Reflection

Finally it has come to an end to blogging for this assignment and I have learnt a lot through out this process. One of the skills I learnt from blogging is that it is essential to understand how readers read on the web because the way a reader read on print and web are different. It is best to emphasize on important information by highlighting the keywords, having headings and sub-headings as readers would skim through the texts at all times (Nielsen, 1997).

On the other hand, the information used in my blog posts were cited to avoid any copyright issues. Lannon (2006) stated that credibility and the accuracy of the information have to be used appropriately. Besides, I also learnt that images are as important as texts. It is essential to include images in the blog post as it will increase reader’s interest in reading them. Both images and texts are designed to work together as it will enhance learning and understanding (Schriver, 1997). Schriver (1997) also stated that “learning was better with text and illustration”. In conclusion, this learning process was beneficial and valuable to me.

References:

Lannon, JM 2006,'Technical Communication', 10th Edition, Pearson Education, USA.

Nielsen, J 1997, How Users Read on the Web, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, retrieved 15 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Schriver, K.A 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.

New media ecosystem - Web TV

This article discusses about the concept TV Everywhere chich is a new transformation cencept in the television industry. The Diffusion Group conducted a survey reading this issue. The result shows that consumers are familiar with this concpet and many of them are willing to pay for the service. However, considerable issues erupted along as this concept might bring negative impacts to other electronic device industry. Anyhow, the cencept is already an ongoing among the consumers and is largely acceptable.For individual subscribers, this technology means that Directv is able to offer tons of choices in programming and great quality picture.

Figure 1: Mobile TV showing basketball match

(Source: www.BuyVertuReplica.com)

The new era of the transformation of television today have alter the way people received information or act as a tool of entertainment. The evolution of television ha evolved to a diversity of ways for people to be able to access to live television and watch movies through devices such as Computers, mobile phones, and other devices. According to the article, the that was conducted by the Diffusion Group shows that some people would actually pay for televison service on their TV, PC or mobile phones. Through this experiment, we can see how important television is to people in today's world.

The mobile TV has been a new trend of entertainment which telecommunication and electronic companies sees it as a source of revenue. It is stated by Sinclair (2008) that by 20011, Mobile TV will be the biggest revenue stream. The difference between the new form of television and old television is the context that is used in it. According to Schaeferdiek, using Mobile TV is a more personalized experience. (Sinclair, 2008) People will be albe to watch television personally through their mobile phone or other device.

I personally think that Television is one of the most common tools of entertainment. In my experience with the evolution of television, it has nourished the entertainment world by providing movies, live news and other entertainment.

References:

Sinclair, L 2008, 'Mobile TV next big battleground', Australian IT, retrived 17 November 2009, http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0..23348297-15306.00.html

"Harry Potter" Author wins copyright claim

The issue in the article is regarding the publishing of a Harry Potter encyclopedia that violates the copyright of the original story book “Happy Potter” author J.K Rowling. In this issue, the plagiarism of the “Harry Potter Lexicon” could cause damage to J.K Rowling’s career. For that reason, J.K Rowling took legal actions on Ark to avoid any further publication on the copyrighted book. Eventually, Rowling won the case against Ark.

Figure 1: Harry Potter's author J.K Rowling posing with her book.
(Source: www.telegraph.co.uk)

According to the article, Vander Ark has a passion for the “Harry Potter” book since 1999 which he then operates the popular Harry Potter Lexiron Web site which draws almost 1.5 million visitors per month with their contribution from all over the world. The internet have create opportunities for internet users to interact with one another to share their views and opinions (Nielson 1997).

On the other hand, the disadvantage of Internet has created a whole new method for people to cheat, in another word, plagiarism. According to Nielsen and Morkes (1997) stated that credibility of information is important for users to act as repayment of expression of thanks. In addition, the information that is used by any users have to be referenced and attributed accurate and correctly.

However, Reep (2006) also stated that reliable website should provide link to legal warnings, privacy information or copyright statements. Despite the information that was provided in the Harry Potter Lexiron book through the contribution of people all around the world, the book should be referenced and credited to the origin author J.K Rowling.

In my opinion, it is important that Vander Ark to give credit to the main author, J.K Rowling. The Harry Potter Lexicon website should provide descriptions of individual names, place, spells and creature from Harry Potter stories. However, it is also important for the design of the website to be well structure. As Nielsen stated that web users usually do not read word by word as they scan the page to pick out on individual words and sentences. A well structured web page should include highlighted keywords, meaningful sub headings, bulleted list, one idea per paragraph and half the word count. (Nielsen ,1997)

References:

CBSNews 2008, "Harry Potter" Author wins copyright claim, CBSNews, retrieved 16 November 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/08/entertainment/printable4426302.shtml

Morkes, J & Nielsen, J 1997, 'Concise, Scannable and Objective: How To Write For The Web', Useit.com, viewed on 16 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html

Nielsen, J 1997, How Users Read on the Web, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, retrieved 16 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

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

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

Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover

This article is about an Indonesian weekly apologizes on the imitation of the Leonardo Da Vinci’s last supper of the late Suharto on the cover of Indonesia’s top new weeklies magazine “Tempo”. Despite, the publication of the cover page, there were no intentions on disrespecting the Christians. As compensation, the apology will be extended in the next edition of the weekly “Tempo” magazine to show genuine apology in order to avoid the protest on this issue.

Figure 1: Suharto's last supper

(Source: http://nick131086.blogspot.com/2008/11/indonesian-weekly-apologises-over-last.html)

Figure 2: Jesus's last supper

(Source: http://nick131086.blogspot.com/2008/11/indonesian-weekly-apologises-over-last.html)

Images have angles of vision to fulfill perspectives and achieve the meaning of syntactic relations (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). However, Kress &Van Leeuwen (2006) added that Language and visual communication can show meanings belonging to and also formed by cultures in certain societies. In relation to the article, the cover page of Suharto’s imitation of Leonardo Da Vinci’s last supper portray a message that Christians mislead it to be disrespectful. This has proven that different individuals see the meaning of images differently due to cultural differences and different perspective.

Creators often use signs to define what they want it to mean rather than defining it as how audience understand them (William, 2003). Generally, cross-culture will lead to misunderstanding and confusion if the context of the culture is not properly used. Signs from different countries do not share the same meaning. (Schriver, 1997), It is essential to understand the audience cultural knowledge in order to create a constructive image (Schriver, 1997).

An example shown above is the advertisement of the “P1 W1MAX” with the slogan “Potong Now” which means “Cut Now”. The slogan that is used in this advertisement may give a different meaning to different individuals. The verbal advertisement on the radio with the slogan may mislead some listeners to think that it is regarding a circumcise advertisement.

In my opinion, cultural difference effects tremendously on how an image is define. It is important to understand the cultural values and understanding of different countries before any misunderstanding occur.

References:

ABC News 2008, 'Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover', ABC News, viewed 15 November 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.html

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Chapter 6: The meaning of composition, Reading Images: Grammar of Visual Design, Routledge, London

Williams, K 2003, ‘Ways of Making You Think: Theories of Ideology and Meaning’, Understanding Media Theory, Arnold, London.

Schriver, K.A 1997, 'The interplay of words and pictures', Dynamics in document design : creating texts for readers, p. 361-441, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.

Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming

This article is regarding over 100 million of Facebook users feeling furious and unhappy over the launching of the new-look and format of the global social networking website. The change of the format design is believed to provide better advantages and more efficient design for users to navigate. However, Facebook hate forums were created for users to express their hatred of the new-look. The Facebook’s team believes that Facebook users will slowly adapt to the change of design as the changes will improve the social networking website.

Figure 1: The Old Facebook

(Source: www.news.cnet.com)

Figure 2: The New Facebook

(Source: www.352media.com)

In every good web design, there should be a clear purpose, the intended audience must be identified, a well structured design, easy for users to navigate and keep the site current (Grunwald, 2009). According to Kyrnin (1997), he also stated that a good layout has to be efficient and effective with the features of unity, balance, proportion, emphasis, and sequence.

According to Nielsen (1997), web users usually do not read word by word as they scan the page to pick out on individual words and sentences. A well structured web page should include highlighted keywords, meaningful sub headings, bulleted list, one idea per paragraph and half the word count.

From the change of the new design of the Facebook, we can see that the design is not well structure and categorized. New posted picture, status, posted videos and many other features are being notified in one category. This will confuse new users to navigate themselves which will affect in term of time consuming and estrangement of loyal users.

References:

Australian IT 2008, 'Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming', Australian IT, viewed 14 November 2009, <http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html>.

Grunwald, JR 2009, Five principles of a good website design, Martin Luther College, viewed 14 November 2009, http://www2.mlc-wels.edu/jgrunwald/site.html

Kyrnin, J 1997, The Principles of Design, About.com, retrieved 14 November 2009, , http://webdesign.about.com/od/webdesignbasics/a/aa053007.html

Nielsen, J 1997, How Users Read on the Web, Jakob Nielsen'a Alertbox, retrieved 14 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

New forms of media publishing

In this 21st century with the advanced of technology, people do not only get to read news, magazines and books in print form but they get to read it in web form as well, such as e-Newspaper, e-Magazine and e-Book. The advanced of technology have changed how people seek for information and provide advantages for political campaign in United States to gain the support. However, the new trend of political campaign uses the advantage of technology to share goals, views and ideas in order to create relationships with the society.

As an example, we can see that the election of the new President of the United States, Barack Obama uses the social media sites such as Youtube, Facebook, and MySpace to reach out to the demographic groups. Supporter will be able to view videos, post comment and have discussion. This enables them to have the power to control the message they want to see on the web.

Figure 1: Barack Obama's Youtube site

(Source: www.downloadsquad.com)

Figure 2: Barack Obama's Facebook site

(Source: http://www.boncherry.com/)

Figure 3: Barack Obama's MySpace site

(Source: http://www.hiringtheinternet.com/)

According to Nielsen (1997), the internet is a place where people interact with one another which maximizes user’s initiative and empowerment. The internet has become a new trend of communication tool in the era today where people have the freedom of speech to express their views.

References:

Nielsen, J 1997, How Users Read on the Web, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, retrieved 13 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Designing for Online VS Print

Online design and print are different from each other because they are different in genre. In print, the contents are design in linear form where readers will read from left to right and top to bottom (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Whereas for online, readers read in F-Shaped Pattern (Nielsen, 2006). Nielsen (2006) stated that readers “first read in a horizontal movement”, then “second horizontal movement” and finally “users scan the content’t left side in a vertical movement”.

Figure 1: F-Shaped Pattern

(Source: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

The content design for online is different as well because users tend to skim through the content but not reading them thoroughly. Therefore headings, sub-headings, bullet points are essential in online design to emphasize the important information (Nielsen, 2006). Besides, readers of print tend to flip through a magazine and read what attracts them rather than reading page by page or article by article. As for online, readers are allowed to read the content in several ways (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).

Figure 2: Times in Print

Figure 3: Times in Online

As we can see from the pictures above in Figure 1 and Figure 2, both are from Times but they are different because one is in a form of print and the another is in a form of a website. Hence the way the readers read them will be different. Therefore, a good design for print may not be good for online as they both differ from genre. Nielsen (1999) stated that “Anything that is a great print design is likely to be a lousy web design”.

References:

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Chapter 6: The meaning of composition, Reading Images: Grammar of Visual Design, Routledge, London.

Nielsen, J 1999, Differences Between Print Design and Web Design, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, Useit.com, viewed 12 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html

Nielsen, J 2006, F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, Useit.com, viewed 12 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

Blogging Communities

Blogging community is made up from a group of people who shares the same interest. Vinson (2006) stated that “They are groups of people who explicitly come together for a common reason. They might gather because they share a common history (school, town, country, family), or a common event binds them (a success or tragedy), or because they share a common interest (chemistry, knowledge management, blogging, derivative markets, bicycling, basket weaving)”. It is important to be successful blogger in a blogging community because your reputations are based on your actions in the blogging world (Nikki, 2008). Nikki (2008) also stated that “Having a community of your peers who enjoy what your blog has to say and respect you as part of the blogosphere goes a long way”.

Blogging community can be build through linking other readers on their own blog, interacting with other bloggers by commenting on their blog post and replying their questions (Rowse, 2008). By doing so, it will mutually connect everyone and increase your blogging community.

According to White (2006) the three types of blog based community are: The Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community, the Central Connecting Topic Community and the Boundaried Community.

Figure 1: Blog Based Communities

(Source: The Knowledge Tree)

Figure 2: Single Blog/Blogger Centric Cimmunity

(Source: The Knowledge Tree)

Figure 3: Topic Centric Community

(Source: The Knowledge Tree)

Figure 4: Boundaried Communities

(Source: The Knowledge Tree)

1Malaysia.com.my is an example of blogging community because there is a vast interaction between the Prime Minister and the citizens in Malaysia through Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Youtube. Malaysians are encouraged to leave comments or suggestions in the blog and by doing this, it helps to build the blogging community.

References:

Nikki, S 2008, How to Build a Blogging Community, eHow.com, retrieved 11 November 2009, http://www.ehow.com/how_2152382_build-blogging-community.html

Rowse, D 2008, How to Build Community on Your Blog, ProBlogger, retrieved 11 November 2009, http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/04/26/how-to-build-community-on-your-blog/

Vinson J 2006, Blogging and Communities, retrieved 11 September 2009, http://blog.jackvinson.com/archives/2006/06/26/blogging_and_communities.html

White, N 2006, 'Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?', The Knowledge Tree, viewed 20 May 2009, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/

Classification of Blogs

There are a large number of bloggers out there and with the help of classification of blogs, it helps readers to choose the types of blogs they want to read. The existence of blog types is due to the different blog topic and audiences. Thomson (2004) stated that “As different people blog for different reasons, they also create different types of blogs”.

According to Wikipedia (2009), the following are the types of blogs:
Subject matter:
-Politics
-Fashion
-History
-Law

Device:
-Moblog

Media type:
-Vlog
-Linklog
-Sketchlog
-Tumblelogs

However, Margaret Simons (Funnell, 2008) has a different perception towards classification of blog. Simons (2008) classify the types of blogs into “Digest blog”, “Advocacy blog”, “Popular Mechanics blog”, “Exhibition blog”, “Gatewatcher blog”, “Diary”, “Advertisement” and “News blog”. Yet, not all bloggers stick to a particular format of classification of blogs which made it difficult to classify the different types of blogs (Funnel, 2008).

I personally think that the classification of blog taken from Wikipedia is more useful as compared to Simon’s classification of blog. This is because Wikipedia’s classification of blogs is more basic and easy to classify the types of blogs. Readers could easily search and navigate the information they need according to the classification of blogs provided by Wikipedia.

References:

Funnel, A 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, The Media Report, retrieved 10 November 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript

Thomson, J 2004, Types of Blogs, Librari*s & ‘Blogs, retrieved 10 November 2009, http://www.slais.ubc.ca/COURSES/libr500/03-04-wt2/www/J_Thomson/types.html

Wikipedia 2009, Blog – Types, retrieved 10 November 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

The Blogging Phenomenon

Blog has become the most common tool for people to express and share their thoughts with others. It has developed and expanded rapidly over the past years.

According to Technorati (2009), they are now tracking over 70 million weblogs, and seeing about 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. That's about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day. The survey did by Technorati (2009) shows that 184million of people have started a blog and 346million of people have read blogs.

The blogging trend is globally different such as in Asia, people tend to blog more on music than politics whereas for Europe, people tend not to write on personal, lifestyle, and religious topics (Technorati, 2009). Besides, according to Technorati (2009) “Asian bloggers tend to be more motivational and confessional, while European bloggers are more confrontational”.

Blog has brought a huge benefit to Malaysia community in social, political and education wise. Many of them have a blog to discuss on the current issue in the country and also to share their goals with the citizens. Besides, politicians use blog to promote their political campaign and pull their votes for election. The political blogs in Malaysia do make an impact on the citizen’s life because blogs are influential (Friedbeef, n.d.).

The following are the examples of the social, political and education blog: MalaysianToday, EducationMalaysia, LimKitSiang.

References:

Technorati 2009, State of the Blogosphere 2008: Introduction, retrieved 8 November 2009, http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-introduction/

FriedBeef’s Tech n.d., How do you Measure Blog Influence?, retrieved 8 November 2009, http://www.friedbeef.com/how-do-you-measure-blog-influence/