Being Reflective

(source: blog.al.com)

This blog is maintained as a prerequisite in the course I have taken up, which is, issues in publication and design. Prior to this blog’s take off, I have attempted to blog but I have always failed to keep up with regular posts. However, this course has taught me things that make blogging so much easier and a lot less dull. I have learned how I can attract readers with the theory of composition i.e. framing, salience, layouts (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006). I have also learned to be more culture/faith/race sensitive when blogging so the risk of offending readers is lessen. This is because individuals may comprehend images differently and attempt to fill the gaps based on their own cultural background and experience (Walsh 2006). Last but not least, I have learned not only from writing this blog but writing for other assignments that I should never take content from others and present it as my own. It is of utmost importance to write original content, credit sources, quote properly and link to the originating article (Brown, 2007). All in all, I found the experience of blogging not only enlightening and eye-opening but also rewarding and valuable and without it, I would never know this much about publication and design. I am also grateful to have a great lecturer and classmates who have assisted me in my academic journey.

References

• Brown, S 2007, Ethical blogging 101, viewed 16 june 2010, <http://modernl.com/article/ethical-blogging-101>.
• Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, 'Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: languase and visual communication' in Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, London.
• 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.

A Photograph Represents a Thousand Words, Most Likely More.

In the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia, The War Photo Limited Gallery, was dedicated especially to a war that happened between Israel and Lebanon in early 90’s; the motive was to obtain a visual view from both sides, with 4 photographers creating more global perspective on what truly happened during the war, the exhibitions attempt to follow and delve into a story to touch the lives of those affected by war (Heizmann, 2007). This shows that war photography is able to influence people’s perception on various types of experience, as well as evoking deep-seated emotions. Susan Sontag identifies the best war pictures as “the visual equivalent of sound bites”, because they are able to compress complicated issues in a profoundly persuasive manner; for example images of war victims that were harmed are able to provoke shame, disgust, anger and conflict, not in a way sheer verbal accounts would do (Gusterson, 2009).

Shell shocked children await evacuation (Israel-Lebanon conflict). (source: warphotoltd.com)

Beirut: damaged neighbourhood attacked by Israeli air. (source: warphotoltd.com)

Photojournalism is a career that should be given more appreciation and reliability although it wouldn’t bring in huge profit because especially, war photojournalists, telling the truth with little verbal expression is very dignified. Wade Goddard (Heizmann, 2007) trusts a photographer more than the news media when it comes to story-telling because a photographer is on the frontline, witnessing as a story unravels and capturing images that are impartial whereas the media uses a team of editors and publishers to politically or ideologically report a story. This is supported by Mark M. Hancock, who stated that “A professional photojournalist is a visual reporter of facts; the public have trust in its reporters to tell the truth and the same trust is extended to photojournalists as visual reporters. At all times, we have many thousands of people seeing through our eyes and expecting to see the truth. Most people immediately understand an image (Akhter, 2009). Goddard (Heizmann, 2007) also asserted that the photographs of war will raise awareness on the damage a conflict/war can bring to a society, and the heavily victimised are always the women and children and Lana Slezic, a photographer expressed that she feels obligated to communicate the sufferings that happen in the places which many of us are oblivious to.

Dhaka: Woman and child covered in carbon dust due to pollution. (source: noupe.com)

Even though I am not well-read when it comes to photography, I have always had a passion for it. Every time I appreciate an excellent photo, I can feel it moving my soul as well as inspiring me. In my personal view, photographs should be accompanied by texts to further empower the messages that are going to be disseminated. Therefore, if a picture is accompanied by a caption or a short description, the audience will easily be affected. Besides, images and texts are interdependent. Bernhardt (2009) maintained that the physical of text requires the visual apprehension in order for people comprehend the information. When combined with the best write-ups, visuals help to push home the message in the most powerful way and that’s how they must be used – when the power of two is packed into one, the punch is that much stronger (Carlson, 2009). It is one thing to take a photograph of a person, and it is another to make others to take notice by unveiling the heart of humanity. Have you been moved by pictures lately?

References

• Akhter, A 2009, 35 powerful phots that tell a story, viewed 15 June 2010,<http://www.noupe.com/photography/35-powerful-photos-that-each-tells-a-story.html>.
• Bernhardt, SA 1986, 'Seeing the text', College Composition and Communication, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 66-78.
• Carlson, A 2009, Why pictures speak louder than words, viewed 15 june 2010, <http://ddunleavy.typepad.com/the_big_picture/2009/07/why-pictures-speak-louder-than-words.html>.
• Gusterson, H 2009, Hiroshima and the power of pictures, viewed 15 June 2010, <http://ddunleavy.typepad.com/the_big_picture/2009/07/why-pictures-speak-louder-than-words.html>.
• Heizmann, S 2007, 'The power of the photograph',The Media Report, ABC Radio National Transcripts, viewed 15 June 2010, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm>.

The Importance of Ethical Blogging

Aduka Taruna arrested for unethical blogging. (source: blogger.com)

Ever since the world of blogging was invented, there had been many outlandish cases reported on the news. More often than not, the most sensational ones are usually about bloggers who were charged against sedition, slander and defamation. A 28-year-old Malaysian blogger known as Aduka Taruna was arrested for posting an allegedly insulting comment following the demise of the late sultan of Johor; specifically, he used contemptuous words in commenting how the announcement of the death of the late sultan was made (Shadiqe, 2010). This is only a minor example of how badly unethical blogging can negatively affect one’s live. Bloggers with sense of responsibility should bear in mind that they are publishing words publicly and there are ethical obligations towards the readers, the people they write about and the society in general. Cyberjournalist.net (2003) delineated code of ethics for bloggers which include;

• To minimize harm, sources and subjects should be treated with deserving respect, i.e be sensitive because readers may be affected adversely;
• Be accountable, i.e. bloggers should admit mistakes and immediately correct them.

Shadiqe (2010) reported that Aduka Taruna was threatened by some readers which prompted him to remove the posting and made a public apology; yet many perceived the apology as an insult as well. The blogosphere inclines on norms and customs – on what the community feels is acceptable, thus, the community will police itself whenever someone crosses the line (Lasica, 2005).

Unethical blogging is evident all over the world, as the Internet is a globalized platform. In Egypt, the Arabian Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) reported that a blogger faced charges of publishing false information about the Egyptian armed forces and destabilizing citizen’s confidence in the military establishment (Hassan, 2010). In Thailand, an engineer who’s also a blogger was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for sending pictures online which were offensive to the royal family, thus considered defaming the monarchy (BBC News, 2009).

In my own perspective, if natural law means rules of conduct intrinsic in human nature, binding upon human society, and the blogosphere is all about interactive outspoken community, then it is only sensible to abide by the ethics of blogging because we would want harmony and peace in the Internet as well as in real life. We must coexist upon mutual respect and sensitivity towards each other’s perspectives.

“Before you speak, think – Is it necessary? Is it true? Is it kind? Will it hurt anyone? Will it improve on the silence?” – Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Indian spiritual leader.

References

• BBC News 2009, 'Thai man jailed for royal insult', 3 April, viewed 15 June 2010, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7981769.stm>.
• Cyberjournalist.net 2003, A bloggers' code of ethics, viewed 15 June 2010, <http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/000215.php>.
• Hassan, A 2010, 'Blogger faces charges of defaming military', Los Angeles Times, 3 March, viewed 15 June 2010, <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/03/egypt-blogger-accused-of-defaming-military-forces.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+BabylonBeyond+(Babylon+%26+Beyond+Blog)>.
• Lasica, JD 2005, The cost of ethics: influence peddling in the blogosphere, viewed 15 June 2010, <http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050217lasica/>.
• Shadiqe, J 2010, 'Blogger held over insulting posting', New Straits Times, 26 January, viewed 15 June 2010, <http://yquake.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/12eiss/Article/index_html>.

E-books Winning the Crowd

Amazon's Kindle DX (source: wordpress.com)

The ways technology is changing the world is tremendous. Everything goes as miniature as they can, as light as feather and faster than lightning. This goes the same with literature and journalism readership. An electronic book is a digital form of publication based on text and image, produced, published and readable on computers or other digital devices; and apart from visual and audio, enhancing elements that are considered include multimedia i.e. film/video/animated graphics (Huffington Post, 2010).

For every action there’s always reaction, and it goes to the rise of e-books as well. Cornwall (2010) reported that publishers and book aficionados have been sternly resisting the prospect of the e-book; nonetheless, there has been a revelation to go digital in order to survive, as it’s predicted that almost half of all books will be sold in digital form in the next ten years. The advent of e-books are casting a shadow on conventional books and winning the tech-savvy crowd since they are about all things miniature, fast and seamless. Just what are the things that make e-books getting more and more popular then?

A few of the benefits of e-books that Sasson (n.d) established are;

1) obtaining e-books are very convenient, less time-consuming, no bookstore visits or waiting for books to arrive in the mailbox, which also means no shipping fees and can be done anywhere, anytime at the comfort of readers, with Internet connection;

2) Environment-friendly i.e. no trees to produce pages of e-books;

3) Space saving i.e. no bookrack or library is required regardless of amount of e-books owned;

4) Portability and no more worrying about heavy bags i.e. books or a whole library stored in a small computers or e-book reader;

5) Internet browsing capability for information seeking;

6) Interactivity of e-books (incorporation of multimedia);

7) Printability of content, some are even free of charge;

Of course there are limits to e-books. According to Cornwall (2010), there are very limited catalogue books offered and most of them are aimed at American audience. The advantages are somewhat more appealing though, and to me, especially, as while I am fond of reading, I do not read enough, simply because books are expensive and I travel at least twice a year thus I need something portable if I do want to read. Nonetheless, some book lovers just couldn’t help but hate the idea of digitalizing books. Quoted from an ardent traditional book buff, “A book is the entire experience, from walking into the bookstore itself, to reading it and passing it onto a friend. A book is an event, but eBooks dilute this event to mere words. They strip out the feeling, the sensation, the experience that surrounds a novel. They make it – soulless – machine like.” (Turton, 2008).

Nevertheless, whatever we do, say or think, the inexorable force that is the Internet is not going to stop its digitalizing capabilities whether we like or not.

References

• Cornwall, D 2010, 'E-books popularity on the rise', The 7.30 Report, ABC Video Transcripts, viewed 14 June 2010, <http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2849989.htm>.
• Huffington Post 2010, 'The definition of an eBook', 5 March, viewed 14 June 2010, <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/the-definition-of-an-eboo_n_487834.html>.
• Sasson, R n.d, The advantages and benefits of ebooks, viewed 14 June 2010, <http://www.successconsciousness.com/ebooks_benefits.htm>.
• Turton, S 2008, Ebooks: A bad idea getting worse, viewed 14 June 2010, <http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/07/25/ebooks-a-bad-idea-getting-worse/>.

Newspaper Business Is on Its Deathbed

(source: blogger.com)

It’s pretty funny how my mother can avidly buy daily local newspaper, the Daily Express, yet she rarely has time to read all of the content. I wonder what lies behind that ferventness, because from what is apparent, it won’t be long before my mother starts to rely on the internet to get her daily fix of the local news. Hence, I am inquisitive as to what drives her to keep buying the Daily Express, which change its name to Sunday Express every end of the weekend. Dvorak (2010) sneered at the fact that The New York Times will charge its readers to browse its pages on e-books, and found this preposterous, because not only thousands of redundant stories are being circulated, syndicated by the same newspaper giants; Google News and countless of online news disseminator are publishing free content. Personally, I would not be willing to pay for a newspaper, unless it features one-of-a-kind and/or attention-grabbing story or issue; which is sadly, would not be the case anytime soon.

The public agrees as generally, 88 percent of consumers get their news free of charge, and some major newspaper readership has been on a steady decline over the past few years, mainly because the supply of news media is, well, excessive (Jaffe, 2010). Apart from the flood of content redundancy, another factor that just riles us readers would be the ever-ubiquitous advertisements. The dependency of the newspapers on classified ads is what really obliterated them; along with the birth of Craigslist which exterminated the classifieds (Dvorak, 2010). Another issue on advertisement is further elucidated by Ahrens (2009), who found that standard daily circulation of all U.S. newspapers has been in decline since 1987 as newspapers have confronted escalating competition to win the audience as well as advertising. He stated that newspapers are successful online, but in readership rather than profit, and ads on online newspapers sell for meager value compared to ads in printed newspaper (Ahrens, 2009). Now, that is the reason why there are fewer ads on online newspapers.

Nevertheless, there is still hope for traditional newspapers in Malaysia. David Yeoh, managing editor of The Star, is positive that online media will not substitute newsprint in the near future, quoting "The generation that is comfortable with the newspaper as a product is still around. It will be at least one generation, at least 30 years, before newspapers can become outmoded here” (Frence-Presse, 2009). It’s also probably an ‘Asian’ thing because according to Hall (2010), the World of Association of Newspaper (WAN) stated that 7 out of 10 of the world’s 100 best selling dailies are now published in Asia. I guess this probably provided evidence as to why my mother never stopped buying newspapers after all.

References

• Ahrens, F 2009. 'The accelerating decline of newspapers', The Washington Post, 27 October, viewed 14 June 2010, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603272.html>.
• Dvorak, JC 2010, 'Newspapers are on life support, and they have no one to blame but themselves', PC Mag, 23 February, viewed 14 June 2010, <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2360209,00.asp>.
• Frence-Presse, A 2009, 'Malaysian newspapers face challenge from online media', ABS-CBN News, 3 August, viewed 14 June 2010, <http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/technology/08/03/09/malaysian-newspapers-face-challenge-online-media>.
• Hall, R 2010, While Asia newspaper readership grows, with it grows journalistic responsibility, viewed 14 June 2010, <http://www.dtint.com/Blogs/55293-248/story.csp>.
• Jaffe, A 2010, Media consumption up but newspaper circulation down, viewed 14 June 2010,<http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2010/04/media_consumption_up_but_newspaper_circu.ph.

Designing for Screen Genre

To produce screen document that will encourage audience to engage, there are some guidelines that can be followed. Reep(2006) defined document design as the physical appearance of a document and written text as well as its presentation, incorporated to provide audience with information they need. Thus, a good screen design combines text and images efficiently in order to draw the audience’s attention. In our group presentation, we included this concept as well as using it to illustrate our points.

According to Moore & Fitz (1993) Gestalt’s principles are made up of figure-ground segregation, which is the use of standardized background to distinguish a shape or figure in front of it. This principle comprises of symmetry, closure, proximity, good continuation and similarity (Moore & Fitz 1993). Symmetry is an attribute of balance in the size, shape, or positions on opposite sides of dividing line. Closure which refers to a closed area is essential to prevent readers or viewers to not focus on other areas that are less significant. Proximity in document design functions to avoid clusters between images and texts. Good continuation is to be consistent by using the same shape form in the document so it will not interrupt the flow. Similarity in a document is the unit that resembles each other in shape, size, color, etc. to create homogeneous grouping.

In our slides, the principle of symmetry, closure and similarity are applied. There is balance, the content is contained in the middle of each slide, and we used the same slide design for every topic. However, the rest of the principles are not followed. This is because some of the image and texts are clustered and the continuity is not smooth.

References

• Moore, P & Fitz, C 1993, 'Using Gestalt Theory to Teach Document Design and Graphics', Technical Communication Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 4, viewed 19 April 2010 < http://www.public.asu.edu/~kheenan/courses/372/f03/gestalttheory%20teaching.pdf >.
• Reep, D 2006, Chapter 4: Principles of Document Design,‟ in Technical Writing, 6th ed., Pearson Edu Inc., New York, p.173-190.

Modern Types of Media Publishing

In this age of abundance, mass media has been providing the society with plethoric and rampant information, as well as connecting ideas and uniting all sorts of entities in specialized platforms. The new or emerging media ecosystem; Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Online news, e-book, and etc., uses the internet as a platform and according to Naughton (2006), the new media is taking over the cyber world and replacing old media ecosystem, which is the broadcast model, whereby the audience is seen as passive and uncreative. Through the new media, instead of just consuming materials, internet users are able to interact with and respond to content as well as to other users, giving control of publishing to the masses.

Between blogging and conventional journalism, there is a parasitic/symbiotic relationship (Naughton, 2006). Established print journalists create their own weblogs to sit together with news and features, obscuring the distinction between journalism and blogging (Raynsford, 2003). As an example, www.malaysiakini.com breaks away from the conventional news writing by presenting stories with greater vibrancy and riddled with the opinions of the writers, allowing the sense of detachment between the writer and reader to vanish.

(source: blogs.law.harver.edu n.d.)

The new social media tools such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter have changed the roles of communication in a revolutionary way. Facebook’s spectacular growth and devoted users have caused an unprecedented social graph of the relationships, interactions, and histories of over 150 million people on the internet (Shih, 2009). As a Facebook member myself, I keep tabs on my family and friends, share pictures, music videos, links to other websites that interest me, and post shout-out as status to ask help from classmates on assignments. Another viral trend is Twitter, which allows millisecond news cycle and aids in the sourcing of news tips from journalists is also able to control news and information gathering by projects aiming to affect social change (Catone, 2008). For instance, the hashtag #iranelection was Twitter's most discussed topic for weeks and account @iran09 made thousands of tweets about where protests would be, as well as links to YouTube videos of demonstrations.

References

• Catone, J 2008, Twitter as a tool for social change, viewed 19 April 2010, < http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/10/21/twitter-as-a-tool-for-social-change/>.
• Naughton, J 2006, ‘Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem’, viewed 19 April 2010, <http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html>.
• Raynsford, J 2003, Blogging: the new journalism?, viewed 19 April 2010, < http://www.journalism.co.uk/5/articles/5604.php>.
• Shih, C 2009, The facebook era: tapping online social networks to build better products, reach new audiences, and sell more stuff, viewed 19 April 2010, < http://books.google.com/books?id=tOEEbXGxFXEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=facebook+change+new+media+publishing&cd=1#v=snippet&q=social%20network&f=false>.