UiTM To Offer Course on Ethical Blogging
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 |
The people at UiTM are taking blogging way too seriously. So far there isn’t any news of when would this course be officially offered, but it seems to be taking advantage of the recent developments about local blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, who was detained for sedition. Though it is not my position to reflect my views on the Sedition Act, I strongly feel that all Malaysians should be given an ungoverned channel to express their opinions. We all know there are always two sides of the story, and curious people like me are always busybody enough to read conflicting views just for the fun of it.
As much as I like the idea of bloggers being ethical, I fail to see the usefulness in this course. The only unethical thing I can think of, is that bloggers are using blogs as tools to make money off unsuspecting Internet surfers. To be fair, there are some distinguished bloggers out there who deserve that flow of income because fame somehow precedes fortune. Well, this can be another topic for another day, because I think a lot more can be discussed, but it doesn’t really correlate with the points of this post.
To me, blogging is like a hobby. Something you do in your free time, like stamp collecting or even fishing. When you get your hands on an exquisite stamp from some exotic place, or manage to wrestle a stubborn pike out of the sea, you feel a sense of achievement. Just like blogging for when you express something, it stimulates the mind. It satisfies the need of wanting to say something, and the question that whether you have loyal readers or not becomes secondary. Take me for an example, I have been blogging about my personal fitness conditions and how I would like to improve on it. The posts keep me motivated because I will always have some place to record my progress. I know people normally wouldn’t bother if I manage to hit tip-top physical form, but it is the satisfaction of writing it all down that makes blogging so interesting for me.
There isn’t a right or wrong in writing blogs. If a blogger decides to be controversial, so be it. I believe we Malaysians are mature enough to differentiate between the good and the malicious. Let there be many contrasting views on the Internet, so that we Malaysians can evaluate for ourselves. If I am to doubt a credibility of a blogger (or blog), it is entirely up to my jurisdiction to not read the article and skip the blog momentarily, then move on to other blogs. I don’t need an ethical course to know the right from wrong.
Related: School of Blogging?, UiTM Willing To Offer Course on Blog Writing, says VC
