGGMBb7PRYrYlRFbCXaW>

Blogs : The benefits of this phenomenon

Back in 2008, the founder of Technorati, Dave Sifry announced the last recorded size of the blogosphere was that of 112.8 million or more. Since then, no one knows the actual size of the blogosphere, there also have been reports that the size of the blogosphere is slowing down with the appearance of twitter and Facebook. (Hopkins, 2009)

However, twitter may also be known as a way of blogging as it allows people to post up anything that come to mind. Top blogs in Europe are those of news blogs or political commentators like Iain Dale. (iaindale.co.uk, 2010) Asia uses blogs for affiliate marketing, Internet advising and social media. The top blogs in Malaysia are those that offer tips for designers and bloggers. (hongkiat.com, 2010) Blogs that are prevalent in Malaysia are like those of Political Commentaries. Even politicians like Lim Kit Siang and the Prime Minister blogs too. Political blogs are beneficial because it acts as a communication platform between the politicians and their supporters. These blogs are not artificial and do not post inaccurate information. With this, the general public is able to get a full insight of political issues and much more. In Singapore however, blogs that get a lot of readers are lifestyle blogs. These blogs contain day-to-day happenings and are used as a tool to advertise products. An example of a very famous blogger from Singapore who uses her blog to advertise products and services is Xiaxue.com. Lifestyle blogs, which generate a lot of traffic, are beneficial as bloggers get paid to advertise too.




Reference:
Hongkiat.com, 2010, Online tips for designers and bloggers, viewed 27 September 2010, <http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/>

Hopkins, L 2009, ‘Technorati and the size of the blogosphere: it can’t be THAT hard to figure out, surely?!’, viewed 27 September 2010,  <http://www.leehopkins.net/2009/12/26/technorati-and-the-size-of-the-blogosphere-it-cant-be-that-hard-to-figure-out-surely/>

Iaindale.co.uk, 2010, Writer, Speaker, Broadcaster, Blogger, viewed 27 September 2010, <http://www.iaindale.co.uk/index.php>