Reflection: Journey As An Academic Blogger

Throughout the whole process of being an academic blogger, I learnt a lot and acquired some skills. Creating a weblog is indeed easy. All you need is just to choose a web hosting site and sign up to create a blog. However, to maintain a blog and keep it updated was never easy. 

The reason why blog is chosen as the platform to discuss on publication and media issues is because blog is the current phenomenon in which people write blogs and read other people's blog. Moreover, writing in a blog can be less formal. The tone of language can be slightly casual and thus readers would be more comfortable while reading the content. Furthermore, blog feature such as the chat box allows readers to leave a comment, and the blogger will reply the comment. In return, there is interaction between the writer and reader. This way, messages can be delivered more effectively to the audiences. 

As for the document designing part, I learnt that adding pictures in blog posts can always enhanced the effectiveness in delivering the content of the blog. Visual aids should be interpreted or added with clear captions to improve readers' understanding (Shriver 1997).

I understand that as a blogger, we are given the freedom of speech. However, we should always have a clear standpoint as knowing what we are writing or expressing in our blog. Besides that, I have to always be alert and understand my audience's needs as Putnis and Petelin (1996) said that readers' needs are very important.

Last but not least, I enjoyed the whole process of writing this weblog. Thanks to the subject of Issues in Publication and Design, I had the opportunity to experience the journey as an academic blogger.

(Source: Deviantart.com, 2010)

Reference

Shriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Text for Readers, Wiley Computer Publisher, New York.

Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, 'Writing to Communicate', Professional Communication: Principles and Application, Prentice Hall, Sydney. 

Photographs are powerful!

Photography was one of the earliest forms of visual culture to exist in our society. It has allowed us to have our best memories and moments to be captured and kept them with us forever.

In a radio program, Goddard suggested on how photography has the ability to influence people's emotion and opinion, especially war photography. He said that war photography is able to generate more global perspective of the real event that is going on during the war (Funnell 2007). This is because all the photos are captured by those photographers who have the courage to be on the frontline, risking their own lives to capture the real scenes that happened during the war. 

A wounded Government soldier lies on top of his dead companion

moments after an explosion, photographed by Jason P. howe.

(Source: War Photo Limited, 2010)

War photography has the power to capture and reveal the actual situation of what the citizens in those war countries are going through. All these photos never fail to capture our hearts. We are always being touched and moved by them. Through those images, we see fear in the children, pain in the women, and suffer in the elderly. It is so heart wrenching to see and knows what they have been through.  

Photography has its impact in photojournalism too. Even de Certeau also suggested that photojournalism has a unique power of transforming seeing into believing, and releasing those believing into realities (Banks 1994, p. 120). Readers are more engaged to the whole story if there is a picture to act as an aid to the article. Photos are captivating and reader would be able to felt through the pictures. Most importantly, Barthes stated that image and text work hand in hand to deliver message successfully (Kress & Van Leeuwen 2006).

Photojournalism is emerging. So what are its effects on the society?

Addie Card, a 12-year-old girl child labor working in the

North Pownal Cotton Mill, Vermont, photographed by Lewis W. Hine.

(Source: Mornings On Maple Street)

In my opinion, photojournalism serves as an instrument for democracy and justice. For instance, the photo shown above is one of the many photos that convinced America that Cngress should pass child labor laws (The History Place, 2010). Although child labor does not present in America today, we have to be aware that child labor is very common in developing countries. Through reports by photojournalist, child labor has caught general public's attention. They are constantly fighting for child's right and trying to combat this issue.

More examples that shows the power of photographs in photojournalsim:

A Sudanese child trying to crawl to a UN camp over a kilometer away.

A vulture waits for ehr to die so it can eat  , photographed by Kevin Carter.

(Source: Socialist Party.net, 2007)

The above shows a Pulitzer Prize winning photo in 1994. It shocked the whole world. The photo informs the audience of how severe the condition is in Sudan. People there have suffered much during the famine.

A boy who was severely injured.

(Source: National Press Photographers Association, 2005)

The photo above shows a 9-year-old Iraqi boy who was critically wounded by an explosion in Baghdad (NPPA 2005). It is sorrowful to look at the photo and stories were told through the photo. This photo won the Pulitzer Priza in year 2005.

Photojournalism has also brought advantages to the advertising and promotion sector. Take a look at the image below:

An attention-grabbing advertisement of the Lancome product.

(Source: Lancome, 2010)

Were you being attracted by this advertisement at the first glance? If yes, the advertisement has successfully achieved its goal of promoting their newly released product. This is because once audience look at the picture, they will automatically notice the image of mascara applicator situated at the left corner of the advertisement. The photographer managed to take such a great shot of the model, focusing on her attractive eyes, with long and thick curvy eyelashes. Some audience may believe what they see in the advertisement, which is achieving the same result as the model after applying the Lancome mascara. Furthermore, the text found in the advertisement aids in conveying a clearer message. It is said that the combination of text and image, in addition to careful and creative word choice, can draw the audiences' attention to the photograph (InfoRefuge 1997). Eventually, they will understand what is the advertisement is trying to sell and they will buy the product.

This can also be applied to the tourism sector where tourism agencies and government use photography to promote places and attract tourists. Astonishing photos comprise an awe factor that grabs people's attention and stirs their excitement to visit the place.

A breathtaking view of the tiny village of Manarola on the
Cinque Terre coast of Italy,

 photographed by Paul Hogie. It attracts tourists to visit the place.

 (Source: National Geographic, 2010)

Overall, photographs are indeed powerful and influential. Do no underestimate them.

Reference

Banks, A 1994, 'Images Trapped in Two Discourses: Photojournalism Codes and the International News Flow', Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 118-134.

Funnell, A 2007, 'The power of the photograph', The Media Report, ABC Radio National, viewed 10 June 2010,
< http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm >.

InfoRefuge 1997, The Emergence of Photojournalism and Its Effect on Society, viewed 16 June 2010,
< http://www.inforefuge.com/emergence-of-photojournalism >.

Kress, GR & Van Leeuwen 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2 edn, Routledge, New York.

National Press Photographers Association 2005, 'Deanne Fitzmaurice, Associated Press Photographers, Win 2005 Pulitzer Prizes for News & Feature Photography', viewed 16 June 2010,
< http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/04/pulitzer.html >.

The History Place 2010, Child Labor in America1908-1912, viewed 16 June 2010,
< htttp://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/about.htm >.

Twitter Fever: Why is it so popular?

Request overload causing Twitter over capacity.

(Source: Google Images, 2010)

"What? Twitter is over capacity AGAIN!"

Does this ring true in your ears? If you are a Twitter enthusiast, or even an active user of Twitter, you will be so familiar with the graphic above. Recently, many Tweeter (or Twitterer) would be directed to Twitter/ Over Capacity page whenever they attempt to sign in to their Twitter page. 

This phenomenon clearly reflects that there were too many Twitter users at present. There are too many tweets that the Twitter web sever is temporary unable to handle the request. This again indicates that how vastly Twitter's popularity has been expanded. In case you have not already know, Twitter is a micro-blog which also function as a social networking site that allows you to post a maximum of 140-character for each tweets (Twitter 2010). Nowadays, almost everybody tweet! No matter one is a 6-year-old kid, a teenager, an office lady, a manager of a company, a journalist, or even a celebrity, they have all taken up Twitter! And no, Twitter did not gain its popularity level without valid reasons.

More and more people are turning to Twitter.

by Hugh McLeod (via Tech Crunch)

People used to blog so much that they update everything to their blog everyday. As for now, people are so addicted to Twitter by updating their status anytime. This is most probably because they receive live updates and instant responses from Twitter whereas blogging can be considered a troublesome and painful task.

Let us look at some of the advantages of Twitter that I have analyzed:

1. 
   
   Twitter is quick and instant.
   All tweets (status updates) are short and simple as their length is restricted at 140-character maximum. Just type a few words and press the "tweet" button and you are done with one tweet! It is so user-friendly.
   
   
2. 
   
   Twitter can be accessed easily.
   This is an important factor contributed to the popularity of Twitter. You can tweet and receive tweets via many paths such as computers, instant messages, and cell phones.
   
   
3. 
   
   Twitter as a news source.
   O'Reilly and Milstein (2009) describe Twitter as the real-time newspaper. It has the power to update on the latest news and it allows real-time reporting. This is because a tweet can be uploaded to Twitter by anyone. Once news is posted up on Twitter, the followers will retweet it and other followers can see the news too. This action continues to multiply and the news will eventually reach the masses within a short period. For instance, the first snapshots of the Turkish Airlines jet after it crashed near Amsterdam on the 25th February 2009 were transmitted via Twitter (Stanley 2009). Besides that, Joanna Smith, a reporter from Toronto Star, made live reporting from earthquake-ravaged Haiti earlier this year via Twitter and her tweets has been widely praised (English 2010). This has also proven that Twitter and other new media tools can actually enhance journalism.
   
   
4. 
   
   Twitter creates ambient intimacy.
   Tweets like "I'm ordering a McValue meal from McDonald's for lunch", "I'm watching the last episode of Lost right now", and "I'm going to college now" may sound mundane to you, but a lot of Twitterers found it interesting. O'Reilly and Milstein (2009) claimed that people found that being aware of what their family, friends and colleagues are doing leads to a lightweight but meaningful connection. They are able keep up with friends and family. They feel a sense of connection with their family and friends. 
   
   
5. 
   
   Twitter is a mind-reading tool.
   You would be able to know what is the current trend or latest hot topics via Twitter. Twitter's site search service is an amazing mind-reading tool as it lets you see not only what an individual thinks, but what groupings are focusing as well (O'Reilly & Milstein 2009). Even corporates can find out what people think of their brands, services and products.
   
   
6. 
   
   Twitter is free.
   Just like any other social networking sites such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, Twitter is free!  You can enjoy the service without any charges. Furthermore, you can also cross-post your Twitter updates to your Facebook account (O'Reilly & Milstein 2009).

These could be some of the reasons why Twitter is the top among all social websites.

Before I end this post, here is something interesting to share with you all. 

Read them and have a good laugh!

Twitterers were so frustrated with the recent "Twitter is over capacity" issue. In fact, some of them were creative enough to design the graphics below which I thought are interesting!

The whale is wounded.

(source: www.pixiv.net)

A Twitter's over capacity page designed by Fabiorex.

(source: www.flickr.com)

Another Twitter's over capacity screen designed by Mylk Roventine.

(Source: www.flickr.com)

Lastly, I would like to share a quote here"

"Whale can only go one way, gotta get those birds going the same way." - Jeremiah Owyang

Did you had a good laugh? He was actually referring to the birds found in Twitter's over capacity page. The birds are flying in different directions.







Reference

English, K 2010, 'Will Twitter Transform Journalism?', Toronto Star 12 June, viewed 15June 2010.

O'Reilly, T & Milstein, S 2009, The Twitter Book, O'Reilly Media Inc., United States.

Owyang, J 2008, The Truth Why Twitter is Over Capacity, Web Strategy, viewed 15 June 2010, < http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/05/28/the-truth-why-twitter-is-over-capacity/ >

Stanley, A 2009, 'What Are You Doing? Media Twitterers Can't Stop Typing', New York Times 27 February, viewed 15 June 2010.

Twitter 2010, About Twitter, viewed 15 June 2010, < http://twitter.com/about >.

Tempting Blogshops!

Blogshop, blogshops and even more blogshops!

Clothes, bags, shoes and accessories that women can never resist!

(Source: Google Images, 2010)

It all started from some Taiwan-based websites selling nice apparels and bags demonstrated in photos of beautiful models with fine figures and lovely make-ups (Yip 2009). However, these Taiwan-based websites do not accept any orders from overseas and many online shoppers were disappointed. Thus, this came to the dawn of local Malaysian sites selling Taiwanese goods (Yip 2009). This has provided so much convenience for those online shopping lovers and gradually, there are more and more young entrepreneurs start venturing into the blogshop business. They are brave enough to take on this risk as they have sensed the great potential that blogshops possess for the market, particularly in the cyberspace. Lee claims that "online shopping is set to grow in a big way in Malaysia, judging from how it has grown in leaps and bounds for particular services" (Leong & Lee 2009).

A nice shot of model showing the apparel sell in a blogshop.

(Source: www.tougechic.com 2010)

One of my favourite pastimes is to browse through all the blogshops available online. I am an avid e-shopper and I have to admit that blogshops has indeed implied a great impact on me and my friends. It is always so hard for us to resist the lure of blogshops. Once we start to visit a blogshop, it can take us a few hours to have our eyes stick to the laptop screen. It always leaves me to ponder, why are we doing this? 

In fact, there are many people who are also indulging in this phenomenon. According to a survey conducted by The Nielsen Company last year, a total of 30% Malaysian Internet users have performed online purchases. People enjoy online shopping because the product that we purchase will be sent to our doorsteps with just a few clicks on the computer screen. It is so convenient.

Get what you want with just a few clicks,

nothing is more convenient than this!

(Source: DailyNews365.com, 2009)

In my opinion, the convenience of online shopping has led some consumers to impulsive buying. New media has contributed in consumers' impulse buying. We know that blogshop first came in the form of a blog. It is why it is known as "blogshop". That is a form of new media that has encouraged the society to set up a blogshop as blogs are easy to function and most of them are free of charge. Similarly, e-shoppers are attracted to shop online due to its easy navigation and functionality.

Interestingly, I have noticed that blogshop owners have recently found a new channel to promote their products, which is through social networking sites. For instance, blogshop owners upload all their products and details in Facebook. If we compare Facebook to blogs, Facebook definitely is a faster channel to update the customers on their new arrival as their updates will be automatically shown on the Facebook wall of those users who joined their Facebook page. All these viewpoints are generated through my personal experience. I believe that the shop-online-fever will still continue to grow.  

Daily Boutique, one of the many blogshops that sell apparel via Facebook.

Reference

Leong, HY & Lee, KS 2009, Buying via Internet, The Star Online, viewed 15 June 2010, 
< http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/11/business/3620542&sec=business >.

Yip, YT 2009,  Lure of online boutiques, The Star Online, viewed 15 June 2010,
< http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/11/22/sundaymetro/5054261&sec=sundaymetro >.

E-books, the successor of paper books?

Have you ever seen a person staring at the screen of a computer or a e-reading device and read through all those teeny-weeny words? Or I should twist my question in another way: have you tried that yourself before? There's no doubt that they are reading E-books, which is the short term for 'electronic book'.

There is this phenomenon that E-books are getting more and more popular. Cornwall (2010) reports that the release of Kindle Book, an electronic book reader, by Amazon has helped in boosting the percentage of virtual book demand to surge upwards. To add to this, the launch of Apple's iPad on the April 3 acts as another factor in rising the demand for E-books (Apple 2010). Publishers came to realized the power of Internet in spreading information, and thus many of them have now open their doors to the Internet. They have decided to publish the electronic version of a book online. This is also said to be following the footsteps of the other two major media industries, namely, the music and movie industries. These publishers understand that they have to go digital or else they won't be able to survive (Cornwall 2010).

Amazon's Kindle Book fueled the hype of e-reading.

(Source: www.abc.net.au 2010)

Advantages of E-books for the readers?

Through my personal experience, I have identified a few advantages of E-books.

1. E-books usually have a lower cost compared to paper book. There are plenty of them which are available for free too. For instance, the public domain consists of all the fiction from before the year 1900 which you can download them for free (Harold Robbins Novels 2010).
2. E-books are eco-friendly as their productions do not require any paper or ink. A study proved that to print a book, it will consume three times more raw materials and 78 times more water than producing a E-book (Siegle 2009).
3. E-books are eco-friendly as their productions do not require any paper or ink. A study proved that to print a book, it will consume three times more raw materials and 78 times more water than producing a E-book (Siegle 2009).

Acceptance and adoption of E-books by readers?

Despite the fact that E-book does bring benefits to the readers, there is still readers who are reluctant to accept and follow the trend. What does this mean and why did it happen? My answer to these questions would be due to the style of reading. Hard-copy books are meant to be read on the papers while E-books through the screen. The difference in medium causes difference in the speed of reading. People tend to read slower on screen than printed page. This has been proven through studies carried out by both Nielsen (2000) and Krug (2000), which the results show that people read 25%-40% slower on screen. Moreover, Mercieca (2004) claimed that readers start to suffer from eye strain after attempting in reading three to four pages of E-book. Personally, I have experienced this before and it made my eyes very uncomfortable. This has also lead to skim-reading. E-book readers are slowly adopting this new reading style by searching for only the key-terms without reading through the whole book content. This style of reading is best reflected in the younger generation, especially students like us who are receiving tertiary education (Brown 2001).

We are the generation that gets in touch with all these new media daily.

In conclusion, it's all about personal preference on whether to accept E-book as the upcoming trend. It depends on an individual's preference to choose between paper book and E-book.

References

Apple 2010, Apple Sells Two Million iPads in Less Than 60 Days, viewed 15 June 2010,
< http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/05/31ipad.html >.

Brown, GJ 2001, 'Beyond Print: Reading Digitally', Library Hi Tech, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 390-399.

Cornwall, D 18 March 2010, ‘E-books popularity on the rise’, The 7.30 Report, ABC, viewed 15 June 2010, < http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2849989.htm >.

Harold Robbins Novels 2010, Digital Book Readers, viewed 15 June 2010,

< http://haroldrobbinsnovels.com/digital_book_readers.htm >.

Jobs, S 2010, Apple iPad's e-reader and bookstore, CNET TV, viewed 15 June 2010,

< http://news.cnet.com/1606-2_3-50082833.html >.

Krug, S 2000, Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Que, USA.

Mercieca, P 2004, E-book acceptance: what will make users read on screen?, viewed 15 June 2010.

Nielsen, J 2000, Designing Web Usability, New Riders, USA.

Siegle, L 2009, Should we switch to reading books online?, The Observer, viewed 15 June 2010,

< http://www.guardian.com.uk/environment/2009/aug/30/reading-books-online-eco-friendly >.

Importance of Good Design

Readers prefer well-organized websites with good design.

(Source: webtoaster.net)

As mentioned by Reep (2006, p. 135), 'the principles of design are qualities important to any visual presentation regardless of topic or audience'. The general principles that should be considered when applying to all documents are:

• Balance
• Proportion
• Sequence
• Consistency

Correspondingly, Bernhardt's (1986, p. 72) law of gestalt has also stressed on the importance in document design. The four laws of gestalt emphasized are:

• Equilibrium
• Good continuation
• Closure
• Similarity

Both principles place importance on good balancing and continuation for a screen design.

Let us have a look at the three screen shots from my presentation slides.

Slide 1

The slide above consists of a heading which acts as an extra point to the screen design as Reep (2006, p. 154) mentioned that headings can help readers find specific data and show them where changes in topics occur. Although the overall design is simple and brief, it is clear enough to notify the audience about the topics which the presenter is going to present. The points are short and straight to the point.

Slide 2

According to Nielson (1997), readers scan through and pick out individual words and sentences in the web pages rather than read them word by word. Therefore, I would say that Slide 2 shows a bad designed document. The points are too long. The improvement that I could make is to shorten the points and highlight the keywords to assist readers in focusing on important points in the slide.

Slide 3

In an effective document design, words and visuals support each other (Reep 2006, p. 134). Visual helps to stimulate readers' attention. Thus, Slide 3 could be considered a good design as it shows a balanced composition of both image and text. However, the flaw of this slide would be the size of the image. The size of the image should be reduced while the size of the text should be enlarged so that the words can be seen more clearly.

Effective design draws readers through the page from important point to important point (Reep 2006, p. 136). Therefore, a good design is crucial for any document. Apply the correct principles and readers will stay and read the document.

Reference

Bernhardt, SA 1986, 'Seeing the Text', College Composition and Communication, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 66 - 78.

Nielson, J 1997, 'How Users Read on the Web', useit.com, viewed 19 April 2010, < http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html >.

Reep, D 2006, 'Chapter 6: Document Design', Technical Writing, 6th edn, Pearson/ Longman, New York.

New Forms of Media Publishing

Countless forms of new media. Are you a fan of any of them? 

(Source: www.penn-olson.com)

Whenever we heard of the phrase "new media", the first idea that comes to our mind is media publishing through online methods. Internet has vastly altered the way we access and contribute information, as well as our mean of communication. New forms of media publishing are in the rise. A few latest trends include online journalism, vlogs, microblogs and social networking sites. 

Online Journalism

Journalism is evolving rapidly that it is now situated in a new media ecosystem where traditional newspapers and broadcast stations are combined with online journalism. Salcito (2009) refers it as "mixed media". Besides having traditional newspapers printed every day, newspapers nowadays do establish their own newspapers website, which serves as an extension of the paper itself. The same news we read from the printed newspapers can be easily found online. There is a new type of journalism, which is known as the citizen journalism. They are private individuals who report information that take various forms, from a podcast editorial to a report about a city council meeting on a blog (Rogers 2010). This has affected the traditional journalism as anybody can become a reporter at this instant. The credibility of sources found online would have to be questioned.

Video Blog (Vlog)

As the largest video site on the web, Youtube has almost 3.5 million visitors every day and 15 hours of video uploaded every minute (Clean Cut Media 2009). The way messages are being transmitted has changed due to its ability and speed to disseminate message to the masses. Many bloggers upload videos of themselves to share with online users. This including our very own Prime Minister, Dato' Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, who also has his own YouTube channel set up to deliver messages to his people.

Micro Blog and Social Networking Sites

Twitter is a collection of micro blogs where people post their minute-by-minute thoughts and actions (Bevan 2008). It can also be considered as a social networking site like Facebook. These two social media has greatly altered the way how people communicate. For instance, they have permitted people to communicate without having to go through a face-to-face communication process. They have allow people to connect and update each other regardless of geographical boundaries.

Lastly, here's a video that details out social media facts and figures which you should be aware of.

Are you ready? Go!

Reference

Bevan, K 2008, 'Why are there no spam or trolls on Twitter?', The Guardian, viewed 16th April 2010, < http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/06/socialnetworking.spam>.

Clean Cut Media 2009, Youtube Statistics: The Ultimate Time Suck, viewed 16 April 2010, < http://www.cleancutmedia.com/video/youtube-statistics-the-ultimate-time-suck >.

Rogers, T 2010, 'What is Citizen Journalism?', About.com, viewed 16 April 2010, < http://journalism.about.com/od/citizenjournalism/a/whatiscitizen.htm >.

Salcito, K 2009, 'New Media Trends', Journalism Ethcis, viewed 16 April 2010, < http://www.journalismethics.ca/online_journalism_ethics/new_media_trends.htm >.

Socialnomics09's Channel 2009, YouTube, viewed 16 April 2010, < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8&feature=player_embedded >.

Blogging Communities in the Blogosphere

Every blog connects via blogging communities and formed the blogosphere.

(Source: eWriting, 2008)

What are blogging communities? According to Bock (as cited in White 2005), he stated that "Communities are characterized by three things: common interest, frequent interaction, and identification", and these three things must all present for an online space to form a community. Therefore, we can define blogging community as an online community where bloggers and readers who share the same interest connect and interact with each other via blogs as their platform.

Three forms of blogging communities.

(Source: The Knowledge Tree, 2006)

As blogging is constantly growing, White (2006) has identified three forms of blogging communities, with a wide variety of hybrid forms emerging the three.

A mind map showing how blogger centric community works.

(Source: The Knowledge Tree, 2006)

1.   Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community

• It is formed when the focus and power of the community is firmly control by the central identity, the blog owner. Readers return to the central blog, comment, and get to know blogger and the community of commentators. (eg: KennySia.com)

The diagram shows the relationship within

a central connecting topic community.

(Source: The Knowledge Tree, 2006)

2.   Central Connecting Topic Community

• It is formed when various blogs that share common interest or passion are linked together. Both power and identity are distributed across the community. As they expand, they form a network. (eg: Global Voices)

The formation of boundaried communities.

(Source: The Knowledge Tree, 2006)

3.   Boundaried Communities

• It is a collection of blogs and blog readers hosted on a single site or platform. This form of community often has other tools such as discussion board, social networking features, wikis and instant messaging built in. (eg: LiveJournal, MySpace)
  

It is relatively easy to create a blogging community. We can see its structure through the example of Global Voices community. All blogs are linked through hyperlinks, in the form of blogroll, links to other blogs within blog posts, tagging, aggregated feeds (using RSS), trackbacks and comments (White 2006). Readers are able to link from one blog to another to access more stories or information on a particular topic that they are interested in. They will be able to get hold of things happening in the blogospheres of every corner over the world.

All in all, a blogging community connects all bloggers and it can only exist with the active participation and contribution among bloggers and readers.

Reference

White, N 2005, 'How Some Folks Have Tried to Describe Community', Full Circle Association, viewed 11 April 2010, < http://www.fullcirc.com/community/definingcommunity.htm >.

White, N 2006, 'Blogs and Comunity: launching a new paradigm for online community?', The Knowledge Tree, viewed 11 April 2010, < http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community >.

Classification of Blogs

Different people blog for different reasons. In general, the three main reasons why people blog is to speak their mind, share expertise, share experiences with family and friends as well as make money or do business (Sussman 2009). Hence, bloggers create their blog based on the most effective method which they feel that it can communicate the intended message to the readers. In fact, the term "blog" itself carries different meanings and so far, there is no any standard reference to distinguish the types of blog. 

To my knowledge, blogs can be classified as below:

• Personal blog
• Politics blog
• Fashion blog
• Photography blog
• Moblog
• Vlog
• Linklog
• Sketchlog
• Tumblelog
• Microblog
• Business blog
• Corporate blog

On the other hand, Margaret Simons (2008) has come up with her own lists of blog classification:

• Pamphleteering Blog
• Digest Blog 
• Advocacy Blog
• Popular Mechanics Blog
• Exhibition Blog
• Gatewatcher Blog
• Diary Blog
• Advertisement Blog
• Newsblog

Many blogs are combinations of styles. Bloggers do not use merely one type of style to blog. They usually incorporate photos, videos, audios, and links related to their topics in order to enhance the readers' experience. This method of blogging has made identifying unique types difficult.

For instance, let us take a look at the famous Vietnamese-American makeup artist, Michelle Phan:

A blog entry consisting pictures, text and video.

Screenshots of Michelle Phan's how-to fashion blog.

In one of her blog entries, she is explaining on how to make a tomato scrub. Besides using text and photos, she also includes a self-made video in her blog for the readers to have a better understanding on the whole procedure. So basically, her blog can be referred as a combination of how-to, diary and fashion blog. 

In my opinion, the line between each category is so near to each other that it is hard to define a clear fine line to separate the types of blog. It is difficult for us to classify blogs into a certain category as the content of a blog is always a combination of different elements. 

Reference

Simons, M 2008, 'Towards a Taxonomy of Blogs', Australian Policy Online, viewed 10 April 2010, < http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0 >.

Sussman, M 2009, 'Day 2: The What and Why of Blogging - SOTB 2009', Technorati, viewed 9 April 2010,  < http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-2-the-what-and-why2/page-2 >.

Getting to know the Blogosphere

(Source: Daily Blog Tips, 2008)

The term "blog" generates from the word "weblog" which is described as an online daily journal or a website with dated entries (McDougall 2007). From my personal perspective, a typical blog consists of the combination of text, photos and links to other blogs and sites related to its topic. According to Scocco (2008) , we can differentiate blogs from other websites based on a few features stated below:

1. The content of a blog is published in a chronological fashion.
2. The content of a blog is updated regularly by the blog author.
3. The readers have the possibilities to leave comments.
4. The content of a blog is syndicated via RSS feeds.

Undeniable, blogging as the current phenomenon is steadfastly a part of the mainstream and it is still growing. Based on the statistics report analyzed by Technorati (2007), there are over 120,000 new blogs and over 1.4 million new blog posts created every day! These are really shocking figures to learn.

Statistic shows a vast amount of blogs being created each day.

(Source: Technorati, 2007)

So, what are the current trends and types of blogs prevalent in Europe, Asia and Malaysia? State of the Blogosphere 2009 states that the use of Twitter and the impact that bloggers had on political events around the world are two obvious leading trends for 2009 in the blogosphere. In Malaysian context, online media (blogs) have increased citizens' access to alternative news and information sources (CIMA 2009). Many people have turned to the blogosphere to update themselves on information and events, especially topics related to political issues, that are usually given minimal coverage in other forms of media. Here an interesting fact: Research shows that 70% of the election results were influenced by the information in the blogs (The Star 2008). This shows that bloggers have the power to influence people's decision.


I personally think that the rising number of political blogs is beneficial to Malaysians as they have offered citizens an alternative platform to discuss their views on Malaysian political situations. They have gained more freedom of speech for citizen commentary and we can say that the government's monopoly on coverage is challenged indirectly. 

For instance, Jeff Ooi's blog is one of the political blogs that have deep influence to the Malaysian community. Readers can obtain information which are 'over-looked' by mainstream media freely.

Jeff Ooi's blog had a great impact on politics in Malaysia.

On the other hand, even our current Prime Minister, Dato' Sri Mohd. Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak has also created his own website, which works the same as blogs to update the nation on his views and thoughts.

Najib Tun Razak's blog that connects him to his people of Malaysia.

References:

Blogsphere of Inflence: Internet Press Freedom in Malaysia 2009, Center for International Media Assistance, viewed 9 April 2010, < http://cima.ned.org/events/malysia-event.html >.

McDougall, JS 2007, Start Your Own Blogging Business, Entrepreneur Media Inc., Canada.

Sifry, D 2007, The Sate of the Live Web, Sifry's Alert, viewed 9 April 2010,
< http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html >.

Sussman, M 2009, 'Day 5: Twitter, Global Impact and Future of Blogging - SOTB 2009', Technorati, viewed 9 April 2010, < http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-5-twitter-global-impact-and/ >.

The Star 2008, 'Blogging in Malaysia ranks among highest in the world', viewed 9 April 2010, < http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/3/nation/20827588&sec=nation >.