Blogging Makes the World Go Round

Fun fact - this blog is only one of at least 185 million blogs (Technorati Inc, 2008) that make up the blogosphere, and the number increases daily. Thus, it is safe to say that the blogosphere is here to stay.

Although the majority of blogs are of a personal nature (Herring et. al 2004), with just your everyday Joe and Jane sharing their stories, there is a whole lot more that can be gained from blogging than merely informing the largely nameless, faceless cyberspace audience of your daily experiences. After all, the allure of blogging lies in its benefits.

But have we, as Malaysians, benefited from the blogging boom?

Definitely.

The emergence of political blogs by opposition party members in Malaysia provided an alternative viewpoint, as opposed to the conventional views provided by the government-owned mainstream media. This unfettered freedom of speech led to the 'political tsunami' in the 2008 General Elections that handed over 5 states to the opposition party, leading to a new era in Malaysian politics.

Blogs also improve social relationships because they encourage interpersonal communication. Bloggers can add widgets such as chatboxes, which stimulate discussion between the readers of the blog and the authors themselves. Readers are also able to comment on the posts and provide additional insight.

Lastly, blogs are a boon for the business and advertising sector. The blogosphere demographic is wide and diverse, enabling advertisers to reach a large audience when they conduct advertising campaigns on blogs. This is achieved through blog advertising communities such as Nuffnang, which has 80, 000 bloggers in their arsenal in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and the Phillipines (Nuffnang 2009) and AdSense by Google, which has an even larger audience.

Therefore, blogging is a phenomenon worthy of discussion, and will be further explored in subsequent postings.

(297 words)

References

Herring, SC, Scheidt, LA, Bonus, S & Wright, E 2004 'Bridging the gap: the genre analysis of weblogs', Proceedings 37th Annual HICSS Conference, Big Island, Hawaii.

Nuffnang Malaysia, Our story, viewed 14 June 2009, <http://www.nuffnang.com.my/about-us>

Technorati Inc 2008, State of the blogosphere 2008, viewed 15 June 2009, <http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere>

What is a Good Document?

Words complement visuals in an effective document (Reep 2006) and helps readers read efficiently, in addition to emphasising the most important content (Anderson cited in Putnis & Petelin 1996, p. 254).  

I will use both my group presentation and individual presentation slides to demonstrate how the application of good design principles and the usage of good writing result in a good document.  

Putnis and Petelin (1996) advocate the balance of visuals (graphics) and text within the page. Failure to create this balance would result in an overabundance of either negative (white space) or positive (text, visuals, title) space.  I did not fully adhere to this rule of balance for my group presentation slides, resulting in Figure 1.      

Figure 1

Clearly, there is no text to balance the image.  This is rectified in my individual presentation slides (as shown in Figure 2), where there is a column of text and a column of an image; thus, the visuals and text here have balanced weight, making them more attractive to the audience.

Figure 2

Dabner (2003, p. 58) also notes that 'the greatest contrast is between black type on white background'.  I used a soft peach background on my group presentation slides (Figure 3), and while it was soothing to the eye, it resulted in dull slides.      

Figure 3

Therefore, I used a white background for my individual presentation slides (Figure 4) and this resulted in a high contrast that made the text clear and the images vivid.  

Figure 4

Besides that, Evans and Thomas (2004, p. 157) state that 'illustrations can also help an audience visualize something that can't be seen or better understand something that's complex'.  Inadequate illustrations were used for the group presentation slides (as shown in Figure 5), resulting in abstract concepts being explained in 'complicated, boring text' (Dabner, 2003, p. 70).

Figure 5

Therefore, more illustrations were used in the individual presentation slides (Figure 6 and 7) to aid the audience's understanding without the need for lengthy textual explanations.  

Figure 6

Figure 7

Good writing is highly subjective as there are many forms of writing, such as the scientific and the technical, where information is relayed 'directly and literally' (Rothman 2005).  Rothman (2005) also advocated that writing be 'specific and include all relevant details'. 

Therefore, I applied all these principles in my slides in order to create a good document in terms of design and writing, resulting in a greater understanding, and acceptance, of it by my audience.

References

Dabner, D 2003, Design and layout: understanding and using graphics, Quarto, London.

Reep, DC 2006, Technical writing: principles, strategies and readings, Allyn and Bacon, Boston.

Evans, P & Thomas, M 2004, Exploring the elements of design, Delmar Learning, New York.

Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, Professional communication: principles and applications, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Rothman, S 2005, "What makes good scientific technical writing?", Associated Content, viewed 17 April 2009, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9446/error

The Purpose Driven Blog

Ever wanted to learn more about the fascinating field of publication and design?

www.poweredtemplates.com, 2009

Now you can!

How?

I will provide well researched and well written blogposts relating to issues in publication and design, which will be substantiated by credible sources and an adequate number of references.

Where?

Right here, at the aptly named Issues in Publication & Design!

Why?

The purpose of this blog is to highlight, analyze and discuss issues in publication and design, with the aim of informing and educating readers about this ever evolving field.

This blog, which is a 'complex interplay of written text, images, and other graphic or sound elements...' (Kress & van Leeuwen 2006, p. 17), will offer a rich, 'multimodal' (Walsh 2006) learning experience through its use of various modes.

What?

This blog will delve deep into the field of document design and writing, and particular emphasis will be placed on the publishing field.

Who?

The target audience are the tech savvy urban youth and young adults. More specifically, anyone with an interest in the fields of publication and design, especially document designers (whether aspiring, amateur, or professional) and fellow IPD students.

When?

Over the duration of Semester 2 in my 1st year of a BA in Communication and Media Management from the University of South Australia.

Now that we've established the 5 W's and 1 H, you know that you've come to the right place for honest, intelligent views on issues related to the field of publication and design.

Stay tuned for more posts!

References

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, New York.

Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australia Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, n0.1, p. 24.