Show 'n' Tell!

I guess this is the last post of COM 125, whereby I show and tell, showing and telling what I've learned throughout this semester. I shared with the class my experience in using Microsoft Movie Maker and I'm glad that I'm given an opportunity to try out this software. I know that if its not because of this module, I won't even know about movie maker thus I am glad that I'm given a chance.

In addition, I shared with the class that I'm quite amazed in the different kinds of computer viruses that are existing now.

Lastly, I've learned something that its not from the textbook, which is to learn to talk in front of a large crowd. I have to admit that this has been quite a problem throughout my life and I guess this individual presentation gives me an opportunity to overcome my fear and increase my confidence.

Future of Internet: "Digital Newspapers"

We have to admit, we are not some guru or fortune tellers thus we will never know what the future holds for us. People are then discussing what the future of internet holds of us and I would like to share what I want from the future.

To be honest, it would be nice if the convergence of internet and newspapers allows us to have a “digital newspaper”. Of course, it’s definitely different from reading news article from the computer, rather it’s still in a physical paper form but this time, it is only a one page newspaper. Why so? Imagine that this one page newspaper, will have a displaying “screen” in front of the main page, which displays news and you could “flip” the page with your fingers (just like using an I Pad). Another feature could be this, in our newspapers today; usually there will be a picture and texts below to explain the news. With the technology in the future, newspapers can simply evolve to the point where, the text remains, but the pictures moves. For example, if this piece of news is covering a car accident, if it’s our newspapers today, it will be a picture of a car wrecked and texts below the picture, and for the newspapers in the future, there will be a “play” button on the “picture” and it will show the car crash or aftermath.

All of us know that the elections are coming, ever thought of this, if we are reading our newspapers, there’s a picture showing a PAP speaker, and we could simply press the “play” button and view the speaker giving his or her speech. Of course, this idea may be far fetch but I thought it would be being convenience to our lives, such as not have to carry a 50 pages bulky newspapers and with the help of the visuals, it may draw interests from the younger generations and probably the increase of viewership. Teenagers will no longer be ignorant to the world news as they probably start reading newspapers due to those “cool” inventions. However, I guess the cons of this invention will be the lost of other jobs. Garang-gunis will not be able to collect old news papers as they are now only a one page newspaper and they probably lose revenues because of that. In addition, with this kind of technology on your daily newspapers, how much will one cost?

I guess that this "cool" idea came to my mind when I watched Harry Potter. There was a scene whereby it shows that their newspapers has the fucntion like that, the motion pictures on newspapers.

Don't have to be a journalist to write journals!

As mentioned in most of the previous points, we are seeing a trend of technological evolution which constitutes to the improvement of our everyday lives. I’ve mentioned that the evolution of social media, multi media and etc, however there’s one more phenomenon that we can’t forego is the evolution of journalism.

In the past, I guess the only way to write a journal for the public to see is to be a journalist. An individual might simply need to go through the right channels and with strong language background just to be a journalist. However, with the help of advance technology comes with the uprising of “Citizen Journalism”. Now, journals are no longer written only by professional reporters and also by ordinary people like us. One of the more popular medium for citizen journalist is the “Stomp” and people are able to write any “news” and I mean ANY news. Of course, there will still be legitimate formal news but I’ve to admit that I’ve seen some ridiculous unconstructive “news” in it.


I guess the pros of citizen journalism are the fact that it gives ordinary people the sense of belonging and the freedom of speech. It also allows the release of catharsis as people can simply rant their feelings on the net and not just keeping it to themselves. However, I’m really not a big fan of “stomp” as I think the whole point of reporting news is to report facts. In addition, I do not think that we should report opinion based “news” and the probably this is the biggest problem with citizen journalism, whereby people do not know how to differentiate facts and opinions.

Although I’ve disclosed my displeasure for “Stomp”, I must say that Wikipedia serves much more purpose in our everyday lives. People are able to write definitions of words and edit other people’s work which provides us with direct information. I guess this is beneficial to must of us as I believe that majority of the information are valid and accurate but of course there’s on limitation. It is that students are not able to cite from Wikipedia for their research paper as lecturers do not recognize that as a legitimate source.

Social Media: Formal? Informal?

Today, social media like Twitter, Facebook or MySpace is something majority of us will use. However, we tend to perceive it’s informality due to its functions and purpose. We probably used our own experience on these social media and determine its usage and tend to neglect its full potential as a social media. In other words, we simply use social media as a tool to allow our social network to stay connected. Take Twitter as an example, the most prominent function is probably to ability for us to release catharsis. We feel better when we “tweet” our sorrows and happiness and so we might simply degrade twitter’s function, thinking it is limited to on our informal social networking usage. On the same token, we will never imagine that Twitter, might be useful to anyone’s career or even an aid to become a president.

Back in 2008 presidential election, Senator Barack Obama was competing against Senator John McCain and Obama made a move which might lead him to clinch the presidency, and it is to simply create accounts of Twitter, Facebook and even MySpace. With the help of these social media, He was able to gather large, massive followings, and support he needed back then. He has used these platforms to further his agenda and to share his political message. “Followers” will then be able to acknowledge his agenda and this provided extended reach as compared to just media from television and news.

In addition, not only it provides extended reach to Obama’s quest to deliver his “Change”, this allows him to reach the younger demographics. People who just meet the eligible age for voting might not be a news addict and probably not know about politics. They might simply conform to the majority and vote blindly. Thus, with the help of these social media, younger demographics are able to understand more about the “Change” and probably have their own free will to choose.

Politicians must learn to go where their voters are and if their voters want to hear the issues and their take on them, they should deliver it to them in a format that they can readily accept and understand. The world has rapidly moved toward technology and there is absolutely no slowing down in terms of technology, new developments and speed. This might then be the reason why Senator McCain lost as he wasn’t technological savvy and I recalled one clipped that was showed in class, if I’m not wrong, he doesn’t know how to use the computer.