We want internet access!

I came across a transcript from the Media Report (Funnell 2008), a book titled ‘The Blogging Revolution’ is written by a journalist Antony Loewenstein. The book analyze on the power of blogs in six different countries. All six countries have a commonality of a suppressing dissent government as well as bloggers as a tool to communicate with their world within and outside. Funnell (the presenter) and Loewenstein discussed about how people in these six countries which includes Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and China, tries to bring a change to their country at the same time keeping their profiles low due to the suppressive government.

The book cover page.
(Source: google image)

I am glad to hear that there are still people from the inside who are willing to take the initial step towards democracy for their country even though their life is at risk. For example (Funnell 2008), the ideology that is assumed by the government that people in the rural areas are less literate thus the chances of using the web to challenge the Chinese government are less. Though, what the people are actually doing is that instead of going against the government, they challenge corruption and other smaller issues to gain community in a hope for more outspoken citizens in the future.

The internet is definitely an effective tool to be used for giving a voice to the voiceless but it is as well important to not offend any other culture or country by accident due to the lack of literacy of other cultures. There is a need to be aware of the cultural differences when writing to international audiences because different countries have different norms of writing and language (Olsen & Huckin 1991).

Personally, I find that internet access is a necessary tool these days for research and entertainment. To have internet censorship is cruel and is definitely one human right issues of the 21^st century. Internet allows us to interact and exchange ideas, thus, I just do not understand why some government will take that healthy discussion as a threat? So far, some governments are more open to this kind of feedback (Wyld 2007) but there are still some traditional dominative governments are against the idea of democracy (Lowenstein 2008).

It is a pity for those without internet privileges as they are missing out on a lot of things!

Referencing

Funnell, A 2008, The blogging revolution, the media report, viewed on 12 June 2010, from <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2351985.htm>.

Lowenstein, A 2008, The blogging revolution, readings, viewed on 12 June 2010, from <http://www.readings.com.au/product/9780522854909/the-blogging-revolution>.

Olsen, L & Huckin, T 1991, technical writing and professional communication, 2^nd edition, Mcgraw and hill, new York, pg 230-232.

Wyld, D 2007, The blogging revolution: goverment in the age of web 2.0, IBM Center for the business of government, viewed on 10 June 2010, from <http://www.businessofgovernment.org/report/blogging-revolution-government-age-web-20 >.

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New media: is not all bad for journalists.

There has been a sudden unaware grief by many of the journalist out there as the growth of online activities for example, blogs, twitters and etc, seems to be growing quite rapidly. For many journalists, this maybe a sign of losing their jobs because some portray as new media a threat to journalism. (Rowse 15 Oct 2007) However, after reading the transcript from The Media Report (Funnell 2008), Paul Bradshaw (Funnell 2008) pointed out 10 reasons for journalists should be cheerful of the new media.

The presenter Antony Funnell, interviewed Paul about the reasons for his list of 10 factors why journalists should not be weary of the rapid convergence of new media. The whole transcript are basically brief explanation on Paul’s ten reason for happiness as well as added at the end on his new website called ‘The Jolly Journalist’.

Personally, I feel that there is really nothing to worry about nor should the journalist or publisher to feel threaten in any way as there are still many more out there that are just like me, loving the feel of fresh newspaper on our hands every morning. As what Heilbut (2010) stated that news on the internet is still not a viable substitute as our eyes will get tired after staring on the screen for too long.

Don't you think is just hard to read?

(source: google image)

Besides, one factor that everyone has to understand is that there is a difference in reading text on the computer and reading a hard copy book. Walsh states that literature text (newspapers) serves a total different purpose as compared to hypertext or websites. (Walsh 2006)

I feel that with the help of technology, a journalist can do more wonders for the readers as distance between countries and continents do not really matter anymore. For example: reason no.9 as it is my favorite, ‘Interview the World FOR FREE’. Thanks to creation of Skype, Msn, email and etc, there is no need of special meet up or expensive calls anymore. Think of the cost you can save! No.4 is the ‘Death of Churnalism’, journalists do not need to waste their time on rewriting press release as readers can get it themselves from the internet. This will allow journalist on more important work like fact digging and analysis.

Thus, journalists and publishers are still important and needed in this world! Long live newspaper!

Referencing

Funnell, A 2008, Reasons to be cheerful, the media report, viewed on 10 June 2010, from <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2288042.htm>.

Heilbut, C 2010, Study says: citizen ‘journalism’ not yet a threat, editorsweblog.org, viewed on 11 June 2010, from <http://www.editorsweblog.org/web_20/2010/05/study_says_citizen_journalism_not_yet_a.php>.

Rowse, D 15 Oct 2007, Is new media a threat to Journalism?, Problogger, viewed on 11 June 2010, from <http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/10/15/is-new-media-a-threat-to-journalism/#comments>.

Walsh, M 2006, The ‘textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimedia texts, Australian journal of language literacy, vol 29, no 1, pg 24-37.

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Good design for screen genre

 

According to Reep, unusual shape weighs more than simple circles or squares. The background of the whole slide presentation design is simple, clean and easy to read. Though it is often said that less is more (Esperdy.G 2009), I believed that experimenting a little more on unusual shapes and colours in the slides might be able to attract more attention from the audiences. There should be more effort place to search for other background design online instead of using the existing ones in the PowerPoint application. 

 

 

It saddens to see that there is no usage of header and footer as it can help in identifying the document and the pages. (Reep, Diana C. 2006) White spaces in a slide help to give the reader’s eyes a rest and also to direct them to important information. (Reep, Diana C. 2006) Most of the slides are too wordy which causes the insufficient of white spacing, thus, readers lose interest very quickly. 

Visually informative writing encourages the writer to be precise about grouping related facts, outlining beginnings and endings, and using cues to signal to the reader a graphic representation of cognitive group. (Berhardt. Stephen. A 1986) The whole structure of the slides are well planned as PowerPoint animation function is used to ensure the shifting of attention is where exactly I wanted the audience eyes to be. Examples:

•   Circling areas that is emphasized during presentation

 

• Covering unwanted area for more concentration on other areas

 

·        

  

•  Pop-ups of images and words

   

Referencing

1. Berhardt. Stephen. A 1986, College Composition and Communication, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 66-78, viewed on 19 April 2010, <http://www.jstor.org/stable/357383>.
2. Esperdy.G 2009, Less is more, viewed on the 19 April 2010, <http://www.designobserver.com/observatory/entry.html?entry=8097>.
3. Reep, Diana C. 2006, ‘Chp 4: Principles of Document Design,’ in Technical Writing, 6th ed., Pearson Edu, Inc., New York, p.173-190.

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