Print vs. screen designs

Aspects used to design a print would differ from design a document on a screen. To illustrate, the author would use an example of a document from print and screen to compare.

The above shows an example of a newspaper article. Hiligoss & Howard (2002) suggest that the spacing in between lines should be even. As one can see from the above, each line is evenly spaced out which allows reader to have a constant flow of reading compared to having all the lines being clustered into groupings. Print uses newsprint which is easily identifiable through its texture and size compared to the article online where no paper was used. Therefore, that't what that defines a print document such as above. Often enough, print documents uses pull quotes to create a focal point at attract the readers to focus on the subject that the author wants to emphasize. As one can see from above, there are different focal points where one can focus on, the headline, sub heading as well as mini pull quotes all around the paper. 

This, on the other hand, is an example of a news article on the web. First and foremost, according to Morkes & Nielsen (1997) credibility is an important issue on the web. Since the web is free for everyone to use, it becomes a vast empty space where anyone can state one's opinion without going through licencing or any legal restrictions. Information should be able to be easily scanned. This in a sense not by using a conventional scanner but rather how fast a reader can pick up what the important points are within that article. Use of bullets as well as eye catching headliners and bolding of important information can help the reader scan through the article before actually reading it. Lastly, Morkes & Nielsen (1997) also states that readers like to read the conclusion and summary up front of the article. Rather than narrating the whole story as in the print newspaper, online papers should use concise story telling in order for the readers to get the gist of the story within 5 mins of reading the article. 

To conclude, one can see the differences between print and screen documents but there are certain similarities which does in fact begs the question of whether different principals should be applied for a piece of information that uses different medium to reach its targeted audience. 

Reference List

Hiligoss, S, Howard, T 2002, 'Visual Communication: A Writer's Guide,' Longman Publications, second edition, New york, viewed 13 April 2012, <http://www.ablongman.com/mycomplab_content/pdf/long_hilligoss.pdf>

Morkes, J, Nielsen, J 1997, 'Concise, SCANNABLE, and Objective: How to Write for the Web,' viewed 13 April 2012, <http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html>

Issues within the upcoming of New Media

Ever since the Internet came into the lives of society, media had a new form. SearchSOA's (2000) website states that new media takes form through multimedia as well as hypermedia whereby one form of media can be linked to another. Youtube is a form of new media that has gained the favour of society ever since its inception. It has become the new medium for the public to get information regarding politics, environment, entertainment and so forth with an interactive visual display of using videos. According to Hansen et. al (2011), Youtube is seen to be watched for more habitual entertainment compared to political use.

Naughton (2006) suggests that broadcast TV is eventually losing its dominance because of the net that has given society different alternative forms of media for the source of information. Youtube can be considered one of the different forms of new media that has changed the dominance over broadcast TV. Therefore it shows that the new media ecosystem is progressively taking over traditional media.

Youtube has helped society receive news in various occasions. In the 2009 tsunami that left thousands dead, Youtube was one of the major contributors in spreading the news. Videos that locals had taken of while the tsunami had happened became a hit among the world. Therefore, Youtube has become an alternative news reporting media that the public can rely on.

Reference list
Hansen G.L, Haridakis, P.M, Sharma, R 2011, 'Differing Uses of YouTube During the 2008 U.S. Presidential Primary Election,' Electronic News, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1 - 19, viewed 12 April 2012, <http://enx.sagepub.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/content/5/1/1.full.pdf+html>

Naughton, J 2006, 'Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem,' viewed 12 April 2012, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>


SearchSOA (2000) New media, viewed 12 April 2012, <http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/new-media>

The Blogging Community

According to Graves (2007) offers a point of view whereby community is based on a particular culture where communication is key to create a reality that can be maintained, repaired and transformed. By applying this to a blog, the blogging community was hence created. A community that shares information whether personal or of interest with others through the cyberspace of blogging creates a sense of belonging from one to another. White (2006) suggests that the blogging community is broken up into three parts, the one blog centric community, the topic centric community, and the boundaried community. White further elaborates that the one blog centric community is a community that revolves around the blogger(s) and the commentators. Tools such as Wordpress, Blogspot help create a domain for these communities to exist. On the other hand, the topic centric community is a community based on the topic at hand rather than the personal profile of the blogger(s) whom uses hyperlinks to link each other to information regarding the topic. Lastly, White states that the boundaried community are members that register and 'join' a community and are given the chance to create their very own blog. Such sites include, discussion board, myspace.com, social networking features, and etc.

As one can see from Kenny Sia's blog, it is a one blog centric community as the commentators are socializing within the means of the blog. What is written in the author's blog, is to my opinion, pure gibberish which is there for the sake of writing something for his community to comment upon. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that, the important component of this community is the identity of the blogger himself as the community he builds revolves around him.

Reference List
Graves, L 2007, 'The Affordances of Blogging : A Case Study in Culture and Technological Effects,' Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 31, no. 4, pp.331 - 346, viewed 10 April 2012, <http://jci.sagepub.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/content/31/4/331.full.pdf+html>

White, N 2006, 'Blogs and Community - Launching a new Paradigm For Online Community?,' The Knowledge Tree, edition 11, viewed 10 April 2012, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>

Classification of blogs

Blogs are currently on the rise and it is getting harder to classify blogs into aspects that we, as readers know. How do we know a blog is written for political ideology or just for leisure purposes? Blogs are currently getting more ambiguous. However, a taxonomy is used to give readers a general classification of a particular blog. Blogs can be classified into two, filter - style and free - style.

Filter-style
According to Wang (1999, cited by Branum, 2001), filter-style blogs are blogs similar to early blogs whereby the author focuses on linking sites/or articles that the author finds suitable to his/her readers. This type of blogs is aimed at building a network between the readers and the author by giving links that would have aspects in common.

Free-style blog (Journal style)
Ozawa (2001, cited by Branum, 2001) states that these kinds of blogs are focused less on the external world and more on the internal world of the author. Therefore, the author's interests and problems becomes the main topic for the blog. In other words, the blog is functioning as an online journal for the author but is allowing strangers to read whatever the author writes.

In opinion, a free-style blog gives the author more freedom to write his/her opinions but differs from the point of maintaining a blog. To conclude, classification of blogs may help how readers know what blog it is that they want to read but does it all matter? Or does the author is of importance rather than the content as for example Kenny Sia's blog or Xia Xue's blog whom are famous bloggers but content wise, are almost nothing.

Reference List
Branum, J.M 2001, 'The Blogging Phenomenon: An Overview and Theoretical Considerations,' JMBZine.com, December 2001, viewed 10 April 2012, <http://www.ajy.net/jmb/blogphenomenon.htm>