Different individuals have different reasons in creating and maintaining their blogs. I’ve learned that addressing the right audience, with a valid purpose and at the relevant context is at most important when discussing important issues to be able to convey the intended meanings.
Besides that, identifying the target audiences’ cultures is also essential because publicly talking and discussing about sensitive issues may not be positively accepted in every part of the world. For example, I find the acceptance of political parodies in America in comparison to other countries is astoundingly impressive. I think so because, talking about such topics would generate critical thinking on how amusements and humors attract people indirectly popularising the product, however some countries might find these acts offensive.
I have also built a greater respect for all the bloggers around the world, especially bloggers that has transformed their blogs into ‘the alternative media’ in their countries. For example, the case of Raja Petra Kamaruddin where he was arrested under Internal Security Act (ISA) in Malaysia for his posts that was allegedly accused of threatening the country’s peace. These bloggers have gone beyond writing personal issues, and makes blogging their responsibility to deliver other sides of the stories, even though their profession is at risk.
As a blogger myself, I shall take the stand of understanding other people’s culture before approaching any topics because controversial issues may either, make or break me as a concerned citizen of the world. In the end, the pen will always be mightier than the sword.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Interdependency of Images and Texts on Cover Books
Our folks use to say don’t judge a book by its cover, but more often than not we tend to ignore this. We pick and choose book covers that attract us, or that we can relate to without taking account the essentials of the book.
In the case of the book Liberals and Power, out of four images of the politicians on its cover, only Tony Abbot was considered the ‘true author’ as he was the only one who wrote his own work, while the other three had staff members to write their bosses’ chapters. (Mettherel and Pollard, 2008). The cover of the book was not misleading; however, it did not fairly convey the actual essence of the book.
Source: SMH.com
Reader's drawing on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
In the case of the book Liberals and Power, out of four images of the politicians on its cover, only Tony Abbot was considered the ‘true author’ as he was the only one who wrote his own work, while the other three had staff members to write their bosses’ chapters. (Mettherel and Pollard, 2008). The cover of the book was not misleading; however, it did not fairly convey the actual essence of the book.
Source: SMH.com When Penguin’s ‘draw-your-own’ cover books came about, some parties were unsure of the acceptance of such idea let alone selling it. The responsibility of planned-document using multimodality in conveying the story through it’s cover book is ignored, and creativity is being likened. While some of the readers have accepted the idea of drawing the cover book themselves, multimodality is still used through the drawings of the cover pages.
Reader's drawing on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray Source: The Penguin Blog
Reader's drawing on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Penguin Blog
In conclusion, in designs, texts need images, and images need texts to decode the actual meaning. As stated by Walsh (p.11, 2006), reader will use various senses to respond to other modes…it seems that the' affordance' of different modes, within the purpose of a text, have an essential function in constructing meaning.
References:
Barnes, E (2007) Jackets required: why cover art matters viewed 12, November 2008 < http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2007/aug/03/jacketsrequiredwhycoverart >
Metherell, M and Pollard, R. (2008) Do not judge this book by it’s cover: only one of them is a true author viewed 12, November 2008 < http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/do-not-judge-this-book-by-its-cover/2008/10/28/1224956039679.html >
Oakley, T (2005) Implied narratives of medical practice in learning-for-doing texts:
A simulation semantics approach to rhetorical analysis Language and Literature 14; 295 Sage Publications.
Walsh, M (2006) The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts 'Reading visual and multimodal texts: how is reading different? Vol 29, No.1, pp. 24-37 Australian Journal of Language and Literacy
Reader's drawing on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray Source: The Penguin Blog
According to Barnes (2007), each cover design has to be individual enough that readers don't pick it up (and subsequently drop it) thinking it's something else. In this context, multimodality in print document plays a huge role in conveying the right message. With that, the issue of matching the words with the text is considered crucial in informing to its potential readers what the book is all about. As agreed by Walsh (p.5, 2006), there are a number of things that a reader needs to know in order to be able to 'read' the cover and to begin to predict how a narrative picture book with this title will develop in plot, …picture evokes possible scenarios.
In an approach to understand simulation semantics to rhetorical analysis applied to print advertisements in medical journals, Oakley (2005) said in an effort to construct meaning, elaborate mental simulations that guide and influence thought and action in the world are constructed too also sensed that the arrangement of static images and words on a page forms a dynamic narrative. Images and texts have intertwined functions as it gives a more coherent understanding and meaning to the book covers.
In an approach to understand simulation semantics to rhetorical analysis applied to print advertisements in medical journals, Oakley (2005) said in an effort to construct meaning, elaborate mental simulations that guide and influence thought and action in the world are constructed too also sensed that the arrangement of static images and words on a page forms a dynamic narrative. Images and texts have intertwined functions as it gives a more coherent understanding and meaning to the book covers.
In conclusion, in designs, texts need images, and images need texts to decode the actual meaning. As stated by Walsh (p.11, 2006), reader will use various senses to respond to other modes…it seems that the' affordance' of different modes, within the purpose of a text, have an essential function in constructing meaning.
References:
Barnes, E (2007) Jackets required: why cover art matters viewed 12, November 2008 < http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2007/aug/03/jacketsrequiredwhycoverart >
Metherell, M and Pollard, R. (2008) Do not judge this book by it’s cover: only one of them is a true author viewed 12, November 2008 < http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/do-not-judge-this-book-by-its-cover/2008/10/28/1224956039679.html >
Oakley, T (2005) Implied narratives of medical practice in learning-for-doing texts:
A simulation semantics approach to rhetorical analysis Language and Literature 14; 295 Sage Publications.
Walsh, M (2006) The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts 'Reading visual and multimodal texts: how is reading different? Vol 29, No.1, pp. 24-37 Australian Journal of Language and Literacy
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Parodies for Popularity
According to Huggins (2000), a parody is a humorous form of social commentary and literary criticism in which one work imitates another. When an imitation occurs, questions such as copyright and infringement rises. The parody’s ethical matters are also in question, due to its comical nature about another person or an organisation. Question is, are Parodies and Satires ethical?
Rose and Anderson (1995) reported on cases of inconsistencies of copyright and infringement on parodies, whereby the rights of a trademark owner extent only to prevent injurious unauthorized commercial uses of the mark by another, and that such rights to not entitle the owner to quash an unauthorized use of the mark by one who is communicating ideas or expressing points of view compared to another result when parody and infringement is evident, for example the Mutual of Omaha case, where the parodist incorporated the merchandises sold with the words ‘Mutant of Omaha’- this is considered sufficient in creating confusion.
In America, The Copyright Act Section 107 analyses four factors in Copyright and Infringement:
1) Purpose and Character of Use: where issues such as whether the parody was used in for noncommercial or commercial purposes as also for educational purposes and is the transformation altered the copyrighted work completely or acted just for addition.
2) Nature of Copyrighted work: A more informative work is more particular on its’ copyright then something that is creative based.
3) Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used of the Copyrighted Work: Analyzing whether the parody is a ‘reasonable’ party and accounting the amount or fraction of the work that was copyrighted.
4) Effect Upon Potential Market or Value of the Copyrighted Work: Analyses the extend of harm that is caused by the new work to the potential market for the original copyrighted work.
The parody of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palinon Saturday Night Live was a very influential document parody. Prior to the 2008 US Presidential election, the ‘non-partisan’ parody acted by Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hilary Clinton, also copied Sarah Palin’s struggle in her interview with CBS that has ridiculed her running Vice Presidential post. (Baldwin, 2008)
In most cases, parodies seem to make the original piece or the rightful owner seem like a joke. Generally, good parody should lead to the antithesis of confusion, as its intent is to mock the original mark in its similarity to the mark, with enough differences to clearly indicate that it is in no way related to, or a product of, the original mark holder (Ruder, 2008).
Whether these parodies and satires are ethical, public appreciates and enjoy humor. Conclusively, parody and satires brings positive news on business and increases popularity despite the joke on its owners. Proved by Hines (2004), Gregg Spiridiless company co-founder said the political spoof movie by JibJab online, has helped the company bring in new business, such as advertising campaigns and even potential movies.
References:
Baldwin, T (2008) Ridiculed Palin crams for big debate viewed 11, November 2008 < http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24429952-26397,00.html >
Hines, M (2004) Political parody draws Web crowd viewed 11, November 2008 < http://news.cnet.com/Political-parody-draws-Web-crowd/2100-1028_3-5312081.html >
Huggins J.S (2000) Parody and Fair Use viewed 11, November 2008 < http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/oth1/parody.htm >
Rich, L (1999) Parody: Fair use or Copyright Infringement viewed 11, November 2008 < http://www.publaw.com/parody.html >
Rose, S. M and Anderson (1995) Parody No automatic defense to trademark infringement Publishing Law Centre viewed 12, November 2008 < http://www.usip.com/articles/parodytm.htm >
Ruder, E. S (2008) Parody use of Trademarks Find Law viewed 11, November 2008 < http://library.findlaw.com/2007/Oct/1/247160.html >
Rose and Anderson (1995) reported on cases of inconsistencies of copyright and infringement on parodies, whereby the rights of a trademark owner extent only to prevent injurious unauthorized commercial uses of the mark by another, and that such rights to not entitle the owner to quash an unauthorized use of the mark by one who is communicating ideas or expressing points of view compared to another result when parody and infringement is evident, for example the Mutual of Omaha case, where the parodist incorporated the merchandises sold with the words ‘Mutant of Omaha’- this is considered sufficient in creating confusion.
In America, The Copyright Act Section 107 analyses four factors in Copyright and Infringement:
1) Purpose and Character of Use: where issues such as whether the parody was used in for noncommercial or commercial purposes as also for educational purposes and is the transformation altered the copyrighted work completely or acted just for addition.
2) Nature of Copyrighted work: A more informative work is more particular on its’ copyright then something that is creative based.
3) Amount and Substantiality of the Portion Used of the Copyrighted Work: Analyzing whether the parody is a ‘reasonable’ party and accounting the amount or fraction of the work that was copyrighted.
4) Effect Upon Potential Market or Value of the Copyrighted Work: Analyses the extend of harm that is caused by the new work to the potential market for the original copyrighted work.
The parody of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin
In most cases, parodies seem to make the original piece or the rightful owner seem like a joke. Generally, good parody should lead to the antithesis of confusion, as its intent is to mock the original mark in its similarity to the mark, with enough differences to clearly indicate that it is in no way related to, or a product of, the original mark holder (Ruder, 2008).
Whether these parodies and satires are ethical, public appreciates and enjoy humor. Conclusively, parody and satires brings positive news on business and increases popularity despite the joke on its owners. Proved by Hines (2004), Gregg Spiridiless company co-founder said the political spoof movie by JibJab online, has helped the company bring in new business, such as advertising campaigns and even potential movies.
References:
Baldwin, T (2008) Ridiculed Palin crams for big debate viewed 11, November 2008 < http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24429952-26397,00.html >
Hines, M (2004) Political parody draws Web crowd viewed 11, November 2008 < http://news.cnet.com/Political-parody-draws-Web-crowd/2100-1028_3-5312081.html >
Huggins J.S (2000) Parody and Fair Use viewed 11, November 2008 < http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/oth1/parody.htm >
Rich, L (1999) Parody: Fair use or Copyright Infringement viewed 11, November 2008 < http://www.publaw.com/parody.html >
Rose, S. M and Anderson (1995) Parody No automatic defense to trademark infringement Publishing Law Centre viewed 12, November 2008 < http://www.usip.com/articles/parodytm.htm >
Ruder, E. S (2008) Parody use of Trademarks Find Law viewed 11, November 2008 < http://library.findlaw.com/2007/Oct/1/247160.html >
Monday, November 10, 2008
iPhone for President!
Newspapers are no longer the preferred medium for politicians to communicate and connect with their supporters, as they are no longer depending one conventional media. According to a survey of the Cambodian electorate conducted by the Asia Foundation (Bnet, 2003),Cambodians continue to watch TV and listen to the radio much more than they read newspapers for election updates. Overall, 52% watch TVs three or more times a week, while 38% listen to the radio three or more times a week and only 9% read newspapers on a regular basis. Let's welcome Technology.
Media plays a significant role in connecting these running politicians with the communities. With more and more modern technologies arise, politicians have taken initiatives in connecting with their supporters the unconventional way. The latest breakthrough was introduced; Barrack Obama’s 2008 US Presidential Candidate's iPhone application that has gotten everyone talking, and, connecting with each other with features such as 'Get Involved' and 'Local Events'. New technologies that have been utilized by the electoral campaigns bring them closer to the communities more than ever, and this contributes in decision making.
According to Learmouth, (2008), the comparison between two US electoral politicians lie on how they communicate with their supporters for example, Barack Obama's historic campaign for the presidency rode the wave of a sea change in the way that consumers access, personalize and share news and information and the campaign activated millions of young people already accustomed to consuming media in different ways such as 24-hour cable TV news; participatory blogs, the aggregate news of political bent; YouTube and Facebook.
Media plays a significant role in connecting these running politicians with the communities. With more and more modern technologies arise, politicians have taken initiatives in connecting with their supporters the unconventional way. The latest breakthrough was introduced; Barrack Obama’s 2008 US Presidential Candidate's iPhone application that has gotten everyone talking, and, connecting with each other with features such as 'Get Involved' and 'Local Events'. New technologies that have been utilized by the electoral campaigns bring them closer to the communities more than ever, and this contributes in decision making.
According to Learmouth, (2008), the comparison between two US electoral politicians lie on how they communicate with their supporters for example, Barack Obama's historic campaign for the presidency rode the wave of a sea change in the way that consumers access, personalize and share news and information and the campaign activated millions of young people already accustomed to consuming media in different ways such as 24-hour cable TV news; participatory blogs, the aggregate news of political bent; YouTube and Facebook.
Source: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/iphone
Barrack Obama’s iPhone application was launched on October 2, 2008. It is a free application download for iPhone and iPod touch users and it is used to help become more directly involved in Obama’s campaign to change the country. The application also has “Call your friends” tool that helpes organises contacts by battleground states (Goodstein, 2008). Barrack Obama’s iPhone application campaign paved the modern ways for politicians today connect with the segmented communities. Online media inclusive of blogs have become prominent, it makes information dissemination more interesting and interactive. In a survey conducted on Australians politicians (Merkes, 2002) Parliamentarians found the use of new media technologies more important for their work than did their counterparts in local government and ATSIC, and rural representatives saw less value in these technologies than their urban peers.
These proves that election campaigns expanded in functions and means of communicating to their constituents, and not seeking for clarity on one conventional media only. What’s important is how to become more personal and get in touch with the voters at this modern age. As suggested by Hansell (2008), today’s technology can drive you connect to campaigns, watch videos and take actions, like calling your long-lost friends in Ohio, in ways that mass media never could.
References:
Bnet (2003) FOCUS: Media plays limited role in Cambodian election
< http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDQ/is_/ai_105676060 >
Goodstein, S (2008) Introducing the Obama 08 iPhone App viewed 11, November 2008
< http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/external_organizing/gGxjBN >
Hansell, S (2008) It’s Obama on the iPhone viewed 11, November 2008 < http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/its-obama-on-the-iphone/?scp=1&sq=obama%20iphone&st=cse >
Learmouth, M (2008) One-Way Media Lost the Election as Cable, Interactive Dominated viewed 10, November 2008 < http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=132350 >
Merkes, M (2002) Australian politicians’ use of new media technologies – are they making the most of it?
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=1727
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Welcoming E-Advertisements to World
I used to anticipate promotional advertisements on television when I was a kid. The colors, the scrumptious looking food, the sharing of meal really got me everytime I see it. Print, broadcast and radio dominated the advertising space, and I use to prefer traditional advertisement over online. According to Economist.com, (2006) the kids in “Generation Y”, “echo-boomers” and “millennials”—young people who tend to be adept at using media, constantly online and sceptical—are increasingly immune to the clichés of prime-time television and radio and mentally tune out these nuisances.
As I grow older, online marketing grew rapidly too. According to Wells (2007), on Ad spending by media, for the half year, Internet display advertising expenditures increased 8.0 percent as marketers continued to expand their online programs with other platforms come second, Cable TV (+3.1 percent) and Syndication TV (+10.2 percent) were aided by limited exposure to the TV writer’s strike. This means companies and organizations are slightly diverting more towards internet advertising however the traditional media is still at dominance. Poblete (2007) says that Internet is still a relatively new medium when compared to other long established advertising mediums like newspapers and television, advertisers have not yet realized the full potential for gain.
According to Pebleto (2007) the three most famous forms of online ads are:
a) Search Advertising
b) Display Advertising
c) Classified Advertising
As I grow older, online marketing grew rapidly too. According to Wells (2007), on Ad spending by media, for the half year, Internet display advertising expenditures increased 8.0 percent as marketers continued to expand their online programs with other platforms come second, Cable TV (+3.1 percent) and Syndication TV (+10.2 percent) were aided by limited exposure to the TV writer’s strike. This means companies and organizations are slightly diverting more towards internet advertising however the traditional media is still at dominance. Poblete (2007) says that Internet is still a relatively new medium when compared to other long established advertising mediums like newspapers and television, advertisers have not yet realized the full potential for gain.
According to Pebleto (2007) the three most famous forms of online ads are:
a) Search Advertising
b) Display Advertising
c) Classified Advertising
Source: http://www.friendster.com/
Other organizations should embark on online advertising because it encourages interactivity and this brings human elements and responses can be measured. As stated by Varan (Funnell, 2008), inter-activity is very powerful because it represents a method of actually seeing that you have real engagement taking place …and it moves away from that to a form of communication with the audience, that's about finding the people in the market for whom our product is really relevant, and engaging in a more meaningful dialogue with that cohort, instead of with everybody.
We recognise the growing popularity of online advertising. According to Interactive Advertising Bureau (Stafford and Fabor p.9, 2005), among the segments of the internet, advertising became one of the fastest growing with $906million spent for online advertising on 1997 and Jupiter Communication reported $5billion in online expenditures projected by the year 2000. With interactive advertisements, readers will be equipped with more information in addition, develops a rapport with the particular organisation or product.
Online advertisements are updated frequently and it's quick and easy. Studies have found that the interactive capability of the medium offers uses and gratifications including convenience, diversion relationship development and intellectual appeal (Stafford et al, p.13, 2005). For Search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, advertisements fill the page, which means only one thing; E-advertisements is coming big, with brighter future.
References
Economist.com (2008) The Ultimate Marketing Machine viewed 9, November 2008 < http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7138905 >
Funnel, A (2008) The Future of Advertising Online ABC Radio National viewed 9, November 2008 < http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2055036.htm >
Poblete, M (2007) Internet Advertising Trends superpages.com viewed 10, November 2008 < http://advertising.superpages.com/learning/internet-advertising-trends.shtml >
Stafford, M & Faber, R (2005) Advertising, Promotion and New Media M.E Sharpe viewed 10, November 2007 < http://books.google.com/books?id=bwS3klAb7nMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=online+advertising&lr=&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0 >
Wells, A (2007) TNS Media Intelligence Reports U.S. Advertising Expenditures Declined 1.6 Percent in First Half 2008 TNS Media Intelligence viewed 9, November 2008 < http://www.tns-mi.com/news/09242008.htm >
Blogs: The Other Media
Mainstream media that go through gate-keeping processes are always seen as providing “edited” version of news. While citizens of the world today appreciates other forms of media that vaguely delivers unmediated media, some countries still do encourage filtering computers. This discourages and limits other citizen journalism or bloggers from posting controversial issues with more setbacks. While blogs becomes prominent as the other news, government believes that there are restrictions in posting certain issues. For example, Leoi (2008) reported that 22 websites and blogs have been investigated by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
The act of filtering and screening computers makes internet access slower because when we search for information, the computers will have to pick and select the available sites. Pesce says (Funnel, 2008) from the test ran that was conducted on filtering computers, it slowed down access speeds by about 86%, making Australia particularly fast in our broadband, to a nation that's much more molasses-like in broadband. It's going to be something that's going to be there, and the more aggressive that the government is about detecting things that are unacceptable, the slower that is, the more processing that's required.
Bloggers or other self-publishers use online platforms instead of print, when choosing quality over authority. Online readers look for something that’s not served on mainstream to seek clarity. According to Menassat (2008), Tunisian bloggers and activists recently [March 2008] turned to the Internet to tell the story about the protests of thousands of workers employed in the rich phosphate mines of Gafsa, Redyef and Oum el Arayess against inflation and the rising cost of living – an event that went unreported in the official Tunisian media.
The usage of modern technology is used to reach the audiences that are deprived of "other point of views", with the censorship and filtering process it is evident that there are no clear Freedom of Press. According to Reporters Without Borders (2007) at least 64 persons are currently [2007] imprisoned worldwide because of what they posted on the Internet. China maintains its leadership in this form of repression, with a total of 50 cyber-dissidents in prison. Eight are being held in Vietnam. A young man known as Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for blog posts criticising the president and Islamist control of the country’s universities.
Raja Petra Kamaruddin editor of Malaysia Today an alternative media in Malaysia was detained under the Internal Security Act on September 12, 2008. According to Ong, (2008) the arrest was for allegedly being a threat to security, peace and public order.
The act of filtering and screening computers makes internet access slower because when we search for information, the computers will have to pick and select the available sites. Pesce says (Funnel, 2008) from the test ran that was conducted on filtering computers, it slowed down access speeds by about 86%, making Australia particularly fast in our broadband, to a nation that's much more molasses-like in broadband. It's going to be something that's going to be there, and the more aggressive that the government is about detecting things that are unacceptable, the slower that is, the more processing that's required.
Bloggers or other self-publishers use online platforms instead of print, when choosing quality over authority. Online readers look for something that’s not served on mainstream to seek clarity. According to Menassat (2008), Tunisian bloggers and activists recently [March 2008] turned to the Internet to tell the story about the protests of thousands of workers employed in the rich phosphate mines of Gafsa, Redyef and Oum el Arayess against inflation and the rising cost of living – an event that went unreported in the official Tunisian media.
The usage of modern technology is used to reach the audiences that are deprived of "other point of views", with the censorship and filtering process it is evident that there are no clear Freedom of Press. According to Reporters Without Borders (2007) at least 64 persons are currently [2007] imprisoned worldwide because of what they posted on the Internet. China maintains its leadership in this form of repression, with a total of 50 cyber-dissidents in prison. Eight are being held in Vietnam. A young man known as Kareem Amer was sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for blog posts criticising the president and Islamist control of the country’s universities.
Raja Petra Kamaruddin editor of Malaysia Today an alternative media in Malaysia was detained under the Internal Security Act on September 12, 2008. According to Ong, (2008) the arrest was for allegedly being a threat to security, peace and public order.
Raja Petra Kamaruddin (Source: Audie 61's weblog)
Mainstream media is more often than not, majority controlled by the government. However, when online media such as blogs are also kept under watch, this is when the readers should be selective with what they read and navigate on how to obtain other information. Alternative media such as blogs are not necessarily the right media, but they are used to weigh the issues surrounding us.
References
Freedom Goes Online (2008) Menassat.com viewed 9, November 2008 < http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/3611-freedom-goes-online >
Funnel,A (2008) The Great Firewall of Australia ABC Radio National viewed 9, November 2008 < http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2405376.htm >
Leoi, L. S (2008) 22 sites, blogs investigated by MCMC viewed 9, November 2008 < http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/26/nation/20080526163245&sec=nation >
Ong, A (2008) Raja Petra arrested under ISA Malaysia Kini viewed 9, November 2008 < http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/89544 >
Reporters Without Borders (2007) Eritrea ranked last for first time while G8 members, except Russia, recover lost ground Worldwide Press Freedom Index viewed 9, November 2008 < http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025 >
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The Blogging Trend
It's BIG Waves and BIG Communities
What used to be a foreign way of communicating to the consumers or public in the 90s, has now become one of the most famous platforms for corporation or communities to communicate and disseminate the information regarding their organisation. According to Berners-Lee (1996) Since its inception in 1989 it has grown initially as a medium for the broadcast of read-only material from heavily loaded corporate servers to the mass of Internet connected consumers.
According to Technorati (2008) 133 millions of blogs were indexed by Technorati since 2002. In which, bloggers update their their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second. Blogs have become more significant in our daily lives, because we sit, we switch our computer on, and we browse.
More often than not, blogs serves as ‘filling in gaps’, because blogs particularly citizen journalism serves as additional information or gives other perspective to readers after reading hard news or soft news covered in mainstream. According to Edmonds (2005), blog reports can also provide an umediated, granular, ground level view on huge stories like Katrina or the Iraq war. It is not as if mainstream has dropped on either of these but these blogs are a useful supplement for instance filling out the perspective of soldiers on the ground. (For example, a blog about a soldier who returned from Baghdad name Mark Miner) Eventually, to serve it’s purpose as awareness and informative to its readers.
References
What used to be a foreign way of communicating to the consumers or public in the 90s, has now become one of the most famous platforms for corporation or communities to communicate and disseminate the information regarding their organisation. According to Berners-Lee (1996) Since its inception in 1989 it has grown initially as a medium for the broadcast of read-only material from heavily loaded corporate servers to the mass of Internet connected consumers.
According to Technorati (2008) 133 millions of blogs were indexed by Technorati since 2002. In which, bloggers update their their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second. Blogs have become more significant in our daily lives, because we sit, we switch our computer on, and we browse.
More often than not, blogs serves as ‘filling in gaps’, because blogs particularly citizen journalism serves as additional information or gives other perspective to readers after reading hard news or soft news covered in mainstream. According to Edmonds (2005), blog reports can also provide an umediated, granular, ground level view on huge stories like Katrina or the Iraq war. It is not as if mainstream has dropped on either of these but these blogs are a useful supplement for instance filling out the perspective of soldiers on the ground. (For example, a blog about a soldier who returned from Baghdad name Mark Miner) Eventually, to serve it’s purpose as awareness and informative to its readers.
References
Berners-Lee, T (1996) The World Wide Web: Past, Present and Future viewed November 1, 2008 < http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/1996/ppf.html >
Edmonds, R (2005) As blogs and citizen journalism grow, where’s the news?
Viewed November 1, 2008 < http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=91391 >
Blogs as Social Unity
Whenever I use the internet to retrieve information, I will find other internet users out there too that ‘speaks my language’. Why because it’s relevant and I believe they of all, can relate to me. What makes blogging more interesting and growing rapidly than other form of communication is the fact that we are able to discuss and share our thoughts more interactively in something we are passionate of, for example, our interest.
According to Technorati, 2008, blogs function can be divided to six types;
a) Business
b) Entertainment
c) Lifestyle
d) Politics
e) Sports
f) Technology
These differentiated community blogs differ in functions, audience, and blogging context. For instance, under the Business section alone, there are more subcategories which are segmentedly discussed, such as:
• Business Finance
• Economy
• Entrepreneurs
• Investing
• Personal Finance
• Real Estate
• Stocks and Bonds
One particular blogging community that is making its name in the local community in Klang Valley, Malaysia is Advertlets. Advertlets.com is an Asian blog/ weblog advertising community that benefits three parties through uninterrupted online advertising whereby companies or organisation can advertise on Advertlet’s bloggers’ blogs, promoting and publicizing Advertlet’s client’s products or brands, in return bloggers make money through the advertising.
Other form of activities, that Advertlets.com always conduct are free contests, free movie screenings
All blogging communities have their own readers and audiences, specifically those with similar purposes and interests. These sharing of interests are deemed as also a form of marketing strategy for the organisations or corporations to gain popularity. According to Ng (2006) the point of sharing links is so that you can gain exposure by having your link on their blogs and they gain exposure by you placing their blog links on your blog. It's a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back" kind of situation and is one of the main reasons that people become involved in blogging communities.
References
About Us, Technorati.com (2008) viewed November 1, 2008 < http://technorati.com/about >
About Advertlets, Advertlets.com (2008) viewed 1 November, 2008 < http://www.advertlets.com/about >
Ng, M (2006) Blogging communities brings benefits to bloggers viewed 1 November, 2008 < http://www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/blogging-communities-bring-benefits-to-bloggers-79592.html >
Print Design versus Online Design
What we see in papers may not appear identical to the items we Googled online. Meaning, document designers today most of the time has and should practice certain set of rules when it comes to document design to maintain its readership because both media differs in document design.
As suggested by Nielsen (2006), most internet users practice the F-shape reading pattern through the following steps, the users will first read in a horizontal movement usually across the upper part, which is the F’s top bar. Secondly, users will scroll down and read bits and pieces in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement – this is an element that forms the F’s lower bar and the third element is that the users will scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement. This last element forms the F's stem. With this text the technological differences [Le. screen, windows, frames, hyperlinks, navigation bars, menu buttons, use of cursor, mouse] are designed to assist the reader's learning, to attract and to maintain interest. (p.8, Walsh 2006)
Online Version of The Sun Malaysian Local Paper
(November 7, 2008)
According to Miller (2008), designing for print means to focus on the physicality of the product, which means texture and shapes will come to play. As for online design, ‘teasing’ the audience with snippets of content to entice them to your site is necessary and clear navigation (buttons that users click to get to the sections of your site, animation, sound and interactivity all come into play.
Print media uses salience, and framing to successfully attract readers to stay on that page to read more as for online design focuses on principles such as navigation. According to Kress & van Leeuwen (p. 4-5, 1998), framing devices, such as framelines or white space between elements, can simultaneously both disconnect the elements of a layout from each other, signifying that they are to be read as, in some sense, separate and independent, perhaps even contrasting items of information, and at the same time, framing devices establish what elements, namely those within the frame, are to be read together.
Print Version of The Sun Malaysian Local Paper
(November 7, 2008)
References
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T (1998) Front Pages: (The Critical) Analysis of Newspaper Layout Approaches to Media Disclosure Blackwell.
Miller, E. (2008) Designing for print vs The Web. About.com viewed 2 November, 2008 < http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/printvsweb/a/print_vs_web.htm >
Nielsen, J (2006) F-Shaped Pattern for reading Web Content viewed 2 November, 2008 < http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html >
The Sun Front Page 7 November 2008 (2008) viewed 9, November 2008 < http://203.115.192.117/Friday/index.html >
Walsh, M (2006) The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts 'Reading visual and multimodal texts: how is reading different? Vol 29, No.1, pp. 24-37 Australian Journal of Language and Literacy
New, Newer, & Newest Media
In conclusion, you and I no longer depend on one particular media. In fact, there are so many new modes of communication around today that it has become natural for us to utilize other “new forms” of publishing frequently as well.
There are few types of publishing that has been increasingly popular thus far:
a) V-Blogs
b) YouTube
c) Podcasters
d) Mobile Journalism
e) Email Campaigns
f) Microblogs
Example of a Vlog - Finding John Vlog (Source: Youtube.com)
Segmented to different types of audiences and purposes, these new forms of publishing eventually will be beneficiary. According to Fulton (Loft, 2007) on mobile journalism, by running on handheld devices, rather than on bulkier laptop computers, the mobile journalism application enables us to create complete stories and file them for distribution, without leaving the scene and it saves us time and benefits our audience by ensuring that they receive high quality news that is absolutely up-to-date.
a) V-Blogs
b) YouTube
c) Podcasters
d) Mobile Journalism
e) Email Campaigns
f) Microblogs
Example of a Vlog - Finding John Vlog (Source: Youtube.com)
Segmented to different types of audiences and purposes, these new forms of publishing eventually will be beneficiary. According to Fulton (Loft, 2007) on mobile journalism, by running on handheld devices, rather than on bulkier laptop computers, the mobile journalism application enables us to create complete stories and file them for distribution, without leaving the scene and it saves us time and benefits our audience by ensuring that they receive high quality news that is absolutely up-to-date.
According to Iskold (2007) each form of personal publishing is different and each has its niche and audience. While social networks have been the most wide spread, the content creation there feels different from publishing.
References
Iskold, A (2007) The Evolution of Personal Publishing viewed 8, November 2008 < http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_evolution_of_personal_publ.php >
Luft, O (2007) Reuters conducts mobile experiment to 'transform the way journalists file news Journalism.co.uk viewed 8, November 2008 < http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/530670.php >
Iskold, A (2007) The Evolution of Personal Publishing viewed 8, November 2008 < http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_evolution_of_personal_publ.php >
Luft, O (2007) Reuters conducts mobile experiment to 'transform the way journalists file news Journalism.co.uk viewed 8, November 2008 < http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/530670.php >
Monday, November 3, 2008
Greetings webbers!
This blog is created mainly to openly discuss, communicate and analyse some of the issues pertaining printing, publication and designs in this era.
Reasons for choosing the new media to be the platform is because “new media” is getting popular by the minute as agreed by Rowse (2006), the eight reasons why new media is growing; encourage participation, suspicion of institution, informality that introduces playfulness, relationationality, holism, juxtaposition of opinions and ideas, trying what they read, and immediacy.
Reasons for choosing the new media to be the platform is because “new media” is getting popular by the minute as agreed by Rowse (2006), the eight reasons why new media is growing; encourage participation, suspicion of institution, informality that introduces playfulness, relationationality, holism, juxtaposition of opinions and ideas, trying what they read, and immediacy.
Source: imago, 2007
Information retrieval is made much easier through internet, and at most, internet plays the role of delivering a better intended message compared to print or audio that uses only one form of function. According to Kress and van Leeuwen (1998), ignoring cues such as visual arrangement of marks on a page, the text will become meaningless because our intended message is not properly conveyed, as most of the time we do not solely express liguistically but with intergrated media.
References:
Rowse, D (2006) 8 Reasons why the New Media is growing viewed November 1, 2008 < http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/05/10/why-new-media-is-growing/ >
Kress, G and van Leeuwen, T (1998) Front Pages: (The Critical) Analysis of Newspaper Layout Front pages : (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout Ch. 7, pp. 186-219 Blackwell.
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