New Forms of Media Publishing

Facebook, Twitter, Youtube are no longer foreign to many of us today. The existence of these online media platforms allows a new form of publishing other than using the traditional media.

Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) mentioned that there is a shift in visual literacy, from old to new style. In today’s era of globalization, we are no longer subject to use speech as major mode of communication. Most documents today incorporate a mixture of text, images, graphic and sound elements, or also called as 'multimodal'. Naughton (2006) endorsed by stating that the integration of digital convergence, personal computing and global networking seems to have contributed to the development pace and radical shifts in the current communication environment.

Take Twitter as an example. As the latest addition to the most popular social networking sites worldwide, Twitter allows its users to publish a short message within constraint of 140 words in one single post along with pictures or links to other sites (optional).

Image source: (appadvice.com 2010)

Twitter is proven to be a resourceful tool in providing latest news and updates, particularly during crisis. The recent earthquake in Japan is an example signifies how people has shifted to social media for alternative information source (Katy 2011). Even notable news sources such as BBC, CNN and The Star Online are now available on Twitter; sending out instant news updates from their own respective accounts.

References:

Katy 2011, Social Media Response During the Japanese Earthquake, viewed 25th April 2011, available at <http://agiledudes.com/all/utilizing-social-media-japan-earthquake/>

Kress, G and van Leeuwen, T 2006, 'The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication', Reading Images, pg. 16-44.

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, viewed 25th April 2011, available at<http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>

Blogging Community

The emergence of blogs has eventually led to the formation of online/ blogging communities among the society today. Owyang (2007) defines online community as "a group of people with similar goals or interest connect and exchange information using web tools (blogs)"

As cited from White (2008), there are several tools that can be utilized in building blogging communities such as blogging platforms namely Blogger, Wordpress and Typepad, RSS (Really Simple Syndication), feedreaders, tags, mashups, blogrolls and blog rings.

Blogging communities can be categorized into three types; One Blog Centric Community, Topic Centric Community and Boundaried Community.
For this post, I will further discuss on the first type of blogging community; Single Blog Centric Community.

The figure below briefly illustrates how the community is formed.

Image source: (The Knowledge Tree 2008)

Kennysia.com is an example of One Blog Centric Community from the local context.

Image source: (Kennysia.com 2011)

Kenny Sia, the owner of Kennysia.com is renowned in the blogging communities as an A-list blogger in Malaysia and Singapore under Nuffnang online advertising company. He attracts about 9,000-10,000 site views per day and earns around RM10,000-RM20,000 per month from the advertising revenue on his blog (William 2010).

Image source: (Kennysia.com 2011)

Kennysia.com allows readers to drop their comments in response to each post in the blog. Kenny Sia as the owner of the blog controls the power in the existing community ofKennysia.com readers; he sets the topics of the blogposts (Occasionally, his posts are advertorials written based on his advertising deals with clients of Nuffnang, the advertising company). Kenny also has the authority to filter the posted comments from his blog's readers by deleting those who are deemed as inappropriate or unfavorable.

In addition to the comment section, the site also provides sign ups and chatbox for fellow readers to interact with each other via online.

All these characteristics shown in Kennysia.com signifies the existence of One Blog Centric Community.

References:

Owyang, J 2007, Defining the term: "Online Community", Web Strategy,viewed 25th April 2011, available at "><http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/12/28/defining-the-term-community/>

White, N 2006, Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community, viewed 25th April 2011, available at <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

William 2010, An Online Business Case Study, Kennysia.com, Online Business Malaysia, viewed 25th April 2011, available at, <http://onlinebusinessmalaysia.com/online-business-case-studies/an-online-business-case-study-kennysia-com/>

Classification of Blogs

Web logs, or more often called as blogs are classified into various different types.
This post will specifically discuss about the comparison between two different classification systems according to their respective sources.

The main reference, Simons (2008) provides a classification comprising of 9 types of blogs as below;

• Pamphleteering blog
• Digest blog
• Advocacy
• Popular mechanics
• Exhibition blog
• Gate watcher
• Diary
• Advertisement
• News blog

Another source, TechnicalTalk (2010) provides a more comprehensive classification system that vary according to;
1) Types of the blog content

• Vlog (Video log), linklog, Sketchblog, Photoblog, Tumbleblog (a blog that contains mixed media format)

2) The device used to blog

• Moblog (Blogging with mobile phones or PDAs)

3) Main subject discussed or genre

• Education, project, travel, music and political blog

4) Legal status of the blog

• Private, public, personal, business, corporate and marketing.
  

Comparing Simons' (2008) method of clustering with TechnicalTalk.net (2010), the classification seems to be generalized as it is narrowed down to only 9 types. There are actually many different types of blogs available as defined by various sources.
However, Simon's classification is deemed as sufficient for general readers who need to seek for basic information about blog categories.

The use of classification for blogs indeed allows readers to access the kind of information they need more efficiently.

References:
Simons, M 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, The Media Report, ABC TV, viewed on 19th April 2011, available at <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm>

TechnicalTalk.net 2010, Types of Blogs, viewed on 21st April 2011 , available at<http://www.technicaltalk.net/index.php/topic,95.0.html>

Blogging: A Phenomenon Across The Globe

The term 'Global Village' as defined by McLuhan (1964) describes societies across the global as an integrated whole by the power of media. Internet breaks nation boundaries and makes it possible for limitless communication to take place. When talk about the era of modern communication, blogging as a component of internet plays a major role in it.

Based on an annual survey of growth and trend in blogosphere by Technorati (2010), majority of the existing blogs worldwide are used for personal documentary, where people mainly blog for fun. These bloggers are categorized as 'hobbyist'.

In the local context, the existence of blogs is profoundly predominant that Malaysia was ranked as third highest country with number of 500,000 active bloggers (The Star 2008)


Blog is no longer treated as merely blog, but a powerful tool that can influence people's minds, especially in politics. Information available on political blogs has been used to persuade citizens' perspectives and decision making during election.


Examples of prominent political blogs in Malaysia are as below;

http://chedet.co.cc/ by former Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr. Tun Mahathir Mohamad

http://blog.limkitsiang.com/ by DAP Parliamentary leader, Lim Kit Siang

Blog also brings great social impact to the society as it is utilized as a platform where individuals can voice their opinion. Other than that, blog can also stand as a news source that provides "an instantaneous coverage of noteworthy news events from a very vivid, personal and localised context" (Tang, 2006). However, it is important to take note that credibility of the source needs to be questioned.


References:
McLuhan, M 1964, Understanding Media, Mentor, New York.

Sobel, J 2010, State of Blogosphere 2010, Technorati, viewed 19th April 2011, available at<http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/>

Tang, HW 2006,Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom: Digital Speech in Malaysia, Asian Journal of Comparative Law: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1, Article 12, viewed on 19th April 2011, available at<http://www.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?context=asjcl&article=1012&date=&mt=MTMwMzE4NDgyNA==&access_ok_form=Continue>

The Star 2008, Blogging in Malaysia ranks among highest in the world, viewed at 19th April 2011, available at <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/3/nation/20827588&sec=nation>

Document Design

To produce a good powerpoint presentation, there are two important things to look into; the content (writing) and the overall layout design of the document.

For further discussion on effective powerpoint presentation, let's take a look at two powerpoint slides taken from my tutorial group presentation on Diana Reep's Creating Graphic Aids.

Slide #1

In terms of layout, Marguez (2010) suggests designers to use slides effectively by keeping it to minimum number. Although Rothman (2005) stated that technical writing should be written clearly, specific and straightforward, the sort of arrangement shown in Slide #1 is not encouraged. The slide displays a very little use of space with only one point presented, and this will result to too many slides in the presentation. This needs to be avoided as too many slides can distract audience’s attention and make the presentation appear to be long-winded (Russell, n.d.)

Slide #2

According to Putnis and Petelin (1996), it is essential to ensure that the document design is arranged according to readers’ interest and context. The use of bar graph for the presentation as seen in Slide #2 is aligned with Reep (2006), who stated that graphic aids (tables and figures) are commonly used in documents and presentations to help readers understand the information as they provide quick summary of document’s content for readers. However, the presentation of slide #2 still can be improved by putting up the caption 'Example:' to address the illustration as an example of the earlier slide as well as providing brief description or 'footnote' of the bar graph (E.g. A bar graph of snowing dates from December - March)

From my brief evaluation on the two slides, I hope it helps you- readers to improve in preparing an effective powerpoint presentation. Thank you.

References:
Marguez, ZL 2010, How to Make a Good Powerpoint Presentation, Ezine @rticles, viewed 4th April 2011, <

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPointPresentation&id=4313178&gt;

Putnis, P and Petelin, R 1996, ‘Writing to Communicate’, Professional communication: principles and applications, Prentice Hall, Sydney, pg.223-263.

Reep, DC 2006, ‘Document design’, Technical writing, Pearson/Longman, New York, 6th edn, pg.133-172.

Rothman, S 2005, What Makes Good Technical Writing?, associated content from Yahoo, viewed 4th April 2011,<http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9447/what_makes_good_scientific_and_technical.html

>

Russell, W n.d., 10 Tips for Creating Successful Business Presentation, About.com, viewed 4th April 2011, <http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointbusiness/tp/bus_pres_tips.htm>

An Introduction.

This blog is set up as a platform for discussion about issues relating to publication and design. Students, teachers, lecturers, industry professionals and other relevant parties who have the interest to gain greater knowledge on publishing and designing matters can refer to this site as a source of information.