Print VS Screen Document Design

Screen document design

Print document design

Document design today plays a very important role in terms of readership. Printed documents today are becoming less and less popular as screen documents are the ones taking over the industry. The document design of both the print and screen documents are more or less the same as readers read from left to right, top to bottom (Kress & Van Leuwen, 1998). 

There are three main differences between both the documents that will be discussed in the post which are the ease of reading, the reading content and the writing structures. Firstly, the comparison of both the documents for the ease of reading is that printed documents are much harder to read as there are much more words on documents and they also tend to be more dull compared to screen documents which are usually simple, less wordy and more appealing to readers. Next, the content of the document for printed documents are so much more in-depth as they talk from one end to another unlike screen documents which only highlights main points without much elaboration. The writing structure for printed documents would be more formal in terms of layout and also language. On the other hand, screen documents tend to be less formal compared to printed ones.

Both of these document designs have their individual advantages and disadvantages. For instance, for a presentation it is better to use a screen document design rather than a printed one as it is too lengthy but for a in-depth study or research it is always better to use a printed document as it is well explained and elaborated.

References

Kress, G & Leeuwen, V 1998, "Front Pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper Layout , in , Approaches to Media Discourse , eds A Bell, P Garrett, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 184-221.

New Forms Of Media Publishing

Of late, media publishing has evolved to different heights since the days of newspapers and radios that can now be classified as "old school" or rather old fashioned and this is because there is a new up and coming way of publishing which is through the internet. To be more exact, through social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Newspapers and radios are considered to be out of date because this type of media are said to have been less profitable this days due to the advancement of technology (Ostrow, 2009). 

I personally am a user of these social networking websites respectively and i find that it is very true that through the internet is the new age of publishing. Newspapers and advertisement on the radio is no longer vital compared to the internet as most people of my generation spend more time staring at the computer than doing anything else for the rest of the day. 

Furthermore, social networking websites mainly Facebook and Twitter has been playing a huge role in the evolution of journalism. Journalism used to be written or printed text on a magazine or even on the newspaper but what Facebook and Twitter has done to today's journalism is that they just publish what they have to say on their mind on these social networking websites. For example, celebrity journalism today is basically that celebrity or his/her representative will just update their status on Facebook or just tweet on Twitter. Now even Youtube has been said to be the forefront of a new video transformation on the net (Walejko & Ksiazek 2008)

References

Ostow, A 2009, Stats: Old Media Decline, New Media's Ascent, viewed 28th August 2011,

Walejko, G & Ksiazek, T 2008, 'The Politics of Sourcing: A Study of Journalistic Practices in the Blogosphere', Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

Blogs As a Credible Source

Credibility  is a very important asset to every blog. Like everything good in life, it never comes easy but there are a few steps that can be taken to increase credibility of your blog. According to the Poynter Institute, there are several basic rules that can be taken for credibility increment which are, making an editorial calender and hold weekly editorial meetings, develop a regular schedule of publishing, participate and promote conversations around your blog content and keep on improving your site (Azzolini S, 2012). 

Next, there are three main ways of creating compelling content for your blog which will also help with credibility. The three main ways that I would like to discuss in this post are group brainstorming, ask your readers and interview someone ( Clark B). Firstly, group brainstorming helps as you can get various ideas from your friends and acquaintances which will helps you identify different peoples' thoughts and interests from different cultures. Next, asking your readers will always be a good way to improve compulsion towards your existing and potential readers as the saying goes "it takes one to know one" this also applies when you interview someone about blog postings.

In my opinion, the steps above by the Poynter Institute mainly focus on consistency of retain and maintaining credibility instead of creating credibility. This means that, the advice given by the Poynter Institute mainly concentrate on existing blogs rather than new blogs which have to create awareness and credibility. On the other hand, the post by Brian Clark focuses more on creating awareness and credibility which is more suitable for new blogs.


References

Building credibility with online communities…
http://blog.prnewswire.com/2012/03/01/building-credibility-with-online-communities-tips-from-professional-news-rooms/

22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue [Infographic]
http://www.copyblogger.com/create-content-infographic/

The Different Benefits Of Blogging To Communities

Different people blog for different reasons. Some of which blog as a hobby, some people blog for business purposes such as advertising and blog shops, and some of them blog for educational purposes. 

There is one main community of bloggers that I would like to discuss about in this post and what benefits does blogging bring to them. The main community that are to be discussed is mommy bloggers.

Mommy bloggers are family and homemaking blogs which feature commentary and discussions especially about home, family and parenting (The Washington Times, 2005). Basically mommy bloggers usually blog as a hobby instead of making it a business or a way of income. A survey conducted by blogging. org around 81% of bloggers in the United States of America do not even make $100 US dollars in their 'blogging career' and that only 8% of them only are able to support their families through blogging (Bullas J, 2012). In my opinion, mommy bloggers mostly blog as a hobby as they have a lot of free time as most of them are housewives and have children to take care of as well (Bullas J, 2012). Although there are some mommy bloggers who make a living out of them but I would say that these are the lucky few who made it through. Those are the mommy bloggers who are included in the 2% based on the survey conducted by blogging.org The picture below will show some of the mommy bloggers who are successful with their blogs.

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/05/08/mommy-blogger-infographic/

References

The Washington Times: "Blogging -- already a force in media and politics -- has found a solid place in the parenting community."

Blogging Statistics, Facts and Figures in 2012 – Infographic
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/08/02/blogging-statistics-facts-and-figures-in-2012-infographic/

New Media VS Old Media.

A blog can be defined as websites that can be updated from time to time, most often with links to other sites and commentary on the other sites content (Gurak, Johnson & Reymen, 2005). On the other hand, Facebook, enables its users to present themselves in an online profile,accumulate ‘‘friends’’ who can post comments on each other’s pages, and view each other’s profiles. Facebook members can also join virtual groups based on common

interests, see what classes they have in common, and learn each others’ hobbies, interests, musical tastes, and romantic relationship status through the profiles (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007). Next, Twitter is used mainly to constantly interact with your followers and to keep updated with the people who you are following. 

Blogs, Facebook and Twitter play a role to co-exist with the traditional media in certain ways which will be discussed in this blog. One important way, they all can be used as advertising tools for the traditional media and also vice versa. It is clear that the new media is used more today as it is more convenient to access compared to traditional media which proves that the new media can be used to inform the readers or viewers. For example, there is an important football match over the weekends and on Facebook or Twitter someone posted about it which will help to inform the reader to watch that match on the television. On the other hand, the old media can also be used to advertise the new.

New Media

Source: http://media-ide.bajingloncat.com

Old media

Source: http://www.thaivisa.com

References

Gurak L, Antonijevic S, Johnson L, Ratliff C & Reyman J 2005, Introduction: Weblogs, Rhetoric, Community and Culture, viewed 26^th August 2011,

Ellison N B, Steinfield C & Lampe C 2007, 'The Benefits of Facebook ‘‘Friends:’’ Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Site'. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12 

The Beginning.

This blog is created for the purpose of discussing on today's issues in publication and design. Most of the viewers of this blog will be students and professionals who are interested or that are already in this line of work. Readers will see a clearer picture on issues around the world.