Creating a weblog was made easy through the theories and the numerous step-to-step guides available on the Internet. The theories learnt from this subject were also needed to apply while designing this template and layout for the blog. The few points that were needed to be taken into consideration are that “every mode has its own affordance due to the modes' special features” (Schriver 1997), framing is one of the key elements of a good composition (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006), multimodality which encourages interactivity and engage readers with the organization itself (Walsh 2006) and last but not least, ‘The more focused your content, the more focused your readers’ Jakob Nielsen (2005).
Besides being able to apply those theories into work, there are issues which came around to be realised. Some of which are ethical issues. A blogger has the responsibilty just like a journalist to be responsible of what he/she wrote or published on his/her blog. Accountability is really vital as offensive statements or pictures can cause misunderstanding and create chaos.
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Reference:
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.
Nielsen, J 2005, Weblog Usability : The Top Ten Design Mistakes, viewed on 2 November 2007,<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html>
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., NY.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.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Instant messaging a danger?
Instant messaging or more popularly known as IM in Internet slang is by sending real time messages to another Internet user. This type of messaging is more private compared to other types of chatting where you can only chat with people you choose to invite. Users can reply instantly as if they are chatting with each other face to face in real life. Popular IMs are Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, ICQ and AIM (AOL Instant Messenger).
From Left to Right: Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messeger, ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger.
So what are the risks that we face if we use this feature? First of all, IM is a very vulnerable application where viruses and worms can attack the computer once it is transmitted through these applications. The risk of losing information especially those which are private and confidential in companies’ computer networks are really very consequential. Besides virus, abusive language, gossip, sexual advances and complaints are highly popular usages of IM in workplace (Ferrell 2003). According to Blue Coat, barely a quarter of workers used IM exclusively for business purposes, while more than 65 percent used IM for personal communications while on the company clock.
Real time messaging can occur with strangers however, which leads to a problem nowadays and this brings us back to one of my previous post on cyber crime, The Darkness in the cyber world. As mentioned in the previous post, users can stay anonymous on the Internet where pedophiles lurk. They target the young innocent children by chatting with them and since one wouldn’t know what someone is really saying through online chatting, they would easily get tricked.
Misunderstandings are easier to happen when chatting online. As Adler & Rodman (2000) said, sometimes joking remarks which are mistaken by the receiver as serious statements may cause huge problems. This may be cause by what Kress and van Leeuwen(1998) had to say “Particular cultures provide particular trainings for readers”.
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Reference:
Adler, RB & Rodman, G 2000, Understanding Human Communication, 7th edn. , Harcourt College Publishers, United States of America, pg. 147.
Ferrell, K 2003, “Sex, Abuse And Instant Messaging: Study Finds IM Problems Rampant”, viewed 26 October 2007.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20030917S0007
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.
Wise Geeks 2007, “What is Instant Messaging?”, viewed 25 October 2007. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-instant-messaging.htm
From Left to Right: Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messeger, ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger.
So what are the risks that we face if we use this feature? First of all, IM is a very vulnerable application where viruses and worms can attack the computer once it is transmitted through these applications. The risk of losing information especially those which are private and confidential in companies’ computer networks are really very consequential. Besides virus, abusive language, gossip, sexual advances and complaints are highly popular usages of IM in workplace (Ferrell 2003). According to Blue Coat, barely a quarter of workers used IM exclusively for business purposes, while more than 65 percent used IM for personal communications while on the company clock.
Real time messaging can occur with strangers however, which leads to a problem nowadays and this brings us back to one of my previous post on cyber crime, The Darkness in the cyber world. As mentioned in the previous post, users can stay anonymous on the Internet where pedophiles lurk. They target the young innocent children by chatting with them and since one wouldn’t know what someone is really saying through online chatting, they would easily get tricked.
Misunderstandings are easier to happen when chatting online. As Adler & Rodman (2000) said, sometimes joking remarks which are mistaken by the receiver as serious statements may cause huge problems. This may be cause by what Kress and van Leeuwen(1998) had to say “Particular cultures provide particular trainings for readers”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reference:
Adler, RB & Rodman, G 2000, Understanding Human Communication, 7th edn. , Harcourt College Publishers, United States of America, pg. 147.
Ferrell, K 2003, “Sex, Abuse And Instant Messaging: Study Finds IM Problems Rampant”, viewed 26 October 2007.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20030917S0007
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.
Wise Geeks 2007, “What is Instant Messaging?”, viewed 25 October 2007. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-instant-messaging.htm
Saturday, October 20, 2007
The Darkness in the cyber world
The cyber world is a place to gain information, maintain relationships and also to make friends. However, the boon always has its downside. The cyber world being a global network has a huge drawback as the users can be anonymous since identifications of the users are difficult to trace. The various kinds of cyber crimes include fraud, online gambling, online harassment, spamming, and cyber bullying and copyright issues.
Users can remain anonymous in cyber world.
The Internet has created quite a lot of issues, some of which are quite serious and receive a great deal of attention from the media. Online harassment has been quite an issue in the society as children were mainly targeted in the cyber space. There were many cases of children being tricked by online predators to be sexually harassed or worse, being a victim of child pornography. In some cases, not only children were targeted but teenagers or adults as well. The FBI is placing a lot of concentration on these cases where they received more than 500 complaints and opened dozens of cases nationwide (FBI 2006).
Two forms of cyber crimes, online sexual harrasment and cyber bullying.
Fraud can happen more easily as Nielsen (Chan 2007) says there is also “little difference between Internet users in Asia and those in the United States or Europe, because "they depend on the fundamental characteristics of the human brain, which are the same all over the world".
Copyright issues are a problem to the authorities and especially to movie or music production companies as they suffer loss due to the decrease of sales caused by piracy. File sharing is eminent in the cyber world as they are free and easy to obtain. However, file sharing using applications such as Limewire are illegal as they infringe the copyrights of the files.
Crimes are unavoidable even in the cyber world. Users can only try their best to avoid from stepping into the darkness of the cyber world and commit crimes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reference:
Chan, I 2007, Usability makes business sense, ZDNet Asia, viewed 18 October 2007. http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/internet/0,39044877,61983822,00.htm
FBI, 2006, “Social Networking Sites: Online Friendships Can Mean Offline Peril”, viewed 19 October 2007. http://www.fbi.gov/page2/april06/socialnetworking040306.htm
Users can remain anonymous in cyber world.The Internet has created quite a lot of issues, some of which are quite serious and receive a great deal of attention from the media. Online harassment has been quite an issue in the society as children were mainly targeted in the cyber space. There were many cases of children being tricked by online predators to be sexually harassed or worse, being a victim of child pornography. In some cases, not only children were targeted but teenagers or adults as well. The FBI is placing a lot of concentration on these cases where they received more than 500 complaints and opened dozens of cases nationwide (FBI 2006).
Two forms of cyber crimes, online sexual harrasment and cyber bullying.Fraud can happen more easily as Nielsen (Chan 2007) says there is also “little difference between Internet users in Asia and those in the United States or Europe, because "they depend on the fundamental characteristics of the human brain, which are the same all over the world".
Copyright issues are a problem to the authorities and especially to movie or music production companies as they suffer loss due to the decrease of sales caused by piracy. File sharing is eminent in the cyber world as they are free and easy to obtain. However, file sharing using applications such as Limewire are illegal as they infringe the copyrights of the files.
Crimes are unavoidable even in the cyber world. Users can only try their best to avoid from stepping into the darkness of the cyber world and commit crimes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reference:
Chan, I 2007, Usability makes business sense, ZDNet Asia, viewed 18 October 2007. http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/internet/0,39044877,61983822,00.htm
FBI, 2006, “Social Networking Sites: Online Friendships Can Mean Offline Peril”, viewed 19 October 2007. http://www.fbi.gov/page2/april06/socialnetworking040306.htm
Friday, October 12, 2007
Censorship in the online world
Censorship has been known to be the activity of looking carefully at published material and removing parts which are thought to be offensive or, often, politically dangerous (BBC Vocabulary 2007). Internet censorship carries the same meaning although it only happens on the Internet. There are a few countries which practices pervasive censorship according to the Reporters without Borders (RSF) and the OpenNet Initiative. Some of the nations include Cuba, Myanmar, Iran, North Korea, Syria and the People’s Republic of China.
Reporters without Borders
China however is pretty well known for their strict Internet regulations. Recently, China blocked more than 18,000 websites which were deemed “illegal”. Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia was blocked by the Chinese government since 18 October 2005 due to the government’s aim to further tighten controls on online free expression (IFEX 2005). Wikipedia was beforehand blocked in June and September 2004 by the Chinese authorities because of rebellious political content.
Wikipedia was banned from the Chinese cyberworld.
Even Google, Blogger.com and Wordpress were blocked off the Chinese Internet. Recently, the Chinese authorities laid their hands on RSS (Real Simple Syndication) (Cheng, J 2007) which is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites in order to widen the influence of the censorship.
RSS were also banned by the Chinese authorities.
In Jordan, the decision by the Department of Press and Publications to allow censorship on electronic sites has raised controversy in the country. Journalists and other media opposed this decision as it threatens journalistic freedom in Jordan.
Censorship normally happens because of cultural differences. Something which is a norm in a country might be offensive in another. Schirato and Yell (1996) stated that “context functions as cultural frames within which to make sense of texts”. This shows that cultural differences may create different opinions and cast unlike perspectives on the same issue.
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Reference:
Cheng, J 2007, “China's Great Firewall turns its attention to RSS feeds”, ars technica, viewed on 7 October 2007. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071004-chinas-great-firewall-turns-its-attention-to-rss-feeds.html
Ford, P 2007, “Why did China shut down 18,401 websites?”, CBS News, viewed on 11 October 2007. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/25/tech/main3295146.shtml
International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), “Authorities block access to online encyclopaedia”, IFEX, viewed on 11 October 2007. http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/69963
Schirato, T. & Yell, S. 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: An introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW, pp. 90-117
The Blue Plague, 2007, BBC Vocabulary, viewed on 10 October 2007. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1758_blue_plaque/vocpops/Ram_Mohun_Roy.shtml
Reporters without BordersChina however is pretty well known for their strict Internet regulations. Recently, China blocked more than 18,000 websites which were deemed “illegal”. Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia was blocked by the Chinese government since 18 October 2005 due to the government’s aim to further tighten controls on online free expression (IFEX 2005). Wikipedia was beforehand blocked in June and September 2004 by the Chinese authorities because of rebellious political content.
Wikipedia was banned from the Chinese cyberworld.Even Google, Blogger.com and Wordpress were blocked off the Chinese Internet. Recently, the Chinese authorities laid their hands on RSS (Real Simple Syndication) (Cheng, J 2007) which is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites in order to widen the influence of the censorship.
RSS were also banned by the Chinese authorities.In Jordan, the decision by the Department of Press and Publications to allow censorship on electronic sites has raised controversy in the country. Journalists and other media opposed this decision as it threatens journalistic freedom in Jordan.
Censorship normally happens because of cultural differences. Something which is a norm in a country might be offensive in another. Schirato and Yell (1996) stated that “context functions as cultural frames within which to make sense of texts”. This shows that cultural differences may create different opinions and cast unlike perspectives on the same issue.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reference:
Cheng, J 2007, “China's Great Firewall turns its attention to RSS feeds”, ars technica, viewed on 7 October 2007. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071004-chinas-great-firewall-turns-its-attention-to-rss-feeds.html
Ford, P 2007, “Why did China shut down 18,401 websites?”, CBS News, viewed on 11 October 2007. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/25/tech/main3295146.shtml
International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), “Authorities block access to online encyclopaedia”, IFEX, viewed on 11 October 2007. http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/69963
Schirato, T. & Yell, S. 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: An introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW, pp. 90-117
The Blue Plague, 2007, BBC Vocabulary, viewed on 10 October 2007. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1758_blue_plaque/vocpops/Ram_Mohun_Roy.shtml
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Social networking in the modernized way
Besides blogs, the other phenomenon of the Internet is the social networking websites. Social networking are not only available face to face or through telephones nowadays, it can all happen virtually now. These websites were made as a network for socialising catered for diverse categories of people in the society such as colleagues, classmates, friends and even families. These websites are used not only for keeping in touch but also for updating other people in the network about their life or other happenings.
A social network of friends
Social networking websites such as Friendster, Myspace and Facebook have garnered a lot of users and attention from the media plus companies. MySpace has 107 million users while Facebook has 74 million and Friendster has 27 million. This has created a lot of interest from corporations especially for advertising rights. For example, News Corp bought over MySpace on the 19th July 2005 for $580 million (BBC News 2005) which in return MySpace secured $900 million in guaranteed shared advertising revenues over three years from Google Inc. by making the online search leader the site's exclusive search provider in just over a year after that (The Star Online 2007).
Social networking on the Internet contribute a lot to the ever-growing community and the importance of maintaining relationship regardless of location are the key points these websites are acquiring so much profit. However, it is also due to the layouts, contents and the functions of these websites themselves to survive in the competitive cyber world. Friendster was top of the list in social networking websites until a few years ago with the emergence of Facebook and MySpace. Their fall was dramatic as they are trying to climb up the ladder once again (Christy 2007). Their biggest mistake which cost them the plummet was the rejection of Google’s US$30 million offer for Friendster and also because their webpages took too long a time to load. As users became fed up and moved on to other sites, MySpace and Facebook offered more than Friendster had to offer. For instance, the number of photos allowed per user profile. Photos it seems garner more views on a user’s profile as photos. As Schriver puts it, “when words and pictures are working well together, there is little doubt that they afford the reader better information than either one alone”. Thus pictures with captions work well to inform people better and avoid misunderstandings.
Facebook which provides third-party applications increase interactions for users where Walsh (2006) describes a user’s pathway as “multi-linear and multi-directional” and lots of links and content are needed to assist the user’s “learning, to attract and maintain interest”. Thus, the interaction and freedom to choose are the main attractions for website users. Failure to do so will cause less traffic in the website as interest will be loss.
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: Creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.
A social network of friendsSocial networking websites such as Friendster, Myspace and Facebook have garnered a lot of users and attention from the media plus companies. MySpace has 107 million users while Facebook has 74 million and Friendster has 27 million. This has created a lot of interest from corporations especially for advertising rights. For example, News Corp bought over MySpace on the 19th July 2005 for $580 million (BBC News 2005) which in return MySpace secured $900 million in guaranteed shared advertising revenues over three years from Google Inc. by making the online search leader the site's exclusive search provider in just over a year after that (The Star Online 2007).
Social networking on the Internet contribute a lot to the ever-growing community and the importance of maintaining relationship regardless of location are the key points these websites are acquiring so much profit. However, it is also due to the layouts, contents and the functions of these websites themselves to survive in the competitive cyber world. Friendster was top of the list in social networking websites until a few years ago with the emergence of Facebook and MySpace. Their fall was dramatic as they are trying to climb up the ladder once again (Christy 2007). Their biggest mistake which cost them the plummet was the rejection of Google’s US$30 million offer for Friendster and also because their webpages took too long a time to load. As users became fed up and moved on to other sites, MySpace and Facebook offered more than Friendster had to offer. For instance, the number of photos allowed per user profile. Photos it seems garner more views on a user’s profile as photos. As Schriver puts it, “when words and pictures are working well together, there is little doubt that they afford the reader better information than either one alone”. Thus pictures with captions work well to inform people better and avoid misunderstandings.
Facebook which provides third-party applications increase interactions for users where Walsh (2006) describes a user’s pathway as “multi-linear and multi-directional” and lots of links and content are needed to assist the user’s “learning, to attract and maintain interest”. Thus, the interaction and freedom to choose are the main attractions for website users. Failure to do so will cause less traffic in the website as interest will be loss.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reference:
Christy, L 2007, "Friendster redoubles its efforts", The Star Online, viewed 29 September 2007. http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/8/2/itfeature/18426589&sec=itfeature
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: Creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.
Scott-Joynt, J 2005, "What MySpace means to Murdoch", BBC News, viewed 1 October 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4697671.stm
The Star Online 2007, "Murdoch marvels at prescient MySpace acquisition", The Star, viewed 30 September 2007. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/18/apworld/20071018143440&sec=apworld
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.
Friday, September 21, 2007
An Introduction to Blogging
A weblog or more commonly known as blog serves as a “frequently updated personal journal chronicling links at a Web site, intended for public viewing or in short can be known as a diary on Web site” (Microsoft® Encarta® Online Dictionary 2007). These weblogs are often published by one person or a small group of writers with a common interest, feature brief, informal commentary studded with hyperlinks to related materials on the Web (Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007).
An example of a blog.
Actually the art of blogging goes all the way back in 1983 when an individual by the name Brian E. Redman posted summaries of interesting postings and threads happening somewhere else on the net. This discussion forum named mod.ber was exceptional as they had feature links as well where these characteristics were strongly associated with the term blog. However, the first usage of this term weblog was during a conference on August 14, 1995 from the delivery of a paper by two lecturers from Bond University. This term was though popularized by Jorn Barger of the weblog Robot Wisdom (http://www.robotwisdom.com/) in December 1997 (Blog Herald 2005). The origins of modern blogging were often argued as about what blogging is.
Blogs had been mushrooming in the cyber world extravagantly with only a dozen blogs in 1999 (Jensen 2003) compared with approximately 110 million blogs tracked by Technorati (http://technorati.com/) as of November 2007. In Asia, the trend to blog has come into sight not long after it all started although blogging is still not as common in Asia compared to other parts of the world.
Blogs emerged as a diary with words at first but then came the birth of subcategories of blogs such as vlog where it is blog plus videos and photolog where the blogger uses pictures to blog. Following up, it sprouted linklogs, artlogs, tumblelogs and others. The different genres that were available in the blogsphere were political blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, Splog (spam blog) and etc.
An example of a vlog (left) and a photolog (right)
Over time, blogs have not only become a trend among Internet users but are being used for other purposes such as promotional purposes. Corporate blogs are different from normal blogs as they are published and used by the organization to achieve its organizational objectives. Some examples are Dell (http://direct2dell.com/one2one/default.aspx) where they convey messages, solutions to computer problems as well as the company’s latest information to the public through this blog.
Blogging undeniably is barely unknown since even corporate sectors use them now. Thus, communities are set up to connect bloggers from all walks of life and to share common interest as well as ideas. One instance of a blogging community is the Bloggers United which was spawned to defend bloggers and the freedom of expression after the case of Jeff Ooi. The case of Jeff Ooi can be obtained from Global Voices Online.
Bloggers United Logo
Blogs enable the author to be able to use their creativity on designing their own blogs. Every blog has the same characteristic which is framing where elements are connected or disconnected signifying that they belong together in some sense (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006). The columns for the post, the profile, links and other features are divided appropriately for better legibility since Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) said that framing is one of the key elements of a good composition. Hence, blogs are a good way for spreading messages with the flexibility of design and content.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reference:
Blog Herald 2005, Duncan, viewed 21 September 2007. http://www.blogherald.com/2005/03/06/a-short-history-of-blogging/
Emerging Alternatives: A Brief History of Weblogs 2003, Mallory Jensen, viewed on 21 September 2007. http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2003/5/blog-jensen.asp?printerfriendly=yes
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, London.
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Dictionary 2007, Msn Encarta, viewed on 20 September 2007. http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/weblog.html
Technorati 2007, Technorati, viewed on 18 September 2007. http://www.technorati.com/about
An example of a blog.
Actually the art of blogging goes all the way back in 1983 when an individual by the name Brian E. Redman posted summaries of interesting postings and threads happening somewhere else on the net. This discussion forum named mod.ber was exceptional as they had feature links as well where these characteristics were strongly associated with the term blog. However, the first usage of this term weblog was during a conference on August 14, 1995 from the delivery of a paper by two lecturers from Bond University. This term was though popularized by Jorn Barger of the weblog Robot Wisdom (http://www.robotwisdom.com/) in December 1997 (Blog Herald 2005). The origins of modern blogging were often argued as about what blogging is.
Blogs had been mushrooming in the cyber world extravagantly with only a dozen blogs in 1999 (Jensen 2003) compared with approximately 110 million blogs tracked by Technorati (http://technorati.com/) as of November 2007. In Asia, the trend to blog has come into sight not long after it all started although blogging is still not as common in Asia compared to other parts of the world.
Blogs emerged as a diary with words at first but then came the birth of subcategories of blogs such as vlog where it is blog plus videos and photolog where the blogger uses pictures to blog. Following up, it sprouted linklogs, artlogs, tumblelogs and others. The different genres that were available in the blogsphere were political blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, Splog (spam blog) and etc.
An example of a vlog (left) and a photolog (right)
Over time, blogs have not only become a trend among Internet users but are being used for other purposes such as promotional purposes. Corporate blogs are different from normal blogs as they are published and used by the organization to achieve its organizational objectives. Some examples are Dell (http://direct2dell.com/one2one/default.aspx) where they convey messages, solutions to computer problems as well as the company’s latest information to the public through this blog.
Blogging undeniably is barely unknown since even corporate sectors use them now. Thus, communities are set up to connect bloggers from all walks of life and to share common interest as well as ideas. One instance of a blogging community is the Bloggers United which was spawned to defend bloggers and the freedom of expression after the case of Jeff Ooi. The case of Jeff Ooi can be obtained from Global Voices Online.
Bloggers United Logo
Blogs enable the author to be able to use their creativity on designing their own blogs. Every blog has the same characteristic which is framing where elements are connected or disconnected signifying that they belong together in some sense (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006). The columns for the post, the profile, links and other features are divided appropriately for better legibility since Kress & van Leeuwen (2006) said that framing is one of the key elements of a good composition. Hence, blogs are a good way for spreading messages with the flexibility of design and content.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reference:
Blog Herald 2005, Duncan, viewed 21 September 2007. http://www.blogherald.com/2005/03/06/a-short-history-of-blogging/
Emerging Alternatives: A Brief History of Weblogs 2003, Mallory Jensen, viewed on 21 September 2007. http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2003/5/blog-jensen.asp?printerfriendly=yes
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, London.
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Dictionary 2007, Msn Encarta, viewed on 20 September 2007. http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/weblog.html
Technorati 2007, Technorati, viewed on 18 September 2007. http://www.technorati.com/about
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
A warm welcome to this blog
This blog's main purpose is to discuss about the issues about the media, online media to be more precise. Students and anyone alike are most welcomed to participate in these discussions on this blog. With this blog, i hope to create more awareness about the issues running in the media as well as to garner more ideas and opinions about them. Most importantly, I would wish to improve my document designning skills.
Once again, welcome to this blog!!!
Once again, welcome to this blog!!!
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