We seek knowledge

 By Mohd Azri Nor Azmi

The media as it is control by a certain organizations or individual it will help we grow as an active seeker for knowledge. Capitalism is a form of government economic system in which investment in and ownership of themeans of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is madeand maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned meansof wealth that determines on what form of information is disperse to the public. For example when we know such media is slanted towards one side we will seek alternative information from other sources to get a more clear view on what the issue is about. The news of Bersih rallies for example it when it surface through Facebook, twitter, newspaper and other medias it made us wonder the truth behind it. The society begins to shift from only receiving whatever the media throws at you  toward the questioning phase as we now want to know more and not only from one point of view. If the media is prone on one side then we will start the question its truth and seeks for transparency. This helps other kinds of media to grow as well. For example if we are not satisfied with the news on Utusan newspaper we can seek the other point of view from other newspaper such as New Strait Times, The Star and other newspaper that we think can provide more on what we want to know.

The media’s ability to grow and develop is positively link to media acquisitions. From one point of view it might seem like everything is the same but the blogs and other social networks began to evolve to provide information thus making an evolution of information circulation possible in the present times. The growths of blogging, twittering, Face-booking are also indirect influence by the media acquisition itself. In Malaysia for example, people tend to get information from twitter, sharing it on Facebook and then confirming it on blogs.

In the book “MASS MEDIA FLOW AND DIFFERENTIAL GROWTH IN KNOWLEDGE” written by Philip J. Tichenor, he said that media acquisition actually stimulates the information cycle in the media. It acts as a new push for other media to get recognized and sought after if they are unsatisfied with the current media. He then claimed that the process increase the numbers of active persons have gaining extra knowledge. This shows that the action of acquiring one media will make the public who depends on the media to be more critical and no longer believe one source and instead branch out and seek for balance in both sides of the story.

According to Janis E. Jacobs when a study or research focus on the popular press, the media are believed to have a strong influence on public opinions and makes the people seek external information to clarify any ambiguity that they felt when exposed to the information. This alone makes the public think more and become an informative society. The positive attributes of media acquisitions actually force the public to be more intellectual and included with as the knowledgeable society. Nowadays information is more precious than gold. The more we know the more we will be look up upon. Power lies in knowledge and with the effort to seek other information due to the media acquisition it makes us more favourable due to our knowledge on both sides of the story.

“The intellective dyad member effectively shares factual information that each individual independently held”. This is one of the supporting roles that show that the laws that binds the media and acts as the gatekeepers make bloggers, journalist and opinion leaders more creative in terms of transmitting the information towards their intended public. The limitations to the media practitioners in Malaysia due to the laws and regulations does exist however there are ways to penetrate the gatekeeping loopholes by resorting to new media.  Clarifying limitations provide extensions to demonstrating how variations in the processes of disseminating information. Communication media actsas mediators and change the whole style of informing the public’s with many kinds of variations to supplement the voids in information due to the strict rules and regulations of the media.

  

 Reference

The Effects of Media and Task on User Performance: A Test of the Task-Media Fit Hypothesis

Brian E. Mennecke, Joseph S. Valacich and Bradley C. Wheeler published in year 2000

MASS MEDIA FLOW AND DIFFERENTIAL GROWTH IN KNOWLEDGE

P. J. TICHENOR, G. A. DONOHUE and C. N. OLIEN published in the year 2012 pg 16

http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/2/159.short

Gender Differences in Math Ability: The Impact of Media Reports on Parents

JANIS E. JACOBS and JACQUELYNNE S. ECCLES published on 1985

The Emerging of Social Media

Social media has had a staggering impact on the practice of public relations since the first weblogs, or blogs, appeared more than a dozen years ago. This has continued and increased as social media developed into a number of different forms including text, images, audio and video through the development of forums, message boards, photo sharing, podcasts RSS (really simple syndication), search engine marketing, video sharing, Wikis, social networks, professional networks and micro-blogging sites.

Recent research (Tancer, 2008) says social media have overtaken pornography as the number one use of the Internet. According to the International Association of Business Communicators (Young, 2009) more than half of all Internet users have joined a social network, social networks have become the number one platform for creating and sharing content and nearly 75 percent of all Internet users have read a blog.

Even though social media are changing how people and organizations communicate, it still is difficult to define exactly what social media are. In some circles what most people call social media are referred to by others as “consumer-generated media” or as “user-generated content.” The Pew Research Center (2008) for the first time in 2008 noted more people were getting their news online than from traditional mass media. However, most blend online and traditional sources and the Pew study also points out more young people than ever before are reading online versions of traditional news media.

Breakenridge (2009) believes powerful new social media tools offer unprecedented new opportunities in a day when most traditional methods of communication will not reach many audiences; much less convince them to do anything.

Nurul Amirah Bt Abdul Halim

2011437098

The Power of New Media: Sharing Experiences as an Online Writer

Online entertainment portal is an alternative to update yourself with latest gossip and news on your favorite celebrity. I was lucky to have a chance working as a writer, reporter as well as TV host for Malaysia’s hottest entertainment and lifestyle portal, GUA.com. GUA.com served as one of the major online portal that offers lots of entertainment and fashion content.

My job scope not only covers on entertainment side, but also fashion and lifestyle. The most important thing for you to attract people visiting your online portal would be your fastest updates on certain issues. Do you remember the Erykah Badu’s incident of her concert being cancelled by the government due to the controversial promotional photo published by The Star? I was there at the press conference and I have to update my editor the news on that particular time. In fact, GUA.com is the first online portal that published full news and coverage on that issue.

Article written by me on the Erykah Badu’s issue.

The needs for me to write and update the issue as soon as possible is very important because we have to compete with other entertainment portals such as Murai.com and Rotikaya.com. In online portal’s business, the early bird would get the biggest worm. High page views would attract more advertisers to come in and increase readership values from our loyal and new readers.

In this entertainment style of writing, it requires us to have very catchy and sensational headline to attract people to continue reading our articles. The use of bombastic words would give greater impact to the audience.

I’ve been written fashion article as well. To know who is your potential readers would help you in creating the mood and appeal to the article itself. You need lots of visual content if the article is talking on fashion. Last article I wrote on MimpiKita’s Raya collection was a major hit. Highest page views of the month with more people sharing it on social networking site such as Facebook and Twitter, it proves the power of new media as a marketing tool as well.

To talk about the power of social media would be a never ending story. As a conclusion, it is important for us as a PR practitioner to know how to use new media at a right time, for a right purpose. 

Defining The Real Function of New Media : Gossip VS News

As we all know, it is easy to get access to the information nowadays with the advancement of technologies. In just a minute, millions of content can be uploaded on the internet. Using various search engines such as Google and Yahoo, people have more choice than anybody else. This has contribute to the fact of emerging new group of reporters naming themselves; citizen journalist.

The interpretation of which citizen journalists might be different for different people. Citizen journalists give good opportunity for anybody to report, write or tell people what they feel about an issue. An accident that just happened in Federal Highway could go viral by just only one post on Twitter, enough to create chaos to the whole Twitter environment.

Citizen journalist not only able to give the fastest updates but also have high tendency to write on something which is not true. Gossip is a part of citizen journalist’s job. By just stating a controversial statement about a celebrity or politician, these highly influenced figures would have his or her reputation jeopardized by at least 140 characters. (If you get what I mean)

That is why in using new media and publishing any online content, it is important to verify every single information that you have. Validity of news would ensure good reputation of your organization. You don’t want people to perceive you as liar or spinner or any other words that could bring your organization’s image down.

Nobody can deny the fact that new media were our source of news too. In last Tsunami’s tragedy in Japan, new media plays a vital role in creating buzz as well helping spreading alerts among the people nearby. This positive side of new media in disseminating information should be fully utilized especially in our public relations field.

PR practitioners nowadays need to be IT savvy. Knowing how to handle and interact with your various publics using social media is a crucial part of serving your main task as a PR practitioner. As the idiom says, ‘Tepuk Dada Tanya Selera’ the choice is yours. You don’t want to stay back from all these technologies in order to not only place yourself but the most important thing is the image of your organization into a better place through the perspectives of your audience’s eyes.

Nurdhiya’aizat Bin Othman

2011646018

Social Media Cause Divorce

Over the last twenty years, communication between people has gone from being relatively private (by letter or phone call) to being very public (such as via Facebook and Twitter). 

Depending on the settings of a person’s Twitter or Facebook account, their online comments could be viewed by all their online friends, or very possibly, viewed by anyone on the internet. 

Therefore, whilst people update their statuses, thoughts and feelings online every day, they are potentially living out their lives in a very public manner. By doing all that, it may lead to the negative impact and one of them, it will ruin the relationship between married couple.

Five factors may lead to divorce:

Too Much Time Social Networking

Spending too much time on social networking sites can have a negative impact on a relationship. Just like sitting in front of the television watching football all day, letting social networking take over your life can infuriate your spouse. It can lead to not spending time helping out around the house or time doing things together. This can all cause tension within a relationship.

Getting In Touch With People from The Past

Although in the main a positive, keeping in touch with people, or getting back in touch with people, you do not see very often can have unforeseen negative consequences. Through social media websites many have got back in touch with people from their past, and this can include people they were previously in a relationship with. This can cause obvious issues.

Encourages People to Flirt

It has been said that social networking encourages people to flirt more. As it is just written messages and not in person those doing it may not take it seriously, at least not to begin with. However, their husband or wife may not see it that way. And, of course, something that start off innocent can develop into something more, therefore affecting a marriage.

Finding Out About Affairs

Through social media sites, such as Facebook, people have found out about their partners affairs. It is harder to keep secrets as anyone you know can post anything they want, with all of their online "friends" seeing what has been written.

Things Being Taken Out Of Context

Things read on social media sites can be take out of context. This can lead to false accusations and a lack of trust in a relationship.

In a conclusion, social media is a technology that may cheer your day. However, we as a user, especially for marriage couple must use it carefully for not cause any trouble in life. 

By: Siti Farha Binti Yaacob

2011476412

New Media Advertising

Advertising is the communication relayed from companies to persuade an audience to purchase their products. This communication is usually through various forms of paid media -- TV and radio commercials, print ads, billboards and more recently, product placement. Ads are placed where advertisers believe they will reach the largest, most relevant audience. Commercial businesses use advertising to drive the consumption of their product, while non-profit organizations may place ads to raise awareness or encourage a change in behavior or perception (Marshable, 2005).

Nowadays, advertiser has gone into a different approach that is using new media as a new medium to advertise and promote. New media is convenient and also cost effective to be used. Thus many companies are using new media to promote and advertise their new product. New media enables the company to target their audiences.  New media is use as viral marketing strategies as the information is connecting and spreading. Facebook, twitter, istagram and thumblr are some of the example of social networking sites that are being use for new media advertising.

 New media advertising employs new technology to reach customers, specifically on the Internet. While print, radio and television ads still exist, traditional advertising's influence has decreased, forcing the marketing industry to consider new media avenues. Consumers are increasingly on the Internet to communicate, receive news, and purchase products. A computer screen may be the most efficient way to reach these technologically savvy consumers.

By Wan Nur Izah Wan Noordin

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118005411110914183.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-new-media-advertising.htm

http://mashable.com/category/advertising/

5 Ways New Media Are Changing Politics

1.     News You Can Choose

With the Internet, YouTube, TiVo and cable TV, people are becoming selective viewers nowadays. People approach their news consumption the way they approach their iPod: You download the songs you like and listen to them when you want to listen to them. This behavior consequently affects the way reporters spend their days and the way campaigns communicator craft their message.

2.     Share This

Sharing is emerging as a way of distributing the news; tweets from the streets of Iran and from the rubble of Haiti have been retweeted hundreds of times in a new, virtual form of word of mouth. The White House’s Facebook page has nearly half a million fans; its Twitter feed has 1.7 million followers. In fact, President Obama was the first candidate to announce his White House run via Web video and his vice presidential pick by text message.

3.     Like It

By clicking on a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” icon, constituents can give politicians an instant read on opinions and positions posted on their Web pages, sort of a rudimentary straw poll that is faster, cheaper, but less accurate, than a high-priced telephone poll. By having a large number of ‘thumbs up’, it indicates that the politician has a strong support and could possibly win the election.

4.     Connect with Others

Last-minute organizational details for tea parties, town hall meetings, and even State of the Union-watching events get posted on Facebook pages and tweeted to supporters. It sure beats passing out fliers at subway stops, as political organizers used to do. Furthermore, utilizing new media is inexpensive and allows the politician to give their feedback immediately

5.     Donate Now

New media is a great tool to reach mass audience in order to raise funds for the political candidate. John McCain first harnessed the Internet for fundraising after his 2000 New Hampshire primary victory. In 2007, Ron Paul raised $4 million online in one day, despite being largely ignored by the media. Barack Obama raised hundreds of millions online over the course of his presidential run. Most politicians would rather have thousands of individual givers than a few big corporate donors, and the Internet makes that much easier.

By Siti Nuraishah Binti Md Pilus

2011477058

These sites are restricted except in Starbucks.

BY: NUR FAIZAH MOHD JOHARI JAYAKUMAR
      2011421396

Getting notified about restriction in opening a website normally is due to the block applied by certain places when you are using its Wifi but this time it is because you are not online in Starbucks. Caffeine behemoth Starbucks on Tuesday finally unveiled its revamped Web hub, a landing page that's only accessible from its in-store Wi-Fi networks in the U.S. Teaming with the likes of Yahoo (the main technology partner), The Wall Street Journal, GOOD, The New York Times, iTunes , LinkedIn, and Foursquare, Starbucks has packed the new site full of news both local and mainstream (including content that would normally be behind paywalls), free music download promos, local information like weather and bike trails, and movie trailers (Mc Carthy, 2010).

It is called the Starbucks Digital Network, or as senior vice president of digital ventures Adam Brotman called it "the digital version of the community corkboard." The content on the Starbucks Digital Network is carefully selected to be of interest to coffee-shop-goers: local information, downloadable music, quick bites of news and video

So, the next time you want to head out for a coffee, you can treat yourself to a good coffee and a good new media experience!

McCharty S. (2010). How Starbucks is trying to change the media. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20020129-36.html

PRINTED VERSION TO ONLINE VERSION

As today world is evolving into the new media era, it is seen that traditional media is taking its chances to move forward too. Printed forms of media such as newspapers and magazines are now adding a page on the internet to reach its readers. As the media realize people are now moving in a fast pace to perform their daily routines and hardly have sufficient time to buy a newspaper or a magazine. The printed media has found a way to reach their readers as well as potential readers through the internet by creating a website, blog or portal in spreading information. The public could always browse the news and relevant information through these created sites while they are busy at work.

            As each printed magazines cater various target audience, people could easily obtain information which they have interest in. Other than that, the public could give feedback to the media in a more comprehensive two-way communication through their sites. For example, CLEO magazine the printed version has set up a website called AskCleo (http://www.askcleo.com.my/) in order to provide their online readers information as well as a platform for them to give feedback or ask ask questions. This is seen very beneficial to us in order to save time and money. Each website design is creative and very interactive for the users. A friendly yet interesting website could also attract potential readers to browse through. 

By: Nurul Aini Noor Shah

2011837424

MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA – THE NEW HOT COUPLE IN TOWN

BY: RAZALEIGH ZAIN

Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites. Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short messages or “updates” with others. Facebook, in contrast is a full-blown social networking site that allows for sharing updates, photos, joining events and a variety of other activities. Social media often feeds into the discovery of new content such as news stories, and “discovery” is a search activity. Social media can also help build links that in turn support. Normally, we can see most organizations will choose to go with these three social media which are Facebook, Twitter and BlogSpot.

WHY WE USED SOCIAL NETWORKING MEDIA AS OUR MARKETING TOOL

1.     Engage with our audience in two ways of communication. It would be no surprised if a small amount of time will gain larger numbers of followers. For instance twitter, we are going to updates daily on what is happening throughout the event. The process before and after. Any updates on how to win prizes and merchandizes from the official. Facebook ‘like’ page will automatically create buzz as the users in Malaysia alone has reached more than millions who owned an account. Blog is a place where people will get in depth information about sponsors and what they will expect. Taking few minutes a day to interact with the people on the sites will make us see big impact from social media.

2.     There are three basic marketing plans from what we have analyzed. Firstly, you send people to the page through all the teams networking using social media sites. From there it will get viral and everyone will be exposed to the sites. No one will ‘like’ or ‘follow’ unless they know one of the team are promoting it in their own social account. Next, use automatic social media tools to schedule content and status updates. The third step would be to jump and engage directly with the audiences.

3.     Armed with blogs, forums and social discussions you’ll be able to try and get feedback on ideas before you spend any time developing them. You’ll see what works, what people hate and what they want more of, so you can produce more of what interests them and less of what puts them to sleep.

New Media Relationship

Love is easy – for some. However there are the more unfortunate lovers who cannot get to show affection, anger, and emotions in person. This is where new media comes in handy. Internet relationships come in many forms. Online relationships with the people they haven’t met, or it could also be long-distance relationships. Either way, with Skype, Google+, Facebook and Viber, relationships are made easier for these people.

Online relationships are rare, but they can be achieved. For instance, some people develop from friendship to love just by using the internet. A couple, Trish and David Palmer met through a popular mobile game “Words With Friends” and they decided to tie the knot with a beach wedding in Hilton Head, South Carolina. There is also another couple who met through Facebook, and has a lot of views on YouTube on their video of their first meeting in Asia. Camilla is from Sweden and her boyfriend, Mahathir is from Singapore. They have been together going strong for years.

Long-distance relationship is hard, and only the brave and tough ones should try it.  But there are a few of important information for you before you try it. Firstly, social media sites are not dating sites if you are looking for love online, you should consider trying specially designed dating website like match.com instead of Facebook and Twitter – where it’s more private for your family. Secondly, not everyone is truthful about who they say they are on social media. The biggest letdown is if you get more intimate just by looking at the attractive profile photo.

There are advantages and disadvantages of online dating though. Among the advantages are personal disclosures creates a greater sense of intimacy that gives trust and equality. Other than that, you get to know that what you’re having is love and not lust. This way you get to know the person first before stepping into a relationship. However, one of the disadvantages of online relationship is that it is very touch to express feelings and emotions for the other party. Saying “I love you” and showing that you love that person is very different. Besides that, there are a lot of imposters going around Skype, Facebook and other social networking and dating sites. Besides that, expressing your feelings towards your partner on Facebook and Twitter is also unhealthy. Before there were social sites, these feelings were being expressed to friends for wise advices.

Since the creation of new media, communication is made easy for these people. Advanced technologies have increased the regularity of interaction thus created a new approach to human relationships. So when people say “Oh it won’t work in your long-distance relationship.” Just tell them, “It will, with the existence of new media,”

By Suzie Zaharuddin 

Stop reading and go Youtubing!

In times before the internet, gaining personal publicity for the normal person was hard and it takes high expenses. Today, with the presence of new media, they can be the most famous person in the world through Youtube and no expenses needed. Billions of people tried to use Youtube so that in return they might get the highest viewers in the world.

Everyday many ordinary people become well known due to their videos which posted on sites such as Youtube. Instant celebrities were created through Youtube such as Justin Bieber and Greyson Chance and Najwa Latiff or even you could be a part of them. So why don’t grab the opportunity now. Stop reading, go Youtubing now!

According to Steve Duval (2010), he wrote on the benefits of using Youtube when compared to other video sites are the content availability. He added somemore by saying that Youtube is a very simple website to use that has videos ready to watch at the click of a button.

People use internet for a number of reasons and it became a needed tool other than your hand phone. One of the biggest reasons is because they want to find information that will help them solve a problem. That is why most of the people tend to go to the Youtube everyday to find things that can help them with their interest.

In conclusion, enjoy the benefits we have today and use it wisely as it could benefit all people around the world. Having great video has its own impact. If your videos are creative or funny or it could be a bit boring or formal type such as informative videos, it still has the potential for them to go viral. Remember to learn all the tips on the net before you upload it up on the Youtube!

Here are tips for you:

Reference:

Sources:    Steve Duval (2010), The Benefits Of Using Youtube, Retrieved on October 30, from                             http://articles.submityourarticle.com/the-benefits-of-using-youtube-97888, 

By: Mohamad Shazlan Bin Mohd Ghazali/Pyam

2011247216

NEW MEDIA AND CHALLENGES IN PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTICE

New media technology is the application of digital (computer) technology to mass communications (Hoggatt, 1999). Today, new technologies are being developed and updated continuously and there are some challenges for public relations professionals in term of keeping equal of not only what is available but also of what is being planned for release in the future. According to Stephens (2007), Internet news services are not just relying on the news wire services but turning increasingly to other places for raw materials. Public relations practitioners would be aware that ‘transcripts, reports and budgets are regularly being placed on the Web, either by organizations themselves or by citizens trying to hold those organizations to account’.

            There are some implications for public relations practitioners in order to prepare material faster than ever before being able to produce what is required almost immediately and with the required level of accuracy. In-house public relations practitioners may need to form stronger alliances with IT departments and may have to engage with the organization’s legal advisers in order to refine content clearance procedures when content is demanded immediately (James, 2007).

         

   Public relations practitioners will need more technical skills in areas such as web publishing, new software operation, online security, search engine optimization, web analytics and web trend analysis software operation (James, 2007). However, writing for cross-media delivery will continue as a major component of practice but the demands for multimedia elements will bring even more challenges in this area.

PR News Online started their PR Digital Report earlier this year and is now regularly covering stories on issues such as blogging, online communities and podcasting (James, 2007). Only a few years back it would have seemed unlikely to many practitioners to have to plan campaign components to hold website possibilities such as YouTube, Facebook, My Space and Twitter but it is obvious that many organizations even election campaigns are doing that.

        

    Practitioners will need to be able to analyze how new technologies can assist or hold back traditional public relations roles like public information dissemination, media relations, reputation management, marketing communications, investor relations as well as issues and crisis management.

References

Hoggatt, L. (1999). New Media Technology: A Design for A Mass Communications Graduate Seminar. Retrieved October 5, 2012 from http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/kheraiji/Documents/NEW%20MEDIA%20TECHNOLOGY.htm

James, M. (2007). A Review of the Impact of New Media on Public Relations: Challenges for Terrain, Practice and Education. Retrieved October 5, 2012 from http://www.pria.com.au/sitebuilder/forms/forms/file/34174/Melanie%20James%20article%20Asia%20Pacific%20PR%20Journal.pdf

By Nur Syazwani

Events and records can be produced by anyone but if no one is well-aware of it, it would all be pointless. Every musician, especially the budding ones, would totally crave for the media attention. The media attention simply for the sake of the band's popularity and reputation and not to forget, to sell their albums.

However, things are easier these days with the existence of professionals known as publicists or PR personnel. These people serve as the middle man between musicians and the media in which musicians and their masterpiece will be exposed to the media and it will soon be reached to the public.

Besides that, there are bands, especially the 'indie' ones, are using new media as a platform to expose their music. As an example, The Wknd Session, a music show on Youtube, has been exposing these 'indie' bands by having them performing during the set and their videos will be broadcasted online for the subscribers or viewers. This directly gives them the exposure on their music and the band itself.

In fact, many singing sensations these days originally discovered through new media such as Yuna, Zee Avi and even Justin Bieber. Eventhough they were discovered only on Youtube, these stars have totally changed people's perception with their jaw-dropping achievements.

Now who says Youtube is only to watch videos? You can actually flaunt your inner talent by simply having someone to record you (or you can actually use your webcam if you don't have a friend to do it for you) and press the 'upload' button. :)

Reference : http://www.mio.co.za/article/pr-2011-06-22

Syazwina Roslin

New Media is Not Replacing the Old media

Today with the new technology and new media where people are connected, the old method of disseminating information is still in favour. Using word-of-mouth is still in practice compared to Twitter and Facebook to exchange opinions and thoughts on upcoming movies. This is according to a study on social media buzz by Ipsos MediaCT’s Motion Picture Group in Los Angeles.

The truth is, youth today who grew up with iPad and iPhone in their mitts are not the people who rave about movies through the internet. It turns out that those over 25 years old are the one who utilizing it to vent on movies. According to Vincent Bruzzese, the president of Ipsos’ worldwide motion picture group statement at The Grill conference at London West Hollywood, “we are living in a digital world, but it’s not as digital as we think”.

He mentioned that the quality of the movies has not changed much. Bad movies will drop but good movies also don’t stay longer because of the lack in word-of-mouth to buzz out the movies. The new media such as blog and Facebook is short with information post or share by the users. Instead they are more likely to wait for the news and comment on it. They are not active users where they would link or forward the content to and with others.

"Most people don't post if they don't feel strongly," Bruzzese told the audience at TheGrill.

Vincent Bruzzese claimed that there are categories of buzz. The first when people want to know about upcoming movies early called “discovery”. The second is when all the talk leak and influences people called the “commentary”. Lastly, the category is called “planning” that involves people who buy tickets if other people they know do the same.

Commonly, the social media users would post on good review about a movie but they are not the one who will influence people to buy the ticket. People usually will only catch the movie at the cinema when someone recommended it or if they had someone to go with.

Surprisingly, those who driving the conversation are often the moviegoers who see more than six movies a year are the people who buzz out. 

They tend to watch trailers. Study found that people are more likely to watch movie at cinema or television than through internet, smartphone, tablet or other technologies.

By SyazAmalina

2011681184

The Star Online

http://techcentral.my/news/story.aspx?file=/2012/10/4/it_news/20121004104850&sec=IT_News

PERBADANAN TABUNG PENGAJIAN TINGGI NASIONAL (PTPTN) & NEW MEDIA

Perbadanan Tabung Pengajian Tinggi Nasional or PTPTN is very synonym with Malaysian students because it provides them educational loan. PTPTN was established on 1^st July 1997 and officially operational on 1^st November 1997. It is under the National Higher Education Fund Coperation Act 1997 (Act 566). According to its official website, there are 3 main functions of PTPTN which are managing the financing of higher education and repayment collection. It also providing a saving scheme and administer the deposits for the purpose of higher education and performing other functions entrusted to PTPTN by any written legislation.

However there are many problems regarding PTPTN. The emergence of new media today also had proven that PTPTN gives many problems to its loan holder. From the earlier problems started from the applicants’ registration until they had graduated from their studies. Most bloggers also wrote about the problems of PTPTN. One of the blogs that shows people reports regarding PTPTN is aduanrakyat.blogspot.com. When read the reports, the issues that they try to highlight are the ineffective of PTPTN’s system in handling data regarding repayments, the imbalance rate of repayments and the late period of loan processing.  One of the funniest things reported in the blog is when the JPA scholarship holder also cannot go to overseas because PTPTN claims that he is one of their loan holders.

To solve those issues, PTPTN also used new media to communicate and encouraged people to repay back the loans. Since there are applications via online, the loan holders can also pay their loans through online in selected banks online applications such as CIMBClick, Maybank2U, Public Bank, RHB Bank, AmBank and POS Online. If the loan holders want to pay via PTPTN Portal, they can use e-FES applications through Financial Processing Exchange which the agents are Bank Islam, CIMB, Public Bank, Maybank, Hong Leong Bank and RHB Bank. (www.ptptn.gov.my, 2012)

PTPTN also introduced interaction channels including new media as well. The interactions channels offer by PTPTN are its official website, call centre hotline at 03-20927788, PTPTN’s e-forum space, SMS service, PTPTN’s One Stop Centre at KL Sentral and Info Centre at Sabah and Sarawak. (Berita Harian, 21 August 2010)

In its future planning, PTPTN will implement the use of new media towards its administration and also in its services. According to ‘PTPTN Strategic Plans’, PTPTN will make sure all their staff will train to use Information Communication Technology system and they will maximize the using of automatic system. To enhance their service quality, PTPTN will enhance the using of new media such as Facebook, Twitter and so on. (Pelan Strategik PTPTN, 2011-2012)

By introduced the new media and online applications, PTPTN success in get back their loans and give information towards their borrowers. According to PTPTN Executive Chief, Agos Nolan said about 83% of PTPTN borrowers pay back their loan through periodic method. PTPTN also very flexible and practice openness when dealing with the borrowers. They also accepted the payment based on the ability of borrowers’ financial status. (Utusan Malaysia, 10 April 2012)

Based on the above, there are clear that PTPTN’s PR was doing a great job to ensure that PTPTN will get back their money and give information towards their borrowers by using new media. By their strategic plan also, we can see that they try to give better quality of service towards their loan holders and their potential loan holders. Hopefully, from time to time we can see the improvement of PTPTN in order to manage Malaysian educational loan.

REFERENCES:

PTPTN Official Website: www.ptptn.gov.my

PTPTN. 2012. Pelan Strategik PTPTN 2011-2015. Malaysia.

Noora Md. Yusof. 2010. PTPTN Perkenal Saluran Interaksi. Berita Harian. Retrived from http://www.bharian.com.my/bharian/articles/PTPTNperkenalsaluraninteraksi/Article/index_html

_____. 2012. 83% Pelajar Bayar Balik Pinjaman PTPTN – Agos. Utusan Online. Retrieved from     http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=2012&dt=0411&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&            ec=Kampus&pg=ka_02.htm

                     

By: MOHD TARMIMI MOHD ZULKIFLY