Reflections

During the process of being a blog writer based on the latest issues in publication and design, I have come across of the whole learning materials that acquire in this blog.


The skills that I am developing throughout that process of blogging is relating to social semiotics in which I a form of questions rather than given answers. It gives us ideas to continue to "revise" on the content and think through it based on our own conclusions (Leeuwen, 2005). Throughout the whole process, I collect, revise, analyze, justify, critique and so forth on these related issues based on new resources and even existing resources.


For instance, a blogger is similar as writer. We should always take note of little details in copyright issue, citation, and defamation. This is because a blog is a public portal for everyone access to it, it is very crucial to write a blog post just like a professional writer. Next, being a blogger is also a culture writer. Every culture is different in certain manner in terms of languages, lifestyle, and so forth.


At the end of the day, a blogger is not just having a good writing skill, but is able to engage with readers to relate with the topic.

Media Issue #4: How Social Media, Internet Changed Experience of Japan Disaster

Dorian Benkoil, the writer of "How Social Media, Internet Changed Experience of Japan Disaster" on Media Shift (2011) discusses how social media change the traditional journalism to another form of writing.  Based on the event of Japan's earthquake in Kobe, indeed, we are praying for the country; however, the power of social media has taking over the new form of journalism. Here we have multi-platform experience today, we can just stay at home or office to watch the latest news, most of the channels such as ABC, Fox, CNN and BBC are available on cable TV. People no longer reading the newspaper, it is not only update slower than online news, but also increasing the usage of papers. Besides that, on Facebook or Twitter are also another highest social network sharing site, now we are able to read latest Facebook's status on date, reports, informations, etc.

In today's world, news in media are changing rapidly, from traditional news that involve deadlines and top down reporting. These media stations are expensive to broadcast, with certain limitations in between advertising and business market (Beckett & Mansell, 2007). On the other hand, new form journalism is cover more than expected in new media world. They are no limitations in timing, air space, and no need to hold accountability on certain issue. For instance, anyone can post anything on their status, post a note, comment and share to anyone. 

The good thing is the Internet is available in different tools of sharing, such as blogs (Blogger, Wordpress), social networks (Facebook, Twitter), websites and cyber communities. People have the freedom on discussing their lives through online world without costing them at all (Livingstone & Bober, 2005). Castells (2001) also argues the digitalize world increase the close-ness of the space between the world and people, however Bauman (2000) and Beck (1992) contrast the risk of mind is revolving beneath such complicated spaces of new form of journalism. (cited in Beckett & Mansell, 2007).

References

Benkoil, D 2011, How Social Media, Internet Chaged Experience of Japan Disaster, 15 March, Media Shift, viewed 10 June 2011, <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/03/how-social-media-internet-changed-experience-of-japan-disaster-074.html>.

Beckett, C & Mansell, R 2007, Crossing Boudaries: New Media and Networked Journalism, London School of Economics, viewed 9 June 2011, <http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/4221/1/Crossing_boundaries-new_media_and_networked_journalism(LSERO).pdf>.

Livingstone, S & Bober, M 2005, UK Children Go Online: Final report of Key Project Fndings, report prepared for ESRC project, London School of Economics and Political Science, viewed 10 June 2011, < http://personal.lse.ac.uk/bober/UKCGOfinalReport.pdf>.

Media Issue #3: Angry Birds: 200m downloads are the tip of the mobile gaming iceberg

(Source: www.guardian.co.uk)

The angry birds fever has been increasing around the world. I bet no one do not know what is Angry Birds, it started playing as iPhone's game which developed by Rovio Mobile. Today, the rate of purchasing or free download are rank from 200m to 35m. Truly, Angry Birds is not a huge success aross the world, it is not only played by iPhone's user but also Android's user, and even majority of the smartphones are having this mobile game at least one series of Angry Birds' version. 

People see Angry Birds as an entertainment to kill times, up to 50% and 75% of iPhone's users are playing Angry Birds on their device. It is still the top purchased game on App Store by Apple. In fact, the App Store actually provides countless of mobile game, but what makes Angry Birds so addictive to us? Partly, because we are living in the smart phones' phenomenon which people is talking about touch screen, immediate internet access, mobile gaming, chatting, etc. Obviously, all of these reminds us one thing which is Apple. 

Now, this issue leads to the new media ecosystem by complementary to traditional communication activities and used by organizations who recognize the social characteristics of effective communication. For example, blogs, RSS, Podcasts, Vlogs, etc. Today, the new media ecosystem is all about engaging, communicate, connecting, developing, influencing, empowering and building a genuine community and publics. However, Hobson (n.d.) also mentions the new media ecosystem cannot replace all the traditional media especially on public relations industry. Tools like press release, brochures, bulletin, websites, etc are still crucial for media to build or rebrand a company. 

Speaking of Angry Birds, it is such a popularity of viral marketing about their products and brands. Viral marketing is now generating new idea that excite people's mind, the message that is "viral" is spreading relentlessly to millions as one of the marketing strategy. For instance, Angry Birds is a "contagious media" around us, we see Angry Birds' game on iPhone, merchandise like soft toys, smartphone's casing; these are the "viral marketing" that contagious and trigger everyones' interest. Viral marketing "is a much easier to tell stories about than to implement." (Watts, et al, 2011).

In terms of audience expectations on these new media, it happens on different audiences, different contexts, and different times. For example, we now are able to watch video through social media without turning on our television at night. The social platform is provides different expectations and usability to audiences based on age or lifestyle (Bradshaw, 2011).

References

Bradshaw, P 2011, Session report-Changing audience expectations and behavior, 20 May, BBC, viewed 11 June 2011, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/blog/2011/05/audience-behaviour.shtml>.

Dredge, S 2011, Angry Birds: 200m Downloads are the Tip of The Mobile Gaming Iceberg, 19 May, The Guardian, viewed 11 June 2011, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2011/may/19/iphone-game-stats>.

Hobson, N n.d., The New Media Ecosystem: Conversations, Influence and You, viewed 11 June 2011, <http://www.nevillehobson.com/pubfiles/downloads/051020_NewMedia_FEIEA.pdf>.

Watts, D.J, Peretti, J & Frumin, M 2011, Viral Marketing for the Real World, viewed 11 June 2011, <http://www.itu.dk/people/rkva/2011-Spring-EB22/readings/watts2007_viralmarketing.pdf>.

Media Issue #2: Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom

(Source: www.bbc.co.uk)

Does academic takes originally to build? What is plagiarize? Merriam Webster Dictionary defines "plagiarize" as stealing or passing off (ideas or words of another) as one's own or use another's work without crediting the source. According to BBC News, not only students are crossing the boundaries, a German minister also commits plagiarism on his doctoral thesis and Colonel Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam  also make an unknown writer as his own PhD thesis. Imagine that, plagiarism is totally out of control (BBC, 2011).

However, these are only the cases we saw on the news, the issue of plagiarism in the world of academia and publishing has been around for years. Everyone can access to Internet anytime and anywhere, students use Internet to find sources in order to support their writings, the truth is are they use these sources as reference or make as theirs? Although there is a computer programme called Turnitin to detect plagiarism essay, but it is still a machine. The best lie detector is human, through observation and being sharp on catching grammars, vocabulary, writing style etc. 

Not just happening in academia, but also in the world of publishing, such as journalist and editor. The problem of plagiarism is increasing day after day and it is uncontrollable. In fact, Helene Hegemann argues that "There's no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity." What she means is from copying to mixing can make a different. Indeed, there are people who agree with her statement, but what about the high standard in academic level?

Hence, whether you are writing for publication or academic, always remember to avoid plagiarism. The choice is up to us as a writer. First, use quotation mark (" ") on phrases of certain works from someone else and cite them appropriately (Blancett, 1993 & King et al., 1997). Rogers (1993) also advices that we should always consult any expert authors, editors, related professionals to avoid plagiarism. 

Judy Hunter from Grinnel College states the three reasons why citation is important:

1. When you wrote a new idea, you want others' to cite you if they use use credit. Hence, citing sources is important because these ideas are belongs to the academia. 

2. If you use someones' idea without credit them, you are violating the person's ownership of the particular idea. If is unfair to the original source if you steel it. 

3. These "new" ideas are the trace of the genealogy ideas. This is because when you do not cite the sources in a correct way, your new idea which also inspired from someone else's idea is unable to trace back when your "new ideas" are passing down to the next generation. 

Of course, being an ethical writer is rather contradicting. In general, integrity is the reason to being ethical. A piece of your work should comes from integrity, then credibility, and last, people read the essence of your writing. There is no need to argue what is right or wrong, conflicting is why people are having interest on these issues. Indeed, the Clt+C and Clt+V is the new form of writing, just remember: Ethical, Copyright and Integrity (Sivek, 2010).

References: 

Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom, 2 March, BBC News, viewed 7 June 2011, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12613617>.

King, C.R., et al. 1997, Peer Review, authorship, ethics, and conflict of interest, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, vol. 29, p. 163-167.

Biancett, S.S. el al. 1995, Duplicate publication in the nursing literature, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, vol. 27, p. 52-56.

Rogers, B 1993, Using the words and works of other, A commentary, AAOHN Journal, vol. 41, p. 46-49.

Sivek, S.C. 2010, The Ethics of Digital Magazine Advertising, Media Shift, viewed 7 June 2011, <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/04/the-ethics-of-digital-magazine-advertising-118.html>.

Hunter, J n.d., The Importance of Citation, Grinnell College, viewed 7 June 2011, <http://web.grinnell.edu/Dean/Tutorial/EUS/IC.pdf>.

Media Issue #1: Berita Harian Issues Public Apology Over Tsunami Cartoon

(Source: http://www.japanprobe.com)

The insensitive issue towards Tsunami events occur on Malaysian newspaper, Malay Daily (Berita Harian) in March 2011. The publication of Ultraman, a famous cartoon from Japan since all everyones' childhood memories. They portray the Ultraman tries to escape from Tsunami and earthquake that kills Japan and thousands of people. Mohd Zohri Sukimi also know as Zoy os the cartoon artist who draw the Ultraman running away from Tsunami causes many readers' discomfort, anger, and shameful as this action is completely insensitive and immature. After all, the Malay Mail (Berita Harian) publishes an apology on website, Twitter and even Facebook after getting all the demand of apologize.


Many might think this cartoon is funny or entertaining, but, think as a victim of Tsunami earthquake in Japan. Imagine yourself seeing this picture of Ultraman running away from disaster? These victims are living in pain right now, they been through lost; their lives, family, friends, future... 

Speaking of ethical publishing issue, I strongly disagree with how Malay Daily did this to Japan. When a writer submit a draft, they should follow a certain guidelines or rules to avoid any offensive cases that similar to the case mentioned above. Biancett (1993) mentions about writers should designate to their editor whether they have publish any article that cause intellectual conflict of interest (cited in King, n.d.). In addition, as a journalist, Keeble (2005) believes in rather than facing mainstream only, there are also media's specific on intellectual, political and moral standpoint to be concerned.


In short, I think this is a shame when a joke causes hurtful memories to people who in pain. When comes to ethical publishing, as a writer, integrity is rather important than carry ourselves as a profession. 

References:

Wong, PM 2011, Berita harian issues Public Apology Over tsunami Cartoon, The Star Online, viewed 7 June 2011, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/3/14/nation/8262608&sec=nation>.

King, CR n.d., Ethical Issues In Writing & Publishing, viewed 6 June 2011, <http://www.ons.org/Publications/CJON/AuthorInfo/WritingSupp/Ethics/>.

Biancett, S.S 1993, Who Is Entitled To Authorship?, Journal of Nursing Adminsitration, vol. 23, no. 1, p. 3.

Keeble, R 2005, Communication Ethic Today, Troubador Publishing, United Kingdom, viewed 6 June 2011, <http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9LLnFThmdJEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA15&dq=media+publishing+ethical+issue&ots=0KRE9PPe0e&sig=dFY_jZ3FzVKshAL3OR10FJEcow4#v=onepage&q=media%20publishing%20ethical%20issue&f=false>.

New Forms of Media Publishing

It is so true that our media communication environment is changing rapidly. The world we are living is surrounded by digital and global networking in 21st century. The rise of "new media" is develop into our "needs" in our daily lifestyle. Back then, we were still waiting our Mr. Postman to deliver us a letter from friends and family. Today, we have various e-mail sources to choose, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc... Our "old media' used to rule the society; we read newspaper everyday, we listen to radio to know the latest news and events. The world of Internet has become much better informed in terms of knowledgeable. In a study stated by John Naughton (2006), John Battelle also describes the extreme effects of search engines such as Google are dominating the advertising and marketing industries. The success of net also becomes a challenge for conventional PR nrews management to keep the companies from flaws and secrets due to the rapid spread through e-mail blog, or instant messaging. 

Look at the most known social media sites like Twitter are completely replacing traditional forms of public relations and adversiting (Girtz, 2011). No doubt, Twitter is the micro-blogging site that helped service-based businesses to grow their customers base and drive a loyal online followers. In fact, people don't call or even text their friends anymore, instead they tweet! The change of communication becomes so digitalized. 

However, the PR industry is changing for good. As Twitter's popularity increased, it reduced the space between social media and PR industry. Today, thousand of successful Twitter' PR stories are broadly defined as the best PR skill in the world of Web 2.0. Twitter becomes so useful especially in Marketing to monitor brand's reputation online. People tweet about what product they used, what product they love or even hate! According to Bill Gates once said, "If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it on public relationships". I'd rather say "If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it accessing Twitter to build public relations."

By looking at the Twitter main page of our own account, the combine words and images in complex structures with logos, menu bars, hyperlinks, etc. The way we interpret any new text, whether words or images, will then produce new interpretations, new responses, and new meanings (Walsh, 2006). The affordance in Twitter is about instant messaging that provide the most convenient service in social media. The micro-blogging feature makes the user to 'blog' and keep it sweet and simple due to there is a limitation of word count under Twitter.

Back then, the media ecosystem was dominated by broadcast media, now that we see the powerful of Internet especially social networking site as a role of Public Relation and Advertising. 

References:

Naughton, J 2006, 'Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem' viewed on 27 April, 2011, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>.

Girtz, B 2011, 'Twitter replacing traditional advertising and PR', viewed on 26 April, 2011, <http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles/2011/03/24/4515/twitter-replacing-traditional-advertising-and-pr.html>

Walsh, B 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.

Types of Blogging Communities & Methods to Build Blogging Communities

Online became part of the Internet as a community, in these recent years of rapid changes, blog has introduced as a new platform for online communities (White 2006).


What is a blogging community?
Personally, I believe blogging community does not define as one answer. Blogging community is based on the blogger own selves to build their own blog as a place to share ideas, socialize, connect with people through online. In another word, everyone can create their own blogging community, whether the community is large or small.


How do we create our own blogging community?
In that case, we as a blogger could always make use of the tools provided by the blogging agent such as Blogspot, Wordpress, etc. There are several ways to build up blogging communities:

1. Comment (Rowse 2009)
Before someone notice your blog, you should start notice someone's blog. Make use of the comment box when necessary, share your opinions, give some feedbacks, all these comments will be appreciated by the blog's owner and they would also interact with you.

(source: http://thedangthings.blogspot.com)

2. Share Link (Dalu, 2009)
Nowadays, everything is all about Facebook and Twitter. Why not share your blog post on Facebook or Twitter? Under every section of each blog post, there's a button to share on few social networking sites.

(source: http://thedangthings.blogspot.com)

3. Advertorial
Now that we have few blogging communities that makes blogging become a fun job to do. Nuffnang is one of the top blogging advertising community, they often pay top-viewed bloggers to write advertorials for certain clients of their own. This not only promote a product, but also giving a hand to the blogger to build up blog communities of their own.

Looking at all the blogging communities around us, we are globally connecting with each other.


References:

White, N 2006, 'Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community', online, viewed on 25 April, 2011, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>.

Rowse, D 2009, '8 Tips for Building Community on Your Blog', online, viewed on 26 April, 2011, <http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/02/28/8-tips-for-building-community-on-your-blog/>

Dalu, M 2009, 'Create a Community Blog with Facebook and Wordpress', online, viewed on 25 April, 2011, <http://inchoo.net/wordpress/create-a-community-blog-with-facebook-and-wordpress/>

Classification of blogs & opinion about the most appropriate classification approach.

Blog has been using as a tool of globalization in every areas. There are many classification of blogs:

In terms of subject matter, there are blogs classified as politics, entertainment, fashion, law, etc. For example, The Skinny is the fashion blog created by Forever 21 to share the latest clothing design.

There are also blog classified based on device which is moblog, stands for mobile blog. Moblog is camera photo mobile blogging tool for the convenience of bloggers to share photos instantly such as Plixi and yfrog.

Whereas under media type of blogs, there are vlog, linklog, sketchlog, tumblelog, etc. The most famous vlog blogging media is YouTube, many Youtuber became famous because of the video they made and share.

In fact, Margarent Simmons sorted out few types of blog classification during a recording of ABC programe (2008). To sum up her argues on classification of blogs are:

1. Pamphleteering Blog - also known as political blog, where one or group of people argue on the current issue.
2. Digest Blog - a collective information which also link to another site for more information.
3. Advocacy Blog - similar to pamphleteering blog, focus on a particular issue but mainly on-going basis.
4. Popular Mechanics Blog - a how to blog, could be a tutorial blog to educate the reader.
5. Exhibition Blog - Share the artistic creative work to the audience.
6. Gatewacher Blog - a group of people that follow the media's latest news.
7. Diary Blog - an everything blog about the writer, daily life report about themselves.
8. Advertisement Blog - commercial companies will pay the blogger to write an advertorial about their products.
9. News Blog - purely report the current news and events.


Personally, I think everyone is free to write everything they want. A good blog that based on their own style of writing is the creative thinking of what today's world need, not just by get stuck with the same old writing style (Rowse, 2005).


References:


Funnel, A 2008, A taxanomy of blogs, The Media Report, ABC Radio National, viewed 23 April 2011, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm>.


Rowse, D 2005, 20 types of blog posts, Problogger, viewed 22 April 2011, <http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/11/29/20-types-of-blog-posts-battling-bloggers-block/>.

Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits to the community

Blogging has risen to an extreme high level in the world. The size of the current blogosphere is dominated by United States.

(Source: Technorati 2010)

The Star Newspaper even reported Malaysia current has around 500,000 active bloggers, as also ranking as the highest in the world after Indonesia and the European Union (2009). In Malaysia, there are over 74% of bloggers in Malaysia are below 25 years old, and almost 64% of the bloggers are female. What about the blogging trend in Malaysia? Interesting fact found that politician's blogs scored low in popularity chart across Asia except Malaysia (2006).

Whereas in Arab, the blogging trend over this country is mainly surrounding with politics, culture and dissent (Menassat, 2009). There are thousands of Arab blogs in the Middle East are widely emerging the blog trends on the online community. According to the findings (Menassat, 2009), the study found that majority of the Arab blogs are written in diary form, based on personal observations and encounters on everyday life. However, when it comes to politics issue, Arab bloggers truly gives a critical opinion on the particular issues. Besides that, most of them are young male.

www.360east.com is one of the world top Arab blog.

References:

Sobel, J 2010, State of the blogosphere, Technorati, viewed 20 April 2011, <http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/>.

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

Asian Correspondent, 2006, Microsoft: '64% of Malaysian bloggers are female', viewed 20 April 2011, <http://asiancorrespondent.com/6615/microsoft-64-of-malaysian-bloggers-are-female/>.

Menassat, 2009, "Politics, culture, and dissident:" New study maps out trends in Arab blogsphore, viewed 20 April 2011, <http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/6705-politics-culture-and-dissident-new-study-maps-out-trends-arab-blogosphere>.

What makes a good presentation slides?

A good document design is also apply in power point slides. Power point slide is a handy tool to use it for the purpose of presentation, lecture, visual and etc. Making a good power point slide is easy, however, to make an effective power point slide require a basic design principles or rules in order to deliver the message to the audience. Diana Reep (2006) refers the general principles for all documents are balance, proportion, sequence, and consistency. As a designer, it is crucial to understand these principles and apply it. 

For example, consistency is important in a document design to present similar style to avoid confusion. First, consistent layout, using the fixed template in your slide does not mean it is a boring design, this is to help the reader recognize and remember your presentation. 

Firgure 1

Figure 2

The figure 1 and figure 2 shows the consistency of each slide by using the same template, the look and feel, and even the font. 

In addition to design an effective slide, adding extra graphic aids such as table or graf thoroughly is also for decorative purpose. Graphic aids are useful in helping the readers to understand the information given in a document. 

Figure 3

Figure 4

As these figures shown above, figure 3 created a table to show the three types of metafunction, whereas figure 4 did not apply the use of graphic aid by giving information of the respective subject. 

To sum up, a good document design is not just about the "design" in terms of creativity in arts. To practice makes perfect is to apply our general knowledge and experience on our document design. Think as a designer and reader.

References:

Reep, D 2006, Technical Writing, 6th edn, Pearson Edu Inc., New York.

The Purpose of This Blog

First of all, thank you for visiting LiHui Talks Design. On this blog, I'm going to discuss about publishing and media issues, for example, document designs, the techinical writing, features in design etc. This blog is going to deliever the up-to-date related issues to you especially to those who is into document designing, students from design programme, a need to get to know in detail about these issues.

Follow this blog and stay tune.

Cheers,

LH