Reflections on the Publishing Theories and Concepts

Throughout the course of 'Issues in Publication and Design', I have learned that preparing a document, designing a fact sheet, creating a blog, are not just about the follow-your-instinct job. It is tougher, and more technical than just simply throwing out your thoughts and ideas.

Kress & van Leeuwen's theory about social semiotic framework tells us that the designing structure must be cultural-specific (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1998). Normative structure of a document should be constructed so that it is read from top to bottom, and left to right.

I have also learned about the code of ethics for the bloggers. For example, journalists or bloggers are expected to be fair and accurate in reporting information (Society of Professional Journalists, 1996, cited in Cenite et al., 2009).

A well designed blog should be user-friendly to the readers. Blog elements should be organized in such a way that it compromises the needs of the readers. For example, providing labels for each post can make the search for blog posts easier.

(169 words)

References
Cenite, M, Detenber, B, Koh, A, Lim, A, Soon, N, Doing the right thing online: a survey of blogger's ethical beliefs and practices, New Media & Society, vol. 11, no. 4, viewed 14th November 2010, http://ejournals.ebsco.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/Direct.asp?AccessToken=2999F938S32LEEZM9MLW2Z1HA9Y28S39SM&Show=Object.

Kress, G, van Leeuwenm, T 1998, Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout, Approaches to Media Discourse, Ch. 7, pp. 186-219, Blackwell, Oxford.

Blogging Etiquette, Regulations, Ethical Publishing

Description (translated):
By Aduka Taruna. Greetings to the Muslim Malaysians and the non-Muslim Malaysians. After being convinced by my friend, and the self-realization on my part, I humbly apologize to the entire Malaysian and the citizens in Johor, for my impulsive action of publishing an article of such inhumanity.
Source: http://adukataruna.blogspot.com/2010/01/permohonan-maaf-kepada-seluruh-rakyat.html


The above is the apology statement by a Malaysian blogger, who previously posted immoral remarks on the late Sultan of Johor. Aduka Taruna 29, is alleged to have insulted the late Sultan of Johor (Bernama, 2010). The apology statement above was made after the severe law threat by the authority. Taruna's reckless action may cause him the fine of Rm50,000 or one year of serving in the jail, or both. More recently, 38 out of 352 filed lawsuits were compounded and the total collected fine summed up to Rm460,000 (Bernama, 2010).

Technological advances has driven blogging into a widespread culture (Cenite et al., 2009). Blogging is the publication of an online journal, often within a frequent timeline (Anderson et al., n.d). Viewers can leave comments in blogs to stimulate interactivities between the author and themselves. According to Technorati (2010), bloggers are mostly educated group of people with sufficient amount of financial capabilities. The case of Taruna above proves the existence of a certain blogging etiquette and regulations. However, there exists a controversy of to what extend these blogs should impose a certain code of ethics (Perlmutter & Schoen, 2007).

The popularity of the blog can determine the standard level of code of ethics. For example, a popular blog that suddenly goes out of its standard and starts to provide false accusation could bring out serious repercussion. Bloggers hold to themselves a certain social responsibilities and ethical behaviours in the cyber space. The four ethical principles that should be followed are truth telling, accountability, minimizing harm, and attribution (Cenite et al., 2009). The 'minimizing harm' principle is violated when the blogger blog about someone in an offensive and unthoughtful manner-Taruna's case is a good example. Althought blogging is also about freedom of expression, certain negative manners like demation, false accusation, or publishing slander should not be practiced. Afterall, an ethical publishing is what that defines a journalistic writing.

(Words 317)

References
Anderson, E, Greenspun, P, Grumet, A n.d, Glossary, philip.greenspun.com, viewed 14th November 2010, http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/glossary.

Bernama, 2010, Aduka Taruna must apologies formally before judge, mmail.com.my, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/26059-aduka-taruna-must-apologies-formally-judge.

Cenite, M, Detenber, B, Koh, A, Lim, A, Soon, N 2009, Doing the right thing online: a survey of bloggers' ethical beliefs and practices, New Media Society, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 575-597, viewed 14th November 2010, http://ejournals.ebsco.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/Direct.asp?AccessToken=2999F938S32LEEZM9MLW2Z1HA9Y28S39SM&Show=Object.

Cyber Journlist, 2003, A bloggers code of ethics, cyberjournalist.net, viewed 14th November 2010, http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/000215.php.

Perlmutter, D, Schoen, M 2007, "If I break a rule, what do I do, fire myself?" Ethics codes of independent blogs, Journal of Mass Media, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 37-48, viewed 13th November 2010 http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=15&sid=ffa8ab25-1cbe-4d03-82a4-d6123dc02d33%40sessionmgr4.

Technorati, 2010, WHO:bloggers, brands and consumers - day 1 SOTB 2010, Technorati.com, viewed 14th November 2010, http://technorati.com/blogging/article/who-bloggers-brands-and-consumers-day/.

Ethical Publishing, Copyrights

Everything item we read, view or listen contains its own copyright. A copyrighted material means a material that is protected of its authorship originality of work (Klein, 2009).



Caption: Viacom lawsuit fued against YouTube.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/i/ne/pg/fd_2009/100509_viacom_youtube.jpg

The media giant Viacom had filed a lawsuit to Youtube and Google for the copyright violation issue on 13 March 2007 (Mirchin, 2007). It is said that Youtube has allowed Viacom-copyrighted video clips to be played publicly. Viacom announced that as much of 150,000 unauthorized video clips but of copyrighted programming owned by Viacom that were released unlawfully, were viewed for more than 1.5 billion times on Youtube (Mirchin, 2010). The ignorance of the copyright issue in publishing unpermitted media content has caused a chaotic aftereffect. As a result, Viacom has received more than $1 billion financial damage due to the violated copyright issue (Mirchin, 2010). Youtube eventually won the huge lawsuit and is currently protected under the U.S copyright law (Kravets, 2010).

The winning of Youtube has preserved a significant element in online publishing, that is the freedom of expression. The free sharing of information over the internet is now effective on websites like Flickr, Facebook, or other hosting websites (Kravets, 2010). Internet users can retain their rights to view the published materials over the internet; however the level of difficulty has increased for the original authors to protect their rights.

Who is to be blamed, the millions of users who uploaded the copyrighted materials or the hosting web that failed to filter the unauthorized contents? Youtube had blamed the loophole in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "safe harbor" provision, which protects the hosts from any liability, unless they have the actual knowledge of the copyright violation (Suderman, 2010). It is impossible to cross-check every single materials of their originality as millions of videos are upload everyday.

I use Youtube frequently for entertainment and academic purposes. Personally I think that Youtube's victory is crucial for both the online media publishers and the users. Google company announced that the it was an important victory for both the company as well as the billion of people who use the website to communicate and share experience with the others around the world (Kravets, 2010).

(360 words)

References
Chilling Effects, n.d, DMCA safe harbor, chillingeffects.org, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/.

Klein, B 2009, Even U.S government information may be protected by copyright air force lawyers send DMCA notice to Youtube, vol. 17, no. 4, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=110&sid=afc77030-7c8a-45ab-9034-20cd1d539f8c%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=37211358#db=f5h&AN=37211358.

Kravets, D 2010, Googles wins Viacome copyright lawsuit, wired.com, viewed 14th November 2010, http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/dmca-protects-youtube/.

Mirchin, D 2007, Copyright: Viacom's $1 billion claim against Youtube, infotoday.com, vol. 24, issue 5, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&hid=22&sid=892fe8ee-dade-4f64-b2ea-4ac3787d4d61%40sessionmgr15.

Mirchin, D 2010, Viacom v. Youtube: big victory for UGC websites, infotoday.com, vol. 27, issue 9, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&hid=22&sid=60efd0ab-4350-4fc1-8387-cfeb88026020%40sessionmgr4.

Suderman, P 2010, Youtube set free, Academic Search Alumini Edition, vol. 42, no. 5, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=110&sid=03186cfa-cc2d-4508-b42c-4ae6e3afb995%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a2h&AN=53575877#db=a2h&AN=53575877.

U.S copyright Office, 2009, Copyright law of the United States, copyright.gov, viewed 14th November 2010, http://www.copyright.gov/title17/.

Journalism Ethics

"How can journalists justify not providing links or access to the sources that inform their articles? That's just basic transparency and respect for one's readers" - quote by Glenn Greenwald (cited in Woodhead, 2010).

Based on Greenwald's statement, we can reasonably conclude that the society today will challenge the transparency of the news to determine its credibility. Journalism ethics encourage truthful, accurate, and honest information. If a piece of information is to be published, there is no reason to conceal certain parts of the truth (Woodhead, 2010).

The transparency in the mass media can occur even in a democratic country. Transparency in information disclosure is often caused by the censorship or law imposed by the authority, usually the government. Political operatives can make up the political advantage of transparency through media manipulations (Balkin, 1999). These can be caused by repressive acts, printing laws, or self-censorship for the journalists. As a result, information released by the media maybe left in a vague manner, or altered in terms of the context of how the people view it (Balkin, 1999). Consequently, there exist a miscommunication due to a covered-up information. A piece of information that has underwent the transparency process can contain a certain level of biasness and self-justification. However, there are certain scholars that encourage the ideology of media transparency. Plaisance (2007) argues that the lack of transparency for news media could mean the withdrawal of the journalists' obligation to filter the news, instead of shoveling everything to the audience.

Yellow journalism is another aspect that has arguably violated the journalism ethics. The media today is growing towards sensationalism in their publishing of information. Sensational news are more likely to provoke the readers emotional reaction compared to the traditional political or economical news (Grabe et al., 2001). This has caused the media to publish sensationalized news because sensational news can attract readership. The motive for profit in publishing is often linked to the use of sensationalism (Grabe et al., 2001). While sensationalized news targets emotional arousement, amusement, or just purely entertainment, the normal (important) news should be prioritised because they contain the information that the readers should know.


An example of 'sensationalized news'.

Caption: News informing the spliting-up between a popular football star and his girlfriend.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101113/en_afp/fblgeresprealozil

(356 words)

References

American Politics, 2010, Ideology, public opinion, and media, laits.utexas.edu, viewed 14th November 2010, http://www.laits.utexas.edu/gov310/IPOM/glossary.html.

Balkin, J 1999, How mass media simulate political transparency, Cultural Values, vol. 3, no. 4, viewed 14th November 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&hid=110&sid=d1c63783-d2a1-413f-950a-6c3c22c2e867%40sessionmgr115.


Grabe, M, Zhou, S, Barnett, B 2001, Explicating sensationalism in television news: content and the bells and whistles of form, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 635-655, viewed 14th November, 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&hid=110&sid=78789bf9-2d10-466a-9edd-49cddad71226%40sessionmgr104.

Plaisance, P 2007, Transparency: an assessment of the kantian roots of a key element in media ethics practice, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, vol. 22, no. 2&3, pp. 187-207 viewed 14th November 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=14&hid=110&sid=6632df76-6de7-4f1a-8063-977e6f6c67a5%40sessionmgr112.


Woodhead, J 2010, New media, old journalism, ABC.net.au, viewed 13rd November 2010,
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/35380.html.

Yahoo news, 2010, Real's Ozil splits from homesick girlfriend, news.yahoo.com, viewed 14th November 2010, http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101113/en_afp/fblgeresprealozil.

Sexism in Advertisng

Sexism's prominent existence in the advertising industry has caused the outrage of many parties, particularly the feminists. Almost all advertisements contain at least a mild sense of sexism or gender discrimination. For example- father coming back from work, mother cooking dinner in the kitchen for the family, and et cetera. The extreme showcase of sexism in advertisements has its own function in marketting as well. The advertisers usually do not directly emphasize sexism itself in the advertisement but rather indirectly connote its underlined representation in the name of selling the product (Cohen-Eliya & Hammer, 2004). Sexism, or the other gender stereotypes showcased in these advertisements were initially meant to be of humorous purposes. The WKD Original Vodka company has launched a big advertising campaign during the World Cup season in which their advertisements comprised of sexual discrimination contents, that were intended to be funny to the audience (Perera, 2010).

One of the WKD advertisements that has caused the sexism controversy


Video description: A wife doing house chores (dishes, laundry, trash) while the husband watches football on the televsion. Husband calls out to old mother's help for his wife in the kitchen, while the mother is washing her son's van.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGCax1MQi_Q



Caption: A femininity feedback from an online discussion blog, refering to the caption of the WKD advertisement "Have you got a WKD side?" .
Source: http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/03/boys_boys_boys#top


Despite these sexist remarks laid down by advertising companies, their main goal of publicizing the product is still reached. According to an AC Nielson's statistical research, the advertised WKD beverages has surged in a short amount of time and became the no. 1 ready-to-drink brand during their sales period (BeverageBrands, 2006).

The issue here is that how has sexism become a part of the advertising trend. Are the advertisers aware of the severity of the issue? Is it commercially ethical to produce such advertisements that can cause offence to the society in terms of sexual orientation abuse?

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has set up a particular sets of codes to regulate the the contents of the advertisements. The Section 4 of the CAP codes shows that any type of marketing communications must not contain elements that could cause offence to the people (Committee of Advertising Practice, 2009). Disrupting sexual orientation is one of the elements. Sexism in advertising is often fought back by terms like democracy or freedom of speech. This phenomenon (voicing out against sexism) is contracting the democratic stance of the citizens in the society (Cohen-Eliya & Hammer, 2004). Afterall it is just the matter of how you define the sexism standard in your society.

(357 words)

References
Beverage Brands, 2006, WKD surges to become no 1 RTD brand, beverage-brands.co.uk, viewed 13rd November 2010,
http://www.beverage-brands.co.uk/news/NewsArticle.aspx?id=47&action=archive.

Cohen-Eliya, M, Hammer, Y 2004, Advertisements, stereotypes, and freedom of expression, Journal of Social Philosophy, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 165-187, viewed 13rd November 2010, http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&hid=110&sid=53cb7637-1782-473c-9e73-81b29ccb2c36%40sessionmgr114.

Committee of advertising practice, 2009, CAP code pdf versions, bcap.org.uk, viewed 13rd November 2010, http://bcap.org.uk/The-Codes/CAP-Code/CAP-Code-pdf-versions.aspx.

Perera, K 2010, Time to kick sexism out of advertising, guardian.co.uk, viewed 13rd November 2010,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/29/kick-sexism-out-of-advertising#history-link-box#history-link-box.

New Forms of Media Publishing

• Discuss in-depth the newest trends & issues pertaining to it and relate to how it has altered communication in a new media ecosystem.

Naughton says in his article that the digital convergence, personal computing as well as global networking have combined and changed the paces of development in the media environment (Naughton, 2006). This can be proven by the new media like Twitter, Facebook, Blogging and etc. Have or will these new media 'wipe-out' the old media like television, radio, printed materials, like what Naughton has brought up in the article (Naughton, 2006)?

New media pertaining to the Internet has changed the communication ecosystem, or enhanced the system nonetheless. For example, the fastest and the easiest way of researching now is via the Internet search machine called Google some might say. People do not have to go to a video store to rent a video anymore, where now they can access them online through Youtube, which is even more efficient and faster way. As soon as something happens and get published online, newsreader can access to the news instantly, unlike the printing media where news take a longer time to prepare and publish. The examples can go on and on regarding new media, but are the contents all creditable and can it truely replace the old media?

Naughton in the article says that the Internet can replace the broadcasting television, and it will slowly (Naughton, 2006). One of the reasons that the Internet is preferable for most audience is because the people can voice out their opinion instantly over the Internet. The Internet must remain a place of expression because limiting it can impact on the rights of speech (American Civil Liberties Union, 2010). For example, politicians have utilized the freedom of speech over the Internet to aid their political campaigns (The Bivings Report, 2006).

(267 words)

References

American Civil Liberties Union, 2010, House committee advocates Internet censorship, aclu.org, viewed 30 September 2010, http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/house-committee-advocates-internet-censorship.

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, Reuterinstitue, viewed 30 September 2010, http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf.

The Bivings Report, 2006, The Internet's role in political campaigns, The Bivings Report, viewed 30 September 2010, http://www.bivingsreport.com/2006/the-internets-role-in-political-campaigns/.

2c. Explain briefly types of blogging communities&methods to build blogging communities. Then discuss the structure of one blogging community in brief

• Define what is a blogging community.

Generally a community refers to a group of people connected together sharing interests in the cyberspace. Derived from the meaning of 'online community', blogging community can mean a group of people who join together and interact with each other online throught the set of technology, in this case Blogs (White, 2006).

• How do you create a blogging community?

To create a blogging community, one's blog must have a certain element to fit into a certain blogging community. For example, a food blog belongs to a topic centric community because the blogger discusses about a particular subject identification, that is food (White, 2006). A blogging community is created when the bloggers felt the sense of belonging and identity and are interested to find out deeper into the subject (Anthony, 2009). By commenting on people's blog, we are also creating a blogging community. Interactivity between bloggers can increase the attachment in the blogging society (Daily Blog Tips, 2007). In addition, RRS is also a vital tool for bloggers to discover each other to create a blogging community (White, 2006).

• Explain briefly the types blogging communities. Then, discuss the structure of ONE blogging community that you know of, eg. Global Voices/Jeff Ooi.com.

According to White, there are several types of blogging communities, including blog based community, single blog centric community, central connecting topic community and etc (White, 2006). The blogging community that I am going to discuss about is the UniSA blog - taking from the closest example we have. The UniSA blog is the boundaried community. It is somehow close to forum based community and it contains discussion boards as well as intant messaging system built in (Whilte, 2006. Bloggers in this community can easily access to the other blogger's blog internally (White, 2006).

The above image shows all the 'participants' from a particular course in the blogging community of UniSA. Users can easily access any of the participant's blog.





This image shows the elements that define it as the Boundaried Communities.

(301 words)

References

Anthony, 2009, What is a blogging community, The Travel Tart, viewed 30 September 2010, http://www.thetraveltart.com/what-is-a-blogging-community/.

Daily Blog Tips, 2007, Building a community around your blog, Dailyblogtips.com, viewed 30 September 2010, http://www.dailyblogtips.com/building-a-community-around-your-blog/

White, N 2006, Blogs and community - launching a new paradigm for online community?, The Knowledge Tree, viewed 30 September 2010, http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community.

2b. Classification of blog & opinion about the most appropriate classification approach

• Discuss the classification system that you know of

According to Wordpress.com (2010), there are a variety types of blog, with different languages. Some of these includes personal, business, politics, as well as tips & reviews blogs (Wordpress, 2010). Some would classify the blog by the blog itself while some would classified the blog posts that are being posted on the blog because they might be personal blogs blogging about political posts for instance. The Moblog is also known as mobile blogging. Usage of Moblog is increasing because of its conveniency. Most these Moblogs are photoblogs where bloggers upload the pictures taken from their mobile phone to the blog instantly (Williams, 2007).

• Many blogs are combinations of styles, which makes identifying unique types difficult. Do you look at topic, style, format, audience? Compare the classifications from the sources you know of the reading below: A taxanomy of blogs. Then, provide your opinion.

More oftenly the blogs are classified by their significant difference in general posting topic. The blogger's stance on a certain issue (style) also marks as one of the ways to identify the different kinds of blogs. Margaret Simons said in one of her interviews that some political bloggers from Australia who blogs from a certain stance of politics (digest blogs), the left-wing and the right-wing point of view (The Media Report, 2008). The distinctive styles of these blogs have made them hard to be categorized. However, Simons also said pointed out the other types of blog that has similar relationship with one another - advocacy blog, popular mechanics blog, exibition blog and etc (The Media Report, 2008). Bottomline, the differences that these blogs share are the angle to the subjects, stance, as well as the general topic of the context.

(232 words)

References

The Media Report, 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, ABC.com, viewed 30 September 2010, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm.

Williams, D 2007, Blogging definitions: types of blogs - part 2, WebdesignSEO, viewed 30 September 2010, http://www.webdesignseo.com/blogging-terms/blogging-definitions-types-of-blogs-part-2.php.

Wordpress, 2010, Types of blogs, Wordpress.com, viewed 30 September 2010, http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/>.

2a. Blogs as current phenomenon & benefits of blogging to the community

• What is the size of current blogosphere?

The size of this social medium is a huge because it serves not only as media tools, but can also be used as spaces for personal amusement. As of the year of 2009, it is reported that the number of blogs on the Internet has exceeded 126 million (Pingdom, 2010). However, most of these bloggers in the blogosphere are classified as "Hobbyists" because they do not receive income of any sort by blogging (Sussman, 2009). The blog serves as an important medium because it is linked with a wide range of audience.

• What's the trend in eg. Europe, Asia, & Malaysia?

Blogging in Malaysia is viewed as an alternative way of expressing thoughts through the media, especially when political matter is concerned. The blog has become an effective tool for journalists as well as the activists (Sussman, 2010). Due to the constrainment of expression, many have chose the method of blogging to deliver their message across without being censored by the authority. In Europe however, their community seldom interacts with the international blogging community because these European bloggers usually blog using their own language (Napolitano, 2010).

• What types of blogs are prevalent in certain countries?

Political blogs in the US are widely utilized for political campaigns and activities. Many bloggers believed that blogging is one of the reasons the now-president Obama dominated the fundraising throughtout the campaign (Sussman, 2009). Bloggers also believed that the political field has the most impact on blogosphere, following by technology, and entertainment (Sussman, 2009).

• What are the benefits of those prevalent blogs (as above) to the community, eg. benefits of political/social blogs in Iranian or Malaysian context?

As mentioned above, political blogs of Malaysia are to a certain extend freed from the government's policy of which the sensitive issues are banned from being discussed or voiced out. Iran however has no such practice when their government decided to imprison the Iranian bloggers or journalists (Sussman, 2009).

(268 words)

Reference

Napolitano, A 2010, The Europe roundup: the brussels blogger study, Tech President, viewed 13 September 2010, http://techpresident.com/node/17370.

Pingdom, 2010, Internet 2009 in numbers, viewed 13 September 2010, http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/01/22/internet-2009-in-numbers/.

Sussman, M 2009, Blogging revenues, brands, and blogs: SOTB 2009, Technorati, viewed 13 September 2010, http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-4-blogging-revenues-brands-and/.

Sussman, M 2009, Day 5: twitter, global impact and the future of blogging, Technorati, viewed 13 September 2010, http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/page-2/.

Document Design

The layout and the content are the two most important elements in creating a good power point presentation. Power point presentations are used in almost everywhere, schools, universities, working places, meetings, etc. It is important to know how to create a good document to deliver your message across effectively.

First, the writing (content) determines to your audience your understanding of the subject discussed. A good piece of writing should not contain symbolic or hidden interpretations but instead should be direct and straight to the point (Rothman, 2005). This is to prevent information loss and difference of interpretation from the audience. The words and the structure used must be simple, visible and easy to read (Marquez, 2010).

The layout of the slides are relatively important as well as - the way we organize our slides, the colours and text we use, visual aids, number of slides, et cetera (Russel, n.d). A wisely chosen image or diagram can enable better understanding to the audience, rather than over-using texts (Microsoft.com, n.d). It is very important to utilize the images, appropriately. Over-using images can be distracting and can cause failure in delivering the messages across. Slides filled with excessive text can be dull as well. Another major mistake that most presenter does is reading out exactly what is prepared on the slides. It is considered a major mistake because that is not presenting but just simply reading out loud (Russell, n.d).

Well-prepared slides do not necessarily guarantee a good presentation. The speaker (presenter) plays an important role as well; speaking clearly, staying focus, as well as providing opportunities for interactions with the audience (Marquez, 2010). Interactions can allow the audience to be more interested to the subject and therefore are more likely to understand the intended message.

(293 words)

Reference
12 tips for creating better presentations, Microsoft at work, viewed 29 August 2010, http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/skills/presentations.aspx.

Marquez, Z 2010, How to make a good powerpoint presentation, Ezine Articles, viewed 29 August 2010, http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=4313178.

Rothman, S 2005, What makes good scientific and technical writing, Associated Content, viewed 29 August 2010, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9447/what_makes_good_scientific_and_technical.html?cat=4.

Russell, W n.d, 10 Tips for creating successful business presentations, About.com, viewed 29 August 2010, http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointinbusiness/tp/bus_pres_tips.htm.

Russell, W n.d, Presentation mistakes - 10 most common presentation mistakes, About.com, viewed 29 August 2010, http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/presentationmistakes/tp/080722_presentation_mistakes.htm.

Purpose

• What am I going to discuss?
• Specify my target audience.

I am going to discuss about the issue of media and publishing.

My target audience will be narrowed down IPD students whom are studying the field as new beginners. Tackling on this issue is necessary as well as useful. This will allow them to have a different and sharper perspective on the relationship between the media and the society.

(59 words)