Designing for online vs. print

Differences

According to Kress and van Leeuwen(1998), a print is more focused on text(multimodality), with more academic based texts and structures. Prints usually play around with words as people tend to read prints more thoroughly as compared to a webpage. Redshaw(2003) also noted that a print controls the way the information is presented to the readers. With chronological orders, framing , logical cues and many more to control the way the information is presented. An online media however, is more focused on their titles. According to Dr Jakob Neilsen, people tend to skim through a web page as compared to a print. Thus, text, colours, and titles are all very important elements into capturing the readers attention. Online media has to be concise, scannable and objective(Morkes & Nielsen 1997). Therefore, overly-structured grammar is not encouraged as online readers tend to scan through the text rather than actually reading it (Nielsen 1997). Readers can choose what they want to read as the text is not being controlled by and the information presentated is hardly arranged chronologically.


* a frontpage of an Print Media*

Print media has a more sequential and chronogical text. Much more text and the placement of the text's very much differs from Online Media.


* screenshot from a Online Media*

The Online Media almost has no chronology in their placement of news and texts. Readers are able to choose what they want to read and the news is presented more concisely.

Conclusion

Both online and print media's have their own target audience and their own way of conveying their message. The online media being concise and straight to the point. Leaving lots of room for the reader to choose what they want to read. Whereas the print media leaves little space for choice and are more controlled. Thus, both online and print media has their advantages and disadvantages, it is more of a users choice.

Reference List

1.) Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Approaches to media discourse, eds Bell, A & Garrett, P, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 186-219.

2.) Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, 'Reading Images', Chapter 6: Themeaning of composition’, pp. 179-208

3.) Morkes, J & Nielsen, J 1997, Concise, Scannable and Objective: How To Write For The Web, Useit.com, viewed at 2 May 2008 at http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html

4.) Nielsen, J 1999, Differences Between Print Design and Web Design, Jacob Nielsen's Alert Box, viewed on 2 May 2008 at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html

5.) Redshaw, K 2003, Web Writing vs Print Writing, Kerryr.net, viewed on 2 May 2008 at http://www.kerryr.net/webwriting/guide_web-vs-print.htm

New forms of media publishing

What is the hotest thing on the internet?


YouTube is a very well known website for video hosting and most of all, entertainment. It is actually a good source of entertainment for most people who are bored and have nothing more to do than scratching their backs. Currently YouTube is a very powerful tool for the media, things that shouldn’t be posted on national television can always be ‘secretly’ posted on Youtube. The music industry is suffering , thanks to Youtube. People just leisurely watch music videos on YouTube instead of tuning into MTV anymore. It is pretty simple why people like to use Youtube and watch everything they can on Youtube, its free.

Issues


However, people tend to do things a little overboard and this time Youtube is sued. James Montgomery said "It's the first-ever copyright lawsuit filed against YouTube, and, if successful, it could open the floodgates for similar suits against the site". The problem with YouTube is actually one of it's advantages, its free. Videos that would usually need to be paid for is actually free on YouTube. If everyone uses YouTube instead of watching television, that would mean doomsday for television producers. For this case in particular, Tur, a journalist, is actually sueing YouTube for the broadcasting of the videos without securing clearances from his company. Legally, in order for the footage to be broadcasted, news agencies had to obtain rights from his L.A. News service. Long story cut short, it is the money that caused the problem. YouTube, being free for it's users are causing a lot of trouble for other medias and when money comes into the picture, it spells trouble.




* a screenshot from MTV, on the YouTube lawsuit*

Reference List

1. Montgomery, J 2006, YouTube Slapped With First Copyright Lawsuit For Video Posted Without Permission, Music Television, viewed 2 May 2008 at http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1536695/20060719/index.jhtml?headlines=true.

Classification of blogs & examples of blogging communities

How are blogs classified?

Genre

There are many types of blogs that are out on the internet. The ones that I know of are; fashion, travel, history, entertainment, technology, food, adventure, sports, politics, law, business and social. These blogs are created to cater for their target audience. A blog which is interesting to one might not be as interesting to another. These are few examples of food, travel and fashion blogs which are frequented because they are the few major focuses people have in life.

* a screenshot from a Food Blog*

* a screenshot from a Travel Blog*

* a screenshot from a Fashion blog*

links : Food, Travel and Fashion blogs.

Device

What is Moblog?

Moblog is a quickly picking up way of blogging. Using ur mobile phone to blog as you are on the go. It enables bloggers to blog as they travel along and they dont need to get into the nearest cyber cafe to blog. You can take pictures and even videos to be posted online with your mobile phone.

* a screenshot from a Mobile Blog*

Link: Moblog.

Media Type

Vlog : Video blog. Example, YouTube.

Linklog : It is created to link sites.

Sketchlog : Sketch blog. Example, Daily Sketchlog.

Photoblog: Photo Blog. Example, Photobucket.

Tumblelog: Random blog posts. Example, Marco.org Tumbleorg.

* a screenshot from a Video Blog*

* a screenshot from a Tumble Blog*

It is hard to identify a blog as a lot of blogs are actually a combination of a few. Thus, I would think that looking at the target audience and the style of writing as the most suitable way to identify a blog. Through looking at the blog's target audience we can see what type of audience its trying to reach out to and that makes things very much easier. Then we look at the style of writing, be it formal or informal. We can see through the style of writing that makes it unique and we can easily identify the blog after that.

State of publishers

Business and Corporate blogs: Business blogs. Example, American Business Club.

* a screenshot from a Business and Corporation blog*

What is a blogging community?

A group of bloggers who because of similar interests, for a community. A community which can so often be tightly bound because of their passion.

The few blogging communities that I know of is:

Mybloglog community

BUMPzee community

Blog Catalog community

Spicypage community

Blog Carnival community

these are the few very famous blog communities around the world.

Mybloglog community is actually a community for bloggers to communicate and interact with other bloggers. Mybloglog provides a tool in which you can keep track of who visits your blog. It is a community in which people use to keep track of other peoples blogs and interact with one another.

How do you create a blogging community?

You simply need many bloggers of the similar interest and you will find yourself with one blogging community. Even by linking one another can be 'considered' as a blogging community. With one of the bloggers as a 'Home' for all the other bloggers. In the modern age of technology, only your imagination is the limit to what you can do.

* screen shot from a Bloggers Community*

Reference List

1. Downes,S 2005, Community Blogging, Stephen's Web, viewed on 2 May 2008 at http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=14

2. Top 5 blogging communities carnival, Top Listing Blog, viewed on 2 May 2008 at http://toplisting.blogspot.com/2007/07/top-5-blogging-communities-carnival.html

Blogs as current phenomenon & effects on community

How big is the blogosphere?

The size of the current blogosphere is as big as 112.8 million blogs and with over 250 million tagged social media. According to Technorati.com, blogs nowadays is actually a ‘citizen media’. With everyone having their own opinions and the need to voice out their opinions, they resort to blogging. Blogs are easy to create, mostly free and you probably won’t get sued for whatever nonsense you write on your blog.

What are the blogging trends and websites that are prevalent in Europe, Asia and Malaysia?

Europe

European blogs are usually skewed towards the tech side. Just to mention a few tech blog sites like Techblog, Tech blog and the Yahoo Techbloggers. These are highly visited sites and they are popular because most European men are into technology. Being able to catch up with the every improving technological advancement has always been something considered to be ‘cool’. I guess it’s just something that is buried deep down in the genes of all men.

* A Techblog*

Asia and Malaysia

On the Asian and also Malaysian side however, a very famous blogger, Kennysia is of course the main focus of them all. He is somewhat a hero that shoots at anything he deems wrong and almost always has a humorous way of putting things. Usually Malaysian bloggers are the types that actually talk about their daily lives and usual blabber they want to be voiced out to the public. Let’s take my classmates’ Joash’s blog for a very good example as a typical Malaysian blogger. There are also blogs like the Internet Millionaires Club(IMC) who actually teach people how to earn money through the internet. However it is inadvisable to fully believe and trust such ways to be your stable source of income.

* Screenshot of Kennysia's blog*

How can Malaysians benifit from political, social and business blogs?

Keeping in touch with political, social and business is very important to anyone who is trying to keep up with the world. With blogs like Lim Kit Siang’s and Jeff Ooi's, we are very much updated on what is happening in the parliament and questions which are brought up by the parties in Malaysia. Being able to keep up will keep us more aware of what is happening and using it to our benefit. On the social context, we just want to keep in touch with our friends and what’s happening with their life. You can even call it nosy for that matter but people tend to be curious, very curious indeed. IMC which was mentioned before is a website which teaches Malaysians to earn money online. Earning as much as 5 figures is something every Malaysian would want to achieve.

* Screenshot of Kennysia's blog*

* Screenshot of Internet Millionaires Club*

Reference List

1. About Us 2008, Technorati, viewed on 2 May 2008 at http://www.technorati.com/about/

2. Brown, S 2006, Leading Average: Top Blog Trends, Modern Life, viewed 2 May 2008 at http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/article/leading-average-top-blog-trends4. Duncan 2006

Purpose of my blog

The reason why this blog is created is to help explain the current issues about blogging. Currently regardless of age, gender and race ; people from all over the world are blogging for any purpose whatsoever. Thus, I would like to explore and induldge myself into learning more about blogging through this blog. My target audience would very much be people who are either studying or working in the media industry. They would need to have much more information about what is working people up in blogging.