Reflection

Writing has always been easy for me, especially because I enjoy micro-blogging so much and enjoy the occasional essay write ups. However, I can firmly say that I have not applied any formal theories that I have learned recently and thought that if you can speak the language then you can write the language. Unfortunately, I was terribly mistaken. There are many concepts and theories that need to be understood because writing a document has many aspects to it consisting of far more than just words. Kress and Van Leeuwen (1998) mentions that there has to be considerations of social semiotics that help function a full system if communication such as the ideational metafunction, the interpersonal metafunction and the textual metafunction. Based on these aspects, the document designer will be able to create relevant, interactive and proper usage of text along with visuals. With all that has learned in the past few weeks, I now acquire the proper methods of blogging not only for academic purposes but for whatever material I may design. I now understand that a proper blogger would bear in mind the ethics of publishing; clearly convey a message using proper prose and graphics and apply relevant principles. It is also highly important to take a moment and understand what the audience is instead of writing what feels good to me. There has to be proper balance and consistency when it comes to design principles according to Reep (2006). I have truly learned a lot and am prepared now to produce documents that are well off and worthy.

References

Reep, DC 2006, Technical writing: document design, Pearson/Longman, New York.

Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T 2006. Reading images. Chapter 1: The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication.

Multimodality and Genre Change

It amazing to see how far technology has taken us nowadays, even books and magazines are being reinvented with the wonder that in the Internet. When I was a child, I remember reading simple storybooks that transported to a world of fantasy. That itself was magical to me. My parents made sure that I was well equipped with books because back then, it was the only way of developing a child’s mind. Nowadays, children seem more tech savvy than I am with the ability to use digital devices that allows them to download unlimited amount of information and because of this awareness amongst children these days, publishers are now taking notice and have come up with the idea of online children magazines that would help reshape their minds.

Sivek (2011) wrote an article for Public Broadcasting Service about the revolution of online magazines that cater for young children. Apparently established publishers of well know children resources are now venturing into new heights in order to get the attention of their audiences. The purpose for the online venture is to inspire people who put effort in digital magazines for adults and to mould a younger generation in being an urban experienced bunch of reader through digital media. With this, publishers take advantage of educating and informing with the availability of application downloads. Timbuktu as an example off an iPad news magazine that makes boring news seem fun and exciting by designing kid friendly layouts with added video and graphics. This allows children to understand news and learn from it. Furthermore, well-known publishers like Ladybug and Cricket are also boarding this revolution train by offering their versions of children magazines with their very own iPhone app’s. The main concern is the introduction of digital magazine to children and how accessible is it for children. There are also concerns for the difficulty in translating what is on print to a digital form. This then leads to advertising challenges and so forth. However, if done well children will then be able to have interactive opportunities through digital magazines.

In my opinion this is a very good progress that can either have an amazing receiving by the public or could be a complete failure because of the apparent challenges. The publishers have to have the transition of print to digital very carefully because both require different approaches. Walsh (2006)mentions that there are differences between reading print and digital document so even more difference when it comes to translating the two. There is the case of different affordance and also different processing codes. This has to be properly analysed buy publishers. Reep (2006) mentions that document designers have to understand the design features, design principles, graphic aid functions and so on. This understanding will then help with the transition, accessibility and advertising. Therefore these concepts and theories have to be constantly in mind.

References 

Reep, DC 2006, Technical writing: document design, Pearson/Longman, New York .

Sivek, SC 2011, ‘Children's magazines cater to true early adopters with mobile apps’, Public Broadcasting Service, 17 May, < http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/05/childrens-magazines-cater-to-true-early-adopters-with-mobile-apps137.html>.

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.

Mobile Gaming and Viral Marketing

Mobile gaming has now become the ‘In’ thing. I, myself unfortunately own a handheld device that is as up to date to download games and what not, however I do envy those who can because the variety of games via mobile now is remarkably vast. Every day in college I stumble upon students who are hooked to their smartphones not for the purpose of texting anymore but for the soul purpose of gaming. The progress of gaming itself has gone beyond what I have imagined considering the games I use to play were on old, chunky devices such as cartridge Gameboys by Nintendo.  

These days, you would be regarded as oblivious if you not know the existence of Angry Bird.  Angry Bird is safe to say the currently most popular game on a handheld device. The Guardian on Thursday, 19 May 2011 wrote an article on the progress of this gaming revolution stating that it is a phenomenon that is continuing to grow. It has generated big time revenue with more than 200 million downloads and the collaboration of the hit movie Rio. There are stories spreading around like wildfire stating that the developer, Rovio in in talks with expanding the franchise in difference locations around the globe. There are also talks about Disney collaborations. Angry bird has gotten its success due to the as-funds on Google-powered smartphones. Analytics firm Distimo and market research company Newzoo who focused research on Angry Bird Apple’s App Stores is planning to take advantage and expand commercial services. 

These expansions of mobile devices have truly brought in revenue for affiliated companies. The idea is for the companies to cease the moment and understand the audience in the market in order to make this lucrative means last. This new form of gaming in the media ecosystem depends a lot on marketing strategies and audience research. Schriver (1997) discusses in his concept that document designers need to take a moment and stop their designing and understand how readers interact with the document itself. This is a helpful concept that can be applied in the gaming world because the marketers need to understand the needs of audiences before proceeding. So the mobile gaming world has to continue to meet the demands if they want to continue to expand. According to Soh and Tan (2008), there are three main factors that fuel mobile games and that developer’s need to keep in mind constantly, one being the fact of increasing mobile device penetration rates; the quality delivery of visuals and audio; and the accessibility of Wi-Fi that allows easy downloads. These factors have cause mobile gaming to increase in popularity and allowing viral marketing.

References

Dredge, S 2011, ‘Angry Birds: 200m downloads are the tip of the mobile gaming iceberg’, guardian, 19 May, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2011/may/19/iphone-game-stats>.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub.,New York.

Soh, OB & Tan, CY 2008, ‘Mobile gaming’, Communications of the ACM, vol. 51,  no.3, pp.35-39, viewed 11 June 2011, < http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?sid=bae7437e-37ea-4cdc-866d-1693aa560650%40sessionmgr111&vid=5&hid=112&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=bth&AN=31317837>.

Ethical Publishing Principles

There is an ethical approach to everything in life. Even more so when publishing a material or document. Many seem to overlook this aspect especially when bloggers go overboard with stating things that are highly insensitive and unethical. What’s even worst is when the main media itself makes this horrifying mistake.

On Monday, 14 March 2011, The Star reported that Berita Harian made a very much needed apology for a cartoon has been published. This cartoon wasn’t simple any cartoon but the fact that it portrayed mockery towards the unfortunately devastation in Japan. After the going public with the carton in the newspaper, Berita Harian immediately had hate mails and disappointing views from the public because of their insensitivity during this point and time of grief. Apparently the establish publication did not view the cartoon to be unethical and somehow managed to go public. However, the critics were severe considering Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin tweeted his dissatisfaction; Datuk Mior Kamarul Shahid mentioned that “it is unfortunate that is was under the Berita Harian Sdn Bhd group and Selangor executive Councillor Elizabeth Wong simply tweeted that the cartoon was not even humorous. The citizens were so humiliated that action had to be taken against “inappropriate cartoons”. It was encouraged by Seri Setia assemblyman Nik Nazmi Nik Azmi that the public take part on signing an online petition against unethical cartoons. The link is as follow if you wish to be a part of the petition http://www.petitiononline.com/bharian/petition.html .

In my opinion, the publication of this cartoon was avoidable considering the cartoon had to go through an editing procedure before it was actually published. Such drawings would have been discarded with especially since it isn’t just an act of mockery but a heartless gesture at that. This also sets are bad example for all further students who are taught to have proper ethics when writing or publishing. Van Krevelen, L (2005, pp.39) states that “publishers have an unique opportunity to further the needed ethical renaissance of the global society, just by working professionally and by observing and maintaining the principles that have made their profession important to the creation of information, important to creativity in civil society.” With this responsibility, the media has to be aware of how graphics can come off easily as offensive. Publishers have to be aware of the visual cues that are being conveyed. Schriver (1997) mentions that any visual or verbal cues we present may be considered important and revealing to some readers while the same cue will be ignored by others, even worst, seen as an offense by others.

References

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub.,New York.

Wong, PM 2011, ‘Berita Harian issues public apology over tsunami cartoon’, theStar, 14 March.

Van Krevelen, L 2005, ‘Truth and heresy: the ethics of publishing in the 21st century’, Publishing Research Quarterly, vol. 20, no.4, pp.35-40, viewed 10 June 2011, 

<http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?sid=a2dda5d7-12f5-4df9-9411-a23d159be22d%40sessionmgr15&vid=3&hid=9&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=16553122>.

Copy and Paste : Plagiarism.

Copy and paste seems to be the fastest learned shortcut on the computer keyboard. This I am certain because this function of Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V is used so often that many people tend to overlook the ethics of copywriting. Many students take this for granted and as a first year student, I too am guilty as charged. This semester we were strictly asked to submit our assignments in a plagiarism detecting software and this has definitely thought me a lesson. 

According to BBC magazine (2 March 2011), there were several high profile cases that all been accused of plagiarism dating from the past till now and unfortunately will be ever present. This included a German defense minister on a doctoral thesis; Colonel Gaddafi’s son on his PhD thesis; Kaavya Viswanathan on her novel; US vice-president Joe Biden on his speech and Martin Luther King on his doctoral thesis. This is an even apparent issue these days because the abundance of information online that allows the opportunity to duplicate and to fabricate. Universities are trying their best to curb this issue of copy and paste in essay writings but in the end it boils done to proper referencing. Apparently, students are still unaware on how to properly cite and write footnotes to credit researchers because rewriting points of other is not necessarily plagiarism if done the academic way. Educators are also encouraged to identify mistakes and plagiarism themselves instead of relying on software’s because it can be difficult to detect otherwise.

As a student, I do have my fair share of slip ups when it comes to citing other works but it is highly important that we learn proper technics on how to cite and reference because plagiarism is a serious case whereby students can sometimes be asked to leave their courses for their unethical actions. Putnis, Peter & Petelin, Roslyn (1996, pp. 3) states that it is essential that you know why you are writing and what your readers hope to find when you write in academic and professional contexts. This is important because then only you will be able to focus on your idea than trying to take other researcher’s work.  According to Nilsson, LE, Eklof, A & Ottosson, T (2009) mentions that students these days see technology as a means of solving their problems including their research paper. This is considered a form of cheating especially when copying and pasting work. Thus, it is highly important for students now to start practicing the art of proper citation rather than get caught in their prime stages of making it big. The consequences then are great and far more humiliating.

References

Morgan, J and Hauck, B 2011, ‘Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom’, BBC Magazine, 2 March.

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

Nilsson, LE, Eklof, A & Ottosson, T 2009 ‘I'm entitled to make mistakes and get corrected': students' self-positioning in inquiries into academic conduct’, Critical Discourse Studies, vol. 6, no.2, pp. 127-152, viewed 10 June 2011, <http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?sid=70217295-2339-4c52-a6ae-cf5b4914566c%40sessionmgr13&vid=5&hid=9&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=37140172>.

New forms of media publishing

From print to broadcast to blogging- the emergence of new media publishing methods has truly impacted the world in all aspects may it be politically, economically, and socially. Now even mere blogging has been taken another step forward with the rise of newer trends of spreading the word through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, and the ever popular alternative online newspaper. These different mediums of blogging are now part of the new media ecosystem that is continuing to be the choice of many. We see it in, for example, the remarkable penetration of broadband access in developed countries; the rapid growth of e-commerce; the streaming of audio – and, increasingly, video across the net; the interest of Rupert Murdoch and other broadcasters in acquiring broadband and other internet companies; declining newspaper sales and the growth of online news; the expanding use of the web as a publication medium by public authorities; the spread of public Wi-Fi; and in the stupendous growth of internet telephony – spurred by the realization that, sooner rather than later, all voice telephony will be done over the net ( Naughton, J 2006).  

Naugthon then mention the two terms; the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ that contributes to the old media coverage in comparison to the new media ecosystem. The ‘push’ medium as Naugthon elaborates is a relatively select band of producers (broadcasters) decide what content is to be created, create it and then push it down analogue or digital channels at audiences which are assumed to consist of essentially passive recipients. However, the ‘pull’ medium is where nothing comes to you unless you choose it and click on it to pull it down onto your computer. You’re in charge. This by far is very true considering newer blogging sites that offer video logs and micro-blogging allows the consumer to take the place of the producer. This has completely reversed the models of the media chain system. New age blogging and broadcasting sites like YouTube and Twitter give audiences the firm grip on their own say.  

Similarly, Walsh discusses about the affordance and purpose of print-based text versus digital print. This concept can be further analysed in terms of the new media publishing methods such as blogging and micro-blogging versus traditional journalism. The affordance of traditional journalism is the ‘telling’ and ‘showing’ according to the discourses given and the text itself. On the other hand the interactive affordance by the mode used in a digital-based site permits the readers to provide feedback and close to instant interactivity. Thus, this clearly shows how the new forms of publishing have altered communication itself. A study research was done by Ahmad, (2010) regarding Twitter as a useful tool for journalist. This study has made realization of the alteration of communication and journalism combined. He found out that Journalists such as Afua Hirsch, The Guardian’s legal correspondent, moot theories and air questions as a way of getting users or ‘followers’ to provide them feedback or evidence in the exploratory stages of a story. At the June meeting, she and others pointed out that this proves to be an effective way of ‘collaborating’ with users. Now this is considered a smart collaboration of both worlds.

References

Ahmad, AN 2010, ‘Is Twitter a useful tool for journalists? ‘Journal of Media Practice, Vol. 11, no. 2, p145-155, 11p, <http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=902d8eb3-99c5-49eb-95af-5566d8c98b7c%40sessionmgr104&vid=3&hid=112>.

Naughton, J 2006, ‘Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem’, viewed on 19 April 2010, <http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html>.

Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub.,New York.

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.

Blogging communities

People who share a common interest with other in the blogosphere can ultimately form a community that feels belonged and close. This is so because the common interest draws people who undergo the same experiences that allow them to not feel isolated. The blogosphere may come off as gigantic but the blogging community reduces its sized allowing bloggers and readers to feel a certain connection.

The blogging community can be said to be a two way process whereby the readers can in turn connect to other similar blog using linking tagging on trends, commenting, RSS feeds for regular updates and automated sign in services offered by your computer can allow you to not only have easy access but stay in constant connection when needed. Among all of the tools, linking still happen to be the fastest way of building blogging communities because of the almost immediate cluster effects. Weblogs tend to come together in clusters as they link to each other. A reader of your site may link to you; you see the link in your referral stats and start reading their blog. You find it interesting, and link back to it. The readers of your blog, some of who keep their own blogs, start reading the other blog, and some of them also link to it. And so it continues. ( Morrison, A 2002)

As blogging has gained wider adoption, blog based community shows up in three main patterns with a wide variety of hybrid forms emerging between the three (White, N 2006)

In detail:


Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community

A blog that is owned by a single owner or a main organization but has numerous bloggers writing in a blog. Some have multiple writers contributing one single blog created as well. This form of blogging is versatile to the owner as it leaves the blog to set the rules and norms of engagement (White, N 2006) The amazing expansion overtime of the community can then lead on to developing the second form which are Topic Communities. For example: http://www.downes.ca/about.htm

Stephen Downes intentions are to represent the state of the art in online learning and related issues and technology by posting articles and having various open discussions to cultivate the mind through online learning. The blogging community in Stpehens site is majorly formed through the easy usage of discussions in his website.

“Stephen's Web is - and has been since 1995 - today what online learning will be in the future”.

Central Connecting Topic Community

A linked community through a network form sharing the same string interest in a dominion topic or subject matter. Topic centric communities have no single technological platform, with each blogger selecting their own tool. What links them is hyperlinks, in the form of blogrolls, links to other blogs within blog posts, tagging, aggregated feeds (using RSS), trackbacks and comments. Some of these networks have been formalized, such as with blog rings, which share many characteristics with Boundaries Blog Communities (White, N 2006). For example sites like http://globalvoicesonline.org/ is a clear indication of a Central Connecting Topic Community.

Boundaries Communities

Members in the Boundaries Community are required to sign up, register or ‘join’ the intended community and are given the opportunity to construct their own blog. This boundary makes them the closest form to traditional forum based communities (White, N 2006). One common example would be http://www.myspace.com/ . 

 

“Community is alive and well in the blogosphere. It is emerging in a variety of patterns and manifesting in all sizes and types of communities. By beginning to explore their shape and interaction patterns, we can begin to think about how to intentionally nurture blog based communities for specific purposes.”

White, N 2006

References

Mortensen, T & Walker, J 2002, Blogging thoughts: personal publication as an online research tool, viewed 28 April 2011, 

<http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.156.7392&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=257> .

Stephen’s Wed Stephen Downes 1995, Stephen’s Wed Stephen Downes, viewed 28 April 2011, <http://www.downes.ca/about_this_website.htm>.

 White. N 2006, Blogs and community-launching a new paradigm for online community, going communal, edition 11, viewed on 28 April 2011,

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