The World Wide Web is a gateway to unlimited information and resources. The internet is one of the best things that have happened to us in this highly advance digital age and it has helped us in many ways. Technological advancements are so great and they are a great asset to help enhance and improve our standard of living. However, there are always two sides to a coin. The internet is a great asset if used in the correct manner but if it is misused and abused, it may cause grave danger.
We have unlimited access to the web. What we are exposed to on the web is of major concern. There are no restrictions to what is published online as it is not filtered. This is a concern because what children are exposed to may be violence, sexually explicit materials or other negative materials which may cause harm to children psychologically or emotionally.
For example, the article entitled “Death in cyburbia” published online in the Guardian Unlimited on April 16, 2007, reports about the suicide of a man who was broadcasted live before a hundred visitors in an internet chatroom when he hung himself in front of his webcam.
Imagine out of the hundred visitors in that chatroom, how many of them could be children. Witnessing a suicide attempt can leave psychological and emotional effects on a child. According to Lester (2003), “Symbols often evoke strong emotional responses among viewers”. Children are the main concern because their minds are so innocent and easily influenced. Children nowadays are very advanced when it comes to technology. They play online games, surf the internet and chat online. They are not protected in any way if the parents do not make any effort to protect their children from being exposed to harmful materials. Parents have to make their children’s ‘playground’ a safer place.
According to Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), “Visual communication is always coded”. What we see and how we interpret messages according to Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), are interpreted through codes structured by culture, knowledge and experience in the one society. However, we also adapt and cultivate other cultures when exposed to them. For example, kids nowadays are very westernised because the mainstream media is dominated by the western media. Because of these external influences, it is not safe for children to explore the world of the internet without proper supervision.
References:
Harkin, J 2007, ‘Death in cyburbia’, The Guardian Unlimited, viewed 27 October 2007,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2057915,00.html
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, London.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Virtual World: Harmful or Safe?
Friday, October 26, 2007
Internet vs. Print Media
In this new age in time where people are more visually inclined and the younger generation are more internet-driven, people feel that the print media is threatened by the existence of the internet. We are experiencing a ‘paradigm shift’ where in this new era, we are more exposed to multimodal texts; "texts that have more than one 'mode', so that meaning is communicated through a synchronisation of modes" (Walsh, 2006).
In the article entitled "Internet giving print media a run for its money", published in the Star Online on September 30, 2006, brings out the concern about the majority of the media's audience have turned to the internet rather than the conventional print media.
The World Wide Web, containing millions of sites ranging from serious matters like news, corporate sites and educational sites, down to sites on fashion, entertainment and blogs. Because it is time and cost effective, people turn to the internet as a source of information, entertainment and for personal use. This puts the print media in a tight spot. The existence of the internet has challenged the print media in many ways and sending books, magazines and newspapers into what may seem as prehistoric times.
The younger generation prefers to surf the web than read books. The web is more interactive in many ways and multimodal texts are more appealing. However, print media can never be 'extinct' because according to Penman (1998), a documen's functionality is dependent on its structure matching readers' habits, expectations and context of use. There are the traditional readers who still prefer to read print based text rather than the electronic based resources. For example, the newspapers are still printing as they cater to their ever loyal audience who are usually the older generation as they prefer to flip through the pages of a newspaper while having coffee in the morning. That is their daily routine and reading habit. This is why we have to identify the reading habits of the audience as it plays a vital role.
Print based documents and online documents are different as they serve different purposes and have different target audiences. The print media will exist as long as there is a demand for it and because the internet and print media serve different purposes, target audiences and their document design is different. People look for different things in both mediums. According to Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), there are certain possibilities and limitations of meaning derived from each medium. As said before, the text found online is usually shorter then print based text. They both serve different purposes and functionalities. Therefore, the print media can never be 'extinc'.
References:
“Internet giving print media a run for its money", The Star, viewed 16 October 2007,
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/11/30/asia/16177471&sec=asia
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, London.
Penman, R 1998, Document structures and readers' habits, Communication news, vol.11, no. 2, pp. 10-11.
Walsh, M 2006, The 'textual shift': examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24-37.
In the article entitled "Internet giving print media a run for its money", published in the Star Online on September 30, 2006, brings out the concern about the majority of the media's audience have turned to the internet rather than the conventional print media.
The World Wide Web, containing millions of sites ranging from serious matters like news, corporate sites and educational sites, down to sites on fashion, entertainment and blogs. Because it is time and cost effective, people turn to the internet as a source of information, entertainment and for personal use. This puts the print media in a tight spot. The existence of the internet has challenged the print media in many ways and sending books, magazines and newspapers into what may seem as prehistoric times.
The younger generation prefers to surf the web than read books. The web is more interactive in many ways and multimodal texts are more appealing. However, print media can never be 'extinct' because according to Penman (1998), a documen's functionality is dependent on its structure matching readers' habits, expectations and context of use. There are the traditional readers who still prefer to read print based text rather than the electronic based resources. For example, the newspapers are still printing as they cater to their ever loyal audience who are usually the older generation as they prefer to flip through the pages of a newspaper while having coffee in the morning. That is their daily routine and reading habit. This is why we have to identify the reading habits of the audience as it plays a vital role.
Print based documents and online documents are different as they serve different purposes and have different target audiences. The print media will exist as long as there is a demand for it and because the internet and print media serve different purposes, target audiences and their document design is different. People look for different things in both mediums. According to Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), there are certain possibilities and limitations of meaning derived from each medium. As said before, the text found online is usually shorter then print based text. They both serve different purposes and functionalities. Therefore, the print media can never be 'extinc'.
References:
“Internet giving print media a run for its money", The Star, viewed 16 October 2007,
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/11/30/asia/16177471&sec=asia
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, London.
Penman, R 1998, Document structures and readers' habits, Communication news, vol.11, no. 2, pp. 10-11.
Walsh, M 2006, The 'textual shift': examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24-37.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Introduction
What are blogs?
The word ‘blog’ is derived from the combination of the two words, web and log (Net Alert). Blogs are online journals created by individuals with different purposes and posted on the world wide web. Blogs generally consist of text, images and sometimes also videos.
Blog/WebLog: a web page containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information. A blog can take the form of a diary, journal, what's new page, or links to other web sites.
Peter Scott, Internet Librarian 2001
(Department of Education and Training: Government of Western Australia)
The blogging scene in Malaysia
Blogs are seen as an alternative source of information but most bloggers in Malaysia use blogs for personal use. Personal blogs are filled with updates, happenings and posted pictures or videos. There are also special interest blogs and corporate blogs. Special interest blogs are blogs that posts about a certain issue or their topic of interest and the blog is shared by a small community with common interests. There are also blogs used for corporate purposes these days. They use blogs to promote their products, inform the public about the company or to update their employees. Blogs are seen as interactive media because they usually hold discussions and the communication among members and administration is fairly active.
Classification of blogs
Generally, people blog with the purpose of informing their target audience and it is a 'tool' for expression. “They give people the opportunity to publish on the Internet their thoughts and reflections of issues important to them” (NetAlert).
There are 3 categories:
i) Professionals/ business
External audience - To promote their products and inform the public on current happenings
Internal audience - To update employees and to post announcements
ii) Interest groups/ passion
To hold discussions, exchange point of views, to post updates on their latest interests and to share personal experiences.
iii) Communicating with family and friends
To post updates on life, current happenings, to post up photos or videos so that family and friends can be updated and to keep in touch.
Personally, I do not think that blogging is a waste of time because blogging is a form of keeping a daily journal but only that it is online. Not does it only enable one to express ourselves, but it also enables us to post up photos or videos in our personal blogs which we cannot do in diaries. These are reffered to as multimodal texts; “texts that have more than one ‘mode’, so that meaning is communicated through a synchronisation of modes” (Walsh, 2006).
Blogs as a current phenomenon
According to an online research firm Technorati, one new blog is created every second in 2005. This shows how blogs have a booming success rate and is one of the most popular thing among internet users. And now, according to Technorati data, there are over 175,000 new blogs every day and bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second. This shows how blogs are widely used all over the world.
Designing for print versus designing for online
According to Jakob Nielsen,
• 79% of users scan the page instead of reading word-for-word
• Reading from computer screens is 25% slower than from paper
• Web content should have 50% of the word count of its paper equivalent
Therefore, for an online document to be effective, it must have more white space, contain the most imporant points (preferably just the gist of the information), and less lengthy because the attention span reading from the computer screen is less as eyes get tired faster and reading from the computer is 25% slower than reading from paper.
It is important for good and effective document design to attract audiences. According to Penman (1998), a document’s functionality is dependent on its structure according to the readers’ habits, expectations and context of use. The document design for print and online media has different functions, objectives and target audiences therefore they cannot have the same document design and layout. This is because, a particular structural element may work well in one document but not in another, if the readers or context are different (Penman, 1998).
New forms of media publishing
Blogs have several different types such as moblog, vlog, linklog, sketchblog, photolog, tumblelog, and artlog. These terms are coined by their different categories and their usage. Examples are as follows: moblogs are mobile mobile device written blogs, vlogs are blogs comprising of videos, linklogs are blogs comprising of links, sketchblogs are blogs comprising of sketches and photologs are blogs comprising of photos, tumblelogs are blogs which contains shorter posts and mixed media types, and artlogs are a form of art sharing and publishing in the format of a blog.
These blogs serves different purposes and specialises in different areas. There are a variety of different types of blogs with different types of audience. Technology is so advance that these new forms of media publishing cater to a specific target audience. There is so much we can discuss and learn.
Hang in there for more posts on media and publishing issues!
References:
Department of Education and Training: Government of Western Australia, 2007, Weblogs, viewed on 22 October 2007
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/
Lester, Paul M. (2003) Visual communication : images with messages, 3rd edn, Thomson Wadsworth, USA.
NetAlert, 2007, Why are blogs popular and what are their benefits, viewed on 23 October 2007,
http://www.netalert.gov.au/advice/services/blogs/Why_are_blogs_popular_and_what_are_their_benefits.html
Nielsen, J 2007, Writing for web, viewed 23 October 2007,
http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/.
Penman, R 1998, Document structures and readers’ habits, Communication news, vol.11, no. 2, pp. 10-11.
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.
Technorati, 2007, Welcome to technorati, viewed on 23 October 2007,
http://technorati.com/about/
Young, K 2005, New blog created every second, viewed on 23 October 2007,
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2140722/blog-every-second-tecnorati
Wikipedia, 2007, Blog, viewed 22 October 2007,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
The word ‘blog’ is derived from the combination of the two words, web and log (Net Alert). Blogs are online journals created by individuals with different purposes and posted on the world wide web. Blogs generally consist of text, images and sometimes also videos.
Blog/WebLog: a web page containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information. A blog can take the form of a diary, journal, what's new page, or links to other web sites.
Peter Scott, Internet Librarian 2001
(Department of Education and Training: Government of Western Australia)
The blogging scene in Malaysia
Blogs are seen as an alternative source of information but most bloggers in Malaysia use blogs for personal use. Personal blogs are filled with updates, happenings and posted pictures or videos. There are also special interest blogs and corporate blogs. Special interest blogs are blogs that posts about a certain issue or their topic of interest and the blog is shared by a small community with common interests. There are also blogs used for corporate purposes these days. They use blogs to promote their products, inform the public about the company or to update their employees. Blogs are seen as interactive media because they usually hold discussions and the communication among members and administration is fairly active.
Classification of blogs
Generally, people blog with the purpose of informing their target audience and it is a 'tool' for expression. “They give people the opportunity to publish on the Internet their thoughts and reflections of issues important to them” (NetAlert).
There are 3 categories:
i) Professionals/ business
External audience - To promote their products and inform the public on current happenings
Internal audience - To update employees and to post announcements
ii) Interest groups/ passion
To hold discussions, exchange point of views, to post updates on their latest interests and to share personal experiences.
iii) Communicating with family and friends
To post updates on life, current happenings, to post up photos or videos so that family and friends can be updated and to keep in touch.
Personally, I do not think that blogging is a waste of time because blogging is a form of keeping a daily journal but only that it is online. Not does it only enable one to express ourselves, but it also enables us to post up photos or videos in our personal blogs which we cannot do in diaries. These are reffered to as multimodal texts; “texts that have more than one ‘mode’, so that meaning is communicated through a synchronisation of modes” (Walsh, 2006).
Blogs as a current phenomenon
According to an online research firm Technorati, one new blog is created every second in 2005. This shows how blogs have a booming success rate and is one of the most popular thing among internet users. And now, according to Technorati data, there are over 175,000 new blogs every day and bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second. This shows how blogs are widely used all over the world.
Designing for print versus designing for online
According to Jakob Nielsen,
• 79% of users scan the page instead of reading word-for-word
• Reading from computer screens is 25% slower than from paper
• Web content should have 50% of the word count of its paper equivalent
Therefore, for an online document to be effective, it must have more white space, contain the most imporant points (preferably just the gist of the information), and less lengthy because the attention span reading from the computer screen is less as eyes get tired faster and reading from the computer is 25% slower than reading from paper.
It is important for good and effective document design to attract audiences. According to Penman (1998), a document’s functionality is dependent on its structure according to the readers’ habits, expectations and context of use. The document design for print and online media has different functions, objectives and target audiences therefore they cannot have the same document design and layout. This is because, a particular structural element may work well in one document but not in another, if the readers or context are different (Penman, 1998).
New forms of media publishing
Blogs have several different types such as moblog, vlog, linklog, sketchblog, photolog, tumblelog, and artlog. These terms are coined by their different categories and their usage. Examples are as follows: moblogs are mobile mobile device written blogs, vlogs are blogs comprising of videos, linklogs are blogs comprising of links, sketchblogs are blogs comprising of sketches and photologs are blogs comprising of photos, tumblelogs are blogs which contains shorter posts and mixed media types, and artlogs are a form of art sharing and publishing in the format of a blog.
These blogs serves different purposes and specialises in different areas. There are a variety of different types of blogs with different types of audience. Technology is so advance that these new forms of media publishing cater to a specific target audience. There is so much we can discuss and learn.
Hang in there for more posts on media and publishing issues!
References:
Department of Education and Training: Government of Western Australia, 2007, Weblogs, viewed on 22 October 2007
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/
Lester, Paul M. (2003) Visual communication : images with messages, 3rd edn, Thomson Wadsworth, USA.
NetAlert, 2007, Why are blogs popular and what are their benefits, viewed on 23 October 2007,
http://www.netalert.gov.au/advice/services/blogs/Why_are_blogs_popular_and_what_are_their_benefits.html
Nielsen, J 2007, Writing for web, viewed 23 October 2007,
http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/.
Penman, R 1998, Document structures and readers’ habits, Communication news, vol.11, no. 2, pp. 10-11.
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.
Technorati, 2007, Welcome to technorati, viewed on 23 October 2007,
http://technorati.com/about/
Young, K 2005, New blog created every second, viewed on 23 October 2007,
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2140722/blog-every-second-tecnorati
Wikipedia, 2007, Blog, viewed 22 October 2007,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Welcome!
In this new era, we are at a crossroad in technology between the internet and print media. The transaction from print media to the internet has brought about many changes in our daily lifestyles which affect us and how important good document design is vital to attract audience. Here, media issues are identified, analysed and discussed to gain further knowledge and understanding.
The target audience for this blog are college students, academicians and also media professionals like journalists, graphic designers and those who are related to document design and publishing.
Please stay tuned for more posts on media issues and you are welcomed to leave your comments!
The target audience for this blog are college students, academicians and also media professionals like journalists, graphic designers and those who are related to document design and publishing.
Please stay tuned for more posts on media issues and you are welcomed to leave your comments!
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