Blogging Phenomenon, Censorship and Surveillance.

Several workshops were held recently to commemorate the World Press Freedom Day. At the Workshop in Colombo, Sri Lanka a veteran British journalist Barton Fiona Barton said “There have been many instances in the recent times where bloggers and other new media users had exposed state corruption, revealed sensitive military details and diplomatic blunders”. At the UNESCO’s (2011) presentations it has been mentioned that there are more “Online Reporters” such as bloggers imprisoned than traditional journalists. It has been a point of discussion at all these presentations that Governments are using digital tools to track down and arrest bloggers when it affects them.  However, in certain cases the bloggers are, actually, guilty for not following journalistic standards. Looking at the current situation I feel that censorships in most situations are unreasonable. But then, bloggers will have to decide to what extent they are willing to take risks.                                                                                                      

Food for thought.

 If Governments and other institutions continue their surveillance unreasonably will bloggers adopt a self imposed censorship? Without the freedom of expression can we expect bloggers to give us credible news in the future? Will the speed of flow of information be affected via online?  

     

          Reference

  

• Srl Lanka Press Institute. (2011). 21^st Century Media:  New Frontiers New Barriers. Colombo ,Sri Lanka, 3 May. [Online]. Available from. http://sundaytimes.lk/11508/News/nws_22.html  
•  
• UNESCO, (2011). New Barriers: Online Blocking, Censorship, Surveillance, Safety of Journalists and Bloggers. Newseum, Washington. 2 – 3 May. [Online]. Available from http://www.unesco.org/news/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project-activities/world 
• Internet Censorship, image available at http://www.google.com.my/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.voucherme.my/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/internet-censorship.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blog.voucherme.my/2009/08/page/2/&usg=__Z6Fzz9JyvzHKcoPpXKy_2Qb1vOQ=&h=200&w=250&sz=27&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=FCw8bsil3Uc8oM:&tbnh=125&tbnw=160&ei=uirrTfTrGYLqrAf6_ujhBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcensorship%2Bfor%2Bbloggers%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D666%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=148&vpy=219&dur=791&hovh=160&hovw=200&tx=101&ty=103&page=1&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0&biw=1280&bih=666

• Censorship, Image available at http://www.google.com.my/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0HorewWBB7rnssHZsQ3N4u8ylgi5K3KXLxOAoPoMZCHHTQFivcFv65A7iVhvBsjhOBkLBzoO_vv8lNrgohqnB606uekFY7Xvfh3O37jRH2lyNa5B4y0No0IZ1I2Ga8fmZ9nieqzYdEoA/s1600/censorship5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://empty-nest-expat.blogspot.com/&usg=__A9qFMBLLqRpShNzlmaYSrpRQ1vc=&h=518&w=400&sz=21&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=ASyQRmcNUFSnMM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=98&ei=uirrTfTrGYLqrAf6_ujhBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcensorship%2Bfor%2Bbloggers%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D666%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1042&vpy=221&dur=3090&hovh=256&hovw=197&tx=110&ty=144&page=1&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:27,s:0&biw=1280&bih=666

                                     

Document Design

Print designs contain static elements and the visual impact is as required by the author. Web designs function differently as the relationships and impacts depend on how the user moves the elements By scrolling, clicking and navigating  (Nielson 1999). Document design means the physical appearance of the document and the text and the visuals must be presented to complement each other (Reep 2006). Some web pages are more eye catching than others. It is due to the proper use of the concepts  of document design. For a  good presentation it is necessary to understand such concepts. Web designs must speak clearly to the audience with its interactivity and must not be cluttered with mundane information (Marquez 2010). There are 6 basic document design principles for effective presentation. They are ‘Balance’, ‘Proximity’, ‘Alignment’, ‘Consistency’, ‘Contrast’ and ‘White Space’ (Bear no.d.).

  1).    Balance

The elements in the design must be visually balanced so that no section is heavier than the other unless it is intentional.

                                                      

                                                                                        

                    (Source: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprinciples/tp/Principles_of_Design.htm)

 2). Proximity /    Unity

Placing elements close to each other to interpret their close relationship or vice versa.    

                                                               

                          (Source: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprinciples/tp/Principles_of_Design.htm)

                                                   

                                              

3).  Alignment

The type and graphics must be aligned to make reading easier. Ex.  Type from left to right , top to bottom etc.

                                                   

                  

              (Source: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprinciples/tp/Principles_of_Design.htm)                                             

 4)  Consistency / Repetition

 Repetition of elements correctly helps the reader to navigate the designs to interpret the design correctly.

                                                         

                                                          

                     (Source:  http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprinciples/tp/Principles_of_Design.htm)

5) Contrast /  Salience

This is the to make certain elements standout by using contrasting colours, sizes  of elements, placing them in different positions to standout etc.

                                                              

                         (Source: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprinciples/tp/Principles_of_Design.htm)

                          


 6) White Space


 It is important to understand that too much of  graphics should not be crammed into the design as it will be difficult to read the graphics correctly.

           

                          (Source: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprinciples/tp/Principles_of_Design.htm)                                                   

References

Bear, J.H. (no. d.), Principles of design,About.com Guide, [Online] Available at
<http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprinciples/tp/Principles_of_Design.htm>

Marquez, L. (2010), How to Make a Good PowerPoint Presentation, Ezinearticle,  [Online], Retrieved  7 June 2011, Available  at< http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=4313178 >

Nielson, J. (1999), Difference Between Print Design and Web Design, [Online], Retrieved 7June 2011,  Available  at  < http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html >

                                                       

Putnis P. & Petelin R. (19960, Writing to communicate in Professional Professional Communication: Principles and Applications, Prentice Hall, Sydney.  Pg. 223 - 263

Reep, D. (2006), Principles of document design, Technical Writing,   edn. 6, Pearson Edu. New York.  Pg. 133 - 172

Shriver, A. (1997), Dynamics In Document Design, Creating Texts for readers, pg. 361 - 441

Blogging Communities and Methods to Build a Community

Blog Community is a social network where different people communicate with each on a particular topic or purpose on the same technological blogging platform.  According to Kinkeldei (2007), it shares information and knowledge from different individuals by blog posts and strengthens the communicative purpose. The community is bounded by a set of technologies and use tools such as usernames, passwords  or registration.

According to White (2006), there are three main types of Blogging communities in the society and y hybrid communities which derive from them. The main types are ‘The Single Blog/ Blogger Centric Community’, ‘The Central Connecting Topic Community’ and ‘The Boundaried Community. 

                

1)       The Single Blog / Blogger Centric Community

Figure 2: Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community

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

       

                                                        

   -   Nancy White  Article

                                            

In this type of community an individual or an organization is the owner of the blog. The blog could have multiple authors who work for it but it does not  contain an aggregation of blogs. The blog owner provides the features to the community to interact with the blog. If the blog owner closes his blog the community ends. An example of a single blog is Interplast.

2)      The Central Connecting Topic Community

                                        Figure 3: Topic Centric Community

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

                                               

   - Nancy White             

In this type of community there is a cluster of spread across the community. The blogs are focused on a single issue and it allows for many views to be expressed. There is no single technological platform and the community interacts with hyperlinks such as blog posts, tagging, comments, trackbacks etc.  An Example of this type of community is Global Voices Community.

3)        Boundaried  Community

       Figure 4: Boundaried Communities

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

 Nancy White       

In this type of community there is a collection of blogs on a single platform which could consists many topics or purposes.

It consists of a member register. The member is allowed the chance to create a blog. Examples of these types of communities are. MySpace, Yahoo 360, March of Dimes, Share Your Story etc.

International Network For Social Net work Analysis is a blogging community with 1604 individuals and 2621 Organizations in its membership list (INSNA  2010) .  Its members provide information on vital social issues by blogs , podcasts and photo uploads.  

                               

         

References

Kinkeldei, B. (2007), Forging Connection and Promoting Growth Through Blog Communities, [Online], 5 June 2011, Available  at < http://www.21publish.com/pub/21publish/blogging-whitepaper.pdf >

Wei,C. (2004), Formation of Norm in a Blog Community, University of Washington, [Online], Retreived 5 June 2011, Available at  < http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/formation_of_norms.html  >

White, N. (2006), Blogs and Community – Launching a New paradigm for Online Community, The Knowledge Tree,  [Online], Edition 11, Retrieved 5 June 2011, Available at  < http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

International Network For Social Net work Analysis , (2010), [Online]  Retrieved  5 June 2011, Available at   <  http;//www.insna.org/ >

Reflection on being a blogger

Reflections on being a Blogger

It is hard for me to imagine what it would be  without the internet. As a student involved in communication and design the study material that I gathered from the internet and from blogging is invaluable. My blog has paved the way for me to be involved in community journalism. It is like having a conversation and I have been able to share my views on academic matters with my colleagues. In many instances I have been able to obtain clarifications on publishing and design issues whenever it was necessary. It helped me to understand them  better. I intend to continue being a blogger targeting my colleagues so that I can continue to share information on media issues.                                           

                                                                                            

Blogs as a phenomenon and how it benefits the community

Blogging has become a phenomenon with people to build relations and interact with the internet users around the world. According to a Technorati (2006)report , 100,000 new blogs are created daily with 1.3 million posts.  By the end of the year 2011 the number of bloggers is likely to increase in millions.

                                        

     (Source: http://www.briansolis.com/2009/11/rumors-of-the-death-of-blogs-are-greatly-exagerated/)

There are blogging trends which can be classified as ‘Political Blogging’, Social Blogging’ and ‘Economical blogging. Political blogging is focused on politics and economic blogging is for business activities. Blogging for personal affairs, entertainment social affairs are in the category of social blogging.

According to Microsoft (2006) nearly half of the internet users in Asia have a blog. Most of these blogs are social blogs to interact with family and friends. In Korea blogging is a part of everyday life and they spend around 3 hours daily on it.  In the west it is the trend is slightly different. They blog a higher percentage for Technology and general purposes.  

                                       

                 Source: http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/article/leading-average-top-blog-trends)

Blogging trends in UK

                                         

Effects on the Malaysian Community                                 

Blogging has been beneficial to the Malaysian community. The Malaysian newspapers are often biased in their news towards the Governments as thenewspapers are State owned. The Malaysians rely heavily in their blogging to obtain the correct political news. Ex.  Jeff Ooi. According to Sabahan.com (2006), 44% of Malaysian users to social blogging, 40 % for business purposes and 16 % for politics. This indicates that social blogging has become a trend as high as business blogging.

References

Blogging is bringing new voices to the online world, 2006, Pew Internet, Available at < http://www.pewinternet.org/Press-Releases/2006/Blogging-is-bring-new-voices-to-the-online-world-aspx  >    

Everyone’s reading it, Xiaxue.blogspot.com, Available at<   http://xiaxue.blogspot.com

 Media Paradigm Shift, 2009, The Guardian Media,  Available at< http://www.Guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2057915,00.html  >

Latest Blog Updates from Asia , 2011,  Available at< http://www.bloggersinasia.com/ >

                        

Druckman, V, Sobel, J, Martelli, D, Bourgeois, A, & Asher, J , 2010, State of the Blogosphere 2010,  Available at< http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010 >         

                      

McLean, J, 2009, State of State of the Blogosphere 2009 Introduction, Technorati,  Available at  < http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction/ >  

Wong, A , 2009, Top 100 Malaysian Blogs, Available  at < http:// www.riceblogger.com/top-100-malasian-blogs >

Solis, B, 2009, Rumours of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated, Available at <http://www.briansolis.com/2009/11/rumors-of-the-death-of-blogs-are-greatly-exagerated/>

                     

                                       

             

                                                                                                                                            

New forms of Media Publishing

                      (Source: http://kevinlokinbong.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-forms-of-media-publishing.html)                   

  

Evidently new forms of media publishing have emerged rapidly all over the world. The current trend is to generate new means of publishing to maximize the potentials of publishing information via online. The ingenuity of the internet has made it possible for news, magazines articles etc. to be easily accessible daily and also to be more interactive with “Twitter “and “Facebook”. Multimodality which involves video, music and visual arrangement of applications have made the media ecosystems much richer and diverse.  Don’t we prefer the visuals to hoary publishing systems of yesteryear? In Malaysia alone there are over 10 million users of Facebook. Mark Deuze, a professor from Leiden University, Nederland’s and John Hartley, a research director from the ARC Centre of Excellence, Australia have expressed their views in the ABC Radio National (10 April 2008). Deuze says in the case of online broadcasts, the media companies are giving people a voice to content production and taking advantage of the fact they do not have to pay for it.  While it is a fact I think the readers benefit much more by having an opportunity to express their opinions through the facility to interact. What about the sharing of knowledge among readers? Groups with similar interests come together with interaction and create portals to share knowledge. Can we interact to this extent with conventional forms of publication?

Source  ABC Radio National, www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport

Reference

ABC Radio National, “Media Work Media Practice”, broadcasted on 10 April 2008, www. Abc. Net. Au/rn/mediareport, Deuze, Mark, “Media Work”, Polity Press

Kress, G and Van Leeuwan, T, 1998, ” Front Pages : ( the critical) analysis of newspaper layout”, Approach to the media discourse,  pp 186- 219

Lau, C, 2007, “The Advantages of Video Blogging, Charles Lau, Viewed on 20^th April 2011, available at http://www.charleslau.com/blog/advantages-of-video-blogging

Naughton, J N D, “Blogging and the Emerging Media Ecosystems, viewed on 20^th April, 2011,

available at http;//reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmindocuments…/blogging.pdf

Lo,K, 2011,"Issues In Publication and Design"  available at <http://kevinlokinbong.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-forms-of-media-publishing.html>

Classification Types of Weblogs (Blogs)

  As a student taking Issues in Publication and Design I look forward to enhancing my knowledge on weblogs through this assignment. It will assist me further in understanding publication and design techniques that I have studied throughout my course.

This post contains two types of classification in use. One is a generalized system and the other one is a more comprehensive system.

  Simon, M. 2008, A Taxonomy of Blogs, provides the generalized system which contains 9 types of blogs.                   

They are

• ·         Phamphleteering blog 
• ·         Digest  blog
• ·         Advocacy
• ·         Popular Mechanics
• ·         Exhibition blog
• ·         Gatewatcher
• ·         Diary
• ·         Advertisement
• ·         News  blog

Technical Talk (2010) provides a comprehensive classification. It is based on 4 types.

1)      Types of blog content -  Videolog, linklog, sketchlog, photoblog and Tumbleblog (mixed media format)

2)      The device used to blog -  Moblog which is blogging with a mobile phone or PDA’s.

3)      Main subject discussed or genre – Like education, travel, music etc.

4)      Legal status of the blog - Whether it is private, public, personal, corporate etc.

 Proper classification of blogs together with the use of tag links, hyperlinks, forums chat space, and comment post etc. have facilitated the readers to be more interactive. Simon is of the view that the 9 types of classification are adequate and simple. This might be true for general readers but not in the case of those who need to read a blog for specific information. 

Source   ABC Radio National, www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport

References

Bowker, Geoffrey  C. &  Star,  Susan Leigh, “ Sorting Things Out: Classifications and Its Consequences”, available at <www.amazon.com>

Lambe, Patrick, “Organising Knowledge, Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organizational Effectiveness”, available at <www.taxotips.com/resources/books/amazon.com>

Simon, M,  2008, “A Taxonomy of Blogs”,  The Media Report, ABC TV viewed on  19 April 2011, available at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm                                            

“The 8 different type of blogging in 2008” available at <http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20080124/5040/>

“Types of Blogs”, Technical Talk.net 2010, viewed on 21^st April 2011, available at <http://www.technicaltalk.net/index.php/topic.95.0.html>