This is the first time of publishing my work online as I did not have any prior knowledge about theories and principles of publication and designs. In the process of completing this blog, I found out that it is a very good media to share my feelings and wonderful experiences with my friends and people around the world. Throughout the semester now, I can say the knowledge that I get from this course have allowed me to understand deeply on document design and publication.
In this course, I have understood the knowledge that needed on audience, purpose and context for each publication and document design to communicate effectively. As stated by Penman (1998), a document’s functionality is dependent on its structure matching reader’s habits, expectations, and context of use. When designing this blog, I have managed to apply this theory by providing the appropriate information for my audiences.
All in all, it is important for a blogger to be ethical when writing blogs to avoid offensive views and stay out from trouble.
Reference List
Penman R 1998, ‘Document structures and reader’s habits’, Communication news, vol. 11.
Blogging and Freedom ofSpeech
What is it about?
The power of blogging are allow people to bring out a transformation of liberal and democratic in six different countries – Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and China.As mentioned before in this blog, there are 133 million of blogs records indexed by Techonorati since 2002 (Techonorati 2009). Its shows people nowadays are always expressing their view through blogs.
In China, there are web and blogger will have the freedom of speech about corruption and shoddy building issue. Coonan (2010) stated that China government will defend its right to censor online content programs such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo and continue to stop access to information that might threaten the country but it guarantees to let the citizen freedom of speech on the internet.
However, internet in Cuba is least developed and government does not allow freedom of speech association because internet seen as threat to the country. In order to block outsiders influences in Cuba, government are only allowing people to access the ‘intranet’ (Abc.net.au 2008).
In Egypt, the internet was going to be great to build the economy. Nevertheless, the government realized very soon the internet was still a threat to the rule of the country as bloggers are trying to expose the horrible side of the government in Egypt by using YouTube, Bluetooth and blogs. Larry Pintak, a journalism professor at the American university in Cairo stated ‘bloggers are having a ripple effect, changing the rules for Egypt’s state-controlled media’ (Dinnick 2007).
Moreover, bloggers are trying to support the idea of Islamism through the web and activists in Iran. For example, people are writing out the issues about defence the freedom of speech in Iran to communicate with one another through Facebook. It has been acknowledged (Putnis and Petelin 1996) that writing is more precise, detailed and concise compared to speaking.
In defense of freedom of speech in Iran (Source: Facebook 2010)
There are only minority of the population in Saudi Arabia use the web. Government continued to restrict freedom of speech and press although there has been an increase in press freedom over a series of years. This has been emphasised by the government in Saudi Arabia Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (State.gov 2004). Therefore, blogger do not have freedom of speech to change their Government as compared to Iran.
Lastly, the poor human rights in Syria have caused the Syrian who involved in political activist arrested by the government (Popescu 2010). Below is the video regarding freedom of speech in Syria:
Conclusion
In my opinion, it is better for government to allow and accept freedom of speech from citizens maintain a peace and harmony country.
In the past, people are not able to interpret the emotions of the writers in an email and also the purpose of writing an email. Therefore, Professor Fahlman had suggested and decided to create emoticons by putting a smiley face at the end when they made a joke online.
Professor Fahlman is the first one who uses the smile face emoticon when writing an online message. (Source: Bangkok post 2007)
The emoticons that created by Professor Fahlman decades ago has been transformed from text such as a colon, a hyphen and then parenthesis to the fairly yellow graphical with animation by software. People around the world are using emotions nowadays when writing an email, text messages and online conversation (Abc.net.au 2007).According to Schriver (1997, p.403), ‘it is a good idea to pair icons and labels which is to double signal an idea by giving the reader multiple ways to represent the same idea .’
These are the emoticons using by people nowadays that transformed from the emoticons created by Professor Fahlman. (Source: Culture visuelle 2010)
Good and poor email etiquette
Good email etiquettes can assist people to avoid mistakes and misunderstandings when writing an email as well as helping people to communicate better via email. According to a market research done byRadicati Group (Uebergang 2008), there are 1.2 billion email users in 2007 will increase to 1.6 billion in 2011, an estimate of 1.44 billion people will be untrained in email by 2011. Since there are billions of people writing and sending email nowadays, it is important for writer to follow the email etiquette rules to enhance the communication technique via email. According to Griffith University (2009), there are some examples of email etiquette rules such as
Make the Subject line summarise the body of the email
Keep messages brief and to the point
Don’t use all capital letters or oversized fonts as its indicating shouting or threatening
Avoid angry outbursts
Correct punctuate and grammar
Acronyms, abbreviations, and emoticons are OK within reason as long as don’t overdo it. Emoticons (for example ;-) a winking smiley face) are good when used in context.
However, poor email etiquette is demonstrating lack of knowledge of the writer and it will also cause stress for the sender as well as the recipients. Below are the examples of poor email etiquette (Scoot 2008):
People trying to solve complex issues using email instead of calling
Last-minute cancellations a meeting or gathering via email
Procrastinators
No response when a legitimate email message sends to someone who has requested information
Conclusion
In my opinion, people should not underestimate the power of a high-quality email as it is an effective communication tool to show your professionalism and help you be persuasive and inoffensive. People should also bear in mind the audience expectations and the important of email etiquette when writing an email.
Schriver, KA 1997, ‘Chapter 6: The interplay of words and pictures’, in Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, pp. 403-404.
Nowadays, entertainment is increasingly popular in our daily life and cartoon comics are one of the popular divisions of entertainments for people to kill their time. Younger generations as young as pre-school are equipped with mobile phones that allow them to communicate with friends, online, watch movies as well as read online comics. Consequently, readers were fed up with the daily newspaper cartoon ever since they do not have the chance to comment on it. For that reason, comic blogs and online comics have been formed so that readers do have the chance to make their voices and cartoonists are also able to make respond.
One of the best known cartoonists - Josh Fruhlinger (Source: Pbs.org 2009)
Besides, the web is a useful medium for generating reader interest due to vary in reader’s preferences. In today world, there are many popular comic blogs such as Silent Penultimate Panel Watch, Joe Mathlete Explains Today’s Marmadukeand Comics Curmudgeon. Cartoonists will update the blogs everyday without fail to give readers a lot of time to increase their favourites with those comics that published. Readers are free to access to those comics website through the web or mobile devices.
A very special poignant, heartwarming silent penultimate panel (Source: Penultimate-panel.blogspot.com 2010)
On the other hand, online cartoon shows allow audiences access easily compared to television viewing. Parents do not allow children to watch television late night shows and it will diminishes the chances for children to come across the shows. The reason is because late night shows will impact on children’s health and academic achievement (Steadyhealth.com 2007). However, children can view an online cartoon shows at anytime they wish. Furthermore, Walsh (2007) stated the combination of audio and visual can increase the effectiveness of the cartoon shows. Below is an example of most popular comic with the combination of audio and visual to engage audience online:
Cartoon show about Classic Garfield (Source: Youtube 2007)
Nevertheless, cartoonist do have the responsibility to ensure the cartoon they produced do not bring harm to children. Innocent children are not able to differentiate what is good and bad. They are not able to make decision and they may easily get carried away from the harmful cartoon shows. Therefore, cartoonist needs to omit those harmful scenes when the cartoon shows are broadcasting in television.
In my opinion, audiences prefer online cartoons rather than cartoon publish in newspaper which will satisfy audience expectations. With a proper way to get the meaning of cartoon effectively, children will not easily influenced by harmful contents from the cartoons blogs and online shows that have been produced by irresponsible cartoonists.
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, pp. 24-37.
Latest technology device: iPad
Summary on Glaser & Son Review the iPad
Due to the technologically advanced environment, there are a lot of technology products have been produced such as iPhone, Kindle, ebooks, iPad and so forth. iPad is one of the new form products that exciting in getting news, movies, TV shows, games and web browsing but this device pay more for the least. Besides, iPad is the first version of a new technology product which often costs the most and is missing the most features (Glaser 2010).
The appearance of iPad (Source: Ubergizmo 2010)
iPad sales and users statistics
On 31 May 2010, Apple announced that iPad sales have achieved two million in less than 60 days since its launch on 3 April 2010 in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom (Philip 2010).
On the other hand, a survey conducted by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows out there are around 13,000 people surveyed in 14 countries, 49% of them plan to purchase within the next 3 years. Besides, there are about 28% stated they will buy within the year (Friskymongoose.com 2010). It shows people are willing to buy a multipurpose devises (e.g., iPad) rather than the Kindle which only has one purpose devise (e.g., the Kindle). This verifies an iPad can satisfy customer’s desires.
Pro and cons of an iPad to the society
Design / Interface and Screen
The external design of iPad is looks like image above and the big screen in iPad is gorgeous. The function of the device is similar to an iPhone or iPod Touch and it is with many additions compared to an iPhone or iPod touch.
Games
Users are able to get gaming faster in iPad compared to iPhone due to the combination of big screen and quick downloads. However, the conundrum of iPad gaming is the tactile controls. People prefer a game controller such as a keyboard and mouse rather than tactile controls because it is lack of realistic.
News apps and browsing
Although the web browsing of an iPad has a little faster speed and much more comfortable display compared to an iPhone but it is still slower than on a computer. Moreover, there is no flash and users are not able to edit google documents on the device.
Books
Kindle vs iPad screen (Source: Pbs 2010)
The black-and-white Kindle looked old compared to the iPad. The bigger screen will let users read books and turn pages easily. Hence, users may prefer an iPad than Kindle.
Conclusion
As accord to Walsh (2006, pp. 24-25), there is an increased merging of communication within and outside educational environments. It’s demonstrated an iPad is a very useful tool with new applications and ideas for those who needed.
Reference List
Frisky Mongoose.com, Survey Statistics Suggest E-Readers and Tablets May Go Mainstream, viewed 20 June 2010,
Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual shift: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts's Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp.24-37.
I'm currently an undergraduate student in University of South Australia. The issues of publication and design will be discuss here and I can be contacted at winnieksn@hotmail.com.
