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.

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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.

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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.