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]

Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits of blogging to the community

(Source: blaugh.com)

B.L.O.G.G.I.N.G

Almost everyone around the globe knows what blogging is all about and it has already conquered the culture in our world today. According to Technorati (2008), there is a ballpark figure of 133 millions registered blogs in the cyberspace and approximately 900,000 blog posts are being published in 24 hours.

Besides that, in Asia, many people believe that by blogging, one is able to know more about the present affairs, which are going on (Powazek 2006).In Europe, many fashion designers uses blog to notify consumers regarding their product or even updating them with the most up-to-date craze in the market (Apparel1 2008).

As for Malaysia, it is said that roughly 500,000 bloggers could be found on the Internet (Kaufman 2008). According to Yeow (2008), there are blogs owned by Malaysian’s veteran politicians to uphold both opposition and government’s point of view.

Nearly everyone desires to express their opinion to the society or nation of what they have in mind (BBC News 2006). All the above blogs stated shares one thing in common, which is multimodality. Walsh (2006) points out that multimodality is a form of text, which has multiple modes.

Lastly, blogging has taken over the world by storm and there is no doubt about it with the rising figure of bloggers over time.

References

Apparel 1 2008, 'Fashion Industry Network', viewed 9 April 2010, [http://www.fashionindustrynetwork.com/profiles/blogs/fashion-trends]

BBC News 2006, 'Blogging 'set to peak next year', BBC news, viewed 9 April 2010, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6178611.stm]

Kaufman, S 2008, 'Malaysia's Alternative Media Become Decisive Political Factor', America.gov, viewed 8 April 2010, [http://www.america.gov/st/democracy-english/2008/April/20080403175441esnamfuak0.1705591.html]

Powazek, D 2006, 'Blogosphere in Asia', viewed 10 April 2010, [http://iteau.wordpress.com/2006/11/29/asianblogophere/]

Technorati 2008, 'State of Blogosphere/2008', viewed 10 April 2010, [http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/who-are-the-bloggers/]

Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual stuff': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal text', vol.29, no.1, pp. 24-37.

Yeow, J 2008, 'Malaysian politicians take to blogging, Thaindian', viewed 11 April 2010, [http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/malaysian-politicians-take-to-blogging_10062197.html]

Welcome!

(Source: ehow.com)

Hello people!

I am here to share with you my thoughts and knowledge regarding the "Issues in Publication and Design" which I am currently learning in college. My blog will help you strengthen your understanding regarding the realm of media and the matters concerning publications and document designs. This blog is targeted to individuals who are curious to know more about reading images and why certain documents are publicized the way it had been.