Reflection

As the overall reflection throughout blogging about different topics. I personally learn a lot about media and I gain so much knowledge. The journey of learning is never go to waste and I understand very well that different blogging has different purposes. The most important thing is to know the etiquette of blogging, we are free to blog but there are certain things that we must and must not write.

A blog is does not judge by the content solely but also the appearance. The layout of a blog play an important role to present the whole blogs to visitors. It is on individual preferences on how to fill in the content, full of words or using images to explain certain aspect. However, we have to remember, we have to create a blog that is readable by everyone. If the message cannot be conveyed by anyone who view it. It is not a good blog design.

We also need to utilize the different modes of hyperlink, images to make a blog look interesting and allow the visitors or readers to explore the blog according to their will or needs. As Walsh (2006,p30) has stated that "reader's pathway can be multilinear and multi-directional."

Reference

Walsh, M (2006), ' The 'textual shift' Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Vol 29, pp12-37

Emoticons and email ettiquette

Source: freeiconsdownload.com

How would you construct your email's content? How would you understand what are your friend or your boss is trying to tell you in a long email? Are there any miscommunication or misinterpretation in between?

From the transcript from ABC news is discussing about the creation of emoticons, the use of different emoticons to express different meaning which are created by Scott Fahlman. There is also a discussion about the ethic of sending email to certain people, younger ones and elderly.

Source: www.selfstoragenow.com/.../ email_etiquette.html

The way you interpret yourself in direct communication or words form in a sentence can create different meaning. According to Walsh, (2006,p25) levels of decoding meaning is depending on the type of text and it can be enhanced by the reader's background's knowledge of the world and how language works. For example, I sent an email to a friend to show my unhappiness by typing in Capital letters for every sentence (e.g WHY!) and the receiver understood that I was clearly unhappy. The two of us are clearly have the knowledge on how language works and how it form certain meanings.

Moreover, putting emoticon is a better option to have a clear meaning. The receiver clearly understand when he or she read the email and there is a smile emoticon. It shows that the sender is happy. As what Kress & Leuween (1997) explained that image and words are supporting each other.

We have to constantly remember that email has its own etiquette, there are Do's and Don'ts.

It is depending who are we talking to, writing an email to a boss we have to monitor our formality. Try to avoid the prevailing assumption that e-mail by it's very nature allows you to be informal in your business e-mail (2010).

In conclusion, I believe people needs to have the knowledge of understanding the manner of writing an email and the usage of an emoticons. The understanding is depending on how much we can understand how language works.

References

Business Email Etiquette Basic,2010, ' The business E-mail Etiquette Basics you need to know', Reviewed on 14th June 2010:

http://www.businessemailetiquette.com/business-e-mail-etiquette-basics/

Kress,G.& van Leeuwen,T (2006), ' Reading images. Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication,pp16-44

Walsh, (2006), ' The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts' vol 29, pp 12-37

Digital publishing: rethinking a revolution in reading.

Source: pmo.gov.bd

Many people these days lost interest in reading books? spending their time too much in front of the new technology, com

puter, Ipad, or Iphone screen?

Summary

Last week monday, in Melbourne the Australian Federal Minister of Innovation announced a new body a book industry strategic group to educate the publisher or to help the Australian publisher to adapt to the digital age. It is to have a greater opportunity to publish more and to reach out to larger audiences. Bringing the work to the people who wants to read it in different way example literature, poetry in which is include moving images. It is allowing the people to build something richer, particularly in the education and to the general reader. There are differences in ebook and print book and it is a big shift for the consumer to own a physical books and do anything they want to it. While ebook people cannot do that. The readers love the most in ebook is the immediacy and the ability to find the book instantly.

Opinion about the Issue

According to Walsh (2006) explained there is a textual shift take place and that is called as the paradigm shift where texts are filled with visual, electronic and also digital texts. Such texts are called as the Multimodal texts. Referring back to what Walsh said, I agree that texts are experiencing textual shift in this modern society. Where many people are exposed themselves in using new media, browsing internet and finding data, stories and movies.

As a tertiary level student, I rely on the new media to do research and gain information.

However, I have not really exposed myself in using the ebook to do regular reading. Living in Asia region with a different culture with the western, we are still greatly dependent on using print material. However, we have started to learn in utilizing the new media.

Kress and others (Heath,2000;Beame,2003) supported that the 'screen' and multimodal text have developed new literacies. There are many young adults and even teenagers who dislike in reading print books but they are enjoying themselves in exploring the new media.

Therefore, it is a great approach for Australia book publisher in publishing their work into ebook to reach out in a different way to the people who never read any printed books. Creating a change in reading methods. Their book will also now be recognized and greatly appreciated across the globe.

References

ABC,(2010),' Digital Publishing:rethinking a revolution in reading', Reviewed on 14th June 2010

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2010/2827561.htm

Walsh, M (2006), Texual Shift: Eximing the reading process with print,visual and multimodal texts. Vol 29, pp 12-37

The Fallacy of the 'Print Is Dead'

Source: idsnews.com

There is an article shown from the mediashift online written by Michael Josefowicz is discussing about how new media has taken over the number of people's attention from the printing media. It is discussing about how much the web has gain popularity in nationwide and the opinions of the people saying print edition is now for the elderly and how the printing will be dead soon.

Personal opinion and supported theories

I agreed with what the article has stated that " there is no denying that web has changed and will continue change the nature of print journalism." However, I agreed to Michael Josefowicz's opinion that print form will still survive in this modern era. I do not deny that using advance technology (computer) via online is the more fun compare to use the print form. It is much faster and convenient in using online browser to find any data needed.

However, I still personally prefer to study in printed form, textbook, newspaper and anything that involved long hours. No matter how advance the technology is people still rely on the printed form. Our eyes cannot focus in front the screen for long hours and according to health expert (medical news today,2004) that Eye strain has become a common problem for people who's routine involves working on computers and it will increases the chances of worsen into a short sighted the

n glaucoma- eye disease which can make people blind.

Referring to Walsh (2006, p25), she said that reading printed text is not static and it is a constant interaction between readers and text. In many purposed and usage, printed form is still precious to many people such as a love notes written in a handwriting from their loved one, Happy Birthday card and newspaper print.

Therefore, new media may be be changing the nature of print but printing will not be 'Dead' over the time.

Source:10000words.net

References

Mediashift, (2009),'The Fallacy of the 'Print is dead'Meme', Reviewed on 14th June 2010,

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/04/the-fallacy-of-the-print-is-dead-meme117.html

Medical News Today, (2004), 'Watching computer screen too long can lead to glaucoma', Reviewed on 14th June 2010

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/16507.php

Mule,(2010), 'Eye Strain Symptoms', Reviewed on 14th June 2010

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/eyes-strain-symptoms.html

Walsh (2006),' The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts." Journal Vol29, pp12-37.

Multiple identities online?

The Huffing Post website shown an article on a young teenage girl was rape and murdered by a 33 years old man who fake his Facebook profile. It attracted many interest and become online "friends". Most of them are female from the age of 13 up to 31. He would then attempt to redirect them to private chat-rooms where he would invite them to provide sexual explicit details.

Over 40million users are active in Facebook and I would be one of them who are "addicted" into it. There are also who uses multiple identities, name, age, gender, and email address. Who are you? Who are you online? Are you the same to everyone? Should you be?

The article above is one negative aspect from having multiple identities. Some people are taking the advantage to do negative act. According to Romano (2010),“online identity is a persona that someone forms online and sometimes different from the real form. It allows individual to form a complete different persona.”

When we decided to join online community, we often have a choice on how much personal information to place into the profile database. Depending on the amount of desire we have, whether to lurk around or to hide completely. It is indicating the person’s need to split his entire personal identity from his observing of those around them. Some people may want to look but not to be seen. The psychology expert (Suler, 2000) said that, “One of the interesting thing about the Internet is the opportunity it offers people to present themselves in a variety of different ways.”

I personally feel multiple identities can be very good; it separate our important working or schooling data from "junks". I use different name and email address to describe myself in different online network, such as Facebook and professional website purposes. Those people who knows me do not feel disturb with the change of name.

In Conclusion

It is okay to Play around and trying on different characteristics are part of the fun of an online life. We can even change the way present yourself to others, and we can learn more about things that interest us. And, just as in real life, we can take steps to help make sure we stay in control.

References:

Harrison & Thomas, 2009, Identity in Online Communities: Social Networking Sites and Language Learning', Reviewed on 13th June 2010

http://www.swinburne.edu.au/hosting/ijets/journal/V7N2/pdf/Article4-HarrisonThomas.pdf

Romano, 2010, 'What is Online Identity', Reviewed on 13th June 2010,

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-online-identity.htm

Suler, J.R (2002), 'Identity Management in Cyberspace', Reviewed on 13th June 2010:

http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/identitymanage.html

The Huffing Post, 2010, ' Serial sex offender admits using Facebook to rape and murder teen', Reviewed on 13th June 2010

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/08/peter-chapman-admits-usin_n_489674.html

Good design for Screen Genre

Everyone wants to be acknowledge by others yet at the same time often afraid to encode wrong message and concern about the content more than anything else. This is why people often ignoring about its appearance. According to Reep, Diana (2006), "Readers do not read only the printed words on a page , they also read the visual presentation".

Reep (2006) writing on document design and showing the important principles on how to create a good design. In order, how to apply the design principles; I am going to use my first assignment on powerpoint presentation slides to be the example. Through this we can find out if there are errors or not and find a way to further improve the whole documents.

The first principle- Balance

According to Reep (2006) balance page balance refers to having comparable visual "weight" on both sides of a page or on opposing pages in a longer document. One large section of a page can be balanced by two smaller sections.

Figure 1:

Looking into figure 1. we can see one large section right in the middle (Grey color) and two smaller sections which is on the top (White color) and right at the bottom (Dark Green color). the 3 elements show the page is divided accordingly and therefore it is balance.

Second principle - Proportion

Proportion in a page is looking into the size, the placement of the text, graphic aids and also format elements on the page. Reep(2006)

Figure 2

Looking at figure 2. The size of the text in the content is equal and only the heading size is bigger to help the readers to know the subject. supported by Reep (2006), "Each design feature should be the size that is helpful to the reader and appropriate to the subject". The placement of the text is align and slide is using the format elements, which is Bolding the

text accordingly to emphasize the main points.

Third Principle - Sequence

According to Diana Reep (2006), it is focuses on the arrangement of the design features where readers are often see the best order first.

Figure 3

Looking at figure 3 and 1.

The slide's sequence is present where it is placed from the most important which is showin

g the most important first and to the second important and so on.

Fourth principle - Consistency

Presenting similar features in a similar style

Focuses on:

1. Margin - keep the same margin

2. typeface - Using same font size and style of type of headings and information.

3. Indentations - the same style of paragraphs, quotations and lists.

Figure 4

looking at the figure 4. the same size font, background, and arrangements. It is showing the consistency of the slides are helpful to the readers.

In conclusions, after going through the four principles, we are now able to create a good design for powerpoint slides and this principles can be applied into many different aspect of genre. We are not only able to send across the message, also retain the message in the audiences' mind and understanding.

References

Reep, D. C.( 2006), ‘Chapter 6: Document design’ in Technical writing: Principles, strategies and readings, 6th ed., Pearson-Longman, New York

New forms of media publishing- Facebook

People has divert their attention from the printed form of communication, into new media. The newest form of media publishing that is mostly used by many people these days is moblog (mobile blog). It is consider as a multimodal text form of blogging as it is allowing people to upload not only pictures but also video at any time and places through mobile phone. according to Walsh(2006), multimodal text is meaning communicated through synchronisation of modes and may involve with moving images, sounds and produced on electronic screen.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

There are many devices that has browsing application but the most booming mobile phone device is BlackBerry. BlackBerry is called as a smartphone that gives out a valuable and convenient applications to the people.

Moblog has dominate people's time and create an addiction to those who are enjoying the applications. It has given a strong impact to the social media and has create a rapid growth on Facebook. Especially in Indonesia.

How Facebook changes the way of communications?

Besides providing an excellent facilities whereby can be accessed in many different ways from the computers into mobile phone (Blackberry). Facebook managed to grab millions of people's interest. There are many different form of online communication, example blogging and forums; There are still many who still continue blogging but there are more people who stop and decided to move their attention into facebook. It allows the audiences to have an instant update about themselves through the shout out box and also gain update on others as well. example is on the figure on the right.

Facebook is also a perfect place where many business organizations lay their interest to promote their products and services. Also an excellent place to do survey research and sharing the latest update about them at any time. example : WWF.

Lesser people show interest in printed way of communications however facebook may not eliminate other form of communication but it is changes the flow of the communication chain. and Naughton. J 2006 shared his opinion by saying "when the Web arrived, people predicted that it would wipe out newsprint and new communications technologies may not wipe out earlier ones, they certainly changes the ecosystem".

Facebook Issues

Facebook is facing a serious issue of privacy. Many have complaint regarding this matter including the Canadian officials who concerned on the privacy level in Facebook. Trying to ensure that any third- party viewers cannot access over the personal information. Due to that matter, often there are cases where people are using false identity to rape and murder. One clear example is a case happened in United Kingdom, where a teenage girl is raped and murdered after she was cheated by a guy who was registered on Facebook under the name of Peter Cartwright, from Liverpool and claimed he was 17 years old, single and work part-time as a DJ.

References

ABC Radio National, 2005, New media publishing, Reviewed on 17th April 2010,

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigidea/stories/s1485827.htm

Cnet news, 2009, Canadian Officials take Issue with Facebook privacy,

Viewed on 17th April 2010,

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10289686-36.html

Naughton. J 2006, 'Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem' , viewed on 16th April 2010,

http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf

Telegraph.co.uk, 2010, Facebook murder's monitoring 'an issue', Viewed on 17th April 2010,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7404064/Facebook-murderers-monitoring-an-issue-Alan-Johnson-says.html

Thomas Crampton, Indonesia: Where Blackberry beats iPhone, Viewed on 17th April 2010,

http://www.thomascrampton.com/indonesia/indonesia-iphone/

Explain briefly types of blogging communities & methods to build blogging communities. Then, discuss the structure of one blogging community in brief

What is blogging community?

Based on my understanding blogging community is define as the online community or group of people from different places who share similarity of interest via the creation of blogs.

how to define the different types?

According to Nancy White (2006), people began to blog and write about the things they cared the most. They start to find one another and give comments on each o

ther's blog. That is how a blogging community first being formed.

However, if people only depending solely on creating a blog based on applying an interesting topics will not be enough to expand into blogging community category.

In summarizing Nancy White's page. She explains on how people first understood online community is through the forums and emails. Also how blog adaption accelerated and with the new tools of RSS and feedreaders, it offer new possibilities and supporting the blogging community. As a whole she characterized blog community into 3 parts:

1. The single blog / Blogger Centric community - communities rest in one primary blog. - Example: interplast
2. The Central Connecting Topic Community - A network connection: Blogs linked by a common interest. Example : Animeblogger.net
3. Boundaries Community- A social networking where it is a collection of blogs hosted on a single site. - Example : Facebook

How to build blogging communities?

It is simple when we go through Nancy White's writing and through the understanding of the 3 parts of characterizing blogging community and also looking into the example I've given, we are able to build the community easily by applying them on the accords individual needs. Looking into the areas of interest and it is consider as a 'shortcut' for people to understand how to build a blogging community. However it is still important the amount of the content daily and also the credibility.

If not, using another way which is a very basic and longer steps. Which are read other blogs, leaving comments and the blog's URL. However most people are often feeling unhappy and treated those as spams (if it is not important).

Source: facebooksmileys.org

Facebook is one clear example of blogging community and it is falls under the Boundaried Community as it is worldwide well known social networking of 400 millions of active users. Their blogging structures are created for the convenient of millions people, it allows people register as members, create own profile page and also the community is giving more facilities of tools, such as : a shout out post ( it will appear on the link network friends), Discussion boards, social network features ( you can get to know new friends), instant messaging built in, relationship status and many more.

References:

Facebook, Press rom, 2010, Reviewed at 15th June 2009,

http://www.facebook.com/press/ info.php?statistic

How to Build a Blogging Community, Reviewed on 16th April 2010

http://www.ehow.com/how_2152382_build-blogging-community.html

Nancy white, (2006), Australian Flexible Learning Framework, Blogs and Community- launching a new paradigm for online community?, Reviewed on 16th April 2010,

http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

Classification of blogs & opinion about the most appropriate classification approach

My previous post mentioned about there are many different kind of topics where people are interested in and also there are 8 different types of blog publishing which I've found from the makeyougohmm site.

• Linklog : It is a blog that consist of other blogs' URL and you can link to those blogs. Some call it as social bookmark. It is only social when you are sharing the links with others. Examples: Delicious and Tony Finch's Linklog

• Moblog: It is a mobile blogging- enabling people to send pictures through cameraphone. Example: Flickr and Picassa Web

• Podcast: Audio recording, typically in MP3 format and served through RSS feed enclosure. Example is utterz and

• Vlog: It is a video blogging - enabling people to upload video like mp4 format. Examples: Youtube and blip.tv

• Microblog: It is a blog where allowing a short message and mostly uses SMS. Example: Twitter

• Miniblog or reblog: It is a form of a blog which enabling people to post a significant content and it is shorter than the normal blog. Example: Tumblr

• Liveblog: It is covering some type of live events like sports event, press conference and tv show. Examples: Live Blog and Engadget live coverage of Macworld 2008

• Sketchlog: A blog that consist of images, sketches and drawings. Examples: Kristen's Sketchblog and Andrea Joseph's Sketchblog

Margaret Simon's blogging classifications

The author and freelance journalist, Margaret Simon's classifying them differently compare to the one I've found. There are 9 different classifications, which is Pamphleteering, Digests, Advocacy, Popular Mechanics, Exhibition, Gate Watcher, Diary, Advertisements and News.

The differences between Margaret Simon's classification and the one I've found is that the classification under Margaret Simon is more in details according to the specific topic of interest. While the one I've found is more general and yet in the same time is specific according to what genre you want. example: Margaret Simon's Exhibition ( can use different way of showing it, combination of vblog and linkblog). Where as the one I've found is Vlog is specific collection of video.

Personal opinion

Often people are confused due to the combination of many blogging features. Margaret Simon's classification is very specific according to the different area of interest. Which I feel that is better compare classifying them according to the usage, example Vlog (video blog).

As long as people consistent on the topic discussed throughout the blogs, there will not be a problem to have combinations. Example: Diary

Source: http://alice-little-heart-says.blogspot.com

References

Funnell.A. (2008) A taxonomy of blogs, Reviewed on 16th April 2010,

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript

The 8 different types of blogging in 2008, Reviewed on 12th April 2010,

http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20080124/5040/

Blogs as current phenomenon

Through the creation of the new media (internet), weblogs are introduced to the society and it has become a phenomenon for the past many years until today. blogs are allowing million of people to publish their thoughts and opinion at ease on their interest topics. This is leading to the reason on why the size of the blogsphere keeps growing. According to the BBC News (2006), information gain from Technorati that 100,000 new blogs were created each day and 1.3 million blog post were written.

The chart below is shown by Technorati to show the growth of weblog is doubled for the past 3 years from 2003 up to 2006.

Sources: http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000432.html

The chart below is showing on new blog entry daily from January 2004 up to April 2006.

Sources: http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000432.html

From the Technorati charts above, we can identify the blogsphere is doubling in size every 6 months, 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are active posting even 3 months after it is first created and 1.2million new blog post daily and about 50,000 per hour. Therefore it allow us to estimate today's blogging are still continue to grow and it is mostly treated as a habitual activity.

Blogging Trends

The blogging trends main interest divided to many different topics according to self interest and the example are in the Europe and Asia Countries. Twingly reported Sweden's blogger interest on writing political issues and Microsoft, show the blogging phenomenon in Asia is focuses to build social connections and also express feeling. 53% of people in Asia are enjoying personal blog. Where as, across the regions India and Korea show a strong interest in Business blog besides Technology written by business leader.

Personal opinion on Blogging's Benefit

Blogging mostly bring benefit especially when we are looking into Malaysian community where most Malaysian has no freedom of expression. It is said on Press reference Malaysia is an authoritarian press country so people tend to look at mainstream media as biased when it comes to inform political issues. Microsoft also supported that Political blogs are quite popular in Malaysia compare to many other countries. Therefore, through blogging allowing the people to voice out opinion and share criticism on the political issues. Some example top political blogs are JeffOoi, and Rocky's Bru

References

BBC News, (2006), Blogging 'set to peak next year', Reviewed on 10th April 2010,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6178611.stm

Effective Internet Presence, 2005, Keynote Speech: Understanding Blogs, The Current Wave of the Information Revolution, Reviewed on 10th April 2010,

http://effectiveinternetpresence.com/articles/blog-speech-transcript.htm

Pressreference, (2010), 'Press Reference', Reviewed on 11st April 2010,

http://www.pressreference.com/Ky-Ma/Malaysia.html

Prnewswire, Blogging Phenomenon sweeps Asia, Reviewed on 9th April 2010,

http://www2.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-28-2006/0004480819&EDATE=

Sabahan.com '50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia', Reviewed on 11st April 2010,

Http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/

'State of Blogsphere growth 2006', April 17 Reviewed on 10th April 2010,

http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000432.html

Twingly Blog, 'Archive for "Europe" Category', Reviewed on 10th April 2010,

http://blog.twingly.com/category/europe/