http://sam1985.blog.co.uk/

Keep writing~Keep sharing~

2008-01-13T21:25:22+01:00

Actually this blog is a part of my course module assessment and it was due already.
But I will still keep using it as I want to share my study abroad life to all of you.
cheers~~

finally, I finished 3000 words essay today as I went to bed in the morning for three days in a row....
and I just got 3 hours sleep today!!!

As English isn't my first language,
what I have to do is to pay double or even triple time to work for the assignments.
That's really depressing me sometimes.

Luckily, i can tough it out by myself.
Thank god.

No pain no gain.
I should treasure every chance to learn as much as I can while studying abroad in England is not available to everyone because the tuition fee as well as the living cost is so high compare to my mother country...

Just enjoy every moment when i'm still staying here.

Comments

Thanks for this new medium!

2008-01-08T01:36:55+01:00

Recently me and my cousin are "addicted" to the Internet.
She 's watching the popular U.S. TV drama which doesn't broadcast in Dublin TV channel.
"GossipGirl"

And me, I'm watching the lastest Taiwan TV drama from YouTube.
"They Kiss Again"

I think that's an important contribution of the Internet while we can watch most of the popular TV programs which are produced in different countries from the web and it doesn't matter where we are.
Take an example of "They Kiss again" TV drama, it is broadcasted in a Taiwan local TV channel every Sunday and I can watch the lastest episode from YouTube every Monday or Tuesday (just one or two days after). Besides, I can watch it at anytime I want by just a click away. It's even more flexible than TV broadcast isn't it?
However, it's quality may be one of the disadvantages of the Internet. It would be perfect if the video quality can be improved as same as the TV quality.

Here's "They Kiss Again" season 1 (which is called It Started With a Kiss)
episode 1 (part 1/5) with English subtitle as well~~~
have a look if you're interested in it.
P.S. should be more suitable for girls because it's a love story~

Comments

Online Journalism VS Newspaper? Part 3

2008-01-07T04:13:22+01:00

In conclusion, the global reach and instant communication provided by the Internet has brought countless benefits to journalists and the users as well. However, the traditional newspaper still has its own role to survive. Due to the reporting format and content are still different between Internet news and newspapers, readers use the two products in very different ways, dipping into the web version to get updates on breaking stories and buying printed paper at the end.It seems that the survival of newspaper and print media would not be threaten by the Internet news in a short time, both Internet news and newspaper can be co-exist, but the long term consequences are still uncertain under the faster and faster development of technology. Before, newspaper is the first source to provide news, but it’s role has changed as the Internet and the broadcast media become the primary provider of news. Therefore, the newspaper should evolve further for analysis, comment and detail in order to make it different with the Internet news in order to led newspaper to a continued success. Nevertheless, if we quit seeing all other media as enemies and began to see all of them as foundation, connector and working with each other, I think it is the best for the media and communication world.

References:

Andrew, B. (2001). Broadcast Journalism. Focal Press, ( pp. 403-407.)

Carole, H., Emma, H., Gillian, M., Dave, W. (2006). An Introduction to Journalism. Sage Publications, (pp.8-12, 21-26)

Claudette, GA. (2004). Reporting and Producing For Digital Media. Black Publishing, (pp. 61-79, 85-102)

James, GS. (2004). Web Journalism. Pearson Education, Inc., (pp.5-13)

Mark, D. (2001) Online Journalism: Modelling the First Generation of News Media on The World Wide Web, from http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_10/deuze/index.html

Robert, G., Robert, R. (2001) What Next? Transaction Publishers, (pp.9-15, 71-80)

Tanjev, H. (last updated Sept, 1999). Interactive options in Online Journalism: A Content Analysis Of 100 U.S. Newspapers, from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol5/issue1/schultz.html

Tony, H. (2005) Journalism Principles and Practice, (pp.141-149)

Comments

Online Journalism VS Newspaper? Part 2

2008-01-07T04:11:41+01:00

Firstly, the Internet provides the most updated news to the audience while the print media provides more detailed information about the news. Generally speaking, the version of the Internet news is not as details as the newspaper one. For example, the whole stories often do not exist for BBC news website unless they have already speared in print. In common with most news-based websites, stories on BBC tend to be shorter than those in newspapers. The news stories rarely take up more than ‘ two screens’ and they are almost all one sentence per par. The web journalists always break the news in very short sentences. This is related to the people who usually scan but don’t read the screen. In fact, people generally do not want to read long linear sections of material for enjoyment. Some readers may even print out the online material while reading from the computer screens is approximately 25 per sent slower than from paper. A significant number of readers scan the web pages rather then read them in details. Thus the web journalists should break the news in short in order to make audience more enjoy the story. It makes the information that Internet provides is shorter than the newspaper although the capacity of website is large.

Due to the shorter information that Internet news provides, the newspaper can provides a better quality journalism while it has more information about the stories thus more analysis to be included in the content. Internet news emphasizes on the immediacy, web journalists always put the information straight forward as soon as possible. On the other hand, the newspaper journalists may have more time to do analysis for the news so the quality of journalism would be definitely better.

Besides the quality of the news content, newspaper and print media are much more convenient to use than the web. While the broadsheet size newspaper is never going to be as good as either a book or glossy magazine, it is still much better than that of a computer, where the readers are typically sitting an arm’s length from their screens. Computer is too cumbersome despite the availability of portable computers and wireless connections. Newspapers and print media are more convenient then the web in this case. Also, not many people have the ‘ web habit’ since now, but people still read the newspaper as a daily habit. Reading news online is a difference experience to reading the newspaper. Scrolling down a computer screen to read a piece of text lacks the visceral pleasure associated with turning the pages of a broadsheet or a tabloid. It shows that people may be more enjoyable to read the news from newspaper rather than from the websites.

Meanwhile, some information from the Internet may be wrong because they may come from the anonymous source, which have not been collated yet. Compare to the newspaper, the information are filtered through the professional journalists. When writing a newspaper, journalists have to evolved the story and go into it few times in a day. It’s easier to make sure the credibility of the information than the web while Internet news always faces the immediately pressure thus the time for fact checking would be less...

Comments

Online Journalism VS Newspaper? Part 1

2008-01-07T03:57:15+01:00

While the Internet has taken an important role in the new media era, the debate between new and old media is increasely stronger as many people may concern whether Online Jounailsm may replace traditional newspaper one day. So, Does the Internet threaten the survival of the newspaper? If so, what challenges does the Internet pose to the traditional newspaper and print media?

Let me give a liitle introduction about online journalism first.
There is only a short history of online journalism but no consensus exists on when the online journalism started. Someone argues that it was started from 1952; someone said it was started from 1969 and others said that it was started from 1993. Nowadays, Internet news has come from obscurity to ubiquity. Different large media companies own their news website which varies elements to report news. Sound, images and video can add features to the news story. These can give the audience more of a sense of involvement in the news. There is some evidence that newspaper suffered a decline in sales as more people turn to the Internet for their news. Some people are worrying that many people get their news from net sources unconnected to newspapers. At the end, the traditional newspaper and print media may no longer to exist. In my point of view, Internet news may really pose some challenges to the circulation of some newspapers but I do believe that newspaper still has its space to survive.

The most obvious advantages that people may choose online news is that the Internet can deliver news immediately. Internet operates 24 hours updated news and the deadline of the Internet reporters comes every minute of the day. In a 24-hour information society, readers expect instant access to national and international news; local news providers are under pressure to deliver the same level of service. However, the daily or weekly news fix offered by regional dailies, evening and weeklies is no longer enough. The greatest advantage that online journalism offers is the elimination of the fixed news deadline while it can be updated as and when news breaks.

The other challenges that online journalism posed is the interactivity. For the traditional newspaper, it had offered the audience few direct opportunities for interactive communication. A well-known means for feedback in print media is the Letters to the Editor section. Readers may write letter as a reaction to the media. Meanwhile, the Internet becomes a new medium that could extend interactive options in journalism. The biggest difference that the online news site offers is that users can take part in an online discussion about the news by using different techniques such as instant polls, e-mail, forums, bulletin boards, discussion groups and online chats with reporters or editors, and to see what other people think about the same news and post their own views at the same time. These channels can be immediate and active and they will become an increasingly important part for the online journalism development.

Moreover, a new relationship between journalist and reader is also built under the interactivity environment that is offered by the websites. While readers take part into the online news forum and began responding not only with opinions but also with information, they are likely to become sources of information and lead the journalist to new inquiries and stories. They could also provide valuable perspective to journalists and offering points of view that journalists would not hear in talking with the official sources. Although some of the material may be too subjective or self-indulgent, these still are a useful way of tapping into users’ needs and interests. This movement is called civic journalism, which could be taken to a new level to the web and it takes an advantage over the traditional one-way journalism. It also led the journalist to a closer step to their audience while they have become users as well as providers.

On the other hand, the hypertextuality led the audience access a text in a way that suits their own need and interests. These storyboards are linked to each other by means of hypertext. It allows the ideas to be linked into a larger, more contextual whole and at the same time journalists can express ideas without having to stick by the often constricting need to place them in a specific order. More importantly, audience can jump from one part to another of the story or even to a completely different story through the hyperlinks. How and what they consume becomes driven by the audience rather than the news provider.

Furthermore, the multimediality of online journalism also appeals to the audience. The Internet is evolving means the quality and speed of watching video or listening to audio have vastly improved. For instance, ABC debuted a 24-hour news service available only to the Internet users in spring 2003, which is called ABC News Live, it used live feeds of breaking news with some anchored, news summaries and even rebroadcasts the ABC News programmes. News on the Internet combines print with audio and video elements so it is far more flexible than the print media. The multimediality gives audience more a sense of involvement in the news.

All above are the reasons why Internet news becomes more and more popular while its immediacy, interactivity, hypertextuality and the multimediality really take great benefits for reporting news. It is no doubt that the traditional newspaper and print media may face the challenges by the Internet news. However, Internet news may not challenge the survival of print media in short. Until now, the traditional newspaper and the Internet news take different roles in news reporting; people may still use them in two very different ways...

Comments

Lovely rabit

2008-01-04T04:41:34+01:00

Exactly represent my mood's changes....
New school semester:

At the first week:

At the second week:

Before the mid-term test:

During the mid-term test:

After the mid-term test:

Before the final exam:

Once know the final exam schedule:

7 days before final exam:

6 days before final exam:

5 days before final exam:

4 days before final exam:

3 days before final exam:

2 days before final exam:

1 day before final exam:

A night before final exam:

1 hour before final exam:

During the final exam:

Once walk out from the exam hall:

After the final exam, during the holiday:

So Cute~~!!!
Anyway,
Five months to end my school life!!!
I just can't believe time goes such fast!!!!

Comments

Happy New Year~~~

2008-01-04T04:09:11+01:00

Happy New Year everybody~~~~
I'm in Ireland now as my auntie's family is living here.
There was a house party at our home in the new year eve.
It's brilliant because this's my first time to feel the Drinking Culture in Ireland!!
My god... Just two big glass of cocktails made me to vomit!!!!
Actually the main reason was that I didn't eat enything before I drank.
Oh well...

It's a special experience anyway because I never like that while I was in Hong Kong.
Drinking seems not a popular culture and it is shamed and embarassing for girls to get pissed in Chinese culture.
Actually I've heard about the drinking culture in the UK and Ireland long time ago.
This time, not just heard about it but feel it.

Just,
whatever.
I'm not dare to drink so much next time (although it's not much to Irish)

crazy drinking night...

finally...I was hung over for the whole day in the new year day....

Comments

This week, drawing the line.

2007-12-06T18:00:46+01:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A28060823

webslinky: art online
This week, drawing the line.

It didn take long for the web to become a place where the artistically inclined can flourish ?where those blessed in the ways of putting stylus to touchpad can share their achievements and find support. Long-running amateur art community DeviantART was doing social networking for teenagers with lternative?tastes long before MySpace Tom invented the concept of having friends, though no-one thought of it like that at the time. Like spiritual relation LiveJournal, though once sneered at in some quarters, it has matured into a supportive, creative institution that serves its passionate users very well.

These days budding illustrators have many more platforms to choose from for sharing their works, from general social networking sites to newcomer communities like Amateur Illustrator, which is likely to have broader appeal than DeviantART.

The web has also created new opportunities for more experienced up-and-coming artists like Jon Burgerman and Ian Stevenson who can now directly sell their work via their websites, while experimenting with interactivity and multimedia at relatively low cost.

But you don even need to have achieved underground notoriety to find an audience for your art, so long as it good enough. For instance you could submit a design to the increasingly popular Chicago-based tailers?Threadless - a cross between a shop, a gallery and a community. If the community votes for your design, it could be printed onto clothing which is sold on the site - and then modelled by people who bought it.

Meanwhile Britain Moo and Click For Art both offer comparatively low-cost printing and distribution services for budding artists, with Moo specialising in the very small (think cards and stickers) and Click For Art offering traditional prints for your wall.

As technologies and art converge online, so the possibilities for artistic expression increase in evermore unexpected ways. For instance, the dangerously compelling Flash oy?Line Rider, which allows the user to draw on the screen and then watch as a little man on a bike drives along the lines, has bizarrely become a YouTube phenomenon: users hand-draw intricate racks?and record the little man racing along them in time to music. Some of the tracks are really quite incredible.

Comments

Greys Matter - new technology helps older people

2007-12-06T17:18:16+01:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/looknorthnecumbria/content/articles/2007/09/18/ln_grey_matters_feature.shtml

Brilliant design isn't it~

Greys Matter - new technology helps older people
Look North's Colin Briggs has been investigating a number of areas where technology and new thinking is either making, or about to make, a real difference to people's lives.
How many times have you heard it - sixty is the new forty; buzz words like Silver Surfers; and marketing catchphrases like Greys Matter?

The truth is that thanks to better diet and modern medicine, more of us are living longer, healthier lives. Sounds great doesn't it? But there's always a downside - some of us are going to need a little bit of help.

The Look North special report series Greys Matter is taking a look at how new ideas are either making, or are about to make, a real difference.

And because the market is growing, the cost of the technology needed is tumbling.

Scientists at Newcastle University have developed a test-bed kitchen which could tell us when we're out of something, or just running low. It could even display recipes using a screen.

Not only that, the same kitchen will tell us when we've left the tap running, the kettle on or, possibly, alert a carer should we need assistance.

Look North in the kitchen of the future >
Audio and Video links on this page require Realplayer

On the mobility front you'll be relieved to know there's a price war looming on stairlift technology which will enable more of us to stay at home without spending a fortune.

We also examine a "wheelchair in a pod" idea which would provide help for people who only need a wheelchair occasionally.

Look North's report on staying mobile in old age >
Audio and Video links on this page require Realplayer

And in a third piece we look at a new trend in housing - specialised apartment blocks for the over 55s only.

When the children leave home, increasing numbers of parents are selling up, downsizing and enjoying life with the money left over.

One couple who live in an over-55s development >
Audio and Video links on this page require Realplayer

Far from being forgotten these days, greys really do matter. And as more of us get older, greys will matter even more.

Comments

Funny Testing~~ Human Brain~ What a marvelous organ!!!

2007-10-26T14:51:29+02:00

Check it out~
do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22492511-5005375,00.html

At the beginning I saw she's turning clockwise but after 2-3 minutes,
she turned to anti- clockwise!!!
so funny isn't it~~~~

Comments

what a gorgeous trip!!!

2007-10-17T14:14:12+02:00

Just read the website talking about Jestmond Dene and deciced to go there yesterday with friends.
It's really amazing!!!!
We took lots picture there such as the little waterfall, an old mill...etc.
Here's the pictures that I took.

It's cool isn't it???

Actually we are the new comers of Newcastle and we didn't know this place well.
(and this is the first time I came to the UK!!)
Luckily we can find much information from the internet thus we knew more about the place and knew how to get there as well.
The website is well developed and the information is so sufficient.
http://www.jesmonddene.org.uk/

But I counld't take the pictures as great as those in the website...
May be it's becasue of the quality of the camera...
Or I just don't know how to use any software to adjust the pictures' quality..
well....technology is really powerful to make things to be more good looking or attractive.

Although I don't have chance to make my real body to be perfect (because it's so ecpensive!), I will learn how to use softwares to adjust the photo thus i can be more good looking in the photos at least~~~~heehee...
However, i'm a computer idiot definitely.....

Whatever, you can just keep on to see the natural and original side of the things from the pictures that I took.
Natural sometimes is good isn't it?
First time when I sent the Jesmond Dene website to my friend.
She said: "oh it's unbelievable!!! The pictures like fake!!!"
See.

There's a proverbial saying in Chinese society :
" Natural is beauty"

More pictures are in the folder~ cheerio~

Comments

Bad luck. really bad luck.

2007-10-11T22:35:41+02:00

Just feel like gonna be collapsed becasue of the student visa's problem.
I just ran through many departments in these two days but still feeling helpless.
lonely.
I miss home...

Comments