Screen vs. print document design

Design techniques for screen and printed document are two different approaches. The elements should focus for both documents are not the same.

Screen Document

For screen or blog design, the designing concepts need to be attractive and engage to catch people's attention as people normally tend to read the online information partially (Jonah, 2007). For instance, the design of the blog can be more colourful and putting some interactivity such as chatbox and hyperlinks to those bloggers are able to get interact with. Hence, the attractiveness, theme and colour of the design are the main focus for screen document.

                        

Image source from: http://blog.jamylcruz.com/2011/03/neat-design-and-layout-for-social-good-blog/

Printed Document

For printed document such as newspaper, the layout is important as it will affect the structure of the content in the document. Newspaper requires a well-organized system in its layout (Leeuwen & Kress, 1998). Since newspaper contains a lot of information that is too wordy, the arrangement of photographs, headlines and blocks of text will have big influence on reader's willingness to read. Therefore, the design for printed document should be more professional and serious by emphasizing on the elements of size, color tone, fonts, spacing and etc.

    

Image source from: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/11/award-winning-newspaper-designs/

Reference List:

Jonah, 2007, 'Document Design: Blogs vs. Print', red dot semiotik: sociopolitical and electronic publishing commentary in Singapore, retrieved from: <http://semiotik.wordpress.com/document-design-blogs-vs-print/> [Accessed on 26th August 2011]

Leeuwen, V, Kress, G, 1998, ‘Front pages : (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, Approaches to media discourse, Ch. 7, pp. 186-219

New forms of media publishing

The advanced of technology has great impact on conducting to the new forms of media publishing over the old media. According to Naughton (2006), the communication in the new media ecosystem has changed due to the combination of digital convergence, advanced personal computing and global social networking. With the new trend of media publishing, people are able to get updated news from various categories such as business, politic reviews, and etc.

One of the reasons that cause the new publishing techniques is the cost saving (Hibbert B, 1999). As Internet is fast and vast, people tend to reliable on the Internet resources such as reading newspaper online instead of reading printed newspaper. In this case, firms are able to save costs while it is very convenient for readers to get the latest information every time, anywhere online.

Example of Online Newspaper,

Source: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my/



The social networks affects the way people communicate (Williams, 2008). Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are the social networks that provide latest trend and easy access to exchange information and to connect with friends.

Moreover, these social networks provide the capabilities for the users especially students to link themselves in their pages to inform their friends about their latest information such as the check-in function on Facebook.

Examples of social networks,

     

Image source from: http://www.getonfacebookinchina.com/

      

Image source from: http://www.gadgetell.com/technologytell/article/twitter-turns-5-today/

However, by too focusing on social networking online, the chances of isolating from visual communication in society are high as people are not getting aware of what happen around them. This issue should be avoiding as human beings need to have a balanced lifestyle.

Reference List: 

Hibber, B 1999, 'Publishing and the media industries in the digital age', The Journal of Policy, Regulation and Strategy for telecommunications information and media, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 393 - 403, Retrieved from: <http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/journals.htm?issn=1463-6697&volume=1&issue=5&articleid=873838&show=pdf> [Accessd on 26th August 2011].

Naughton, John 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, retrieved from: http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html [Accessed on 26 August 2011].

Williams,T.B. 2008, Tomorrow Will Not Be Like Today": Literacy and Identity in a World of Multiliteracies. [Online] 51(8); pp.682-686. Available at: http://www.jstor.org.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/stable/pdfplus/40012405.pdf [Accessed 26 August 2011].

Explain briefly types of blogging communities & methods to build blogging communities

Blogging Community

Blogging community is a way that links bloggers and readers together. It is a personal interaction that connects with others by actively leaving comments to the blog (Mueller, 2009). Successful bloggers take time to build relationships with their readers in a matter of sharing.

 

Image source from: http://sookysin.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/44/

Types of Blogging Community (White, 2006)

The blogging community consists of three types which is the Blogger Centric Community, the Topic Centric Community and the Boundaried Community.  

  

Image source from: http://ali-parvin.blogspot.com/2010/09/types-of-blogging-communities_29.html#!/2010/09/types-of-blogging-communities_29.html

In the Blogger Centric Community, the blog is owned by one owner or organization. Bloggers select the topics that can communicate and share information with audience.

Image source from: http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

  

In the Topic Centric Community,  it is like a network formation with other bloggers that linked by common topics or same interest such as travel blogger, food blogger and so forth. Bloggers may leave personal details to others via emails.

Image source from: http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

In the Boundaried Community, readers are hosted on a particular blog that required members to log in or register for the blog. This community owns discussion board and social features such as MySpace.com.

                 

 Image source from: http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

Global voices community focuses on creating a shared community with others. It is having the features as Topic Centric Community which bloggers or readers are able to find the information regarding to the topics they interested by tagging it on the search bar provided.

                  

Image source from: http://globalvoicesonline.org/

Reference List:

Mueller, E 2007, How to create community on your blog, viewed 25 August 2011, retrieved from: <http://blissfullydomestic.com/2009/how-to-create-community-on-your-blog-for-wordpress-users>

The Knowledge Tree. 2006. Blog and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community? . [ONLINE] Available at: http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community. [Accessed 24 August 11].

White, N. 2006, 'Trying to Explain. Blogs and Community:Launching a New Paradigm for Online Community?', Australian Flexible Learning Framework, 11th edition, pp. 1 - 41, viewed 26 August 2011, retrieved from: <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/The%20Knowledge%20Tree%20Ed%2011.pdf>

Classification of blogs & opinion about the most appropriate classification approach

As people blogging for their own reasons, they may select their target audience, themes and blogging styles based on the purposes they want to achieve.

Thus, classification of blogs catagoried into the followings - Examples of each category with link provided.

• Subject matter:

     1. Politics, e.g. AMERICAblog News

Image source from: http://www.americablog.com/

     2. Fashion, e.g. Fashion Paparazzis

Image source from: http://fashionpaparazzis.com/

     3. History, e.g. The History Blog -  It's a blog. About history. 

Image source from: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/its-a-blog-about-history

     4. Law, e.g. Law Blog - Professor David Sorkin

   Image source from: http://www.lawblog.com/

• Device:

          Moblog or called Mobile blogging usually photoblogs, bloggers use it as a convenient way to transfer the pictures taken from their mobile phone to the blogs to share with others (Williams, 2007). For instance, Moblog

Image source from: http://www.moblog.net/home/

• Media type:

      1.  Vlog or called video logging, e.g. The Journal of a Girl who likes to cook

     2. Linklog is a set of URLs or the hyperlinks which are collected by the maintainer of the hyperlinks for different websites (Freetechexams.com, 2005). For example, Tony Finch's linklog

      3.  Sketchlog, e.g. Andrea Joseph's Sketchlog

     4. Tumblelog works like a remaindered links style linklog but more than just links (Kottke, 2005), e.g. Tuneage

• Status of publishers:

      1. Business blog, e. g. Blog Business World
      2. Corporate blogs, e. g. Redfin Corporate Blog

As there are so many classifications of blogs, it is hard to identify what type of the blog belongs to especially bloggers may select a combination of two blogging styles. Therefore, the title, style and format needs to be clear in order to identify what blog it is such as Andrea Joseph's Sketchblog, we are able to know it is a sketchblog from its title.

Image source from: http://andreajoseph24.blogspot.com/

In Taxonomy of blogs, Margaret Simons mentioned different types of blogs such as pamphleteering blog, digest blog, exhibition blog, advocacy blog and so on. Pampheleteering blog emphasizes on giving comment or point on current political issues (Simons, 2008). However, in my opinion, i prefer vlog as it is more direct and easy to interact with others. Actions are a way better than words!

Reference Lists:

Freetechexams.com. 2005. What Is a Linklog. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.freetechexams.com/computers-tips/computer-tips/what-is-a-linklog.html. [Accessed 25 August 11].

Jason Kottke . 2005. Tumblelogs. [ONLINE] Available at: http://kottke.org/05/10/tumblelogs. [Accessed 25 August 11].
The Media Report, 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, ABC.com, viewed 21 August 2011, retrieved from: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm.

Williams, D 2007, Blogging definitions: types of blogs - part 2, WebdesignSEO, viewed 21 August 2011, retrieved from: http://www.webdesignseo.com/blogging-terms/blogging-definitions-types-of-blogs-part-2.php

Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits that bring to the community

Size of Blogosphere

Flexibility, ease of use, and continuous advanced features of blogs make blogging as the fast growing adaptation (Jhonson, 2011). Research of Technorati Media (2011) shown that the current size of blogs contains four types of segments such as Hobbyist (65%), Self-employed (21%), Part-timers (13%) and Corporate (1%).

Image source from: http://writespeaksell.com/where-are-the-corporate-blogs-missing-in-action-from-marketing-strategies

As Facebook and Twitter become large online communities, the trend is now shifted from being not only for social uses but also providing a platform for branding purposes. According to Agarwal & Liu (2008), blogosphere encompasses all the blogs that existed on the Internet and it connects bloggers and readers together.

Image source from: http://www.mediazbiz.com/2009/11/26/facebook-fan-pages-for-businesses/

Active users (age group of 18 to 34) focuses on socialize and entertainment, creative videos will achieve better delivery massage purpose as they will share what they feel attractive to their families or friends.

Trend in Blogging

According to Garman (2007), he investigated the top 50 bloggers in Malaysia and found out that most bloggers write about personal stuff, follow by politics and technological issues. They tend to use their blogs to express their thought and opinion especially regarding the political issues as constraint exists in that particular field.

Besides, the blogging community for European countries is smaller due to differences in languages as they prefer to blogging by using their national languages.

Image source from: http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/page-2/

Image source from: http://www.elementalcomms.co.uk/blog/why-b2b-blogging-is-important-in-the-social-media-age

US bloggers are interested in political blogs. Many bloggers believe that the blogosphere was a main source on the presidential election that Obama took advantage throughout the campaign in 2008 (Sussman, 2009). Meanwhile, some Malaysian politicians use blogs to deliver their message to citizens about their political aspiration.

Image source from: http://scottthong.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/khairy-jamaluddin-blog/

Benefits of Blogging

Malaysia government will control some of the sensitive political issues being disseminated from the media. Thus, political blogs have the advantages of uncovering those issues; citizens have to right to know news that is being covered.

Image source from: http://uy-cyber-help.blogspot.com/2008/09/article-about-malaysian-political.html

                                      


Reference Lists:

Agarwal N. & Liu H., 2008. Blogosphere: Research Issues, Tools, and Applications. SIGKDD Explorations, [ONLINE]. Volume 10, Issue 1, pp.18-31. Available at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.145.621&rep=rep1&type=pdf [Accessed 25 August 2011].

Gaman, 2007, 50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia, Sabahan.com, [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/ [Accessed 23 August 11].

Jayk Jhonson. 2011. Purpose of Creating a Blog. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artipot.com/articles/861490/purpose-of-creating-a-blog.htm. [Accessed 23 August 11].

Scribd Inc. 2011. State of the Blogosphere Presentation 2010. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/40905784/State-Of-The-Blogosphere-Presentation-2010. [Accessed 25 August 11].

Sussman, M 2009, Day 5: Twitter, Global Impact and the Future Of Blogging - SOTB 2009 - Page 2, [ONLINE] Available at:

http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/page-2/ [Accessed 24 August 11].

Technorati. State of blogosphere 2011. [ONLINE] Available at:

www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere. [Accessed 25 August 11].

The Purpose of My Blog

This blog aims to share and communicate with university students who are interested in the issues of publishing media and attractive document designs. Comment is most welcome as it works as feedback to improve my thinking. I hope to interact with you by exchanging different perspectives to get involved to the online world. :D

       Image source from: http://www.kevindohertyonline.com/