Good design for screen genre

Diana Reep, (2006) a well renowned author in technical writing, stated that readers don't read the contents of a document, they also read the semiotic values behind the layout and design of the document. Thus it is vital for us to understand the key elements for a decent visual presentation. 

These 2 slides are the presentation slides of our group presentation on Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuven's analysis on newspaper layout. Based on Diana Reep's readings on the principles of document designs (2006), we designed our slides for the following reasons: 

We have ensure our slide designs are under balance, where we take accounts in visual "weight". Here, we present our slides in a very light theme, in order for the readers to digest our information presented easily. A slide too "heavy" with colours makes readers to digested too much information.

Besides, we take account on proportion, where we add the suitable amount of words and pictures in the slides. Here, in the 2 slides presented above, we use 1 picture each with almost the same number of words on the left to compare the layouts of the 2 newspapers. At the same time, we presented consistency in the slides, where we used the same margins and the same fonts in the slides, giving out slides uniformity. 

In conclusion, document designing is essential for readers in order for them to digest the messages effectively. This also helps giving credibility to the readers as it is well prepared and neat. 

Reference: 

Reep, Diana C. 2006, ‘Chp 4: Principles of Document Design,’ in Technical Writing, 6th ed., Pearson Edu, Inc., New York, p.173-190. 

New forms of media publishing

The world today isn't the same as yesterday. The communication world is currently entering a new evolution, where broadcasting and mainstream media begin to decline. John Naughton (2006) wrote that the world of communication is now entering a net-centric world where the Internet is becoming a dominant media. One of the new trends that revolutionize this change is blogging and citizen journalism. According to Naughton again (2006), the growth of bloggers, with a few experts help building up the public sphere which is now declining, as they have a platform that alter the role of journalism who were monopolizing as gatekeepers of information.

 For example, the September 11 events were officially known by the mainstream media as a terrorist attack done by the Al-Qaeda network. However, the court of public opinion begins to shift when there is another angle of the story "exposed" by the American alternative media indicating that the 9/11 events are an "inside job". One of the most credible alternative sources was from investigative journalist, Alex Jones (prisonplanet.com), who launched 2 hour video documentaries explaining the truths behind the events. Thus, Alex Jones, as well as many other bloggers and journalists who are also spreading the same message begin to question the role of the mainstream media as gatekeepers of information. At the same time, the public sphere was reinforced as people begin to argue for truth.

Source: Murph Reports

Caption: Pictures of demonstrations on 9/11 truth done by alternative media.

Reference: Naughton, J, 2006, Blogging and The Emerging Media Ecosystem, viewed April 19, 2010, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>

Blogging Community

The evolving trend of blogging communities. 


Based on Nancy White's research on blogging communities (2006), she stated that blogging communities had been evolving through the growth of Internet. From the beginning, these communities came in as bulletin boards and discussion boards (forums). As Web 2.0 improves the online world of interaction, people begin to follow each other's blogs, as well as tagging and commenting on each other's blogs. 


Today, bloggers don't only interact in online alone. They also interact offline in outings and events. An example happens in Indonesia when Anthony (2009) tells the story on how blogging community events happen there. There are even formal groups made where members are able to socialize and talk to one another in the events they held. 


How to create one blogging community? 


White (2006) implements a few ways to create a community:


- back channeling - using e-mail or any instant messaging applications for interactions. 


- since the introduction of Web 2.0, mashups and tagging become a common. 


- usage of RSS (Real Simple Syndicate) and Feed


- a search for other blogs with comments from each other. 


- addling links within your topic scope into your site and connect with them. (blog roll) 


Blogging Communities Today


White (2006) suggests 3 types of blogging communities in today's world. 

One Blog Centric Community - 
The earliest blog community where readers return to the "one" blog to interact with the blogger and the community of commentators. And the power centralizes on the blogger, as he decides his blog's direction and sets any forms of restrictions he wish. 


Topic Centric Community - 
These communities focus on their respective topics discussed and bloggers are connected through shared interests. For example, Malaysia Today is set up with a group of prominent bloggers, as well as articles from guest writers. 


Boundaried Community - 
The closest form of blogging community to a traditional discussion board (forum), where numbers of blogs are bounded together under a site. Often these communities offer discussion boards, social networking, and instant messaging applications for the members to interact, as the whole main site is the ecosystem itself, where members are bounded to view each other's blogs easily. 


Nuffnang is a clear example of a boundaried community. It is Asia-Pacific's first blog advertising company that connects hundreds of thousands of bloggers together. They connect members online using Nuffnang Xchange, a widget that enables bloggers to view other fellow members of the group, and through Nuffnang Innit, members can interact with one another and view their latest posts by "pinging" their blogs on the site. 

source: Nuffnang

Nuffnang's main site. 

Source: Nuffnang Innit

Nuffnang Innit's homepage. 

Reference: 


Anthony, 2009, What Is A Blogging Community, viewed April 19, 2010, <http://www.thetraveltart.com/what-is-a-blogging-community/>


White, N, 2006, Blogs and Community: Launching A New Paradigm For Online Community?, viewed April 19, 2010, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

Classification of blogs

There are hundreds of millions of blogs out there and of course, there are differences in contents as they are moderated by different editors and writers around the world, regardless how famous they are. But somehow, there are a few patterns done to classify these blogs.

Margaret Simons, an author and media analyst, classifies blogs into the following categories. Here, she (2008) stated that blogs can be divided into 9 groups: Pamphleteering, Digest, Advocacy, Popular Mechanics, Exhibition, Gatewatcher, Diary, Advertisement and News Blog.

However, Simons doesn't classify blogs as a whole, as blogs can be vary through subjects, types of publisher and methods of blogging. For example, a photographer's blog can fall into both the Advertisement and Exhibition category if he shows his artworks in his site while promoting his studio at the same time.

Source: Wedshooter.TV.

Caption: Wedshooter.tv is an online guide for wedding photography, and it can be an Advertisement, Digest, Exhibition and Diary at the same time. 

The most commonly used classification methods of blogs are through the topics of a blog and the method that they use to blog. Classifying blogs by subjects are commonly used in various blog networks nowadays, as different people enjoy reading different genres of blogs. Here, within a subject, a publisher/blogger will tend to use his most creative ways to send his or her messages to the audiences. Thus, they will use various styles of blogging, such as vlogging (video blogging), and moblogs. 

Vlog - or video blogging is currently a big trend and it is growing in video streaming sites, particularly in YouTube. Meefeedia.com has done a research for vlog statistics (2010) and found that there are over 11,000 vlogs around the Internet. As video bloggers continue to grow, video sites such as Vimeo, Myspace.TV begin gaining popularity. 

Some bloggers tend to get the best of both worlds. For example, Marlina Orlova of Russia entered stardom by being a celebrity blogger in Youtube and blogosphere at the same time. 

Source: hotforwords.com - Marlina's blog

Source: http://www.youtube.com/hotforwords - Marlina's vlog

In conclusion, the best categorization on blogs are classifying them through their subjects and topics, as they are the most accurate and most related aspect of a blog. 

References: 

Mefeedia, 2010, State of the Vlogosphere 2010, viewed April 18, 2010, <http://blog.mefeedia.com/vlog-2010>

Simons, M, 2008, Towards A Taxonomy of Blogs, viewed April 18, 2010, <http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0>

Blogs as current phenomenon and benefits of blogging to the community

a.Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits of blogging to the community

The atmosphere of blogosphere is currently a major trend in the World Wide Web. From Perez Hilton's worldwide sensation to local bloggers like Xiaxue and Kenny Sia, from lifestyle editors like Marlina Ordova, to controversial political bloggers like Raja Petra Kamaruddin, blogs have impact the usage of Internet widely. Currently, Blogpulse (2010), with the help of Nielsen Research, had stated that there are 126,861,574 identified blogs in the Internet and it is still continuing to increase time by time.  


As a whole, the world of blogs has revolutionized the Internet world and thus, created a popular trend among Internet users. Generally, as you can see from the graph below (Blogpulse Live, 2010), the top blogs are diaries, movies and sports. However,due to localization and culture, trends are different according in various countries. 

source: Blogpulse Live


For example, based on the happenings and culture in a particular place, blogging trends will be different in various places. For example, in Malaysia, the online diary trend seems to be popular and it outnumbered the numbers of political blogs when compared to the United States. 


As "diary" blogs become popular in blogosphere, they do serve a significant role in their own community. These are a few main roles: 


1. Making local voices be heard. (Loevenstein, 2008)
- The mainstream media may cover it all, but due to commercial space, they don't. When bloggers entered the Internet, they tend to report about the happenings around them, thus they become a new group of "watchdogs" of society alongside journalists. Indirectly, some of them become citizen journalists. 

Source: Jessicat.com - An example on how a blogger covers an event. 

2. Democracy 
- Blogs are online symbols of freedom of speech, where everybody has the rights to speak. However, in some countries such as China, Loevenstein (2008) stated that their rights are challenged by the local authorities. 


These are the roles of blogs for the community. Blogs also serves the business world as a platform of advertising and publicity, as well as improving customers' relations (for e.g. AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines use blogs to boost ticket sales in the airline competition). 




References:

Blogpulse, 2010, Percentage of Blog by Topic, viewed April 18, 2010, <http://www.blogpulse.com/bplive_full.html>


Loevenstein, A, 2010, Beating The Western Drum, viewed April 18, 2010 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/15/blog.politics/print>

Purpose

This blog is established to highlight the aspects in publication and design to all. Here, this page is mainly aimed to my fellow coursemates who are also currently enrolling in the COMM 1043, as well as for design and communication academicians and those in the communication industries. Godwillingly, this site will able to generate constructive and productive ideas to improve the field of document designing, such as advertising.