Take A Bow

It has come to the end for Essence of Blogging as this is an assignment for my coursework in Issues in Publication and Design. It is a wonderful experience to learn, to fall, to face obstacles, to fret when I produce this web log from zero to hero. 

Writing in a virtual community as an anonymous blogger is amusing yet I find it hard to maintained a certain level of professionalism to make this a credible and readable blog as a platform for media aficionado to have a in depth discussion on media and publishing issue in the modern society. 

In blogosphere, I have learnt that as a blogger one’s need to acquire the skill not to infringe the copyright of other users and here comes in citation to acknowledge the source (Walker, 1997). This common ground rules are also applied towards multimedia field and Kalmbach (2003) has enlighten me the pathway to cite my source in the right manner. 

Aside from being a blogger, the creation of Eccense of Blogging has made me a document designer when I need to take into consideration to make this a comfortable website for viewers to stay on reading on my content. Walsh(1996) has mentioned the multi function of internet and the power of hypertext, hyperlink has made it a unique approach towards publishing experience as compared to the publication of a book.

Hereby, I would like to take a bow.
For participation,
For hardwork,
For the real essence of blogging.

This blog will not be completed without the inner passion and enthusiasm towards media.

"Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion."

(Georg Wilhelm, O Magazine, September 2003)

Reference:

Kalmbach, J 2003, Giving Credit for use of Images or Other Material, Illinois State University, viewed 12th November 2008, <http://www.english.ilstu.edu/351/fall2003/imagecredit.html>

Walker, JR 1997, Intellectual Property in the Information Age:
A Classroom Guide to Copyright, Georgia Southern University, viewed 12th November 2008, <http://personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~jwalker/ip/ipdummie.html#special>

Walsh, M 2006, ‘”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.

K.I.S.S

Keep it short and sweet.

People lifestyle is changing when time is always not enough to finish up their daily work. Companies has spotted this trend long ago and therefore we see a lot of products that are in instant style such as instant mee, instant soup, and now there are even instant televisions whereby an episodes only contain a few minutes rather than the usual 1 hour television episodes. 

To define this new formation of media, Wikipedia (2008) explains the word “webisode” whereby it  is rooted from web and episode, a short television episode which only range from 4 to 15 minutes. A media article “A Laugh A Minute” by the Gurdian.co.uk has further elaborated on the potential of webisodes to be the next popular media in the century as majority human in the modern era are actively engaged in internet compared to last time.

This new form of media is highly discussed in the media industry when a lot of people are producing webisodes and upload it in the internet for viewers to comment on it. Max Dawnson (2007) has written a journal to examine on the format, narration and style of webisodes and concluded that webisodes has formed a whole new genre with specialty that is never owned by other genres. 

Webisode TinyTown going Youtube

(image source: http://www.youtube.com/user/tinderbox60) 

The most attractive part of this new genre will be the possibilities for every Tom,Dick and Harry to be the producer of webisodes. Funnell has written a media report “Webisodes for Kids” when he interviews Chris Cobett, the producer of Tiny Town webisodes to have a more concise understanding of this new media when Chris Cobett are more concerned in improving the qualities of webisodes for the kids as well as for global viewers. 

The rise of webisodes as a new genre has brought the possibilities for grassroots citizen such as you and me to have the ability being a part of the media, rather than viewing the media as an audience point of view. 

Reference: 

Dawson, M 2007, 'Little Players, Big Shows: Format, Narration and Style on Television’s New Smaller Screen', The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol. 13, no. 3, pp 231-250. 

Funnell, A 2008, Webisodes for kids, Media Report, viewed 12th November 2008, < http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2124198.htm>

Guardian.co.uk 2008, A Laugh A Minute, media section, viewed 12th November 2008, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/14/television.internet>

Wikipedia.org 2008, Webisode, viewed 14th November 2008, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webisode> 

Oops, someone is spying on you.

Imagine you are typing a mail for your friend, telling him or her about your personal life, and even sharing photos to update each other with current life. It is bliss to keep in contact with friends who are miles away from you in the lowest cost via e-mail. But, is internet a safe place for you and your friend?

Recent shocking news will be 'White House e-mail system under attacked' reported by CNET News.com. It seems that internet is not a safe place when security and privacy system in the internet are so vulnerable. 

According to Putnis and Petelin (1996), the weakness of computer writing will be the existence of machine problems compared to writing by hand. When writing an e-mail or publishing issues, people have to consider this aspect as the infringement of privacy is always the main cause of frustration in the cyber sphere. 

Is it safe for you to send private message using the Internet?

(image source: http://www.yourprivacy.co.uk/)

When we are working in any industry, people are required to have an e-mail to keep in contact with your boss, employees or even co-worker. Therefore, internet users should have the basic knowledge of protecting your own privacy to avoid somebody spying in your e-mail. In discussing the issue in relation to privacy protection (Yourprivacy.co.uk, 2008), the website has mentioned that there are concrete laws and legislation to protect you e-mail privacy either in work place or at home. 

Sadly, we still can see cases reported on behalf of e-mail being attacked and there is never a safe place to keep a secret in the internet. Weber (1995) has mentioned that all one should accept personal responsibility when it comes to ethical question if you are the one who invade the privacy of other internet users. The new media is certainly tempting and brings benefits to the society; however everyone should bear in mind that not to misuse the privileges that are given by the internet. 

Reference: 

Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, ‘Chapter 7: Writing to Communicate’, Professional communication: principles and applications, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Vamosi, R 2008, ‘Report: White House e-mail system attacked’, CNET News.com 10th November, online news, viewed 11th November 2008, <http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62048125,00.htm>

Weber, JH 1995, ‘Ethics in scientific and technical communication’,WISENET Journal, no. 38, pp. 2-4, viewed 11th November 2008, <http://www.jeanweber.com/>.

Yourprivacy.co.uk 2008, What Are Your Rights Regarding Email Privacy In The Workplace?, viewed 11th November 2008, <http://www.yourprivacy.co.uk/EmailPrivacyAtWork.html>

Are You in the Wrong Site?

World is changing rapidly in an unpredictable speed and sometimes we are even confused when a website has gone under construction to provide better service for the internet users. 

However, sometime things go cuckoo and it is a mess when everybody is flared up when the new design of a website does not match with their expectation. So, is change a good or bad thing for websites? A recent e-demonstration has caught my attention when The Australian newspaper Media section with the article 'Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming' has reported on the new interface of Facebook that cause huge dissatisfaction among Facebook users. 

A screenshot of the new interface of Facebook- a popular social networking website

(image source: http://www.new.facebook.com/facebook)

Nielsen (2008) has stated that if a website is not easily to be used, internet users will most probably leave the website. Facebook has changed into a new interface according to the feedback of internet users but it failed to meet the reading habits of internet users in various ways. 

Taking a look at the new interface of Facebook, the word “complicated” will come into mind as you can see there are too much of navigation bars and section to explore. People easily get confused and lost their way in the social networking website as they have to make a few attempts and get used to the new interface of the website all over again. 

The over flooding applications in website is also something document designer should avoid when it obstructs users to scan for the information they wanted (Reep, 2006).  
Document designers should keep in mind that the main principle for designing web pages is to provide a comfortable layout for readers to read on screen with minimum of eye movement (Parker, 2003).

Although there are a lot of weakness in the new interface of Facebook, but people are still using it and found out that it is actually more organized and better after using it for a period of time (Impactbranding.co.uk, 2008). So, the question for fellows’ media to ponder will be whether the ever popular Facebook has changed the trend of website publication as it is still highly in demand despite its complex web design?


Reference: 

Australianit.news.com.au 2008, Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming, media section, viewed 13th November 2008, <http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html>

Impactbranding.co.uk 2008, Is Facebook 2.0 Actually Better?, viewed 8th November 2008, < http://www.impactbranding.co.uk/blog/index.php/tag/new-user-interface/>

Nielsen, J 2008, Writing for the Web, viewed 8th November 2008,
   
Parker, RC 2003, ‘Chapter 14’ in Looking Good in Print, 5th edition, Scootsdale, Arizona.  

Reep, Diana 2006, ‘Chapter 3 & 7’ in Technical Writing, 6th edition, Pearson Education, Inc.

Pictures Have Feeling,too.

Imagine yourself reading a book with full of text and words that has the minimum space for you to breathe in, do you sometimes yearn for a picture, or maybe an illustration to refresh your mind?

I am a person who likes to indulge myself in the world of picture besides than reading from the text. Kress and Leeuwen (1996) have pointed out that in today’s world we are moving towards a decade that has a decrease control of language in the public media and increase importance in visual communication. As time goes by, I felt the changing flow of picture as a single photograph is gaining power to express and bring out a message without the existence of word side by side.

'The Power of Photograph', a media report by Funnel has expanded on my discussion about photography and its potential to create an impact among audiences. The interviewee, Sonja Heizman is a photojournalist who specializes in taking multifaceted photos of war, and expresses his view on the manipulation of media to distort the intended message of the picture.Photograph can produce own message based on the photographer himself or herself when they are driven by the situation of the scene to create an interpretation for the world to understand (Socialism.org, 2000).


 

Picture that speaks right through your heart

(image source: http://www.hopefoundation.co.nz/)

However, it is a different situation for audience to interpret the picture. Oakley (2005) has stated that human beings construct a mental space when they look at a picture whereby the brain is undergoing a thinking process to explain the meaning of the picture. Therefore, how a person look at meaning of a photograph will vary from others based on their past experiences and cultural background, imposing a challenge to photographer to create a common ground for viewers by taking pictures that speak directly to the audience.

When we move along in this world that bombarded us with so much of simulation in a day, visual medium is a way for everyone to see through the eyes of picture and create an impact in our daily life. 

Reference:

Funnell, A 2008, The Power of Photograph, Media Report, viewed 8th November 2008, < http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm>

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1996, Reading images: the grammar of visual design,
‘Chapter 1:The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication’, pp 15-42, Routledge, NY. 

Oakley, Todd 2005, ‘Implied narratives in medical practice,’ in Language & Literature, vol. 14, no. 3, p.295-310

Socialismtoday.org 2000, The Power of Photography, Monthly Journal, Issue 50, viewed 8th November 2008, < http://www.socialismtoday.org/50/photography.html>

Anywhere, Everywhere.Change can Happen.

Change can really happen in anywhere, everywhere of this world, as we strongly hold on and believe in it. We have just witnessed a compelling change in United State of America when Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to win the US presidency.

  Barack Obama going Web 2.0 to seek for changes

(image source: http://www.barackobama.com)

Web 2.0 has changed the interface of media publishing when even political campaign candidates are going online to get supports from voters. Carr and Steller (2008) has written an online media article regarding the use of social networking websites, blogs to publish events and activities of US Presidential Campaign recently. Video sharing website YouTube is making the most out of it as it is one of the most commonly use media publishing in the Web 2.0. 

The ability of multimodal text to combine words, images, videos in a complex structure enable readers to be the navigators of the websites to decide on what kind of information they wanted to find (Walsh, 2006). Looking at Barack Obama’s political campaign website, the new media has formed a fresh look for publication as the website is a platform that can connect to other websites through hyperlinking and tagging. Graphics and colors in the screen are also well organized to ease the eye movement of internet users to scan for information (Lynch & Horton, 2002).

Other than the politicians, global citizens are also shifting towards new media to retrieve and submit information when it comes to general election. Blogging has become a good platform for everyone to practice the freedom of expression. In media term, Gilmor(2006) has categorized this as “citizen media”, whereby the content of media is distributed for the people from the people, compared to the old media which information is come from a single main source only.

A very good example will be a ground research done  by Malaysia mainstream newspaper and published it in their newspaper website. The Star Online Television (2008) found out that majority of them are also alerted in different ways such as internet, mobile phones about political campaign for poll results and more. 

Apparently, old media have to buck up and learn new tricks in order to stay in the publishing and design field as Web 2.0 is slowly moving towards main stream media to be the centre of information for global citizens.

Reference: 

Carr, D & Steller, B 2008, Campaigns in a Web 2.0 World, media article, viewed 7th November 2008, <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/business/media/03media.html?partner=rssuserland&emc=rss>

Gilmor, D 2006, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, O'Reilly, USA.

Lynch, P & Horton, S 2002, Web Style Guide, 2nd edn, viewed 7th November 2008, <http://www.webstyleguide.com/>.

Sms, Internet Access to Election News 2008, Online Television, the Star Online, Malaysia, 9th May. 

Walsh, M 2006, ‘”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.

Torn in the World of Design

Today’s document designers are torn in the world of design as modern technologies have a dramatic influence on document design practice in the media and design industry. The interplay of image and words are important in the modern context and designers are required to be well equipped in both writing and creative skill to capture the reader’s attention (Schriver,1997). 

Hereby we will be discussing on how print document design principle distinguishes from webpage design principle. I have chosen the same theme for both print based and multimodal text in order to have a more objective comparison in terms of design and layout.

The Battle of Publication Design

Print Based Text: SPOT, Houston Center for Photography Magazine

(image source: http://www.janefultonalt.com/Text_page.cfm?pID=496)

Multimodal Text: Nature's Best Photpgraphy Magazine

(image source: http://www.naturesbestmagazine.com/)

Walsh (2006) has mentioned an important element in publication for print document and web document when engagement level in reading process for both texts will be varied. 

Internet users are prompt to view a website using F-shaped pattern, minimizing their eyes movement because people are scanning instead of reading word by word to search for information in a website (Nielsen,2006). Unlike print based text, Z-shape pattern are adopted in the reading habits of users, making it a crucial for document designers to remember when content of a print based text is significant whereby readers will be more engaged in the text.

Therefore, web designer are advised to have vertical rectangle orientation because it is easy to move your heads to have a full view of the web page. Shape arrangements and grids has to be well organised in order to allow readers to have a comfortable eye flow when searching for information (Nielsen, 2006). On the other hand, print design differs in the sense that the main concern will be the equal distribution of visual weight and symmetry balance to match the readers’ habit (Reep, 2006).

We can see an evolution is going on when people have different expectations when they meet with different types of text. The introduction of new media has imposed a challenge towards document designer to work in an ever changing media atmosphere. Last but not least, a friendly reminder for document designers to avoid the mistake of “romancing the hypertext” with too much emphasis on design because at the end of the day information is what it matters (Reep, 2006).




Reference:

Nielsen, J 2006, F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content, Useit.com, viewed 5th November 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>.

Reep, Diana C 2006, ‘Chapter 6: Document design’ in Technical writing: Principles, strategies and readings, 6th ed., Pearson-Longman, New York, pp.134-136

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Publisher, NY.

Walsh, M 2006, ‘”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.

A Plethora of Blogs

Before going into deeper discussion, let us take a peep of the three main types of blogs that have existed in the cyber world ( Wikipedia, 2008):

Personal Blogs

Corporate Blogs

Question Blogging

According to Wikipedia (2008), the variety of blogs not only comes from its content, but also the way blogs presented itself just as presented below:

By Media Type: vlog, linklog, sketchblog, photoblog

By Device: mobile device, webcam

By Genre: political blogs, travel blogs, classical music blogs, fashion blogs

It is confusing when we classified the types of blogs in this way as there are blogs that have a set of combination from different elements rather than sticking to one characteristic of what I have mentioned just now.

Putting aside all the complication, media analyst Margeret Simons’ interview (2008) with ABC Radio National, A taxonomy of blogs has shed light on the path way to identify various types of blog with a better classification.

After looking at the transcript of the interview, I personally agree with Margeret’s analysis as she has narrowed down the scope of blogs, yet manage to cover up all the various style of blogs regardless of the audience, style, format and topic. 

According to Schirato and Yell (1996), contexts are best understood if the particular environment is set to the right tone. In the world blogging, Margeret has point out an important point when she categorized types of blog by looking into the common ground of bloggers; hence blogging communities are formed based on their own shared interest.

Thing in this era is way beyond easy when you don’t need a scientist’s mind to make up a blogging community in the World Wide Web. White (2006) has written an article on the application tool of Web 2.0 such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and feedreaders has eased the job of discovering same category blog posts to enhance interaction between interested internet users. Other Web 2.0 tools such as tagging and mashups are also helpful in terms of letting bloggers to modify the application and make it unique to stand up among others blogging community.

The virtual blog based online community is branched out in three broad categories which will be one blog centric community, topic centric community, and boundaried community.

Regular publishing of sports media issues from multiple authors

(image source: http://journalsportsmedia.blogspot.com/)

Journal of Sports Media is a good example of blog centric community as its main function is to conduct academic discussion on sports media issues hosted by journal of sports media. It is a one blogging platform owned by a community and firmly in the central blogger’s control compared to the other two types of blogging communities in the Internet.

Reference:

Funnell, A 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, Media Report, viewed 3rd November 2008, < http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript>

Schirato, T. & Yell, S. 1996, Chapter 1: Communication as social practice, Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, Australia.

White, N 2006, Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?, 11th edn, editorial, viewed 3rd November 2008, < http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

Wikipedia.org 2008, Blog, viewed 3rd November 2008, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog> 

Forget about Pens and Pencils

Living in the virtual community of internet, we are certainly losing the common touch with pens and pencils. Diaries and notebooks are so yesterday as people have different experiences when they are reading from a print based text and a multimodal text (Schriver,1997). Schriver also further explain on the potential of internet as multimodal text to be able to combine words and images, hence creating a whole new approach towards the reading process of a reader. 

Technorati (2008) has done a study on bloggers and it shows that there are a total number of 188.9 million internet users while 77% of them are users are blog readers.To further acknowledge the trend of blogging in the modern society, it is also interesting to find out that there are move male bloggers in Europe countries compared to Asian countries. Asian bloggers are also more prompt to use their blog as a money maker tool, as stated in a survey by Technorati (2008).

As we look into the blogging trend of Malaysia, it has somehow become the main highlight of discussion as there is a significant growth of political blogs in the country. 

Ooi (2007) has written the journal of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) to illustrate the blogosphere in Malaysia whereby Malaysians are heading towards the way to embrace blogging as a social media.  Blogging has enabled Malaysian to have the freedom to express themselves in the internet as Malaysia's censorship mechanism has tightly restricted the freedom of speech in Malaysia. 

Malaysian's hero - Raja Petra Kamaruddin, when he is freed from jail 

(image source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/)

One of the well known political activists, Raja Petra Kamaruddin is the hero of Malaysia as he opens a blog to give critical comment on Malaysia’s government policy, resulting himself to be caught under the injustice law of Internal Security Act (ISA). Ooi (2007) also stressed that political blog is just a small part of blogging landscape as there are other blogs that share about their opinions from food to religion and more to go. 

Therefore as a media observer, it is crucial to notice and never underestimate the power of blogging to be a global phenomenon as it is slowly replacing the old media and going main stream in the 21st century.

Reference:

Walsh, M 2006, ‘”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.

Technorati.com 2008, State of blogosphere 2008, viewed 31st October 2008, <http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/>

Ooi, YM 2007, ‘Blogging Thrives in Malaysia’, International Association of Business Communicators, pp37-39, special report, viewed 31st October 2008, <http://www.iabc.com/>

Welcome to a blog that is hosted by a media enthusiast. 

Media is an ever changing industry that has driven my passion towards exploring the flow of media and its current trend in the modern society. 

Essence of Blogging is a professional blog that discusses on media and publishing issues  in a media perspective.
It focuses on issues that involve the current new media, Internet in the atmosphere of Web 2.0.

All are invited to participate in this discussion especially for those who are in the media industry, communication students, and last but not least, those who are keen to know more about the happenings in the media world.