Document Design

Reep (2006) states that, document design refers to the physical appearance of a document and also states that a good document design must include five basic design principles: balance, proportion, sequence and consistency. This is further supported Putnis and Petelin(1996) who suggests various strategies such as involvement of a recognisable flow of information, use of typefaces and creating a balance of spaces and alignments.


Marquez,(2010)argues that a good power point presentation is by engaging the audience and their understanding to the presented information using proper layouts and necessary information, so that the presentation will be preferred and given applause or approval. In order to do that, the word limit for a write up has to be appropriate and writing should be concise and not pompuous. A simple but relevant image can be used to reduce the dullness.

Schriver (1997) said was right as 'pictures can arouse the reader's interest and curiosity and often well remembered' . With the text and image together, reader would get to understand more on what the writer is trying to convey. The degree of understanding can not be achieved if a write up is solely based on writing.

Rothman (2005) also specifies that good writing is a necessity as it involves relaying specific information directly and literally. Clear and concise writing would no doubt boost the udnerstanding between the writer and the audience. The importance of using the right words to form a sentence is essential to say the least.

Reference

1. Marquez, Z 2010, How to Make A Good PowerPoint Presentation, Writing and Speaking, viewed 25 August 2011,

2. Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, Writing to Communicate, in Professional Communication: Principles and Applications, pg223-pg263

3. Reep, D 2006, Document Design, in Technical Writing, 6th edn, pg133-pg172

4. Rothman, S 2005, What Makes Good Scientific and Technical Writing, Associated Content, viewed 25 August,

5. Russell, W, 10 Tips for Creating Successful Business Presentations, About.com Guide, viewed 25 August 2011 ,

6. Schriver, K 1997, The Interplay of Words and Pictures, in Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, pg361-pg441

New Forms of Media Publishing

Twitter is a social networking website that allows people to micro blog, upload, download and comment on to share with others. Twitter acts as a tool which is capable of changing opinions and an outlook completely. Information from Twitter is also obtained rather easily as clicking on the trending topics tab would unveil everything. The trending topics can range from anything to everything. Walsh (2006) also opined that textual shift has taken place from monomodal to multimodal that includes different modes of communication, for example videos.

This further backs Twitter to be one of the best and newest social media tool in our media hungry world today. Journalists can actually capitalise on what the new media has to offer as people are often seeking for new things. Naughton (2006) says that, internet makes people much better informed by providing them with formidable resources which to become more knowledgeable.

This is one of the few reasons that journalists should not see the emergence of a micro blogging site as a threat to their profession. In addition, they need not worry about distance as communication can be easily done even by sitting behind your desk. Journalists not only can reach out to a limited spectrum of viewers, but worldwide acknowledgement is imminent if this continues. Schriver (1997) mentions that it is vital to combine well-designed image with text because readers gain better understanding than text or image alone. Twitter has the potential to futher develop as solely being a micro blogging and file sharing medium. Journalists should be well aware of its potential, ultimately conforming to its nature, and using it to their advantage.

Reference

1) Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, Reuters Institute, viewed 25 August 2011,

2) Schriver, K 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, The Interplay of Words and Pictures, pp361-441, viewed 25 August 2011

3) Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual shift: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', in Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, pp24-37, viewed 25 August 2011.

The Blogging Community

The blogging community refers to a group of social supporters with same interest and interaction is done with one another through blog posts, forums and bulletin boards.
The statement is backed by Wei (2004), as she claimed that blogs are often situated within a blog community of similar interests. Wei (2004) also stated that each of these blog communities has its own practices and behaviors, some of which are shaped by explicit community guidelines. Human being convey their message and feelings distinguishably, blogging about what they know in a different manner and when there is the presence of feedback from readers, it completes the blogging community.



1. One Blog Centric Community is a single blogging platform that is owned by one person or organisation. There is a possibility of multiple authors writing in the blog. An example of this community is Stephen Downes.



2. Topic Centric Community is a network formation between blogs. There are no single technological platform, with each blogger selecting their own tool. What links them is hyperlinks, in the form of blogrolls, links to other blogs within blog posts, tagging, aggregated feeds (using RSS), trackbacks and comments. an example for this is Global Voices.



3. Boundaried Community is community with a collection of blogs or information under one blogging platform as host. Often these communities have other tools such as discussion boards, social networking features, wikis and instant messaging built in. The blogs are part of the overall ecosystem. There is less emphasis on RSS and cross linking because those features are built into the technology in other ways. Because they are within a defined boundary, bloggers can see and easily access other blogs. They can, if they wish, link but mostly within this closed system and they seem to link less often outside of the community. This leads to denser and faster possible internal connections, possibly community building. An example for this is Share Your Story (White, 2006).

Global Voices is a blogging community with more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who provide reports from various blogs and citizen media, by emphasizing on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media. Millions of people are blogging, podcasting, and uploading photos, videos, and information across the globe, but unless you know where to look, it can be difficult to find respected and credible voices (Global Voices, 2010).

References

1) About Global Voices 2010, Global Voices, viewed 25 August 2011,

2) Wei, C 2004, Formation of Norm in a Blog Community, University of Washington, viewed 25 August 2011,

3) White, N 2006, Blogs and Community, The Knowledge Tree, Australian Flexible Learning Framework, viewed 25 August 2011,

Classification of Blogs

Different types of blogs are present in the media world. The types of blogs range from vlogs, linklogs, sketchblogs, photoblogs and tumbleblogs. It is a fact that the attention of the audiences are garnered based on their interests, enabling these particular mediums to make waves in the blogosphere.

According to Misty Belardo, the director for Digital Activations, there are 5 prominent types of weblogs consisting of collaborative, personal, travel and Cultural, Fashion and Lifestyle, and tutorial blogs.

Tutorial blogs contain detailed information and methods on how things should be done corectly and in proper order. An example of a tutorial blog is Local Kitchen, where kitchen tutorials are given. Bit Rebels is an example of a Collaborative blog. Collaborative blogs share mutual themes but have numerous other authors. However, publishing are done at a pre agreed time. On the other hand, a personal blog is considered the most common. The rationale behind this is that it commony revolves around personal experiences and provides the best form of self expression. An example of a personal blog is Willysr. Sanachebaro is a travel and culture blog as it contains relvant information on different countries based on trip and travel related issues. Fashion and lifestyle blogs are a massive hit amongst the blogosphere as the world revolves around trends and healthy lifestyle. The Blonde Salad hits the highest views for fashion blog whereas Healthy and Sane displays itself as a lifestyle blog.

Margaret Simons classified blogs into 9 types which consists of pamphleteering, digest, advocacy, popular mechanics, exhibition, gatewatcher, diary, advertisement and news. Her view on blogs differs to that of Belardo as she practices academial and precise writing. It is understood that classification of blogs is a vitality as it helps identify what audience to approach and from there, know what to put in the blogs. Elgersma and Rijke supports this claim regarding study approach when they mentioned reliable blog classification is a crucial task as it allows researchers, ping feeds, and many others to separate blog content according to interest.

References

1) A taxonomy of blogs, viewed 25 August 2011, < http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript>

2)Belardo, M, The 5 Types of Blogs: Which One Suits You Best, Inspiration, Ink Rebels, viewed 25 August 2011,

3) Elgersma, E & Rijke, M, Learning to Recognize Blogs: A Preliminary Exploration, ISLA, University of Amsterdam, viewed 25 August 2011,,

Blogs As Current Phenomenon & Benefits to the Community

Ever since 2004, Technorati has been supplying information and statistics in regards to the blogosphere. In relation, Technorati stated on its website that the annual study is done by following growth and trends in the blogosphere. The final statistics are dissected into different parts and depicted as pie charts, and that delineates how Technorati views the importance of saliency as an imperative.

A blog is basically an online journal whereby you can digitally pen down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything else that you want people to read about. Based on Pew Internet(2006) 76% of the bloggers solely wanted a medium to share their personal experiences, whereas only 11% of the bloggers ran a politically inclined blog. In contrast, blogs about politics and the government are more prevalent in Asian countries, most notably Malaysia.

According to The Star(2008), Malaysia has about 500,000 active bloggers, ranking the country among the highest in the world after Indonesia and the European Union. It is also said that 70% of the election results were influenced by information on the blogs (The Star,2008). It is understood that Malaysia is a country whereby information given by the local media are filtered thoroughly and closely monitored. Besides that, circulation of newspapers and dailies are tightly distributed by the government and political parties, and this pits Malaysia in a sitution whereby the only way of disseminating unbiased views are via weblogs. This way, readers are able to acknowledge the distict difference of two seperate mediums. This has been proven by the researchers from University Kebangsaan Malaysia (2010) that the freedom of voicing out political thoughts in cyber space was used extensively by bloggers to channel political information that are not found in the mainstream media.

References

1) Nasir, AG 2010, Malaysian bloggers use cyber space to channel political information, University Kebangsaan Malaysia News Portal, viewed 24 August 2011,

2) Blogging in Malaysia ranks among the highest in the world 2008, The Star Online, Viewed 24 August 2011,

3) Technorati: State of the Blogosphere,viewed 24 August 2011,

4) Blogging is bringing new voices to the online world 2006, Pew Internet, viewed 24 August 2011,

Purpose of This Weblog

The rapid emergence of the media has undoubtedly become the cornerstone towards the development of publications and design in our world today. This blog would serve its purpose as an effective medium in sharing timely and relevant media issues within a spectrum of viewers, with my coursemates being the main target audience. This blog would also provide a crisp and in depth analysis on theories related to publishing and design, all to assist in a better understanding of its context and genre.