News from Malaysia

Today I learned that the Universiti Teknologi MARA will be my host, or will "host my grant," in the language of the MACEE executive director. This is exciting, because UiTM has both master's and Ph.D. programs in Communications and Media Studies. They also offer undergraduate programs in journalism, broadcasting, p.r., and advertising.

Here is a campus map.

The school was founded in 1956 under another name; it became a full-fledged university in 1996. It was called Institut Teknologi MARA, which explains in part why its abbreviation is UiTM. It is also to differentiate UiTM from UTM -- the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia -- a wholly separate university.

MARA stands for the Majlis Amanah Rakyat Act, passed by the Malaysian Parliament in 1965. It replaced the former Rural and Industrial Development Authority, and that's about all I can find about that. The MARA.gov.my Web site is all in Bahasa. Another government page (Ministry of Entrepreneur and Co-operative Development) gives the English translation of MARA as Council of Trust for Indigenous People.

UiTM has many branch campuses around the country, similar to Penn State (only in the state, in that case).

More Comments on Online Journalism

Oddly titled, The Eagle Has Landed includes a gem of an anecdote from an infographics designer, Walter Longauer. He describes how a repurposed graphic from a newspaper story about skin cancer became an interactive tool that people could use to determine how much sunscreen to wear and how long to stay outdoors.

"[T]oday, producing for the web, we have to consider our readers' actions. They ask questions and expect answers. So we -- as infographic artists -- have to think of the most interesting questions we would ask, if we were our own readers."

Comments on Online Journalism

Found a nice article today at the Newspapers & Technology site: Good journalism sparks new techniques discusses the L.A. Times's "Enrique's Journey" and the The Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal's “Against Their Will" -- which University of Florida online media graduate Jennifer Falor helped produce. Columnist Tom Arnold interviewed the producers and wrote a nice account of how online journalism projects come together.

Another Plug

Thanks to Kaye Trammell, I found another plug for my OJR article: an entry in a blog called weblogg-ed (as in "education").

Malaysian Business News

I found Kuala Lumpur Business on the Web today while researching motor scooters. Turns out that Malaysia has its own scooter manufacturer now: Naza. The two models are the Gemilang NBS150L ($1210) and the Symphony NBS125i ($950). I also learned that Honda and Vespa scooters are sold in Malaysia, but as far as I could tell, Yamahas are not. That's a shame, because the Vino Classic is a cute little bike.

OJR Article Feedback

Amy Gahran posted a nice plug for my OJR article on the E-Media Tidbits blog.

New Article on OJR

After a bit of a wait, the Online Journalism Review has published my article Teaching Online Journalism: How to Build the First College-Level Course. It took a lot of work to put this together, but I'm pleased with how it turned out -- especially the syllabi examples and the resource list.

Malaysia

I learned today: I have received a Fulbright award for study in Malaysia! Much to do now. I do not know how soon I will be leaving.

I subscribed to Malaysiakini today.

Convergence in Florida

Mark Glaser wrote a good article that appeared today in the Online Journalism Review: Lack of Unions Makes Florida the Convergence State. I am quoted (accurately!) in the article. Also quoted are Anthony Moor, of OrlandoSentinel.com; Linda Foley, of the Newspaper Guild; Andrew Nachison, of API; John Burr, of the Florida Times-Union; Retha Hill, of BET.com. There is also a link to our symposium Webcast!

Firefly

I happened across a good Firefly site today: FireflyFans.net. No one in Florida has ever seen this excellent TV show, as far as I can determine. Doug bought the complete series on DVD last weekend, and we have been watching all the episodes in order. It is *so* much better than most of what passes for TV entertainment! The dialogue holds my interest; the characters appear somewhat complicated; the outcomes are not predictable.

A movie based on the TV series is in the works; the working title is Serenity (that's the name of the Firefly-class spaceship, central to the action).

In other surfing, I discovered that Fox has removed the wonderful X-Files episode guide from its Web site. I can find no trace of it online. I'm very disappointed because I used to use the episode guide to look up plots, titles, guest stars, etc. It was a very nice resource!

Third Symposium Over and Done

Our third annual Symposium on Converged Journalism was Thursday, April 1. Notes to myself: Attendance was no better on a Thursday than it was the previous two years, both on Fridays. It is possible that holding it later in the semester is a bad idea, because both students and faculty are very busy. I think the week after Spring Break might be best, because everyone feels relaxed then.

This year we had a Webcast of the entire event, and the video was also archived, thanks to Craig Lee.

Updated Old Entries

I gave up trying to figure out what is wrong with updating directly into the MySQL database that's behind this fair blog and did it through the Movable Type interface instead, copying and pasting my old text from the old Blogger blog. Everything is now intact, and I can look at the CSS and fix this thing once and for all.

Back in the Saddle Again

Okay, I am finally ready to get this naughty little blog in proper order. Fix templates. Fix the database. Rah rah!

One reason is that I have been snooping around in my Mozilla bookmarks, and there are a lot of things in there worth remembering. The blog is a better way to supplement my memory than the unmanageable bookmarks list, I think.