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Participation culture, creativity, and social change

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Journal Review 11: New Media, New Audiences?

by: Nur Diana Mat Isa

New media is always considering as the new technological developments. On the other hand, media also related to the social of the society. In the real, media have been develop because of the innovation of technologies nowadays that make the society needs of media become wider. Moreover, the change of media also is a reason to social change in term of technology. This is because media have dominating the market and contribute to the social shaping.

Furthermore, new media must include now familiar technologies. New media also allows a wider view of what’s now here for audiences:

1)      Multiplication  of personally owned media

2)      Both ‘old’ and ‘current’ media are  diversifying in form  and contents

3)      Convergent form of information services

4)      The shift from one-way, mass communication towards more interactive communication between medium and user.

Other than that, new media is names that given by media people as the new tools of media user and media also have the relationship between the societies. Overall, the development of the new media such as blog and internet are existed because the innovation of the technologies itself and also the increasing needs of the societies itself. The new thing need to be here to sure the diffusion process of information and other thing that related to media is always excellent.

Source: eprints

Journal Review 10: Online PR : Emerging Organisational Practise

By: Siti Fatehah binti Minhad

In the modern world now, the speed of technology and the media is over. Each organization began to look at technology in the media as one of the most important aid to improve their company's performance. All companies now have to change the course of their business trips instead of using traditional media to new media. According to research conducted by Pertti Hurme, new media is more quickly than traditional media. When traditional media requires almost 30-40 years reaching 50million users, new media like the World Wide Web require only 3-4 years. Currently, consumers use the Internet more attention because the Internet provides many services such as e-mail, mailing lists (LISTSERVs), Usenet, chat rooms and others. Internet usage is also a concern because it is faster and even easier to deal with all of the company and respect each other. In the meantime, the media also expand their technology with the use of mobile communication in which your phone has an internet connection. Now most developing countries are more comfortable using this technology which can easily help most company to communicate with each other fast and accurately.

The media progress has helped to facilitate the pubic relations duties such as message production, disseminating messages to publics, clients and stakeholders. Internet usage can also be viewed as a conventional news brochure which is also spreading a lot of information to others. Citing the advantages of new technology, mobile technology provides two types of advantages, namely Quasi-interactivity (subscribing to the organization's news releases and sending feedback to the organization) and two-way communication (exchanging e-mail to the PR person or discussing in the web site). However technological advances in the media also bring some problems such as proper communication, and privacy. In this case, PR practitioners need to wisely overcome. When using new communication technology, ‘’dialogues website’’ used to be difficult for them to control the conversation. Problems such as weakness of the Internet signal into the main source. Looking at the progress of the WWW difficult to control, freedom of speech is an issue when the information transmitted can be unreliable, unconfirmed and untrue. According to Ekachai, 1999, ‘’when using the Internet, PR practitioners can not only reach their clients and stakeholders directly by passing the traditional gatekeepers, but also rates pledge in dialogue with them’’. 

In the world of PR, the public perception is important. With the emergence of the Web, PR practitioners can easily create and analyze information from all over the place. There will also be able to know what the feedback expressed by our customers or stakeholders more quickly. In the working world media have been very useful technology where it can help to create contacts, news update, getting information, create links, sending e-mail (information) and also rates create media kits. PR practitioner will be expected to integrate all means of communication to be a part of professional their qualifications. In simple words, PR practitioners need to apply new technology skills in line with the growth and proliferation of technology in this era to help improve the image of the company.

source: Pertti Hurme

https://www.jyu.fi/jsbe/oppiaineet/yma/arkistoyma/vanhatmateriaalityma/YMAS350/Exam%20article%207.pdf

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ETHICS AND REGULATIONS IN NEW MEDIA

Presented by: 
MARLIANA OMAR (2008743649)
NURARBAYAH  IBRAHIM (2009994875)
NUR NAKIAH ABD. RASHID (2008789407)
SITI FATEHAH MINHAD (2008346569)

INTRODUCTION
History of the Internet -International 

•       Internet is a worldwide network  of computers that are connected through telephone lines, fiber optic, wireless technologies such as 3G, WIMAX, EDGE and WIFI.

•       The origins of the Internet began during the Cold War. A network was created to link all the computers around the United States military because if  any event that triggered a nuclear attack, U.S. military equipment is still functioning.

•       These machines are connected through telephone lines. Various networks, including ARPAnet was built connecting the university in U.S and MILnet connecting the military bases.

•       ARPAnet (Advanced Research Project Agency) is one of the U.S. Defense Department has produced methods of packet switching for connecting various types of computers.

•       By 1970, the first computer network using packet switching techniques in the United States have linked the computer systems at the University of California at Los Angeles(UCLA), University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), Stanford University and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City .

•       In 1972, there was a small network of 40 sites connected to the ARPAnet. At that time the network is used to send small text files between users and now it is known as E-mail.

•       In the 1980, the networks began to connect as commercial. We may visit from one network to another network and this time the word of ‘ Internet’ is used.

•       In the 1990, the Internet is widely used in scientific research. Then, the public began to realize the potential of the Internet as a medium of communication, entertainment and education worldwide.

•       Today, there are more than 40 million Internet users all around the world.

History of the Internet - Local

—  In Malaysia, the Internet was launched in 1987 when the Malaysian Institute of Microelectronics ( MIMOS ) launch computer network or RangKom Malaysia

                ( Rangkaian Komputer Malaysia )

—  Local Universities is a early user of RangKom followed by the private sector. The focus of using RangKom is on the use of mail and electronic forums.

—  In 1991, JARING programmed  launched which aims to developed a national communications network is an integrated and more comprehensive.

—  JARING connected with research institutions and academic, government and private agencies in Malaysia primarily aims to support education activities, research and commercial. JARING is also linked to the international Internet network.

—  1 November 1996, Telekom Malaysia Berhad started the TMNet services. Today, there is a lot of Internet services offer to people such as P1 WiMax, Unifi, Streamyx and etc.

Advantages of using the Internet

—  ( 1 ) Information

Information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering. Any kind of information on any topic is available on the Internet. For example

-          information about health, sports, news and others. The search engines like Google, yahoo is at your service on the Internet.

—  ( 2 ) Entertainment

Entertainment provide pleasure and amusement. Entertainment is another popular reason why many people prefer to surf the Internet.    There are a huge number of these sites including youtube.com, jokes.com and others.

-          Downloading games, visiting chat rooms or just surfing the Web are some of the uses people have discovered.         

—   ( 3 ) Communication

Today for better communication, we can used the facilities of e-mail or we can chat for hours with our loved ones. There are plenty messenger services in offering. For example like Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Facebook chat, Twitter and etc. It has become very easy to establish a kind of global friendship where we can share our thoughts, can explore other cultures of different ethnicity.

—  ( 4 ) Services

Many services are now provided on the internet such as online banking (MayBank2you,Bank Islam Online) job seeking( Jobstreet.com ), purchasing tickets for  favorite movies at                      ( TGV,MBO,BIG CINEMAS ), flight tickets ( MAS, AIR ASIA ), online shopping and make reservations for hotel and restaurant.

—   ( 5 ) E – commerce

Ecommerce is used for any type of commercial, or business deals that involves the transfer of information across the globe via Internet. It designed to sell products or services directly from a Web site. For example are Amazon.com, Overstock.com, Flick.com and etc.

—  ( 6 ) Email

Email is usually cheap and fast and reliable. Email is helpful. It is free    ( no charge per use) compared to telephone, fax and    postal services.

—   ( 7 ) World Wide Web

Is a network information sources incorporating hypertext that allows the user to link one piece of information to another. The web is part of the internet. There is a list of the most popular Web sites searching like commercial sites which promote and sell their product by includes product description, consumer information, advertising, special offer or other material.

 For additional info, commercial sites typically end in.com ( PIZZA HUT,SLIM WORLD ).Education sites for example ( UiTM.edu.my. Harvard.edu and etc) and typically end in.edu, social networking sites ( Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare ), news and information sites ( CNN.com, KOSMO.com ), government sites and may more.

—   ( 8 ) Newsgroups

Collections of electronic bulletin boards, arrange according to topic, where people can read and post messages. Topical discussion groups, not news in the traditional sense. The newsgroup exist on a special network called Usenet, one component of Internet. It consists of a set of newsgroups with names that are classified hierarchically by subject. Articles or messages are posted to these newsgroups by people on computers with the appropriate software. The  articles are then broadcast to other interconnected computer systems via a wide variety of networks.

                ( tera news.com, derkeiler.com, Google groups )

Disadvantages of using the Internet

Internet also have weaknesses. There are several disadvantages of using the Internet for instance problem of spamming, virus threat, pornography, theft of personal information and others.

—  ( 1 ) Virus Threat

Virus is a program which disrupts the normal functioning of computer                                 systems. Computers attached to internet are more exposed to virus                                                   attacks and it end up crashing into the whole hard disk . The virus name ( Spyware, Trojans)

—  ( 2 ) Spamming or spam

Spamming refers to sending unwanted e-mails in bulk such as porno sites, clogs up people mailboxes and takes time to delete and, provide no purpose information.  There is about one in every 200 spam messages contains a virus.  

—   ( 3 ) Pornography

There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can be easily found. For example like youtube.com, you only sign up as a member and then you can easily search or found the porno sites if you are age 18 and above.

—  ( 4 ) Theft Personal Information

There is possibilities of personal information such as name, address, credit card number etc can be accessed by other culprits, hackers or cyber stalker. As an example hacker sits in a public place such as hotel lobby and sets up a small wireless network. Hotel guest unknowingly connect to the bogus system thinking that it’s the hotel’s network. Once on the fake network, everything the guest does on the internet can be tracked by the hacker.

INTERNET AND GOVERMENT

—  Government in Malaysia fully supported the expansion of Internet specially the whole aspects of information and technology.

—  The expansion of Internet in Malaysia started to develop since former Deputy Prime Minister was dismissed or discharged due to corruption (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim), with these issues, there are pros and cons sides.

—  E-government was created for opening up  a forum regarding the issues, this site is so popular since then in which already been viewed local and abroad. Since then, the Internet in Malaysia has started to grow its empire.

—  Government started to show their excitement about Internet by creating a regulation or policy and even standardization for Internet users in Malaysia.

—  This regulation is intended for politicians, businesses, educations and socials.

—   The growing of Internet cannot be held due to the rapid growing of users each year in which may affect many aspects of living.

—   For example, pornographic, internet businesses, instant message (e-mail), individual electronic entrepreneur and many more.

—  These examples are showing that there will be many side effects like people are easily conduct new criminal through websites, businesses can no longer be at workplace, and etc.

—  Government therefore regulates the user or subscribers of the internet.

—  Based on www.cjfe.org, 2007, the regulation of the internet globally; in Malaysia, the government targets users who use internet newsgroup to criticize the country or to carry out activities that are not permitted under Malaysian law.

The Impact of Internet Industry in Malaysia

—  According to Global Competitiveness Report (2002), Malaysian government is placing its hope for continued overall development on a strategy of government-led policies and initiatives aimed at attracting high-end foreign investment and a transition to a knowledge economy.

—  In order to reach these goals, Malaysian government has positioned themselves in a thriving dynamic global information and communication technology hub.

—   Hence, a framework that is for a coordinated and integrated approach in developing the three strategic elements comprising human resource, info structure and IT-based applications was formulated by the National Information Technology Agenda (NITA) in 1996 and the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was launched at the same year.

ECONOMIC

—  During the 19th century, Malaysia's economy has successful been changed from agrarian economy to the economy of imported-oriented products and further moved to export-oriented economy.

—  These changes enabled Malaysia to become an industrial country and achieved remarkable success in light industry and manufacturing sector.

—  This also enabled Malaysia to achieve over 8% growth rate in eight successive years and to become the world's fastest growing countries in the world.

—  However, Malaysia recent years has faced the huge challenge from the same low-cost labor-intensive countries , such as China and Vietnam.

—  In order to achieve the goal of "the plan of 2010", Malaysia's economy have to been restructured from labor-intensive industries to the capital and technology-intensive industrial economy. Hence, the Multimedia Super Corridor project has been introduced.

Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC)

—  The MSC stretched south from Kuala Lumpur all the way to the new Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

—  This corridor is 15 kilometres long and 50 kilometres wide strip of land. In addition to the new airport, there are other structures such as the PETRONAS Twin Towers in southern KL, the city where is the seat of the new federal government hosting government ministries (Putrajaya) and the main town of the MSC (Cyberjaya).

—   MSC has provided some benefits in order to attract the investors such as first ten-years tax holiday, work visas for skilled immigrant workers and duty-free import of ICT equipment.

—  The vision for the MSC is to create an area where offers many attractions for Information Technology companies.

—  And it can make Malaysia an international multimedia hub and propel Malaysia into the hi-tech age.

—  The government has provided a range of incentives to attract IT and multimedia companies to be stationed into the MSC.

—  More than 350 international and local companies had set up their offices or headquarters in MSC.

—  In its role of this catalyst for ICT development throughout Malaysia, the MSC has established six flagship projects:

1. Electronic government

2. Multipurpose card

3. Smart schools

4. Tele-health

5. R&D clusters

6. E-Business

CULTURE

—  Internet in Malaysia has entered all aspects of business and non business sectors include politic, economic, social and education.

—   The internet opportunities are developing start from children (education), teenagers (information, data, education and social) and others (business, e-government, trading and nation wide social)

—  In the 1990s, the language used for the Internet inter-ethnic communication and for the instructions on how to get access to numerous databases and to navigate through the hypertexts was mostly English.    

—  With the new medium emerged throughout the globe, the usage of English seemed more than natural.

—  English seemed more likely to have no alternative in the computer networking field ever than before, following the real problem was that the conflict between the mother tongue and English.

—   In this regard, Malaysia made efforts to enhance their residents the effective usage of world telecommunication links.

—   For example, Malaysia is said “to offer more education in English to prepare its citizens for the information age”.                     (ALEXANDER E., 1998)

EDUCATION

—  Malaysia has more than 7'217 primary schools and 1'641 secondary schools. As the table below shows, 31% of primary and 54% of secondary schools had Internet access.

—  Those who have access to the Internet also have the opportunity to expand or acquire knowledge online.

—  For higher education in Malaysia, the computer networking within Malaysian higher educational institutions dates back to 1987 when RangKom network was established connecting only 4 universities and MIMOS.

—  Dial-up connections to the Internet via Australia were established in 1990 and a permanent connection in 1992.

—  According to Multimedia Malaysia, all 14 public and 10 private universities have the connection of the Internet for some half million students.

Ethics

Definition of Ethics

Derived from Greek ethos meaning “custom”, “usage” or “character”. Literally: rules or principles of behaviour.

 “Learning to make rational choices between what is good and bad, what is morally justifiable action and what is not.”                  (Patterson, 2002).

Ethics are rules of conduct or principles of morality that point us towards the right or best way to act in a situation. Ethics can be divided into business ethics, work ethics, education ethics and others.

There is no doubt that new technologies will introduce to unethical behaviour. One of the most concerns is the ease with which private information can be collected and shared via the Internet. Internet has created concern both legally and ethically about the use of cyberspace for unregulated spread of pornography and uncontrollable theft of information.

Ethical standards is important which relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. To the degree which a rational ethical standard. People able to organize their goals and actions to accomplish important values. 

Media ethics assist media workers in determining what is right, and how to choose the best from several alternatives. Media ethics constitutes a normative science of conduct and must therefore be applied voluntarily.

Types of media ethics :

Teleological ethics

-          is the acceptability of an action is measured in terms of its consequences - only after consequences have been noted is the rightness or wrongness determined.

Deontological ethics

-          is when the rightness or wrongness of an action is dependent on the action itself and not on the results or consequences it produces.

3         Branches of Ethics

Metaethics is concerned with a study of the characteristics, or nature of ethics

Examines the meaning of abstract terms such as good, right, justice and fairness

Attempts to identify those values as the best moral values

It does not involve making moral judgments but more to attempts to distinguish ethical values from attitude

E.g. commitment to tell the truth

Broad foundation for ethical decision making

Normative ethics

Concerned with developing general theories, rules and principles of moral conduct

Traditional values – markers of any civilized society – guideposts designed to bring moral order out of chaos

E.g. deception by reporters

Applied ethics

Problem-solving branch of moral philosophy

To use the insights of Metaethics and general principles and rules of normative ethics in addressing specific ethical issues and concrete cases

E.g. reporter – revealing identities of secret sources

No right n wrong answer, but “well-reasoned” ones

LAW IN MALAYSIA

Every country has their own law relates to media which operates in its own legal framework.

Its important to monitor and control by government

- laws that regulate access of information

- laws that impose restrain on publication of information

New media has power to influence people media provide their audience with a supply of information, images, stories and impressions

It can cause bad things to public, government, corporate, country and others

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship and or without limitation.  An  overview the legal foundation for free expression in United State is the First Amendment to the constitution.

In Malaysia, Article 10[1][a] of the Federal Constitution provides that every Malaysian citizen shall have the right of free speech and expression. It is generally understood that the right to freedom of speech and expression is a combination of many rights in many forms.

In this sense, requiring for freedom of speech leads to freedom of press . However, freedom of expression in Malaysia is limited by restrictive legislation and by the concentration of media ownership in the hands of the ruling parties or those closely allied with them.

In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations. All media are government-controlled, directly through ownership, or indirectly through individuals with political connections.

Furthermore, restrictions to free speech are enshrined in legislation such as:

Defamation Act 1957

Sedition Act 1948

Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984

The Internal Security Act 1960

Defamation Act, 1957   

Defamation Act, 1957 (Malay: Ordinan Fitnah 1957) is an attempt to balance the private right to protect one's reputation with the public right to freedom of speech. Defamation law allows people to sue those who say or publish false and malicious comments.

An act of communication that causes someone to be shamed, ridiculed, held in contempt, lowered in the estimation of the community, or to lose employment status or earnings or otherwise suffer a damaged reputation. Such defamation is couched in 'defamatory language'. Libel and slander are defamation.

Any communication that holds a person up to contempt, hatred, ridicule or scorn. A verbal attack is considered slander while a written or recorded one is regarded as libel

CASES:

In August 30, Noor Haslina filed a RM20mil suit against Celcom Axiata Bhd for allegedly revealing the contents of her SMS exchanges and recordings of her telephone conversations with other individuals.

Noor Haslina had received a package which contained information of her SMS exchanges and recordings of her phone conversations.

No rights to reveal information about someone that may embarrass or cause harm to that person.

Article 5 (1): No one can be robbed off his life or personal freedom.

The Internal Security Act, 1960

The Internal Security Act, 1960 (ISA) (Malay: Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri) is a preventive detention law in force in Malaysia. The legislation was enacted after Malaysia gained independence from Britain in 1957. The ISA allows for detention without trial or criminal charges under limited, legally defined circumstances.

The Act provides for arbitrary arrest and detention without trial for an indefinite period based on mere suspicion that one "may be likely" to commit an act deemed dangerous to national security.

A detainee is, therefore, presumed guilty without trial. It further allows a detainee to be held under solitary confinement for 60 days without legal counsel.

CASES:

1.       PERKASA  demands ISA action against Christian ‘preacher’        (September, 29 ). Perkasa demanded today that the Internal Security Act (ISA) be used against a man who had allegedly insulted Islam in a series of videos on  YouTube. Benjamin Stephens, believed to be a Christian preacher had uploaded  recordings of himself preaching in a Sarawak church – believed to have been taken on March 25, 2006  –on the popular video-sharing website, where it is accessible to millions around the world.

2.    On September 12, 2008, prominent blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) was arrested for posting anti-government comments on his blog, Malaysia Today. He was held under the Internal Security Act. Raja Petra issue bring controversies as had courted the government's in previous incendiary blog posts. The Malaysia Today was blocked by authorities a day before his arrest.

The Official Secrets Act

The Official Secret Act, 1972 (Act 88), (Malay: Akta Rahsia-rahsia Rasmi) also known as the OSA, is a statute in Malaysia prohibiting the dissemination of information classified as an official secret. The legislation is based on the Official Secret Act of the United Kingdom. The Act was amended in 1984 to increase the penalties for spying and to make it an offence to put oneself “in the confidence of a foreign agent”. After criticism of the act for lacking clarity, it was amended in 1986. Those found guilty under the amended Act face imprisonment for no less than a year and up to seven years.

The Official Secret Act was defines as any document specified in the Schedule and any information and material relating thereto and includes any other official document, information and material as may be classified as “Top Secret”, “Secret”, “Confidential” or “Restricted”, as the case may be, by a Minister, the Menteri Besar or Chief Minister of a State or such public officer.

Related example:

The first case under this Act was between government and DAP Member of Parliament Lim Kit Siang in year 1978. He was found guilty of receiving and revealing information about the purchase of Swedish warships for the Malaysian Navy. It was a controversy of possible excessive expenditure and misuse of public funds. Lim was fined RM 15,000 (over USD 3900). However, on appeal the Federal Court reduced the fine to less that RM 2,000 (USD 530), and he was not automatically disqualified from Parliament.

Sedition Act, 1948

The Sedition Act in Malaysia is a law prohibiting discourse deemed as seditious. This act was amended in 1971.The act was originally enacted by the colonial authorities of British Malaya in 1948. The act criminalizes speech with "seditious tendency", including that which would "bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against" the government or engender "feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races".

CASES:

1.       Tunku Ismail:

Police were investigating a Facebook page by an individual claiming to be the future wife of Tunku Ismail. Called Diari Harian Tunku Mahkota Johore (Daily Diary of the Tunku Mahkota of Johor), the page listed the supposed activities of Tunku Ismail and photographs of him at public events and the case had been classified under the Sedition Act.

2.       Nurul Izzah Anwar:

Nurul Izzah was claimed on giving statement that deemed as seditious in her blog titled “The ultimate Malaysian debate: Malaysia or Malaysaja?” on August, 31^st 2010 – The MalayInsider. She said Perkasa lodged a report on September, 2 based on that article, in which she invited the group for a “constructive engagement” about Malay rights and the interpretation of Article 153 of the Federal Constitution which outlined the special position of the Malays and she was investigated under the Sedition Act.

Communication & Multimedia Act 1998

The act controls and monitors all activities and services including broadcasting, telecommunication, online servicing.

A person who, intentionally discloses, or attempts to disclose, to any other person about the contents of any communications information.

A person who commit with the act shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or both.

Related case:

Noor Haslina Abdullah and Celcom Axiata Bhd.

Personal Data Protection Act

CASE:

Public Relations in New Media and Technology

The Internet has drastically changed the way professionals and companies alike are performing public relations.

The Internet has made it easier to do PR, but it's also increased the responsibilities that a company has. While it is easier to release information, get in touch with the public, and address crises.

There is an increased responsibility because the public knows how easy it is, with that ease comes a sort of expected response.

If a crisis is underway, company need to be responsive, available, and accountable because it is so easy to be these things online.

Technology transform Public Relations

Monitor the web

With free tools like Google Analytics, Alerts, and keyword searches, it's easier than ever to see what's being said about you and your company.

Know that it is vital to your company's success that you monitor that talk and that you respond when necessary. As stated above, the ease of replying to someone's blog or Tweet can work against you if you fail to respond.

Get involved

Things like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc., have greatly changed the vehicles through which a company can get in touch with their customers, bloggers, and the media.

Companies are looking to expand their social media reach, and they can do so on their own using the above tools.

Blogging, Tweeting, and using tools like Facebook can get you connected, it just takes time.

 Keep up-to-date with changes

Smart companies are already using social media and are staying up-to-date with other new tools. Things like Foursquare can be the new frontier for companies to explore.

PR and marketing are merging because of the Internet, but there is still so much that can be done through PR that marketing cannot do.

For example, a Twitter update can reach thousands of users in an instant, and beyond that, those users can re-tweet that update to reach even more users.

It is important to monitor the web for what's being said about your company as well as changes in the online world, your industry, and Internet tools.

Use as many tools as you're able

The more areas you are present and participating in, the better.

Companies can create pages, accounts, and groups in almost all of the larger social networking sites: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

Moreover, you can update information about yourself to sites like Digg, Technorati, and StumbledUpon to increase your content's reach.

Devote time and resources to social media

Companies that have been surveyed recently about their social media use and future goals have stated that they hope to devote more resources to social media and that they hope to use the tools more since they've only since dabbled in the tools' features.

Though it may take time, social media is relatively cheap to use; it really depends on how you value you and your company's time.

The benefits of using social media can certainly help to outweigh the costs.

BLOGGER CASE

Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin,  59 became the first blogger to be charged under the Sedition Act, making it a test case. He was born in Surrey, England, September 27, 1950. He is a Malaysian editor known for running the Malaysia Today website and publishing a series of commentary articles on Malaysian politics in the website.

CONTROVERSIES

Muhammad Taib

July 23, 2007 - Tan Sri Muhammad Taib, UMNO's Information Chief, lodged a police report against Malaysia Today at 12.57 p.m. at the Tun H.S. Lee police station, under Section 121 (B) and Section 123 of the Penal Code, Section 4 of the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 263 and Section 266 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, for a July 11 blog entry on the website deemed to contain writing that insult the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, degrade Islam and incite hatred and violence between local ethnic groups.

Raja Petra Kamarudin responded by releasing an article on Malaysia Today, lashing back on Taib with allegations of hypocrisy and corruption.

Universiti Utara Malaysia

Raja Petra made headlines in end March 2008 when a Malaysian High Court ordered him in and the group chief editor and editor of PKR’s organ Suara Keadilan to pay a total of RM7 million to Universiti Utara Malaysia and its vice-chancellor Tan Sri Dr Nordin Kardi for libel.

Altantuya Shaariibuu

(Article: Murder of Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa)

Accusation of Najib Abdul Razak's involvement

Raja Petra was charged on May 6, 2008 with sedition for allegedly implying that the Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was involved in the sensational killing of a young Mongolian woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Raja Petra was taken to a detention center after he refused to post the bail of RM 5,000.

The court set the trial for October 6, 2008. If convicted, he faces up to 3 years in prison.

Statutory declaration

In a statutory declaration on June 18, 2008, Raja Petra accused Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor (the wife of Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak) of being one of three individuals who were present at the crime scene when Altantuya Shaariibuu was murdered on October 19, 2006

Criminal Defamation Trial

On July 16, 2008 the Malaysian police have obtained a warrant of arrest against Raja Petra for criminal defamation.

This is due to his statutory declaration connecting Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, saying she was present when Mongolian national Altantunya Shaariibuu’s body was blown up.

July 17, Raja Petra was charged with three counts of criminal intimidation over his statutory declaration on the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu.

He is alleged to have defamed Deputy Prime Minister's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor by making a libellous statement in the declaration which he affirmed on June 18 when he knew that it would tarnish her good name.

However ,he fled the country after two arrest warrants were issued against him for failing to attend court for his sedition trial in April and May last year and surfaced last month in London.

CONCLUSION

New Media is critical in today's society because the mass media performs a number of essential functions in our lives such as

- It serves an information or surveillance function.

- It serve an agenda-setting and interpretation function.

- It help us create and maintain connections with various groups in society.

—  Society and media in Malaysia still tied with the regulations. There are still guidelines and rules that they need to follow. The needs to emphasized on ethics and regulations are important these day. It has the right to rule and govern the harmonious in Malaysia..

—  REFERENCES:

—  Ethics on the Web: An Annotated Bibliography of Legal Ethics Material on the Internet; Dickerson, A. Darby

—  Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and Controversies (2003), Louis Alvin Day.

—  Media di Malaysia (1983), Mansor Ahmad Saman, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia Kuala Lumpur

—  Media impact,an introduction to mass media, Shirley Biagi, California State University, Sacramento.

—  The New Mass Media (2002), Christopher Harper, Houghton Mifflin Company


 source: asiandigitalcultures & ethicsinaction

Journal Review 9: The Top Mistakes of Social Media Marketing!

by: Nurshayyidah Syuhadaa bt Che Harun

The importance of utilizing traditional public relations tools such as prints, radio, TV mentions- is to keep our business name circulating in marketplace. However, there is a new phenomenon - divergence of new media that called Social Media Marketing (SMM). The SMM utilize the various social networking sites to enforce your brand and market your business. 

According to USA Today reports the time spent on this site growing three times faster than the overall Internet rate. More than two third of the world online population now visits social networking and blogging sites. The irony here is that when this new phenomenon combined the traditional public relations efforts can help penetrate the marketplace with desired message as quicker as and easier than before.

However, with all these kinds of efforts the new media also faces the circumstances when we as human being neglected the details of what we should do and don’t online. For businesses to has or have SMM, the first thing is to aware of the top mistakes that business can make with this public relations tool for getting the biggest return for your marketing investment.

MISTAKES #1 |Having more than 1 face on the Internet

When engaging with SMM, the goal is to build the image across the Internet. However, you have to find the appropriate place on the internet where you can frame your credible image. Example, if you have multiple Facebook account, the personal one has to be hidden and by invitation only. If you mix business and personal in one mixture, you can ruin your credibility. It is inappropriate to post your family members photos in your Facebook business account and vice versa.

MISTAKES #2 | Collecting Friends

SMM is to create business buzz by getting the same message out over and over, to gain more business opportunity. A social networking site is about making friends. When collecting friends and contacts, supposedly to be an opening door or gateway to exchange information and building relationship. It is a relationship of marketing in 21^st century; you are building a relationship online rather than over coffee tables.

MISTAKES #3 | Putting out the wrong messages.

For business network, it is needed for us to put out messages that useful to our readers. It is about giving valuable tips or advices so that people who read your post want to repost it back in their account. That is how viral marketing spread. Keyword here is to keep the message consistent because people will subscribe to your feeds if they think your post full of information and it newsworthiness. Those message and feeds will tell tour audience of your availability and also it is an opportunity to grab a potential buyer and investor for the business. Ensure to post message very occasionally and frequently as it is also your efforts to prove credibility.

MISTAKES #4 | Posting inappropriate information

Be sensible not to post anything online that will affect your conservative audience, nor by you or others that have the authority on the SMM account online. We never know that something would end up just because of simple inappropriate information posting because it is virus like to spread faster in the Internet.

MISTAKE #5 | Assuming that it is better to have your message in only one place on the Internet

In SMM, the more places you can paste your message to appear simultaneously, the more effective your message will be. You are now creating an environment where people can see your message everywhere. The results, you now have their attention and have the opportunity to sell your product, services, ideas and vision for the next.

The marketplace is forever changing and we have to evolve, follow it as everyone else. Our business name has to be everywhere; in prints ad, in TV, radio and even in social networking sites. The more you can get your name and message circulate in the various media, the higher your chances for clients and potential clients to see your credible growing business and ultimately would raise your return of investment.

source: Pam Lontos; Maurice Ramirez; Article from Agency Sales Magazine; September- October 2009