Reflection

I have learnt a lot by making this weblog. Firstly, I have learnt about the blogosphere and have an in-depth exploration and understanding on blogging. 


Besides, by studying the issues on publication and design subject, I have obtained more knowledge on how to make a good and effective page arrangement by applying the theory. Moreover, by doing the researches, I have understood the principles and ethics of publishing which bring me a large impact on my further study.

However, there are some principles and theories that I found them useful and hoping to recommend to readers and students.

• Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) claim that different composition of the element on a page brings different meaning to the audiences.
• Schriver (1997) states that words are worked better with the present of pictures to disseminate messages.
•  Walsh (2006) asserts that the multi-modality of texts is important and has to be concerned based on the context of the audience.

(154 words)

References

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading images, Chapter 6: The meaning of composition.

Schriver, K.A, 1997, “The interplay of words and pictures, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Chapter 6, p. 361-441.

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.

Digital Magazine for Children

Digital magazines which designed for children are now welcomed by not just the parent, but also the pediatricians because of its special feature that grabbed the children’s attention. The layout and the presentation of the digital magazines are well designed to adapt the children’s interests by presenting the colorful graphics, funny pictures and interesting videos. Parents can give their children the digital magazine to read on Ipad instead of playing the video games which contain less educational knowledge.

The examples of the children digital magazine application are the Timbuktu and the KidsMag. KidsMag application offers interactive, informative and interesting educational games with the attention grabbing audio to children for them to learn while playing.

Source from appfinder.lisisoft.com

Source from pbs.org

However, there are difficulties in translating the print magazine into the digital magazine but still; companies are now trying hard to deal with this problem.

Click to view the full article

The change of the genre from the print based children magazine to the digital magazine is actually a good changing which brings lots of effectiveness to the readers. Children who born and grow in this contemporary world are filled with modern technologies in their daily life. Therefore, the conventional media will seem to lose their function to disseminate knowledge to them. 

In fact, by embedding the information into a digital device is more likely to attract their attention and it is more effective to spread the knowledge to them with the interesting screen.

According to Walsh (2006), the affordances of the assorted genres holding its own specific meaning and purpose, meaning that different modes of the presentation of the information targeted different types of audiences as well as providing various circumstances and feelings to the audiences while reading. For instances, a printed novel book with just words offers reader a wider imagination spaces to visualise the content of the book. However, a webpage on the internet gives audiences a more interactive way by leaving comment and others.

(310 words)

The video shows the demonstration of using the digital magazine on Iphone

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, p.24-37.

Social Media Bring Democracy

Communication technologies such as mobile phone and the internet are the famous tools that used by the youngsters in the Middle East. Pictures and videos about the protest in the Bahrain and Libya that captured by the mobile phone have been posted up to the internet and spread widely. 

The leakage of the news have upset the people around the world about their government and consequently, it makes the government to enforce to shut down the web service to prevent further videos and pictures being published.

Below was the video showing the protest of the Al Bayda citizens on the street by YouTube user, enoughgaddafi.

However, the leader of the anti-government protest in Egypt, as well as the Google executive, Wael Ghonim claims that social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube are acting an important character to let the people outside the world knowing the truth of what happening in the Egypt.

Social Media
Source from penn-olson.com

There is a Facebook webpage named “We Are All Khaled Said” that created by Ghonim which aimed to aid in the mobilization of the demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Nevertheless, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s senior adviser, Alec Ross argues that social media enable people gather together in the diverse social network which eventually tightened and strengthened their power.

Click to view the full article

By using the contemporary social media, it is effective for people to disseminate message, communicate and share news around the world. Besides, every people have their right to speak and tell their story, therefore they should not be restricted in publishing the truth.

According to Buckley (2000), people should not be restricted in voicing their thoughts and opinion and the freedom of speech should become a part of the human rights to create a better democratic society. Besides, Mendoza (2009) asserts that the internet is actually a democratic, uncensored platform for people to express their voices and share the information which is normally filtered by the traditional media. Therefore, it should be ultilised well but not be restricted by the government.

(317 words)

References

Buckley, S 2000, ‘Radio’s new horizons: Democracy and popular communication in the digital age,’ International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 180-187.

Mendoza, A 2009, ‘Democracy by internet,’ Guardian 2 July, viewed 22 May 2011, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/02/internet-democracy-online-politics?INTCMP=SRCH>.

Plagiarism

Google search engine gives people a large and informative database which eases and causes them to search for writer's articles and copy their works.

The German defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has forced to resign his position due to the plagiarism action he made by copying the entire doctorate thesis. The case has been proved to be real by the University of Bayreuth’s investigation.

However, software such as Turnitin which enable students and journalists to check whether they have plagiarised other people’s works are no longer useful and effective due to the leakage that people have found to cheat through the software.

Source from catholicteacherman.blogspot.com

Dr John Olsson from the Forensic Linguistics Institute claims that the reason of why students plagiarise is because they have not be taught to now to write an essay without copying others from the beginning. Nevertheless, Helene Hegemann, a German author argues that by mixing other people’s articles with own should not be considered as an action of plagiarism.

Click to view the full article

Plagiarism is actually an irresponsible action which has to be avoided from students and journalists. Although Google offers an enormous database for users does not mean that people can misuse it by copying people’s resources into their own. Besides, students and journalists should able to mixing the ideas from journal articles and should not be considered as plagiarism action. However, Turnitin is useful software to check plagiarism of students. Apparently, this software is currently the most effective way to determine plagiarism.

According to Williams (2010), there is a gradual rise of the number of student who plagiarise in the university. Students nowadays search information and journal articles through the internet and copy words and sentences from there to make their own essay. He further states that most of the school and the universities trust to the Turnitin software which helps them to check student’s essays to see whether they have plagiarised or not, and how similar their works compared to other universities’ essays.

(317 words)

Reference

 Williams, R 2010, ‘Internet plagiarism rising in schools,’ Guardian.co.uk 20 June, viewed 10 June 2011, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jun/20/internet-plagiarism-rising-in-schools?INTCMP=SRCH>.

Ethical Publishing Issue

Berita Harian publication has published a cartoon with a popular Japanese cartoon character, Ultraman, chased by a tragic tsunami on its newspaper and has displeased the audiences. People spread the news rapidly via the internet by using tools such as Facebook, Twitter and others.

Source from speakingtomato.com

They mainly claim that the publication should not making fun at the disaster since the incident has killed thousands of the Japanese.

Besides, authorities such as Kahiry Jamaluddin, the chief of UMNO Youth, and Elizabeth Wong, Bukit Lanjan Assemblyman cum Selangor state that such action is so wrong and they should apoligise for it. Consequently, the publication publishes a public apology on their newspaper and also in the internet for their action and they claim that the cartoon was not mean to poke at the Japan but instead, they are sympathise for the lost of the country.


The Seri Setia assemblyman, Nik Nazmi Azmi states that public should sign up to an online petition to fight against the “inappropriate cartoon.”

Click to read the full article

The publication should not publish such cartoon which is so ironic that indirectly teasing at the Japanese. Publishers should hold their publishing ethics and responsibility to not to publish news, information or even cartoon which is unethical and against to the publishing principles.

According to Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), every visual elements such as pictures, logos and signs that posted contain certain meanings and they will be understandable to the audience if they fit the context of the audience which under their range of understanding. 


The Japan tsunami and earthquake incident is considered as the most current world concerning issue and people all over the world are upset about it. The cartoon that published by Berita Harian which showing the Japan anime character running from the tsunami then brings message to the audience that they are actually making fun in this incident.

(307 words)

Reference

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

New forms of media publishing

Nowadays, internet has becoming the newest trend in the world. According to Naughton (n.d.), people rather read the online news, surfing the e-commerce, streaming of the radio by the internet than using the conventional ways. Internet therefore became the dominant role in the media ecosystem which is the predator and printed based media, and TV broadcasting as the prey.(Naughton ,J n.d.)

However, Schriver and Walsh (1997, 2006) claim the same concept that viewing a multimodal text is more effective to disseminate the message and create visualisation of the text to the audiences than just reading through the words. (Schriver,K.A 1997 & Walsh,M 2006)

Youtube, therefore an online video platform, has becoming the trend of the internet users by getting information due to its multi-modalities.

Source from thenextweb.com

Youtube is basically an online website that people can actually be the sender that post their video into it and share their information to others. It is now also one of the medium that companies and organisations spread their news and update to the people.

In May’s (2010) article, he  states that youtube has no longer the medium that provide entertainment information but has involved in the political field by becoming a ‘viable political communication channel.’(May, A.L 2010)

According to Dewdney and Ride (2006, pp. 253), digital media is a new tool for people to establish their purpose of communication among ourselves in this modern world. (Dewney, A & Ride, P 2006)

By applying this concept, Youtube is actually a platform for people to communicate via posting their video, providing links that relevant and audiences are able to leave their comments or even reply by posting another video clip.

(256 words)


Here is an example of a YouTube video -- Angry bird prank call

References

Dewney, A & Ride, P 2006, The new media handbook, Routledge, Oxon.

May, A.L 2010, ‘Who tube?How YouTube’s News and politics space is going mainstream,’ The International Journal of Press/Politics, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 499 – 511.

Naughton, J n.d., Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem,viewed 21 April 2011, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>.

Schriver, K.A, 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Chapter 6, pp. 361 – 441.

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.

Blogging Communities

Nancy White (2006) states that blogging communities are actually communities where people post their blogs and share their information to other blogger or outsiders which bring ease to them while searching that particular information which tagged. Besides, she claims that the boundaries among blogging communities are vary from forum based communities which it is more permeable.(White, N 2006)

Wei (n.d.) asserts that blogging communities can actually be created by bloggers who having a similar behaviors and interests on certain issues or topics. Besides, the norms of the communities might be changed due to the assorted values of the bloggers holding and the contents they posted. (Wei, C n.d.)

However, White (2006) then claims that blogging communities can be divided into three types.

Blogger Centric Community

Source from Nancy White's online document

A community which owned by one person but people who writing posts might more than one which means that they are a group of people who sharing a blog by posting their idea or information through the internet. 

Central Connecting Topic Community

Source from Nancy White's online document

A community that made up several blogs which sharing a common topic and they are all able to access easily by the links that provided in every one of those.

Boundaried Communities

Source from Nancy White's online document

A large platform that created by numerous blogs which bloggers can access to the other blog within the communities easily and tools such as discussion board are usually provided in the site.

Stephen Downes is actually the name of a blog and it is also the name of the site owner. The blog is a blogger centric community. In the web page, there are lots of others bloggers’ links can be accessed and readers can not just achieve to other blogs but also the key articles that tagged in it.

(White, N 2006)

References

Wei, C n.d., Formation of norms in a blog community, Into the Blogosphere, University of Washington, viewed 21 April 2011, <http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/formation_of_norms.html>.

White, N 2006, Blogs and community – launching a new paradigm for online community?, The Knowledge Tree, Australian Flexible Learning Framework, viewed 21 April 2011, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>.

Classification of blogs

In Funnell’s (2008) article, Margaret Simons classified blogs into nine categories, which including the pamphleteering blogs, digest blog, advocacy blog, popular mechanics blog, exhibition blog, Gatewatcher blog, diary, advertisement and lastly the news blog. 

• Pamphleteering blog: Individual or a group of people who argue certain topics with their strong point of view

• Digest blog: Aggregate and summarise the information from other resources, it can be other people’s blogs.

• Advocacy blog: Similar to pamphleteering blog. But it usually published by people who holding certain interest such as political party, commercial group and others. 

• Popular mechanics blog: Blogs that provide information or instruction of how to do and complete of certain task/works.

• Exhibition blog: Known also as vanity publishing. Artist and writers that tend to spread their works.

• Gatewatcher blog: Blogs which is about to observe how the media does by deciding the publishing of news, covering it or now.

• Diary: More about personal life detail.

• Advertisement: Blogs that selling/advertising a product.

• News blog: Blog that provides breaking news.

(Funnell, A 2008)

However, in my point of view, the classification can be shortened due to the similarities, for example, the pamphleteering and advocacy blogs. This is because both of them having a same core purpose by pointing out certain view of the blogger. 

Besides, it is quite confuse between advertisement blog and others because the commercial groups can actually offer links and promote their product in other blogs by paying the bloggers but not just in the advertisement blogs.

(251 words)

References

Funnell, A 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, The Media Report, ABC Radio National, viewed 21 April 2011, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript

Blogs and Blogosphere

Blogging is actually the publishing of the individual's comment and somehow the facts in certain field of topic to the website online as a hobby or job that receiving compensates. (Lowrey, W 2006)

 Nowadays, the blogosphere is getting larger due to the enhanced development of the internet. People are more willing and free to post their thoughts by blogging. According to Branckaute (2010) in his blog, there were currently over one hundred and fifty millions blogs tracked in year 2010 via the BlogPulse. (Branckaute, F 2010)

source from mashable.com

In Malaysia, the trend of blogging grows rapidly. The Star Online (2008) reported that Malaysia was the highest ranked of country that blog and the number of active bloggers was enormous as about five hundred thousand. (The Star Online, 2008) With the easy access to the internet, people can blog everyday and spreading their beliefs and opinions worldwide. 

However, this phenomenon sometimes gives negative feedback as some people think that blogging influences audiences' thought.But still, the trend keep spreading and being quite a main in one of the dominant country, China.

Political type of blogs are said to be prevalent in China. People are able to be more democratic by voicing out their comment in the internet with blog, especially in the field of politics due to its sensitivity. According to Zhou (2009), political blog providing ‘new platform'  for the audiences to switch their roles by not just listening and receiving, but involve also in the political conversation, giving comment and sharing their thoughts. (Zhou, X 2009)

The raise of the types of blog benefit both the writers and viewers. For instance, via the political blogs, audiences share the information which might be useful in it. On the other hand, the politicians get to know what the feeling of the resident and thus, be able to improve effectively.

References

Branckaute, F 2010, ‘State of the blogosphere in 2010,’ The Blog Herald, 20 September, viewed 20 April 2011,<http://www.blogherald.com/2010/09/20/state-of-the-blogosphere-in-2010/>.

Lowrey, W 2006, ‘Mapping the journalism – blogging relationship,’ Journalism, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 477 – 500.

The Star Online 2008, ‘Blogging in Malaysia ranks among highest in the world,’ The Star Online 3 April, viewed 20 April 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/3/nation/20827588&sec=nation>.

Zhou, X 2009, ‘The political blogosphere in China: A content anaylysis of the blogs regarding the dismissal of Shanghai leader Chen Liangyu,’ New Media & Society, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 1003 – 1022.

Document Design

To have a good powerpoint presentation, firstly the design is one of the key. According to Anderson, (cited in Putnis and Petelin, 1996, p. 254) a good document design usually emphasis and focus on the most important information. 


Besides, they state that to have a good document design, the flow of the information must be clear and understandable to the audience. (Putnis, P & Putelin, R 1996) However, the points are similar to what Russell (n.d) claimed. In her article, she states that to have a good business presentation, the usage of the key phrases are important. 


She further argues that while making a powerpoint, presenter just has to focus on few points which is the main in the topic to present and simplify the them to create a straight and clear presentation. (Russell, W n.d.)


According to Marquez (n.d.), a good powerpoint presentation includes slides with clear title and content which is easy for audience to read. In addition, the background design should be as simple as to not to lose the focus of the readers out of the topic. (Marquez, Zane L n.d.)


However, from the powerpoint showed below, the title is missing in some of the slides, it might confuse the audience because they might not understand to the content of the slide without the title. Moreover, although the background color is simple enough, it lacks of the contrast to the topic discussed since it has the relation of the design of a page.

Title is missing, plain background color

Title is missing, plain background color

To achieve a good writing, Putnis and Petelin (1996, p. 236) argue that it has no certain way to do but to depend on the context of where, when and how the document presented. (Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996) Nevertheless, Rothman (2005) states also that a good technical writing should come with the in depth information which helps to support the writing. (Rothman, S 2005)


The powerpoint is aim to present to the peers and the lecturer, therefore, it should be easy understanding and giving explanation to any term but apparently, this is the part that missing in the slides. Besides, the slides is lack of the statistic or in depth evidence to back up the point that given.

Term without further explanation, hard to understand

(331 words)




References

Marquez, Zane L n.d., How to make a good powerpoint presentation, Ezine Articles, viewed 1 April 2011, <http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=4313178>

Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, 'Writing to communicate,' Professional communication: principles and applications, Prentice Hall, Sydney, chapter 7, pp. 223-263.

Rothman, S 2005, What makes good scientific and technical writing?,Yahoo! Contributor Network, viewed 1 April 2011, <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9447/error> 

Russell, W n.d., 10 Tips for creating successful business presentation, About.com, viewed 1 April 2011, <http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointinbusiness/tp/bus_pres_tips.htm>

Purpose for creating this blog

The main purpose of this blog is to discuss about the publishing of a document as well as the issues related to media. 


Taget audiences are the peers who closely related to it such as the student who study in communication.Besides, professions in publishing and media are considered as the targetted audiences as well.


(55 words)