Reflections to my weblog
The experience of creating this serious weblog is fun and very informative. It is a learning experience to me as I know more about the issues that happens in the media and get some knowledge from it.
Through the process of creating this weblog, I learn more on the theories of different people. For example, the Jakob Nielsen interview and his website (www.useit.com), there are a lot of information on website designing. The strategies of designing a good and useable website. These will help me to do very well in website designing next time.
In addition, I know a lot of functions of blogs, like hyperlinking, add images or videos, design the blog with different colours. It is really fun and interesting. Blogging is such a great activity that I can share my points and views to the people world wide.
Bloging is like the freedom of speech, but we must also use this opportunity in a correct way. We must not create spam blogs or use speech that contains violence or sensitive issues. This is very unethical.
Lastly, I shall finish my blog and hope the people reading it will gain some knowledge or information and find it interesting. Happy reading!
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
Website Designing
" Radio interview with Jakob Nielson"
An interview with Jakob Nielson I found in IT conversation network is about some questions and tips on web designing. Through this interview session, Larry Magid (the broadcaster) brings out lots of questions on how to design a useable website. Jakob Nielsen also shared his knowledge on this topic and use examples to let the audience know more about it.
First, according to Kress and van Leeuwen (1998), we learnt the elements of designing a layout are the signifying systems which are the information value, salience and framing. In the interview, Jakob Nielsen said that some bad design websites for example the small font size, it is not useable for old people. Furthermore, the complicated structure, bad search engines and lots of not related junk videos or flash animation. It makes the audience find very difficult to use the website.
Websites are also considered as multimodality. When we write, our message is expressed not only linguistically, but also through a visual arrangement of marks on a page (Kress, G & Leeuwen, TV 1998). Design something needs creativity, but some websites may look beautiful, but the audience can’t do anything-not user friendly.
Jakob Nielsen said that Google and Yahoo are good designed websites because of the simple interfaces, with less text and images. Actually, this is not simple. Getting rid of junk needs lots of creativity, the designer has to consider what information to put in and what not to. In addition, a picture worth a thousand words (Schriver, KA). According to Jakob Nielsen, a website designer has to use appropriate images that related to the topic of the website. If not, it is just a piece of junk.
In the interview, Larry questioned that some people actually go to the website just to scan through the text and do not care about the audios or videos given. Are they really useable or necessary? Jakob Nielsen answered that although text is easy to read, we can just pick a few lines which we want to know about. But, with audio and video, it can be more persuasive. For example, movie trailers. If there is just a person talking about good points of the movie, we can’t feel it without audio and visual elements. Therefore, ‘each medium has the own benefits’ (Nielsen, J 2005).
Through this interview, we can know that the materials in the website must be appropriate. The title or introduction must be in-depth and informative. Hypertexts are useable to everybody and also state clearly what will it be when the audiences click.
Reference list:
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Bell, A & Garrett, P (eds) 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford, chapter 7, pp. 186-219.
Larry’s World 2005, IT Conversations: A Network Conversation Channel, radio interview, <http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail670.html>.
Nielsen, J 2005, ‘Each medium has the own benefits’, thesis, <http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail670.html>.
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Whiley Computer Pub., New York. Chapter 6.
First, according to Kress and van Leeuwen (1998), we learnt the elements of designing a layout are the signifying systems which are the information value, salience and framing. In the interview, Jakob Nielsen said that some bad design websites for example the small font size, it is not useable for old people. Furthermore, the complicated structure, bad search engines and lots of not related junk videos or flash animation. It makes the audience find very difficult to use the website.
Websites are also considered as multimodality. When we write, our message is expressed not only linguistically, but also through a visual arrangement of marks on a page (Kress, G & Leeuwen, TV 1998). Design something needs creativity, but some websites may look beautiful, but the audience can’t do anything-not user friendly.
Jakob Nielsen said that Google and Yahoo are good designed websites because of the simple interfaces, with less text and images. Actually, this is not simple. Getting rid of junk needs lots of creativity, the designer has to consider what information to put in and what not to. In addition, a picture worth a thousand words (Schriver, KA). According to Jakob Nielsen, a website designer has to use appropriate images that related to the topic of the website. If not, it is just a piece of junk.
In the interview, Larry questioned that some people actually go to the website just to scan through the text and do not care about the audios or videos given. Are they really useable or necessary? Jakob Nielsen answered that although text is easy to read, we can just pick a few lines which we want to know about. But, with audio and video, it can be more persuasive. For example, movie trailers. If there is just a person talking about good points of the movie, we can’t feel it without audio and visual elements. Therefore, ‘each medium has the own benefits’ (Nielsen, J 2005).
Through this interview, we can know that the materials in the website must be appropriate. The title or introduction must be in-depth and informative. Hypertexts are useable to everybody and also state clearly what will it be when the audiences click.
Reference list:
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Bell, A & Garrett, P (eds) 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford, chapter 7, pp. 186-219.
Larry’s World 2005, IT Conversations: A Network Conversation Channel, radio interview, <http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail670.html>.
Nielsen, J 2005, ‘Each medium has the own benefits’, thesis, <http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail670.html>.
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Whiley Computer Pub., New York. Chapter 6.
Is Homosexuality Acceptable to the Society?
There are a few of articles in guardian.co.uk (article 1, article 2) which is about discussing the homosexuality rights. They had this televised meeting in Los Angeles and discussing the “Gay Marriage-right or wrong?”
In these few years, the media industry had come out lots of series and movies about homosexuality. The most famous representative will be the academy award winning movie “Brokeback Mountain” in 2005, directed by famous Taiwanese director Ang Lee. It had caused a world interest about homosexuality issues. Although the movie was not shown in every countries but it shows that the society now is more open-minded and there are people who willing to accept this concept to exist in this world.
Homosexuality is a term meaning the love between the same sexes. This is an arguable issue in the society nowadays. In this democratic world right now, lots of countries have given equal rights to homosexual people. For example, gay marriages are legal; there are also festivals and parades for the gay community and so on.
As what Schirato and Yell said (1996), narratives are used as ways of interpreting and structuring everyday life, and can take a powerful function in validating the events in people’s lives. Therefore, writing a heterosexual romance as a homosexual romance story. How does it affect when people they the narratives of homosexuality? Which cultural groups would accept and which would not accept it?
Whatever the text, we often need to ‘fill in the gaps’ to understand the cultural, social and specific contexts (Walsh, M 2006). To the religious groups, they may not accept homosexuality because it is against the nature. To the people in society, some may think it is acceptable because they are also human beings. So, different culture of people has their own interpretation of things.
Is homosexuality acceptable? It is just your own opinion.
Reference List:
Condron, Stephanie 2007, ‘Democratic hopefuls grilled on gay rights’, viewed 21th October 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2146207,00.html>
MacAskill, Ewen 2007, ‘Democratic rivals tread carefully at gay rights forum’, viewed 21th October 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2146724,00.html>
Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: An introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW.
In these few years, the media industry had come out lots of series and movies about homosexuality. The most famous representative will be the academy award winning movie “Brokeback Mountain” in 2005, directed by famous Taiwanese director Ang Lee. It had caused a world interest about homosexuality issues. Although the movie was not shown in every countries but it shows that the society now is more open-minded and there are people who willing to accept this concept to exist in this world.
"Movie poster of BrokeBack Mountain"
Furthermore, there is also a comedy which contains gay content and it was launched recently. “I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry”, directed by famous comedy actor Adam Sandler. This movie also shows very obviously to the people that homosexual community also has the rights to live in this world.
Furthermore, there is also a comedy which contains gay content and it was launched recently. “I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry”, directed by famous comedy actor Adam Sandler. This movie also shows very obviously to the people that homosexual community also has the rights to live in this world.
"Movie poster of I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry"
Homosexuality is a term meaning the love between the same sexes. This is an arguable issue in the society nowadays. In this democratic world right now, lots of countries have given equal rights to homosexual people. For example, gay marriages are legal; there are also festivals and parades for the gay community and so on.
As what Schirato and Yell said (1996), narratives are used as ways of interpreting and structuring everyday life, and can take a powerful function in validating the events in people’s lives. Therefore, writing a heterosexual romance as a homosexual romance story. How does it affect when people they the narratives of homosexuality? Which cultural groups would accept and which would not accept it?
Whatever the text, we often need to ‘fill in the gaps’ to understand the cultural, social and specific contexts (Walsh, M 2006). To the religious groups, they may not accept homosexuality because it is against the nature. To the people in society, some may think it is acceptable because they are also human beings. So, different culture of people has their own interpretation of things.
Is homosexuality acceptable? It is just your own opinion.
Reference List:
Condron, Stephanie 2007, ‘Democratic hopefuls grilled on gay rights’, viewed 21th October 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2146207,00.html>
MacAskill, Ewen 2007, ‘Democratic rivals tread carefully at gay rights forum’, viewed 21th October 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2146724,00.html>
Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: An introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW.
Walsh, M 2006, “Textual shift”: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian journal of language and literacy, vol.29, no.1, pp.24-37.
Advertising
Advertising is a mass-mediated communication. For communication to be classified as advertising it must be paid for, delivered to an audience via mass media, and be attempting to persuade (ciaadvertising.org 2003).
In this article which I found in guardian.co.uk (2007), is about an advertisement for a health drink has been ruled to be misleading for implying that it was recommended by three-quarters of doctors to the exclusion of other brands.
According to Walsh (2006), the purpose of each of these texts is to engage the reader in a literary narrative and the affordances of the modes, verbal and visual, are therefore designed to maximize the engagement in story and to create particular effects such as humour or fear. In this Flora health drink advertisement, it causes some disagreements to the public as it has misleading information in it.
Everybody have their own interpretation on text. It depends on their cultural background and the thinking of each person. Some people may think that it is just an advertisement and it is their own choice to choose the health drink they want to buy. Not everyone follows what the doctor’s recommendation. Maybe some people will choose it regarding the taste, price, flavour and many more perspectives.
Reference List:
ciaadvertising.org 2003, What is Advertising?, viewed 26th October 2007, <http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies/student/98_fall/theory/hornor/what.htm>
Tryhorn, C 2007, ‘Tough remedy for health drink ad’, viewed 26th October 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/oct/31/asa.advertising>
Walsh, M 2006, The ‘Textual shift’: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian journal of language and literacy, vol.29, no.1, pp.24-37.
In this article which I found in guardian.co.uk (2007), is about an advertisement for a health drink has been ruled to be misleading for implying that it was recommended by three-quarters of doctors to the exclusion of other brands.
Making advertisements is to advertise products and promote the reputation of a company. Not only must the advertisement effectively communication the desired message, but the individual audience must be willing to "buy into" the desired message (ciaadvertising.org 2003). We can see all types of advertisements on television, billboards, newspapers, flyers, internet and lots more.
Advertisements are like a multimodal layout. Multimodal texts are those texts that have more than one ‘mode’, so that meaning is communicated through a synchronisation of modes. For example, words with videos, images, music or sound (Walsh, M 2006). This advertisement has text and pictures in it with big words in green colour and the beverage product beside it.
Advertisements are like a multimodal layout. Multimodal texts are those texts that have more than one ‘mode’, so that meaning is communicated through a synchronisation of modes. For example, words with videos, images, music or sound (Walsh, M 2006). This advertisement has text and pictures in it with big words in green colour and the beverage product beside it.
"Image of the Flora advertisement"
According to Walsh (2006), the purpose of each of these texts is to engage the reader in a literary narrative and the affordances of the modes, verbal and visual, are therefore designed to maximize the engagement in story and to create particular effects such as humour or fear. In this Flora health drink advertisement, it causes some disagreements to the public as it has misleading information in it.
Everybody have their own interpretation on text. It depends on their cultural background and the thinking of each person. Some people may think that it is just an advertisement and it is their own choice to choose the health drink they want to buy. Not everyone follows what the doctor’s recommendation. Maybe some people will choose it regarding the taste, price, flavour and many more perspectives.
Reference List:
ciaadvertising.org 2003, What is Advertising?, viewed 26th October 2007, <http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies/student/98_fall/theory/hornor/what.htm>
Tryhorn, C 2007, ‘Tough remedy for health drink ad’, viewed 26th October 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/oct/31/asa.advertising>
Walsh, M 2006, The ‘Textual shift’: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian journal of language and literacy, vol.29, no.1, pp.24-37.
Google Earth, is it invasion of privacy? Or just to see what is happening around the world?
"The earth image in Google Earth"
The news articles which I found in guardian.co.uk are “Google Earth keeps London up to date but other cities have an image problem”, “Google Earth used to target Israel” and “Google Earth links with UN for environment watch”
Through the titles of these articles, we will have a doubt that, is it Google Earth a friendly and informative function or Google Earth is not good at all?
Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips (earth.google.com 2007). It is a program that allows us to search and look everywhere we want. Although the satellite images are only updated on an irregular basis (guardian.co.uk 2007) but we can still see the places clearly and know what does it looked like.
Through the titles of these articles, we will have a doubt that, is it Google Earth a friendly and informative function or Google Earth is not good at all?
Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips (earth.google.com 2007). It is a program that allows us to search and look everywhere we want. Although the satellite images are only updated on an irregular basis (guardian.co.uk 2007) but we can still see the places clearly and know what does it looked like.
"Images taken by Google Earth-Top: a city in washington, Bottom: image of hippos"
In the three articles, there are different points of view in this program. Google Earth helps the UN to do environmental watch, to see the pollution and the environment changing around the world. It is a good function to them. But there are people disagrees the usage of Google Earth as it will cause image problem and also invasion of privacy. Different stand have their own discourse or thinking in this issue.
It is also important to note that even discourses which appear to be strongly institutional in character are not necessarily attached to one group or institution, or to one function within culture (Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996).
Kress (1985) puts it ‘a discourse colonises the social world imperialistically, from the point of view of one institution’. There are millions of people in the world and of course, there will be millions of views through this issue. It is just seeing whether we use the Google Earth in a good way or not.
Reference List:
Chassay, C 2007, ‘Google Earth used to target Israel’, viewed 25th October 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/25/google.israel>
earth.google.com 2007, Explore, Search and Discover, viewed 25th October 2007, <http://earth.google.com/>
Kress, G 1985, in Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: An introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW.
Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: An introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW.
Sweney, M 2006, ‘Google Earth links with UN for environment watch’,
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/sep/14/searchengines.newmedia>
Thorpe, V 2006, ‘Google Earth Keeps London up to date but other cities have an image problem’, viewed 25th October 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/nov/26/news.travelnews>
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/sep/14/searchengines.newmedia>
Thorpe, V 2006, ‘Google Earth Keeps London up to date but other cities have an image problem’, viewed 25th October 2007, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/nov/26/news.travelnews>
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Blogs, a diary, a communicative tool
In this blogging world….
Nowadays blogging is already a trend or an interest to most of the people, especially teenagers. According to different statistics, we can see that the blog users are increasing continuously. In the LiveJournal.com (blog website) research, the most people that using blogs are ages between 16-27 years old. This trend has sweep to Asia and nearly half of those online in Asia have a blog.
Source: http://www.livejournal.com/stats.bml
Is personal blogging is a waste of time? What good do you get out of it anyway?
Blogs are a space for a person to express out everything he or she wants. People publishing their daily thoughts for all to read on their website. What is a blog? At its very basic, blogs or “Web logs” are literally online diaries with articles, writings, photos, web links or other entries made by the blogs’ creators, or “bloggers.” (abcnews.go.com 2005)
I personally feel that blogging is not a waste of time because it can be just an interest or a leisure activity to a person. Blogs also can be a way to communicate with others. Students that study abroad can communicate with their families and friends. Companies can set up blogs to show the products to clients and also allows them to give comments. Blogs have a variety of benefits to different people.
Different types of blogs
Subject Matters:
Political Blogs, Religion Blogs, Fashion Blogs, Food Blogs, Travel Blogs, Entertainment Blogs, Audio Blogs.
Device:
Moblogs (blogs for mobile phones)
Media Type:
Vlog (video blog), Linklog (hyperlink blog), Sketchlog (sketch blog), Tumblelogs (mixed media blog), Phlog (photo blog),
Although there are different genres of blogs, but most of the blogs are basically focus on text and images. Other blogs like vlogs, phlogs etc. are mostly focus on their topic. They have their own theme. Therefore, identifying different genre of blogs can be seen through the style of writing, the theme which the author chose, and the materials that posted.
The blogging community
A blogging community can be formed among a group of people that share the same interest. They will have a strong bond or friendship with each other and giving comments or having discussions in their space. For example the Malaysia Alternative Voices, it is a blog for Malaysians voice out their opinions about the country. It can be consider as a political blog.
Online vs. Print
Most often, blogs contain various forms of multimedia content (digital videos, photos, audio) and postings that rival those found in traditional print (abcnews.go.com 2005).
The difference of online and print will be the style of text. For example, animation, hypertext, audio and videos. These are the things which print-based text does not have. According to Jakob Nielson, people rarely read web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. So, writing in a website must be more concise, simple, and follow the inverted pyramid style. Compare to print, the language use is informal. In print, the length will be longer and it catches the audience by the style of writing.
Reading involves different levels of decoding, responding and comprehending at affective and cognitive levels, critiquing and analysing (Walsh, M 2006, p. 25). Designing a website must be also interactive and interesting to catch the audience attention.
New Styles of Blogs
Audio Blogs
These audio blogs, more commonly known as “podcasts”, is the equivalent of radio “on demand.” Audio Blogs were made because of the popularity of digital audio players such as Apple's iPod has urged the growth of blogs with audio content. Visitors can download or listen to the audio files.
Reference List
abcnews.go.com 2005, What is Blogging?, viewed 27 October 2007,
Microsoft 2006, Blogging Phenomenon Sweeps Asia, viewed 26 October 2007,
Nielsen, J 1997. How Users Read on the Web, viewed 4 June 2007,
Walsh, M 2006, The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual, and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp.24-37.
Nowadays blogging is already a trend or an interest to most of the people, especially teenagers. According to different statistics, we can see that the blog users are increasing continuously. In the LiveJournal.com (blog website) research, the most people that using blogs are ages between 16-27 years old. This trend has sweep to Asia and nearly half of those online in Asia have a blog.
Source: http://www.livejournal.com/stats.bml
Is personal blogging is a waste of time? What good do you get out of it anyway?
Blogs are a space for a person to express out everything he or she wants. People publishing their daily thoughts for all to read on their website. What is a blog? At its very basic, blogs or “Web logs” are literally online diaries with articles, writings, photos, web links or other entries made by the blogs’ creators, or “bloggers.” (abcnews.go.com 2005)
I personally feel that blogging is not a waste of time because it can be just an interest or a leisure activity to a person. Blogs also can be a way to communicate with others. Students that study abroad can communicate with their families and friends. Companies can set up blogs to show the products to clients and also allows them to give comments. Blogs have a variety of benefits to different people.
Different types of blogs
Subject Matters:
Political Blogs, Religion Blogs, Fashion Blogs, Food Blogs, Travel Blogs, Entertainment Blogs, Audio Blogs.
Device:
Moblogs (blogs for mobile phones)
Media Type:
Vlog (video blog), Linklog (hyperlink blog), Sketchlog (sketch blog), Tumblelogs (mixed media blog), Phlog (photo blog),
Although there are different genres of blogs, but most of the blogs are basically focus on text and images. Other blogs like vlogs, phlogs etc. are mostly focus on their topic. They have their own theme. Therefore, identifying different genre of blogs can be seen through the style of writing, the theme which the author chose, and the materials that posted.
The blogging community
A blogging community can be formed among a group of people that share the same interest. They will have a strong bond or friendship with each other and giving comments or having discussions in their space. For example the Malaysia Alternative Voices, it is a blog for Malaysians voice out their opinions about the country. It can be consider as a political blog.
Online vs. Print
Most often, blogs contain various forms of multimedia content (digital videos, photos, audio) and postings that rival those found in traditional print (abcnews.go.com 2005).
The difference of online and print will be the style of text. For example, animation, hypertext, audio and videos. These are the things which print-based text does not have. According to Jakob Nielson, people rarely read web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. So, writing in a website must be more concise, simple, and follow the inverted pyramid style. Compare to print, the language use is informal. In print, the length will be longer and it catches the audience by the style of writing.
Reading involves different levels of decoding, responding and comprehending at affective and cognitive levels, critiquing and analysing (Walsh, M 2006, p. 25). Designing a website must be also interactive and interesting to catch the audience attention.
New Styles of Blogs
Audio Blogs
These audio blogs, more commonly known as “podcasts”, is the equivalent of radio “on demand.” Audio Blogs were made because of the popularity of digital audio players such as Apple's iPod has urged the growth of blogs with audio content. Visitors can download or listen to the audio files.
Reference List
abcnews.go.com 2005, What is Blogging?, viewed 27 October 2007,
Microsoft 2006, Blogging Phenomenon Sweeps Asia, viewed 26 October 2007,
Nielsen, J 1997. How Users Read on the Web, viewed 4 June 2007,
Walsh, M 2006, The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual, and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp.24-37.
The Colourful Media World~
The Colourful Media World, this blog is mainly discuss about the media issues around the world which we did not aware of. Media is the most important method to communicate with the people. Everyday, we update ourselves through the media. Therefore, what has happened that related to the media? It is important to know about it.
The audience of this blog will be the people all over the world especially students who want to learn more about the media issues.
The audience of this blog will be the people all over the world especially students who want to learn more about the media issues.
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