Reflections: As I look back

(Source: ricercatoriprecari.file.wordpress.com)

Looking back on this semester, it has been a blessing learning Issues in Publication and Design. I am now competent to appreciate and analyze a document, be it a static or multimodal text (Walsh 2006).

In Malaysia, it is very important to be ethnically aware as readers come from diverse racial and cultural background that will definitely influence their way of reading a certain document (Walsh, 2006).

In regards to document design, I found that less is indeed more. A simple, aerodynamic and tidy blog interface will ensure that readers can read without being distracted. Main points have to be salient (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006) to take hold of reader’s attention and visual aid should be interpreted to aid with reader’s understanding (Shriver, 1997).

Throughout this duration of learning new skills from my IPD course, I am now equipped with the basic know-how of document design, and I can only look forward to learning more in the coming semesters.

With that said, FAREWELL!

(Source: rotaryddd.com)

THANK YOU FOR READING! =)

References

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front page: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, Approaches to Media Discourse, Blackwell, Oxford.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Publisher, New York.

Walsh, M 2006, 'The textual shift: examining the reading process with print, visual, and multimodal texts', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29. no. 1, pp. 24-37.

Pirate = Piracy = Stealing!!

Major record corporations may perhaps come up with an answer to the mounting threat of piracy and unlawful file distribution.

In this post, I would like to share more regarding the Nokia mobile phone. Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone-maker, has launched a Comes with Music brand mobile phone which enables users who have purchased the phone to download music from Sony BMG, EMI, Universal Music and Warner Music to the handset or a personal computer (Sabbagh 2008).

Is there a trap?

(Source: toonpool.com)

In a good way, there is no catch as long as you pay for the mobile phone, which comprises this revolutionary service. Singapore was said to be the earliest country in Asia with Nokia's Comes with Music, and the Finnish company's flagship N97 model that was launched retails for S$1,228 with the service (Nokia 2009).

"You'll be able to download any song you want on to the handset or one personal computer for the first 12 months, and keep all of them forever," said Jo Harlow, a vice-president of Nokia.

This progress comes hot on the heels of research data from Nielsen Soundscan, which explains that albums vending in America plunge for the seventh time in eight years (CNN Money 2009). As the CD format's profit-making function to the recording industry has been on the wane since the twist of the century when downloading and file-sharing came out on the internet, the ailing recording production has revolutionized to a new form of selling music - digital music retailing, bearing out that form follows function (Bear 2009).

Why do people still do it?

Are you one of them?

(Source: eyetap.org)

Copyright infringement and illegal downloading is nothing new, but why do people still do it? Some people would say that music labels are overcharging for CDs, so downloading and file sharing are ways to claim justice. Robin Hood was and always will be considered a hero, but does that make stealing right?

Would you want people who disapprove of your corporation to steal from you?

Take this into consideration; downloading illegally is not different from walking out from a Tower Records store without paying for a Beetles record.

(Source: jintel.wordpress.com)

So, would YOU ALL STOP STEALING?

References

Bear, J.H 2009, ‘Form and function in document design’, About.com, viewed 14 June 2010,[http://desktoppub.about.com/od/graphicdesign/a/formfunction.htm]

Sabbagh, D 2008, Nokia offers unlimited music for one-off fee, Australian IT, viewed 14 June 2010,[http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24440421-15306,00.html]

CNN Money.com 2009, Sour note: Music sales down in 2008, viewed 14 June 2010,[http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/01/news/companies/music.reut/index.htm]

We TWIT one another

(Source: asaresearch.wordpress.com)

Never heard of Twitter?

Okay, fine I believe that all of you are not living under a shell! Twitter is like a flow of mini blog posts. Its worth lies in your personal community of followers and whom you choose to follow. Twitter, as defined by Twitter.com (2009), is a complimentary service, which permits you to connect with people through the exchange of fast and frequent answers in simple questions like; how was your day? Alike to short messaging service (SMS), Twitter’s message character limits up to 140 characters (Steroid.com).

Everyone inclusive celebrities tweet. As of 15 June 2009, 838 celebrities tweeted on that day (Celebrity Tweet 2009).

(Source: Listropolis.com)

Moreover, Nielsen Wire's (2009) study indicated that Twitter users beat other social-networking sites like Facebook and Multiply. The numbers of Twitter users have multiplied tremendously over the years.

(Source: flickr.com)

The above bar charts shows how often do people Tweet per hour, per day and per month.

Near the beginning this year, Twitter’s top tweeter, movie star Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN in a pursuit to 1 million followers, which he won (CNN.com 2009). However, later on, Kutcher threatened that he will end tweeting if this micro-blogging company decided to work together with TV producers Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment on an unscripted show which “put ordinary people on the track of celebrities in a revolutionary format” (CNN.com 2009). Kutcher said:

It's all fun and games until somebody gets stalked.

So, why tweet?

(Source: pluggd.in)

Shape your image

Regular postings on Twitter offer others a peep of their lives. That peep will shape your public image. Does your posts describe you as an idler or a high-powered expert? What it all take is just a brief update about your life and “ta…Dah!” The next thing you know, every on your Twitter knows it. Therefore, one should always think before posting because you can shape how others perceive you (Legal Technology 2008).

Broaden your network

As a media practitioner, the significance of human relation is extensively identified, both for personal pleasure and professional growth. Hence, Twitter allows user to encounter with people from different network, other than the usual existing network. You would be surprise upon joining Twitter at the amount of contacts you made and how quickly you made them (ProBlogger.com).

References

Ambrogi RJ 2008, Sixteen reasons to tweet on Twitter, viewed on 13 June 2010, [http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202426490041]

Celebrity Tweet 2009, Stalk celebrities on Twitter, viewed 13 June 2010, [http://www.celebritytweet.com/]

Duke A 2009, Kutcher threatens to stop Twittering, viewed 13 June 2010, [http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/26/ent.kutcher.twitter/]

McGiboney M 2009, Twitter's sweet smell of success, viewed on 13 June 2010, [http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/twitters-tweet-smell-of-success/].

Rowse D 2007, Why Twitter isn't a waste of time, viewed 13 June 2010, [http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/10/23/why-twitter-isnt-a-waste-of-time/]

Steroid.com 2009, Why do celebrities like Twitter?, viewed 13 June 2010, [http://stereoroid.com/culture/why-celebrities-like-twitter/]

The Power of Photographs

(Source: flickr.com)

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever…It remembers little things long after you have forgotten everything…”

-Aaron Siskind-

Photojournalism in the world today is a fun and exciting job nevertheless at one point it is a demanding and dangerous profession that one can have. One may endanger his or her life mainly to those who were appointed to the war country. This is because they constantly risk their lives bringing the most up-to-date news to the country.

Then again the drawback of photojournalist is reported in the article. It is said that majority of the stories were modified by the editors. From stories to even pictures would be revised and amended by the editors because they are the ones who have the authority to show the readers what they want them to know and see. After all the hard work of photojournalist, their story may not turn out exactly the same in the newspaper or magazine articles.

‘’...It's him that I trust. Whereas in the media, we have editors, publishers, who are sitting at their desks with their own political or ideological views of telling the story’’ (Wade Goddard 2007).

Schirato and Yell (1996) points out that a narrative is a way of arranging meanings in the form of a story. Even though reports and/or story appear ostensibly nice and understandable at times, but not all information has the narrative that was written by the journalist. Stories were changed here and there because editor’s expectations are at times too high and the stories were not what they were expecting for.

Let’s take a minute to discuss about photography. Photojournalists are the people with incredible originality and creativity. According to Reep (2006), balance is a comparable visual ‘weight’ on both sides of a page or on opposing pages. This means that an ideal picture has its own balance hence as a photographer; setting up a spot and composition to capture one perfect picture is not as easy as you think. Furthermore, every picture taken has its own meaning and story behind it.

(Source: getselfhelp.co.uk)

The picture shown above is an example of how pictures could be interpreted differently and it is up to the viewers to create their imaginary. Therefore, it is said that photographs has the power to suggest diverse meanings.

References

Reep, DC 2006, ‘Technical Writing, Pearson’, NY, Ch. 6, pp. 133-172.

Schirato, T and Yell, S 1996, ‘Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction’, St. Leonards, NSW, Ch. 5, pp. 90-117.

:)+:S+:P = not confusion for sure!

Hello readers,

Mystified by the symbols above? Don’t be. They are emoticons, the new-fangled wave of communication helpers. I find it interesting to share about emoticons because when I was chatting with my parents the other day through Facebook chat box; I found out that they were starting to use a lot of emoticons throughout our whole conversation and for them to use emoticons to express their feelings and expression, impresses me! I mean, come on, how often do see your parents using emoticons during a chat online or even in emails at the age of 60?

Emoticons came into existence when Scott Fahlman invented the sideways smiley face to accompany his online jokes in 1997 (ABC 2007).

(Source: bizmediascience.com)

Since then, they have developed from plain symbols to sophisticated graphics representing every emotion that you can think of.

Neverheless, did emoticons come to be of such importance in our online communication? According to Byron (ABC 2007), we tend to get the wrong idea about the emoticons of others in e-mail communications, due to the lack of cues provided in this online medium. Emoticons can truly save the day especially when we are jokingly saying something which can lead to a negative meaning to others.

I believe everyone would agree that a message with the use of an emoticon would sound much better in a conversation online. A simple statement, such as ‘I hate you!’ can retain its original meaning as an express of anger, or be transformed into a playful batter by the mere addition of a playful emoticon such as the one below.

(Source: emofaces.com)

The theories of meaning-making that was mention by Walsh (2006) are applicable here. With the use of emoticons, we are able to include connotations or meanings to plain text that could be interpreted in several different ways. Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) however warn that images are too polysemous in their meaning, stating that, without the supplementary textual communication, the emoticon on top could be misguided as a mock, for the meanings it could potentially express range from sheer light heartedness to a flippant insult. Hence, while emoticons do add importance to the text they accompany, they must be used appropriately so that the actual meaning of our message could be conveyed.

In addition, one must reflect on the genres in which these emoticons are used. Different genres alter the way we understand texts (Schirato and Yell 1996), therefore the use of emoticons must be well thought-out depending on which cultural, or situational, context one is writing for (Halliday and Hasan1985; Schirato and Yell 1996). Let us take an example; to intersperse a company e-mail with emoticons would be considered unethical and immature, leading to a negative impression of the sender by the receivers. On the other hand, using emoticons liberally in a personal e-mail to a pal is not only appropriate, it is also very much encouraged as the visual cues would avoid misunderstandings and entirely pass on one's intended meanings.

In conclusion, emoticons can both serve or debilitate communication, depending on the context of its usage.

References

ABC.net.au 2007, ‘Emoticons and email etiquette’, viewed 9 June 2010, [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm]

Halliday, MAK and Hassan, R 1985, 'Language, context and text: aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective', Deakin university Press, Waurn Ponds, Victoria

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, ‘Reading images: the grammar of visual design’, Routledge, New York.

Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24-37.

Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, ‘Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction’, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards.

Simple but not eye-catching? Or abstract yet confusing? Or somewhere in between?

Document designs are important consideration when developing a document. A reader should be able to find information easily in a document without spending too much time skimming the text. As suggested by Putnis & Petelin (1996), the obligatory of a good document design is to be able to aid the readers to read efficiently and to emphasize the most important content.

Kress and Leeuwen (2006) mentioned that a document in any mode is a form of communication. For instance, documents that are well designed have higher possibility to gain the audience’s attention. For instance, the above slide is considered a well-designed cover as the picture displays the title of the presentation. Reep (2006) also mention that document design helps to increase the usefulness of documents by enhancing audience’s attention as well as guiding readers/audience through the main text (important messages), including eye-catching graphics.

Furthermore, the document designer mentioned more important information in her slides and made a clear-cut of what will be discussed in the presentation in order to give our classmates a better understanding. In order to make it simple, she also used bullets to list her points.

Besides that, I also find the above slide very well presented as the pictures has text to guide readers to understand it. The document designer has also not forgotten to explain the above picture in detail. Schriver (1997) also points out that a document design is vital as it facilitate readers with both their knowledge-driven and text-driven constructions of the text and graphics.

Lastly, a layout design of a document could determine the attractiveness and affect the reader’s ACCEPTABILITY! It should also have a good continuation or good figures that may pull figures out of a background (Bernhardt 1986).

Reference

Bernhardt, S.A 1986, College Composition and Communication, Seeing the text, Vol. 37, No. 1, National Council of Teacher of English.

Kress, G. &van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading Images, Chapter 1: The Semiotic landscape: language and visual communication.

Putnis, P, Petlin, R 1996, Professional communication: principles and applications, Writing to communicate, Prentice hall, Sydney.

Reep, Diana. C 2006, Technical writing, Document design, Pearson/Longman, New York.

Schriver, K.A 1997, Dynamics in documents design: creating texts for readers, The interplay of words and pictures, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.

New Media Vs Old Media

(Source: abc.net.au)

Before the formation of the new media, the old media are traditional means of communication. Industries that are considered elements of the old media are broadcast and cable television, radio, movie, newspaper, magazines, books and most print publications. Many of those industries are now less profitable than they used to be and this is has been attributed to the advance of the new media (Ostrow, A 2009).

(Source: steadyimage.net)

The enhancement of new media on the other hand, has showed the way to people to access information easily and efficiently via different types of media publishing tools such as moblogs, vlogs, photoblog, and news portals.

(Source: harlemlagendz.com)

YouTube is at the forefront of a new video transformation on the Net (Woolley 2006). The chaos it has formed since its creation in 2005 has been a huge phenomenal. According to Alexa.com (2009), users of the Internet spend an average of 22.7 minute/day on the YouTube site and it hits the Alexa’s website traffic ranking as the third highest on the Internet. This shows a new channel in media publishing that has never been seen before. Without a doubt, a video posted on YouTube can have as much impact as a piece of writing written in the daily newspapers. YouTube has always been prevalent in the political scene in the recent years.

According to Mohan (2007), the publics now have their own Facebook pages, creating their own blogs, and obtain everything they do recorded on YouTube. In the Malaysian perspective, individuals tend to rely on YouTube as a substitute media. This is because of the countless restrictions of press freedom that causes the mainstream media to be closely knitted and controlled by the government (Kenyon and Marjoribanks 2007). As a result, certain information that is censored in Malaysia’s mainstream media can be acquired alternatively on YouTube.

However, Jones (2007) mentioned in one of her issue in EContent website that public keeps uploading video which are not suppose, or rather have no right to do so on the Net. Therefore, as a decent user of the Internet, it is better to think twice before doing anything silly. Media publishing has definitely taken a new path in our world today. Based on current response and comment, no one is having a bet against it to remain for a long while to come.

References

Alexa.com 2009,’YouTube.com- Traffic Details from Alexa’, Alexa.com, viewed on 15 April 2010, [http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/youtube.com]

Jones, A 2007, 'You Tube's Legal Issues Grow', Econtent.com, viewed on 15 April 2010,[http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=39887]

Kenyon, A & Marjoribanks, T 2007, ‘Transforming Media Markets: The Cases of Malaysia and Singapore’, Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies, Vol 5, no. 2, pp. 103-118, viewed on 15 April 2010, [http://www.swimburne.edu.au/hosting/ijets/journal/V5N2/pdf/Article3-KENYON.pdf]

Mohan, R 2007, 'YouTube Revolution: How the internet sensation will change the face of political advertising', viewed on 15 April 2010, [http://media.www.osusentinel.com/media/storage/paper1151/news/2007/04/18/Commentary/Youtube.Revolution-2850664.shtml]

Ostrow, A 2009, 'Stats: Old Media’s Decline, New Media’s Ascent', viewed 15 April 2010, [http://mashable.com/2009/01/29/stats-old-media-decline/]

Woolley, S 2006, 'Video Fixation, Forbes', viewed on 15 April 2010, [http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/1016/100a.html]

Blogging Communities

(Source: karagwe.com)

Ever heard of "Blogging Communities"? Blog community refers to a group of people who shares the same interest networking online within limited set of technologies (White, N 2006). In blogging communities, people reach out to each other, building friendships and creating social connections.

There are various blog communities in the Internet and White (2006) has divided them into three key patterns, which are:

I. Single Centric Community

(Source: tihane.wordpress.com)

The single centric community is a type of blog based community where readers will keep coming back to the site to leave comments and gets to know each other, not only the owner but also the other readers around.

II. Topic Centric Community

(Source: fullcirc.com)

The topic centric community exists when blogs are connected by a common interest or topic. An illustration of a shared community who uses this form of community is the Global Voices community. This community accumulates blogs from developing countries in order to have the mainstream media to notice the certain issues of those countries.

(Source: globalvoicesonline.org)

III. Boundaried Community

(Source: tihane.wordpress.com)

Boundaried community is a compilation of blogs that host a particular website. This community usually have other functions such as discussion boards, social networking sites, forums and instant messaging in their website. Bloggers or a reader within a defined boundary creates an opportunity for consumers to gain access to other blogs.

Reference

White, N 2006, 'Blogs and Community-launching a new paradigm for online community', viewed 14 April 2010, [http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community]

Classification of Blogs

“You know, some of the good part of blog theory was that blogs would be like diaries that the world could read. They would be spontaneous, whatever pops into your mind, as a diary would be”.

–Gregg Easterbrook-

It is always fun and exciting to read other people’s blog especially with those who shares the similar interest like you and I recently found out from Technorati’s Blog Directory that blogs are categorized into a few categories as shown below:

· Business

· Entertainment

· Lifestyles

· Politics

· Sports

· Technology

Under these main categories, there are also sub-categories formed to provide a variety of preference for the readers. Here are some examples of the different types of blogs we can find online.

I. Fashion Blogs

(Source: boohoo.com)

(Source: diaryofane-shopaholic.blogspot.com)

II. Politic Blog

(Source: hannahyeoh.blogspot.com)

(Source: thestar.com.my)

III. Sports Blog

(Source: sbnation.com)

Besides that, there is also mobile blogging or better known as “Moblog” being used by the society today. Moblog helps habitual bloggers to update their blogs directly from their mobile phones or even handheld devices (Tech Target 2008).

(Source: nationage.com)

There are also blogs by media type like vlog, linklog, sketch log and tumblelogs.

A Vlog is a blog that has a video, which counterpart with text, images and other information to sum up the framework of a video (iblog.at 2009).

(Source: tametheweb.com)

A Linklog is a blog that has many other links to it (Belan, L 2009).

(Source: apertef5.com.br)

Other than that, a Sketchlog is a blog that uses sketches (Belan, L 2009).

(Source: entrecard.com)

Lastly, a Tumblelog is a blog that consist of a series of links, videos, quotation marks, brief blurbs and metaphors (Pixelspread 2008).

(Source: danhbaweb20.com)

Apart from that, there is also business and corporate blogs created to structure product image as well as to be in touch with clients (iblog.at 2009).

Rowse, D (2006) said that bloggers do not need a subject matter that everyone is searching for, but just one that can be useful even only a small number of people are interested in it. On contrary, Lenssen, P (2006) also emphasizes that illustrative caption, inverted pyramid, and accountability of sources are vital styles of an excellent blog.

In my opinion, although the classification of blogs varies in many ways, the connection in the midst of bloggers has never been cut-off. Bloggers with similar interests will form a blog community, to discuss and share their ideas.

References

Belan, L 2009, 'So You Want to Blawg Do You?', viewed 14 April 2010, [http://ezinearticles.com/?So-You-Want-to-Blawg-Do-You?&id=2230121]

iblog.at 2009, 'How to Define Niche Blogs', viewed 14 April 2010, [http://iblog.at/ihomebusresources/2009/04/21/how-to-define-niche-blogs/]

Lessen, P 2006, 'Good Blog Writting Style', viewed 14 April 2010, [http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-10-11-n47.html]

Pixelspread 2008, 'What is a tumblelog', viewed 14 April 2010, [http://pixelspread.com/blog/223/what-is-a-tumblelog]

Rowse, D 2006, 'How to Choose a Niche Topic for your Blog', viewed 14 April 2010, [http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/15/how-to-choose-a-niche-topic-for-your-blog/]

Tech Target 2008, 'Whatis.com: moblog', viewed 14 April 2010, [http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1180174,00.html]