The Authorization of LGBT by Liana and Wai Ling

Crashing over the unprecedented pace of the technological globalization, blogging is apparently sitting a very heart of the modern society all over the globe. Well to say that blogging is, as one of the advanced virtual communication tool, highly and easily accessible to everyone which has become a mainstream part of our everyday existence. Speaking of which, it is be of something that matters indirectly and implicitly on each individual’s life. To be no doubt, blogging literally serves as creative colossus of online literacy world that has been broadly opened a central corridor for the creation of self-expression and community development which exercises of the creation of the identity.

In the time of far-reaching changes like present day, blog is generally recognized as a quintessential newborn for computer-mediated-communication (CMC) in which it is often presented in various forms of manifestation and structure (Pluempavarn & Panteli, 2007). While there are wide diversity in the way people have benefitted from the act of blogging, blog is usually playing a major role in the personal memoir and public discussion (Herring et al., 2005; Huffaker, 2004). Moving toward increasing visibility and availabilities of all different blog post types on the Internet, many of them come with much closer interface between other blogs regarding its contents and information being published through which their respective links are compatibly shared (Blood, 2002). Despite to the fact that the phenomenon of blogging lies a labyrinthine network of virtual interactivity among the mass, it has been redounded to the characterization and underlying strength of self-exposure which devoted to be foundation stone of enhancement and maintenance of the individual’s identity within the social context. Hence, this would be correct to imply that those who actively participate themselves in the online blogging are presumed to be more likely to intensify their own existential plum of defining who they really are.

So, let us talk about some of the examples of the existing wedding blogs that have been opted for as our case studies like STYLE ME Pretty (SMP) and equallywed. By looking through the overall design framework of these two blogs, what is such interesting that they are specifically created for the part of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) community. Similarly, both blogs are widely occupied with the details of every single LGBT couple’s marriage ceremony including the place of the wedding, photographers, entertainments, attendant attire, catering service, venue decorations and guest invitations. Seen in this light, these blogs tend to be characterized in a more personalized, individualistic, affectionate kind of self-presentation and communication and fully being used as the similar manner of writing an online diary or personal journal. Though Foucault (1988) stated that writing had greatly evolved into a powerful component in the way that bordered much on the emphasis on the nature of preservation and construction of one’s self, so far pinpointed that “taking care of the self in and through writing is one of the oldest Western traditions” (p. 27). They extend beyond the informative role of exchanging the ideas and conducting debating sessions, rather develop into another ultimate vehicle for the bloggers to get in touch with the audiences who have never approached them before by expressing their intimate feeling and thoughts to them. This is mainly due to massive marginalization and discrimination towards these groups of people by the majority of society. Their living styles and behaviors are seem to be rebelled against what the dominant cultural value dictates and therefore, they have heavily been isolated and disengaged from their particular community. Accrue to this, these experiences leave them exceptionally vulnerable to lack of greater opportunity to voice out their opinions and concerns. This resulting provides those blogs a useful platform to toss around and steer the crowd attention to the predicament of these marginalized group which establishes the spectacular recognition of their potential and qualities as a person between themselves. As Foucault (1988) mentioned, 

“Technologies of the self…which permit individuals to effect by their own means, or with the help of others, a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thought, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality.” (p. 18)

In this regard, those online creative expressions represents a viable signifier to the technology of self, not simply making sense to their individual differentiation in the society in that LGBT people acquire power to write whatever they want to the extent of leading them to be the person they want to be.

There are two wedding blogs that we have chosen which are STYLE ME Pretty and equallywed.  Firstly STYLE ME Pretty is a blog that covers weddings from both heterosexual couples as well as the gay couples. One post on gay marriage entitled “Intimate Beachfront Gay Wedding in Phuket, Thailand” by Thia Laurain posted on July 28, 2015 which could be reached at http://www.stylemepretty.com/2015/07/28/intimate-beachfront-gay-wedding-in-phuket-thailand/. Secondly equallywed is a blog that covers weddings for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. One interesting post on the lesbian wedding entitled “Tucson, Arizona Desert Wedding written by Guest which could be found at http://equallywed.com/tucson-arizona-desert-wedding/ for further reading.

STYLE ME Pretty blog is addressed to the enthusiastic brides who seek for stylish weddings. Viewers that participated in the blog are people aged 21 and 37 with the median age of 27. In order to participate, users or guests are to register to STYLE ME Pretty login page at https://www.stylemepretty.com/login/?redirect_to=/registry-guide#register which leads to the webpage as shown:

Other than that, users of STYLE ME Pretty could follow on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Snapchat as shown below:

There is a platform whereby users and guests could leave a comment for STYLE ME Pretty blog as shown:

In contrast the equallywed  blog is aimed at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The participation of equallywed ranges from the blog’s editors, guests (those who share the same interest of LGBT wedding), wedding vendors such as  Stroudsmoor Country Inn, the Westin Cape Coral Resort, Nola Dukes Band, Blanc de Bleu-Miami, One Atlantic Events and many more. Participation to equallywed for guests is to firstly register to an equallywed account at http://equallywed.com/profile/register/  as shown below:

1.      Register an account>>account details>>profile details>>social profile>>click ‘register’ 2.      Subscribe to equallywed 3.   Follow on Facebook

equallywed is a digital magazine that displays comments and suggestions through a media platform which ascertain the value of LGBT relationships. It discusses mainly through news articles published by users and guests. The link to submit write-ups (articles) could be reached at http://equallywed.com/submissions/  that would lead to a webpage as shown below:

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that the “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people can live openly without discrimination and enjoy equal rights, personal autonomy and freedom of expression and association” (American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU], 2014).  As a conclusion, these two wedding blogs exhibit the lavish wedding planning to the community of LGBT. These two blogs also supported the LGBT’s rights to have the same livelihood like the mainstream society.

References

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). (2014). Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/issues/lgbt-rights

Blood, R. (2002). Introduction. In J. Rodzvilla (Ed.), We’ve got blog: How weblogs are changing our culture (pp. 9-13). Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.

Equally Wed Editors. (2009). Retrieved from http://equallywed.com/

Foucault, M. (1988). Technologies of the self. In L. H. Martin, H. Gutman, & P. Hutton (Eds.), Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault (pp. 16–49). Amherst, MA:

University Massachusetts Press.

Herring, S., Scheidt, L., Wright, E., & Bonus, S. (2005). Weblogs as a bridging genre. Information Technology and People, 18(2), 142-171.

Huffaker, D. A. (2004). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom. AACE Journal, 13(2), 91-98.

Pluempavarn, P., & Panteli, N. (2007). The creation of social identity through weblogging. Bath, UK: University of Bath School of Management.

Strong, D., Lepperd, E., Weers, S., Greene, E., Hurwitz, G., Thienes, C. (2007). STYLE ME Pretty. Retrieved from https://www.stylemepretty.com/     

Double-edged Sword: Mainstream and Online Journalism by Zheng En and Mikha

As Siapera (2012) asserted, internet itself had threated the status of the journalism through several features; time, money, heteronomy and cultural change. But is it true that these features had become a risk for the journalists or were merely a transition to evolve into new type of journalism? Siapera (2012) added that this new media had built a new relationship between people and news as well as others’ views on politics. From here, I’d like to raise a question: When does news become politic? I think that international news has been handled politically by both traditional media and new media, thereby deteriorating harmony among countries.

 Source: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index2193.htm

Speaking of the recent political chaos, the assassination of Kim Jong-un’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam has been heavily discussed by both official broadcast media as well as the unofficial one (e.g. blogspot) around the world. Notably, like other international news media, Malaysian media has been playing its roles by analyzing and executing consistent follow-ups on the case as this incident happened in Malaysian airport itself. The recent follow-up of the case posted by the broadcast media (Arirang News, 2017) and online journalism official website (Choe & Paddock, 2017) is about the video posted in which the son of Kim Jong-nam notified the world that he and his family members are in the safe condition. However, doubt remains and the accuracy of information spread by the video is questioned by the expertise whether the person in the video is really his (Kim Jong-nam) son and whether this person is speaking the truth about the safety of his family and himself as their whereabouts is kept at secret.     

  Source: http://www.returnofkings.com/89090/3-reasons-for-the-downfall-of-mainstream-journalism

Blog as defined by Rettberg (2008) was invented in 1997, as some kind of log kept on the web, shown in the reverse chronological order and the content and themes will be determined by the blogger. As we have understood, because the content of the blog is fully controlled by the blogger without the authority surveillance, the blogger can post their comments and thoughts on the matters they care for. In this case, we have found a blog known as ‘Malaysians Must Know The Truth’ (Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah, 2017) had reposted several contents related to Kim Jong-nam assassination. Unlike the information published by broadcast media and printed contents, the blogger may share the information and opinions that are opposing the general feeds. Instead of blaming the North Korea for their unresponsive and denial act, the blogger had placed his concern on the ‘proactive’ actions taken by Malaysian authority which might draw more severe political chaos in future.    

       Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30311/10-Amazing-Blogs-About-Blogging-to-Star Reading-NOW.aspx

In terms of similarities structure between print media and blogging, only one element discovered; the title of the news which aims to draw reader’s attention on the topics they had discussed on. However, we identified news tags as one of the differences between print or broadcast media and blogging. In print media and broadcast news, the section in which news should be allocated is arranged according to their content. For instance, the news about assassination of Kim Jong-nam will be placed in the headlines section or the international section of the newspaper. On the other hand, the blog will only be posted based on themes without separating the news types into categories because the blogger can publish any content they want. For example, Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah (2017) posted the opinions of others on Kim Jong-nam news on his blogs today, but he might shift his concern towards other news for the next day. However, with help of labels posted under the blog, readers can find the related keywords connected with the blog feeds they look for.

Source: http://izquotes.com/quote/195521

The news content is usually similar to each other in terms of the subject of discussion. In fact, convergence does happen in both broadcast news and blogging news. Convergence, as explained by Siapera (2012), represents same content written by one journalist circulated in all types of news platform including the digital news which allow the media organization to publish themselves and cutting down cost. As an example, The Star, one of the media organizations in Malaysia did publish their news article in print newspaper and distributed the news on their website as well. Blogging website also obtains convergence. Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah (2017) shared the news about Kim Jong-nam assassination using The Guardian and opinion from a journalist named Zan Azlee. On the one hand, the structure of the narrative in both print and broadcast news are rather objective with charts, the interview session with the government officers and reenacted scene of the incident. On the other hand, the fact that blogging portrays none of these elements and projects much more personalize ideas on the subject matter is supported by Siapera (2012). For instance, Ramos-Horta and Rogers (2017) proposed their views on the case of Kim Jong-nam might trigger another world war in the coming days. Besides, this case was related with the tyranny governance of the ruler that violated the rights of their citizens.   

Source: http://allnewspipeline.com/Censorship_War_Govt_Waging_On_Truth.php

When coins display two sides of the story, content of the news possess both advantage and disadvantage when it goes through the network. To define what is good and bad of online content, we need to refer the analytical view given by Siapera (2012) through several elements. Manovich (2001) identified hypertextuality as one that makes online news content appears much more flexible than print journalism in which “the user can have direct access on the database and information” through links provided as the former can extend in time and space (as cited in Siapera, 2012, p 135-136). Nevertheless, these accessible links can be vicious when misleading information is delivered publicly on the network sphere. Thus, users need to be keen while using the network and be selective on what to read especially when it is related to the sensitive topic. This makes more sense when multimediality comes into the picture in which there are a lot of accessible platforms and websites. Conversely, we notice that most of the contents in official online news such as the Star and New York Times are very much similar in reporting Kim Jong-nam’s assassination; starting with the video posted by Kim Jong-nam’s son, followed by the process of the incident, and ended up with who Kim Jong-nam is alongside with his social life.

  Source: http://www.journalismfestival.com/news/the-lack-of-trust-in-mainstream-media-and-the-rise-of socialmedia-as-publishers/

Another element is the interactivity; users are free to leave their feedbacks in the comment section regarding to the news posted in the blogging websites. Furthermore, interactivity of online content can be shown through the immediacy of news posted online by print and broadcast news which renew their content daily. This is not applicable in blogging website because blogger only posts when they are capable of doing it, thereby slowing down the rate of updates feeds. The last element will be collecting authoritoring or participatory dimension of news as defined by Siapera (2012) as posting different opinions about the news which differ from the objective views posted by the official organization. It is brilliant to have network that could support such element but user needs to have precautious and be objective while reading the opinion that might overlook the deceitful information and offend people (Siapera, 2012).   

 Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/509540145316612413

In short, people nowadays prefer online news over print media and broadcast media due to technology advancement which allow them to instantaneously grasp the information. One thing that the online content users should keep in mind is that not everything written online is true. Hence, objectivity is a must when reading the content.

References

Arirang News. (2017, March 7). Kim Jong-nam's son says his father was murdered [video file].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNd1-K3DWlw

 

Choe, S.H & Paddock, R C. (2017, March 8) Son of Kim Jong-nam appears to surface in

Youtube video. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com

/2017/03/08/world/asia/kim-jong-nam-son-video-north-korea.html

Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah (2017). Sure we support Malaysia against N.Korea but don’t forget Najib regime created the mess – why let them politicize issue for ge14 votes? Retrieved from http://malaysiansmustknowthetruth.blogspot.my/2017/03/sure-we-support-malaysia-against-nkorea.html

Ramos-Horta, J., & Rogers, B. (2017, March 04). Kim Jong-nam's assassination is a wake-up call to the world. The Diplomat. Retrieved from http://thediplomat.com/2017/03/kim-jong-nams-assassination-is-a-wake-up-call-to-the-world/

Rettberg, J. W. (2008). Blogging: Digital media and society series. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Siapera, E. (2012). Understanding new media. London, UK: SAGE publication.