Reflection overview

Looking through current issues really brighten up my general knowledge. I now understand the difficulty writing online. It is far harder than the usual blog post if you intent to convey the information across accurately.

Not only must the information be useful, it got to be easy, on par with the rest of readers in thw world and not only cater to the educated ones. (Nielsen 2008) states that audience reading habit differs from online to print. It is necessary to understand this facts before you start writing on the web.

It’s not easy writing short articles on a board topic. I had to rewrite many times in order to obtain the desirable outcome of my work. I’ve learn the hard way to produce a shot and simple article.

(Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006) had taught me the importance of multimodality. By using multiple modes, it allows reader’s to choose their preferred write-ups or style while they surf through the web page for information.

Besides, this assignment gave me interest in blogging, as I enjoy sharing my point of view to other enthusiast online. I also learn the power of images and how it supports write-ups (Schriver 1997).

I can’t think of a better way to convey message online other than blogging, it is as far the best medium to spread information without the limitations of gatekeepers. But that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to talk arrogantly.

I’m looking forward to your comments and feedback, don’t hesitate.

Reference List:

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, 'Chapter 6: The meaning of composition', Reading Images: Grammar of Visual Design, Routledge, London.

Nielsen, J 2008, Writing Style for Print vs. Web, Useit.com, viewed 12 November 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/print-vs-online-content.html>.

Schriver, A.K. 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.

Electronic mail and Snail mail

Electronic mail, commonly known as e-mail had significantly took over the usage of snail mail (mailing service by post). Postal services take up to a week or three days depending on how much you are willing to spend. In oppose to that, e-mail is free and your receiver gets the message on the spot. All you need is a computer or a cellular with e-mail capabilities to retrieve the message.

This low costs and immediacy method is made possible by e-mail service provider, such as Yahoo mail, Gmail and Hotmail (Indexoftheweb.com). All you need to do is to register with either one of them and choose your desired name from your e-mail address

The best part about the e-mail is the storage system. You are able to store old messages for later references and Gmail offers 2 GB that is more than enough for an average user. Besides, there are features that allow you to monitor your contact list, whether they are online or offline (Mills 2006).

Apart from that, you can also embed moving emoticons on your e-mail to express a certain emotion or to create a mood (Halliday & Hasan 1985).

But then again, e-mail is subjected to spam. All a person needs to do is to create an email and start spamming whoever he wants to due to the easy accessibility and free registration.

Source: http://www.matrixmarking.com

The evolution of e-mail originated from snail mail, which is similar to (Schirato & Yell 1996, p. 109). E-mail’s domination doesn’t really affect postal services; there are parcels and items that are needed to be sent manually.

Reference List:

Halliday, MAK & Hasan, R 1985, Language, context and text: aspects of language in a social semiotic perspective, Deakin University Press, Victoria.

Index of the top Free Email Providers on the web, viewed 13 November 2008, <http://www.indexoftheweb.com/Free/Free_Email.htm>.

Mills, E 2006, 'Google merges Gmail with chat', CNET News.com, viewed 13 November 2008, <http://www.news.com/Google-merges-Gmail-with-chat/2100-1032_3-6035898.html>

Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, Allen & Unwin, NSW, pp. 90-117.

The miracles of photography

There’s a variety of ways to interpret a photo, in fact, there is no end to it. It is by far the most sophisticated way to convey a message. For instance, some would show sympathy or pleasure through gore and gruesome photos. Still photos are powerful in nature and not many see the gravity of persuasion it carries.

Most of the influential still photos come from disasters and agony (Hubbard 2008). This is evident during the crisis of conflict diamonds in Africa. Gruesome pictures of chopped hands were portrayed to gain the support from the world. It worked and the relevant organization and authorities took action to ease the burden of conflict victims, as well as, the sales of conflict diamonds.

Source: http://www.worldvision.com

Pictures however could be offensive in nature if it touches sensitive issues, such as religion. NST (New Straits Times), a Malaysian daily, almost got killed by a cartoon strip, which known as Wiley Miller’s ‘Non Sequitur’ (Ooi 2006), believed to be a parody of Prophet Mohammed.

Regardless of what photos bring, it is still an important visual aid in publication and design. Pictures can be digested easily even with a glimpse of an eye compared to just plain text (Schrive 1997). It works hand in hand with one another to accurately convey a message or a story across (Walsh 2006).

If you get lucky, you might just be an overnight millionaire by the sale of one photo. So far, the second most expensive photo was sold for 2,928,000 U.S. dollars at Sotheby’s in New Work (Laurie 2007)

Don’t underestimate what photography can do to you.

Reference List:

Conflict Diamond Photo 2006, World Vision UK, viewed 13 November 2008, <http://www.worldvision.org.uk/server.php?show=conMediaFile.826>.

Hubbard, T. 2008, Photojournalism Essentials, The Digital Journalist, viewed 13 November 2008, <http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0002/hubbard.htm>.

Laurie 2007, The Most Expensive Photographs Ever Sold, Photopreneur, viewed 13 November 2008, .

Ooi, J. 2006, Forget 2006, viewed 13 November 2008, <http://www.jeffooi.com/2006/12/forget_2006.php>.

Schriver, K.A. 1997, Chapter 6 in Dynamics in document design, pp. 364-430.

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, p.24-37.

MMORPG: Ideal vs Real

Online gaming has reached a different level that even the developers are surprised to the large amount of participants they got. The game genre known as MMORPG (Massive Multi-playing Online Role-playing Games) is increasing popular mainly due to the fact that commoners are able achieve a status or perhaps a self actualization among large amount of people by the level gaining system (Yee 2006).

Source: http://www.globalnerdy.com

Gamers dwell themselves in fantasy and sometimes unable or rather reluctant to accept reality. This is evident when gamers spent ten long hours a day on gaming (Yee 2006). Basically, there are many things that we can’t have in life, for instance, love, achievement, status and other amazing things that real life offers. MMORPG gives you that satisfaction, not to mention people who meet up and ended up having a relationship through the game (Glass 2006).

While gaming is suppose to be a form of escapism and fun, some players hold grudges through the mistakes you did in the game to real life. They even choose whether to be friendly with you based on the race you chose in the game. Generally, opposing race in the game doesn’t really get along well. This is where the dilemma is when a person dwell himself too much on fantasy and not what is real (Page 2008).

Sure, gaming can be fun at the beginning but many participants choose online gaming platform for what they can’t get in real life and articulate problems through the interface of a game, which is not applicable to real life (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006).

Reference List:

Glass, K. 2006, MMORPGs for social analysis, Coke and Code, viewed 13 November 2008, <http://www.cokeandcode.com/node/462>.

Page, G. 2008, Aggro Management, Escapist Magazine, viewed 13 November 2008, <http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_173/5415-Aggro-Management>.

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

Yee, N. (2003), Are MMORPG Relationships Meaningless?, The Daedalus Project, viewed 13 November 2008, <http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/000632.php>.

Yee, N. (2006), The Psychology of MMORPGs: Emotional Investment, Motivations, Relationship Formation, and Problematic Usage. In R. Schroeder & A. Axelsson (Eds.), Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments (pp. 187-207). London: Springer-Verlag.

Facebook Dilemma

Facebook has recently commenced its official layout with the intention to simplify the chunks of information on the previous one. But is that the case? From what many people have noticed, it has only minimized the usage of certain features on Facebook itself (Garrett 2003)

The application on the Facebook are now diverted to a section called box, users are still allowed to move the application to the profile section but the space is fairly limited while the image of the application shrink and not as fun as before.

Considering the fact that everyone is generally busy, users would only refer to the profiles and pictures section and not make the additional move to the fourth column. Developers are now shaking their head as the new layout only intensifies the competition that is already going on.

“Completely switching up the profiles on people will be like upgrading Windows (from XP) to Vista,” said Nick O’Neill, the blogger behind all Facebook (www.allfacebook.com). The trouble is, Facebook members will have to cope with the new layout whether they like it or not (McCarthy 2008).

Positively, the new layout adopts multimodality, which implies the combinations of different modes, making the site more personalized than the old layout (Walsh 2006).

But if certain applications are jeopardized, the usefulness of webpage is questionable (Shriver 1997). There is no doubt that some members of Facebook solely log in for the application and not the social capabilities of the site.

Reference List:

Garrett, J.J. 2003, Elements Of User Experience : User-centred Design For The Web, American Institute of Graphic Arts, New York.

McCarthy, C. 2008, Developers, critics sound off on Facebook’s profile redesign, cnet news, viewed 13 November 2008, <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9949577-36.html>.

Schriver, A.K. 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 Literacy, vol. 29, no.1, pp. 24-37.

Vlog, a new dimension of blogging

As we all know, words and pictures are limited to gesture and emotion. In fact, it could sometimes be misinterpreted and misunderstood depending on the individual themselves. To prevent that, authors are now using Vlog on their postings to convey accurate messages across. It is fairly easy to use and it makes life easier for readers. Contrary to that, it is also a new trend aside from the conventional method of blogging.

What is Vlog?

The term Vlog literally mean video blog. It consists of video recordings, journals, progress report and etc (Foley 2008). It is an alternative way to post information rather than just words and visuals.

Looking back in history, there are several bloggers who adopts the idea of Vlog but back then it wasn’t an easy task for anyone to do. Now, it becomes common as equipments, software and hosting services (example, youtube and google video) are easily obtained. There are even useful tutorial sites that guide you through the entire process of Vlog (http://www.whatis.techtarget.com/ 2008).

How effective Vlog is?

“As tools come out that make it easier, more people will start creating video blogs,” says Mr Garfield (Seenan 2004). There you go; even people who simply can’t string words together can now spread their point of view.

Youtube.com made that possible by providing users an easy to understand interface and systematic upload system that encourages many people to communicate through Vlog.

But end of the day it is your say, to what extent the usefulness of Vlog is.

Reference List:

Art Culture 2008, viewed 11 November 2008, <http://www.artculture.com/>.

Bloggersblog 2008, categories, viewed 11 November 2008, <http://www.bloggersblog.com/categories/>.

Blogjer 2008, 70 most popular blogs in Malaysia, viewed 11 November 2008, <http://www.blogjer.com/2008/06/29/70-most-popular-blogs-in-malaysia>.

ProBlogger 2008, Rowse, Darren, viewed 11 November 2008, <http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/04/26/how-to-build-community-on-your-blog/>.

Zarizi, Syahrul, 70 weblog Paling Popular Di Malaysia 2008, viewed 11 November 2008, <http://syedsyahrul.blogspot.com/2008/06/70-weblog-paling-popular-di-malaysia.html>.

Distinction between Online and Print readability

The most common eye movement is the F sequence. Well, just imagine an F shape on the looking pattern. That is how most people see when they are browsing through a webpage (Nielsen 2006). Face it these days, not everyone reads everything on a web page. It is proven uncomfortable for long hours reading due to the radiation.

Source: Karp, S

Relating back on windows system, the icons and buttons appears on the left side of the screen by default and that motivates audiences to look horizontally when they are using the computer, in other words, habitual. To cut it short, windows operating system is very much left orientated (Bowker and Dillman 2000).

Books and magazine on the other hand are generally more comfortable to read and are less inconvenient, comparing to the attempt to reread a print and to turn on the computer.

As oppose to online, print documents are more detail in nature, thus attached with supporting visual aids that collaborates with one another. Also for print, it can manipulate CMYK colours to increase the clarity of the visual, while online is limited to RGB colours.

The words also play a role, in terms of online versus print. Parker (2003) stated that short-length text reduces the left-to-right orientation, in others words, more comfortable to the eye.

Source: Hufflington, A

Overall according to (Reep 2006), unbroken blocks have a sequence effect on readers. Even so, the visual aids compiled in a print will divert readers to the information they need, like a page turner effect (Schriver 1997). Webpage is also similar but the content is generally less and condensed while the pictures and video are less attractive. This is done to ensure a page is loaded at the fastest possible way that sometimes hampers the clarity of the content.

Reference List:

Bowker D & Dillman DA 2000, An Experimental Evaluation of Left and Right Oriented Screens for Web questionnaire, Washington State University, viewed 12 November 2008, <www.sesrc.wsu.edu/dillman/papers/aaporpaper00.pdf>.

Nielsen, J 2006, F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content, Jakob Nielsen Alertbox, viewed 12 November 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>.

Nielsen, J 2006, Long versus Short Articles as Content Strategy, Jakob Nielsen Alertbox, viewed 12 November 2008, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/content-strategy.html>.

Parker, RC 2003, Looking good in print, 5^th edition, Paraglyph Press, Arizona.

Reep, DC 2006, Technical Writing, 6^th edition, Pearson, New York.

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