e) New forms of media publishing

According to Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), text and graphics are used together to form greater meaning as both these modes support each other. Therefore, i would think that the trends now are mostly the tumblelogs. This is because of the different media types such as the text, video, and pictures where bloggers would be able to convey their expressions.

Furthermore, Walsh (2006, p.31) states that, Bloggers enter a site is to obtain information and its main purpose is to provide people with numerous types of information. That is why, I would say that tumblelogs would be the trendiest is because people have different ideas and experiences they face everyday and bloggers would want to express them. Furthermore they also want to share about their experiences.

Old form of media Publishing: Papers or Traditional magazines, etc.

Karp (2006) asserted that the old form of publication will not give up yet, they will find a way out to survive in the new media world. However, to support the needs of the target audience, they tried to explore the new technologies to deliver their content to the audiences. Goldberg, the president of information and media of Mcgraw Hill told Karp (2006) that their readers could access their content in different format: printed, online, television, blogs or podcasts.

New form of Media Publishing: YouTube, Online newspapers, etc.

• YOUTUBE

Source : Malaysiakini.com

YouTube has been a very popular site for so many years. It is one pit stop for entertainment, news and education. in YouTube everyone can watch any videos up to their interest. Currently, YouTube has been playing quite an important role in the media; you can watch TV shows, news, entertainment videos and many more. Personally, I must say that I rely much on YouTube to watch news from all over the world, for example: BBC news, HardTalk, Al Jazeera, etc. I also watch entertainment videos, like music videos or movie trailers. Especially, when I am boring and got nothing to do, YouTube always accompanied me.

But let’s talk about the disadvantages from viewing streaming videos like YouTube’s videos.

Copyright

According to Jones (2007), YouTube has been sued several times of copyright lawsuits; some users were not responsible enough and posted videos without permission. This is the reason why these days, YouTube had deleted quite many videos that have been uploaded before.

Online Newspapers

If only I have to choose, I will prefer to read online newspapers than printed newspapers. Why? Because online newspapers usually are more to the point, it is actual, fast and convenient. Some more, it is free. But that is not the only reason why I choose online newspapers than printed one.

According to Nielsen (2008) readers will prefer simple and informal writing than a very formal academic writings. Why? Because people tend to read fast, so the language used must be down to earth. If the words used were not simple, people will have to read one by one from each word to word.

Source : feedmelah.com

Source : The Star

References

1) The Star online, 2009, "Wok in to Penang Nyonya food," viewed on 18th November 2009,

<http://feedmelah.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/staronline29062009.jpg>.

2) Nielsen, J, 2008, "Writing style for print vs. web", Econtent.com, viewed on 17th November 2009,<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/print-vs-online-content.html>.

3) Malaysiakini, 2009, "Bukit Jalil Tamil School: Kids face a long walk," viewed on 18th November 2009, <http://www.youtube.com/user/malaysiakini?blend=5&ob=4>.

4) Naughton, J. 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, viewed on 16th November 2009, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>.

5) Jones, A, 2007, "YouTube's legal issues grow", Econtent.com, viewed on 17th November 2009, <http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=39887>.

6) Kress G., & van Leeuwen T., 2006, Reading Images, Chapter 1; The Semiotic Landscape: Language and Visual Communication.

7) 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

d) Designing for online vs. print

Technology has been changing so quickly without us noticing is. Now in the current environment there is wireless connection and even mobiles having to read their news from compared to the traditional printed version. However, the printed documents are documents which forces audience to read from left to right or even top to bottom (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006).

Personally, I would rather read through the news papers in printed form to know the current issues in a reality world one by one. According to Penman (1998) stated that, this kind of individuals or readers as ‘flippers’. Flippers are readers which are most likely stop to read when something catches their attention. for example of a print is shown below.

PRINTED DESIGN

Source : The New strait Times newspaper, shashinki.com

VS.

Online Design

Source :Wordpress (2009), http://www.blogperfume.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/blognews.jpg

The good element in online news is the design and because of its benefits which it is fast, save cost mostly, online news includes the video of certain news of interview or any of kind video that are relevant. However, according to Nielsen. J, 2007, reading is 25-40% slower on screen then printed pages as it can cause an eye strain because it mentioned that online news elements have in many type of version format such as in PDF, Microsot reader and Acrobat reader format which are meant for digital distribution; not digital publication. Thus, readers will only be skimming on screen text instead of reading detailed content.

In conclusion, both plays an important role in providing information. It depends on the reader choose the medium of media that suit and comfortable in their lifestyle.

References

1) Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. 2006. "Reading images. Chapter 1:
The semiotic landscape: language and visual communication."

2) Nielsen, J, 1997. "How Users Read on the Web," viewed on 16th November 2009, .

3) 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.

4) Nielsen, J. 1999, "Differences Between Print Design and Web Design," viewed on, 15th November 2009, <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990124.html>.

5) Nielsen, J. 2007, "Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design," viewed on 16th November 2009,

<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html>.

c) Types of blogging communities & the structure of one blogging community

Blog Communities

The community of all blogs were called the blogosphere. People with the same interest then will link one blog to another blogs which will be include in MyBlogLog (Wiki, 2007).

In addition, blogging communities usually consist of people and bloggers from the same interest, Karrer (2007) said “I've been working with Dave Lee on theLearning Circuits Blog (LCB) for about 8 months now. About two months into it, I finally began to understand that the LCB was different than an individual blog because it was designed to serve a community.” So if someone comes from different interest they will not be able to give comment on that certain blog.

Types of Blog

There are many kinds of blog and some example of the blog types are:

1) Personal Blogs

2)News Blogs

Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog (2009)

3) Campaign Blogs - Unity

Source : http://www.malaysianartistesforunity.info/?p=65 (2008)

4) Tech Blogs - The financial Times

source : http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/(2009)

5) Organizational Blogs -

Utah Government Information

Source : http://radio.weblogs.com/0115389/(2003)

Based on White. N (2006), it has mentioned about the blog based community that consist of three main patterns which are Single Blog community, Topic Centric community and Boundaried community. These three patterns have an elements that are related to each other in a some ways. However, each patterns have a different strategies to make a blog as a medium for developing bloggers in terms of the design of the blogs, the content of social pf control an power and each of the pattern plays a role of the subject matter in any issues. In my opinion,the single blog community are more flexible as it is the first form of blog based community to emerge as readers begin returning to early bloggers’ sites, commenting.the blog could owned by more than just one blogger but this is not an aggregation of blogs. It is best exemplified by well known or ‘A List’ bloggers and it is best use for educational field or category. Image below are the picture of the Single Blog community.

Source : http://tihane.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/blogcentricsmaller.jpg

Therefore, blogs offer a unique channel for developing and maintaining relationships between organizations and publics.(Miller. B. M, 2006)

References

1) Karrer, T, 2007, “Types of blogs discussion: e-Learning Technology”, eLearning Technology, viewed on 12^th November 2009, <http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2007/03/types-of-blog-discussions.html>.

2) White, N, 2006, "Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm for online community?," viewed on 17th November 2009,

<http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new paradigm-for-online-community>.

3) Kelleher, T., and Miller, B. M. (2006). "Organizational blogs and the human voice: Relational strategies and relational outcomes." Journal of Computer- Mediated Communication, 11(2), article 1.

4) Gaman, 2007, "50 most influential blogs in Malaysia", viewed on 16th November 2009,

<http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/>.

5) Taricani, E. 2007, 'Communities of Blogging: Extensions of Our Identities', American Communication Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3, retrieved 15th November 2009, >.

b) Classification of blogs & opinion about the most appropriate classification approach

You can differentiate the blogs by putting them in different genre, for example: fashion blogs, political blogs, companies’ blogs, etc. You also can differentiate them by the way the blogs are written and delivered (Wiki, 2007):

• Vlog (Video Blog)
• Linklog (Link Blog)
• Sketchblog (Skecthes Blog) - usually a comic style of blogging
• Photoblog (blog with photos)
• Tumblelog (blog with short posting)
• Phlog (Gopher Protocol)
• Moblog (blogging from mobile phones)

As there are many styles of blogging, I love entertainment blogs and one of my favorite blog for Malaysian artist's blog is Yasmin Ahmad, a legendary famous director, script writer which her last movie made was "Telentime". Her blog is full of interesting facts of media's field in such many ways of her writing style and the reason I love it is because her blog same as my interest which is entertainment in movies, drama that connected to the media's stream which means, the style of her writing in her blog that attracts me. However, that is not the only type of blogs. People blog for different reason, they have different personality and interest, so they will have different kind of blogs (Libraris & ‘Blogs).

According toFunnell. A (2008), stated of a taxonomy blogs which discussed the different type of nine online sites that classified as blogs. some of it are digest blog, the exhibition blog, pamphleteering blogs etc. Thus, to compare all of the blog that has explained to wikipedia.com, the classification are different. Wikipedia are wide as in for anyone can contribute the information which sometimes the elements are not accurate and most of the content does not cite it from a real professional writers whereas the taxonomy blogs, most of the information are very useful for education level to use as references because it has a specific blog for a certain information.

References:

1) Averweg, U.R & Leaning, M. 2007. “Are ‘Virtual Communities’ Virtual?”, The Southern Africa Institute of Management Services, viewed on 12^th November 2009, <http://www/mtmassociation.org.za/Are%20Virtual%20Communities%20Virtual.pdf>.

2) Karrer, T, 2007, “Types of blogs discussion: e-Learning Technology”, eLearning Technology, viewed on 12^th November 2009, <http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2007/03/types-of-blog-discussions.html>.

3) “Different types of blogs”, Information for Bloggers, viewed on 14^th November 2009, <http://www.geeboy.co.uk/different-types-of-blog.html>.

4) Libraris & ‘Blogs, How blogs are moving into the library world, ‘Types of blogs’, viewed on 14^th November 2009, <http://www.slais.ubc.ca/COURSES/libr500/0304wt2/www/J_Thomson/types.htm>.

5) Wikipedia 2007, “Blog Types”, viewed on 14^th November 2009, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs>.

6) Funnell. A, 2008, “A taxonomy of blogs,” The media report, viewed on 17^th November 2009, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript>.

a) Blogging phenomenon

Based on Technorati.com (2008), there have been a number of studies aimed at understanding the size of the blogosphere, has exploded in popularity to the point where there are now more than 20 million blogs being tracked around the world. All studies agree, however, that blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream. As it mentions also that the blogsphere is doubling in size every 6 months and on average, a new weblog is created every second of everyday. According to Hughes. R (2006), around 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created and technorati has tracks about 1.2 million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour.

Moreover, the trends of blogging in Europe and Asia have a big difference ways which is better as the ways of their thinking are more creative elements whereas Asian internet users create blogs for the purpose to earn money; this however does not fully means that all internet users create blogs for money purposes but to have a personal blog as a virtual diary for everyone to see. (Technorati, 2008)

There are many advantages of blogging to the community, some people might say that by blogging you can share information and knowledge and it helps the communities to be better informed (McGovern, 2004). As for country as Malaysia, the benefits for political issues is the freedom of the expression in breaking the news in political matter in a fast track although many says that the freedom of media and speech is limited and restricted here but they cannot stop the spirit of people to post any news in blog which can create awareness to the public of current issues. (The Star, 2009).

As for social world in blogging, it can create a friendly sociable place and get more connection with other people. Especially for those who does not have any communication skills of facing in reality. The same benefit will goes to business field in blogging such as diaryofane-shopaholic.blogspot.com,where it is an online shopping in a blog style and also advertised their website in many of ways such as in social networking site and emails. Therefore, blogs has become a booming medium which the society had adapted to promote their thoughts, feelings and understandings about the world.

References List

1) Technorati, 2008, "State of Blogsphere", viewed at 15 November 2009, .

2) Technorati, 2007, "Blogging Hits Mainstream, Integral to Media to Media Ecosystem", viewed on 15 November 2009, <http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/blogging-hits-mainstream-integral-to-mediaecosystem- 6256/technorati-state-of-blogosphere-size-2008jpg/>.

3) McGovern. G, 2004, ‘Blogs and Blogging: the advantages and disadvantages’ viewed on 14^th November 2009, <http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm>.

4) The star, 2009, "Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Media & Our Attitude Towards Them", 17th July,2009 issue, viewed on 14th November 2009, <http://blog.thestar.com.my/permalink.asp?id=24920>.

5) wordpress.org, 2006, "Blogs and Freedom of Speech", 6th June 2006 issue, viewed on 16th November 2009, <http://www.worldpress.org/2373.cfm#down>.

6) Hughes. R. Jr, 2006, "Current size of the Blogosphere", Urbana.

7) Gaman 2008, "50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia," viewed on13th November 2009, <http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/>.