2e. Good design for screen genre (based on group presentation 1)

Reep (2006) stated that a good document design is identified based on its graphic aids as well as the content. In my opinion, a good document design can be determined when the prose and visual are well-combined with one and another that eventually leads to the understanding among the audience towards its content. As described by Kress van Leeuwen (2006), a stronger message can be created when visuals and text blend well among another. Other than prose, the principle of design is important towards a document design as it serves as a standard guideline for designers in creating a good document design.

In my first group presentation, my group mates and I have worked well together in creating a power slides. The design principles such as the proportion and consistency of the design were well applied throughout the slides. Proportion is referred to the size and placement of text, graphic aids used as well as the format element for the page (Reep 2006). The example is shown as below:

 

(slide1)

 

(slide 2)

 

(slide 3)

This slides showed that how the sequence of the points and picture that are combined perfectly to increase the understanding towards the topic. Graphic aids are also being used to further elaborate the content as it catches the attention audience better. A visually understandable format is just as important as getting the content right (Olshavsky, 2003). This statement is support by Reep (2006) as she pointed that “Each design feature should be the size that is helpful to the readers and appropriate for the subject.”





References:

• Reep, DC 2006, Chapter 6: Technical Writing of Document Design, 6th edn.

• Olshavsky, R, 2003, Six Tips of Improving your Design Documentation, viewed 15th 2010,

• Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006. Reading Images. Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication.

2d. Discuss in-depth the newest trends & issues pertaining to it and relate to how it has altered communication in a new media ecosystem.

The internet nowadays has brought human life to a whole new level; it has also altered the traditional way of writing and publishing in the media that is subsequently easing human life. Naughton (2006) describes this statement as “all ‘old’ media were new media once.” The new forms of media publishing are now available anywhere and easily accessible on the internet. And here I am going to show a few which are:

1. Micro blog
2. E-news/ E-magazines/E-books
3. Videolog/

Mirco blog is defined as short posts that are kept together by common authorship and it is controlled by the author, Böhringer (2009). Besides, Macmillan Dictionary (2009) also stated that “the appeal of microblogging is its immediacy and portability, with updates which can be sent or received in a variety of ways including on mobile, handheld devices.”


Take Twitter for example. It is an aggregation of a microblogging tool and social networking sites that is used to enhance the relationship among people by adding followers or the other way round. The limitation of characters is also one component that makes it a micro blog.

(Source: social networking software, 2008)

(Source: ETCleanFuels.org, 2010)

E-news/E-zine/ E-books are also a form of media that publishes articles in electronic format through the internet (bookjobs.com, 2010). In short, information can be obtained by anyone around the world as long as the internet connection is available.

News article in Malaysia that is posted on the internet.

(Source: sun organization, 2009)

(Source:edwardkhoo, 2009)

Videolog or Vlog is one of a well known form of publishing media that sends information through videos and it is commentary by the public. As described by Idweaver (2010), it offers a genuine platform in communicating and researching target audience.

 

(Justice for Altantuya and Dignity for Malaysia)

References:

• Henry A 2007, 10 Micro-Blogging Tools to Compared, Read The Web, viewed on 16th April 2010, <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_micro-blogging_tools_compared.php>

• Böhringer M 2009, "Really Social Syndication: A Conceptual Viewed on Microblogging", Sprouts: working Papers on Information Systems, viewed 16th April 2010, <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10_micro-blogging_tools_compared.php>

• Naughton J 2006, Blogging and the Emerging Media Ecosystem, viewed 16th April 2010, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>

• Bookjobs.com 2010, About Publishing: Types of Publishing, viewed 16th April 2010, <http://www.bookjobs.com/page.php?prmID=8>

• IDweaver 2010, Blog/ Vblog (video blog), viewed 16th April 2010, <http://www.idweaver.com/EN/glossary/vlog.aspx>

2c. Explain types of blogging communities and methods to build blogging communities. Discuss structure of one blogging community that you know of.

(source: myspace)

Blogging community is where a group of people that are brought together due to the commonalities that are shared among each other on a particular subject on the internet. (Owyang, 2007).

In regards to this, there are many types of blogging communities such as the gadgets blog, beauty forums, and more. It is uncountable as they are everywhere on the internet. In other words, blogging communities come in all forms and it is depending on the interest developed within the internet users. Malaysianbabes.net is a indeed undeniably helpful forum to most women who are conscious towards their appearance as it provides all sorts of information from beauty, diets to relationship.

Therefore, this particular forum can be identified as boundaried communities whereby it is a collection of blog that gathers information of a particular topic and blog readers are the host of the platform (White, 2006). One is required to become a member of the forum. In this way, members are able to obtain more information and to express their thoughts and comment on certain posts. For example, members can somewhat get better information by clicking on the link that is posted up. Thus the form of community leads to a better community building among the users. This theory applied when the power of boundaried communities is practiced by the frequency of posting, popularity in terms of quantity of comment given by others. And lastly, the social networking tools such as Facebook that can be connected with it help in visualize relationship between the blogger and the follower (White, 2006).

References:

• Owyang, J 2007, Defining the term: Online Community, viewed on 16th April 2010, <http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/12/28/defining-the-term-community/>

•   White, N 2006, Blogging and Community- Launching a new paradigm for online community?, Australian Flexible Learning Framework, viewed 16th April 2010, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

2b. Classification of blogs & opinion about the most appropriate classification approach

(source: mysteryautoincome)

As mentioned in the prior post, there are variety kinds of blogs. A large number of bloggers tend to blog about different things other than their personal life. They blog according to their own preferences.

According to Rowse (2005), there are 20 types of approaches to blogging and bloggers are not dependant on all of them. It serves as a guideline for the bloggers to present their prose in a non linear, much interesting way and thus also evokes creativity within themselves.

Due to the vast number of approaches that are listed by Rowse (2005), here I am going to use a simpler type of approaches in blogging to ease the understanding among the readers which are:

1. Text-based

• Personal

• Collaborative

• Topical

• Spam

• Corporate

The title itself has very much explained all. In precise, it is a different way of putting words together to express one’s thoughts. The only difference of this approach is the purpose that the bloggers are trying to incur in the reader through their posts.

2. Other media

• Podcast/ videocast

• Photologs

This approach of blogging is more unique as compared to text-based approach. It is a different way of presenting their posts which are recording ones’ thoughts through talking, video recording or uploading photos instead of the standard way of text. 

Precisely, there are no particular ways to define appropriate ways of blogging. Instead, it is depending on what kind of approach is suitable for the particular blogger.

Reference:

• Lex, E, Granitzer M & Juffinger A 2009, Facet Classification of Blogs: Know Centre at TREC 2009 Blog Distillation Task, viewed on 15th April 2010, <http://trec.nist.gov/pubs/trec18/papers/know-center.BLOG.pdf>

• Rowse D 2005, 20 Types of Blog Post- Battling Bloggers Block, Problogger, viewed 15th April 2010, <http://www.problogger.net/battling-bloggers-block/>

• ThinkQuest 2006, Blogging the Phenomenon: Text-based, viewed on 15th April 2010, <http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01130/typesofblogs.html>

2a. Blogs as current phenomenon and benefits of blogging to community:

Blogging is now the new trend among the society especially among the younger generations. Cass (2004) stated that blog is originally generated by the term web log and it is described as a website that is controlled by one or maybe more than one internet user. Blog serves a purpose for bloggers to voice out their opinions and thoughts towards a particular subject. In addition to that, blogging is also one way to express themselves in the internet without constraint.

According to Thefuturebuzz (2010), the size of the blogosphere since 2002 that is stated by Technorati is more than 133,000,000 million of blogs. For instance, most blogger in America blog at their own preference instead of seeing it as a profession. They see blog as an alternative way of obtaining information, (NevilleHobson.com, 2006).

Judging from the modern society we are living in Malaysia, there are variety categories of blogs in the internet that enable readers to obtain information and ease their lives by just reading it such as food reviews, blog shops that offer fashion clothing, electronic gadgets and many more.

It does not require a single cent to blog. A blog is now very easy to create and requires no technological skills to write a blog. Take Blogspot as an example. Its’ simplicity has resulted more than a millions of people started their own blog. As described by Bangthetable (n. d.), a blog has a smoother process of generating meaning, also it is open to the public and provides a real time interaction with the community. In regards to this, blogging keeps the communities up to date as the Information can be obtained easily by just one click compare to the newsletter.

References:

•  Bangthetable, nine benefits of blogging, viewed 15^th April 2010, <http://resources.bangthetable.com/upload/filename/69/Tips_Sheet_-_Benefits_of_Blogging.pdf>>

•  Cass, J 2004, Blog, Weblog Definition, viewed 15^th April 2010, <http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/2004/06/blog_weblog_def.html>

•  Dvorak, JC 2002, The Blog Phenomenon, viewed 15^th April 2010, <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,12899,00.asp>

• Thefuturebuzz 2009, 70 Usable Stats from the 2009 State of the Blogosphere, viewed 15^th April 2010, <http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/12/10/blogging-stats-facts-data/>

1. Purpose of This Blog.

 

(Source: exo.com)

The creation of this blog is to provide an in depth discussion towards the underlying issues in publication and design in hopes that readers, particularly to those who shares the common interest in creating a good document design and so forth will have a better insights towards the relevant concepts and theories applied regarding to the topic.