Reflection of COMM1043

Throughout this course, I had a wonderful experience in gaining new knowledge relating to issues in publication and design. Despite being a blogger myself, I realized the importance of learning these issues to improve my way of writing a serious weblog.

Firstly, I learned how to design a serious weblog well with proper structure. Having a good design and structure would make the weblog looks well-arranged and neat which would enhance better understanding among readers.

Next, I understood the need of incorporating both image and text. Before this, I tend to write my posts in text form only. But now, I learned the importance of combining text with images in every post as writing text alone will not be effective enough to attract reader's attention.

Lastly, I learned that hyperlinks and sources should be inserted in a weblog when discussing related issues. Due to copyright infringements, it is important for every bloggers to write ethically by putting citations whenever any materials are taken for the posts.

Ethical Publishing: Emoticons and Email Etiquette

Most employees do not know how to write and interpret what they receive as it is overlooked by many companies which could damage internal and external corporate relationships. Byron (2008, p.309) agreed that misusing emails would harm the workplace relationships due to fewer proper "greetings" among employees. Proper email etiquette should be trained among companies as it helps to promote respect and integrity among employees in the workplace.

Emoticons' involvement in emails

A way of expressing emotions in digital forms, emoticons.
(Source: Forestwalter)

Emoticons are normally used in emails to make the message more exciting. However, a credible email does not require emoticons in its message. (Dumbrava & Koronka 2006, p.62) Emoticons are meant to express the sender's emotions to the receiver in the message. Unfortunately, emails cannot be used to express a sender's feelings towards a receiver. Dumbrava & Koronka (2006, p.61) argued that email cannot convey emotions, face-to-face and telephone conversation as it lacks vocal inflection, gesture and a shared environment. Emails are meant to deliver a message or information from one to another and putting emotions is unnecessary unless it is not corporate-related. McKay (2010) supported that emoticons are fine when emailing in a less formal relationship but stick to words in a workplace.

Email's Good and Bad Etiquette

A new way of posting letter, email (Source: Knol 2009)

For emailing, there must be a balance between informal and formal structure. Being too informal would have the tendency of putting emoticons, fancy names and words in emails. A totally formal emailing would reprimand the senders that normally email informally. Dumbrava & Koronka (2006, p.61) mentioned that when writing an email message, the correspondent must be identified based on the specific relationships with him/her and adjusting the language and tone to them. In corporate level, emails should be formal when addressing to other companies and informal within the company with permission.

The authors added on by saying that a credible email should not be too informal and use suitable tones as inappropriate ones can cause a reader to ignore, delete or overreact to the message. McKay (2010) stated that changing the tone when writing is more difficult compared to speaking. Because of this, there are many bad emails sent as the speed of emailing discourages the senders to review their message. Wilkie (2010) argued that emailing encourages senders to type fast messages without thinking through and careless or inappropriate language usage. This would lead to the increase numbers of vague emails produced by senders.


Conclusion

With the influence of emoticons and formal/informal emailing towards delivering messages habits, senders must be cautious in knowing to use them at the right time.




Reference List:

Byron K. 2008, 'Carrying Too Heavy a Load? The Communication and Miscommunication of Emotion by Email', Academy of Management Review, vol.33, no.2, pp.309-327, viewed 28th May 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=112&sid=54c07656-bfc7-40af-8b66-8587c04cdbd0%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=psyh&AN=2008-03712-003

Dumbrava G. & Koronka A. 2006, 'Writing for Business Purposes: Elements of Email Etiquette', Annals of the University of Petrosani(Economics), vol.6, pp.61-64, viewed 28th May 2010,
http://www.upet.ro/annals/pdf/Annals-2006.pdf#page=61

McKay D.R 2010, ' Email Etiquette', About.com: Career Planning, viewed 30th May 2010,

http://careerplanning.about.com/od/communication/a/email_etiquette_2.htm

Wilkie H. 2010, 'Business Email Etiquette- Why it Matters,' Ezine Articles, viewed 30th May 2010,
http://ezinearticles.com/?Business-Email-Etiquette---Why-it-Matters&id=4048087

Genre: E-books' Popularity On the Rise

The revolution of e-books among libraries and readers (Source: Tienda Libre 2010)

The demand for Electronic Books (e-books) has increase significantly despite making up 6-7% of the book market in US and Britain as they changes the way of reading normal book among readers. Connoway (2003, pp.16-17) agreed that e-books have become more popular among publishers, librarians and vendors due to the number of e-book initiatives. However, their popularity depends on the subject areas. (Rowlands, Nicholas, Jamali & Huntington 2007) Judging by these trends, they must adapt to it as the printed books sales might not be as great as before for the years to come.

Publishers' involvement in E-books

Publishers nowadays start to be more involved in digital book forms in order to survive in the new environment. Connoway (2003, p.14) stressed that e-books create new opportunities for publishers to revive the scholarly monograph and sustain a competitive edge in the market position. Internet is a vast media and publishers should take advantage of it by using e-books as their main platform in publishing their books online.

The author added on by saying that the emergence of e-books has provided publishers new ways of serving customers. As there is a drastic increase in Internet users, publishers should identify the importance of publishing their works through e-books to reach out for these users.

Benefits of E-books towards general readers

E-books offer 24/7 availability , remote access outside physical library, full-text searching and copying/pasting text and images among readers (Littman & Connaway 2004, p.256)Unlike printed books which can only be read , e-books has a better advantage in terms of convenience and customization which would benefit readers.

Moreover, the content of e-books would provide better understanding and reading satisfaction among readers with the combination of text, audio, video, dictionary and thesauri. (Connnoway 2003, p.14) Walsh(2006) defined these combination as multimodal, which incorporates more than one element in a text. Multimodal text in e-books would develop good interest among readers with these good features that a normal book cannot do.

E-books' influence towards libraries

In libraries, e-books are reliable as they can be taken out at any time and automatically disappear off the screen once the loan is up with no late charges due to no overdue books policy. Littman & Connaway (2004, p.256) mentioned that for e-books, library do not require shelf space or re-shelving and no lost, damages and stolen books. This shows that most libraries are starting to adapt to the significant changes of reader habits by offering digital books that can be borrowed directly outside the library.


Conclusion

The emergence of e-books would eventually change the way readers perceive books as reading materials in the coming future.






Reference List:

Connoway L.S. 2003, 'Electronic Books(e Books): Current Trends and Future Directions', DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology, vol.23, no.1, pp.13-18, viewed 25th May 2010,
http://www.drdo.com/pub/dbit/jan03/LYNN.pdf

Littman J. & Connoway L.S 2004, 'A Circulation Analysis of Print Books and E-Books in an Academic Research Library', Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, vol.48, no.4, pp.235-312, viewed 25th May 2010,
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.134.3789&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=26

Rowlands I., Nicholas D., Jamali H.R. & Huntington P. 2007, 'What do faculty and students really think about e-books?', Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol.59. no.6, pp.489-511, viewed 25th May 2010,
http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/2760590601.html

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.

New Media Ecosystem: The revolution of Apple's newly launched product, iPad.

Introducing Apple's latest creation, iPad.
(Source: Techno Buzz 2010)

The release of iPad serves as a new device that functions like a normal computer but uses less space. Features such as portability, large screen, operating system, news applications and browsing, gaming and battery life span made this product attractive among Apple and new users.

In the new media ecosystems, a new product’s response relies on the main characteristics of the specific market. Apple CEO Steve Jobs (cited in G.L.2010) argued that iPad’s success potentials depend on whether its functions could fit a niche between smartphone and laptop. Canon, Yell UK president of new media (cited in Jay & Cooper 2010, p.4) also supported by saying that iPad fills a niche between laptop and iPhone and would eventually have a great impact on how people consume media. A certain market has different preferences and iPad must meet the requirements of favourite features in that media market.

Jobs added on by saying that these functions must be better than smartphone and laptop to launch a third and new device category. For a newly launched product to be successful, iPad's functions must be similar but better in a distinctive and different way to attract current and new customers.

G.L.(2010) suggested that innovations can be utilized for iPad due to its larger screen than iPhone which enables more space and customization for onscreen controls. Therefore, innovations and customizations are important for the customers to have the power to suit their preference in the new media age.

However, iPad’s news browsing differs from other laptops as the combination of text, video, audio and photos do not work out well together. As a non-print multimodal device, iPad should have done better in this section as a successful multimodal has more than one mode which combines spoken/written language, still/moving images, produced on electronic screen, music and sounds. (Walsh 2006, p.24)

Although iPad can do most of a laptop’s functions, it does not have the same elements with laptops for news browsing as this device focuses on simplicity and web oriented. Because of this, there might be a danger for iPad to lose out in the niche market as there is a growing dominance in multimodal texts and digital technology. (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996, 2001 cited in Walsh 2006, p.26)


Conclusion

Despite iPad’s good reviews, functions like camera, USB port, Flash support, expandable memory and swappable battery are missing. Therefore, it might affect iPad’s success in the new media ecosystem market.




Reference List:

G.L. 2010, 'Apple's iPad Introduced, greeted with excitement, derision', American Libraries Association, March issue, viewed 27th May 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=112&sid=e94fef35-fdc1-40d3-aca0-1fde1486a617%40sessionmgr110&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ehh&AN=48567612


Jay R. & Cooper W. 2010, 'Brands begin exploring iPad opportunities, confident of wide take-up', New Media Age, February issue, viewed 27th May 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=112&sid=02eefd76-adcc-49a3-ba52-0ebaed689b2a%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=iih&AN=48312847

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.

Political Discourse: Blogging gives way to Twitter

Twitter: A new dimension of blogging, microblogging.
(Source: Mobile World 2010)

Twitter's influence in politics

The arrival of Twitter has changed the blogging’s power as a platform in delivering political news to the audience.

In political discourse, Twitter has better benefits to the audience as it provides short updates on-the-go which blogging could not do. In Malaysia, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is one of the politicians who use Twitter to update the audience about his Sodomy II trial.

According to PKR communications director Jonson Chong, blogs are still relevant as it allow readers to learn in more details about opinions of current issues. Weblogs, used to be famous for information delivery still plays a major role for political information and discussion. He added that Twitter becomes a primary ground in politics as its information speed reaches the audience first and also helps promote politician’s blogs . With Twitter’s max limit of 140 characters, it enables users to write short messages on key issues for readers' understanding.

Hughes & Palen (2009) stated that Twitter is ranked 20 in popularity among all social networking sites and became the most popular microblogging service. They proved it by saying that the web traffic to the site has grown over 600% from 2007 to 2008. In Malaysia, Twitter has change the new media ecosystem as a fast information delivery networking in Malaysia’s political discourse although weblogs are still playing their part in this issue.

High profile politicians like President of United States of America, Barack Obama has become a frequent Twitter user himself. (Sangani 2009, p.35) Because of this, it actually made Twitter became famous by receiving high traffic due to his popularity. Therefore, other politicians, whether in USA or other countries are influenced in following Barack Obama's footsteps to use Twitter in delivering political issues.

President Barack Obama, a high-profile user of the latest Technology.
(Source: Engineering & Technology 2009)

Ebner & Maurer (2008, p. 769) explained that blogging contribution is complicated and difficult when a person wants to share interesting stuffs on the move. Weblogs’ function is like long journals that consumes lots of time to present needed information and being read by audience themselves.

Furthermore, weblogs do not have any live updates of their posting, leading to high chances of unread posts unless they have their loyal followers. Therefore, this is where microblogging platform, Twitter appears with the power of simplicity and fast for people to receive and deliver information. With its efficient updates features, Twitter constantly informs the readers of the politicians’ latest updates with feeds.


Conclusion

With the emergence of Twitter, blogging would be left out in political discourse unless they work together to provide latest and comprehensive political news.

Reference list:

Ebner M. & Maurer H 2008, ‘Can Microblogs and Weblogs change traditional scientific writing?’, E-Learn, Las Vegas, pp.768-776, viewed 25th May 2010,
http://lamp.tu-graz.ac.at/~i203/ebner/publication/08_elearn01.pdf

Hughes A.L. & Palen L. 2009, ‘Twitter adoption and use in mass convergence and emergency events’, International Journal of Emergency Management’, vol. 6, no.3/4, pp. 248-260, viewed 25th May 2010,
http://www.iscram.org/ISCRAM2009/papers/Contributions/211_Twitter%20Adoption%20and%20Use%20in%20Mass%20Convergence_Hughes2009.pdf

Sangani K. 2009, ‘Yes, We can Twitter’, Engineering & Technology Magazine, issue 11-24 April, pp.34-35, viewed 26th May 2010,
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=112&sid=64eebb7c-1e17-4168-a447-89490c7423f5%40sessionmgr114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=eoah&AN=18753744

Document Design

My group consisting of 4 members presented about Simple Linear Models by R. Martinec and Tristan van Leeuwen .A good design is where the message of information is portrayed effectively to the understanding of the readers. However, there were some weaknesses in the presentation design.

Firstly, some of the slides have either have images or words solely.

Referring to Slide 32, only a complex image might confuse the readers without words interpretation. Schriver (1997, p.372) stated that complex graphics would bring major problems among unknowledgeable readers. With text, it would enhance the ability of readers to remember the key and highlighted points. (Reep 206, p.134)

Slide 32

Based on Slide 30, only words would just make it look boring without visual interpretations which would make readers lost interest. Reep (2006, p.134) stated that eye- catching graphic aid and attention-getting format would improved the reader’s focus on the information needed.

Slide 30

Presentations slides with both words and images are important to enhance level of understanding among readers. Schriver (1997, p.362) agreed by saying that applying knowledge of both would be able to resolve complexity of communications.

Next, referring to Slide 30 and 31, there are no headings for the slides which would mislead the readers. With no headings, the presentation structure would look messy and readers would get lost in it. Farkas (cited in Mackiewicz 2008, p.158) mentioned that presenters must use titles to mark the explicit structure of a presentation.

Slide 31

Further improvement could be made from these mistakes in order to produce better design for the readers.

Reference List

Mackiewicz J. 2008, “Comparing PowerPoint Experts’ and University Students’ Opinions about PowerPoint Presentations”, Journal of Technical and Communication, Baywood Publishing, vol. 38, no. 2, pp.149-165, viewed 19^th April 2010,

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&hid=11&sid=f87e81de-24fc-47f9-9939-bb2d6df82d7f%40sessionmgr4

Reep, Diana C. 2006, ‘Chp 4: Principles of Document Design,’ in Technical Writing, 6th ed., Pearson Edu, Inc., New York, p.173-190.

Schriver, K.A. 1997, ‘Chapter 6: Dynamics in document design’