My Point of View

I have gained a great knowledge in producing this blog and I really hope I acquired the basic theories on document design for the used in the future. I have been blogging for the past few months about the publishing issues.

Due to that, I have notified on the multimodality (Walsh 2006) and layout (Kress & Van Leeuwen 1998). Therefore I realised that to design a document is more on creating texts, magazine article, brochure, newspaper and any printed or readable material that consists of words and images in order to give more understanding to the readers so they get the message from it.

In completing this blog, I have adopted some of the theories. Shriver (1997) stated that the readers completely rely on the document to make decision and therefore it is part of the criteria we have to look into so the readers can get a clear understanding of the document.

Once again, many thanks for reading and I hope readers gain something from my blog and all the principles and ethics apply, are the key of professionalism (Hafez 2002).

(180 words)

REFERENCES 

• Hafez, K 2002, ‘Journalism ethics revisited: a comparison of ethics codes in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Muslim Asia’, Political Communication, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 225 – 250.

• Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Approaches to media discourse, eds Allan Bell and Peter Garrett, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 186-219.

• Schriver, K.A (1997), Chapter 6: The interplay of words and pictures, in Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, pp.361-441, 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.

 

World News at Your Fingertips

Three Little Pigs Adverts
 

By The Guardian

Open journalism has become an important element for the production and distribution of news. This is the future of journalism because this method of journalism is more open and been using a two-way communication for a new environment. Due to that, there are no walls and it is not specific to any journalist or media organizations. Somehow, an ethical journalism is required in making a decision due to the information is accessible in every way. According to Plaisance (2009, p.5) ethics is based on rational justification and thinking process embodies key values.

Simon Houpt

The Guardian article by Simon Houpt, How open journalism reimagines the story was discussing the role of bloggers and citizen journalist as the major news feeder. Simply because bloggers always keep the readers informed one step ahead in every news.

Twitter are the main platform for them to update on every news and it has increasing among the society and due to that it has clearly shown that journalist are moving towards a digital era. The Guardian has come out with the Three Little Pigs as a news story that have been widely distributed via social media. Social media are one of the trusted source in delivering credibility, accuracy and the transparency news to the readers.

Alan Rusbridger

The only things that keep readers with the latest and ongoing news are by having open journalism as the future journalism. The Three Little Pigs advert are telling the viewers that media industry are moving very fast and it goes beyond newspaper and this is to show that the idea of journalism evolves others and responsive to other (Rusbridger 2012).

The Three Little Pigs advert by The Guardian was the best example to show the effectiveness of open journalism. I hereby stated that open journalism is the best way to find out the truth because that’s what journalist supposed to do. Nick Cohen (1999: 128-9) ‘Freedom of the press is the freedom for the journalist to express their expression freely.’ 

(308 words)

REFERENCES

• Cohen, N 1999, Cruel Britannia, London/New York, Verso.   
• Houpt, S 2012 How open journalism reimagines the story, viewed on 5^th June 2012 
  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/columnists/simon-houpt/how-open-journalism-reimagines-the-story/article2362095/
• Rusbridger, A 2012, Open Journalism - The Guardian: A world of news at your fingertips, viewed on 5^th June 2012   http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/insideguardian/2012/feb/29/open-journalism-at-the-guardian
• Plaisance, Patrick Lee 2009, Media Ethics: Key principle for responsible practice, Sage Publications, Inc. United States of America.

Funeral of Kim Jong-il, Strength of Communism

 Tribute: A giant portrait of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il 

was carried past mourners on the procession route.

Source: DailyMail.co.uk

The death of Kim Jong-Il was caused by massive heart attack when he was travelling by train outside Pyongyang and it wasn’t just tears was captured but they also restores the picture of his funeral with Photoshop and North Korea removed films crew photos as well.

During his funeral, a well choreographed from the dictator’s funeral despite from the sorrow as thousand of street lines with ‘Dear Leader’ (Parson, 2011). North Korea is control by a ruler that wants everything goes as how he plans accordingly. Due to that, new evidence was reveal on what happen during the funeral ceremony when two comparison photos that shown how a camera crew filming was digitally erased from the original picture.

Spot the difference: On the right side, the image doctored by a North Korean news agency.
The photographers from the left side of the left image have mysteriously disappeared.

Source: DailyMail.co.uk

As we can see, there was a cameraman standing behind the mourners but somehow they were not in the right picture. This is because the North Korea government want to give an impact power of a country govern by communist leader. 

There are regimes and it is especially for the used by media for propaganda reason only as been mention by Himelboin and Limor (2008). The picture on the right was released by North Korea’s official Central News Agency where the group of men have been totally vanished, mysteriously (Parson, 2011).

The truth is we can hardly see any footage outside the insular of communist dictatorship. Nevertheless the doctoring of the image is totally unthetical but somehow according to Matthew Kieren (2000:163), ‘Privacy concern certains area of our lives over which we exercise autonomous control and which it is not the business or right of others to concern themselves unless we so choose.’

Suffer little children: Girls in North Korea wail in this picture released by state media as they mourn 

the 'dear leader' who ruled the country for 14 years with an iron grip. 

Source: DailyMail.co.uk

Himelboin and Limor (2008) stated that the freedom of speech is the key for any press to express their method of convey information to the public and also as a social media network. Apart from that, Christians (1997, p.16) also argued that the press is an instrument to prove the accountability of the public and public service.

News agency in North Korea cannot highlight any unsatisfactory towards the government because everything is controlled by the government. There are no chance for the people to switch to other radio stations because the government has set the dial to a permanent official government station and also a citizen of North Korea need to get permission from the Party first then later from their officer from the work place (Hwang & Rigoulot, 2001 p.2).

North Korea is a country that does not have a freedom of expression, thus it will lead a country to an unstable political and development of economy (Netto, 2002). Unlike North Korea, they have the outrageous performance in economies compared to other country.

(445 words)

REFERENCES

• Christians, C & Traber, M (eds) 1997, Communications Ethics and Universal Values, Sage, Calirfonia.
• Himelboim, I. and Limor, Y., 2008, Media Perception of Freedom of the Press: A Comparative International Analysis of 242 Codes of Ethics, Journalism [Journal] vol.9 no.3, pg. 235-265.
• Hwang, C. and Rigoulot, P., 2001, The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag, Perseus Book Group, USA.
• Kieran, Matthew, 2000, The Regulatory and Ethical Framework, Investigative Journalism: Context and Practice, de Burgh, Hugo (ed.) London, Routledge, pp. 156-76
• Netto, A, 2002, Media freedon in Malaysia, Media Asia, vol. 29, no. 1, pg. 17-23. 
• Parson,C 2011, It wasnt just tears were stage-managed: Pictures show how North removed film crews from photos of Kim Jong Il's funeral, viewed 5th June 2012, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079802/Kim-Jong-Il-funeral-Pictures-North-Korea-removed-film-crews.html

Kony Video Goes Viral

Joseph Kony the Lord Resistance Army has abducted more than 600 children soldiers and sex slaves over the past two years (UN 2012). He is one of the world worst criminal and due to that there have been a video for the whole world to stop him and his activity. Kony2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children to get support from the authority to arrest him for international justice. 

Source: http://alex.leonard.ie

Kony2012 is a video about an issue of Ugandan warlord by using children as his slaves cum soldiers. The video suddenly become on the top topic in Facebook and Twitter. Cherubini (2012) stated that it has become the viral on the web just because its content which consists of sensitive issues.

 

KONY 2012: Part II-Beyond Famous

The reason why the video was made is for the purpose of activism. According to Harlow (2011), he argues that social network sites are not mainly for the activism activity therefore the internet can lead to a traditional method of activism and by adding current type of campaign that can be done via email and online. Basically this kind of social movement are solely to grab public attentions and certain public figures to start taking action towards this warlord like Joseph Kony. 

Source: thelede.blogs

The internet has giving such a big impact and in few days, there are 14.4 million viewers on Vimeo and 49 millions on YouTube. Can you imagine these things to happen on internet? This is a massive viral that have been going on since the video was on air. Nevertheless, Van De Donk (2011) said that the internet can never replace existing movement tactics even with big numbers of viewers.

Therefore, I strongly believe that online activism can easily spread viral information in the fastest way as we cannot imagine but it only for a short period. Everybody is using internet to delivered and spread news because the learning process is very understandable. Internet activism is the first step before a real activism has been being performed. They will start gathered online with other audiences and it’s the easiest way to reach other activist or audiences. Thus, I would like to state here that, online distribution or online activism is the fastest way to create awareness to others in the future. 

(355 words)

REFERENCES

• Cherubini, F, 2012, Kony2012: once information goes viral, there's no stopping it, World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, March 9, viewed at 10 June, http://www.editorsweblog.org/2012/03/09/kony2012-once-information-goes-viral-theres-no-stopping-it
• Harlow, S, 2011, Social media and social movements: Facebook and an online Guatemalan justice movement that moved offline, New Media & Society, vol. 14, np. 2, pp. 224-243.
  

Erykah Badu with Temporary ALLAH Tattoo.

Erykah Badu

Source: www.erykah-badu.com

Senior editors at The Star newspaper was suspended four months ago because they publish a picture of Erykah Badu with temporary tattoos of the word ‘Allah’ on her body. She was scheduled to perform on 29^th February 2012 but the Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim called off her concert due to the picture that was published in The Star newspaper (Ariffin 2012).

Badu was upset because her concert was banned due to that image and she said ‘one paper that published the wrong picture’ in disappointment tone (Ariffin 2012). Malaysia is a country that consists multiracial therefore it is very important to understand and to consider the cultural and the religion sensitivity. The editor was not aware on the sensitivity and also the picture was not the recent one, it was her old picture. The Star then apology for the mistake by publishing that picture (Star 2012).  

Badu was visibly upset during today’s press conference.
Picture by Choo Choy May

Erikesen (1991) stated that the cultural and differences in ethnicity invoked in the nature of the ethics relation itself, it is not necessary the message but sometimes an images on how they form into their own articulation along with their own understanding.

The Star can avoid this controversy only if they are more alert on this kind of issues. Walker (2000, p.89) mentions clearly that ethics is part of pursuing understanding of morality and provide ourselves as the bearers of responsibility of service values. Even though we can understand thru reading but somehow it depending on the readers knowledge (Schriver 1997). 

Information Ministry said that the government committee decided to cancel Badu’s concert because she has not being concern on religious sensitive issues in Malaysia by having that temporary tattoo (Yoong 2012).

Walsh (2006) said that designing document is very important and most important things in designing document are to understand to cultural context of the readers. Due to that they have to be more details to avoid any unpleasant scenario.

(326 words)

REFERENCES

• Ariffin, L 2012, The Malaysian Insider Erykah Badu says disappointed, promoters blame The Star for concert ban, viewed 8th June 2012, http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/erykah-badu-says-disappointed-promoters-blame-the-star-for-concert-ban
• Chooi, C 2012, The Star suspends two editors over Erykah Badu row, The Malaysian Insider, viewed 8th June 2012, http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/the-star-suspends-two-editors-over-erykah-badu-row 
• Eriksen, TH 1991, ‘The cultural contexts of ethnic differences’, Man, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 127 – 144.
• Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.
• Walker, M.U 2000, Naturalizing, normativity, and using what we know in ethics. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 26 (supp.), 75 - 101.
• 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.
• Yoong, S 2012, Associated Press Malaysia bans Erykah Badu show over Allah tattoo, Yahoo News, viewed 8th June 2012, http://news.yahoo.com/malaysia-bans-erykah-badu-show-over-allah-tattoos-074941033.html
  
  

Screen vs Print Document Design

Source: Muslima.com

Seeing is believing and therefore the presentation of a document is very important and it reflect on the issues of the design concept and the publishing. A good design is very subjective because each of the design is presented in a different way based on designer’s concept and creativity.

Reep (2006) defined, design features build up reader’s interest by keeping them focused on the information required. Due to that, majority of the readers prefer to read a document on a digital version compared to printed document.

Source: Smashing Magazine.com

Referring to Walsh (2006), words that were form into sentences is a print construct text. Whatever images and text that appear on any devices are multimodal text. As the world moving forward, it has changed the way of the document been viewed. With the print document, readers are required to flip or turn the page whereby the online document let the readers or the viewers to leave their comment or feedback. 

Besides that, the layout plays an important role on any print document design as mention by Hilligoss (2002). She mention that any layout design should  comes in three different alignment where the left side of the document represent the objective and the right side are mainly for some of info revealing  for the documents. Meanwhile the center part is normally for invitations purposes.

Source: Create Blog.com

Both online and print document design contains information but online version contains a greater visual interaction than printed one. A weblog consists of images that moving around and there are also interactive buttons for user to choose what they want to view. Reading is a complex activity that builds by layers of information (Hilligoss, 2002). There is a new way of sharing for online documents called ‘hypertext’ as mention by Benetos K. (2005). Hypertext are better presented by few types of written text like the yellow pages or white pages which contains all the telephone numbers and addresses. 

Source: ProBlogger

However, many have suggested the used of online media compared to print document because they believe that the online media will wipe out the newspaper business. Due to that, I do not believe that the printed document will be obsolete and I never support. As Nielsen (1999) said, print document design is based on allowing the eyes through the document while the web functions by letting hands move the information.

(354 words) 

REFERENCES

• Benetos K 2005, ‘Design Consideration When Writing : Print Vs Screen’, TECFA, viewed 11th April 2012, < http://tecfa.unige.ch/staf/staf-k/benetos/staf13/per5/lire.html >
• Hilligoss, Susan & Howard, Tharon 2002, 'Visual Communication - A Writer's Guide' Second Edition,[ONLINE] viewed 11th April 2012, http://www.ablongman.com/mycomplab_content/pdf/long_hilligoss.pdf
  
• Nielsen, J., 1999, Differences between print design and web design, viewed 11 April 2012, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html>
•  Reep, Diana C 2006, Technical Writing, Longman, 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. 

New Forms of Media Publishing

Source: Facebook.com

The upcoming of new media publishing is at the digital era due to the technology advancement. Social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and online news are among the famous networking sites. Thus the traditional way of media publication is making its way down. News is accessible in various ways depending on the devices we are using.

Source: TwitterJournalism.com

Walsh (2006) stated that multimodal text has gained a greater number of readers compare to printed material like newspaper and book because it comes with animation and sound to attract and entertain the readers and its has taken a new definition in the context of  online circulation. Twitter is a social networking that has proven as one of most powerful and effective form of media. 

Source: Twitter.com

Due to that, twitterjournalism.com has finally launched and Twitter has proved that the traditional journalism can be challenged. Even though a user can only update their status up to 140 characters, they still pass on the text even its only consists of three lines of text.

Source: Smashing Magazine.com

Besides that, the layout plays an important role on any print document design as mention by Hilligoss (2002). She mention that layout design should  comes in three different alignment where the left side of the document represent the objective and the right side are mainly for some of info revealing  for the documents. Meanwhile the center part is more for a formal format normally for invitations purposes. Salience can be achieved by the balanced in layout design as the images shown.

If we look at the design, we can actually understand the function and the position of the images and text. As Kress & van Leeuwen (1998, p.201) emphasize that a lot of balanced can be achieve by the elements of the visual height in the layout. 

Source: Bursa Malaysia.com

Source: Chatango

There are new forms of visual and text such as Live Group Chatbox, and RSS Feeds. Kress & van Leeuwen (1998, p.187) further explain that pictures and visuals are supported by text for further explanation and elaboration of the fundamental relations and it also show how new form of media have move forward and the importance of design principle and multimodality.

(352 words)

REFERENCES 

• Hilligoss, Susan & Howard, Tharon 2002, 'Visual Communication - A Writer's Guide' Second Edition,[ONLINE] viewed 12th April 2012, http://www.ablongman.com/mycomplab_content/pdf/long_hilligoss.pdf
  
• Kress G and van Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, 2nd Edition, Routledge, New York, USA.
• 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.