REFLECTION

In this study of document design and publications, I've learned that there are many things that are taken for granted but are extremely important to make any publication successful. Kress and Van Leeuwen (2001) states that semiotics still play a role in today's world of globalization where the barriers and the ever shrinking lines that defines a culture slowly fades into a westernize culture. When it comes to document design, everything from the placement to the content of the document is taken into consideration and is critical in hitting the correct target audience. In today's robust and expanding world, one medium is never enough and this is also includes documents. When it comes to publication, every mediums must come into play for further support the ideal and further satisfy the needs of target audience. Many issues that may seem like ten years ago will seem like a lot today due to the every changing culture and the norms practiced by the societies of the world.

SOMETHING New

As time passes so change has to come, this is the same thing when it comes to the internet that is always reinventing itself. First it started with the internet itself, and then came Google and Yahoo that totally revolutionize the way people search for information. Then there was Napster, a download engine that helped users search and download music with ease. Then there were the P2P programs that allowed users to share file, music, videos over the internet. People are always finding new was of making something interesting and appealing towards the users. Today the latest trend is facebook, a program that allows users to meet other people online. This dynamic isn’t something new but the ability to mix in other software to further personalize any users profile is. More than 70 million people visit the site regularly. This makes this a new phenomenon, one where it can be further exploited to convey messages. It has become so popular that even politicians and major companies have associated themselves with it. According to Alexa, the website's ranking among all websites increased from 60th to 7th in terms of traffic, from September 2006 to September 2007.

Who does this belong to?

There is just so much information that can be downloaded from the internet, but does it mean everything that you take from it is legal? Under the Copyright Act of 1987, (www.lawyerment.com.my) anything from an idea to computer software can be copyrighter. This is a big issue today with piracy and copyright infringement being a common occurrence. It is important if one wants to take anything from anyone to ask permission first. Many people take things likely and forget that it is a huge offence to infringe someone’s work or ideas. For example, we as students have to cite the authors of the principles so to credit them for their work. For the students, this is considered very lenient because in the real working world, before citation can even be made, permission or a settlement must be finalized before anything can be published. A simple mistake like forgetting to cite an author could mean a fine or worst, time in the cell. Today, almost everyone downloads illegally and by the law everyone should be arrested. There was a case in china where a father of two was sued by 7 music companies because his children downloaded songs illegally. This is the time where everything should be protected and when one is borrowing from another, proper permission should be asked.

Would you rather take the hard copy or the soft one?

The argument in publication these days are, “which would you prefer to read from? The hard copy of the soft copy?” Trying to find just that right mix has always been plaguing publisher of al kinds, but even now the two mediums cannot survive without each other. In an age where everything is advancing at an extremely fast rate, publishers must both mediums to further enhance and expand the readership. Oakley Todd (2005) said that we as humans do things cognitively and the internet has had such a major impact on the world. Yahoo.com (yahoo.com) has predicted that about 10% of the 600 million of the world’s population owns a personal computer. So with these facts, it is obvious that the internet is the way to go. But wait, what about the other 90% of the world population that doesn’t own a personal computer? What about the people that actually prefer having a tangible form of reading rather then from a screen? This is why both mediums must come into play. Different people always have different preferences and to maximize the readership, a mix of both must be done.

The Law

source: www.newsblab.com

Many may think that one can get away with posting anything on the internet but this is not true. Under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Act (1998), it is stated that it is illegal to post anything that would be against the government or anything that promoted any issues that goes against the governments believes. This means that anyone that breaks this ruling will be head in contempt of the government and will be trialed in court. This is a strict and serious business, where anything can be posted in the World Wide Web. Gate keepers are the people that scan through the web, looking for anything that could spell rebellion against the country and from there action will be taken. Even simple pictures that are post could degrade the reputation of an organization. From the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com), an Ellen Simonetti was fired from Delta Airlines for posting pictures of herself in company uniform posing in a improper manner. "Gosh, it's a little tiny sliver of my bra, it's not like a bright red push-up bra," she said. "It's not like I worked the flight like that." From this sort of issues, other problems will arise making a seemingly small problem a big one. After Ellen Simonetti was fired from her job, she went on to sue Delta Airlines for sexual discrimination and this further lead to a vigorous and painful lawsuit. There is always someone watching, the internet may be big but certainly not big enough.

Whats New

source:www.facebook.com

What is new today where everything seems to only be a phase, the answer is facebook. Being another medium that destroys the barrier of communication, it’s also a medium to communicate among peers. It has become so popular in this country that it’s become more of a lifestyle or some would say a social activity.

Being able to use third party software is its main attraction of this software. Everything from simply games and interesting blogs are included in this social networking program. It is so popular that even big companies like Maxis communication is taking advantage of the ad space. According to www.malaysiantourism.ca, people have been turning to facebook to either look for a job or find people that are capable of fitting the suitable preference.

This has become a medium that is so powerful and has so many people that are using it; this is basically a gold mine for everyone that can benefit from it. Everyone from politicians to business men can benefit through this program.

Connectivity is the most important thing when one wants to convey a message, and this program has succeeded in doing so

ONLINE vs print

source:www.1up.com

In the designing of online website, it’s more different compared to print.There are a few factors that pertain to this fact on of which is that we have been using the internet for such a long time now that it’s become cognitive.

This is proven by Oakley Todd (2006) where we as humans today can simply navigate through the internet because everything is in a cognitive form.

Because we are so familiar with the internet and the uses for it, Karen Shriver also presses on the fact of multimodal text. This is what most WebPages are today mainly because you read what you want,when you want.

Everything is just a simple push of a button away. Unlike print, the reading path is very linear meaning you have to read from top to bottom to follow the particular article. But in a multimodal text in this case a webpage, one can navigate to the particular article that one might be interested to read without the restraints of the article.

PRINT vs online

We live in an age of communication where the barriers are slowly decaying, but there problems or issues that arise from this.
The main issue is the changing of genre and where the message within that particular medium maintains the same when it is transferred over to another medium.

source: www.magazine.com

This is an example of a print medium for a magazine, when it comes to print things like the reading order or the target audience must be taken into consideration as mention by Kress & Van Leeuwen(2001).

Every culture has their own cultural semiotics where certain things maybe acceptable by some but not others.

Other things that is also important is the salience, meaning the ability to indicate to the reader about the importance of certain articles just by the place of the framing.

Blogging COMMUNITY

One of the main reasons why blogs have been so particularly popular is mainly because of the communities. This basically means every community has its own liking and the only thing people seem to write in blogs always seems to stay on one path. For example if I enjoy reading about cars I would obviously read a blog that only talks about cars.

A blogging community is basically a group of bloggers that blog about the same thing. Best example would be something like a forum, where people debate about the same thing. As long as there is a same interest among a group of people, there will be a community which also refers to blogging.

In Isabella Santos (2007), she says that we ask humans being have a tendency to wonder about what might happen. When it comes to a story whether it’s from a books or a movies, there is always a linear story line which is known as a canon. We as humans always wonder was on the other side and will fill up the missing gaps in the story with our own understanding.

There are many blog communities that are built up from people having the same interest or ideals. One of the fastest growing communities that can be compare to the Star Wars fan community is the fans of the xbox game “Halo” which is the community is also known as “Halo Nation”.

In this community, players of the game come together to either discuss about things related to the sci-fi genre. At http://halonation.com/, it provides fans with discussion of the character and game. This is an example of an every growing culture. People with the same interest will always be more comfortable with similar people.

What’s the DEFINITION of a BLOG

There are so many types of blogs, that range from the simply to the complicated and visually appealing to the numerical type.

When it comes to subject of the blog, it is limitless.
These are just some of the types of blogs:

-A blog comprising videos is called a vlog
-one comprising links is called a linklog
-Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs.

http://www.reference.com/search?q=blog

Benefits of Blogs in Malaysia

Being a developing country in asia, Malaysia has come a long way since its independence. In an age of telecommunication, this country isn’t far behind.

Most of the people in the country blog, whether its just simple personal blogs or political to photoblogs and this has help further connect the country to the rest of the world.

The Size OF Things

A simple graph will show that the population of bloggers is steadily growing. This graph above shows the increase of people that sign up for blogspot.com during 2007.

Since this study was started, it is estimated that there are about over 30 million using just blogspot.com alone.

(http://siteanalytics.compete.com/blogspot.com/?metric=uv)

The Purpose Of My Blog

Blogs are a means of communication in this era of communication and I believe that through this blog, I can create a better understanding about this whole phenomena.

The purpose of me writing this blog is to better understand blogging as a communication medium of its own, the sort of different trends of blogging that may differ in other countries and the benefits of it.

This blog will be target at up and coming design students and people who are already in the field of IT. There are many issues that a publisher must take into consideration, things that maybe important to some maybe offensive to others. An understanding of the semiotics and the culture of the target audience is essential for a successful publication.