REFLECTION

Publication and design fields are such very dynamic and innovative fields in which the combinations between linguistic and visual components. As argued by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), each mode of semiotic system has its own potential for meaning-making and specific social valuation in particular social context. Each kind of representational modes cannot be held separately because they support each other and considers as an autonomous communicational resources in culture practice and communicative behaviors.

Furthermore, Schriver (1997) indicated that beside the harmony of semiotic feature, a successful document also needs to mainly base on the ideology, cultural background, audience’s belief and experience so that it is able to communicate with the audience effectually.

 Moreover, the writers have to carefully pay attention to the sources they are going to use as references in order that the issues of plagiarism, defamation and copy right infringement are prevented from occurring.

References list:

1.                   Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, ‘Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication’, in Reading images, Taylor and Francis Group, New York.

2.                  Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York

MULTIMODALITY: NEW FORMS OF JOURNALISM.

In the era of technological development, the flow of information is shared not only with a fast pace but also by a various methods of presenting: newspapers, radio broadcasts, cable and satellite television, social networks and so on. As a veteran reporter who had witnessed and observed another earthquake of Japan in 1995, Dorian Benkoil (2011) makes a comparison of the ways by which details about the disaster is conveyed in the past and contemporary society in the article titled ‘How Social Media, Internet Changed Experience of Japan Disaster’.

In 1995, when an earthquake devastated Kobe, a port city of Japan, the information was mainly conveyed the major news conferences held by agencies and government officials who were reluctant to say anything meaningful about the frustration of victims, the rising death count... If the media outlets want to raise information from the region, they need to send their own reporters and photographers to the area for long time to get exactly what has happened. However, today when everybody seems to have a camera-equipped cell phone, the process of making news is much easier than ever. As argued by Wilcox and Cameron (2006), information sometimes is not really up-to-the-minute by the nature of printed and broadcasted programs which take time to be prepared and edited. In this situation, the advantages of the Internet would be used completely to meet the two basic human needs: to gain understanding in a time of tragedy and to share that information (Craig 2005). Nowadays, most of the publications have their own webpage with many different categories from news, video, radio online to discussion rooms, blogs in which they can update the details regularly about an episode which attracts sheer amplitude of attention. At the perspective of personal ‘journalist’, people usually use the social media such as Youtube, Facbook, Twitter, and Foursquare as a method of keeping in touch with the others and post noticeable events so that the news is always brought up to date constantly.

It is clear to see that everybody is able to become a journalist with just some basic tools: a camera and the Internet connection. Thanks to the evolution of technology and the modern media techniques which make even the smallest action get worldwide attention, people are getting to a principle of democracy as information is presented on the basis of free exchange for every member of society without any restriction.

References list:

1.       Benkoil, D 2011, How Social Media, Internet Changed Experience of Japan Disaster, last viewed 2nd June 2011, <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/03/how-social-media-internet-changed-experience-of-japan-disaster-074.html>.

2.  Craig, R 2006, Online Journalism: reporting, writing and editing for new media, Thomson, Australia.

3.    Wilcox, D & Cameron, G 2006, Public relations strategies and tactics, 8^th edn, Pearson, Boston.

SOCIAL MEDIA: NEW PLATFORM, NEW DEFINITION

As stated by Schirato (2010), together with the first three estates of a country namely executive, judiciary, and military, the media is considered as an important component of society. The notion of the concept is that the media plays a key role in maintaining the flow of information in the public sphere where people are free to interact with society and to participate in processes of political making decisions which affect their lives significantly. However, there are many scholars and experts argue that the media has not met its role as the Fourth Estate. Particularly, Stanley Cohen (2002) indicates any phenomenon which is put in the limelight of either local or international attentions is a result of a corporation between the exaggeration of the media and the viewpoints of interest groups.

When the mainstream media is seen as not fulfilling its function, another form of new media is obviously necessary for an implementation of public debate. Therefore, the emergence of the Internet and its product, social media, are warmly welcome by everybody all over the world and are recognized as a revolution in archiving a truly freedom of speech. With the advantage of providing a stable platform for people to express their opinions and ideas freely, network communication has become a pivotal community. No matter where they are staying, no matter which color their skin is, as long as they share the same interests and belief, they are able to connect each other tightly by virtue of such a remarkable advantage of the new media. Let’s take a look at the situation of Tunisia and Egypt as a typical illustration of social media’s strength. Wael Ghonim (cited by The Star Publications 2011), the Google executive and cyberactivist who emerged as a leader of the anti-government protests in Egypt, say that network communication played as a curial position in the events... without Facebook, without You Tube, without Twitter, without Google, this would have never happened.

Generally, social media and its advantages are setting a new standard for the practice of the conventional media in order to accomplish the duty of pioneers who accelerate the true space of public sphere.

References list:

1.       Cohen, S 2002, Folk Devils and Moral Panics, Routledge, London.

2.      Schirato, T 2010, Understanding media studies, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.

3.      The Star Publications 2011, Social media, cellphone video fuel Arab protest, lasted view on 22^nd May 2011, <http://techcentral.my/news/story.aspx?file=/2011/2/28/it_news/20110228100840&sec=IT_News>.

ETHICAL PUBLISHING PRINCIPLES, PLAGIARISM; COPYRIGHT & REGULATIONS

In the article titled ‘Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom’ found in BBC Magazine (2011), by looking at the action of plagiarizing of the German Defence Minister, Colonel Gaddafi, which results in his resignation, the author(s) indicate(s) that the problem of plagiarism has become more serious than ever in the era of technology.

The article mainly mentions the advantage of the Internet which offers extremely useful searching tools such as Google, Bing, Yahoo… for Internet users to duplicate and to fabricate the other’s works. By changing the pronouns and nouns from singular to plural, or cutting off some parts of the speeches, the users has easily made other people’s researches become their own works. In this case, the experiences of teachers play as key roles in recognizing the cues of plagiarism by noticing sudden variety of voice used by students ‘from good language to bad, from academic tone to journalistic tone’. Besides, some detecting programs, for examples Turnitin and SafeAssign, are utilized to assess the level of similarity between student’s papers and the online databases, web pages, essays… by universities as a solution to cope with the global issue – plagiarism - which tends to increase significantly with access to digitized information in recent years (Park, cited by Sutherland-Smith 2008).

Moreover, as argued as Mark Lucas (BBC, ibid), plagiarism is not only a cancer in academic environment but also in journalism fields. For instance, a paragraph written by blogger Josh Marshall was used virtually word-by-word by the columnist of New York Times, Maureen Dowd without attribution. As an excuse by the journalist, she claimed it was an unintentional mistake as she just wrote about a story which she has heard from a friend. Therefore, journalists have to consider the principles of ethical authorship and publishing carefully whenever they start writing in order to avoid the same errors happening to the Pulitzer Prize winner, Maureen Dowd.

In relation to the principle of publishing, Annilee Game and Micheal West (2002) recommend that the authors should not submit the same or similar works which had been published elsewhere to other outlets. When the works of other people are lifted, either directly from the texts or paraphrasing, together with the ideas which were not conceived by the authors, the sources must be credited properly in the paper. Consequently, the situation of duplicate publications and plagiarism could be prevented from existing.

References list:

1.                   BBC Magazine 2011, Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom, last viewed 5th May 2011, < http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12613617 >.

2.                  Game, A & West, MA 2002, ‘Principles of Publishing’, The Psychologist, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 126 – 129.

3.                  Sutherland-Smith, W 2008, Plagiarism the internet and student learning: improving academic integrity, Taylor and Francis, New York.

VISUALS & SITUATIONAL CONTEXT; ETHICAL PUBLISHING PRINCIPLES

In contemporary society, having a strong background of education provides a good platform for people to express their abilities, and share their own viewpoints with others. However, when a documental paper about on a particularly social issue from someone’s perspective, in order to reach its expected audience and gain the acceptance in public, it depends on various factors rather than the author’s owned creativities only.

The situation

In March 2011, the Berita Harian newspaper was troubled by a massive reaction from the public against its publication of the worst disasters of Japan. A series of strong earthquakes swept north-east Japan together with a 10 meter tsunami destroy buildings, vehicles and debris across swaths of farmland (McCurry & Branigan 2011). There are many major damages caused by the natural disasters in Japan, especially an explosion of Fukushima nuclear power plant which releases the risk of radioactive materials to the environment (BBC News 2011).

When all the communities all over the world pray and offer their sympathy for the loss of human and property of Japan, the cartoon which depicts the devastating tsunami and earthquake seems to be so distasteful and insensitive towards the Japanese (Pek Mei 2011). As a solution to soothe the indignation of the audience, the daily newspaper’s editor had to issue an apology over its publication with a sophistry: ‘We had no intention of poking fun at the disaster that has befallen the nation of Japan and its people. In fact, we greatly sympathize with their plight and share the sorrow of the Japanese people’.

The lesson

It is a valuable lesson for all of people who work in the publication industries, especially students who intend to pursuit designing documents as their future career. As indicated by Schrito and Yell (...), due to the nature of social semiotic system which has a range of potential meanings, document designers are required to comprehend the social context in which the potential meanings has a fundamental platform to express its actualization in real life situation.

Although the visual elements have their own advantage which is stated ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ (Schriver 1997), the application of such expressive power in a document would rely on a cognitive research about cultural knowledge and personal beliefs and attitudes in order that the document can present precisely what the authors/ writers try to convey, as well as communicate effectually with its audience.

References:

1.              BBC News 2011, Japan earthquake: Explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant, lasted viewed 5th June 2011, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12720219>.

2.      McCurry, J & Branigan, T 2011, Powerful earthquakes hit Japan, The Guardian, lasted viewed 5th June 2011, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/japan-earthquake-miyagi-tsunami-warning>.

3.        Pek Mei, W 2011, Berita Harian issues public apology over tsunami cartoon, The Star, lasted viewed 5th June 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/14/nation/8262608&sec=nation >.

4.    Schirato, T & Yell, S 2000, ‘Chapter 3: Communication as social practice’, in Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, Allen & Unwin, Australia (UNISA electronic library).

5.         Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.