New forms of media publishing

New media is the combination of video, multimedia on the web and email into a powerful communicating force (Rossiter, Tayler & Stanley, 2010). People are able to interact, send or receiver message through the new media such as CD-ROM, USB Flash Drive, video (CD, Web or DVD), or E-mail. Rossiter & co (2010) states that its a new gateway that connects customers and the public that enables them to knowing the company or person in-depth in just one click. Chu & See Tho (2010) states that the new media has been very helpful in the business field. It helps to narrow down potential business possibilities, hunting down potential customers and it also enable to test a company's idea and troubleshoot the problems through comments given by the audience.

There are a lot of benefits from the new media compared to the the old media. In this new media centuries, people no longer willing to fork out 1 ringgit to buy the newspaper, instead they go online and look for the news. There are a lot of benefits comparing to the old media. Rossiters & co (2010) gave a few examples how the new media altered the old media. The new media gives audience a high impact, it gives interactive experience to the audience through the use of spoken words, animation, graphics and video. Audience or readers are given the freedom of choice in the new media, they are able to browse around the internet instead of just reading one news from one particular source. Audience are able to receive information wherever they want, the availability of new media is high due to the aid of technologies. Phones, iPad, laptop makes the news travels way faster than the old media. The new media sends out information more effective than the old media with the aid of pictures and sounds, it is proven that both pictures and sound enable people to understand easier and faster. Lastly, the amount of news provided, old media such as newspaper have limited space for journalist to write about, but internet have unlimited space to cover a story, therefore the news in the new media are more specified and detailed.

After Malaysia's last election, Barisan National have lost two-third of the majority in the parliament. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (2008) states that it was a serious misjudgement for his party to rely fully on government controlled newspaper and television to attract voters. Kalinga Seneviratne from Malaysiakini.com (2008) states that traditional Malaysia news source such as The Star, New Strait Times, China Daily Press, Sin Chew Jit Poh is owned by government related company, this creates biasness in the news produced. The poor reputation that Malaysia’s newspapers have, as mouthpieces of coalition parties, has worked against them, and in favor of alternative media (Seneviratne, 2008). 






References  :

• Chu, TM & See Tho, CS 2010, The Internet, Market Research And Investment Decisions, online, retrieved on 30th September 2010, from http://school.malaysiakini.com/2010/08/the-internet-market-research-and-investment-decisions/
• Rossiter, L, Rossiter, K, Tayler, A & Stanley, P 2010, What is New Media?, online, retrieved on 30th September 2010, from http://www.rossiterandco.com/newmedia-01-intro.htm
• Rossiter, L, Rossiter, K, Tayler, A & Stanley, P 2010, The Benefits of New Media, online, retrieved on 30th September 2010, from http://www.rossiterandco.com/new-media-02-benefits.htm
• Kaufman, S 2008, Malaysia's Alternative Media Become, Decisive Political Factor, online, retrieved on 30th September 2010, from http://www.america.gov/st/democracyhr-english/2008/April/20080403175441esnamfuak0.1705591.html

Explain briefly types of blogging communities & methods to build blogging communities. Then, discuss the structure of one blogging community briefly

Jeremiah Owyang from Web Strategy states that online community is a group of people who shares common interest connect and exchange information (2007). There are different types of online community, such as games, music, profession and of course blog as well. Online community interact online within some bounded set of technologies (White, 2006).

These community can be public or also can be build up between friends or people who share common interest privately, this enables them to interact or share updates only among those who joined. Comment on other people's blog is a start in creating a online community. Nancy White states that RSS, also known as Really SImple Syndication a or feedreaders are one of the way in creating blogging community. This features enable us to discover new blogs and also receive new updates. Tagging or linking between bloggers automatically creates a community between themselves.

Robin Hamman stated 3 types of blog, closed blogs, blogs as conduit of information and Blog as Participation of "The Conversation". He define closed blog as small but very passionate and audience who are loyal to the community they've joined. This community doesn't have the motive to grow and usually people who are member of the community have very strong personal connection. Blogs as conduit of information is define as a "device" that link audience to the information. This type of blog community will have more audience that closed blog and audience are more engaged with the topic. Blogs as Participation of " The Conversation" are the connectors between the audience and the idea (Hamman, 2007). Bloggers in this community focus on comments and links tagged by others, using feed tools such as RSS to keep themselves updated.



References  :

• White, N 2006, Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community, online, retrieved on 30th September 2010, from http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community
• Owyang, J 2007, Defining the term: "Online Community", online, retrieved on 30th September 2010, from http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/12/28/defining-the-term-community/
• Hamman, R 2007, 3 types of blog: closed, conduit and participant in the conversation, online, retrieved on 30th September 2010, from http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/12/28/defining-the-term-community/

Classification of blogs & opinion about the most appropriate classification approach

After getting my hands on a few readings found from the internet, I've compile all my findings into the few categorization of blogs below.

Instructional Blog

Margaret Simmons from Swinburne University of Technology calls this type of blog "Popular Mechanics Blog", She define this blog it as blogs that gives out information on how to do stuff or how to make things worked in any specialty or field (2008). This blog are run by professional in their own field or non-professional that wants to share their experience. Examples of blogs are camera blogs, profession blogs such as Public Relation blogs, music blogs ad much more.





Informational Blog

Darren Rowse define this type of blog as blogs that people provide information to their audience. It could be a definition post or a longer explanation of some aspect of the niche that you are writing on (Rowse,  2005). It summarizes information or collect materials from elsewhere and form a compilation of explanation, it even includes audience commentary (Simons, 2008). A movie review, item review before you purchase an item or even this "Introduction to Publication & Design" blog are the examples of informational blog.





Political Blog

Rowse define it as the modern pamphlet spread that are able to invoke protest or social movement. A lot of political issues will be posted in one blog by one or multiple authors. They share their own view, gives out opinion and also comment on current issue (Rowse, 2008)





Exhibition Blog

A blog maintained by people who post their artwork to the internet for broader audience. People who owns this type of blogs are usually craftspeople, artists, writers who tries to get their work to attract more audience. Even poetry also categorized under exhibition blog (Rowse, 2008).





Gatewatcher Blog

Rowse define bloggers who keep an eye of a media are categorize under gatewatcher. Media plays a role as gate keeper to watch out on what are the governments are up to for the viewers. But sometimes gatekeepers doesn't perform well on their job, therefore a small group of bloggers find their purpose by watching how the media runs their job (Rowse, 2008). This blogs are maintained by professionals of their own field.





Diary

This are blogs that common people post about their life, happenings and events. They post up snapshots of their own family, themselves, friends and much more. They post bits of news and view on their personal live (Rowse, 2008).







References  :

• Funnell, A 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, online, retrieved on 30th September 2010, from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript
• Rowse, D 2005, 20 Types of Blog Posts- Battling Bloggers Block, online, retrieved on 30th September 2010, from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/11/29/20-types-of-blog-posts-battling-bloggers-block/
• Simons, M 2010, Freelance Journalist and Author, online, retrieved on 30th September 2010, from http://margaretsimons.com.au/

Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits to the community

Blog are best define as web sites that are updated frequently by professional or non-professional author or also known as blogger (Gurak, Johnson & Reyman, 2005). Blogosphere on the other hand, according to dictionary, it's the world of weblogs, the community of bloggers.

Bloggers nowadays, due to freedom of speech as one of their rights, they are blogging more than ever. Blogosphere in this 21st century is strong (MeLean, 2009). McLean also states that influence of blog are ranging from business to politics (2009). Politicians grab the citizen's attention and votes through blogging instead of having a proper speech. The information travels more efficient and faster through blogs instead of hardcopies readings. In Malaysia, blogging rank highest between the other large country such as Europe.   In 2008, there are more than 500,000 active blogger in Malaysia (The Star, 2008). This shows how much blogs can influence Malaysia's citizens thinking (Hassan, 2008). 

Different country have different kind of styles or particular trends that blogger post on their blogs. In a report done by Technorati, in Europe country, out of 53% from their surveyors answer that blogger express and share their personal experience through blogs. While the remaining surveyors are more towards political aspect and issues. In Malaysia, one of Universiti Malaya's lecturer, Dr. Abu Hassan Hasbullah states that almost all Malaysian bloggers post about Malaysia's politics as it has been a very "hot" topic in Malaysia. 

In Malaysia, blogging has make a very big impact on politics, election, politician reputation and the citizens decision on the country's ruler. As stated earlier in the post, Malaysia have the highest number of bloggers in the world, Dr. Abu from University Malaya has also states that with the number of bloggers in Malaysia, it shows the power of blogging in Malaysia and influencing the citizens mind, especially in politics (The Star, 2008).

With the amount of people blogging, it have become a powerful tool journalist and activists to influence the mind. In Iran, this powerful tool have created a protest of presidential election in Iran (Sussman, 2009). 

References  :

• Gurak L, Antonijevic S, Johnson L, Ratliff C & Reyman J 2005, Introduction: Weblogs, Rhetoric, Community, and Culture, online, retrieved on 29th September 2010, from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/introduction.html
• 'Blogging in Malaysia ranks among highest in the world', The Star, April 3rd
• McLean, J 2009, State of Blogosphere 2009: Introduction, online, retrieved on 29th September 2010, from http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction/
• Sussman, M 2009, Day 5: Twitter, Global Impact and the Future Of Blogging. SOTB 2009, online, retrieved on 29th September 2010, from http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/

Document Design

What makes a good presentation? Here are a few tips that I've researched on.


1.  Fancy fonts

• avoid using fancy fonts.
• use standard letters or fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman.
• make sure it's easy to read (Marquez, 2010).

2.  Title

• use a bold, easy to read title on each slides (Marquez, 2010).
• to make sure people are in the same track with you while presenting.

3.  Background

• make sure there is a color contrast between the words and the background. If use light-coloured background, words written should be in dark colors. If use dark background, words written should be in light colors (Russell, 2010)
• Russell also states that presentation will be effective if keep the background consistence.
• Do not let written sentences unclear, state Marquez (2010).

4.  Graphics, charts and photos

• helps while explaining to the audiences.
• it attract more attention comparing to words and it helps to understand easily (Marquez, 2010)

5.  Key words

• use key phrases in slides and include important information only.
• limit the number of words in one slide. Try not to use more than three bullets in a slide (Russell, 2010).
• Marquez states that presenter have to make sure all their slides are related, do not go out of topic.

6.  Vocal

• presenter have to speak clearly, make sure they have good control of pronunciation and flow of words. Practice makes all these factors perfect.

7.  Capital letters

• avoid the uses of capital letters, it shows the impression of "shouting" towards the audience  (Russell, 2010).
• Highlight the words with different colors instead of capitalizing it.

8.  Transition and animation

• avoid using to much of animation and transition in a slide. Excessive usage will distract the audience from listening to the presenter.
• keep the transition consistent, apply the same transition in all slides (Russell, 2010).

References  :

• Russell, W 2010, 10 Tips for Creating Successful Business Presentation, online, retrieved 28th September 2010, from http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointinbusiness/tp/bus_pres_tips.htm
• Marquez, Z 2010, How to Make a Good PowerPoint Presentation, online, retrieved 28th September 2010, from http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=4313178

Publication and Design

Oxford Dictionary (2005) states that publication is the act of printing or creating a book or much more reading materials making it available for the public. Where design is the process on determining how a internet page or a book or a drawing will look like. Publication design consists of the cover of a novel, or an advertisement. By the design of an advertisement, the message is sent to the audience through the design of the advertisement, the colour, the picture, the action, the pose determines the meaning.