New Forms of Media Publishing

The latest trends in the media ecosystem today have improved the way people communicate and the speed of information retrieval, making the world a smaller place. These new trends include micro-blogging, social networking, blogging, vlogging and digital photography, just to name a few. Whoever has access to the Internet world today will have the power to broadcast their materials, share information and connect with people. These latest trends contributes to this benefit by allowing them to communicate information in more ways than before. Furthermore, the success of these trends has generated more softwares, websites and internet users to enlarge the network community (Naugton 2006 & Wherley 2009).

(brandingbrand.com)

The emergence of social networking sites and alternative online newspapers can be seen as a mark of the end of journalism, or a start of an evolution of a new relationship with journalism (Naughton 2006). Sites like Twitter informs users of what's happening in short sentences, to attract readers and making information circulation faster, hence the emergence of the popularity of Twitter. However, micro-blogging does not provide information that are as reliable as journalism. Journalism involves discipline, explanation, analysis and context (Bunz 2009), something Twitter doesn't seem to have (or at least not always). Journalism and social networking can complement each other in providing information to the public, which is what http://www.twitterjournalism.com/ is about.

(arkarthick.com)

Social networking is transforming politics, because it expands and improves the public sphere. Debates, statements, forums, influential pictures and videos can all be broadcasted o published on these sites. Politics can also use these sites to inform, discuss and announce. Freedom of speech is also enhanced, because people have the rights to post whatever they want (this differs in different territories), as thoughts, and expressions of an individual cannot be legislated, only behavior can. However, individuals should be cautious of what they post up in the open, because nobody will be able to tell what will go wrong when these information or materials are accessible to such a big audience (The Oracle 2009).

(http://www.markcrummett.com/mcart/notwands/pages/Freedom%20From%20Speech.htm)

References:

Bunz, M 2009, How social networking is changing journalism, as viewed 30th September 2010,<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/sep/18/oxford-social-media-convention-2009-journalism-blogs>.

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging new media ecosystem, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The Oracle 2009, Social Networking's Freedom of Speech Implications, as viewed 30th September 2010, <http://www.lockergnome.com/theoracle/2009/03/19/social-networkings-freedom-of-speech-implications/>.

Wherley, K 2009, Use Social Media to Reach your Ausience, as viewed 30th September 2010, <http://brandingbrand.com/blog/use-social-media-to-reach-your-target-audience/>.

Blogging Communities

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A community is a group of individuals that expresses their collective identities and share similar attributes, each community has its own boundaries and structure. A blogging community is a community where bloggers share what they blog about and contribute via comments and networking (White, 2006).

(myblogiseasy.com)

There a several ways to create a blogging community. According to Darren Rowse (2008), these actions include:

1. Interaction with other bloggers on blogs (commenting, asking questions, answering questions)

2. Give readers something to do on your blog(s) or do a project they can participate in
3. Lead and be the example for your readers, or invite readers to do so
4. Link to reader’s blogs
5. Publicize reader’s weblogs

(marketlikeachick.com)

Furthermore, e-facilitation and e-community specialist, Nancy White (2008) discusses the three types of blogging communities.

1) The Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community

The writers of these blogs have full power and control over the topics and materials posted on these blogs, they can remove reader’s comments and censor materials from selected readers. This is because these blogs are the owned solely by the writer(s) or their organization. Readers of these blogs will get to know more about the blogger and their readers as well through comments.
Example: http://www.downes.ca/me/articles

(http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/)

2) Central Connecting Topic Community
A network formation linked by a shared passion and topic and creates membership (community) through subject matters. As this network grows, it is likely that sub communities will be formed. These are separate blogs using different tools linked together through hyperlinks in blog rolls and blog posts, tagging, aggregated feeds, trackback and comments.
Example: http://globalvoicesonline.org/

(http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/)

3) Boundaried Communities

A single site or platform that hosts a collection of blogs. Readers are typically asked to register to join this community and are offered to create a blog after that. Bloggers can easily access other blogs within the communities and they link mostly within the community, this makes internal connections denser and faster, and also build communities.
Example: http://www.shareyourstory.org/

(http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/)

With the understanding of these patterns of weblogs, we can strategically use it for further community development. They can be used in terms of their social architecture, technology/design, subject matter and other issues.

I will now discuss the structure of Malaysia's famous blogger, Kenny Sia’s blogging community.

(http://julianhopkins.net/index.php?/plugin/tag/research)

Kennysia.com is a one blog centric community, readers not only get know the author, Kenny Sia, but also other readers as well through commenting. The author has full control of what is written in his blog, he can choose to remove comments or censor materials from particular readers. However, readers can determine the topic on the blog if a influential relationship between reader and author is formed. Kenny Sia holds full power in his blogging community, therefore the community will be likely to shatter unless readers can find a link to each other. These kind of blogging communities can grow overtime, the amount of comments can turn out to be over-whelming. This community grows with the assistance of links from blog rolls, subscriptions and reader's networks.

References:

Rowse, D 2008, How to Build Community On Your Blog, as viewed 27th September, <http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/04/26/how-to-build-community-on-your-blog/>.

White, N 2006, Blogs and Community- Launching a New Paradigm for Online Community?, as viewed 27th September 2010, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>.

Hampton, J 2004, Seven CommunityDefinitions, as viewed 30th September 2010, <http://www.community4me.com/comm_definitions.html>.

Classification of Blogs

How to classify a ???

(brandingbrand.com)

Numerous types of blogs exist, blogs about anything that can be imagined (Wherly 2009). Blogs can be edit and published by several forms of devices, like mobile phones, computers and palms. In other words, weblogs can be accessed and published by almost all the ICT devices. I is estimated that in 2012, 17 billion devices that allows people to connect to the internet (ZDnet 2006).

In an ABC radio station program, Antony Funnel interviews author and freelance journalist, Margaret Simon (2008) talks about the different types of weblogs that currently exist. She classifies them into 9 groups and discusses the subject matter, device, media type and status of publishers of each blog. The classifications are as followed;

1) Pamphleteering blogs
– a blog where points are being argued and strong point of views are being expressed, these points are mainly on politics, current events and sometimes broader events.
Example: http://larvatusprodeo.net/

2) Digest blogs
- summaries and collections of materials of topics from mainstream media and other blogs as well, with additions of small analysis.
Example: owned by the journalists’ union, Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, http://www.fairgofairfax.org.au/ is a blog covering the journalists’ strike and redundancies issues.

3) Advocacy blogs
- the reinforcement of a point of view in a didactic manner, usually by a vested interest group, like advocacy group, commercial organization or political party.
Example: http://exchange.telstra.com.au/

4) Popular mechanics blogs
- Rich source of collection of information on how to dos and how things operate etc. Often done by enthusiasts or advertisers.
Example: http://blog.modernmechanix.com/

5) Exhibition blogs
- vanity publishing, often by craftspeople, artists, writers. This is to publicize their work to a broader audience.
Example: http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/thai-art-exhibition

6) Gatewatcher blogs
- small group of individuals that scrutinizes and critiques the media.
Example: http://possumcomitatus.wordpress.com/

7) Diary blogs
- social networking sites are now representing this function, very popular in today’s society
Examples: www.twitter.com, www.facebook.com

8) Advertisement blogs
- product promotion, often by commercial companies
Example: http://www.adverblog.com/

9) News blogs
- news breakers
Examples: http://www.crikey.com.au/, http://www.malaysia-today.net/

Since many blogs are fusion of styles, it makes it hard to identify their unique types. However, I think that the best way to classify blogs is to look at style because the way it is written and presented can determine classifications more accurately compared to the other elements, which could be misleading.

(thephoenixpub.com)

References:

• Funnell, A 2008, A Taxonomy of Blogs, as viewed 22th September 2010, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript>.
• Pritchett. D.J 2009, Hot collaboration trends in 2009: internal facebooks, sharepoint microblogging,expert location,and homegrown wikis, viewed on 22th September 2010, <http://www.sharingatwork.com/2009/10/hot-collaboration-trends-in-2009-internal-facebooks-sharepoint-microblogging-expert-location-and-homegrown-wikis/ >.
• ZDnet Research 2006, 17 bln devices to connect to the Internet in 2012, as viewed 23 September 2010, <http://www.zdnet.com/blog/itfacts/17-bln-devices-to-connect-to-the-internet-in-2012/10816>.

Blogs, a Current Phenomenon and its Benefits to the Community

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Blogs, a space where information can be communicated through the internet. Whether bloggers blog about their hobbies or are employed to do so as a part-time or full-time job, they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, despite of gender, race and age. It is a rapidly growing trend that is globalizing (Sussman 2009). With reference to Technorati, internet search engine and analysis for blogs, the current blogging phenomenon and its benefits to the community will be discussed here.

(venturebeat.com)

Technorati has tracked more than 57 million weblogs by October 2006 and is sill rapidly growing by the numbers. Furthermore, it was also analysed in 2008’s report that 900,000 blog posts are created every 24 hours. The size of the blogosphere is huge by numbers and is still constantly growing (Marketing Charts 2008 & McLean 2009).

The usage of (kauai.gov) Twitter is one of the leading global trends today, it is one of the most popular micro-blogging websites among the likes of Facebook, Tumblr and MySpace. It is used much more by bloggers compared to the general population (Sussman & Pritchett 2009).

Another trend is the prevalence of different types of blogs in different countries. For instance, the blogosphere in Iran was often turned to for critical political commentary especially during 2009’s presidential election. This resulted to a ban on numerous social networking sites, and soon enough, a blogger was imprisoned for blogging. Whereas in America, blogs were used as a free public sphere for forums and debates to take place in. It adds to the democratic process of their presidential election, because the public body had the space and rights to speak and persuade. Many believe that blogs played a big role in Obama’s presidential victory (Sussman 2008). Besides political impact, blogs also causes financial, educational, spiritual and social impacts.

(littleblackblog.net/government)

The community benefits tremendously from the existence of weblogs, it provides the public body the chance to participate in political debate, be up-to-date with the happenings of society and provides conveniences.

References:

1. Pritchett. D.J 2009, Hot collaboration trends in 2009: internal facebooks, sharepoint microblogging,expert location,and homegrown wikis, viewed on 19 April 2010, <http://www.sharingatwork.com/2009/10/hot-collaboration-trends-in-2009-internal-facebooks-sharepoint-microblogging-expert-location-and-homegrown-wikis/ >.
2. Marketing Charts 2008, Blogging Hits Mainstream, Integral to The Media Ecosystem, as viewed 18th September 2010, <http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/blogging-hits-mainstream-integral-to-media-ecosystem-6256/technorati-state-of-blogosphere-size-2008jpg/>.
3. McLean, J & Sussman, M 2009, State of the Blogosphere 2009, as viewed 19th September 2010, <http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/>.

Document Design

What makes a good powerpoint presentation? Personally, i think a good power point presentation is one that is interesting and persuasive. Besides the presenter's confidence, clarity in speech and understanding of the topic he or she is presenting, the presentation slides has to have to important aspects, layout and writing.

A good document design, or in other words, good layout, enables the readers to read efficiently, emphasizes on important points and make readers feel comfortable with the communication (Putnis & Petelein 1996). It should have sufficient space to emphasize important elements, avoid fancy and contrasting fonts and backgrounds and have limited slides with limited amount of words (Reep 2006 and Russell n.d.) and also appropriate use of composition, which includes the elements of informative value, salience and framing (Kress & van Leeuwen 2006). All these will enable readers to read and understand clearly and to keep them interested in the presentation. The picture from Doneseo.com below illustrates proper composition, the center contains the important element, whereas the margin is the peripheral element which is supposed to enhance the importance of the center element. Furthermore, the framing and space given for the words at the bottom clarifies what this advertisement is about.

Secondly, a good presentation needs good writing, or content, which is equally as important as the layout. Good writing is written directly and conveyed without any loss of information regardless of who the readers are. Each slide should contain standard fonts and title for clarity (Marquez 2010). Furthermore, the messages should be conveyed chronologically and can be related in real world contexts. Logical reasoning should be presented with the support of arguments, theories and hyphothesis (Rothman 2005). In addition, images are always needed in presentation, not as an illustration to the texts, but as an equally important element in an intergrated text, so that messages can be communicated effectively (Kress & van Leeuwen 2006). Below is one of the slides from my assignment 1 presentation, it emphasizes the importance of having an integrated text.

In conclusion, good content and document design are essentials in making a good powerpoint presentation.




References

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

Marquez, Z L 2010, How to Make a Good Power Point Presentation, Ezinearticles.com, viewed 26th August 2010,

Peter, P & Petelin, R 1996, 'Writing to communicate', Professional communication : principles and applications, Ch. 7, pp. 223-263.

Reep, DC 2006, 'Document Design', Technical Writing, Ch. 6, pp. 133-172.

Rothman, S 2005, What Makes Good Scientific and Techinical Writing?, Assosiatedcontent.com, viewed 26th August 2010, .

Russel, W 2010, 10 Tips for Creating Successful Business Presentations, About.com: Presentation Software, viewed 26th August 2010, .

Purpose

This blog is created to discuss the topics I learn from my course subject 'Issues in Publication and Design,' the main topics include publication, media and design. The targeted audience for this blog would be students of the same course or any course related to the field of publication, media and design.

(techpin.com)