Reflection

I gained experiences and knowledge on how to manage a blog once I completed this assignment. I learned how to manage my blog and incorporate theories learned in lectures. 

In order to increase interactivity in my blog, I inserted comments box and chat box to allow readers to left their comments. Besides that, the hyperlink to other useful link could provide further information to readers.

The words limit is the problems I faced in the process of constructing my blog post. Thus, I incorporated visual such as pictures and videos to increase the vividness of my ideas. The pictures will supplement and further elaborate my idea written in paragraph. According to Schriver (1997), words and pictures can be integrated to extend and aid meaning making.  

Furthermore, I learned how to be an ethical blogger as to acknowledge sources which I have used to avoid the issue of plagiarism.

Online News Video

According to a new survey done by DS Simon (2011), it stated 85 percent of online media websites are now using online video content to cover news.  The research indicated the latest trend of most media has shift from textual or static communications and transformed into video communications by using online television networks.

The research shows that 33% or more media outlets are using online video to cover news as video programming network has become official sit to cover news. Consumers prefer to watch a short news video compare to reading a lengthy news article as consumers have short attention span.

Another research conducted also indicated that online adults start watching educational videos has increased from to 22% 38% since 2007 till 2009. Online viewership of news video is increasing in popularity. (Pew Internet 2010)

   Source: Pew Internet 2010
Figure above indicates that significant growth of viewership of online video.

In my perspective,  online video has deeply integrated into daily life.  Online news video engages multimodal texts which incorporate spoken, written language and moving images will aids in meaning making. Online news video consists visual and sound to attract viewers’ attention. Online news video provides viewers fast and easy information effectively and efficiency.

Besides that, online news video is convenient as viewers could watch the news anytime and anywhere with internet connection. Viewers can also stream the news video live over with gadget such as smartphones or iPad. 
 

Source: 5min Life Videopedia

Larry Kramer, the former newspaper editor who is the most accomplished innovators in online video journalism stated his opinions in the video shown above. 

However, visuals are not always helpful as visuals might distract readers from fully engaging with the content. In the online video news, viewers need to pay attention to both words and pictures. Viewers have to concentrate on the narrative structure of text to understand the story. The presence of pictures might distract readers’ attention from the spoken speech by the presenter. (Schriver 1997)

Below are the popular online news portal sites which provide online news video.
ABC
The Star
MalaysiaKini
SinChew
HiSiong

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References: 

Kristen Purcell 2010, The State of Online Video,viewed on 10th October 2011,

<http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2010/PIP-The-State-of-Online-Video.pdf>

iBooks

Conventional book has been converted into digital format to display on screen as the digital word is growing rapidly.  Besides that, the portable e-textbook is light and convenience. Readers do not need to carry bulky size books, instead, the portable e-reading can save countless e-textbook. Readers can read it anytime and anywhere in the e-book. E-book is instant, convenience and interactive while compare with conventional book. We do not have to bring along those books that are bulky in size as we can easily access to E-reading in portable device anywhere and anytime. The incorporate spoken and written language, still or moving images, sound and music in electronic screen will enhance the learning process of readers. (Walsh 2006)

The reading pathway in the printed textbook is linear and sequential. Conversely, the reading pathway in the multimodal texts like e-textbook is non sequential, non linear. Readers will have more choice and opportunity to interact. Students' attention and interests will be increase with online education as the interactivity level in online education. Readers can email the passages to their classmates immediately. 

Furthermore, with the emergence of tablet such as iPad will make the e-texkbook more feasible. The apps in iPad, iBook would enhance the reading experiences and interactivity of readers. Readers can download book from the iBookstore which provides over 200,000 books and most of them are free to download. 


The Enhanced Books in iBooks composites multimodal texts that would increase readers' interests in reading. Readers can hear the narrative version of the passage with the read-aloud feature, watch supplementary video and flick through the additional photos inserted to gather further information.




The navigation tools in the iBooks is user friendly. Readers could search the notes by enter keywords. This will ease readers to jump to the page or chapter by searching with keywords or table of content. Readers can also look up build in dictionary or surf the web for the meaning or further information by click or highlight on the keywords. Readers can also change the text size and font in the iBooks. Readers can also zoom in to enlarge the page. (Apple 2011)

Source: Youtube
Video above introduces the special feature of iBook.

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References:

Walsh, M 2006, Textual Shift: Exmaining the Reading Process with Print Visual and Multimodal Texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1

Apple 2011, Ipad: iBooks, viewed on 10th November 2011, <http://www.apple.com/ipad/built-in-apps/ibooks.html>

PhotoJournalism: Digital Deleting Photo

Hilary Clinton and counterterrorism director, Audrey Tomason has been digitally removed in a picture posted in the New York newspaper of where Barack Obama and his staff were in the White House. The photojournalist Di Tzetung apologized and declared that “long standing editorial policy” that showing images of the female form is “immodest”. Thus, women’s images should not be published in the newspaper. 

The innovation of technology such as Adobe Photoshop has created a new age of photography. Objects can be removed or inserted in an image with the click of mouse. The 'Truth" can be altered and public reception will be misled. 

Image has tremendous impact to evoke emotional responses. Photojournalism is an instructive and revealing process. Age-old axioms assure that the “camera never lies” and “seeing is believing” (Berger 1989). Viewers often believe that the photographs they see because most of them assume their eyes do not deceive them. Thus, a photojournalist should report and interpret news honestly, accurately, fairly and disclose essentials facts. The publication should be faithful and truthful representation of images to the public. (Patterson & Wilkins 2008) 

In my point of view, photojournalist should not manipulate images or alter in the way that could mislead viewers or misrepresent subject. According to the rule no. 6 of the National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics, editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images’ content and context.

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References

Berger, Arthur ASA 1989, Seeing is Believing, Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co.

National Press Photographers Association 2011, NPPA Code of Ethics, viewed on 30^th October 2011, <http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/ethics.html>

Patterson, P & Wilkins, L 2008, Media Ethics: Issues and Cases, 6th Edition, McGraw Hill High Education, New York.

iPad Only Newspaper-Rupert Murdoch

A new format for news presentation has been introduced by Rupert Murdoch  in February.  The new iPad-only newspaper, The Daily is the new innovation that transit the news from traditional “hold and fold” to the internet with iPad technology. 

Introduction of the The Daily

According to the Murdoch's report , it demonstrated that readers nowadays are more engaged with content on their tablet devices. Another study from Starcom Media Vest and the Online division of BBC also demonstrated that tablet's visual and interactive features will retain and increase readers' interests to continue reading on iPad. 

The creation of The Daily immerses readers with digital experiences. The Daily utilizes the iPad technology as it incorporates animated graphic and video content in the publication. The integration of texts and video will heighten readers' interests. Besides that, The Daily includes audio voiceovers that read the stories aloud. Readers would enjoy like broadcast news while reading in The Daily.

The invention of iPad only newspaper will push the journalism to the new era. Compare to the traditional print newspaper, The Daily consists a lot of special features with iPad technology which include 360 degree photos, magazine-like reading interface which allows readers to flip through pages.

Furthermore, the iPad only newspaper apps integrates with social networking. Wen reading an article in The Daily, readers able to get the latest Twitter feeds related to the topic they viewing. This feature increase the interactivity level between readers. Readers will not be passive recipients as they are able to share, comment and fully engage in the current issue.

The tranduscing of genre from print to iPad would suit those readers with fast paced lifestyle as checking The Daily would be more convenience. Thus, after comparing to the ordinary print newspaper, I am interested in the creation of iPad only newspaper, The Daily and I would subcribe to the apps. Reading the news articles in The Daily would be fun-filled as the integration with technology would increase my interests in reading the news articles. The multimodality of the apps would enhance my literacy. The uses of video and graphic would increase the vividness of the objects. 

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References: 
Mashable 2011, Tablets Drive Deeper News Consumption, viewed on 10th November 2011, 
<http://mashable.com/2011/10/14/tablet-ipad-news-study/>

Screen vs. Print Document Design

Source: http://www.yalelawtech.org/trusted-computing-drm/let-e-books-be-e-books/

Conventional book has been converted into digital format to display on screen as the digital word is growing rapidly. E-reading/E-book is instant, convenience and interactive while compare with conventional book. We do not have to bring along those books that are bulky in size as we can easily access to E-reading in portable device anywhere and anytime. The presentation of ideas in multimode will enhance the messages conveyed by the author. The incorporate spoken and written language, still or moving images, sound and music in electronic screen will enhance the learning process of readers. (Walsh 2006)

	Print	Screen
Dimensional	2-dimensional	1-dimensional / N-dimensional
Layout design	Solely focus in document layout	Not focus so much on layout of web  design Readers have to scroll to render all elements
Navigation	Simply, turn/flip pages of the print materials	Insert links to direct readers to next relevant pages Multimode in document design for more interactions
Canvas Size	Bigger / Double – Visible Easier to read texts	Smaller Depends on the size of screen
Modes	Images and texts	Multimode – video, audio, graphic, texts
Resolution	Good quality of printing will have higher resolution.	Image’s resolution might be pixilated once it has been re-sized as to speed up the loading of image.

Table above shows differences between print and screen document design. (Jakob Nielsen 1999)

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References

Walsh, M 2006, Textual Shift: Exmaining the Reading Process with Print Visual and Multimodal Texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, pg24-26

Jakob Nielsen 1999, Differences between Print Design and Web Design, viewed 25 August 2011,

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html

New Forms of Media Publishing

The evolution of new media is beneficial to community and change the communication ecosystem in the past. Nowadays, audiences are no long passive receivers and just absorb whatever news reported in media.(Naughton, 2006) With the emergence of new media trends such as social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Alternative Online Paper) has contributed to a new alternative sources for public to have immediate responses and interaction in new media platforms omce news is published online. People do not need to purchase a hard copy of newspaper to explore to the latest news, instead, they can subscribe and access soft copy of online paper to read breaking news instantly.

Traditional media has been slowly replaced by new media as it has provided a room for public sphere.Due to ownership of traditional media, journalists are servant of government, thus, their perspective and angle of reporting must be siding government and might not be objective. The transform of new alternative media has facilitated journalists and politicians to voice out their opinions frankly on current affairs. Public will become well-informed and more knowledgeable.

Furthermore, with the enhancement of technology, almost everyone posses smart phone which has contributed to the trend of micro-blogging. SMS Gup Shup, Twitter and Sina are examples for micro-blogging service.

"Microblogging is a web service that allows the subscriber to broadcast short message to other subscribers of the service." (Search Mobile Computing.com 2007)

The hash-tag (#) option on twitter allows twitter users to start a topic and connects everyone with the same topic to one page. With people re-tweeting and mentioning about the following topic, news will be widely spread to the world. (Micheal Duvall 2009)

Source: http://scm-l3.technorati.com/09/10/22/241/how-use-twitter-606x343.png

Figure above indicates intentions of bloggers to associate their blogs to twitter account. 
 

The rapid growth of new media has change the communication ecosystem. However, the reverse effect might be generated if never been used properly.  

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References

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the Emerging Media Ecosystem,viewed 25th August 2011,

http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf

Search Mobile Computing 2007, Definition of Micro-Blogging, viewed 25th August 2011,

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/microblogging

Michael Duvall 2009, The Mystery of Twitter Hashtags, viewed on 25th August 2011, http://www.webdoctus.com/2009/12/the-mystery-of-twitter-hashtags/

Anand Ranjaraman 2008, Think Twitter's the Biggest Microblogging Service? Take a look at SMS GupShup, viewed 25th August 2011, http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/19/think-twitters-the-biggest-microblogging-service-take-a-look-at-sms-gupshup/

Blogging Community

"Blogging Community is refers to a group of people who have been accepted and transcended their differences despite of the diversity of their backgrounds, communicate effectively and openly to work together toward goals identified as being for their common good." (Hampton 2004)

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

According to White (2006), there are three types of blogging communities which posses thier own individual pattern. 

1. One Blog Cemetric

A identical owner or an organisation is the owner of the blog but may consists more than one blogger writing in a blog.

2. Topic Centric Community

A blog is made up of separate blogs but based community. The topic or issue in publication is identical and common among a network of people. 

3. Boudaried Community  

This boudary bound members registered in the community and makes the closest form to traditional forum. Other tools are built in to increase the accesibility and connection of the community.

Method to Build Community

1. Comments

Comments session is a good place for the author to interact with readers as readers are given chance to voice out their point of views by commenting in the post. 

Author may ask questions in posts in order to generate readers' comments and answers. 

2. Readers centered / entertained post

The topics of posts should be related to audiences in order to raise their interests and build their readership.  Author may gain participation and contribution of readers to generate idea for post. Author may invite readers to submit their opinions or tips and then use them as references in the content of the post. 

3. Interactive Tools

Author should post up some interesting polls, quizzes and competition frequently in their posts to encourage readers' participation in the blog. 

4. Insert built in tools

Forum built in the blog is used to generate further discussion of a particular topic among readers. Instant messages and group chat used in blog to connect readers who cluster around the world. Readers will be able to communication with one another through instant message or group chat. 

Read more: Darren Rowse 2009

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References

Hampton J 2004, Seven Community Definitions, viewed 23 August 2011, http://www.community4me.com/comm_definitions.html

Darren Rowse 2009, 8 Tips for Building Community on Your Blog, viewed 24 August 2011, http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/02/28/8-tips-for-building-community-on-your-blog/

Nancy White 2006, Blogs and Community-Launchiong a New Paradigm for Online Community, viewed 24 August 2011, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

Classifications of Blogs

According to Margaret Simons, blogs can be classified into nine categories as below: 

1. Pamphleterring blog is a blog where an individual/groups of individuals point out their point of views on a certain subject/issue. 

2. The Digest Blog guides and summaries materials collected from mainstream media or other blogs. However, the existence of social network has slowly replaced the position of it.

3. The Advocacy Blog as a subset of pamphleteering but ran by established advocacy groups or commercial organizations who advocate their point of views on the particular issue. 

4. The Popular Mechanics Blog offers training and advice in specialist fields. It shows the procedures and methods to people in order to conduct in proper way.

5. The Exhibition Blog as known as vanity publishing is a blog maintained by writers, craftspeople, artists and artisans to publish their creations. 

6. The Gatewatcher Blog as a "gatekeepers" with a mixture of gatewathcing and crowdsourcing to keep an eye on traditional media.

7. The Diary is an online journal for a person to express their own experiences, daily life activities and opinions.

8. The Advertisement in blog where established bloggers are paid by advertisers to disclose kickback to stimulate their products' sales and to gain exposure of brands and products.

9. The News Blog is a blog publishes and covers the news of events or activities where bloggers where invited to attend and blog about the issue. 

There are various types of blogs that can be categorized according to subjects or topics such as political, entertainment, education, history, health, travel, fashion and so on.  Besides that, blogs can also be classified according to media type such as Video blog (Youtube), Linklog, Sketch Blog (Rob-Sheridan), Photo Blog (Photo Bucket), Tumblr Blog and Typecast Blog.

In my opinion, besides Simon's approach, there are numerous ways to classified blogs. Most of them are delivered in different terms but they are delivering the same messages.  Some blogs are combinations of styles and possess unique type; hence, it is difficult to specific and classify them.

               

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References

Margaret Simons 2008, Towards a Taxonomy of Blogs, viewed 22^nd August 2011, http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0

PC Mag 2011, Definition of Vlog, viewed 22^nd August 2011, http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=video+blog&i=54024,00.asp 

Linked In 2011, Blog Link, viewed 22^nd August 2011,  http://www.linkedin.com/opensocialInstallation/preview?_applicationId=1500

Blogosphere

A weblog as known as web-based journal is a personal site which blog entries are published in reserve-chronological order.   Blog entries may be varied based on the intention of the particular blogger to decide on types of messages to disseminate. 

 Source: http://scm-l3.technorati.com/09/10/19/231/topics-blog-about-606x397.png

Figure above indicates diversity of the blogosphere

Blogosphere is growing at a quickening pace, according to Technorati.com, the size of blogosphere is expanding, since 2002, more than 133 million blogs worldwide has been tracked by Technorati Report. 

Source: http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/blogging-hits-mainstream-integral-to-media-ecosystem-6256/technorati-state-of-blogosphere-size-2008jpg/

Figure above shows the growing of blogosphere

Read more: Philip Winn 2009

Blog provides a good communication platform for business and promotional purpose as it is cost-effective. There is always a win-win situation for advertisers and bloggers for posting advertorials in blogs. For advertiser, advertorials would be an alternative approach to gain exposure of brands and products while blogger can generate revenue by posting advertorials in their own blogs. 

Source: http://scm-l3.technorati.com/10/11/04/20999/how-manage-advertising-606x650.png

Figure above shows that how bloggers mange advertisements in their blogs. 

Source: http://scm-l3.technorati.com/10/11/04/20999/how-generate-revenue-606x630.png

Figure above shows the method of bloggers to generate revenue from blogs.

Due to censorship in traditional media, journalists now incorporate digital and social media by transform into the new alternative and modern of writing to express their thoughts in blogs.  Hence, blog could be a platform for freedom of expression.  Politicians utilize blogs as their platform as “info diggers” to reveal hidden underneath information. Political blog provide an alternative point of view for readers and citizens to think critically into current political affairs.

Personal blogs and corporate blogs are more prevalent in Europe, Asia and Malaysia. According to Reuters report, 37% of US blogs’ topics are surrounding their personal life while 11% of US blogs’ topics are about political issues.  (Hobson, N 2006)  

Conversely, the most common topics for Malaysian bloggers are political issues, personal life, entertainment, technology, food and fashion.  Blog is often used as an online journal for someone to blog about their personal experiences, views and hobbies. (Press Microsoft Malaysia 2006)

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References
Philip Winn 2009, State of Blogosphere, viewed 20 August 2011, 

http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-introduction/#ixzz1VyPrOCfl


Marketing Chart 2008, Blogging Hits Mainstream, Integral to Media Ecosystem, viewed 24th August 2011,
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/blogging-hits-mainstream-integral-to-media-ecosystem-6256/technorati-state-of-blogosphere-size-2008jpg/


Hobson, 2006, Latest Blog Trends from Pew Internet, viewed 22^nd August 2011, http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/07/19/latest-blog-trends-from-pew-internet/

Press Microsoft Malaysia 2006, Women Rule in Malaysian Blogosphere, viewed 22^nd August 2011,
http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/press/archive2006/linkpage4337.mspx