Reflection

Throughout my time in writing this blog, I have learnt a tremendous amount of things, however there are a few things which I now have a much better understanding of in comparison to all the other things that I learnt. Firstly would be the theories and fundamentals in publication and design which is to include pictures and words to make reading and comprehension easier (Kress and Leeuwen 1998). Thus, while creating each blog posting, I have included at least one picture to accompany each posting because when pictures and texts are able to work together, communication has always been easier (Schriver 1997). Additionally, I have also learnt the importance of using framing and white spaces in multimodal texts to make it clear to readers what items are meant to be read as a whole or separately (Kress and Leeuwen 1998).

Moreover, I have also had the opportunity to learn how aesthetics are used in web designing and have learnt about plagiarism in journalism and how to avoid it. As a blogger myself, I have provided links to the original sources as well as included citations wherever needed to avoid the act of plagiarising. Blogging is not just about the design and layout, content and context is also an important element to ensure the viewer is not overwhelmed while interacting and navigating with the web page. Lastly, I am truly glad that I took up this course as I now have the foundation and am aware of matters relating to publication and design, which is something I would not have had the opportunity to learn as a business student.

Reference

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, 'Front pages: The critical analysis of newspaper layout'.

Schriver, A 2003, 'Dynamics in document design : creating texts for readers', The Interplay of Words and Pictures'.

Plagiarism in Journalism

The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics clearly states "Never plagiarize" as plagiarism is deemed as one of the worst things in journalism (Bartlett 2012). In my opinion, the urge to plagiarize is greater than ever due to the existence of the internet, which contains tremendous amounts of information just a click away. Whether intentional or not, plagiarism is completely unacceptable. All media outlets must clearly identify the source of the stories that they did not produce as integrity and credibility are the two most important values in journalism (Bartlett 2012). Failure to do so will result in plagiarism.

Avoiding plagiarism is easy as it simply means producing someone else's work as your own. To avoid plagiarism, you need to collect your own data. This would mean you would need to understand the subject matter thoroughly as well as to give credit to the source of information from others(Bartlett 2012). When you use information from other sources or reporters, you need to trace the original source (Rogers 2013). In addition to that, use that particular material but ensure it is attributed to the original source or news outlet, meaning not only to cite the source but also to provide a link to it (Rogers 2013). Upon completion of your article, proof read it to ensure that you have not included any information that does not belong to you (Rogers 2013). Remember, plagiarism is not always a conscious act!

Reference

Bartlett, L 2012, Plagiarism, Society of Professional Journalists, accessed on 10 November 2013, .

Rogers, T 2013, Politico Reporter Kendra Marr Fired for Plagiarism, About.com, accessed on 10 November 2013, .

Rogers, T 2013, Avoiding Plagiarism in Journalism, About.com, accessed on 10 November 2013, .

Aesthetics in Web Design

Webpages are no longer merely simple sources of information but bloated showpieces, thanks to graphic designers who are ruining them. They have created the webpages identical to how they manipulated their print advertisements, making them more attractive and interactive. This has resulted in a tremendous increase in size from 93.7kB to over 679kB. The "view status" bar in your browser informs you on how many discrete items went into making up a page.

Web page design can be viewed from the technical aspect and the aesthetic appearance of the page (Leigh 2011). A web page should look balanced and pleasant as if it were a picture as it influences how a user navigates and interacts with it (Michailido, Harper and Bechhofer 2008). The page layout and visual components such as colours, font style and size, images and animation are visual aesthetics can change the perception of the viewers (Michailido, Harper and Bechhofer 2008).

Some general principles in web designing is to keep your pages short. Short pages get higher rankings by the search services and load faster (Leigh 2011). Use framing devices and white spaces to avoid "cluttering" your page. Framing devices determine whether the elements of a layout may either be disconnected, marked off from each other, or connected, joined together (Kress and Leeuwen 1998). These provide connection and a sense of direction for readers. It also makes written text & layout look more comprehendible and presentable. Furthermore, you should limit to not more than three colors in each page and avoid having multi-coloured text (Leigh 2011). Some pages are so full of animated icons, photographs, clip art etc, that they tend to look messy and unattractive (Leigh 2011). Thus, it is important that web designers adhere to these basic principles to keep viewing, interaction and navigation a breeze for users.

Reference

Leigh, A 2011, Aesthetics, Shire, accessed on 10 November 2013, .

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, 'Front pages: The critical analysis of newspaper layout'.

Michailido E, Harper, S & Bechhofer, S 2008, Visual Complexity and Aesthetic Perception of Web pages, School of Computer Science: The University of Manchester, accessed on 10 November 2013, .

Digital Age Trust

We live in a world where everyone right from bloggers, celebrities, experts, journalist and even total strangers has something to say and wants their voice to be heard all over the internet. However, the question is, whom do you trust? A random sample of 752 Britons from a nationally representative online panel regarding their opinions on trust in the digital age. 56% of responded saying that "most people can be trusted", regardless online or in the real world thus, resulting in a conclusion that they are generally a trusting bunch of people.

Strangers on the internet are trusted even less than in the real world, but people still do seek their opinions online. The younger generation right up to those in their early thirties (millennials) trust online customer reviews and seek their opinions (bazaar voice 2012). 59% of the 25-34 age group, find online customer reviews influential, therefore indicating that customer reviews are vital in online decision-making (theguardian.com 2013). According to Nielsen’s latest Global Trust in Advertising report, which surveyed more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries, online consumer reviews are the second most trusted source of brand information and messaging, with 70 percent of global consumers surveyed online indicating they trust messages on this platform, an increase of 15 percent in four years (Nielsen 2012). Millennials are inclined to trusting experienced or likeminded consumers compared to people they know (bazaar voice 2012). Therefore advertisers and marketers must learn how to effectively handle online customer reviews as it is evident that the importance and value on online customer reviews are on the rise.

Reference

bazaar voice 2012, Talking to Strangers: Millennials Trust People over Brands, bazaarvoice, accessed on 10 November 2013, .

theguardian.com 2013, Trust in the digital age: survey analysis, theguardian, accessed on 10 November 2013, .

Nielsen 2012, Consumer Trust in Online, Social and Mobile Advertising Grows, Nielsen, accessed on 10 November 2013, http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2012/consumer-trust-in-online-social-and-mobile-advertising-grows.html>.

'Ideal' Beauty

Today, women are still depicted as sexual desire objects in advertisements because advertising agencies feel that people prefer to look at pleasant things and that they are only adhering to what their clients want. They also feel that even if they used larger-sized or darker-skinned women in their advertisements, people might accuse them of being discriminative. The design and acceptance of an advertisement is dependent on society values. Furthermore, as advertising agencies are afraid to break away from these stereotypes, they end up reinforcing images of women that are rather distinctively different from reality. Women are also portrayed to be second in any image. The most detrimental impact of these advertisements is its depiction of beauty which is pressurising young girls to be dissatisfied with their bodies and seek change.

In my opinion, it is undeniably true that advertisements continue to put a tremendous amount of pressure on young girls and even women due to the media's depiction of 'ideal' beauty. Advertisers tend to choose women who have flawless skin, impeccable body structure, fair skin and those that are in their early twenties (Global Status of Women 2009). Thus, this creates the impression that only such women will be accepted by the society and if one does not fit this 'idealistic' characteristics, they will be shunned and deemed unfavourable. The popular media has increasingly held up a thinner and thinner body and now ever more physically fit image as the ideal for women (National Institute on Media and the Family, 2002, p. 1). Being constantly bombarded by images of young attractive women who are slim, with big eyes, luscious lips, high cheek bones and flawless skin, people and generally women are made to believe that this are real images and can be attained (Morris and Nichols 2013). This has a negative toll on women in relation to self-image, eating disorders, and other culturally induced diseases (Morris and Nichols 2013). Therefore, advertisers need to break away from such depiction of 'ideal' beauty to ensure there is a balance between practicality and reality in relation to what is perceived to be beauty.

Reference

Global Status of Women 2009, Portrayal of Women in the Popular Media, World Savvy Monitor, accessed on 10 November 2013, .

National Institute on Media and the Family 2002, Media Effects on Family, Parent Further, accessed on 10 November 2013, .

Morris, P & Nichols, K 2013, 'Conceptualizing Beauty: A Content Analysis of U.S and French Women's Fashion Magazine Advertisements', Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, vol.3, no.1, pp.52.

Well Designed, Yahoo!

Yahoo! is a popular search engine, web portal and other related services such as Yahoo Directory, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Answers, advertising, online mapping and many more. The Yahoo! interface smartly uses spatial arrangement of written text together with visual graphics, to make reading and browsing a more pleasurable experience. Linguistic alone is no longer the structure of written text. A captivating visual connection must be established with readers via layout, spatial arrangement of blocks of text, pictures and other graphic elements printed on the page (Kress and Leeuwen 1998).

An interplay of words, pictures as well as videos can be found on their homepage. These are some of the fundamentals of multimodality that help create more effective messages. Schriver (2003) mentioned that integration of texts and pictures are both equally essential to deliver meaning. There is also an excellent usage of framing on the Yahoo! homepage ensuring that the written text and page layout are not cluttered. The more important and latest news updates have bigger pictures and more prominent wordings to capture the audience’s attention. This will aid the reading process as it provides a sense of direction and connection for the reader. Makes the written text & layout look more presentable and comprehendible as well as highlights different sections of the page layout. It also determines what is meant to be read separately or together as a whole. Framing devices determine whether the elements of a layout may either be disconnected, marked off from each other, or connected, joined together (Kress and Leeuwen 1998).

References

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, 'Front pages: The critical analysis of newspaper layout'.

Schriver, A 2003, 'Dynamics in document design : creating texts for readers', The Interplay of Words and Pictures'.

The Future of Blogs

Despite social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter having gained popularity in social media, blogging, which has been around for a longer time, has several advantages from an online marketing standpoint. There are plenty of reasons to use blogs as a marketing tool for your business. Blogs help with search engine optimization, building trust among consumers by providing a personal touch, brand awareness, gaining media attention, and penetrating marketable niches (Chaney 2012).

In the foreseeable future, blogging may have to adapt to the tastes and trends of the internet users. Most of them would rather watch an online video compared to reading long text. Bloggers would need to transform their blogs posts to video blogs (vlogging) to convey their message, which obviously takes more effort and skills than merely typing words. Blogging may be integrated with Facebook and other Social Medias by having their own blogging platform on their site. Whilst this may be convenient to some including not having to pay hosting fees, others may be reluctant simply due to the fact that they would not have much control on the content (Sbabzy 2011)

Refrences

Chaney, P 2012, 5 Ways Blogging Is Better than Social Networking, Practical Ecommerce, viewed 3 October 2013, .

Sbabzy 2011, The Future of Blogging: Will Blogging be Dead in 2020?, Sbabzy, viewed 3 October 2013, < http://sbabzy.com/the-future-of-blogging-will-blogging-be-dead-in-2020/>.