Week 1 Entry: Thoughts on media use. Write the description in 400 words. You may include paragraphs if you like to.

      Media is defined as the tools or equipments that we use to mediate or deliver the information. Media takes many forms in this globalization world, such as primitive media, written or spoken media, printed media, broadcast media, art, and creative multimedia. In fact, media has changed our lives immensely throughout the world.

      In the past, our ancestors have used primitive media, like smoke signals, drum beats to act as a medium for communication purpose. Apart from that, we can also learn the history of the olden days through studying and analyzing the drawings on the cave. Written media such as cuneiforms, figures, diagrams enable us to gather information or tabulate data in an organized way. Despite, the different forms of fonts especially the Chinese fonts enable us to deduce the history of China of each Dynasty. In fact, printed media like books, magazines, novels and newspapers which might be derived from the usage of written media.  From here, we can see how different media affect each others. 

      Nowadays broadcast media, digital media and creative multimedia are highly used to create means of expressing information. For example, radio and television which are considered as broadcast media have indeed become our common medium to obtain all sorts of news. However, in these modern days the use of internet and other web media has replaced them in sharing information or latest news. For instance, one can use Facebook or Tweeter to get the latest news through browsing the latest news feed available in these social sites. Despite, we can also use social sites to conduct multitasking, such as having a meeting using the group chat function or create an event page for publicity purposes.

      Though media has brought us many pros, media also leads to many social problems. One big issue that we might encounter is cyber crime. This includes copyright issue due to the misuse of internet for many people who download the pirated version of audio and movie files. Apart from that, we also will have the chance to be blackmailed by means of written media or even through internet simply because of being misunderstood or being framed by other people. Some irresponsible people also like to create spam messages or fake rumors to get the attention from the community.

      In conclusion, we must always use wisely on the media to reduce and to prevent social problems for the sake of everyone.

                   

Weekly Task 1:

Meanings of following terms:

1) Cross-disciplinary:
- Involving two or more academic disciplines.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cross-disciplinary (27-10-2012)

2) Interdisciplinary:
- Refers to research or study that integrates concepts from different disciplines resulting in a synthesized or coordinated coherent whole.
http://www.qualityresearchinternational.com/glossary/interdisciplinary.htm (27-10-2012)

3) Transdisciplinary:
- Defined as projects that both integrate academic researchers from different unrelated disciplines and non-academic participants, such as land managers and the public, to research a common goal and create new knowledge and theory.
http://learningforsustainability.net/research/interdisciplinary.php (27-10-2012)

4) Qualitative Research: 

- It is the research generated outside the framework of a quantitative approach.
http://www.investorwords.com/3993/qualitative_research.html  (27-10-2012)

5) Ethnographic Studies or Research:

- It is the study or research which focuses on work in ethnography and ethnomethodology but it also provides a forum for sympathetic research in other human sciences, such as psychology and history. Its aim is to promote qualitative inquiry. The policy of the journal is to publish empirical studies but also theoretical and philosophical work which relates to current issues and debates in human sciences. 

http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/disciplines/sociology/about/events/ethnography/journal/  (27-10-2012)