Social networks lead to an increase of fraud

As the competition between social networking sites is tough, all the companies commit themselves to develop new function to attract audiences. For instance, Facebook launched “Places” a couple of weeks ago. However, it is no longer safe for people to surf in the internet and share information on social networking sites. An article focusing on the booming for criminals’ intent on fraud is really on time to inform social networking users of the privacy. This story was fully covered by SMH on October 18, 2010.

Started with describing the serious satiation that criminals are stealing Australians’ identities by the information they post on websites, the article is well- structured and widely quoted. And then it presents the warning from the chief executive of the Crime Commission and the interview with Mr Lawler who organized crime conference in Melbourne this week. After that, the author focuses on the cause of this issue that is Facebook ignored warnings of international child pornography. In this case, audiences then clearly form the process of the development of this issue. Also, the author mentions a typical fraud example to fetch out the solution. Finally, it comes out that “Most senior police in state and federal agencies privately believe that Australian policing agencies lost focus in the fight against transnational organised crime due to competing priorities, including terrorism”.

This article is neither too long nor too short. It presents the while story with the cause, development and the suggested solution. Also, it is widely used the quotations from different experts, showing the wide range of opinions.

Source:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/social-networking-sites-a-boon-for-criminals-intent-on-fraud-20101017-16p6e.html

Australia net plan

The Australia government has come up with new internet privacy solution to address the increasingly severe privacy problem. Indeed, the new plan has derived highly admiration from US government. This article mainly presents how the new plan came up and the response of Obama government, publishing on October 17, 2010 on SMH.

The article is quite short, while presenting sufficient details that can be illustrated to the story. It is well-structured and simple to be understood. Started with briefly introducing that the US government reviews the Australian program, it says the benefits of the internet program specifically, and then followed by showing the attitude from the US government. Discussions are widely coming up about the Australia plan, saying that it is the way to help the public and small business better protect them online. Finally it pointed out the provision of the Australia plan.

However, this news does not include any reference and quotes, as well as pictures. The only thing it mentioned is that “White House cyber co-ordinator Howard Schmidt said the US was looking at a number of voluntary ways to help the public and small businesses better protects them online”.

In response to the internet privacy problem, I suppose this story will be targeting the entire internet user as the privacy is getting important in people’s daily life. Therefore, this news is valuable and worth reading.    

Source：

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/us-admires-australian-botnet-plan-20101016-16oih.html

How young is too young on Facebook?

Is Facebook acting as a friend or an enemy? The word “Frenemy” caught my attention because I did not know what it means. Frenemy is combined of friend and enemy, which usually indicates that the relationship can be seen as friendship as well as adversarial relationship. The author, Jim O’Rourke, uses this special word to describe the relationship between Facebook and Kids. The story was fully covered on SMH on October 3, 2010.


Concerns come up with the wide spread of Facebook that police and teachers have warned parents about the security problem with their children who are using Facebook. The fact is that there are many children having the Facebook account who are below 13 years old.

Well-structured and widely used of quotes and references is easily can be seen in this article. First, it presents the research result and the interview with Ms Treyvaud, showing that the serious situation for young children on Facebook. And then some reasons are followed why it is harmful for them on Facebook. It is reported that the greatest harms comes from their peer group rather than dodgy online stranger or predator without parents knowing it. Indeed, more examples are showed to illustrate how dangerous it is on Facebook. Finally, parents are suggested to teach their children to do outdoor exercise instead of online safety.

The interview with experts and some related research results are presented in this article. However, I suppose the points from parents are equally important to indicate that parents have no idea about the unsafe internet environment. Moreover, it is useful to motivate parents to pay attention to their children’s online life problem.
Source:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-frenemies-most-likely-to-hurt-kids-20101002-161vb.html

Will you share your location on Facebook?

Four weeks ago, the privacy problem of Facebook led to unexpected hot argument when Facebook first introduced “Place” function to the public in USA. Now this debatable new feature of Facebook has been launched in Australia. It was reported by news.com.au on September 30, 2010.
The author, Peter Farquhar, is a technology editor, using his professional angle to present this story. The image of new feature of Facebook application is presented at the very first of this article, giving the audience the concept of what this function is exactly. Then it simply introduces how to use “Place” on Facebook, clarifying that it is different from Foursquare by fully using the quotes from Facebook Places product manager. As I mentioned previously, the privacy issue may be led by Facebook Places product is an irresistible topic. The author also presents the debatable privacy issue by providing the quotes from Facebook that the default privacy setting would be to share with “friends only”. Finally, it largely emphasize on the strengths compared with other software, including Foursquare and Gowalla.

I suppose this is a good piece of news with well-organized structure, useful content and clear expression. However, for me, it is more like an advertisement to promote the new feature and attract public for wide utilization. In terms of public relation strategy, it is more focus on the publicizing product itself rather than public interests and news value. Another weakness can be seen is the length of this story. It runs too long with too many quotes and references. It may confuse the audience as hard to distinguish the point the author tries to convey clearly.

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/facebook-launches-places-in-australia-not-identical-to-foursquare-at-all/story-e6frfro0-1225932299348

Can Blackberry beat Apple?

The great success of Apple’s iPad has attracted many technology companies to compete for the market share, such as Samsung. Today Blackberry also cannot wait to announce that they will launch the new product named Blackberry Playbook in next year. This high news value story was leased on SMH today.

It is well-structured and fully covered by useful information. First, it presents the research result conducted by RIM, which shows that Blackberry Playbook has the huge potential in the market. Then, the contents presented under the subtitle of “The iPad and its competitors at a glance" describe it’s looking and analyze the market figures. Followed by another subtitle is “Device du jour”. In the part, the author focuses on the function of this product, including the introduction of software, games and other applications. As well, sufficient references and quotes are used in this part. For instance, the interviewers include the experts of RIM, application operator and the IT manager, whom are the audience believe in.

However, one weakness of this article can be seen is that too much repeated information can be found in this article. As the author presents the description of the product under the first subtitle and the author again writes: “The market for tablets - touchscreen devices larger than a smart phone and smaller than a laptop”. The expression is different while they convey the same meaning. Moreover, if the author put this sentence after the description, the meaning would be more clear and easy to understand.

For me, another weakness of this article is that it runs too long. After finishing reading this story, I feel it can be summarized in 3 three sentences, or 5 sentences at most. Not necessary and additional information is gathered there. Although information is all relevant to the story itself, it is not essential to put all of them.

In summary, the article is news valued which is deserved the audience to pay attention. However, it runs too long and too much information is organized together.

Source:

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/tablets/rim-unveils-playbook-tablet-to-compete-with-ipad-20100928-15ugx.html 

Leave us alone

Never is Steve Jobs failing into make news for himself and his Apple. Currently, the argument between a journalism student and Jobs has become a hot issue. Both SMH and TIMES LIVE reported this story on the same day of September 20, 2010.

Well structured article on SMH clearly tells the cause, the development and the effect of this argument. After briefly pointing out the issue, the article published on SMH introduces the background of one of key people in this argument, Long Island University senior Chelsea Kate Isaacs, and the reason for contacting Apple’s chief, Steve Jobs, via email. In the meanwhile, it is also the beginning of this argument. Then this article clarifies the details of their argument, including the original contents which tell audience the truths and the development. Finally, it ends of the response from Apple that is Apple refused to give any comments. Widely using of quotes and references is obviously seen in this article, as well, the hyperlinks can be seen at the end of the article which link to the original sources.

Similarly, the article of TIMES LIVE is well –organized by the cause, the development and the result of this story. Sufficient references and quotes are utilized in this article. It writes the news source which is from the news website thefirstpost.co.uk in the very first beginning.

However, compared with the one on SMH, there is no clear effect followed by the story, such as the response from Apple or Isaacs. In this case, I rate a little bit higher in the one on SMH rather than this article. Because the story told on SMH is more comprehensive, giving the audience the whole development of the story with a clear ending.

Sources:

 

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/leave-us-alone-apple-chief-jobs-tells-journalism-student-20100920-15j2o.html

http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/article668654.ece/Apple-chief-told-how-to-best-do-his-job

Google is sued by Microsoft co-founder

These days, there is no doubt that Google has been a focus of public because Google launched a new feature of making calls through Gmail, covered by various media. However, soon after, Microsoft co-founder filed the lawsuit issue in claiming over patent of online shopping technology, including tech giant Google. The story is reported by SMH on August 30,2010 and The New York Times on August 27,2010 respectively.

In terms of structure, I prefer the one on NYT rather than SMH. A clear introduction of this story is organised at first, and then simply gives audience a brief of patents, which is the cause of this lawsuit issue. Instead of presenting the responses from the companies that are sued, it focus on the cause, development, evidence and history of the patent issue itself, which is easy and clear for audience to understand the whole issue. References and quotes are presented sufficiently in the following report. The representatives of both sides are interviewed to show audience the controversial fact. However, I argue the story is a little bit long although it is complicated and valuable news.

Compared with another on SMH, these two pieces of news pick up the different news angle so that the content and structure is actually different. The one on SMH mainly focuses on the responses from varies companies, including Google, Facebook and eBay to show the development of the lawsuit issue. Similarly, references and quotes are cited and even more are used. However, only NYT presents the hyperlink to the related article.

The photos of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen are used differently on both pieces of news. The relax expression of Paul Allen is used by SHM, which seems he is sure he can win the suit. Another shows the strict and concerned expression, which appears uncertain about the result.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/technology/28patent.html?src=mv

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/tech-giants-apple-and-google-sued-by-microsoft-cofounder-20100830-13y1q.html