The Blogging Phenomenon: New Forms of Media Publishing

Dear readers,

Blogging isn’t just for geeks anymore. Trends that spark online are just as in-style as those on the runway: take the new crazes regarding video blogs (or ‘vlogs’: lonelygirl15, anyone?) or alternative news sources.

Let’s talk about alternative online newspapers, readers.

According to Meza (2006), “many mainstream television programs today claim to offer the viewer an impartial approach on any given issue, this just isn’t true”. From a local standpoint, this remains pertinent. However, Malaysian mainstream media is getting much less readership due to the rising preference for more balance. Nowadays, to get the “real news”, Malaysians turn to MalaysiaKini or MalaysiaToday: both of which have substantial readership (Foo, 2008). We turn to alternative media because the articles in them “hit the spot because they’re tapping into concerns out in the public arena” (Big Ideas, 2005). We want the truth, and we want it now. Web 2.0 has spoiled an information-hungry populace with instant gratification, and this case is no exception.

(Socialcritic.org, Wuerker, n.d.)

Not only this, but there are aesthetic reasons. Online newspapers are easier to read due to their succinctness and multimodality (Kress & van Leeuwen). Archives and other records are more easily found with online news. Online newspapers can also hyperlink to pertinent sites, creating intertextuality (Schirato & Yell, 1996) – we make sense of texts in reference to relations with other texts.

References

• Big Ideas. (2005). New Media Publishing. Viewed 13 November 2008 from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bigidea/stories/s1485827.htm
• Foo, Y. H. (2008). The Alternative News. Viewed 13 November 2008 from http://yeo-innocreative.blogspot.com/2008/06/alternatives-news-malaysiakinimalaysia.html
• Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. Hodder Headline Group: Great Britain.
• Meza, M. (2006). Goodbye Mainstream Media, Hello Alternative. Viewed 13 November 2008 from http://enterthealternativemedia.blogspot.com/
• Schirato, T. & Yell, S. (1996). Communication and Cultural Literacy: An Introduction. Ch. 5, Framing Contexts, pp90-117. Allen & Unwin: St. Leonard’s, New South Wales.

The Blogging Phenomenon: Online versus Print

Dear readers,

Designing for print media and designing for online media are two very different challenges. Visual appearance and the arrangement of writing with other visual representations “contributes to meaning” (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1998). Colours, layouts, voices, pathways, spatial positioning – these and other elements contribute to an overall meaning.

When designing for print, it is important to make sure your text has a voice and can appeal different reading habits. This article from Vogue magazine has been designed according to the Gutenberg diagram, which theorises that writing in a Z-shape for print is more appealing. It is two-dimensional, with much attention paid to layout.

(Vogue, 2007.)

According to Nielsen (1997b), writing for the Internet requires succinctness and scannability. Because reading from a computer screen is up to twenty-five per cent slower than from paper (supra), there should be less text present on a page. Eyetracking visualisations have shown that we read online content in an F-shape (Nielsen, 1997a), meaning “two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe”. Because readers won’t read text thoroughly, subheadings, bullet points and emphasising information-carrying words is used. The plus point of a website is that it is more reflexively intertextual. This article from Vogue Online is done according to these theories: an F-shaped layout, headings and subheadings; as well as hyperlinks and large text are used.

(Vogue, 2007.)

References

• Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (1998). Approaches to Media Discourse. Ch. 7, Front Pages: (the Critical) Analysis of Newspaper Layout. Hodder Headline Group: Great Britain. Blackwell: Oxford. UniSA Electronic Library.
• Nielsen, J. (1997a). F-shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content. Accessed 13 November 2008 from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html
• Nielsen, J. (1997b). Writing for the Web. Accessed 13 November 2008 from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9703b.html