Blogging

Blogging was a huge thing in the 1990s, and people were excited enough to post their daily lives online for all to see. Twitter and Facebook somewhat took over the aspect of that by making it so much easier to tell someone of what just happened and whom you met.

The blogs remain relevent, however, and have evolved into something that is more than daily lives. It has given birth to a whole new generation of writers, who have used it to their advantage to create soem of the most imfomative, creative and relevant websites of today. Having been writing this blog for a while, I realised that it is important to be ethical and responsible when writing. We hide behind an IP address and for any blog to be successful, it has to reflect a sense of responsiblity over the writing. Someone out there might be mis-informed about certain topics that you have blogged about that that's just not doing to do any good.

Having established that, the next step I had to do was make sure the blog was designed well. Certain colours like white and black were chosen because they were easy on the eye, and I had to make sure the reader was focused on the content. The good blogs are the ones who do have have fancy colours that just beg for you to leave.

It is interesting to note that writing a blog has allowed me to gain much more knowledge with the research put in. I would encourage everyone to do so, and in the process, gain more by sharing with others.

So...what makes a good web design?

The internet has become an integral need for our society today. Not many of us go one day without logging on the web. With billions of websites avaliable for an audience, how a website is designed to attract and maintain its viewers becomes extremely important. In this simple video above, the author points out 3 simple but important tips for good web design:

Keep the colours simple but catching

What it means is keep the background clean and simple. This keeps the viewer from being distracted from the main content. Light grey for a background is a good choice, bright red is not.

Define objects with solid and bold borders

Bold the menu bars and make it stand out so the viewers know exactly where they are at. Keep the content parallel or horizontal to one another.

Keep the layout the same throughout

Everything should be themed to make your design coherent between pages and on the same page.

References:
Brainchildcompany, 2011, What Makes a Successful Website? [online video], avaliable at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhv4ofpNF7g&feature=related, accessed 12 Feb 2011

You might want to see this....

Some important links to highlight:

Media Development Authority (MDA) - Guidelines and Policies - Avaliable at http://www.mda.gov.sg/Policies/PoliciesandContentGuidelines/Pages/default.aspx

Board of Film Censors - Films Act - Avaliable at http://mda.gov.sg/Industry/Films/Classification/Pages/BoardofFilmClassification.aspx

Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) - Policies - Avaliable at http://www.ida.gov.sg/Policies%20and%20Regulation/20060416174257.aspx

Journalism .SG - Avaliable at http://journalism.sg/

Singapore Press Club - http://www.pressclub.org.sg/pc/

Publishing Issues in Singapore

Singapore, as we all know, is a strict country when it comes to the media. It ranks 144th in media freedom out of 166. Its newspapers are state-owned. The governement has no qualms about filing lawsuits for which its seems defamatory. As it is, Singapore's journalists practise self-censorship to prevent themselves from getting into trouble. As we get more connected, our desire for alternative views get stronger, and it is on the internet that people are finding the other side of the story.

The Temasek Review (TR) is one such website. Its authors and contributors to the site often fight for the cause of the common people, and question the policies of the government. It publishes reports that are different from the ones in the mainstream papers. These news get lapped up by the information-hungry citizens and that has attracted the government.

Concerned about the potential of the weblog, the government has decided to gazette TR as a political association.This means TR will not be able to receive donations from overseas sources, and must reveal all of its contributors. This is a move widely seen by the public to supress political discussion.

There is really, no right or wrong way about this approach. Singapore is a multi-racial society and its peace is dependant of the races co-existing in harmony. With unregulated content, there is the possibility that this peace is threathened. However, with the explosion of the web, people can find what they want on the internet at ease, making certain moves by the government seen as overbearing and controlling. Unrests in Thailand, Iran and Egypt recently have all been linked to overseas sources, and the government of Singapore is doing its best to ensure that that doesn't happen.

wow....Really?

Some advertisments are on a certain website for a certain amount of time. Some of them might be on news sites, which changes its contents changes regularly. Therefore, there is the possibility that the messages in the advertisments run counter to the content on a website. Below are some examples:

Now this is a classic example of the news content changing in a very quick time whose message runs counter to the advertisement to the right. "Court challenge to order on brain-damaged woman expected this week" is contrasted by "What is your IQ?" The issue in the publication is that the advertisment sometimes leave a bad taste in people's mouths. That is a tough challenge, because it is not quite possible to change the advert to suit the content in the website, especially so on a news website. The other pitcures below need no explanation.

My feeling about this is that people just don't care. The industry is too competitive for the sales staff to try and put the right advertisments together. When compaines come to them for a billboard, they just sell it. Without the other contrasting advert, it looks fine on its own. The PR damage caused might be too much for a company to absorb, especially if it has spent significant advertising dollars on it. It's a lesson learnt; next time, check out yout neighbour first.

Image source: Oddee.com

Yahoooo...!

                                                            Yahoo's home page

This is a screenshot of Yahoo's home page. It's strategy of cramping every avaliable option on its page has divided users into 2 groups; for or against. Some users like the interface of this website, which gives them options to choose what content they are interested in, It's like laying everything out for you to choose. On the other hand, some people prefer Google's interface, which they deem to be cleaner and less cluttered. Google's stand is that users will find what they want to find. Their refining of their search engine is the best way for them to retain their users.

Google's home page

As we have discussed with the previous post about good web design, Google's page seems to apply those principles. With its clean and white background, users don't feel like they are pushed into anything, unlike Yahoo's. On the top of the page, Google has added some links to aid navigation. These links are bold and consistent throughout the user experience. These 2 search engine giants have 2 vastly different web designs and it is not possible to attract everyone, but both do well and appeal to their targeted audience.

Image Source:

Yahoo, 2011, Yahoo.com.sg

Google, 2011, Google.com.sg

Censorship.

In this post, we look at how a weblog owned by an individual has the ability to reach out and impact an audience with his content and opinions. We look at Yawning Bread and his recent comments on censorship in Singapore, with reference to a recent film that is to be shown in Singapore.

It has recently come to light that The Board of Film Censors (BFC) has imposed 'extra restrictive conditions' on the film 'The Kids are All Right', based on certain lifestyle issues. It was given a R21 rating, meaning those below 21 years of age are not allowed to watch it, and the board has confined it to one print, meaning it can only be shown at one cinema at any one time.

The film is about two lesbian parents using a sperm donar to have children of their own, and when the kids turn 18, they decide to find out who their father is. The reason for this extra censorship, is that the government of Singapore is concerned with the lifestyle (homosexual) of the 2 lesbian parents in the movie. They are trying to "discourage" this certain choice made by individuals in the community.

Whether or not this is a choice for the goverment to make is a story for another day. We want to look at how the Yawning Bread post has an impact on the society today.

Offical trailer of the film



The reason that the film was given that strict a rating was because it "normalised the homosexual lifestyle". This statement in itself is anarchic and no longer applies to the world we live in today. However, this is never published in the state-owned papers. The majority of the public would never know. With Yawning Bread and also famous local blogger MrBrown getting on the case, the public now have an alternative view and they know what our government is imposing on us. Today, it may be "lifestyle choice". Who knows what they will seek to hide from us in future?

Image Source: Just Jared

References:

1. What's more terrifying than sex?, 2011, Yawning Bread, viewed 10 Feb 2011, http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/whats-more-terrifying-than-sex-family/
2. Screening at a theatre near you...with this ONE print, 2011, MrBrown, viewed 10 Feb 2011, http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2011/02/screening-at-a-theatre-near-you-with-this-one-print.html
3. Hollywood streams, 2011, The kids are all right - Offical Trailer [online video], avaliable at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdDSqgZ87fM, accessed 10 Feb 2011



Give that man a Tiger!

Tiger beer has been one of the most active advertisers in recent years, and its aggressive approach has seen its popularity soar worldwide during this period. Tiger Beer has specifically targeted football and its legions of fans for this local brew. We look at how this massive integrated advertisting strategy uses popular sites like Facebook and YouTube to spread its message. On soccernet.com, Tiger beer places itself as a fan of the game, and has links on its front page that lead readers to their facebook page, and youtube ads. It uses lucky draws and the appeal of every football club to entice the reader to click on the link. Below is a screen shot of the popular football website.

                                                                                  Image 1: Screenshot from Soccernet.com

Now, the logs of the beer company can be clearly seen from the homepage, and there are various links that you can go into, which leads to another part of its integrated advertising strategy. The latest video by Tiger Beer on Youtube:

With a constant flow of messages to its audience, Tiger beer's online campaign has proven to be hugely successful. Its print version, while retaining the unique Singaporean-yet-international flavour, has its limitations.

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Image 2: Print advertisment from The Straits Times 

The print version has to be a 'looker", meaning it has to grab your attention the first time a reader sees it. That explains the vivid colour and the intricate detail that can be found in the advert. There is no other way that the print version can appeal to the audience. The online version has multiple angles of attack, ranging from the use of flash to a variety of links avaliable to the user, and thus making making it a much more effective way of advertising.  

Image 1 Source: Soccernet.com

Image 2 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladinar/5250082816/

References:

WatchRadAds, 2010, Tiger beer - Shapfeshifting Cool Commercial [Online Video] Avaliable at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfZta3CBppU, Accessed 05 Feb 2011

A $50 billion (and growing) empire.

The story of Facebook, as we all know by now, is about Mark Zuckerberg and his two roomates at Harvard College wanting to create a networking site to keep in touch with friends. This network became avaliable to the public in September 2006, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In Singapore today, there are 2,280,800 people with Facebook accounts. That is a staggering 48.52% (!) of the population. While Facebook wasn't the first to come up with a networking site (Friendster and MySpace came earlier), it quickly became the market leader due to its easy-to-use interface and countless online applications. On facebook, you can take pictures at a friend's party and have it uploaded immediately for the world to see. Tell your friends what you had for lunch. Ask them out for drinks. Play hugely popular online games.

The internet changed the world forever. In my opinion, Facebook took it to another level. With the explosion of its popularity, media outlets have jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. While these outlets already have websites of their own, for example, CNN and BBC, they are extending their reach to even more viewers, just by being on Facebook. On Cnn's facebook page, its writers churn out breaking news by the minute. Readers can have access to these news on their mobile phones, at any time anywhere. There are links to its news anchors, pictures and videos. You wouldn't imagine that 5 years ago.

It is an even more critical issue with traditional print. The problem with it is just thats its news, being reported and printed overnight, is already 'late', compared to news online. To solve that problem, The Straits Times (Singapore) has successfully integrated itself into a multiple platform news agency. On Facebook, the Straits Times page posts selected general news. If you click on the links, it redirects you to its website, where you can get more news. To get a full version of the paper however, you need to subscribe to an online edition. This move reduces the impact on the timeliness of the Straits Times. By using Facebook to publish news is a great way for news outlets to make use of the technology avaliable to extend its reach and maintain its relevance.

Image source: The Facebook Phenomenon
References: Singapore Facebook Stastics, 2011, Social Bakers, viewed 19 January 2011, http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/singapore

The 1st post

This would be my first posting after 5 years, when my last blog died a natural death. 5 years is an eternity in the online world, and I would be using this weblog to catch up on blogging with regards to issues in television, print, web and other media. I would like to take this chance to introduce two unique, award-winning Singaporean blogs, MrBrown, and MrWangSaysSo to you. These blogs provide an insightful and sometimes humourous view of our small island nation, and I hope to be able to do the same with mine.

Do feel free to comment on any of the postings if you have any queries or feedback.