How Does Internet Shape the future of Journalism

Wikipedia defines Journalism as the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and comment via a widening spectrum of media.
Throughout the past till today, newspapers have been the main medium of journalism, conveying news and information all across the country.However, recently, the internet is slowly taking over the role of newspapers and newspapers are no longer the cash cows that they used to be in the past. More and more readers are turning to the internet for their news.



A reason for this is because when one is online, you are not confined to just one point of view the newspaper presents you. Instead, you are able to browse around other sites and see what different online news papers have to say about a particular issue. Furthermore, New Yorkers stated that it is much more convenient to sit in front of a screen than to buy a paper and read it cover to cover.

Of course, with the increase in online news reporting, the traditional newspapers lose out as the explosive of videos allows readers to directly connect with the issue both mentally and visually. The traditional newspaper of course requires a bit of imagination. Also, studies of the past will be much easier as online interfaces allow readers to go back and forth as and when they like; they don't have to worry about missing last wednesday's paper because they know it will be available online.

However, with the rapid growth on online newspapers, there are ethical concerns. The internet is a virtual world where any point of view or comment can be posted, as a result, there has to be a standard that online newspapers have to follow. Blogs, MySpace, WordPress, opens a new door to journalism as well. People across the globe can give their point of view and comments about an issue at any point in time.

But these views have to be objective and disciplined. Traditional newspapers practise disciplined verification and editing as it will go public, but online, there is no one editor who will screen through the entire webpage to look for errors or any damning piece of information.

The future of journalism is bright thanks to all the new frontiers available on the internet. But at the same time, humans are able to connect more with the traditional piece of paper as we are not void of emotions.

As Patrick Dixion of www.globalchange.com said: Paper becomes part of human beings as compared to a piece of writing on a computer screen.

I love Multimedia

Wouldn't you agree with me that the use of multimedia has made the internet so much more enticing and interesting? Multimedia makes use of text, animations, audio and still images to appeal to its targeted audience. The use of multimedia has been adopted vastly across the virtual world; be it appealing to a gaming audience to an audience of photographers.

This is Audition; an online game by Asiasoft. I've been playing this game for quite awhile now. Its homepage spells Multimedia all over. From the background to the various banners at the side which allows you to either sign up with Asiasoft or download the game client.

Audition's homepage allows you to view videos of players playing online and there are screen shots available as well. The use of videos and still pictures further enhances the webpage and not to mention adds to help persuade you to play the game.

Since Audition is a game that incorporates dance moves, there's definitely got to be music. To further persuade you to play, a sample of songs are readily available for you to listen to as show above!

But what really makes this website a successful website? The multimedia plays a huge part in it and the ability to add so many perks to it definitely sends its message out loud and clear. However, another important aspect of multimedia plays a part too. And that aspect is: Hypermedia

Hypermedia is used as a logical extension of the term hypertext in which graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks intertwine to create a generally non-linear medium of information. This way, Asiasoft is able to link up as many pages as it wants to to its homepage instead of cramming all the information they want to convey to the targeted audience.

Take instance the screen shot above. Just by placing my mouse over the word "Info", a whole list of options pop out. "News. Notice. Events. Characters. Stag. Arena. Level."

Well, as you can see, Asiasoft fully utilizes multimedia to its full potential. Multimedia isn't just on homepages; Multimedia is Everywhere. From blogs to television to games to even advertisements. The tool of multimedia is simple awesome.

What will we ever do without Multimedia?

Our lives did be dead boring.

Computer Viruses

Viruses are everywhere; germs, dirt, bacteria can be harmful to a human body.
But, all the above stated can be harmful to computers as well. Computer viruses are harmful and expensive to repair for all computer users. Viruses can strike at any time without warning. A virus can enter your computer either by an email or a program you have downloaded.

Common viruses are the Trojan, Worms, Spyware and Keylogger.

These are the viruses that are commonly seen in computers/laptops such as Acer, HP, VAIO etc. Such viruses attack the masses; but there is one particular brand of computers that seldom gets attacked by viruses, but with such an advantage, the possibility of getting rid of a virus will also be very challenging.

It is the iMAC by Apple.

The IMAC's unique design prevents common viruses from attacking it, which is good. However, there is a certain virus that caught my eye when I was doing research, this virus is called:

The Newton virus

The "Newton Virus" was aamed after the father of modern mechanics. The 'Newton Virus' introduces the concept of gravity causing your desktop to behave exactly as it would in the real physical environment. Desktop icons become susceptible to Newton’s invisible force and fall, roll and tumble in whatever direction gravity pulls them delivering a little bit of reality to your virtual environment.

Viruses that are being spread by thumb drives are extremely potent. I was a victim of it once. A friend of mine passed me a thumb drive to retrieve information, but I did not know that her thumb drive was infected. As a result, my laptop had to be reformatted and I lost a lot of precious data. As I did not know that my computer was infected, I plugged in my Ipod to update my songs and before I knew it, even my Ipod was infected. The virus destroyed my Ipod and I could never ever plug it into my laptop again as the virus is still swimming in there.

It was seriously tramuatizing :(

Back to the Newton Virus, the Newton Virus isn't a harmful virus according the its creators. It adds a spice of life to the virgin territory of viruses that can be found in an iMAC. As silly as it sounds, this virus was the first virus created to poke fun at iMac users. But I suppose after awhile, the virus will become annoying. Sooner of later, more viruses will emerge just for the iMAC.

As the old saying goes, "prevention is better than cure"
Get an anti virus NOW. :D

Google Tools : Google Trends

While people meddle with Google Earth, I rather experiment with Google Labs.
Google labs allow one's creativity to run wild with the different possibilities that Google provides. It allows one to study the trends that are out there and of course trends that aren't out there yet.

Wanna know if Gucci or Louis Vuitton is more popular? Where do you get such statistics? Well, you can go to the streets and conduct surveys, but that will require a lot of time and man power. Wasting resources is the last thing on your mind!

So what do you do? Google Trend it!
your answer comes in less than 30 seconds

Key: Blue - Gucci
Red- Louis Vuitton

there you have it! according to Google, Gucci has been a more popular brand amongst world users. Plus, Google tells you where it got its statistics. Check out below:

You might not want to base your assumptions based on Google Trend's results, but at least, there is a guide line that you can follow :D
well apart from looking for guidelines, if you are really bored.. like REALLY BORED like I was a few days back, you could use Google trends to find out if Elmo from Sesame Street or Tigger from Winnie the Pooh is more popular.

This was really random :p
Have fun!

Looks like Elmo is a more popular character!



3 cheers for Elmo!

Google Lab- Trends is a fun tool to play around with yet it can help you greatly with research purposes.
3 x 3 cheers for Google Trends!

Video!

this is a short video that my friends and i made for a module; com 217. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQqr8WUUXws

Digital Classroom

I grew up in classrooms with chalks, blackboards and not forgetting dusters. Everything that was to be copied into our exercise books was on the blackboard.
It didn't matter if it was Science or Math or Literature; my teachers would write whatever they had to on the board and let us copy it off from there.
There were no such things as powerpoint slides or youtube videos to help us along the way. The blackboard and chalk were the ultimate tools of a teacher back then.

Bart Simpson definitely has issues with the blackboard as he was always being punished to write lines after skipping school and etc. I'm sure a handful of students were enemies with the blackboard for the various "crimes" committed in school as well.

It was only when I entered poly where technology had advanced tremendously and incredibly. Lecturers started using websites to lecture us and some even opened up programs from their laptops to specifically show us how to go about using it. Take for example: SPSS. The program SPSS is a statistics program which helps one organize data into graphs.

Soon enough, our marketing lecturer was introducing websites to us to help us with our exams. Before you knew it, our class tests were conducted ONLINE (E-TESTS) and our projects had to be submitted either via digital dropbox or email.

Everything was practically converted from a blackboard which used dusters to create write new pieces of information to a computer which only needs one button: The Delete button.

from...

to..

our lives have improved greatly from manually dusting the blackboard to the mere pressing of just one button. However, with such readily available information at our fingertips, will we be reliant on the web to give us answers?

Will Google be the internet God? well it has sort of become the internet God. Millions of people use Google or other search engines to look up information for their own purposes. Answers are provided with a click of a mouse.

Although the internet makes life easier for both students and teachers, it is inevitable that one day we might forget the fundamentals of life. With dictionary.com and conversion tools available online, fundamentals of a manual tools such as a calculator, or an encyclopedia can be easily forgotten. A digital classroom helps greatly but it is also possible to make us forget how to do things manually.

Let's hope this won't ever happen.

10 reasons why E-commerce is successful

E-commerce has been on the rise since the beginning of the Internet. The wonders of the internet brings millions of people together through social media and of course, e-commerce.
Businesses online are booming and everyday, new businesses are being setup hoping to earn revenue.
So why is e-commerce so popular right now?

Here are 10 reasons why E-commerce is successful & why people want their feet into it.

Here goes!

1. No such thing as : Time Limit.

In the world of the world wide web, time knows no boundaries. You can work anytime without worrying having to punch in your time card or about the traffic jam along the highway. Managing your business online allows you to be free of the 24 hour prison cell. Since time is flexible, anybody and everybody is allowed to visit your site at any time and in any country!
Hopefully they make purchases too :)

2. Knowledge is free

Everything you need to know about starting, running and growing a business is available online, not to mention online tutorials from prestigious universities, from books (google's scholar search helps you with that) and from people who are already doing it successfully and who you now have unprecedented access to through blogs and social networks (blog search, facebook, you name it!). And nobody cares what your portfolio anymore. :x

3. Your "employees" are affordable

Technically, your employees are your computer, mouse, internet connection, search engines, software and everything that you can find online is, well sort of nearly free. Instead of getting a loan from the bank and borrowing thousands of dollars, why not setup online when it is conveniently free? :)

4. Marketing is Free

Information about your business can be put online! with all them artsy fartsy thing-a-migics.
marquee banners and web titles, flash objects/short clips or even music! You have a chance to provide your information in any format that you want that will suit your business.
How great is that? and you don't even have to pay a interior designer to do it.

5. Spider webbed!

With your business online, YOU CAN REACH THE WORLD. Your website can be and will be viewed 24hrs a day, 7 days a week; practically the entire year. No worries about nobody hearing about your website, when it's good, the word of mouth travels faster than you can send out flyers telling people about your website.

6. Convenient for Customers.

Customers can view the website as many times as they like. It's not like you are forcing them to view your website to purchase your products but more like, customers have the luxury of viewing your products over and over again. There is very little or no coercion at all. It's good for you, and your customers!

7. Your website doesn't need to sleep.

You are only human. Eating, sleeping, and other daily activities are part of your life. However, your website doesn't. It will continue to generate income for you and all you have to do is wake up to orders and wait for the money to roll in. $_$

8. The address book

Allowing customers to fill in their information, you can always let them know about the latest updates, the special discounts of certain items, or even maybe special sprees that are only available to them. By building such customer relations, the bond will strengthen and customers will become loyal. Business repeats, so does the cash-ins!

9. Competitive prices.

It isn't rare that someone else sells the same products / services that you have. The competition will get rough as you fight to keep your price the lowest yet the best. However, such competitive prices keep you in check and it creates the drive to attract your customers even more! Competition is always good.

Last but not least,

10. Your commitment.

One needs commitment to make any business successful. Being on the edge helps. Read the books or visit the sites of those who have made it big. It is never too late to learn and by learning more, your business online will only reap results!

:D cheers.