Good design for screen genre (Peer Evaluation)

Good and fine design is very important as it will affect whether a document is easy to understand or not. Good design also serves as visual representation of the information (UWG n.d). According to Nielsen (2000), design is required to allow people access to the content. Here, I will critique one of my course-mate’s Power point slides from Assignment One.

The design of this slide is quite relevant and appropriate because the background illustrates the topic of the presentation. This will help the audience to understand the topic easily. Reep (2006) mentioned that visual aids isolate the main topics and appeal mainly to general and non-expert readers. Proportion of the slide design also very suitable as the size and placement of text is readable.

According to Nielsen (2000), “reading from computer screens is about 25 percent slower than reading from paper”. Therefore, texts should be as short as possible. In this second image, the presenter shortens the summary so that the audience would have the initiate to read the texts. One slide should limit to only 5 lines or 5 points (UWG n.d) whereas this image/slide can said to be a good design of powerpoint slide.

In this slide, image is shown. Through laws of gestalt, visual take over the load of structuring and organizing the reader's processing (Bernhardt 1986). Thus, the purpose of this slide is to want the reader to focus on the image. In addition, words and pictures render the idea more fully than it alone (Schriver 1997). Hence, the presenter wants the reader to understand this slide easily.

References

Bernhardt, S.A 1986, “Seeing the text”, College Composition and Communication, Vol. 37, National Council of Teachers of English.

Nielsen, J 2000, “Content design”, Designing web usability, Ch. 3, New Riders, Indianapolis.

Reep, D.C 2006, “Document design”, Technical writing, Ch. 6, 6th ed., Pearson/Longman, New York.

Schriver, K.A 1997, “The interplay of words and pictures”, Dynamics in documents design: creating texts for readers, Ch. 6, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.

UWG Distance Ed, “Importance of Design”, Graphic Design Principles for Powerpoint, viewed 19 April 2010,

< http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ppt/gooddesign_html97/sld002.htm >

Read more...

New Media

( Source : learningmatters.tv )

It is obvious that the communications environment is altering (Naughton 2006). Thus, new media is one of the medium that easily influence the society nowadays. For instance, online shopping also known as e-commerce, either via blogs or websites is considered as the new media of Internet. People can purchase almost anything online including clothes, computer and car accessories, and even ordering food via online such as McDonalds. Also, people can make travel arrangements and money transfer online (University Extension 2001). The ease of online shopping is that the seller and buyer do not need to physically communicate with each other and it saves more time and effort.

( Source : iheart-retronana.blogspot.com )

( Source : Devlinmurphy.com )

Furthermore, the communication trends of new media these days are site such as Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, blogs or online newspapers and organization. I am an active Youtube viewer, therefore I can foresee the changes in communication through Youtube. Youtube is the world's most current online video community where people create and upload videos to inspire others across the globe (Youtube.com 2010). Although there are still some worthless information but Youtube is a very effective site to learn new things. For example, the latest world news – China earthquake can be found in Youtube as some journalists or reporters may be the person who uploaded the video. Nowadays, the job of the journalists have widened as they do not only write for newspaper article. Some companies hire journalists or reporters to create a Youtube account and asked to manage and update the latest news into a video. Youtube is also a mode of communication as viewers would give comments, feedbacks and discuss on specific videos. Some people exploit Youtube as a place to voice out their opinion – freedom of speech. Therefore, the new media helps the interactive communication between medium and user (Livingstone 1999).

References

Livingstone, S 1999, “New Media, New Audiences?”, New Media and Society, London School of Economics and Political Science, Sage.

Naughton, John 2006, ‘Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem’, Reuteurs Institute, viewed 19 April 2010,

< http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html>

University Extension 2001, “Online Shopping and Security”, Helping you become your best, Iowa State, viewed 19 April 2010,

< http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1789G.pdf>

Youtube 2010, “About YouTube”, Youtube.com, viewed 19 April 2010,

< http://www.youtube.com/t/about>

Read more...

Types and method of blogging communities

( Source : hornbillunleashed.wordpress.com )

Online community mainly shaping throughout emails, bulletin boards and forums. Blogging consider as a daily routine nowadays and most of the society will have at least one blog. Blogging community is an interaction between bloggers in different blogs around the world. Generally, blogging has turn out to be the newest communication mode for forming an effective community, a collection of blogs linking back and forth to one another’s postings, while discussing common topics through the comment box or chat box (Chin and Chignell, 2006). In addition, features such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and feedreaders commenced to propose new possibilities – how we revealed and read blog posts (White 2006). Tagging is also one form of blogging community.

This specific blogger, Lim Kit Siang (http://blog.limkitsiang.com/), it’s one of the famous Malaysian blogger. The blogger blogs about the political issue in Malaysia and share his opinion about it which grab the attention of the media. This blog include links for archives, topics and categories, RSS and also links to other blogger’s blog. Lim maintains his blog and make sure it is up to date news and also provides biographies and bibliographies on the main page of the blog. The blogger share his opinion to the society and through feedbacks, the blogger also learn new information and opinion. Member can also ‘log in’ or register and may be able to communicate with the blogger privately. He also provide PDF file document to the reader on some issue so that reader can download it. Social network site such as Twitter also use by the blogger to maintain his relationship with his reader. This is consider as a good blog as it provide many features for his reader and maintain his updates and relationship with the readers.

( Source : flickr.com )

( Source : Redstate.com )

References

Chin, A and Chignell, M 2006, “Abstract”, A social hypertext model for finding community in blogs, University of Toronto, Toronto.

White, N 2006, “Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?”, Australian Flexible Learning Framework, viewed 15 April 2010,

< http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

Read more...

Classification of blogs

One way to voice out self-opinions and ideas is through blogging. Some people treat their blog as personal daily diaries. However, people nowadays blog for money, business, career and so on which is why various classification of blogs exist. Some subject matters of blogs that I am familiar with are fashion reviews, politics, music, food and photography (Blogcatalog.com, n.d). Furthermore, we can immediately update our blog today by using mobile device which is known as moblog (Ellis-Christensen, n,d). Moreover, there are also other forms of blogging such as linklog, vlog, photlog, microblog, tumblelog and more (Bhargava 2009). Blog publishers are generally self-employed, full-time blogger, business partner, professionals and also the mainstream media journalists.

( Edited by me )

From Funnell (2008) article, pamphleteering and advocacy blog are somehow similar as it is normally a brief essay arguing the point or stating strong viewpoint on certain topic such as politic issue but the writer generally cover a variety of topics. It is also similar to Sheih Kickdefella (2010), a Malaysian blogger as he often writes articles and expressing strong viewpoint on political issue. Popular-Mechanics (Funnell 2008) blog is where the blogger teaches audience to do or create stuff. This is similar to food blog that I know as blogger review how to cook in her blog (Malaysian Delicacies 2010). In my opinion, there are too many classifications of blogs but bloggers normally blog on what they are interested in.

References

ABC Media Report 2008, “A taxonomy of blogs”, ABC.net.au, viewed 11 April 2010,

< http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript>

Bhargava, R 2009, “The 25 Basic Styles of Blogging”, Slideshare.net, viewed 11 April 2010,

< http://www.slideshare.net/rohitbhargava/the-25-basic-styles-of-blogging-and-when-to-use-each-one>

Blogcatalog n.d, “Explore the Blogosphere”, Blogcatalog.com, viewed 11 April 2010,

< http://www.blogcatalog.com/>

Ellis-Christensen n.d, “What is moblog?”, Wisegeek.com, viewed 11 April 2010,

< http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-moblog.htm>

Kickdefella 2010, “Uno Mas”, Kickdefella.wordpress.com, viewed 11 April 2010,

< http://kickdefella.wordpress.com/>

Malaysian Delicacies 2010, “Flavours of Indian, Malay and Chinese Cuisine at your fingertips”, Malaysiandelicacies.blogspot.com, viewed 11 April 2010,

< http://malaysiandelicacies.blogspot.com/>

Read more...

Blogs as current phenomenon and benefits to the community

( Source: Pundikitchen.com )

The term Blogosphere is used to describe the millions of interrelated blogs on the internet (Boswell n.d). The current Blogosphere is strong and only getting stronger every year. This is because Blogosphere is filled with various different growing groups such as Twitter which affects the Blogosphere. In addition, Blogosphere is getting stronger because blogs are now becoming the media and brands are used in the Blogosphere (Mc Lean 2009). Bloggers nowadays are mainly highly educated and wealthy group.

According to Sussman (2009), 25 percent worldwide are the European bloggers, 10 percent of bloggers are from Asia-Pacific and 48 percent are from United States. As a result, blogging is a trend in the United States as well as the concept of mainstream media. Furthermore, bloggers usually blog to share their expertise and experiences, and voicing their opinion on certain issue or some area of interest (Sussman 2009). Consequently, the audience could learn and gain knowledge about some subject from countries across the globe. Moreover, audience can also learn about the blogger’s experience of using a certain products or brands they love or hate. Plus, in US, some bloggers will blog about the financial crisis or the US Presidential election which can benefit the audience to again advance their knowledge about these issues (Sussman 2009).

References

Boswell, W n.d, “What is Blogosphere?”, About.com, viewed 11 April 2010,

<
http://websearch.about.com/od/blogsforumssocialsites/f/blogosphere.htm

McLean, J 2009, “State of Blogosphere 2009 Introduction”, Technorati.com, viewed 11 April 2010,

< http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction/page-3/>

Sussman, M 2009, “The what and why of Blogging”, Technorati.com, viewed 11 April 2010,

< http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-2-the-what-and-why2/page-2/>

Sussman, M 2009, “Twitter, Global Impact and the Future of Blogging”, Technorati.com, viewed 11 April 2010,

< http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/page-2/>

Sussman, M 2009, “Who are the Bloggers? Technorati.com, viewed 11 April 2010,

< http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-1-who-are-the-bloggers1/page-1/>

Read more...

Purpose of my blog

( Source: cuarts.wordpress.com )

I've created this blog to discuss some current issue on blogging, media, and the internet. Furthermore, it is to achieve the understanding of blogging and community, blog’s content and structure, new media, types of blog and so on. The target audience is basically people who are interested with blogging and new media.

Read more...