Reflection on a Blog Connection

I have found this a great, though at times greatly frustrating exercise. It has provided an excellent opportunity for me to 'cut my teeth' as I begin my debut into an online world with a professional perspective.

Most frustrations were due to the conflicts I faced with the software interface, especially when I wanted to edit posts; embedded video and image codes would disappear, only to reappear mysteriously hours later, leaving my posts with multiple duplications, then when I went to edit the posts to remove the superfluous code it was nowhere to be seen - most annoying! Furthermore I acknowledge that half of the text on my blog appears to be in large size and the other in small, even though it is all set to be normal size!

In one incident I spent hours writing a post entirely online, with the others I had sensibly written them in a word processor for safe offline back-up storage, but for this particular post I did not. Big mistake. I went to hit "PUBLISH POST" and I was directed to a "This page cannot not be displayed", heart in mouth I hit the "Back" button on my browser... a blank white page stare at me - it was all gone! Disappered God knows where, suffice to say sufficient head on desk banging and hand biting followed (I manged to hold back on primal screaming which could have raised some eyebrows in the libray).

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Will I continue blogging? Well... no, not in the short run; studying full time (and trying to maintain a considerably high GPA), working part time, supporting my family in ways uncanny for one so young, and trying to maintain some distorted form of a personal life, just doesn't leave enough hours in the day for casual or professional blogging.

In spite of that, I feel this blog demonstrates many of my skills (analytical, critical, professional writing and presentation etc.) and would be appropriate to point in the direction of perspective employers. For that I am thankful for the opportunity and proud of what I have achieved and learned through this process.

Google Re-Writes the Books - A Publishing Revolution?

A recent episode of the ABC Bookshow 'Google deal sparks publishing revolution' (listen, download [7.3MB]) highlighted many issues raised by Google's digitization of millions of publications.

It's been described as the biggest book deal in US publishing history. After two years of intense negotiations, America's book industry and the giant internet search engine Google have settled their copyright stoush for AU$195 million Five major American publishers and the Authors Guild took legal action against Google for scanning copyrighted works without permission. They've now settled their differences in a New York court. So what does this historic settlement mean for the Australian, and International book industry?

Google has said that they are scanning more than 3,000 books per day, a rate that translates into more than 1 million annually, the entire project may exceed $200 million. As of March 2007, The New York Times reported that Google has already digitized one million volumes at an estimated cost of $7 million.

On October 28, 2008 Google stated that they have 7 million books searchable through Google Book Search, including those scanned by their 20,000 publisher partners. Of the 7 million books, 1 million are "full preview" based on agreements with publishers. 1 million are in the public domain, and the remaining 5 million are no longer in print or commercially available.

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Many librarians are singing the praises of Google's innovation, citing the great accessibility to an online corpus of human knowledge, whereas the publishing industry and writers' groups have criticized the project's inclusion of snippets of copyrighted works as infringement.

I am reminded of the condition of the Ancient world, when parts of the world were in the 'Dark Ages' (termed so because of the lack of knowledge shared to many parts of the world - they were 'in the dark'), when to access credible academic or historic information one was required to physically travel to great libraries in Greece. Whats more many texts housed in these libraries were lost forever in fires caused by war or natural disasters.

Although I respect the author's reservations regarding the digitization and distribution of their works, from a student's point of view, I see the positive forces of accessibility to such a great volume of information as liberating.

Critics See Through CNN's Election Hologram Gimmick

A recent article by Sally Jackson stated that during CNN's election coverage, they projected holograms of reporter Jessica Yellin and rapper Will.i.am live into their studio.

Tech boffins were quick to denounce, but the instantly famous CNN hologram still rated as best gimmick of the US election coverage, logging 13.3 million viewers - the most of any US network and the biggest audience in its 28-year history.

Video: CNN Reporter Jessica Yellin 'Hologram'

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Video: Will.i.am 'Hologram'

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Apart from, the otherwise very low key election of Barack Obama as president - the beaming of what CNN claimed to be three-dimensional holograms of reporter Jessica Yellin and rapper Will.i.am from Chicago to the floor of its New York newsroom was the highlight of the nation’s coverage.

Australian networks were left envious, but showed no immediate intentions of attempting it themselves. Seven spokesman Simon Francis says "Apparently, they used 42 cameras and a green screen to achieve the effect. We'd love to explore the technology, but that's a lot of cameras." High end TV cameras can cost up to $250,000 or more.

As it turns out, the CNN hologram was merely a special effect – the studio anchors were in fact speaking to thin air, with the "holograms" visible only on a TV monitor and to viewers at home.

However, genuine holograms are possible and have been increasing in popularity - mainly for marketing purposes. I am also reminded of my own jaw dropping experience in visiting Disneyland Florida’s Tower of Terror which incorporates many ghostly holograms.

Telstra has taken to the technology this year, holographically projecting technology chief Hugh Bradlow into an Adelaide conference and TV presenter Rove McManus into a New Zealand product launch.

"The live hologram required massive bandwidth and was a great way to showcase what's possible using our high-speed Next IP network," Telstra spokesman Peter Taylor says.

Nick Broughall, editor of Gizmodo.com.au sees no advantages in holograms for news gathering at this time, except of course to get the attention of viewers. "It sucks up a hell of a lot of bandwidth and requires a lot of time, preparation and equipment," he says.

"The CNN thing was very much a gimmick, but no matter how much CNN faked this and misrepresented it, the technology involved was certainly impressive, and it does have a wow factor that grabs the attention."

Gimmick or no gimmick, it's still cool, and the fact that it achieved such history making ratings makes it clear that viewers are wanting to see innovative and exciting new features in what they watch.

Digital TV Divide: Government and Networks at Odds

The Australian’s Sally Jackson reported that the commercial TV sector has called for a "last-resort safeguard" to stop the analogue signal being shut off until almost all viewers have a digital set, putting it in conflict with the federal Government.

“In most cases, more than 95 per cent of households in a region should have free-to-air digital TV one month before their analogue signal was due to end, industry body Free TV Australia said. If not, the switch-over should be automatically delayed by at least two months. The underlying principle is to safeguard against premature switch-off where preparations are clearly inadequate," said a sector spokesperson.

Even if only 1 per cent of people lost their signal - that’s 200,000 Australians who would no longer be able to watch free-to-air television.


<Image Source> A Digital Set-Top Box; Required for an Analogue TV to display Digital Transmissions

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy already had the discretionary power to vary the switch-over date in a region, that "may not be sufficient to properly safeguard against premature switch-over", Free TV warned, adding;

"Analogue television signals should not be switched off unless digital free-to-air terrestrial television signals achieve the same coverage and reception levels as was achieved in analogue."

However Andy Townsend, head of the federal Government's Digital Switch-Over Taskforce, has opposed the use of so-called soft switch-over dates, arguing that they confuse people and can cause them to delay going digital.

"In the UK it was concluded coverage targets could become self-defeating," he told Media last month. “Provided you are clear with people about your timetable ... and create the environment in which they can switch ... you don't need to set coverage targets."

Having lived in the UK until 2004, I am deeply frustrated with the bungled handling of the switch to digital TV. The key difference I have noted is that in the UK, the masses were given about 80 good reasons to want to upgrade to digital, not just blatant need. Freeview is the UK’s answer to spurring viewers to digital. It offers around 80, mostly quality channels, including the traditional analogue channels in the digital format for free. Viewers simply need buy a set-top box and plumb it into their TV in a similar fashion to a DVD player, unless they purchase a TV with an inbuilt digital receiver.


<Image Source> Impressive: Some of Freeview UK's Lineup

Why couldn’t such a system be implemented in Australia? Former Communications Minister Helen Coonan’s watery excuses in 2007 made reference to Australia’s market being too small, but something tells me that it has more to do with the traditional analogue TV networks fearing competition. It is clear to me that the bodies responsible need to adopt more of a carrot and less of a stick approach.

Trouble for $4b TV Advertising Market

A recent article by Lara Sinclair, touched on the effects of the current world financial crisis on the media.

Budget shortfalls and the weakest TV advertising market in seven years are combining with fears about the US financial services meltdown to fuel a growing pessimism about the health of the $4 billion TV advertising market.

A television executive said that the three commercial networks were facing "carnage" as they began negotiating advertising rates for 2009 with the big advertising agency buying groups. The article states no networks are meeting budgets and that anyone who's prepared to sign deals will get a good price.

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In September advertising moved to a short-selling cycle amid speculation of a $15 million shortfall in metropolitan TV advertising budgets (split between Channels Nine and Ten).

Ten sales director Vance Lothringer denied the claims of a shortfall yesterday but said Ten had only just made its monthly budget. "As of today we are going to achieve September budget," Mr Lothringer said. "In a slow market that's pretty good. It's slower than the average but we're not seeing it dramatically down."

Nine sales director Peter Wiltshire said there had been a "hangover" month either side of the Olympic Games on Seven, but claimed Nine was "satisfied" with its performance in September. He said 2008 would be a year of "correction" after a buoyant 2007. "2009 looks to be challenging for the economy," he said. "Myself, I think TV is in good shape."

Seven sales chief James Warburton said that while there was no doubt the market was short, the network had had a "good third quarter". "Much depends on the attitude of retailers leading into Christmas," he said. Mr Warburton would not confirm Seven's rates position, but said the network was "confident of retaining key share arrangements with all buying groups".

News Limited sales director Tony Kendall said newspaper display revenues were "holding up okay" but classified advertising was "a problem". The advertising slowdown has also spread to radio and print.

Broker UBS released a note this week saying metropolitan radio spending slumped 5.2 per cent in August, and advertising buyers said magazines were down by a similar amount.

It’s been a pretty good 18 years or so, but now the world financial crisis seems to be clenching its claw in every nook and cranny of society; the media industry, and my wallet alike are far from immune.

Mincing TV Ofal into Mobile Fritz

Simon Canning's recent article 'Hubert Kjellberg eyes TV offcuts', tells how innovative groups are looking to recycle media content for mobile phones and online realms. The article states that massive amounts of TV content that now goes to waste will be mopped up by the mobile and online industries as new media technologies move further into providing content, the global head of digital media for Ericsson predicts.

He says Ericsson's experience - shifting from being a phone company to dealing with TV companies, and helping format content for multiple devices (i.e. mobile phones, online web browsers) is being repeated throughout the communications world.

"What we think will happen is, if you look at traditional (TV) production, you have (lots of) cameras providing this content and 95 per cent of it is never used.

"This is where we see the big changes. If there is an interview with a sportsman, then maybe 15 seconds of that gets used on TV, but through another platform you might watch the full three minutes.

Of course this would extend the role of editors; they would have to evolve to consider the best platform to deliver any particular slice of content, working out which is the best for mobiles, online and TV.

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For the telecom operators, it is content and advertisers they are after - according to some research, there is an ever emerging market for these services (Kjellberg 2008).

Will this mean that telecom operators begin to look more like traditional television companies?

Kjellberg states that the under 35 market is the one that will grow content aggregation across platforms, from mobile to TV and online, and says terrestrial TV is not under as much threat as many people believe.

Kjellberg says eventually all content will be aggregated on a single platform, although the platform itself will come in many different guises. But in such a diverse and future innovation hungry industry as the media, to suggest a single platform (i.e. mediums, file types, coding, think screen ratios etc, e.g. Standard vs Widescreen, PAL vs NTSC, Terrestrial vs Digital, mpeg vs mpegII, III or IV) could be successfully implemented, is somewhat of a lofty ambitious statement.

"It is going to be a very interesting time because phone companies are going from just providing communication to providing entertainment." (Kjellberg 2008)

Predicting the future, particularly in an era of furious technological change, is impossible, but companies can position themselves to react to what the future brings - it seems fitting that Ericsson's tag line is "Taking you Forward". The shift in the way consumers use media is forcing everyone from telecommunications providers to production companies to redefine how they go about their business and what they offer.

Blogging Communities and Classifications

The internet facilitates and furthermore enigmas the shift from local communities, to a global community, hosting within itself many global sub-culture communities. Blogging, like so many other technological innovations, has, and is still continuing to affect our global community in unprecedented ways.

The Blogosphere

The collective community of all blogs is known as the blogosphere. Since all blogs are on the internet by definition, they may be seen as interconnected and socially networked. Discussions "in the blogosphere" have been used by the media as a gauge of public opinion on various issues. A collection of local blogs is sometimes referred to as a bloghood (Wikipedia 2008).

<Image Source> Microsoft's 'tongue in cheek' business cards seem to show some self reflexivity.

There are many ways to classify blogs, one of the simplest being the distinction between a 'Personal Blog' and a 'Corporate Blog'.

Personal Blog: the traditional, most common blog - an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art. This form of social media lends to an online generation already too busy to keep in touch (Wong, 2008).

Corporate Blogs: for business purposes; used either internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes are called corporate blogs.

One high profile corporate blog is Google's Official Blog which informs readers of all things new at Google and information such as user's shifting search preferences and strategies, as well as other interesting tit-bits from the internet.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts. With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.

A blogging community is formed when a group of people with similar interests, histories, or events come together to share and discuss those similarities. Lin and Sundaram (2006) state that a blogging community is developed by leaving comments or providing links to each others blogs, thus creating a mutual awareness amongst each other. By becoming a part of a blogging community, one is able to increase the number of viewers to their blog, create a single content access point, conglomerate the content and depth of knowledge within a group for readers, and is a great way to pool other individuals with similar interests (Kinkeldei 2007).


References:

Kinkeldei, B. 2007 "Forging Connections and Promoting Growth Through Blog Communities", 21publish.com, viewed 29 October 2008, <http://www.21publish.com/pub/21publish/blogging-whitepaper.pdf>.

Lin, Y. Sundaram, H. Chi, Y. Tatemura, J. Tseng, B 2007 "Discovery of Blog Communities based on Mutual Awareness", Arizona State University, viewed 29 October 2008, <http://www.blogpulse.com/www2006-workshop/papers/wwe2006-discovery-lin-final.pdf>.

Wikipedia 2008, "Blog:, viewed 29 October 2008, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog>.

Wong, W 2008, "I'm now reading a story on microblogs", Chicago Tribune, viewed 27 October 2008. <http://www.chicagotribune.com/>.

Image: Gaping Void 2008, "Microsoft: change the world or go home", <http://www.gapingvoid.com/microsoftbizcard219border.jpg>.

Print vs Online; Design Considerations

Kress and Leeuwen (2006, p.32) state that visual communication is always coded. Semiotic modes are shaped by the intrinsic characteristics and potentialities of the medium and by the requirements, histories and values of societies and their culture. Furthermore, culture and social valuations and structures strongly affect the uses of these potentialities (Kress & Leeuwen 2006, p.35).

Everywhere writing now involves close attention to typeface choices and layout. Magazines, web pages, factsheets, and many other kinds of text are no longer just written, but ‘designed’, and multi-modally articulated (Kress & Leeuwen 1998, p.187).

Design is the visual organisation of information. Reep (1997, p. 90) states that design and illustration used effectively can help readers to find information, understand content, remember information more effectively and provide insight into the culture of an organization. Whereas design and illustration used poorly can impede readers in finding information, distract from the message, ultimately discouraging readers and driving them away.

Good design stems from a thorough knowledge of the building blocks of graphic design and specifying them appropriately, based on format and function of an individual project (Parker 1990, p.11). The general principles most designers consider are: balance, proportion, sequence, and consistency.

Balance refers to visual weight: big weighs more than small, dark weighs more than light, colour weighs more than black and white and unusual shapes weigh more than simple circles or squares. Sequence refers to how readers usually start at the top left corner and end at the bottom right corner, in between they tend to scan. Furthermore readers tend to notice things with the most visual weight first. Proportion refers to size and placement of text, graphics and format elements on the page (Reep 1997, p. 112). Consistency refers to presenting similar features in a similar style.


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Putnis and Petelin (1996, p.223) state that when we write, we need to ask key questions, including; Who are our readers? What are their needs? How will they access the information? These questions are valid for both online and printed mediums. Parker (1990, p.11) states that good writing relies on many things, including; sensitivity to your purpose, your readers and your context; understanding of how readers read, comprehend and act upon documents; ability to research, structure and sequence information; and your own critical and analytical skills for reviewing your writing (and the writing of others).

December (1994, p. 1) states that for a website to be user-friendly, it must be easy to navigate, clearly organised, meet visitor’s/user’s needs, provide short download times and be aware of what the user sees first on screen. Horton (1995, cited in Schriver 1997, p.362) argues that when it comes to moving documents online, there should be “no dumping” allowed.

Users can enter a site at any page and move between pages as they chose, so designers should make every page independent and explain its topic without assumptions about the previous page seen by the user (Sun Micro Systems 2008).

At a Glance:

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A unique and important element when dealing with online design is the high level of interactivity - multimedia accessories such as audio, video and high quality images. These exciting trappings are the key to what makes online media so much more dynamic than print is, or ever could be. Kress (1997) stresses the importance of these elements, which allow viewers to connect with the information presented, on multifaceted levels without needing to read all of the text.

Web facts:
*79% of users always scan; only 16% read word-by-word

*reading from a computer screen is 25% slower

*web content should be 50% the size of its paper equivalent
(December 1994)

Reading from paper is much easier than reading from a monitor, as when a screen emits light, it makes it strenuous for viewers to watch it for long periods of time (Parker, 2003). Therefore the layout and design regarding use design elements such as whitespace, the amount of text on the screen and the colour scheme employed will greatly influence how long the reader will want to, or can view the page.

Although these design elements are also important to print media, the consideration of factors such as eye strain from monitors, which could cause real discomfort or damage to users mean that they become more vital when designing for online.


References:

December, J 1994, ‘Technical/professional communication summary’, viewed 05 October 2008,
<http://www.december.com/john/teach/techcomm/summary.html>.

Reep, DC 1997, Technical writing: principles, strategies and readings, 3rd edn, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, pp. 90 – 128.

Kress, G & Leeuwen T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Bell, A & Garrerr, P (eds) 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford, Chapter 7, pp. 186 - 219.

Kress ,G & Leeuwen, T 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2nd edn, Routledge, NY.

Parker, RC 1990, Looking good in print: a guide to basic design for desktop publishing, 2nd edn, Ventara Press, Chapel Hill, NC.

Parker, RC 2003, ‘Designing documents for web distribution’, Looking good in print, 5th edn, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale AZ, Chapter 14, pp. 269-293.

Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, Professional communication principals and applications, 6th edn, Pearson/Longman, NY, Chapter 6, pp. 133 – 172.

Image: Mequoda Daily 2008, "Magazine Membership", <http://daily.mequoda.com/media/ui/membership-magazine.png>.

New Forms of Media Publishing

In Print vs Online; Design Considerations I highlighted the differences between publishing for printed and online media. Today we muse new forms of media publishing.

New media is a term which encompasses the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies in the later part of the 20th century, and looking forward into the future.

Most technologies described as "new media" are digital, often having
characteristics of being manipulable, networkable, dense, compressible, and impartial (Flew, 2008).

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New Media changes continuously due to the fact that it is constantly modified and redefined by the interaction between the creative use of the masses, emerging technology, cultural changes.

The Australian reports that job ads are down in Australia, a sure sign of a slowing economy. But the interesting part is in the divide between online and print. According to the numbers, weekly job advertisements in Australian newspapers averaged 15,105 a week in August, vs 234,009 online per week.

The online job market in Australia is now 15.6 times larger than the print market! Print now delivers only 6% of all job ads in Australia where as ten years ago the figure would have been close to 100%.

Recognising the threats posed to them by free, frequently updated, and rich media alternatives available online, many traditional media organisations have embraced the technology, such as News Limited (who publishes national staples such as The Australian and many state-wide newspapers) with NEWS.com.au.

The predicament facing those in charge of traditional media companies is trying to predict the future, so that they can restructure their organistations to fit the needs of new media publications which look set to replace traditional mediums as their 'bread and butter'.


References:

Flew 2008, "New Media", <http://terryflew.blogspot.com/search?q=New+Media>.

Image: Cartoon Stock 2005, Mfln536, <http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mfl/lowres/mfln536l.jpg>.

Blogtastic - Why Blogs are Phenomenal!

‘Blog’ is the shortened form of ‘weblog’, a phrase marrying ‘web’ (i.e. the internet) and ‘log’ (a journal, like the captain’s log on the Starship Enterprise). A web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles – normally in reverse order, with the latest posts on top, blogs are free and easy to set up (Blogger, LiveJournal, Open Diary) and maintain. They often function in very personal ways, like diaries; they usually rely on existing news agendas and items, but arranged with a personal or campaign focus (Branston & Stafford 2006, p. 205).

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Those who blog are affectionately referred to as ‘bloggers’; it is estimated that there are over 100 million of them, and they come from all creeds and corners of the world.

'Blogging' is a revolutionary method of information delivery - providing the ability for practically anyone anywhere to broadcast information on any topic (personal thoughts, political commentary, news, Hollywood gossip, gardening, vintage car restoration, computer building, flower pressing... the list goes on) to any audience anywhere, through a rich, pliable medium which is often illustrated with images or videos, and extended with external links.

Traditional news mediums, such as newspapers and television, must pass through a series of processes (such as censorship, general editing, and editor in chief approval - especially concerning 'juicy' topics), before something is printed or aired. Furthermore as newspapers are generally printed the night before, or in the early hours of the morning, they generally print yesterday's news. A blog can be updated at any time one has access to the internet, with avid tech-savvy bloggers taking to using devices such as their mobile phones to update their blogs on the go, as soon as news breaks, or is convenient to them.

Arnold (2008) states that when most people think of “blogs", they often think of the most popular weblogs which are often updated multiple times a day and which by definition have tens of thousands of daily readers. However, these make up the tip of a very deep iceberg: prominently visible, but not characteristic of the iceberg as a whole. Lying below the surface are literally millions of blogs which fail to attract wide audiences, since they are only of interest to the family, friends, fellow students and/or co-workers of their stereotypically teenage and 20-something bloggers. Arnold (2008) terms this group of readers ‘nanoaudiences’, further stating that many blogs have no more than two dozen readers.

However not all bloggers are striving for world domination, for many a blog is a simply a free, easy and innovative medium to communicate and share with people who, whether for location differences or time constraints, they would otherwise not be able to stay ‘connected’ with.

Video: “Blogs in Plain English”

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References:

Arnold, B 2008 "Blog Statistics and Demographics" Caslon Analytics, viewed October 28 2008 <http://www.caslon.com.au/weblogprofile1.htm>.

Branston, G & Stafford, R 2006, ‘The media student’s book’, 4th edn, Routledge, London & New York.

Image: Stock Expert 2008, Image #9345192, <http://www.stockxpert.com/>.

Video: Lee Fever 2007, "Blogs in Plain English", Youtube, <http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI>.