With the rise in technology, we have become increasingly persistent in sharing our interest and expressing ourselves, which in turn has led us to the creation of 'Youtube' or more precisely, video streaming. This new form of media has opened up countless possibilities all around the world. Not only are we able to upload and share recorded videos of ourselves, we are also able to share tv episodes! It is as if the whole world's tv channel is in the palm of your hands. You can view short clips of almost every television series from all around the world through Youtube. However, not all agree with this new form of media. While we audiences celebrate the birth of video streaming, the media itself isn't too hyped up with this new creation that allows streaming of copyrighted clips from movies, tv shows, and music videos.
Quoting Washington Post (31 October 2006):-
"One of YouTube's challenges is that some media companies haven't developed a unified policy on how to deal with violations of their copyrighted material..."
This has led to user's dilemma on what to upload and what not to upload. Not only that, companies such as Comedy Central and Viacom inc requested removal of only a number of their videos instead of requesting for total removal where copyright infringement is concerned.
With lawsuits threats being made by several other media companies, Youtube-ers need to watch their back on what they consider to be "a safe upload".
References
Noguchi, Y & Kehaulani Goo, S 2006, To the media, Youtube is a threat and a tool, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103001198.html
Friday, May 2, 2008
Online media vs Print media
For every medium, there is a limitation and I believe that to come up with a good design is to understand these limitations. Walsh (2006) acknowledges that reading print-based text involves different levels of decoding, responding, and comprehending at affective and cognitive levels, critiquing and analyzing. In other words, it is a lot of work to the subconscious mind. Online media on the other hand proves to be a much simpler task for the mind. Nielsen (1997) plainly states that audiences do not read websites. They scan it, choosing informations they want to read. The web allows audiences to navigate easily through contents and informations with the help of hyperlink buttons located within the website. Which can't be said for print media, where audiences have to actually read word by word to obtain wanted information.
Below, I present an example of an online media and a print media with the same topic - breast cancer self-examination
Online Media
Print Media
As you can see, the website is more straight to the point compared to the fact sheet. While both contains picture, the fact sheet is crowded by words, creating a sense of dread for readers to go through. But Schriver (1997) made a point by stating that pictures are not enough to satisfy if the document itself is low in information and content. Even though websites are more convenient and interactive, it does not satisfy the thirst for knowledge. Which brings me back to a medium's limitation. By understanding all these flaws, I believe that a document designer can use it to their advantage, thus creating a very effective design.
References
Walsh, M 2006, The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24-37
Nielsen, J 1997, How users read on the web, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
Schriver, K 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York
breastcancer.org, Pictures of breast self exam, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.breastcancer.org/pictures/self_exam/index.jsp
Gemzies, Understanding breast cancer, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://cancer.gemzies.com/show/entry_4613/Understanding_Breast_Cancer.html
Below, I present an example of an online media and a print media with the same topic - breast cancer self-examination
Online Media
Print Media
As you can see, the website is more straight to the point compared to the fact sheet. While both contains picture, the fact sheet is crowded by words, creating a sense of dread for readers to go through. But Schriver (1997) made a point by stating that pictures are not enough to satisfy if the document itself is low in information and content. Even though websites are more convenient and interactive, it does not satisfy the thirst for knowledge. Which brings me back to a medium's limitation. By understanding all these flaws, I believe that a document designer can use it to their advantage, thus creating a very effective design.
References
Walsh, M 2006, The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24-37
Nielsen, J 1997, How users read on the web, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
Schriver, K 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York
breastcancer.org, Pictures of breast self exam, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.breastcancer.org/pictures/self_exam/index.jsp
Gemzies, Understanding breast cancer, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://cancer.gemzies.com/show/entry_4613/Understanding_Breast_Cancer.html
Blogging communities
There are many types of blogs surfacing each day and these blogs are usually classified by genre (entertainment, political, personal etc) and type (vlog, linklog, tumblelog etc). The common blogs we see by Malaysians are usually political and personal and rarely business-oriented. You can view the statistics of the top 50 Malaysian bloggers at Sabahan.com. But if we view this in a larger scope, most bloggers are driven by specific interest, for instance, a music blog on one's favorite band.
When I surf for blogs, I would usually search those with the same background interest. I believe the topic is far more important when it comes to information and shared interest and it outweighs design by a mile. In my opinion, the design comes as a bonus when viewing a particular information that I am very much interested in. Sure, a beautiful design pleases the eye but lack of information will have me leaving the page in a matter of seconds. Schriver (1997) also attest to this in her statement that no matter how pretty the picture is, it can't save a document from lack of content and infromation. In the end, a pretty picture is just a pretty picture. However, I wholly believe that the layout arrangement is important as it helps users navigate themselves through the document. Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) very much agrees with this notion in their text, The meaning of Compostion.
Livejournal plays host to a massive amount of online blogging communities. It is one of the most easiest blogging site that allows bloggers to access and post on their journals through moblog. A few communites on Livejournal that I am familiar with are Dir en Grey, American Idol, SkinsFans, and Eat my bento. Dir en Grey is a Japanese rock band with a very strong fanbase all over Asia, Europe and America. This community was created for the sole purpose of showing support and your love towards the band and has 5140 members. The members deal with everything in regards to the band from sharing pictures, to exchanging informations, to dealing with concert tickets and CD albums. Members are given free reign to post arts and videos regarding the band as long as they follow the rules and guidelines when posting.
Blogging communites such as the ones listed above are created when a group of people with shared interest in anything, gather to discuss issues and news related to their interest. Anyone can start a blogging community but it takes a lot of passion to maintain it.
References
Schriver, K 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, Routledge, London.
Sabahan.com 2007, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/
When I surf for blogs, I would usually search those with the same background interest. I believe the topic is far more important when it comes to information and shared interest and it outweighs design by a mile. In my opinion, the design comes as a bonus when viewing a particular information that I am very much interested in. Sure, a beautiful design pleases the eye but lack of information will have me leaving the page in a matter of seconds. Schriver (1997) also attest to this in her statement that no matter how pretty the picture is, it can't save a document from lack of content and infromation. In the end, a pretty picture is just a pretty picture. However, I wholly believe that the layout arrangement is important as it helps users navigate themselves through the document. Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) very much agrees with this notion in their text, The meaning of Compostion.
Livejournal plays host to a massive amount of online blogging communities. It is one of the most easiest blogging site that allows bloggers to access and post on their journals through moblog. A few communites on Livejournal that I am familiar with are Dir en Grey, American Idol, SkinsFans, and Eat my bento. Dir en Grey is a Japanese rock band with a very strong fanbase all over Asia, Europe and America. This community was created for the sole purpose of showing support and your love towards the band and has 5140 members. The members deal with everything in regards to the band from sharing pictures, to exchanging informations, to dealing with concert tickets and CD albums. Members are given free reign to post arts and videos regarding the band as long as they follow the rules and guidelines when posting.
Blogging communites such as the ones listed above are created when a group of people with shared interest in anything, gather to discuss issues and news related to their interest. Anyone can start a blogging community but it takes a lot of passion to maintain it.
References
Schriver, K 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, Routledge, London.
Sabahan.com 2007, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/
The blogosphere and current blogging phenomenon
For those of you who are heavily involve with the world of online blogging, blogosphere is a term that you can easily associate with. For the rest of the internet users, it is like a never-ending jigsaw puzzle. Blogosphere is basically a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections with each other. Once you start blogging, you become part of this huge ‘family’.
According to Rob McGann (2004), over the past years, blogs have gone from being a word that sounded insulting to an online trend embraced by many. In 2004, the number of bloggers is 8 million times bigger than the 500,000 blogs measure by Technorati in June 2003.
That was 4 years ago and yet the numbers are steadily increasing until this very day.
I believe the reason why blogging turned into a popular online addiction is because it is an exact mirror to real life’s socializing. We gossip, we chat, we share and trade information, we spread our ideals, we make friends – all of these are the same things we do in real life; making a connection and building a relationship. Quoting Andy Warhol, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes”, is very much true with the aid of a blog.
According to the IPSOS blogging research, there are 70 million people with blogging experience in Europe alone. And not surprisingly, the number of male bloggers is higher than female bloggers. In Asia, blogging is primarily used as a means to maintain and build social connections, expressing themselves at the same time. In the research conducted by Microsoft’s MSN and Windows Live Spaces in 2006, the blogosphere in Asia is surging forward with 46% of those online actively participate in blogging.
As for the blogging trends in Malaysia, the government believes that us bloggers are all insignificant. This was clearly stated in one of the interviews with a government official and was reported on theworld.org on August 1st, 2007 by Clark Boyd.
The audio report can be found here (click on the speaker icon) – Blogging in Malaysia
According to Sabahan.com, the most prevalent blogs in Malaysia are personal blogs with 28% (from the Malaysian Top 50 Bloggers). Politics only concerns 16%.
There’s a lot of benefit that can be reaped out of social blogs in Malaysian communities. Not only do we get to learn more about our own social environment, we can seek information that wouldn’t be printed out on newspapers for some very obvious reasons. And this blog is a perfect example attesting to that notion.
References
McGann, R 2004, The blogosphere by numbers, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3438891
Sifry, D 2007, The state of the live web April 2007, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html
IPSOS 2006, The power of blogs in Europe, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://profesores.ie.edu/enrique_dans/download/IPSOSeuroblogs2006english.pdf
Windows Live and MSN 2006, Blogging phenomenon sweeps Asia, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-28-2006/0004480819&EDATE
Boyd, C 2007, Blogging in Malaysia, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/11813
Sabahan.com 2007, 50 most influential blogs in Malaysia, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/
According to Rob McGann (2004), over the past years, blogs have gone from being a word that sounded insulting to an online trend embraced by many. In 2004, the number of bloggers is 8 million times bigger than the 500,000 blogs measure by Technorati in June 2003.
That was 4 years ago and yet the numbers are steadily increasing until this very day.
I believe the reason why blogging turned into a popular online addiction is because it is an exact mirror to real life’s socializing. We gossip, we chat, we share and trade information, we spread our ideals, we make friends – all of these are the same things we do in real life; making a connection and building a relationship. Quoting Andy Warhol, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes”, is very much true with the aid of a blog.
According to the IPSOS blogging research, there are 70 million people with blogging experience in Europe alone. And not surprisingly, the number of male bloggers is higher than female bloggers. In Asia, blogging is primarily used as a means to maintain and build social connections, expressing themselves at the same time. In the research conducted by Microsoft’s MSN and Windows Live Spaces in 2006, the blogosphere in Asia is surging forward with 46% of those online actively participate in blogging.
As for the blogging trends in Malaysia, the government believes that us bloggers are all insignificant. This was clearly stated in one of the interviews with a government official and was reported on theworld.org on August 1st, 2007 by Clark Boyd.
The audio report can be found here (click on the speaker icon) – Blogging in Malaysia
According to Sabahan.com, the most prevalent blogs in Malaysia are personal blogs with 28% (from the Malaysian Top 50 Bloggers). Politics only concerns 16%.
There’s a lot of benefit that can be reaped out of social blogs in Malaysian communities. Not only do we get to learn more about our own social environment, we can seek information that wouldn’t be printed out on newspapers for some very obvious reasons. And this blog is a perfect example attesting to that notion.
References
McGann, R 2004, The blogosphere by numbers, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3438891
Sifry, D 2007, The state of the live web April 2007, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html
IPSOS 2006, The power of blogs in Europe, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://profesores.ie.edu/enrique_dans/download/IPSOSeuroblogs2006english.pdf
Windows Live and MSN 2006, Blogging phenomenon sweeps Asia, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-28-2006/0004480819&EDATE
Boyd, C 2007, Blogging in Malaysia, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/11813
Sabahan.com 2007, 50 most influential blogs in Malaysia, online, retrieved 2 May 2008, from http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/
Thursday, May 1, 2008
My purpose...
The purpose of this blog is to discuss my findings and share my opinions regarding my assignments and reading studies with other college students of the subject IPD and professional media practitioners. Schriver (1997) stated that defining the effectiveness when intergrating prose and graphics on the web is an important role played by document desingners. With the creation of this blog, I hope to expand my views and ideas concerning the issues in publication and document designing, thus grasping a better understanding of the subject.
References
Schriver, K 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.
References
Schriver, K 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
