Chow Kum Hor (NST- 17 June, 2005, pg. 18) wrote about the blog and said that in Malaysia, blogs are chiselling their way into the strongholds of newspapers and television. Is this true .. I think we are getting there, and the blog will be more powerful and penetrative than any other media. This is because the owner is the sole controller. There is no webmaster, you are the master.
What started as a personal account of events (some call it journal, some diary), it has developed into the cross-section of society, addressing issues in education, politics, business, dating and of course, adult content. It is not meant to be a threat to the current media, it has its own portfolios such as the text, audio and video as well as animation and networking.
But as always, we miss the point. The blog is not meant to replace traditional media. If anything is better than traditional media by the provision of insight and indepth (credible) information and commentaries of a persons's favourite areas of expertise. If credibility is the question, we can question almost EVERYTHING on the net including educational sites and foreign media who can easily manipulate news and portray only what they want us to see. Don't be naive, please.
I was in Yogjakarta a few years back and actually saw for myself the 'portion' of the city where rioting and burning supposedly took place as seen on an International News provider. I assure you it looked as though the whole district was on fire in the news when it was no more that one shoplot and nothing else. The locals just said, 'ngak ada apa-apa di sini Pak, aman aja ...' (there was nothing here Pak, all very peaceful). What we see is what they want us to see. If you were to live in the USA, say, it is to no surprise that the citizens of the US know absolutely nothing about the outside world and they themselves have too many channels and they themselves don't show much about anybody else. Remember the LA Olympic Games, for example??
Again, we keep getting the wrong idea as far as the blog is concerned. The article also mentioned that bloggers are real people with real identities where authorities can come knocking on their door when something goes wrong. Aiyaaa .. guess this is why somethings do go wrong in certain areas and anti-government sentiment in certain towns (example) - the authorities are not going there!!. But then again, how are they going to go there - they don't know where to go!!!
| I also found this clip about the blog that was published in Businessweek, stating that, as you can read Blogs will change your business. Let's keep the blog well away from lies and malice online. There would be no reason to do that. We can make the blog a credible source. We can use this to inculcate the young to write and we can check their writing and story at the same time.
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Read my entry on May 11. The blog is not for people who want to hide. The blog is the VOICE of an invidual (call it personal rants, if you want), the opinion of one, and you have the priviledge to hear that voice through the blog. Respect one's opinion. We can openly communicate, no need to come at the doorstep. As much as one can openly post, one can openly be talked to. We have now the capability to hear the voice of anyone in the world!! The voice will still be there in the kampung, coffee stalls ,coffee gardens, mosques, houses and so on. This mentality of catching people is so backward. Aiyaa, tak tau lah ...
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