Blogging Etiquette: What Is Acceptable, What Is Not?

Blogs nowadays are used for multiple purposes. Be they social commentary blogs, blogs that promote ones work, blogs that are set up like boutiques, news blogs or personal diary blogs, all of these blogs are personal and is used as a platform to express ones individuality. Some of these blogs are very important too. Like those of political blogs, they advocate democracy by giving criticisms to the government in order to see improvements in society. The fundamental principal of freedom of speech are made used by bloggers in this case (Deuntzer, 2009) These blogs help to frame political discourses and also set the agenda for public policy-making.


According to Technorati’s State of the Blogsphere Report (2008), blogging is now considered a party of the new media eco-system; it is now integral to the media’s eco-system. They are now termed mainstream as the top ten websites of all key categories include some blogs. Technorati says that bloggers are the ones to watch. This is because they often come up with new web applications and get their word out there. On top of that, companies also turn to blogs because they are deemed a cost effective method to promote their services and gain an increase in visibility by attracting more traffic to their websites. This is done without having to burn a hole in their pockets. (Nasir, 2010) In contrast to that, although blogging gives one the ability to be able to voice out thoughts and opinions, there are certain boundaries that come with that too. For instance, talking about taboo issues like race, religion, insulting politicians and the government, insulting the monarch are strictly forbidden.


Like that of a recent case of a mysterious blogger in West Bank that hurled insulting remarks at the Prophet Muhammad and claimed he was God. He was caught and risks spending the rest of his life behind bars. He faces heresy charges for “insulting the divine essence”. Many conservative muslims took his remarks to heart and even said that he should be “burned to death”. (Hadid, 2010) Moreover, blog posts that goes against the government intensely will also get you in trouble. For example, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, a prominent political blogger was put in jail for two years due to his anti-government views that allegedly posed a threat to national security by creating racial tension. (Adiwira, 2008)

References:     

Hadid, D 2010, Facebook used to find West Bank blogger, viewed 13 November 2010, <http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/new/7291256.html>

Adiwira 2008, Raja Petra Detained For 2 Years Under ISA, viewed 13 November 2010, <http://warkah.com/raja-petra-detained-for-2-years-under-isa/>

Deuntzer, KJ 2009, Rise of new media: Important of political blogs, viewed 13 November 2010, <http://mstar.com.my/variasi/rencana/cerita.asp?file=/2009/7/3/mstar_rencana/20090702110429&sec=mstar_rencana>

                       

Nasir, S 2010, Important of Blogging in Modern day Businesses, viewed 13 November 2010, <http://blog.ephlux.com/?p=623>

Technorati 2008, Blogging Hits Mainstream, Integral to Media Ecosystem, viewed 13 November 2010, <http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/blogging-hits-mainstream-integral-to-media-ecosystem-6256/>

Twitter's Credibility Crisis

"Not everything you read on Twitter is factual or true", how often have we heard people utter those words. However, when we hear of a piece of news all too frequently, it immediately becomes credible. Twitter has that power to do so. For example, The Times (2010) reported that rumours about France’s President Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni having extra-marital relationships were spread and the news got on twitter. Although being a complete fabrication, the news quickly spread in a matter of minutes. With the efficiency of sharing information with the existence of the retweet button, people would not even bother to check their facts before posting. Moreover, there have also been cases of fake celebrity or company accounts on Twitter. These imposters post up complete lies. Albeit being funny, it gives a blow to Twitter's credibility. Like that of a fake BP account @BPGlobalPR, sending out tweets that mock the efforts of BP's public relations sector with tweets that go like "Think about it this way, the ocean is like rootbeer and oil is like ice cream. We just made America a giant rootbeer float!," and "Really worried about the effect this disaster will have on bikini season. The sun is still shining ladies, get out there!,". (Heussner, 2010) These tweets are offensive to BP’s public relations sector as they are giving their best to combat the situation. On the other hand, with its increasing popularity, twitter has in a way made a big impact on media journalism. They are now under pressure to produce fast news. Now, media journalists have to face a much bigger competition than bloggers, which is Twitter. (Dawson, 2009) However, this heightened pressure to be the first to post out a piece of information and the problem of accurate reporting is said to be unbalanced. This is because journalists do not care if the news is reliable or truthful. In order to capture viewer’s attention and gain a larger following. However, with that said, Twitter is still useful in one way or another. It helps to bring people closer, get questions answered, expand one’s social and professional network, promote items or work and learn of important news or facts. (Zelenka, 2007) It also acts as a platform for one to vent their emotions or thoughts at that moment, being a form of expressing ones individuality.

                                                        The Twitter Universe

References:

Heussner, KM 2010, Fake BP Twitter Account Mocks Oil Spill PR Efforts, viewed 14 November 2010, <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/fake-bp-twitter-account-mocks-oil-spill-pr/story?id=10737669>

The Times 2010, Twitter, Credibility and Truth, viewed 14 November 2010, <http://www.wasaweb.net/en/articles/internet-twitter-credibility-and-truth.html>

Zelenka, A 2007, Eight Ways Twitter is Useful Professionally, viewed 14 November 2010, <http://gigaom.com/collaboration/eight-ways-twitter-is-useful-professionally/>

How Private is Your Facebook Account?

After 6 successful years since its start in February 2004, Facebook now boasts a total of more than 500 million users. Users may do anything from sharing information about their whereabouts to joining a common interest group to uploading full albums based on events they’ve been to or even just use the massive application of ‘poking’. However, with its wide context and vast information being publicized, there is bound to be some form of privacy breach. No matter how secure Facebook promises ones biodata to be, there still are reported cases of private information landing on the hands of other people. Like that of the recent privacy breach investigation by Wall Street Journal. It was reported that third party applications or games like Farmville, Texas Hold Em’ Poker, Café World and 6 other popular Facebook applications were transmitting user Ids to advertisers and other Internet tracking firms (Newman, 2010). No matter what privacy settings a user sets their Facebook page, their information still gets exposed. This is because when a person clicks a link, this will reveal their current URL. In the URL there is the user’s ID. Hence, web browsers will transmit ID with the user’s name, profile and public information to various companies. A company called Rapleaf Inc even linked Facebook ID details to their own database and proceeds to sell them to companies (Fiveash, 2010). Thus, the only way to protect yourself from having your privacy breached is to distance yourself from these applications entirely (Hudson, 2010). Besides that, hackers have also found a way to tap into a person’s photo album without having to be their friend or even if their settings are set to private. This is done so by copying the user’s ID and tweaking it into another URL thus gaining full access to the album as shown in Figure 1. 

Figure 1

This has gone against the ethics of publishing in terms of misconduct. In the ethics of publishing, it states that no work should be undertaken without prior consent from the author himself or herself (Game & West, n.d.). Hence, Facebook users should adhere to the protection of their personal data. There are seven principles that include notice, purpose, consent, security, disclosure, access and accountability (ko-kr.consent.Facebook.com, n.d.). Consent and security being most important in this case as data should not be disclosed without consent and should be kept secure from all forms of abuse.

References:

Hudson, J 2010, How Harmful Is Facebook’s Privacy Breach?, viewed 12 November 2010, <http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/How-Harmful-Is-Facebooks-Privacy-Breach-5424>

Newman, J 2010, Facebook’s Privacy Breach: What You Need to Know, viewed 12 November 2010, <http://www.pcworld.com/article/208135/facebooks_privacy_breach_what_you_need_to_know.html>

Fiveash, K 2010, Facebook gets poked in latest privacy gaffe, viewed 12 November 2010, <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/18/facebook_apps_privacy_breach/>

Game, A & West, MA n.d., Ethical Publishing Principles – A Guideline for Authors, Organisation Studies, Aston Business School.

Ko-kr.connect.Facebook.com n.d., Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of personal data, viewed 12 November 2010, <http://ko-kr.connect.facebook.com/pages/Directive-9546EC-on-the-protection-of-personal-data/135716929792815>       

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>

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>