Reflection

This is my first attempt of creating an academic blog, which I think it is much harder than blogging for my own non-academic blog. It however has helped me understand more publication and designing issues these current years. I had to do a lot of researches in order to understand the issues which were brought up. As a communication student, it is a must for me to learn to understand any medium that are use to communicate messages to the audiences.

I have learn to know the importance of citation and reference. Previously I thought citation is just a reference for the lecturers to check for plagiarism, however now I realise that, it is important to also respect others' intellectual properties. One has taken the effort and time to produce such work and we shall not conveniently take others' work and claim it our own.

Besides that, I find that keeping an academic blog updated is my biggest challenge. Each and every entry must be written with references and based or link to any publication theories. That means, there are lots of readings to be done before a post (approximately 200 words) can be done. I myself have spent in an average 6 hours to complete a post. I hope my updating my blog frequently can help me in improving my writing skills and the ability to do effective researches.

In conclusion, this experience of creating an academic blog will certainly help me in understanding more about publication issues and I will try to apply those theories that I've learn in my personal blog.

Last but not least, thank you for visiting 'Limit of Infinity'. Feel free to drop some comments for any of my posts.

Blogger politicians

I am a huge fan of blogs. As a communication student, I am even more interested to know current social and political issues happening locally as well as globally. Recently, I came across a political blog started just a month ago by our former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in his own website http://www.chedet.com/, which is named after the pseudonym he used when he wrote articles for newspapers. Apparently, his blog became a phenomenon to all Malaysians since the birth of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s blog. The news article of ‘1 million hits for Dr. M’s blog in just 30 days’ in the Star online on the 30 of May 2008 has shown the impact of his blog to the community (Samy, 2008).

Source: http://www.chedet.com/

‘People may now obtain news directly from the internet without any filtering from publishers, editors or journalists’ (IWR 2006). That is why many users believe that bloggers can provide them a wide scope of information compared to the mainstream media which is too clogged up due to the implication of printing and publishing act and licensing issues. However, although bloggers has more freedom in their publishing, they must also know to take responsibility for their own actions (Weber, 1995).

Source: http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/76e65039-65ed-45b4-81ad-61d3f993291f.html

Read more about the influence of political blogs in Malaysia in the article

> ‘New media and the changing face of communications’.

> ‘Blogger Jeff Ooi headed for Parliament’

> ‘Online campaign nets RM85,000’

Reference:

IWR Blog, 2006, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://blog.iwr.co.uk/general/index.html>

Lane, M 2005, ‘Unblog those drains’, politicalcartoons.com, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/76e65039-65ed-45b4-81ad-61d3f993291f.html>

Mohamad, M 2008, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://www.chedet.com/>

Samy, FA 2008, ‘1 million hits for Dr M’s blog in just 30 days’, the Star online, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/30/nation/20080530130012&sec=nation>

Waber, JH. 1995, Technical Editors’ Eyrie: Resources for technical editors, ‘Ethics in scientific and technical communication’, WISENET Journal 38, pp. 2 – 4, viewed on 10 June 2008, <http://www.jeanweber.com/newsite/?page_id=22>

1 April 2008, ‘New media and the changing face of communication’, the Star online: Business, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/1/business/20080401172812&sec=business>

2 May 2008, ‘Mahathir starts his own blog’, the Star online, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/2/nation/21127697&sec=nation>

9 March 2008, ‘Blogger Jeff Ooi headed for Parliament’, the Star online, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/9/election2008/20080309011012&sec=election2008>

28 February 2008, ‘Online campaign nets RM 85,000’, the Star online: Metro, weied on 12 June 2008, <http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/2/28/north/20457144&sec=north>

Internet for life

In today’s fast and growing technological world, the internet has not only taken its role as one of the largest source of information, it has also been replacing most of our daily lives which is generally known as the internet life. Many of us would probably prefer to live in the cyberspace due to various reasons, mainly the fact that we can lead many different lives in contrast to real life. The fact that you can be anyone you want to be in many ways gives great impressions to many of us to actually choose to have an internet life. The usual places where we can find internet lives are of course forums, gaming communities, messengers etc.

The article of ‘Online addiction’ by Wong Li Za published in August 20^th the Star Online has highlighted the effect of online games to computer users (Wong, 2007). Especially in the gaming communities, where most gamers who would spend a good 70% of the time in a day in the cyberspace socializing with different people from several parts of the world. And not only that 70% is not enough, some of these gamers would even resort to taking substances to keep themselves awake 24 hours in order be in the cyberspace. Yes, it is not wrong at all given the fact that through web space, we get the opportunity which many people from the past don’t, and that is to be able to communicate with not only one person in one country, but more or less the world. However, any form of addiction is never good and this addiction to internet life has become something that can endanger one’s life. ‘Online addicts and computer game addicts suffer from many of the same symptoms as alcohol and drug abusers: denial, secrecy, acting out, compulsion, lack of focus, and withdrawal from family and friends’ (Parrott, 2000).

Source: http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/64f9721b-d5d3-41fb-9fbc-a2a278e94dd3.html

So what is this thing that keeps these people to have such an addiction to it? The key here is the rewards they get when being in the cyberspace world. For example; let’s take a regular Joe who is working a regular job in real life, you have to work for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week in order to get a measly payroll every month which is not even enough to cover your expenses with the added stress from family and friends. Given in the cyberspace, you don’t have any worries, if you failed, you restart or sign up a new identification and start all over again and it is as simple as that. That is probably one of the key factors why people are addicted to internet life.

Although internet life may be dangerous, there are however still benefits which we can achieve by having an internet life. The solution to this is one must always bear in mind to separate reality and fantasy. The internet life may be a good training ground for people who have problems in socializing or people who would want to improve their socializing skills. Besides that, the internet life also benefits us in terms of knowing more first hand information from different people in different parts of the world. Internet life has both pros and cons and the way to work around it is to be moderate. Have an internet life, but don’t let it take over reality. Another article entitled ‘Taking control’ by Nasa Maria Entaban from the Star online will be a good reference for gaming addicts who likes to practice healthy gaming habit (Entaban, 2007).

Reference:

Entaban, NM 2007, ‘Taking control’, the Star: youth2, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://thestar.com.my/youth2/story.asp?file=/2007/9/26/youth2/18978912&sec=youth2>

Parrott, L 2000, ‘Acknowledgements’, Helping your struggling teenager: A parenting handbook on thirty-six common problems, Zondevan, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://books.google.com.my/books?id=Bs1_tUtyiRkC&dq=online+addict&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0>

Singer, A 2006, ‘Bill won every game but was still a loser’, politicalcartoons.com, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/64f9721b-d5d3-41fb-9fbc-a2a278e94dd3.html>

Wong, LZ 2008, ‘Online addiction’, the Star online: TechCentral, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/8/20/technology/20070820113810&sec=technology>

Internet television

I am a television addict since I was very young. I still remember those days when I need to rush home from school in time so that I could catch my favorite Hong Kong dramas. Now, I no longer have my freedom and time to watch the television like how I did during my schooling period, due to the busy working lifestyle. So I turned to internet television, which I can watch free television shows online, anytime and anywhere to fulfill my cravings for watching television programmers.

Unlike conventional broadcast television which the viewers are bound to watch the programmers that are scheduled to be broadcasted to the viewers; internet television allows viewers to choose the shows they wish to watch from a list of programmers it offers. John Naughton mentioned that 'Broadcast TV is a 'push' medium: a select band of producers (broadcasters) decide what content is to be created, create it and then push it down analogue or digital channels at audiences which are assumed to consist of essentially passive recipients', wheres the web is a 'pull' medium. 'Nothing comes to you unless you choose it and click on it to pull it down on to your computer. You're in charge.' (Naughton, 2006)

Internet TV is not something new, but the usage of it has been improved by the existence of broadband connections. The technology of streaming TV content on the Net is still very much in its infancy (Tan, 12 July 2007). Reviewing an article by Tan Kit Hoong, entitled ‘Watching TV on the Web’ published in the July 2007 The Star newspaper, which has introduced a few internet television websites, such as AZUREUS VUZE, Joost, MiTV, World IP TV, Astro Broadband and Veoh TV.

Source: www.vuze.com

Source: www.joost.com

Source: www.worldip.tv

Source: http://video.astro.com.my/

Source: Veoh Tv Beta

The rapid growth of Internet television usage also provide an alternative medium for corporate companies to place their advertisements. Internet television is much easier and cheaper alternative to publish content. The article 'Charting the Future of Internet TV' by Adam Gerber will further elaborate the future and prospect of advertisement in internet television channels.


Reference:

Astro broadband tv, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://video.astro.com.my/>

Gerber, A. 2006, iMedia Connection: Connecting the Marketing Community, ‘Charting the Future of Internet TV’, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/8035.asp>

Joost, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://www.joost.com/>

Naughton, J 2006, guardian.co.uk: The Observer, ‘The age of permanent net revolution’, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/mar/05/newmedia.broadcasting>

Tan, KH 12 July 2007, the Star online: Tech Central, ‘Watching TV on the Web’, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/7/12/prodit/18236970&sec=prodit>

Vuze beta, viewed on 12 June 2008, <http://www.vuze.com/app>

WorldIP.tv: World of interactive tv online, viewed on 12 June 2008, <https://secure.worldip.tv/en/>

Malaysian Bloggers and Journalists March for Press Freedom

Few days ago, Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur was stormed by bloggers and journalist from all around the country, holding Malaysian flags and shouting slogans for only one purpose. They demanded for more press freedom from the Malaysian government (The Star Online, 2 June 2008). There have been too many issues about press freedom being highlighted in the countries, especially in the recent years, where blogging trend is getting more and more popular to the Malaysian society.

More freedom: Journalists and bloggers gathering at Dataran Merdeka to press for more press freedom during the “Walk for Press Freedom” event.
(Source: The Star Online, 2 June 2008)

Bloggers criticize the lack of press freedom in the country, as it is the fundamental requirement for a democratic country to have the freedom of speech, yet there are still too many limitations for journalists as well as bloggers to express their thoughts. Sedition Act, Official Secret Act (OSA), Internal Security Act (ISA) and Printing Presses and Publications Act are their primary fear. There has been a drastic drop for Malaysia in press freedom ranking by 32 spots to 124 in the worldwide press freedom ranking index released by Paris-based watchdog Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF, Reporters Without Borders) (Beh, 2007).

Issues which are consider as ‘sensitive’ could not make it to the daily papers and now, even internet, so called a ‘free media’ to the people, its freedom of press is restrained by the Government. The Government is now aware of the influence of online media to the citizens, especially after the losing of two-third majority of seats in the parliament by the ruling Government party Barisan National. Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak comment on the issue, he said that 'he acknowledged that the Government had overlooked the impact of engaging the new media during the recent general election which was a new dimension in winning over public opinion' (Habib, 27 May 2008).

In year 1997, Malaysia announced a no-censorship guarantee for the internet. It was at that time trying to attract investors to its proposed Multiledia Super Corridor (MSC). Our former Prime Mininster Tun Dr. Mahathir promised investors that the MSC would have 'the world's best soft infrastructure of supporting laws, policies, and practices', including a 10-point Multimedia Bill of Guarantees. One of its guarantees read: 'Malaysia will ensure no censorship on the internet.' However the Bill do not guarantee internet users completely, where users can still be charged is seditious or libelous content is published to Malaysian audience, while many are still debating the subjectivity of sedition. Besides that, activists could never be sure how long the government would honor the no-censorship guarantee (George, 2005).

In my humble opinion, I think this is a risk we need to take and worth to take. Oscar Wilde has a quote like this, 'disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who had read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made.' (Wilde, 1881) Afterall, according to the code of ethics, 'a journalist should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information' (Code of Ethics, 1996). This is what journalists and bloggers are asking for, the freedom to do so. However, a writer should take responsibility on what he or she has written, as what Jean Waber said, 'I think that all ethical questions boil down, at some point, to accepting personal responsibility for one’s own actions, not hiding behind ‘I was only following orders’ or ‘that’s not my job’ or some variation on that theme.' (Waber, 1995)

Below are some of the cases arose in our country regarding press freedom issues.
> Malaysiakini raided by police over a publication deemed to be seditious
> Editor of Harakah arrested and charged with seditious

Reference:

Beh, LY. 17 October 2007, Drastic drop for Malaysia in press freedom ranking, ‘Malaysiakini’, viewed on 5 June 2008, <http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/73670>

Gan, S. 28 January 2008, The Day They Took Away Our Computers, ‘Wordpress.org’, viewed on 5 June 2008, <http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/919.cfm#down>

George, C. 2005, Media, Culture & Society, ‘The internet’s political impact and the penetration/ participation paradox in Malaysia and Singapore’, viewed on 9 June 2008, <http://mcs.sagepub.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/cgi/reprint/27/6/903>

Habib, S. 28 May 2008, Government to engage bloggers in cyberspace, ‘The Star Online’, viewed on 8 June 2008, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/28/nation/21376112&sec=nation>

Swarts, W. 2000, Press Crackdown, ‘Wordpress.org’, viewed on 8 June 2008, <http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/1390.cfm>

The Star Online, 2 June 2008, Journalists, bloggers walk to press for more freedom, ‘The Star Online’, viewed on 8 June 2008, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/2/nation/21425908&sec=nation>

Waber, JH. 1995, Technical Editors’ Eyrie: Resources for technical editors, ‘Ethics in scientific and technical communication’, WISENET Journal 38, pp. 2 – 4, viewed on 10 June 2008, <http://www.jeanweber.com/newsite/?page_id=22>

Wilde, O. & Pearson, H. 1973, De Profundis and Other Writing, ‘The Soul of Man under Socialism’, Penguin Classics, viewed on 9 June 2008, <http://books.google.com.my/books?id=ANYo1XCPqt4C&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=disobedience,+in+the+eye's+of+anyone+who+had+read+history,+is+man's+original+virtue.+It+is+through+disobedience+that+progress+has+been+made&source=web&ots=FOBV3Dfveo&sig=-sq4YYQyZwUNpkJV2KClviJ_Vak&hl=en>, pp. 22

Reflection

Blogging as a form of media has to be taken seriously because as you publish any publication on the internet, the entire world can axcess to it. Blogging can be a powerful tool, depends on one's intention, it can creates wonderful greatness as well as massive damages.

• 'The Internet is a multimodal environment with plenty of modes' (Kress and van Leeuwen 1998)
• 'Every mode has its own affordance due to the modes' special features' (Schriver 1997)
• 'Context of culture is necessary for a text to be fully understood' (Hallidays 1985)

Users should apprieciate the invention of this technology and take this tool as a pathway to better mankind.
__________________________________________________________
References:

eBlogger, 'Is spam permitted on Blogger?', Blogger.com, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577#whatwedo>

Halliday, M & Hasan R 1985, Language, context and text: aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective, Deakin University, Victoria.

Jensen, M 2003, Emerging alternatives: a brief history of weblogs, Columbia Journalism Review, viewed 27 October 2007, < http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2003/5/blog-jensen.asp>

Kenny, S 2008, 'kennyasia.com: when routine isn't exactly normal', viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://kennysia.com/>

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

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Bell, A & Garrett, P (eds) 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford, chapter 7, pp. 186-219.

Mahmud, S 2006, 'Politics/ Technology: The Persian blogosphere', Wanabehuman: Virture is knowledge, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://wanabehuman.blogspot.com/2006/04/politicstechnology-persian-blogosphere.html>

Mahmud, S, 2006, 'Politics/ Technology: The Chinese blogosphere', Wanabehuman: Virture is knowledge, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://wanabehuman.blogspot.com/2006/04/politicstechnology-chinese-blogosphere.html>

Malaysia Central, The Leading Malaysia-Centric Info Portal & The Most Comprehensive Malaysian Search Directory, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://www.mycen.com.my/malaysia/blog.html>

Morton, GR 2002, 'The Imminent Demise of Evolution: The Longest Running Falsehood in Creationism', viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://home.entouch.net/dmd/moreandmore.htm>

Nielsen, J 1997, 'Be Succinct!! (Writing for the Web), Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html>

Nielsen, J 2006, 'F-shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content', Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>

Nuffnang Malaysia, Asia's First Blog Advertising Community, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://www.nuffnang.com.my/>

Reep, DC 2006, Technical Writing, 6th edn, Pearson Longman, NY.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., NY.

Technorati, About us: Welcome to Techonorati, Technorati.com, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://technorati.com/about/>

The Star Online, 22 March 2008, 'Shabery to hear out bloggers', The Star Online, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/3/22/nation/20725852&sec=nation>

The Star Online, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://www.thestar.com.my/>

Walsh, M 2006, ‘“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.

Wilson, G 2006, Down with blogs, so here’s another, BBC News, viewed 26 October 2007, < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5116654.stm>

YouTube Company History, YouTube: Broadcast Yourself, viewed on 2 May 2008, <http://youtube.com/t/about>

New Publishing Media

The trend of blogging is now getting more and more popular. Years before blog was popular, people find it hard to find to voice out their opinion to the government or to the mass public. Main stream media was the only place the citizens can do so, not many had succeeded. The main stream media will always have a bar to follow, which certain issue which are consider sensitive will not be published in the daily news letter nor broadcast in the television and radio. Censorship and policies basically silences anyone from saying things that are against the people in power. People had less freedom of speech back then compare to now, thanks to the invention of internet, now everyone can board cast on themselves.

For example the launch of YouTube website, which now own by Google Inc., has created an extraordinary frenzy throughout the world. Almost all net users at least visited YouTube website for once. It is a website that allows registered users to upload video to the internet and share their video with anyone by internet streaming. It is the largest platform to host video blogging or vlog. YouTube has struck numerous partnership deals with content providers such as CBS, BBC, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, NBA and many more.

Moblog or mobile blogging is another form of blogging which uses only the mobile phone device to publish blog entries directly to the internet. With the invention of 3G, mobile phone boardband, it makes moblogging much easier. Users of camera phones can even publish photos instantly after taking up to the Web server.

Splogs or spam blogs are blogs which are created by the author to increase their page rank in the search engine. 'The ease of creating and updating webpages with Blogger has made it particularly prone to a form of behavior known as link spamming. Blogs spamming can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site.' (Blogger, 2008) This form of blogging is a form cyberspace misuse and can even clog up the search engine.

Recently, readers of hardcopy media have turned to reading online books, online newspaper and online magazine. Everyone is aware of the environmental issue going on. People are going paperless therefore online reading is much more 'environmental friendly' in a way. Although Jakob Nielsen did said that people read 25% slower on screen then on paper, but it is easier to read in a website because all the information are already organized and compound. Take print newspaper and online newspaper of The Star as an example. The readers need to flip through the entire newspaper like to know all the headlines of the news in a day while in the newspaper online website, readers can straight away go to the archive and read through all the headlines in one page. For readers who are always on the go, online reading is the better option.

Web Design vs Print Design - Part II

In my previous post, I've talked about some of the print media and how do their designs function in conveying the meaning of the content to the audiences. In this post, I'll be discussing about web design. The internet has become an alternative tool to obtain information in today's world. Blogs, Youtube and other websites can provide more information compared to conventional media because the limitation on the internet is still very little. People get to know things happening in the other side of the globe on real time or get excess on overseas' media just by a single click. However, to create a successful website, not just the content, but it's design must also be taken into consideration.

Jakob Nielson, a web usability consultant, listed out three main guidelines for writing for the web.

• Be succinct: write no more than 50% of the text you would have used in a hardcopy publication


• Write for scannability: don't require users to read long continuous blocks of text


• Use hypertext to split up long information into multiple pages

He mentioned that readers read 25% slower online then on papers. Therefore, Diane Reep (2006) said, readers only 'scan' websites and they hardly read every single line and they only seek the information they want on the website. Articles in the web should also be written in inverted pyramid form, where the first few lines should already be enough to describe the gist of the whole article. If there is an elaboration, designers can create hyperlinks or hypertexts to split the information. Readers do not like to score up and down, left and right while they are reading. Hypertext will help in making the website more organize and reader-friendly.

When creating a website, a designer must understand that the readers will not read word by word but only scan through the web page in a 'F' shaped patent. Jakob Nielsen did a study that shows readers only read the first two lines in web page articles and then move vertically down through the rest of the article.


Source: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

Web Design

Web page usually are design with headings, side column, main column. As I mentioned above, scannability is very important to a web page because readers do not like stare at the computer screen to read lengthy article for a long time. The partitions are to provide a multi reading path to readers while reading the web page. Kress G. and van Leeuwen T. said, in analyzing multimodal texts such as websites, they offers the reader a choice of reading path and, even more so than in the case of texts where a plausible reading can be discerned, leave it up to the reader how to traverse the textual space (Krees G & van Leeuwen T, 2006).


Source: http://thestar.com.my/

Above is an example of a good web design. The name of the website is visible enough on the upper left of the page. It has columns dividing the page into several parts. Readers can choose either to read the headline story first or other content such as the photo on the right of the page. The writing on the page are all succinct, therefore it is easier for the reader to focus on the text. There is also hypertext links to each and every news publish on the page, so that readers who are interested to read more can continue reading the whole report of the news.

Source: http://home.entouch.net/dmd/moreandmore.htm

Above is a website with bad design and you can see obviously, comparing this website with the one from web page, the lower one is not effective in conveying messages to the readers. The design of the website has no column and does not follow the F shaped patent of designing. There is no hypertext link for further information and no interaction at all.

Print design and web design basically share some similarity in designing especially multimodal documents such as a magazine and a website. The differences are the writing style and the hypertext link. All these aspect must be consider in order to create a functional and effective website.

Web Design vs Print Design - Part I

Print documents exist since the beginning of human civilization, however online media -- the internet came out as a new form of media just a few decades back. Discussing the effectiveness of these two types of medium, both serve the purpose of delivering messages to the readers. Especially now, the importance of multimodal document, the design of both text and images are equally important to deliver the correct message to the readers. According to Maureen Walsh (2006), multimodal texts are texts which incorparate a few elements such as text, visuals and sound.

Print Design

Lets us first discuss about printed documents. Printed documents, includes newspaper, magazines, novels, comics and etc, each has it's own unique method in delivering the messages in it effectively. How do we differentiate these few types of genre and categorizes them? We look at their most prominent differences, the design.

I'm taking a comic and a magazine design to make a comparison.

7 boxes Garfield comic

Source: http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Glade/8938/pizzacomic.gif

2 pages spread magazine about Ciara
Source: gossip2sweet.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/jet1.jpg

The design of a comic is obviously with more graphics and less wording. The framing of the comic is using symmetrical white space to separate each image and the colouration of the images combines all graphics in the comic to a complete document. The content of the document is mostly delivered by graphical narration, which means telling story with only images. However, filling in dialogs for the characters helps the readers to understand the meaning of the graphic more clearly.

As for the magazine, although images are used in the document, but they did not tell the content of the whole article. What makes sense in this article is the wording in it. Article is written in columns of four in two pages and the subject is always described in detail. This is because readers, when reading a magazine, their eyes will not always follow the text from the beginning of the left till the right end of the page, therefore the existence of columns are actually to help readers in reading more comfortably. Readers will first glance through the page and notice the most salience part in the article. That is why, normally the title of the article will be the biggest and eye-catchy among all the texts in the entire page, followed by the sub-heading. Readers will also look through the pictures and make sense with the headline to predict the content of the whole article. And then only they will read the content in it. Magazine articles can be written in more detail form because article such as feature witting requires the author to describe the whole agenda by words only. Therefore the author needs to make full use of the two pages to deliver as much messages in the content as possible to the readers.

Blogging Community

As I discussed about blogosphere in my previous post, I mentioned that blogs directly forms a virtual community, where all bloggers are interconnected and can communicate with one another depending on what are the similar interest they possess. For instance, a blogger published a post about the latest trend of fashion, other bloggers can link to the particular blog by typing the tag 'fashion' in any search engine. The responds of the readers will be reflected in the commentary column provided in the blog. That is also the most direct way to communicate to the writer about what their opinions are to the particular post, and then become a platform for the readers to share their interest and build a community out of it. Bloggers and readers socialize among themselves by sharing their opinion on a particular topic or even just to discuss their common interest. Now there are even bloggers community such as Nuffnang Malaysia creating a protal of all bloggers to gather and discuss exchange blogging experiences. Every now and then Nuffnang will organise meet ups and event to gather bloggers together to interact among themselves.

Nuffnang Malaysia Logo

Source: http://www.nuffnang.com.my/

One of my personal favorite blog is kennysia.com, a well-known blogger in Malaysia. I first came to know this blog last year when I was reading one of my personal friend's blog. In her link column, she listed some of her frequently visit blogs, and one of it was kennysia.com.

Kenny Sia's blog is mainly humorous. He uses humor to talk about serious issues such as elections, government policies and etc. However, he also writes reviews on places he'd been to such as countries, restaurants, hotels and more. Everyday, hundreds and thousand of people visit his blog and some even leaves comments for his post. By Googling the keyword 'kenny sia', the result shows 252,000 hits. Which means there are more then 2oo thousand articles about Kenny Sia can be found in the internet.



Even though he's not a full-time blogger, Kenny Sia is earning by blogging. Advertisers scouted for popular bloggers to advertise their product just by displaying a banner in kennysia.com. The more reputable a blog is, the more people will visit the blog. But how does people get to know famous bloggers?

Bloggers who own their own blog will post a link to kennysia.com and from there, people who visited blogs that are linked to Kenny Sia's blog will get to know his blog as well just by clicking the link. I have a personal blog that is linked to kennysia.com. Visitors of my blog can link themselves directly Kenny Sia's blog and from there we get to share our experiences and interest of visiting kennysia.com in the virtual world. And the threat does not end there. After they visit the blog themselves, they can either choose to comment on his page or link the website to the readers own blogs to introduce the blog to their own readers. The community keeps getting bigger and bigger and it will never stops. Therefore I said blogging forms an interconnected community, where everyone is connected to everyone.

Classification of Blogs

Blogs are regularly updated by their host, usually on daily basis. Their posts contain information related to specific topic. Bloggers are free to utilize the internet space to write about topics which they are interested, such as their political views or even commentaries (Blogarama 2005). Usually blogs postings and commentaries are more critical compare to the main stream media because there is less restriction in the cyber space. In Malaysia, cyber space is the only media that can express freely, especially politically, that is why Malaysian political bloggers are most well known worldwide. Almost anyone can create a blog of their own, for example our countries politicians, member of parliaments, celebrities, feminist group, religion representatives and more.

Classification

Malaysians blogs are usually sources for many to obtain the most update and neutral information. Below is a list of some of the some famous blogs by our fellow Malaysians.

Socio-Political Blog:

A Kadir Jasin - The Scribe
Anwar Ibrahim
Aisehman
Big Dog
Cakap Tak Serupa Bikin
Cuit Sikit!
Desiderata - YL Chong
Elizabeth Wong
James Wong Wing On
Kassim Ahmad
KTemoc Konsiders
Lone
M. Bakri Musa
Mack Zul - Brand New Malaysian
MageP's Lab - SK Thew
Mahaguru 58
Malaysia Today - Raja Petra Kamarudin, RPK
Malaysian, The
Menj
Mental Jog - Lucia Lai
Politics 101
Nik Nazmi
Present Point Power
Rocky's Bru
Screenshots Jeff Ooi
Sensintrovert, The - Howsy
Seventh Rangers Mechanized
Tok Kok - Patrick Teoh
Volume of Interactions - Aizuddin Danian
What A Lulu


Members of Parliament:

Chow Kon Yeow
Lim Kit Siang
Fong Po Kuan - Chamber Of Thoughts
Shahrir Samad
Tan Seng Giaw
Teresa Kok

Rants Blog:

A Spicy Life
About Nude Not Naked
Anjali Speaks
As Suanie Sees It
Chiqspace
Cool Catalyst
Digital Awakening, The - Peter Tan
Dinzlink
Dr Liew
Erna Mahyuni
Eye On Everything
Fading Sanity
FireAngel
Gina Gets Her Groove
Lainie
Limau Nipis - Nizam Zakaria
Little Girl In A Reverie
Meesh Experience, The
Midnite Lily - Zona
Minishorts
Narcissism Is Necessary
November Rain
Perpetual Permutating Perceptions
Pink Pau - Su Ann
Rajan Rishyakaran
Sashi-isms
Shaolin Tiger
Sixthseal
Spankin Da Monkey - Dave Avran
Szen
There's No Blog - Visithra
Tiger's Den, The - Tiger Joe
Yvonne Foong

Medical Blog:

Malaysian Medical Resources Blog
Materia Medica Malaysiana
Palmdoc

Educational Blog:

Cikgu Lee
Education In Malaysia

Blog Aggregators:

MyCen Blog Directory
MyCen News & Blog Aggregator
Project Petaling Street - PPS Blogtal
SARA Who?
Sharp Bytes From Bolehland

Photo News Blog:

Sightings

Food Recipes & Reviews:

A Self-Proclaimed Foodaholic
Babe In The City
Eat First Think Later
FooDcrazEE
Food Safari
Julie The Biscuit
Life Of A Food Lover
Little Guy Big Kitchen
Makan Kings
Makan-Makan
MakanSakan
Malaysia Best
Memoirs of A Chocoholic
Mum Mum Eat Eat - Wena

Parody & Satire:

TV Smith's Dua Sen

Cartoons:

Cedko - WK Wong & Cedric Gan
Johnny Ong
Malaysian Cartoons - Benny Loh

Humour:

Kenny Sia
Like That Also Can Ah?
Stepping Aside For Reality
Wa Si Hokkien Lang

City Guide:

KL This Month

Entertainment & Arts:

Break-A-Leg - Choy Su Ling
Storyteller, The - Yasmin Ahmad
Sultan Muzaffar

Party:

Goody 2 Screws - Terrence
Kaki Cucuk Langit
Kinky Blue Fairy - Joyce
Plonk Wonk

Parenting & Family:

5Xmom - Chan Lilian
De Book Worm
Just My Lil' Organic Life - Samm
Loopy Meals - James & Mae
Mak Andeh & Brood
Pok Ku
Thinking Aloud - Min
Zara's Mama

Sex:

Hustler Diaries, The
Women Only!

Shopping & Fashion:

Fashion Asia
Little Black Book
Promotions & Sales In Malaysia
Shopping With Soul Doctor

Photography:

Digital Photo Tips
Every Picture Tells A Story - TV Smith
Thousand Words : Snapshots of Life

Travel & Adventure:

Whereinsoever
Pummkin's Pitch

Motoring:

http://paultan.org/

Biz & Industry:

Asia Business Consulting
BeautyBiotech
Competitive Malaysia
Ramblings of An E-Trader - Cyberpartygal

Technology:

Hot Spot
Ideal Gadge
Jan In Malaysia
Liew CF
Mobile Talk
Sabahan.com
Techgurls

Group Blogs:

Hantu Bola
NST Jaring Monster Blog
Rojak's Daily
The Star Citizen's Blog


Source: http://www.mycen.com.my/malaysia/blog.html

Blogging Phenomenon

A blog or weblog is a website where bloggers post their articles of varies subjects, ranged from serious socio-political issues to casual entries such as leisure and adventure. The size of blogosphere is still increasing although this media has already been introduced to the world for more than a decade. According to Technorati, a recognized authority that analysis the World Wide Web, there are over 175, 000 new blogs everyday and currently there are 112.8 million blogs in the Internet (technorati.com, 2008). From March 2003 to April 2006, the trend of blogging is doubling about every six months and the number continues to rise till today. In that three years time, the blogoshpere has enlarged for over 60 times.


Source: http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000432.html

Blogosphere

Blogosphere is a virtual community where all bloggers are interconnected to one and another. Bloggers use tagging capability to get their content found by people who are searching for particular subject. They socialize among themselves by sharing their opinion on a particular topic or even just to discuss their common interest.

The Blogging Trend

A blog functions like a journal, or some may refer as online diary, publishing subjects which may be in the audiences or the bloggers’ own interest. The subject of blogging can be political, medical, and educational or topic about photo news, food recipes and reviews, humour, entertainment and art, travel guide, parenting and family, shopping fashion and many more. In brief, blog can be about anything and there is no rules and format which you must follow to create a blog. 'Depending on your take, blogs are either a fantastic liberation, a self-indulgent waste of time, or a complete mystery' (Giles Wilson, 2006). In other country such as Iran, 'blogs are used in various ways, from "bridges" which connect "social islands" between genders, expatriates and non-expatriates, children and their parents, even politicians and citizens. Persian expatriates in Israel tell their peers in Iran of their conditions and lives in Israel, for example' (wanabehuman blog, 2008). In China, 'there are some 111 million internet users in China, of whom about 64 million have broadband access, according to a China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) survey published in January 2006. Some 14.2 per cent of respondents said they used weblogs frequently. An Analysys International press release in November 2005 forecast some 33.36 million Chinese bloggers by the end of the third quarter of 2006, which would be more than double the 14.75 million bloggers counted by the end of 2004' (wanabehuman blog, 2008).

Blogging Tools

Blogs are increasingly recognised as a powerful and competent publishing tool (Jensen 2003). With the existence of user-friendly and free weblog software such as blogger.com, live journal, word press, it is no long a complicated process to create a blog. Millions of bloggers share ideas and experiences in their blogs and the audiences would respond to the subject that has been published, which makes a blog a powerful tool of communication and to spread information.

Effects to the Community

Imagine the impact it may bring to the society, the influence of the alliances that are formed in the virtual world. The public has becoming more and more dependent to blogs in obtaining information compared to a decade ago, where the only information sources are from the newspapers, televisions, radio and the other main stream media. In the recent Malaysian general election, blogs were used as tools to woo the voters by political parties. Blog of politician such as our formal Prime Mininster Anwar Ibrahim from the opposition party and blog of well-known Malaysian journalist Elizabeth Wong, are the references for the voters before they make up their decision for the election. Since the main stream media are only providing limited information to the public, the public were forced to search for alternative recourses to find out more. The government too now has accepted the reality that blogs can shape the public thinking of the country (The Star, 22 March 2008). The blogosphere is certainly growing through time, not only locally but globally ss well.

Purpose of my blog

Welcome and thank you for visiting my blog. This blog is a part of my college course assignment where its purpose is to introduce the students to the blogging world and learn about the professional commentary on current publishing issue. It will also demonstrate how and in what way blogs have changed the paradigm in the cyberspace, causing a shift of trends in the community. Besides that, the impact and influence of blogging to the public will also be portrayed in this blog, reflecting the benefits of blogs to the society. This blog is a suitable reference to those who are involve in the blogging, such as blogger and advertisers, and personals who are interested in the publishing issues.