Issues in Publication & Design

The Kindle phenomenon

2009-11-19T00:49:00.000-08:00

The article ‘International Version of Kindle Out for Christmas’ (Harvey 2009) is about Amazon’s international version of Kindle e-book reader. It uses high-speed hand phone networks to retrieve download books, magazines, newspapers or personal documents. Amazon's founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos expects the sales of e-books to overtake the sales of traditional physical books.

Kindle being an electronic book (e-book) are great for people who travels a lot (Briggs 2009) and are avid readers around because it is compact and thus convenient to carry around. As Walsh (2006) states that form and function give meaning to a text, and used in this context, the kindles form of being light and compact that fulfils its function to make it convenient for users, which makes it so popular. To an extent that, it might obsolete physical books, as it is already a current phenomenon where people spend so much of their time reading from the screen of the computer. The kindle is said by the author that it is sleek device and come with functions to personalise the typography of the content which makes it a good buy to the young as Nielson (2005) said, teenagers don't like tiny font sizes any more than adults do. So the could personalise the fonts as they please.

As I see it, traditional text-based books continue to be around as not everyone is in favour of using e-books, there are still many who enjoy the old fashion way of reading, which is from a physical book.

References
Biggs, J 2009, 10 reasons to buy a Kindle 2… and 10 reasons not to, Crunch Gear.com, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/25/10-reasons-to-buy-a-kindle-2-and-10-reasons-not-to

Harvey, M 2009, International version of Kindle out for Christmas’, The Australian, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/news/international-version-of-kindle-out-for-christmas/story-e6frg90o-1225784098422.

Nielson, J 2005, Usability of Websites for Teenagers, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/teenagers.html.

Reflection

2009-11-18T23:55:00.000-08:00

I realise that blogging is not only about personal views but should be substantiated with facts as Lannon (2006) comments that website should be credible and accurate with the information it provides. I also make sure that all the comments, information, pictures used are properly referenced to avoid infringements.

Also, pictures are also incorporated with the text as they complement each other to bring about effective messages to the audience (Schriver 1997). Also, another reason behind the used of images and text is as Walsh (2006, p. 30-31) opines that documents that are multimodal helps to enhance the message sent to the audience.

In conclusion, all bloggers should blog ethically and creatively to invite more followers and readers and also to be respected by other bloggers.

References
Lannon, JM 2006, Technical Communication, 10th edn, Pearson Education, USA.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Text For Readers, Wiley Computer Publisher, New York.

Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual Shifts: Examining The Reading Process With Print, Visual and Multimodal Text', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 24-37.

Ignorance & Insensitivity

2009-11-18T22:32:00.000-08:00

In the article, ABC News (2008) reported on the apology that Tempo gave to the Christian community for publishing a cover depicting former Indonesian president Suharto and his children in an arrangement re-enacting Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, which caused a group of Christian activist to gather at Tempo’s office to complain. They were offended because Tempo compared Suharto to Jesus Christ. After that, Tempo’s chief editor apologised saying, “We were only inspired by the composition of the Leonardo painting, and not in the concept or context of the event told in the holy bible.”

Suharto's Last Supper (source:http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_lMcErmS7y08/SRR1vMLyCrI/AAAAAAAAABU/BHVXBhXwLPs/s320/Suharto.jpg)

Another issue similar to this is the demonstration by the Danish Muslims in Copenhagen reported by BBC News (2008) which is about their displeasure against the reprinting of a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad. The cartoon basically depicts The Prophet having a bomb in his turban. The reason behind this drawing is because of the trend of Islamophobia (Vries 2006).

Cartoon of Muhmmand with a bomb in turban
(source:http://www.granitegrok.com/pix/MohammadTurbanBomb.jpg)

Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) mentioned that people of different cultural background and personal experience will have different interpretation of subjects. In the case of the Tempo issue, it is purely a result of ignorance of other cultures. To the news organisation, the cover they did on the re-enactment of the composition of The Lord’s Supper it is a work of art. However, to the Christians, it could be an insult or defamation to their God, Jesus Christ; putting a man in the position of God.

On the other hand, the demonstration caused by the reprinting is because of insensitivity by the printing press towards the Danish Muslims. The Prophet Muhammad is considered a respectable and holy man to the Danish Muslims because they have been taught as such, hence there is displeasure, whereas the Danish printing press were not expose to such a teaching and influence, hence, reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet with a bomb in his turban would not offend them, just as Schriver (1997) argues, individuals perceive meaning from words and images are strongly due to cultural influence.

Therefore, to produce a good content for publishing, a competent designer must first research the background and culture of the target audience. This is because contents that are not well researched will cause cross-cultural miscommunication, hence evoking unnecessarily anger and confusion amongst the audience, which would definitely affect the credibility of the designer.

References
ABC News 2008, Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm.

BBC News 2008, Danish Muslim in Cartoon Protest, viewed 18 November 2009,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7247817.stm.

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading Images, Routledge, London.

Schriver, A 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.

Vries, LD 2006, U.s.: muhammad cartoon ‘offensive’, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/03/world/main1277068.shtml.

The Era of Tube

2009-11-18T20:05:00.000-08:00

After the release of Youtube since 2005 (Feldman 2009), it has been the most popular communication media. It is basically a website where videos are uploaded for public viewing. These videos as Walsh (2006) would define them: are multimodals, where multiple modes like visual images, sound and text are incorporated.

The time when media was only dominated by professionals has passed. As Chris Anderson commented, “Don’t be surprised if some of the most creative and influential work in the next few decades comes from this Pro-Am [hybrid professional-amateur] class of inspired hobbyists, not from the traditional sources in the commercial world.” (Anderson 2006, p. 65). For example, there are self-made music videos by talented musicians that are of professional quality. Youtube has revolutionised the conventional distribution of media. Everybody is now a “somebody” in their own way.

Here is an example of one produced by David Choi:

However, having said that, Youtube has its downsides too. Being a platform for ‘freedom of speech’, some of its members misused this privilege to post offensive materials such as soft pornographic of themselves, especially teenage girls. Besides that, it has copyright infringement issues too, since anybody can post any content on the site, members post movie fragments to get around Youtube’s 10 minute clip limit. (Sandoval 2008).

References
Anderson, C 2006, The Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand, Random House Business Books, London.

Feldman, JB 2007, Youtube: What is it and why use it?, viewed 19 November 2009, http://www.surfnetkids.com/safety/youtube_what_is_it_and_why_use_it-19026.htm

Sandoval, G 2008, Youtube’s filtering issues still not ‘moot’, viewed 19 November 2009, http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9921916-7.html.

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.

Discussion of Print & Online Design

2009-11-18T19:32:00.000-08:00

Print and websites use dissimilar methods of design. Reason being, readers read and understand online documents differently from print-based documents (Walsh 2006). The difference for the design will be explained below by comparing a print-based newspaper with an online newspaper:

Figure 1.1: The Star Online

(source: http://littlekittle.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/thestar1.png)
Figure 2.1: Front cover of the Star newspaper

Reading Method:
The reason for the placements of text and pictures for online content is due to the users’ reading process which is reading in an F-shaped pattern as described by Nielsen (2006):

1. Readers examine the top section in a horizontal movement to the right
2. Then, moves down the page a bit and does the same
3. Finally, reads the left contents vertically downwards

This explains the reason for the placement of advertisement and important highlights on the right side because it is the first places the readers would scan and the news article and navigation sections on the left as shown in Figure 1.1.

On the other hand, for print its follows the Gutenberg reading habit, which is the Z-pattern or a backwards S-pattern (Blum 2006):

1. Readers examine the top section from the far left to the right horizontally
2. Then, examines diagonally from the top-left to the bottom-right
3. Finally, at the bottom section, readers start reading from left and exist on at right

This explains the reason for the different colour given to the content box at the top-right and bottom-left and a large picture in the middle as shown in the Figure 2.1, as this layout takes advantage of the readers habit, so that they will pay more attention to those sections.

Figure 1.2: F-shaped pattern

Figure 2.2: Z-shaped pattern

References:
Blum, SJ 2008, Keep their eyes on the prize, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.pointeradvertising.com/creative_brief/10_06_main_art.html.

Nielsen, J 2006, F-shaped pattern for reading web content, viewed 19 November 2009, http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html.

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.

The Blogging Community

2009-11-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

Definition of blogging community
When asked what is a blogging community? The common reply is a group of bloggers who share common interests and goals that communicate via Internet; is basically an online community. However, Anthony (2009) opines that blogging communities can also be a social gathering by a group of bloggers at non-virtual places like restaurants. Hence, a blogging community can be defined as a formation of a group of bloggers with similar interest either ‘online’ or ‘offline’.

Creating a blogging community
An online blogging community can be created by incorporating a comment box with the function to reply by the blogger. This enables readers and other bloggers to give opinions and receive a respond which would make the blog interactive and personal (Mueller 2009); overtime, forming a community.

Types of blogging community
There are three types of blogging community as mentioned by White (2006). They are: single blog or blogger centric community which is a community formed through networking with a single blog, central connecting topic community which is a form of community that is connected by a common passion or interest and boundaried community is a set of blogs or blog readers hosted on single site or platform.

Discussion of a blogging community
Xanga.com is example of boudaried community as it is a website that hosts many different and random blogs. As White (2006) described, this website requires non-members to register before being offered a chance to create their own blog. Also, this website has lists for the top-blogs and featured blogs for viewing convenience and this shows that it has a rating system for readers and bloggers too.

References
Anthony 2009, What is a blogging community?, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.thetraveltart.com/what-is-a-blogging-community/.

Mueller, E 2009, How to create a community on your blog (for wordpress users), viewed 18 November 2009, http://blissfullydomestic.com/2009/how-to-create-community-on-your-blog-for-wordpress-users.

White, N 2006, Blogs and community- launching a new paradigm for online community?, viewed 18 November 2009, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community.

The Taxonomy of Blogs

2009-11-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

There are many types of blogs for different functionality and target audience. Hence, there are many ways to classify them.

According to Wikipedia (2009), these are the methods of classification:

By genre:
1. Art - ethelwenn

2. Food - Eat First Think Later
3. Political - KAMAL-TALKS

4. Travel – Visit Malaysia

By media type:
1. Vlog (video+blog) – Youtube

2. Photoblog (photo+blog) – The Sartorialist

By device:
1. Moblog (mobile phone+blog)

Another form of classification for blogs is by Steve Outing (2002):

1. Basic: a blog with single author writing on a specific topic.
2. Group: a blog with various authors contribute to a particular topic.
3. Family and friends: a group blog mainly for contributions from family and friends.
4. Collaborative: a group blog that allows anyone to join in and post.

And also categories like photo, audio, and cartoon blogs, community blogs, business/corporate/advertising blogs and knowledgebase blogs (k-blogs).

As for the taxonomy of blogs given by Margaret Simons (Funnell & Davies 2008), they are:

1. Pamphleteering blogs
2. Digest blogs
3. Advocacy blogs
4. Popular Mechanics blogs
5. Exhibition blogs
6. Gatewater blogs
7. Diary
8. Advertisement
9. News blogs

The reason for such diverse classification is due to the different background of the person forming the classification, like Margaret Simons, she is a media analyst, so her ways of categorising is more professional and intellectual as compared to Wikipedia and Outing, although it is the same idea. Also, target audience is another fact, like Wikipedia and Outing, the probable target audience are for all people regardless of their background and knowledge, hence the simplicity in the classification of blogs.

I opine that the classification of blogs should be as simple and direct as possible, as how Wikipedia and Outing described. This is because blogs are universal, as in everybody of all occupations, ages and knowledge background, blogs. So, the used of complicated jargons is an inappropriate approach to classify the types of blogs.

References
Funnell, A & Davies, A 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript.

Outing, S 2002, Weblogs: put them to work in your newsroom, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.poynter.org/dg.lts/id.6617/content.content_view.htm.

Wikipedia 2009, Blog, viewed 18 November 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#Types.

The Blog Phenomenon

2009-11-18T18:10:00.000-08:00

Current blogosphere size
Blogs or weblogs are the current trend of the 21st century. Based on a report called State of the blogosphere by Technorati, there are over 133 million weblogs in the world in the year 2008 (Sifry 2008) and according to bloggers surveyed for the State of blogosphere report 2009, they reported that there are more bloggers in 2009 as compared to 2008 (Ebrage 2009).

Trend in Malaysia
Referring to the Malaysian Top 50 bloggers report- 28% from the 50 write about personal stuff, 16% compose political issues and the other 16% create blogs about technology (Gaman 2007); hence Malaysia’s blogging trend can be generalised that most Malaysians would probably blog about personal agenda, political issues and matters regarding technology.

Prevalent blogs in Malaysia
There are many types of blogs like personal blog, cultural blog, topic blog, business blog and etc. (Articlebase.com 2009). In Malaysia, the most probable assumption of common blog is personal blog, as reported in Blogging Malaysia: Windows Live Report, about 50% of the Malaysian respondents like writing about their thoughts and commenting on the world around them (Microsoft 2009).

Benefit of blogs in Malaysia
Malaysia is well-known for having a variety of good places to eat. Therefore, food review blogs like FeedmeLah.com! benefit the Malaysian community by giving the public an idea of good places to eat and also food recommendations. The food aficionados or enthusiast would benefit most from these blogs.

References

Articlebase.com 2009, Why do people blog?, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.articlesbase.com/blogging-articles/why-do-people-blog-834110.html.

Ebrage 2009, Richard jalinchandra keynote: blog world 2009, viewed 18 November 2009, http://technorati.com/blogging/article/richard-jalichandra-keynote-blogworld-2009/.

Gaman 2007, 50 most influential blogs in malaysia, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/.

Microsoft 2009, Women rule in malaysian blogosphere, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/press/archive2006/linkpage4337.mspx.

Sifry, D 2008, Technorati's state of the blogosphere, september 2008, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/2008/09/technoratis_sta.html.

Document Design

2009-09-11T19:11:00.000-07:00

Here, I will be discussing on, what is a good document?

To start off, what is a document design? It is the field concerned with creating texts that integrate words and pictures in ways that help people to achieve their specific goals for using texts as stated by Shriver (1997). Hence, in simple terms, document design is the manipulation of words and images to entice and convey messages to an audience.

In a good document design, good manipulation of visual and text is very important. This is because audience are not homogenous, they have various cultures and backgrounds depending where they from and thus interpreting visual and text differently (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Another aspect to consider is the technical part of document design. A good document must have good and appropriate designs to go with it too. The five design laws referred by Bernhart (1986) is very functional, for instance the law of visual identity which is achieved through heading and identifying symbols, law of equilibrium, closure and others. Besides this, is the Reep's basic principles of design (1997) like symmetry, balance and so on. If one follows these laws and principles in doing a design, producing a good document design is a definite.

In reviewing my group presentation slides, the overall writing and layout is good. However, it lacks the good application of the proportion principle as identified by Reep (1997). From first glance, the title and the annotation look similar in size as shown below:

Before:

To improve, the title ‘The Textual Shift’ should have been made bigger than the annotation so that the heading gets immediate attention. Although the title is bolded and capitalized, a bigger size would increase the captivity to the title even more.

After:

Another setback is keywords are not highlighted. As mentioned by Nielsen (1997), in his article, 'How users read on the web", highlighted keywords is a form of scannable text, which functions the same for presentation slides. When audience view the slides, they are just scanning the text to see what the presenter is about to say because their main focus is on the presenter's elaborations. Hence, the highlighted keywords, help the audience to distiguished what is important to focus and remember. As shown in the diagram below, key terms are definitely distinguished but not highlighted through bolding:

Before:

After:

The bolding directs the eyes of the audience to the text and automatically they response by taking the bolded text as something important to deem and probably remember as well.

References:
1. Bernhardt, SA 1986, ‘Seeing the text’, College composition and communication, Vol. 37, No. 1, p.66-78.

2. Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006. Reading images. Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication.

3. Nielsen, J 1997, How users read on the web, viewed 11 September 2009, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html>

4. Reep, DC 2006, ‘Chp 4: Principles of Document Design’, in Technical Writing, 6th ed., Pearson Edu, Inc., New York, p.173-190.

5. Schriver, K.A. 1997, Chapter 6 in Dynamics in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York

Purpose

2009-09-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

In this blog, the discussion will be on issues relating to publication and design of documents. Here, I will be sharing ideas from professionals and my own opinions on the issues; issues like, key elements that constitute a good document design and many more subjects. Anybody of radical interest about these subjects is most welcome to view and learn.