Print related issues - Information value

As mentioned in my earlier post, Information value decides which part of the print the article will appear in.

An article 'does not have the same value and meaning when it is placed on the right or left, in the upper or lower section of the page, in the centre or in the margin.' (Kress, Gunther and van Leeuwen, Theo 1998) Basically, where an article is placed in a print matters alot.

Left versus Right

Article on the left is presented as Given and article on the right is presented as New. Given means something a reader already know and New is something the reader does not know.

Top versus Bottom

Article at the upper half is presented as Ideal and article on the lower half is presented as Real. In Ideal, its information is generalised, in real, the information is more specific.

Centre versus Margin

Article in the centre is called Centre, and what other information around it is called Margin. Article in the centre are information that are subservient and article in the margin are identical or at least similar to the Centre.

Kress, Gunther and van Leeuwen, Theo 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout, Blackwell, Oxford.

Classification of blogs

Blogging phenomenon has come to stage where millions of postings are up every single day. Topics for blogging are not able to be classified as there are too much. Usually each individual will have different topic to posts every other day and most of them will not post only one specific topic on a single blog.

Chris Heuer has blogged that there is an urgent need to think of a way to classify blogs. He expirence is when he goes through an individual blog, he find all sorts of topic in it, and only one of the post is of his interest. Time is wasted to scroll through that blog just to find the post that he is interested in. He is pushing his stands for classification of blog to the big blogging community.

http://www.chrisheuer.com/2005/07/14/simple-blog-classification-system-please-no-acronyms/

In a more conventional way, people of different blogging community set up their blog community tagged to the topic that they are interested in. An example is The Dublin community Blog, this blog is dedicated to anything that happened in Dublin or anything the blogger wants to talk about Dublin, comments can be made there and the discussions carry on from there.

http://www.dublinblog.ie/

Another example is Lonely Planet Community Blog, this site is dedicated to travellers who want to find out more on a specific place that they want to visit. Anyone can post a topic on any travel destination that they may be going and ask for comment or get reviews of interesting places that they can go.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/travel-blog/community/

New forms of media publishing

For decades, newspapers and magazines are published using print. As technology progress, there is now a new way in publishing newspapers and magainze, and that is online. While print for newspapers and magazines are still acceptable at the present stage, there is a need for more creativity way in publishing. Online is the answer.


The advantages for online publishing is, it can be constantly updated up to the minute. Readers will get first hand information as it comes in. The design can be changed as often as requried. Videos clips can be added for online pages. Movement and sound can be seen and heard instantly, this give a very interactive side of the media. It will bring reader closer to the topic and even feel what is going on during that particular incident.


Print will not have the interactive side compared to online. Colour in print is less on broadsheet newspaper as it cost more to print. The good side about print is it can be bought easily and be brought along anywhere, compared to online, you will need to have internet connection before you can go online.


Examples of online newspaper and magazine:


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/

http://www.topgear.com/uk/

Designing print Vs Designing online

In a world which relied heavyly on techonology, more and more documents are read on screen rather than on print. Although the shift is imminent, print still has its fair share of audience.

Designing for print is different from online as it has space limitation, articles are in competition with other articles for attention and no changes once its printed. An example of print is newspaper, the layout system involved three signifying systems; Information value, Salience and Framing.

Information value

It is important to understand which information is of vaule where it attracts attention from the audience. In a newspaper layout, different information value will get a different zone or visual space.

Salience

Layout to get reader's attention varies in degree, placement of information on foreground or background, sizes, contrast in tonal value or colour all makes a great different.

Framing

Framelines or whitespace between informations can connect or disconnect the information instantly.

Designing for online is a different ball game altogether. Information in this aspect is more define as they focus more on one specific information. You can have instant modification to the pages and you can modify it as often as you want. It is more interactive as video clips can be added to add movement in the page.

Layout for online is not as tedious as print, it is not recommneded to claster all the informations together. In fact, it is adviceable to spread out the information out evenly and have alot of whitespace so that it is easier for readers to read.

One crucial point to note for online designing is the use of colours, different screen give a different colour reading, as such, it is adviceable to choose the colours carefully.

Parker, C 2003, Looking good in print, Designing documents for web distribution, 5th edition, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale Ariz.

Kress, Gunther and van Leeuwen, Theo 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout, Blackwell, Oxford.

How blog affect our community.

Blogging started in the 1990s where forum discussion is common. It was develop for individual to have their own space and personal expression of views.

A study was done by Akshay Java, Pranam Kolari and Tim Oates in 2006 on Modelling the spread of influence on the Blogsphere. The report has shown that it took the world by storm. It is common that blogging goes by interest or topic from saving the cat next door to politics.

http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/paper/html/id/300/Modeling-the-Spread-of-Influence-on-the-Blogsphere

Some of the blogger treat blogging as their online diary, they would blog their daily living, what have they done in the day, or things they want to share with their friends. It became personal and intimate at times.

http://www.mini-min.blogspot.com

http://mypotnpalette.blogspot.com

Blogging has become very common and people can visit all these sites daily and spent hours reading through those blogs understanding and giving comments as they wish. It has also become a money making place as advertiser can advertise on popular blogs for their products and the blogger can earn income by maintaining their blog regularly and keep people interested and visit their blog regularly.

Overview

As i have mentioned ealier that this blog was revived for me to carry on my assignments for my degree studies, so here it goes.

Overview

The purpose is to help me in understanding the fundemental of drafting out a Professional Weblog. I have to create at least 8 posting on different topics related to media. The topics are as follows:

1) Introduction on the purpose of this weblog. (which i am doing now)
2) Phenomenon on blogs and how it affects the community.
3) Discuss designing for print Vs designing for online.
4) New forms of media publishing.
5)Classification of blogs or two of different blogging communites.
6)List of professional and hyperlinks to important site.
7) Additional 4-6 regular blogs on media/publishing issues.
8)Reflection on the process of creating weblogs and skills acquried, theoretical posting and standpoint adopted as a blogger.


In addtion to the above points where i have to take note, I would have to design the weblog based on the following criteria:

1) Scannability
2) Usability
3) Readablity
4) Credibilty

More post is on the way.

Reviving my blog

I am reviving my blog for my new assignment...so stay tune for my updates.....