Item 2-5(a): The blogging phenomena & benfits to the community

It is fair to say that the blogging sphere has now expanded into micro-blogging with the current hyde over micro-blogging site, Twitter. From Technorati (2008), there were about 112.8 million blogs last year, with the growth of more than 180,000 blogs created per day and if micro-blogging site, Twitter is counted, the figure should be hugely enlarged by now. Technorati (2009) states that majority of the people surveyed use Twitter to promote their blogs.


Technorati also made a statistic of the contrast of the age group of majority bloggers in Europe compared to Asia. It is said that in Asia people below 35s are the majority whereas in Europe, people above 35s are the main consumers. According to Simons (2008), there is an increading need to list out the type of blogs out there as just the term 'blog' is too general in form. The diary type blog, as categorized in Simon's taxonomy, is the majority type of blogging that can be seen worldwide. However, Malaysia is starting to see a surge of political blogs as well. Even though political blogging in Malaysia is still young, it is seen as more detailed in comparison to hard copy news.

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References:

Simons, M. 2008, 'Towards a taxonomy of blogs', Australian Policy Online, viewed 18 November 2009, http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0

Technorati, 2008, State of the Blogosphere, viewed 18 November 2009, http://technorati.com/state-of-the-blogosphere/

Technorati, 2009, Day 5:Twitter, Global impact and future blogging, viewed 18 November 2009, http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/

The cover that sparks the fury of a nation

ABC news (AFP, 2008) brought forward a report on an issue of an Indonesian weekly, Tempo publishing a cover that depict its former leader, Suharto and his family in the posture and setting of Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper after Suharto's death. The magazine's chief editor, Triq Hadad apologises after receiving complaints from Christians in the nation. Hadad explains that they were inspired by Da Vinci's masterpiece and never had the intention to depict Suharto as Jesus.

To understand the controversy of the cover, there are two things that people should understand; the context of The Last Supper and the legacy of Suharto. Suharto was a leader that is revered for his role in the development and the economic growth of Indonesia. At the same time, he is also scorned for his authoritative long ruling that is full of bloodshed and the corruption within the government that crippled the nation's economy during the 1997's recession. On the other hand, The Last Supper painting is based on event of Jesus' last meal with his disciples where he announce one of them will betray him (John 13:12, Bible). The betrayal did eventually materialize.

The original portrayal of The Last Supper incident by Leonardo Da Vinci
(Image source: Google.com)

For a professional publishing company to commit such a huge misstep is unforgivable. Schriver (1997) concur to this by marking that cultural difference will affect the audience's message interpretation. Since that Tempo is a local weekly, they should be aware of the issue and insensitivity that would stem out of the cover. Furthermore, the headline of the cover, "Setelah Dia Pergi" when translated means, "After His Passing" strongly implies the Christianity context even more so.

Tempo's controversial cover after Suharto's death
(Image source: Google.com)

Feijter (2007) states that media is increasingly used in relation of religious context and that sometimes opportunists would exploit the theme in order to sell off their product. Tempo is an example unethical publishing that is culturally insensitive. Another incident of similar controversial act is that of the magazine, The New Yorker depicting then-Senator Barack Obama and his wife in Muslim garb and as gun-totting militants (Mooney, 2008).

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References:

AFP, 2008, 'Indonesian weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto cover', Abc News, 6 February, viewed 15 November 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm

Mooney, A. 2008, 'New Yorker editor defends controversial Obama cover', CNN, 14 July, viewed 15 November 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/15/obama.cover/index.html

Feijter, I. 2007, The Art of dialogue: religion, communication and global media culture, LIT Verlag Berlin, Germany

Schriver, K. 1997, 'The interplay of words and pictures', Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York

Internet, blogging and public sphere

What is the aesthetic to the current influx of blogging culture? In his book 'The Blogging Revolution', Anthony Loewenstein (2008) talks about the internet censorship in countries like Cuba, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt. According to Loewenstein, the use of internet and blogging is giving people a voice in freedom of speech in these oppressive countries. As mentioned by Habermas (1991), public sphere is an idea whereby everyone gets to be involved in an open, civil discussion. Internet is believed to hold the key for the realization of this theory as there is a free flow of information and blogging allows individuals to express their opinions. That is why China controls the access of Internet very strictly to such length that they collaborate with international search engines like Google and Yahoo.

A website with a notice of the nation's server shut down on the eve of Tiananmen Square protest's anniversary (Image source: Google.com)

Blogging can be seen as a medium for freedom of speech and affecting the nation's development at the same time as well. McNair (2000) points out that political and social agendas are much more easily acessible and more detailed in its coverage through this medium of public sphere. In the Malaysian contex, this idea can be seen in the change of the citizen's voting style during the 2008's General Election; whereby the government parties was not given their usual landslide wins and lost a couple of state seats to the oppositions. Political blogs and local Internet news portals were attributed for creating the change. Mainstream media is heavily controlled by the government and tends to be loop-sided in its reports; therefore, people that are literate and has Internet connectivity are turning to Internet sources.

However, without any censorship control and law in the Internet, there is an issue about the credibility of Internet sources. With nobody to edit the content in the Web, there are bound to be cases of harmful, untrue information derailing a person's reputation and cases of identity theft. For example, a person can open an account and started blogging as another person's identity and write stuffs that would get the other person into trouble. As a responsible individual, one should taken into account of what he/she writes and be aware of the consequences.

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References:

Habermas, J. 1991, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, trans. Burger, T. & Lawrence, F. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US

Loewenstein, A. 2008, The Blogging Revolution, Melbourne University Publishing, Australia

McNair, B. 2000, Journalism and democracy: an evaluation of the political public sphere, Routledge

Document design

The question of what can be certified as a good document is something that needs to be looked at as a well constructed document enables the target audience to understand, accept and ponder on the message of it.


In my opinion, my group’s presentation slides manage to fully explain Karen Shriver’s reading. However, there are certain flaws that when we look back to, we had wished to improved on. For example, there is an inconsistency in term of slides usage on different chapters by each member. Some explanation could have been shortened whereas some could be lengthen on the slides.


As Putnis and Petelin (1996) mentioned, ‘we live in a knowledge economy that values information and constantly relies on communication, success in a profession depends on the ability to communicate well.’ Therefore, the overall consistency and execution of the presentation slides are important in bearing the right information to the audience. Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) highlight the importance of visual and textual communication. I think my group’s presentation slides manage to find a balance in this area.

Image 1: texual and visual intersect

Reep (2006) say that the purpose for design feature is to increase audience's interest, highlight key point to direct readers and 'to create a document that reflects the image you wish readers to have'. In order to do so, it is important to change the color of the text, size of the fonts, etc. in accordance to the importance of certain parts. As mentioned by Oakley, 'what catches your attention is the unusual composition and layout'. I think that the presentation slides in my group presentation were rather simple and usual but there is usage of photos to grab audience's attention.

Image 2: Simple layout with pictures used to grab attention

Similarly, Shriver (1997) mentioned about the way the sections in newspapers are assembled in accordance to how reader’s reading habits. The importance of headings appropriately positioned to grab reader’s attention is important. I think the presentation slides we did are neatly organize in that manner.

Image 3: Use of heading as key point


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References:

Kress & van Leeuwen, L. 2006, 'Chapter 1: The Semiotic Landscape-Language and visual communication', Reading Images

Oakley, T. 2005, 'Implied narratives of medical practice in learning-for-doing text: A simulation semantics approach to rhetoric analysis', Language and Literature, SAGE Publications

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

Reep, D.C. 2006, 'Document Design', Technical Writing, Pearson/Longman, New York

Shriver, K. 1997, 'The interplay of words and pictures', Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Publication, New York

Purpose

Welcome to my blog. This blog is part of my assignment requirements for the subject Issues in Publication and Design's coursework. I believe that the integration of text and visual is very important in information sharing nowadays. Therefore, a blog is the best modern tool to show how the integration affects message flow.