Flashback!

Reflecting my whole blogging experience as a first-timer, this has definitely been a refreshing lesson to learn.

Credits to blog service providers like Blogger.com, it makes life easier for a student like me who is not tech-savvy! This new publication media definitely adds on benefits to its users, allowing individuals to express personal opinions just like my blog.

Also, design elements such as white space, framing, typography, colour, graphic aids were among what I had to consider while designing my web page. All these elements have to suit the target audience, to enhance readability.

I also used theories in my various researches on media and publication design issues. I focused a lot on the power of multimodality (Walsh 2006), designing for the web (Nielson 2008) and so on.

Through this assignment, it has also taught me how to be an ethical blogger, by citing the sources and references use to avoid copyright infringements and defamation.

All in all, I guess I have entered the world of blogosphere with a good first-time experience. It is indeed an interesting new form of publication.

References

Nielsen, J 2008, Writing Style for Print vs. Web, Useit.com, viewed 12 November 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/print-vs-online-content.htm>.

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, p.24-37. (UNISA electronic library)

Google the Earth

[Source: Google Earth]

The picture above is from Google Earth, which is a software that allows us to fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the sky. It is used to explore rich geographical content, and users are able to save the toured places to share with others (Google Earth 2008).

About.com describes it as "a map of the world on steroids". Users can zoom and glide over stitched together satellite photos of the world (About.com).

Brian McClendon created Google Earth, a virtual 3D globe for the rest of the world to sail around by using their computers (Buzbee 2007).

With the invention of this software, many buildings and structures from around the world now have detailed 3D structures. Furthermore, any user with internet access is able to explore any part of the world with just a click of the mouse. Even news organizations such as CNN uses this smart software to highlight locations in news (Buzbee 2007). More impressively, after the Hurricane Katrina a few years back, Google Earth was used by rescue teams and the US Air Force to locate stranded victims.

Lemke (2002) studied detailedly on hypertext and has found that there is a complex and 'multiplicative effect' in the way language and modes of image, text and sound are combined in websites and linked to layers of interconnections within and between sites. Google Earth conveys to its audience that it is like an atlas in digital form. It is an intelligent software designed by geniuses - complex yet easy to use.

[Source: YouTube]

References

Buzbee JK 2007, Google Earth creator sees many potential benefits, viewed 13 November 2008, <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4179/is_20070919/ai_n20522613>

Google Earth 2008, viewed 13 November 2008 <http://earth.google.com/>

Lemke J 2002, Travels in hypermodality, Visual Communication 1(3), pp. 229-325.

Lying through photos

Adobe Photoshop is a miraculous tool, that enables a designer to do almost anything they want. Just take a look at what it can do in the picture below!
1. Colour enhanced.
2. Smooth porcelain skin.
3. Bigger and healthier-looking hair.
4. Fuller chest.
5. Flatter stomach.
6. Beautiful background.
7. The list goes on...

[Source: Dailymail.co.uk]

In an article by Dreifus (2007) in The New York Times, discusses an interview with Dr. Hany Farid, an expert in digital forensics. He is hired by news organizations and scientific journals to authenticate the validity of images. It is a common scenario where tabloids manipulate their pictures by publishing photos of celebrities together, airbrushed photoshoot pictures, and so on.

I've seen tabloids that use this technique to either make celebrities look better, or worse. It is really entirely up to them, as they are in control when they make use of Adobe Photoshop, or any other image editing software for that matter. The main reason why this is happening is because "images have other effects that are different from words, particularly at affective, aesthetic and imaginative levels (Walsh 2006). With that said, the media place utmost importance in having images in their publications.

This allows images to be easily entered and modified. The result of this digital manipulation is a seamless, fast alteration of the photograph - and of its representation of "reality" (Ritchin 1991).

Question is: Is this ethical?

This has been a never-ending debate for a long time. Traditionally, it has been possible to crop a photo without damaging its integrity for publication purposes (Ritchin 1991). But, obviously photo editing has gone to much greater lengths now. Basically, it can be summed up in a quote by Professor Guenther Cartwright, "One person's enhancement is another person's alteration".

Journalists/Photojournalists just have to always prioritize practicing integrity in their work, keeping in mind to be considerate for all parties.

References

Ritchin F 1991, 'Photojournalism in the age of computers, The Critical Image: Essays on contemporary photography', Lawrence & Wishart, London. pp 215-224.

The New York Times 2007, Proving That Seeing Shouldn't Always Be Believing, viewed 10 November 2008, <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/science/02conv.html>

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.

BAN Junk Food Advertisements!

[Source: Media.canada.com]

In a few recent articles on The Australian, the issue of banning junk food advertisements has been raised, especially by parents.

In an article titled "Parents want junk food ads banned", there are a vast majority of parents who support bans on these commercials to children, especially television advertisements (The Australian 2008 i).

In fact, they are so strongly against it that they also slammed the media watchdog for failing to restrict these sort of advertisements during children's' television time. (The Australian 2008 ii)

Walsh (2006) says that a picture could evoke possible scenarios and readers could respond to it differently. In this case, these junk food advertisements have evoked anger in their audience - mainly the parents. On the other hand, the target audience have a different respond to it. It creates a desire in them to want the advertised products.

Additionally, Schriver (1997) stressed that "document designers who misunderstands their audience and their frame of reference can create documents that evoke confusion, and in some cases even anger." Again, this statement is totally relevant to the above stated scenario.

References

The Australian 2008, Media watchdog attacked for not restricting junk food ads, viewed 9 November 2008, <http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24254710-2702,00.html>

The Australian 2008, Parents want junk food ads banned, viewed 9 November 2008, <http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23720989-27698,00.html>

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

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

Free TV Series anyone?

[Source: Technologyforgirls.com]

Would you pay to watch your favourite TV Series online? What if it can be found for free? I'm not sure about you, but the latter definitely sounds more appealing to me.

Try it. Just Google "Gossip Girl", surf through the countless searches and you're bound to find a website that has the latest episode uploaded online to be watched with no cost!

In an interview with James McQuivey, he says that in the States, the move to offer popular TV programs as downloads has been something of a stampede. Majority of prime time programs are available online for free, and we will just see each network continue to add more and more of its programs. In fact, some websites are adding programs that they've decided not to put on the air, but instead are only making them available on the internet. This is their way of testing new shows that they might want to develop later (ABC.net 2007).

Some websites that have streaming online without any cost are Project - Free TV and TVFreeload.

TV Stations and studios fear that the Internet has now become many people's alternative of delivering TV shows to them quickly. Production companies are becoming increasingly aware that the Internet is taking their audience (Delahunty 2005).

Personally, I agree with Delahunty (2005) that this is the "new form of piracy". However, there are also reasons behind why viewers prefer to download their favourite TV Series. For people outside America, it is impossible to catch up with the latest TV Series episodes as it is shown much later. DVDs are also produced after a whole season, and released after a very long time. So, the best alternative would be to download it for free!

References

Delahunty 2005, Channel Five to offer legal TV show downloads, viewed 10 November 2008, <http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/6237.cfm>

Downloadable TV is on its way, Media Report, ABC.net, viewed 10 November 2008,<http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2042890.htm>

Vlog

[Source: Steve Garfield.com]

An article in USA Today states that 'YouTube, the leader in Internet video search, said Sunday viewers are now watching more than 100 million videos per day on its site, marking the surge in demand for its "snack-sized" video fare.'

YouTube holds the top position in online video with 29% of the U.S. multimedia entertainment market, according to the latest weekly data from Web measurement site Hitwise (USA Today).

[Source: VlogBlog.com]

However, YouTube has raised many concerns because of some videos that are insulting to certain parties. For example, the Pakistani government once blocked this video sharing site from its citizens (VlogBlog.com). The reason was that YouTube had content that the Pakistani government deemed insulting to Islam. Not only did they block the site at first, further they were able to hijack the server address that caused many other countries affected too. (VlogBlog.com)

However, many of the videos posted up on video sharing sites are infringing on copyrights of some content creators (Malik 2006).

As a solution, YouTube issued an e-mail statement that said:
“All of the content on YouTube — including videos, comments, and ratings — is posted at the direction of users. We take copyright issues very seriously. Our terms of use make it clear that
users should own or have permission from copyright holders to post any videos. We encourage copyright holders to contact us appropriately if they have any objections about specific postings.”


References

Malik O 2006, Google, You Tube & Dark Side of Online Video, viewed 9 November 2008, <http://gigaom.com/2006/01/15/google-you-tube-dark-side-online-video/>

USA Today, YouTube serves up 100 million videos a day online, viewed 9 November 2008, ,<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-07-16-youtube-views_x.htm?>

VlogBlog.com, Pakistan Breaks YouTube, viwed 9 November 2008, <http://www.vlogblog.com/index.php/archives/2008/02/26/pakistan-breaks-youtube/>

Print Design vs. Online Design

Nielson (2007) says that print designers have a huge canvas to play with. It is still possible for readers to read the small text even if it is intricate and packed with words and images. It is all up to the layout of the whole design to determine readability.

On the other hand, web design has limitations such as audience readability and scannability (Reep 2006).

The differences are shown clearer in the examples below:

[Source: Etoday]

Schriver (1997) states that the editor of Hendrick Hertzberg, editor of New Yorker said "before I even look at other newspapers, I pay attention to the front page of the New York Times. Not only do I look at what is on that page, but the relative position of one story to another. After all, the structure of the front page is the ontology of what newsmakers think is important."

This quote clearly shows that element layout of a print design is important for readers readability and navigation of the page.

Print design allows the eyes walk over the information, looking at information objects selectively and using spatial juxtaposition so that page elements enhance and explain each other. (Nielson 2007)

However, Nielson (2007) says "Anything that is a great print design is likely to be a lousy web design." Therefore, print design as vastly different from online designs.

[Source: Elle.com]

Nielson (2007) explains that web designs function based on allowing the hands move the information (by scrolling or clicking); information relationships are expressed temporally as part of an interaction and user movement.

In the examples shown, the print design used elements like white space, balance, typography and colour. Whereas in the web design, elements like framing, white space, borders and colour were used.

References

Nielsen, J 1999, Differences Between Print Design and Web Design, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, Useit.com, viewed 9 November 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html>.

Reep, DC 2006, Technical Writing,6^th edn, Pearson/Longman, New York.

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

The Blogosphere Classification and Communities

Classification

Wikipedia.org states that there a a few blog categories, such as:
1. Personal Blogs: An ongoing diary of commentary by an individual.
2. Corporate Blogs: A blog for business purposes.
3. Question Blogging: A blog that answers questions.
4. Vlog: A blog comprising videos.
5. Photoblog: A blog comprising photos.
6. Moblog: A blog written by a mobile device.

On the other hand, Simons (2008) terms types of blogs with different words such as the diary, the news blog, pamphleteering blogs, digest blogs, advocacy blogs, the popular mechanics blog and gatewatcher blogs. Though the terminology differs, the function of blog genres are still the same.

Community

Communities are formed when people share a common interest, and this is a similar scenario in the blogging world.

Skellie (2007) states that if readers have a personal attachment to you or readers of your blog they'll be more likely to revisit your web page.

An example of a community is where Facebook enables users to create a "group", to gather people with the same passion to join it. Then they have discussions amongst themselves, post photos, raise questions, and so on.

An example in the blogosphere is Red Carpet Fashion Awards, a blog updated daily that posts pictures and opinions of celebrities red carpet styles by a fashion enthusiast. This blog is read and commented on by close to 1000 viewers daily. Clearly, people who share the same interest and passion for fashion would log on to the website to see the daily updates.

[Source: DailyBlogTips.com]

References

Red Carpet Fashion Awards, viewed 7 November 2008, <http://www.redcarpet-fashionawards.com/>

Simons M 2008, Towards a Taxonomy of blog, Creative Economy, viewed 8 November 2008, <http://www.creative.org.au/webboard/results.chtml?filename_num=229836>

Skellie, 2007, Building a community around your blog, viewed 4 November 2008 <http://www.dailyblogtips.com/building-a-community-around-your-blog/>

Wikipedia.org (2008), Blog, viewed 8 November 2008, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#Types>

The Blogosphere

[Source: ScienceRoll.com]

Blog?

A blog (a contraction of the term "web-log") is used by many as "a personal diary, a daily pulpit, a collaborative space, a political soapbox, a breaking-news outlet, a collection of links, private thoughts, or memos to the world". (Blogger.com)

Top blog service providers include Blogger.com, Xanga.com, and Multiply.com.

Size?

Technorati.com, a leading blog search engine states that there are currently 112.8 million blogs as of year 2008 in 81 different languages! For an average of three years, bloggers have been actively blogging, and are collectively creating almost one million posts per day.

[Source: Technorati.com]

Technorati.com is currently tracking more than 70 million weblogs, and there are approximately 120,000 new blogs created worldwide every day. Do the math, and that means about 1.4 blogs are formed every single second!

Trend?

In Asia and Malaysia, 46% of the people online actively blog (Windows Live Spaces Research, 2006). The research also showed that Asians see blogging as a social phenomenon to build and maintain their social connections and to express themselves. Blogging as a corporate of business tool is still nascent in most markets.

In Europe, the blogging trend is taking off slowly. A survey done in Europe’s top 15,000 companies show that only 2% write blogs. Many boardroom members are not aware about blogging. (Hobson, 2006)

Benefits?

Now that blogging is shown to be popular among Asians, many people are turning to blogs instead of the traditional mainstream media for information and updates.

In fact, blogging is growing so rapidly that Advertlets and its rival Nuffnang are using top blogs as advertising tools. This is also an effective way for bloggers to earn their side income.

Sifry, CEO of Technorati (2007) says "the state of the blogosphere is strong, and is maturing as an influential and important part of the web. For nearly four years, we have been tracking and enabling the growth of this phenomenon. Our gathered data indicates that the medium is growing up."

References

Blogger, viewed 6 November 2008, <http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g>

Blogging Phenomenon Sweeps Asia, report from Microsoft, viewed 6 November 2008, <http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-28-2006/0004480819&EDATE>

Helmond A 2008, How Many Blogs Are There? Is Someone Still Counting?, viewed 6 November 2008, <http://www.blogherald.com/2008/02/11/how-many-blogs-are-there-is-someone-still-counting/>

Hobson N 2006, Business blogging: Hills to climb in Europe, viewed 6 November 2008, <http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/04/03/business-blogging-hills-to-climb-in-europe/>
Mesko B 2008, Do you need some reasons why to blog?, viewed 6 November 2008, <http://scienceroll.com/2008/11/12/do-you-need-some-reasons-why-to-blog/>

Sifry D 2007, The State of the Live Web, viewed 6 November 2008, <http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html>

Introduction of a up-to-date blog

This is a new blog that targets students in the media industry. The main purpose is to provide up-to-date information regarding issues in the media and publishing world.