1.) “The year in issues: Role of the blog” BBC News. 29th December 2004. (retrieved
on) 15th March 2011.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4092611.stm
A recent research which was held by Nielsen Company has found out that there were already over 156 million public blogs in existence. As there are more and more people writing blogs these days, it seems that writing blogs is just as usual and simple as writing a piece of diary. However, the presence of blog has not only changed the way how we expressive ourselves towards different issues but also provided us an alternative medium to share our views. The writer in this article believed that blogs have become particularly prominent in countries where there are few outlets for political expression. That is really true for the people for instance in China. They cannot afford to buy any printing presses or launch any press conferences in order to voice out their political opinion. Yet, through blogging, everyone’s voice could be shared by each other. Thus, the writer also quoted words from the famous Baghada blogger, Salam Pax – “Blogs provide food for thought not just for reader within their own country, but a gateway into their world for foreigners.”
2.) Cairo, W. Lindsay. “Why Egypt is cracking down on bloggers?” TIME magazine.
1st June 2006. (retrieved on) 15th March 2011.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1199896,00.html
It seems that there is nothing wrong to blog our personal opinion on our personal website. However, it is not always true. Even though it is posted on the internet, you are supposed to take your own responsibility. In some countries, you might need to pay a big price on what you have written. Thus, in response to the question, blogging is radical in its potential. Here comes to an example which was printed on TIME magazine, the writer has reported a case in Egypt. An award-winning Egyptian blogger - Alaa Abdel Fatah, was arrested at an anti-regime in downtown Cairo because of his drastic opinion on the government. Besides, there was a tendency that more activists are now increasingly using the blog to mobilize and protest against the regime. Hence, they have become the targets for arrest and abuse by the police because of the online activism. Another blogger activist Mohammad who was also arrested at the protest said the police had cruelly beat and assaulted him. Nonetheless, he mentioned that he had developed a taste for freedom of speech as there was still a core group of activists who would continue the blog because they all believed the blog really helped to raise the awareness among the people. Thus, he said that there was nothing to fear anymore and would not give up so easily.
3.) “How governments censor the web?” BBC News. 22nd March 2007. (retrieved on)
16th March 2011.
From the previous article, it is believed that different governments have been starting to put their eyes on the bloggers particularly to those political activists’ bloggers as they have recognize the potential influence of the internet. The writer in this article stated that many of the countries have already prioritized their work on controlling what people can and cannot see on the internet. Thus, internet censorship is now spreading all over the world. As information is power, being able to access to information can be threatening to the country rulers. And the ways that different countries have tried to deal with it are various. Here are some of the examples. In North Korea, only selected government officials can get access to the internet. However, the connections are just rented from China as it does not even have its own national net. In Burma, computers in internet cafes automatically take a screen capture every five minutes to monitor what users are viewing. In China, it has one of the most sophisticated and ambitious internet censorship programmes. An enormous sum of money have been spent on building the Great Firewall of China and around 30,000 internet police were hired to filter sites between China and the rest of the world. Regardless of the risks, there are nearly 20 million bloggers in China when compare with just 2,000 in 2002. Just as the same as the case in Egypt, those who spread their anti-government opinion would probably be put into jail. Not only in China and Egypt, a report which was released by RSF also stated that bloggers in Iran, Libya, the Maldives, Syria and Vietnam have also been jailed. In consequence, bloggers have a real power and influence over politics.
4.) Cullen, Lisa. “More thoughts on cooperate blogging” BBC News. 7th February 2007. (retrieved on) 16th March 2011.
http://workinprogress.blogs.time.com/2007/02/07/more_thoughts_on_corporate_blo/
Blogging about your company can be dangerous. As mentioned before, not only for the political activists’ blog, but actually all bloggers need to take their own responsibility on what they have written on their blog. It is because people might lose their job because of what they blog. The writer of this article has cited two cases. Mark Jen, a former Google employee, who wrote critical comments about his company and writing about Google future projects. Since then, he lost his job. Another former Google employee - Alas, also being sacked because of what he has written on his blog. However, the reasons for him to start a blog were simply for keeping in touch with his friends and family, and to record his daily work. As he has undermined the power of blogs, he didn’t realize that his company would read his blog. It was only eleven days after he started his blog, he was fired. Thus, the writer has criticized that although the company is just trying to guard trade secrets and intellectual property, whether it is appropriate to corporate spying is still controversial.
5.) O’Reilly, Tim. “Blogger’s code of conduct” Oreilly radar. 11th April 2007. (retrieved on) 15th March,2011.
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/04/code-of-conduct.html
As the author thinks that bloggers should have some code of conduct around what is acceptable behavior, he has proposed some codes for the bloggers to follow. Besides, he also hopes that it will not come through any kinds of regulation yet by self-regulation. Here are the seven ideas.
1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.
2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
4. Ignore the trolls.
5. Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.
6. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.
7. Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person.
Actually,I am wondering why the author asks us not to say anything online that you wouldn’t say in person. Is it related to the online identity and offline identity? Should we need to have the same online and offline identity? As people now addicted to blogging, it seems that we are now becoming a cyborg. It is hard to clarify or determine who you really are as it blurs the boundary of real and unreal. Hence, blogging might transform an individual’s identity and thus codes are formed for bloggers to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment