The end…Reflection

Here, it comes to the end of my discussion in publication and design. Along these days, I have gained lots of knowledge in the field of issues of publication and design.

As a blogger, one needs to write ethically to avoid defamation and offensive infringement. Furthermore, a blogger are required to be sensitive to cultures and understand the principles of document design.

As a document designer, it is significant to own a good document design, as suggested by Reep, D (2006), a good document design will raise the audience interest in the document (Reep, D 2006, p.134). Furthermore, I acquired the knowledge of multimodal texts as well. Multimodal texts are texts incorporate with spoken or written and still or moving images (Walsh, M 2006, p.24).

In document design, words and pictures are significant and each of them has its own importance as stated by Schriver, KA (1997). Furthermore, a document designer has to be sensitive to the readers and understand how readers read (Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, p.224). One can become a successful blogger or document designer by understanding the principles of document design.


References:

1. Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, Professional communication: principles and applications, Prentice Hall, Sydney

2. Reep, D 2006, Technical writing, 6th edn, Pearson Edu, Inc., New York.

3. Schriver, KA 1997, The interplay of words and pictures, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.

4. 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, p.24-37.

J.K. Rowling Wins Copyright Claim

There is a copyright issue between the “Harry Potter” author, J.K. Rowling and “Harry Potter Lexicon” author, Steven Vander Ark (CBS Interactive Inc. 2008).

J.K. Rowling Vs. Steven Vander Ark

Steven Vander Ark was claimed under violating the copyrights of Harry Potter by publishing Harry Potter Lexicon. Rowling asserted that Vander Ark copied too much of her work and lead to plagiarism. However, Vander Ark was found to be guilty after the trial (CBS Interactive Inc. 2008).

According to the UK Copyright Service (2004), the creator will have the rights to be signified as the author and the rights to object to distortion of his piece of work. Thus, The Copyrights, Design and Patent Act 1988 is created to control how the materials to be utilised and interpretation is in connection to the independent creation instead of the creation’s idea (The UK Copyright Service 2004). In this situation, who have the rights to own the piece of work?

Based on CBS Interactive Inc. (2008), Harry Potter Lexicon by Vander Ark is nothing more than a rearrangement of Rowling’s Horry Potter, as only little research has been done by him.
Thus, fair use principle is significant in this case. Standford Universities Library (2004) stated that fair use is a copyright principle that enables the public to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for the intention of commentary and criticism.

However, the dispute will have to be resolved by courts or arbitration if the owners of the original piece of work disagree with the fair use interpretation (Standford Universities Libraries 2004).

In short, ethical publishing refers to the idea of work published by the original author. iParadigms (2009) sated that one should not borrow the idea from the original material and citations should only be used to support the idea. The most important is to get permission from the owner.

In this case, Vander Ark needs not to be responsible as he was in contract with RDR Books. They will defend and pay for the damage resulted from claims against him (CBS Interactive Inc. 2008).

References:

1. CBS Interactive Inc. 2008, “Harry Potter” Author Wins Copyright Claim, viewed 4 June 2009,http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/08/entertainment/printable4426302.shtml

2. iParadigms 2009, What is Plagiarism?, viewed 4 June 2009, http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_what_is_plagiarism.html

3. Standford University Libraries 2007, Copyright and Fair Use, viewed 4 June 2009, http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/

4. The UK Copyright Service 2004, Fact Sheet P-01: UK Copyright Law, viewed 4 June 2009, http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

Mobile video blogging

The combination of webcams and broadband has lead to the construction of video blogging, which is known as mobile video blog or vlogs (BBC News 2008).

BBC News (2008) stated that mobile video blog allows people to insert text, voice track and photos to share with others. People can send their final accomplishment of video directly to websites such as YouTube after they done with the editing of the video by using mobile phone.

BBC Interactivity assistant editor, Matthew Eltringham, declared that mobile video blogging is now growing rapidly. Two years ago, there was only 10 or 12 video clips uploaded to the websites, but since last year, over 240 video clips are subscribed to the websites just within a week (BBC News 2008). This shows that audiences are giving positive feedback for vblog.

Vlogs has formed a new genre structure according to format, narration and style. Pierre Rouarch (2009) stated that there are various genres of vblog such as personal, news, collaborative, political, and magazine type or lifestyles. Each genre of vblog has its own narration and style, which means the way of structuring meanings of video in the form of story as suggested by Schriato, T & Yell, S (1996).

Besides fun making video, there is also large numbers of videos shot on news stories sent to websites using mobile phone (BBC News 2008). Basically, the video on news stories are submitted by citizen journalism.

Acccording to Glaser, M (2006), citizen journalism (citizen-j) refers to people without professional journalism training subscribes news to internet using modern technology tools. For instance, one might snap a video of newsworthy events using mobile phone and post it online.

The action of citizen journalism has raised the issues of ethical publishing, as many professional journalists think that only trained journalists can comprehend the consistency and ethics involved in reporting of news (Glaser, M 2006).

References:

1. BBC News 2008, Rise of the mobile video blog, viewed 12 June 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7392594.stm

2. Glaser, M 2006, Your Guide to Citizen Journalism, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/09/your-guide-to-citizen-journalism270.html

3. Pierre Rouarch 2009, What is a vlog?, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.01vlog.com/whatisavlog.php

4. Schriato, T & Yell, S 1996, Framing Context, Allen & Unwin, St.Leonards, N.S.W.

Facebook new appearance enraged fans

Facebook new look caused the anger of 100 million fans although the California firm insisted that the new Facebook site provide a faster, more updated and spam-resistant format for the users (Australian IT 2008).

Facebook vice president of marketing, Chamath Palihaptiya, asserted that the modification of Facebook changes are stimulated by feedback from users and the new design provides members with the precedence to fresh pictures, messages, “feeds” on main profile pages and classifies mini-applications (Australian IT 2008).

Chamath Palihaptiya stated that the users will adapt to the new changes of Facebook once they are used to the new layout and features.

New Facebook Layout

Old Facebook Layout

In this case, design feature such as design and layout change are important factors that need to take into consideration. According to Reep, D (2006), design features are important in increasing the capability of audience to remember the significant highlighted sections and raising the audience interest towards a website (Reep, D 2006 p.134).

According to Amber, WS (n.d.), navigation between major interface items and alignment of fields are significant in interface design. For instance, if you need to left-justify edit fields, then make sure that you each edit field in left-hand side line up in a straight line.

Reep, D (2006) also suggested that white space is important in designing a webpage. Some of the webpage is overloaded with pictures, texts, columns, boxes and drop-down announcements which messed up the webpage. Thus, white space is important to lead the readers read from headings, texts to images (Reep, D 2006 p.158).

Besides design features, interface design of a website also needs to accountable there is interactivity between the website and the audiences. Walsh, M (2006) suggested the non-sequential and non-linear reading pathway of the website, which allows the readers to have more choices in reading the webpage and chances to interact through the webpage (Walsh, M 2006, p.35).

Finally, Facebook working team has to make sure that the changes in their interface design can meet the requirements of their users, so their users can enjoy and satisfy with the website.

References:

1. Ambler, WS n.d., User Interface Design Tips, Techniques and Principles, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.ambysoft.com/essays/userInterfaceDesign.html

2. Australian IT 2008, Facebook makeover leaves some devotees fuming, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24328928-15318,00.html

3. Reep, D 2006, Technical writing, 6th edn, Pearson Edu, Inc., New York.

4. 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, p.24-37.

Powerful of photographs

In this era, most people have forgotten the frame of war that happened in ancient times. But somehow, the War Photo Limited Gallery is held for the purpose to recall people’s memory on war (ABC Radion National 2007).


ABC Radio National (2007) stated that the photographers are the only person who can touch, feel, and smell the story of the war as they are the one who stay and witness the war of a country, whereby the media such as editors and publishers write the war story based on their own political and ideological view.


Furthermore, a picture takes by a photographer is more notable than the words produce by an editor or journalist. Lester, MP (2006) stated that people are moving towards a visually mediated community. The comprehension of the world is practiced through the reading of images rather than reading of words (Lester, MP 2006). Schriver, KA (1997) also proclaimed that a picture alone can stand for thousands of words.


Apart from that, pictures offer people with the knowledge about a specific situation that happened in a country. For instance, people can feel the misfortune of the war’s victims when they see the images of people in the war. They can also feel the terrifying life that experienced by the victims of war through pictures (ABC Radio National 2007).

The little girl inside the pictures looks afraid of the soldiers.

As photojournalists, there are some ethical issues related to them. According to Burkholder, C (2009), the leading issues of photojournalism are misused of digital images, interference into privacy and the used of graphic or shocking images.


Therefore, photojournalists have to obey the ethics of photojournalism and make sure themselves provide the original image for the audience.


References:

1. ABC Radio National 2007, The power of the Paragraph, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm

2. Burkholder, C 2009, Online Journalism Ethics: Photojournalism, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.journalismethics.ca/online_journalism_ethics/photojournalism.htm

3. Lester, MP 2006, Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication, viewed 12 June 2009, http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/viscomtheory.html

4. Schriver, KA 1997, The interplay of words and pictures, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.

New Media Vs Old Media

Today, the development of new media is taking over the old media gradually. New media refers to moblog, vlogs, photologs, Youtube, alternative online newspaper, blogs, social networking sites or podcasts. On contrary, old media means the information that appears in newspaper, magazine, television or radio (Whitney, D 2009).

In this technology era, people are less fascinated to old media as it regulates people to only “shut up and listen” or “shut up and watch” (Pratt, S 2009).

Nicole, K (2007) stated that new media is more attractive than the old media, as it allows people to control ownership of their own content and it is a cheaper way to form and disseminate media. In addition, new media are integrated with video, pictures and images which are known as multimodal text, which raise the audience interest to approach it.

New Media

According to Walsh, M (2006), multimodal text consists of visual images such as movement, sound, animation with graphics, video clips that provides the readers with chances to interact in the new media.

For instance, during the 12th General Elections in Malaysia, videos and news about the general election are available in YouTube and news online such as TheStar Online (Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad 2008). This shows the development in new media that makes available for citizens to keep updating with the news of general election.

Malaysian can keep updating with the news of 12th general election from the videos provided in YouTube.

References:

1. Nicole, K 2007, Old Media vs. New Media: 2007 in Review, viewed 12 June 2009, http://mashable.com/2007/12/23/old-media-vs-new-media/

2. Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad 2008, How New Media Trumpled Old Politics and the Road Ahead, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.niknazmi.com/wordpress/?page_id=1069

3. Pratt, S 2009, Old Rules vs. New Rules-A New Blog Series About The Future of Media, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.stevepratt.com/index.php/2009/05/01/rules-rules-media-blog-series-future-media/

4. 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, p.24-37.

5. Whitney, D 2009, Column: What’s the Difference Between Old and New Media, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/05/column_whats_the_difference_be.php

Blog Classification & Blogging Community

There are various classifications of blogs in the community. Blogs can appear in the form of subject matter, device, media type and status of publishers.

• Blogs by subject matter: Politic and fashion.

Politician in Malaysia-Lim Kit Siang's Blog




Fashion Blog

• Blogs by device: Moblog
  Moblog: A blog published directly to the web including photos, texts and media files (Phone Scoop n.d.)
  
  
  


• Blogs by media type: Vlog, linklog, sketchlog, and tumblelogs.

Vlog: Blog contains video that complemented with text, images and others meta information to provide the context of a video (iblog.at 2009).





Linklog: Blog make up of links (Belan, L 2009).






Sketchlog: Blogs consist of a series of sketches (iblog.at 2009).





Tumblelogs: Blogs that used mixed media such as images, links, videos, quotes and short blurbs(iblog.at 2009).

• Blogs by status of publishers: Business & Corporate blogs
  Business & Corporate blogs: Blogs used to form brand image, to communicate with clients (iblog.at 2009)

Blogs-Combination of Styles
Nowadays, blogs are mixed with styles and makes it difficult to signify unique types of blogs. Therefore, I will consider the topic, style, format and audience of a blog. Blogger has to make sure that the topic of their blog is interesting and the style used is appropriate in order to gain audience interest.

Rowse, D (2006) stated that blogger do not need a topic that everyone is searching, but just one that some people are searching as it can be beneficial even only a small amount of people interested in it. On contrary, Lenssen P (2006) also asserted that descriptive headlines, inverted pyramid, and accountability of sources are important styles of a good blog.

Blog Community
Blog community refers to a group of people with the same interest interacted online within limited set of technologies (White, N 2006). It can be built through bulletin boards, online forums, web based chat rooms, newsletter and online calendars (Kyrnin J 2009). Blog community can appear in the types of single blog centric community, central connecting centric community and boundaried community (White, N 2006).

For instance, LiveJournal is one of the famous blogging communities. It is the lead of personal publishing, community participation, and individual expression. It allows individuals to share common interests, meet new friends and express themselves (LiveJournal 2009).

References:

1. Belan, L 2009, So You Want to Blawg Do You?, viewed 12 June 2009, http://ezinearticles.com/?So-You-Want-to-Blawg-Do-You?&id=2230121

2. iblog.at 2009, How to Define Niche Blogs, viewed 12 June 2009, http://iblog.at/ihomebusresources/2009/04/21/how-to-define-niche-blogs/

3. Kyrnin, J 2009, Building Online Communities, viewed 12 June 2009, http://webdesign.about.com/cs/communityonline/a/aa112398.htm

4. Lenssen, P 2006, Good Blog Writing Style, viewed 12 June 2009, http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2006-10-11-n47.html

5. LiveJournal 2009, LiveJournal represents social media without borders, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.livejournalinc.com/index.php

6. Phone Scoop n.d., Moblog, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?gid=207

7. Rowse, D 2006, How to Choose a Niche Topic for your Blog, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/15/how-to-choose-a-niche-topic-for-your-blog/

8. White, N 2006, Blogs and Community-launching a new paradigm for online community?, viewed 12 June 2009, < http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community