Looking back, I must say it has been an interesting journey into learning the various Issues in Publications and Designs. The various laws and views from several authors (and not forgetting my dear lecturer - who made simple but effective views), have changed the way I look or study anything regarding designs in publications and others related to it.
I would say that I have learnt (and really enjoyed) not only the basics in reading images, but also the laws and regulations of developing good documents. Now as a blogger, I can say that I know how to apply essential aspects in document designs, such as framing, salience and the information value (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1998). Also, I must say that I learnt a thing or two from Walsh (2006), about reading print based texts with multimodal texts too. It has made me understand that although texts may state something, but the picture may be deceiving or has a different set of meanings of its own!
All in all, I feel very lucky to be one of the lucky few, to have learnt the capability of reading and deciphering texts and pictures, as well as in designing stuff easily! Kudos to Issues in Publications and Designing, I had a great time of my life learning the subject!
Sayonara!!
References:
Kress, G & Van Leeuwen, T (2006), The meaning of Composition, Reading Images, Blackwell, Oxford
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.
On January the 20th 2009, was the day to remember, as it was the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America. The story of his success is very simple; he had incorporated various forms of new media ranging from social networking websites (facebook) to video sharing networks (You Tube), as a political tool to gain supporters. One of said new media used by him to net in supporters, is the latest (and still the most sophisticated) iPhone.
Shiels (2008) state, that Obama had used the phone with a built in free application, which basically helps getting the vote out. The applications "Call Friends" function organizes the iPhone user's personal phonebook by swing states, so that Obama's fans can quickly "nudge" their friends to cast a vote (Telegraph.com, 2008). Walsh's (2006) reasons that reading in a multimodal environment, requires words, pictures and images, and also through movement and sounds (for digital or electronic screens). This is indeed plausible asObama also made full use of the iPhone, in the sense that, he posted videos, audio recordings and such to win the hearts of the American citizen.
In conclusion, Obama's application is basically designed to grab the attention of the reader. Based on the applications created for the iPhone, it uses technological differences (hyperlinks, navigation bars, etc.) to assist and attract the reader (Walsh, 2006). All in all, it is amazing to see what technology is capable of doing, especially in the context of politics!
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.
The 25th of August 2007 was a dark day for the Tamil Daily, Makkal Osai as it was banned for a month due to publishing a controversial and religion sensitive picture, as its front page. The picture shows Jesus Christ holding a can of beer while puffing on a cigarette, and just below it was a small caption saying "If a person repents his mistakes, heaven awaits him".
Schirato and Yell (1996) explained how texts shapes contexts, and contexts shapes texts. This can be argued in the Makkal Osai's case. When a reader reads the text ("If a person repents his mistakes, heaven awaits him") they quickly will have an understanding that it touches religion, Likewise, by studying the context (the picture of Jesus Christ smoking), they quickly understand that its something controversial. This can be further backed up by, Shriver (1997) who claim that there two type of readers, the knowledge-driven and the text-driven. The knowledge-driven readers, will automatically understand the whole concept of the picture, using knowledge and social awareness. He/She will interpret the image as a creative and humorous motion in presenting a meaning. However, the text-driven interacts or relies more on the visuals or verbal signs. Hence, these readers will misunderstand the whole idea and meaning of the message, as they would assume that by the picture and the text, they (Makal Osai) is infact belittling or critisizing their religion.
Makkal's Osai's intention was infact with good intention, however they failed to study who were their readers. Hence, the result is that it had created confusion and anger among the Christian community (Shriver, 1997), finally leading to the dismisal of the Makkal Osai's publications permit. Thus its very important that document designers study their general readers and also, prevent the usages of religion based criticism caricatures or cartoons in designs.
Well, technology has done it again! With the creation of webisodes, anyone can watch their favourite dramas online! A webisode is basically a short online movie created for the Internet audience and is basically for marketing purposes (wisegeek, 2009). I myself can not belief the fact that now I can watch my favourite science fiction action drama, BattlestarGalactica online! Although its short, and (in my opinion) rather amateurish, it is still addictive as its televised version. (Check out the BattlestarGalactica'swebisode website!)
Example of BattlestarGalacticawebisode
Tailoring entertainment and and advertising to children is an enormous and growing industry in Australia. In the transcript, the director, writer of kids webisode Tiny Town, Chris Corbett discusses about his general aims and genre, and the challenges faced in the creation and distribution of the webisodes in the Internet. He emphasized the need of being concise and not long winded. He also states that Internet users will lose their patience in a short time if they do not understand the plot. This is clearly argued by Clay (2009), that the time limit of a webisode must be around 3-5 minutes, so not to make audience lose interest and feel like they have wasted valuable time.
Besides that, Corbett suggests that the web makes an ideal series genre, as people can watch the webisodes easily, as and when they like. This indeed is plausible, as Schirato and Yell (1996) explains that genres are the ways of meaning associated with social purposes and social occasions, and the importance of identifying which genre is suitable for social occasions should be emphasized.
As a conclusion, I feel that full attention must be given on the type of genre we are using, the general audience we aim, and also the characterestics of the webisode we are creating. Otherwise, the audience may be confused or bored, thus leading to unpopularity and loss of money.
Schirato,T , Yell, S 1996, Chapter 5: Framing Context, Communications and Cultural literacies: An Introduction, pp. 90- 117 Walsh, M 2006, ‘The textual shift: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal text’, Australian Journal of Language and literacy, vol.29, no. 1, pp.24-37
The article discusses of a small conflict between an Indonesian weekly called Tempo, and the community of Indonesia. The Tempo magazine had posted up a photo of Ex-president Suharto and his children in a composition mimicking the Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper. The posting, which was created prior to the passing of Suharto, depicted him in Jesus Christ's central place at a table surrounded by his sons and daughters (instead of apostles), thus angering much of the Christian community.
The Tempo magazine frontpage picture
(Source: www.daylife.com)
The article created many controversies, mainly by the depiction of the picture itself. The people (especially Christians) interpreted the picture as a form of mockery to the real picture. As mentioned by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1998), this is reminiscent to the element of the "given and new". "Given" is basically what the reader already knows or is familiar with, whereas, "New" is something that is unknown to the reader and is the important point of the message that must be taken into account. The Christian community showed understanding of the last supper (the Given), as the last meal that Jesus Christ had before his death. However, when Suharto passed away, Tempo made a cartoon of him (the New) depicting his legacy, using the same elements and ideology of the original last supper picture.
From what I can understand from this matter (apart from the "given and new" elements), is that the people managed to understand the definition of the picture without needing to see the texts. According to Walsh (2006), people are capable of interpreting the meaning of the picture in various ways. The community immediately understood by studying the picture and came up with their own ideology. For example, the attempt by the Tempo was to only discuss the legacy of the Ex-president, in his years of ruling in Indonesia. The picture was merely there as to show that his legacy will never be forgotten, and was not related to any biblical event. However, the Christian community mistook it and presumed that the magazine was implying that depiction as blasphemous. This also shows that different people have different views on how a message is portrayed. Michael (2007), cited Haynes in a conference, stating that "what exactly is considered blasphemy can vary between religious groups and people.".
In my opinion, this article is indeed controversial. Although Tempo claimed not to have incorporated anything biblical in the photo, or was merely an inspiration to Da Vinci's last supper, it still touched on religious issues which is considered by many as a sensitive issue. The magazine could and should have found other creative ways to portray their message, rather on touching anything that is related to religion.
Reference:
AFP, 2008, Indonesia weekly apologises over Last Supper Suharto, abc News.com, viewed 16th June 2009 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/06/2156269.htm> Kress,G & van Leeuwen, T (2006), The Meaning of Composition, Reading Images, Blackwell, Oxford
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.
My personal favourite would be the You Tube, a video sharing website. Garfield (2006) cites Jarvis who states the You Tube phenomenon as "Exploding Tv" as it is practically expanding faster than anything esle! (nearly 100 million videostreams a day!!). This video sharing website has since than become a very popular hub for people to show their talents and it has proven to be a great influence to them and the public. "Talent finding" (the way I put it) is one of the new media trends. Amateurs of various cultures who post their videos are actually being watched by companies or professionals. Curtis James Jackson III or "50 cent" (rapper, singer and executive producer), for example, had launched a contest in You Tube, in an attempt to find new talents (Moldova.org, 2007). Besides that, some amateures actually garner support and recognition worldwide, of their works. Amateurs Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda created a parody of the "Star Wars" film called "Chad Vader". The video was posted on You Tube and there was a tremendous chain reaction after that! According to Callender (2007), it became the biggest hit in 2006, in You Tube. The amateur directors then used celebrities into their shows, like Jessica Lee Rose, and Terra Naomi. Up til now their videos are still being screened in You Tube, and in the process has garnered many awards and even recognitions in several companies (blamesociety.net, 2009)
("Chad Vader" (Parody of Star Wars), created by two amateurs, became a big hit in You Tube and in the Internet; netting in various awards and recognitions.) (Source: www.blamesociety.net)
Amatures is not the only one who gets the limelight! Politicians such as Barack Obama, used You Tube as a place to communicate and connect with young voters (Farber, 2008). He also states, that Obama and his team chose You Tube because in terms of uploading files they can create their own branded, video-sharing service neutral video player that allows anyone in the world to embed the content.
(Barrack Obama used You Tube to connect and persuade the young voters to vote him)
Hence, You Tube is a new form of media publishing that has influenced or basically created a trend among the society, and also brought in political campaigning strategies too!
Classified to your liking! Blogs can be classified into a range of various genres. Technorati.com (2008) has classified blogs in various categories such as:
Entertainment - Gaming, Music and Television
Lifestyle - Art, Pets and Travel
Sports - Badminton, Football and Baseball
Business - Advertising and Economy
Politics - Foreign Policy and Independent
Technology - Computers, Gadgets and Web 2.0
Netizens, basically reads or creates their own blogs to match their own interests.
The Blogging Communities First of all what is a blogging community? Vinson (2006) suggests that it is a group of people that has the same interests and are bound together by that interest. They do not have a specific place for themselves, hence the sense of community comes from the communications or interactions with the readers and across numerous blogs. The blogging community can be built and improved through various ways. According to Chromatic (2002), the most vital thing to take account of when building a blogging community is the "purpose" of the blog.He says that blogs without a goal or aim will confuse readers or users, thus a simpler way to do it is to make the site as simple as possible as to not confuse the readers, and evade adding anything that makes users or readers say "rubbish"!
Besides that, Chromatic also explains the need of attracting the users. The basic promotional approaches used constantly consists of search engines, and submitting links to other websites. Usually, chromatic says, that at least one of your active user will spread the word about your blog, thus attracting other readers as well! In short, there are many other ways to build a blogging community. Patrick O' Neil (2008), the Professor and Chair of the Department of Politics and Government at the University of Puget Sound, for example uses a blog (and other social software tools) to create a community for departmental alumni, students and the faculty. In a recent video, he describes the methods he used to create a (blogging) community. (Look below for full interview session!)
There are plenty of blogging communities. Possibly the most interesting and somewhat popular blogging community is Xanga, which is basically a social networking site, where bloggers could meet with other bloggers! They can then upload and share pictures, videos and basically keep in touch with friends. (Roeder, 2009)
Chromatic, 2002, Building Online Communities, O'Reilly.com, viewed 14th June 2009, Using a Blog to Build Community with Students and Alumni 2008, Digital Teaching showcase, viewed 14th June 2009
