Reflection

Throughout blog duration, I had adopted several skills as a blogger. If anyone had pay attention to my blog, the template of this blog is separate with 2 wide columns. On the left would be the given information and on the right is the new information.


According to Kress and van Leuween (2006, p. 179), on the left side; it is assumed that my readers have the knowledge on my topic. This is because my target audiences consist of readers who intend to know about issues in publication and design. In addition, the right side is new information. This is to cater my secondary audience which is public who has internet access. Therefore, I had put other credible websites link on the right side of my template such as ABC, BBC and Jakob Nielsen website which my audience could get more information.


According to Nielsen (2006), sub-headings, paragraph and bullet points are the one that users will look to when they scan information. Hence, I had put headings and separate my ideas into paragraph to ease my audience. In order to get attention from my audience, I had included images into the text to ease boredom of my audience. This is because reading on the screen is 25% slower than reading on print (Nielsen, 1997).


Apart from that, I also learn the ethical issue as blogger. Even though there is freedom to voice up through website, blogger shall be sensitive towards cultural context that what they are going to post. It is crucial to think on the readers' perspective as failing to do so will turn down the audience interest or raised their anger (Shriver, 1997, p.439).

Reference List

Kress, G., van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading images Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication, 2nd edn, Reading Images: The grammar of visual design, Routledge, London

Nielsen, J, 1997, “Be Succinct! (writing for the web)”, viewed on 15th June 2009, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html>

Nielsen, J 2006, F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content, viewed on 15th June 2009, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>

Schriver, KA 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures’, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, Chapter 6, pp. 361-441

Unlimited music for one-off fee

Anyone needs free music? Most people would download music from peer-to-peer download system. However, they do not need to do this anymore. In the article of Nokia offers unlimited music for one-off fee, majority of companies allows their listeners to download and keep their music in the first 12-month after they paid the bill. Nokia had formed partnership with Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music which allows the users to download music from the websites.

Nokia 5310: 8GB=6000 songs stored
Source: Nokia, 2009

Nokia is working on with the major player of music industry as they are trying to combat piracy issue. With their mobile phone equipped with 8 gigabytes of memory, they are confident of combating the piracy.

However, this could lead to more piracy as it could be only one user that pay off the bill while others do not. Since Nokia is offering their users to keep the music once they downloaded, file sharing among friends might be more happening. According to Kress and van Leuween (2006, p.32), one would unable to understand the meaning unless they are part of the culture. Therefore, the mobile phone users shared the same interest; music lovers will form community among themselves.

The law of copy right would still an issue. Copy right is form of intellectual device that provides the owner the right on to the extend the creative works being used (Nolo, 2009). This issue of combating piracy has been in the global for such long period. Reasoning of saying this is that file sharing mentioned earlier could lead to more distribution of music without paying bills to Nokia. Hence, the step that Nokia had taken here would eventually solve the piracy issue or making it worse would still in doubt till research being conducted.

Reference List

Kress, G., van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading images Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication, 2nd edn, Reading Images: The grammar of visual design, Routledge, London

Australian IT, 2008, Nokia offers unlimited music for one-off fee, viewed on 15th June 2009, <http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24440421-15306,00.html>

Nolo, 2009, Glossary: Copyright, viewed on 15th June 2009 <http://www.nolo.com/definition.cfm/term/4B5A08FF-555D-4EBF-89468C0AFF8401F6>

Welcome to mobile video blog!!!

The new marriage of webcams and broadband had been the factor of the existence of mobile video blog. This is the current trend of blog as technology had added certain functions on to the mobile phone that allows the users to blog using mobile. The full story of this topic can be obtained in the BBC News Programmes.

As Walsh (2006, p.24) mentions that the society pattern is shifting towards multimodality, this shows the importance of multimodal text. With the emergence of technology, the users are able to develop and edit their video with their mobile phones. The mobile phone such as Nokia N95, LG Viewty Phone has the functions of editing and capturing news.The types of mobile video blog has come out with new genre structure such as vlogs and mobisodes. The structure of vlogs is simple and short. One of the online mobile video is Lonelygirl15.

Video Blogging: Lonelygirl15
Source: LG Universe, 2009

The another issue to be discuss would be the audience acceptance. Since this is the technology era, mobile video blogs is getting common among the society. This could be potential hobby for anyone as users are able to access to Internet with their mobile phone in general. However, this could lead to the issue of citizen journalism.

According to Glaser (2006), citizen journalism defined as people who without professional journalism training uses modern technology to create augment on their own. As mentioned that mobile video blog could done instantly, citizen journalism offers the timely information as it does not required to go through process of editing by editor or proofread.

However, as citizen journalist did not go through any training, the information that being provided could be merely based on single person point of view.

In conclusion, the mobile video blogs has been the trend for technology savvy users as users are free to edit or blog anytime and anywhere. However, the content of information should not be taken highly as it could be bias towards a particular topic.

Reference List

BBC News, 2008, Rise of the mobile video blog, viewed on 14th June 2009, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7392594.stm>

Glaser, M 2006, Media Shift: Your guide to Citizen Journalism, viewed on 14th June 2009, <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/09/your-guide-to-citizen-journalism270.html>

Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual Shifts: Examining The Reading Process With Print, Visual and Multimodal Text', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 24-37

Ethical Publishing

Obama, the first African-American US president is on the cover of 'The New Yorker'. Is it common? Most of the people would say yes till they see the picture below:

Cover of The New Yorker: Obama the terrorist?
Soucre: The Insider, 2009

So, what do you think Mr President would react after looking at it? In the news report on July 14 2008, before Obama become the US president, he expressed his anger to the publisher issue the ironic caricature of him in Islamic dress while the US flag is burning.

The act had obviously cross the ethical publishing codes as most of the readers would feel it offensive after looking at it. According to Jean (1995, p.6), one of the general ethics category covers on "harassment and undermining of a person's position". She states that people would misinterpret about the meaning that the publisher trying to inform the public. As editor, it is their responsibility not to allow the image to be published as they should take the consideration of the society. The publisher should know what they going to publish would get the attention of the public.

In addition, Kress and van Leuween (2006, p.41) mention that the elements of layout attract readers' attention in different degree and will come out with variety of meaning making. In my opinion, I would feel that Obama would be on the side of terrorist as he is wearing the Islamic clothes with US flag burning right besides him. Even if anyone is not aware about the terrorism, his or her thought would be similar to me as everyone interpret the images themselves regardless of the races. Walsh (2006, p.24) share the same idea as she points out that language is not a barrier for one to understand.

In short, publisher should take note on what they are going to publish to the public. Several issues need to be thought of before the material shown to public. It is essential for the editor to practice ethic of technical communications in addressing issue to the public. This is to convey message to the public in the right form of media.

Reference List

Jean, HW 1995, Ethics in scientific and technical communication, in Stevens M, the Exchange, Vol.14, No.2, June 2007

Kress, G., van Leeuwen, T. 2006, Reading images Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication, 2nd edn, Reading Images: The grammar of visual design, Routledge, London

Obama campaign outraged by New Yorker cover, AFP, 14 July 2008

Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual Shifts: Examining The Reading Process With Print, Visual and Multimodal Text', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 24-37

Old Facebook or New Facebook?

Hard to admit but I am addicted to Facebook since my friend introduce this social networking sites to me. I think I am one of the Facebook users that dislike about the frequent change of facebook layout after I getting used to it. An article Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming on Sept 11 2008 reported that 100millions fumed over the changes which they need to adopt the new design. However, there are still users that appear enjoying the new changes as some features of old facebook being maintained.

The makeover by Facebook is contradict with what document designers should practice. According to Shriver (1997, p.439), stated that the writers need to think from readers' perspective before they publish it out. Facebook had did it another way where they change the layout without concerning their users point of view. However, it would be a matter of time for the audience would still adapt the new interface of facebook after they familiar with it. In the news report, a customer representative posted up a message saying that the changes would be useful as past improvement even there are people unhappy about it.

Old Facebook: No share button as users are not allows to personalize their profile Source: Facebook, 2008


New Facebook: Tabs on a page, one of the changes on facebook
Source: Facebook,2009

Comparing the old facebook, the new facebook has new feature which is 'tabs' that enable to update their personal status, add photos or share link without leaving the page. Apart from this, Kress and van Leeuwen (1998, p.203) mention about framing which being practiced on the new facebook. The different frame is being provided to cater different information for the users. In addition, this framing devices acts as tools of connecting and disconnecting items as well because the information on each frame would be totally different with each other.

Hence, this new facebook no doubt has added certain value that successfully replace the old facebook. Even there are dissatisfaction over the change, it would just a matter of time the facebook users need in order to get used it.

Reference List

Australian IT, 2008, Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming, viewed on 2nd June 2009, <http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html>

Kress, G, van Leeuwen, T 1998, Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout in Bell and Garrett, Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford, pp.186-218

Schriver, KA 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures’, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, Chapter 6, pp. 361-441

New Forms of media publishing

Newest trends of media publishing and issues

New forms of media publishing? Thanks to technology for bringing us variety of choices in internet. Moblogs, Vlogs, Youtube are all new forms of media publishing. Youtube no doubt is one of the hottest online video that people would love to turn to if they could not get their favourite shows in local television with 100million video served in one month (Graham, 2009).

Youtube: Lots of categories provided to cater the needs of Internet users
Source: Youtube, 2009

Back to 2007, Malaysian student had come out with the national anthem named as "Negarakuku" and posted it up on Youtube. This is one of the serious cases that happens back then as the video clip include serious of offend towards the national anthem. His video clips had raised religious issue as the Islam citizen accused his "production" disrespect towards them.

Although there are freedoms of speech in Malaysia, there is a limit for it. According to Informaworld (2009), the issue of ethnic and religion are strictly restricted that limit the freedom of speech to protect the racial harmony and political stability. In this case, the Malaysian student had over the line which leads to serious racial issue that he would be punished under Constitution of Malaysia.

This is because with the help of technology, the video clip is easily accessed by anyone as it travel along the network that hyperlink allows connectivity which agree by Birkerts (1994). In addition, Walsh (2006) mentions that society is moving towards multimodality as he noticed the shift in pattern of society.

According to Shriver (1997, p.166), the arrival of images and text would enhance the understandability of audience towards visual aids as readers would use their experience, knowledge and their belief to decode the visuals. The lyrics that being provided by the Malaysian student had enhanced the ability of audience to decode the meaning of song which he had abused the National Anthem.

To conclude, one would need to take consideration on what they are going to publish using the new forms of media publishing. In this case, lessons had been taught that even we can write or speak freely on the web; the law of freedom of speech applies as well.

Reference List

Birkerts, S 1994, The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age, viewed on 14th June 2009, <http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/bdbirk.htm#into>

Graham, J 2009, Youtube: 100 million videos served in one month, viewed on 14th June 2009, <http://blogs.usatoday.com/technologylive/2009/03/youtube-100-mil.html>

InformaWorld, 2009, Freedom of Speech and Democracy in Malaysia, viewed on 14th June 2009, <http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a791748226~db=all~jumptype=rss>

Schriver, KA 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures’, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, Chapter 6, pp. 361-441

Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual Shifts: Examining The Reading Process With Print, Visual and Multimodal Text', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 24-37

Classification of blogs and blogging communities

There are whole list of blog out on the internet for public to view and read. According to Wikipedia(2009), the way a person blogs would be different from other even they fall under the same category. Below are the types of blogs that available around the world:

Types of Blogs

Blogs by subject matter:

Politics Blogs
E.g. Jeffooi, Lim Kit Siang, Rocky's Bru

Food Blogs
E.g. masak-masak, Eat Drink KL, Chocoholic

Technology Blogs
E.g. Amanz.net, FriedBeef's Tech, Sapeinsbryan

Blogs by media type:

Vlog (Video blog): video blogging comprising video in their blogs but hardly in Malaysia
E.g. Ryanne

Sketchlog: blogs comprise series of sketch work by the bloggers
E.g. Sketch Blog of the Day, Mark's Sketchblog

Blogs by device:

Moblog: mobile phone or PDA that being used to compose blogs which includes text, video

Another Point of View of blogs classification

However, one of the prominent Australian blogger had give another point of view towards blogs classification. Simons (2008) had come out with nine different types of online sites for that classification . Below are her classification of blogs and brief explanation on each:

1. Pamphleteering Blogs: individual or groups expressing strong point of view which similar to political blogs.

E.g. Larvatus Prodeo

2. Digest Blogs: collected information from mainstream media or other blogs and provides links of single topic to another sites.


3. Advocacy Blogs: similar to pamphleteering but the group of people are from commercial organisation. They are actively approaching in educational manner point of view.

E.g. Telstra

4. Popular Mechanics Blog: By looking at the name of blog, this type of blog is relating to the information on how to accomplish matters using mechanics and how it worked. This type of blog are done enthusiastic by blogger on topic such as scuba diving, photography and so on.

E.g. Strobist

5. Exhibition Blog: Being mantained by people such as artists and writers to bring their work to broader audience. Most of the works are writing and poetry blogs.

6. Gatewatcher Blog: Small groups of of blogs that keep an eye on media that decide what needs public attention and not. The most popular that best known is run by specialist in public opinion polls

E.g. Possum Comitatus

7. Diary Blog: Majority people use blogs to write their personal activities. However, it is declining because of introduction new social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

8.Advertisement Blog: Blogs where companies advertise their products and bloggers eventually get paid to if companies advertise in bloggers.

9. News Blog: Blogges do break news after attended media conferences. This is one of the significant category of blogs as it contribute to journalism.

My opinion

Each blogs are combinations of styles in terms of topic, format and audiences. Firstly, I would look into the topic that I am interested to know as I expect to obtain information on the websites so that my time would not wasted.

Blogging Communities

Blogging communities from around the shared interst that the stronger the interest would eventually turn it into passion. So, how do we build blogging community? Have you thought about this question?

According to Rowse (2008), there are several ways to build community in a blog. One of the ways is links to other reader's blog. The tools such as comments, tag and permalink allows the viewers to link to other readers under the same interest. Research also stated that 'hyperlinks', 'other blog entries' and 'links' can seen as group of communities (Tseng, Tatemura and Wu, 2005).

But why classified?

One of the popular blogging communities is Mybloglog. By using the blogging communities, users update the community members is they had changed their url, new topics on their personal blogs. Tagging is what bloggers need to do on their posting to assists their friends or anyone that shared the same interest as them. In addition, this would ease other users to navigate around the websites to search information.

Reference List


Rowse, D 2008, How to Build Community on Your Blog, viewed on 15th June 2009, <http://problogger.net/archives/2008/04/26/how-to-build-community-on-your-blog>

Simons, M 2008, Towards a taxonomy of blogs, viewed on 13th June 2009, <http://www.creative.org.au/webboard/results.chtml?filename_num=229836>

Tseng, BL, Tatemura, J, Wu, Y 2005, Tomographic Clustering: To visualise Blog Communities as Mountain Views, Chiba, Japan

Wikipedia 2009, Blog, viewed on 13th June 2009, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog>