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

The Blogging Phenomenon: Classifications & Communities

Dear readers,

There are many ways to classify a blog. You could classify them through the device used to create the blog: moblogs, for example, are blogs made through a mobile phone (Twitter being a popular moblog platform). You could classify them by the media used: vlogs, phlogs, tumblogs - video blogs, photo blogs and mixed-media blogs respectively. You could classify them by genre - technology, news, fashion, politics, hobbies.

Sites such as BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog are online communities devoted to blogging. On sites like these, people can be connected to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers (MyBlogLog). They are a cohesive of people interested in a common, unifying theme. Creating a blog community is a simple matter: all that is needed is links to other, similarly-themed blogs and a way to collect feedback for instance, a comment box. Ensure that you "foster discourse" (Kawasaki, 2006). Remember: publicity is everything (supra). A well-known community would be The Knowledge Tree, an "e-journal generated by members of the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system to enable the sharing of research and learning innovation in national and global e-learning" (About The Knowledge Tree, 2008). This community makes use of archives and RSS feeds to foster discourse.

(OnlineDatingMagazine.com, 2006.)

In A Taxonomy of Blogs (The Media Report: ABC Radio National); the author and analyst Margaret Simons attempts to dissect and define the different types of blogs that inhabit the World Wide Web. After reading the article, I felt that her classifications were far too inhibiting to be competently applied to today's blogosphere. She divides blogs into diaries, advertisements, pamphlets, news, gatewatchers, exhibitions, popular mechanics (i.e. How To's), digests, and advocacy blogs. While her categories were well thought out and concise, they did not fully encompass the scope of blogging today: is categorizing blogs even important (Chaney, 2005)? They could look at topic, style, format, or maybe their target audience. The most effective method would be to "categorize blogs by the type of content they consistently produce" (Rowse, 2008).

In my opinion, because blogs are part of Web 2.0, and not at all easy to categorize, readers must choose their own identification keys based on what they most need.

References

• Chaney, P. (2005). Categorizing Blog Posts. All Business. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/internet-marketing/3874720-1.html


• Heuer, C. (2005). Simply Blog Classification System: Please, No Acronyms. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://www.chrisheuer.com/2005/07/14/simple-blog-classification-system-please-no-acronyms/


• Kawasaki, G. (2006). The Art of Creating a Community. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/the_art_of_crea.html


• MyBlogLog FAQ. (2008). Why Do I Need MyBlogLog? Yahoo Services. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/help/faq


• Rowse, D. (2008). Types of Blogs: Can We Categorize Them? ProBlogger. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/10/16/types-of-blogs-can-we-categorize-them/


• The Knowledge Tree. (2008). About The Knowledge Tree. Viewed 12 November 2008 from http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/


• The Media Report. (2008). A Taxonomy of Blogs. ABC Radio National. Viewed 12 November from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript

The Blogging Phenomenon: Pitfalls & Benefits.

Dear readers,

Did you know that close to 113 million people own a blog, according to http://www.technorati.com/ (2008). There is an update posted every eight seconds. That's a lot of blogs.

Europe
Blogging remains relatively low on the to-do list, with a paltry four million active bloggers (Bouquet & Favier, 2006). However, these bloggers are "young, early adopters of new technologies" and therefore very attractive to marketers, being "more open-minded than the average online consumer" (Bouquet & Favier, 2006). European bloggers, according to Mackenzie (2006) gravitate towards everyday, journalistic blogs.

Asia
According to IT News Online (2006), nearly half of 'Net users in Asia own a blog. When broken down by gender, "fifty-five per cent of bloggers in Asia were found to be female and forty-five per cent male" (Jacques, 2006). As IT News states, blogs of interest are the most popular (with the exception of India, where business-themed blogs are most read).

Locally
Fifty-six per cent of Malaysian bloggers do so to express their opinions (Ooi, 2006). According to Gaman (2007), thirty-two per cent of the Malaysian blogosphere write about politics or technology. Another type of blog that is on the rise would be "boutique blogs", where people sell clothing, for examples, An Untitled Affair.

The Healing Power of Words
Blogging holds many benefits for the community. According to Wapner (2008), blogging holds "therapeutic effects". Research shows that writing about your experiences "improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery". Blogging helps educate the public, being an invaluable tool of citizen journalism (Dvorak, 2002), which is when the public collect, report, analyze and disseminate news and information - highly fundamental in Malaysia, where freedom of the press is tenuous, at best.

References

• Bouquet, M. & Favier, J. (2006). Profiling European Bloggers. Viewed 8 November from http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,40515,00.html
• Dvorak, J. (2002). The Blog Phenomenon. PC Magazine. Viewed 11 November 2008 from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,12899,00.asp
• Gaman. (2007). 50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia. Viewed 7 November from http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/
• IT News Online. (2006). Blogging India: A Windows Live Report. Viewed 8 November 2008 from http://www.itnewsonline.com/showstory.php?storyid=6905&scatid=6&contid=1
• Jacques, R. (2006). Asian blogosphere surges forward. iTnews. Viewed 4 November from http://www.itnews.com.au/News/42837,asian-blogosphere-surges-forward.aspx
• Mackenzie, K. (2006). European bloggers find their voice. Financial Times. Viewed 1 November 2008 from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/87706c4e-57be-11db-be9f-0000779e2340.html
• Ooi, J. (2006). A walk down the Yellow Brick Road of Malaysia's Corridor of the Future. CNET Asia. Viewed 9 November from http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/lemaklemang/post.htm?id=61971059
• Technorati Media. (2008). About Us. Viewed 8 November 2008 from http://technoratimedia.com/about/
• Wapner, J. (2008). Blogging - It's good for you. Scientific American. Viewed 5 November 2008 from http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-healthy-type
  

My Reason For Being

Dear readers,

My name is IPD: The Whys and Wherefores. You may call me W2 for short. I inhabit a little corner of the World Wide Web. My address is http://www.pleaseletmepass.blogspot.com/. You probably know this because you are reading me.

By 'you', I refer to my target audience. You are document designers (professional or otherwise), fellow IPD students, seniors who are mocking me, juniors who are panicking because they procrastinated over Assignment 3.

And how exactly can I, a mere blog, help you? Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) say that I am an intricate "interplay of written text, imagers and other graphic/sound elements"; Walsh (2006) calls me a multimodal text that is "multi-linear and multi-directional". I will attempt to discuss and analyse different publication and design issues. I will review readings and put forth opinions/theoretical information (to the best of my abilities).

Please stay tuned. I assure you, I will supply you with a treasure-trove of academic... stuff.

www.coxandforkum.com, 2006.

References

• Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading Images: Grammar of Visual Design. Routledge: London.


• Walsh, M. (2006). The ‘textual’ shift: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp24-37. UniSA Electronic Library.