It's time to reflect

Creating a blog is a great way to share things; your stories, advice, news issues, just about anything but that doesn't mean people will actually read it. The main thing I learnt when creating this blog was just how hard it is write posts that are engaging and interesting, posts that will make readers subscribe and want to see more and more. How do you know what to write about? You don't. I think the only thing you can do is trial and error. Write something and if you don't get good reactions then, try again. Write about what interests you and I'm sure there will be someone else who is interested too.

Throughout writing this blog, I learnt a lot about good design. I learnt that there needs to be consistency. You can't just throw things on the page, there needs to be a pattern, something that will assist your readers. It's also very important to reference material that you have used from another source but you can't let these references interrupt your readers. Reading a blog is quite casual, so it's a good idea to put references at the end of a post, rather than in the middle of text.

In relation to designing my blog, I wanted to use a layout that would be easy to read. I feel that the layout I used allows a good amount of white space which makes it easy on the eyes. The way in which it lays out the posts helps guide the readers eyes from one post to another. It ensures headings are significantly emphasised in comparison to the rest of the text.

But not everybody likes blogs...

I think blogs are great though! You can use them for just about anything from writing your personal stories to giving advice. It allows people to find other people who share the same interests and form some sort of a bond over these shared interests. It gives people a reason to write aimlessly and feel important, like someone is listening to them. People can feel like they are helping someone by giving them advice and sharing their tips. It gives people a chance to voice their opinion to people who care or to argue their point.

Blogs allowed me to share my opinions on document designing, even if people didn't care about it. It gave me the chance to share, teach and help other people.

So, thank you for reading my blog!

Image source: Productivite

Which blog says what?

There are many different types of blogs, below I'll name a few and give you a description on them so you know what kinds of blog interest you.

• Pamphleteering blogs: this blogs consists of individual people or groups of people who are arguing a case or pushing a cause. Most of the time they are responding to facts that other people who posted on a blog or that has been reported in mainstream media. Example:  Buckeye State Blog. You will notice this blog focuses a lot on pushes the authors opinion on politics.
• The digest blog: this blogs allows people to summarise, and sometimes put in their own opinion, about things that have been reported in mainstream media. Example:  Progressive Blog Digest. This blog states at the top of the page that it will consist of things from news site combined with the authors own observations. 
• The popular mechanics blog: this type of blogs focuses on giving advice and training on specific fields, interests and hobbies. Example: Strobist. This blog gives advice solely on photography. 
• The diary: as the name states, it is used for people to publish things about their lives - to write a diary.
• The exhibition blogs: this blog are wrote by writers, craftspeople and artists who use these blogs to share their work and ideas. Example: Around the World in 20 Quilts. This blog is obviously maintained by craftspeople who make quilts and then share these quilts with the world.

I'd also like to mention a couple more blogs that focus on document design. 

• Karlen Communications: this blog discusses document design and other issues surrounding design. I think this blog is a popular mechanics blog. The author gives tips and advice about designing documents.
• Tampa Bay Times: this blog is a digest blog. It provides summaries and information about things in mainstream media. 

Australian Policy Online, Margaret Simons, 11 Sept 2008 Towards a taxonomy of blogs

What is new technology doing to our newspapers?

Newspapers are not a significant part of many peoples, particularly young peoples, lives. This is because people have turned to online newspapers because people now have so many options for what to do with their lives and it used to be that a newspaper could provide things for people to do. However, many families are working families which consists of people who are rushed for time so they don't spend the time reading newspapers like people used to. Also, newspapers online are fast and more engaging and exciting. Online newspapers provide more choices for readers.

Another thing that is changing newspapers is the fact that everything that is in newspapers is available on the internet, for example, instead of searching through the classifieds section, people are just using websites such as E-bay and Gumtree to find the things they wish to purchase.

Transcript: Radio National: Sunday Profile

Blogging is also affecting newspapers in a significant way. They are a good way tool for journalists to use and gather information which will make them become better reporters. Professional journalists now have the opportunity to publish their work independently on the internet.

The availability of free news on the internet has weakened the readers attachment or loyalty to a newspaper.

"No body really knows what the future of a newspaper really is" - Jay Rosen.

Transcript: Radio National: The Media Report

New technology has made document designers seriously consider how they design a document. As mentioned in a previous blog post, most documents are now designed for online reading too, which means designers need to consider how their document will appear on screen and how readable it will be.

Image source: Zimbio

Print VS. Media - what to do differently

The amount of documents that are distributed online is increasihng which means these documents need to be designed for onscreen reading.

Online reading is harder than reading from paper. It is more difficult to read online because of the way your eyes see the message.

• Online readers are subjected to projected light which means the letters in a message are projected individually onto the screen which creates a difference in brightness levels.
• Readers viewing a paper document see reflected light. the letters on paper stand out against the background therefore the contrast range is not as high.

Partial page view. There is a difference between the amount of text visible at a time between online and paper. Less text is shown onscreen.

• Online reading only shows a horizontal rectangular view of part of a page which makes it difficult for readers to completely see what they are reading.
• Readers of a printed document can see the entire page, known as a vertical rectangle. This means readers can quickly skim the hole document.

Design suggestions:

• avoid multicolumn layouts
• reduce line length
• adjust line spacing
• divide and conquer
• be mindful of display size
• use lists to make information more visual
• indicate new paragraphs

All these suggestions will help create a document reader for online viewing.

Parker, R 2003, looking good in print, Paraglyph Press, Arizona, 5th edn.

Hacking scandal sweeps Mirror stable

The Australian has reported that Rupert Murdoch is not the only one who has taken part in phone hacking, an ex-staff member of the Daily Mirror, James Hipwell, has gone on record saying that he witnessed phone hacking at the Daily Mirror. Mr Morgan, the Mirror's editor at the time, was once the editor of the News of the World. Hipwell has also said that under Mr Morgan's editorship, phone hacking was commonly used to make stories and that everyone was open about phone hacking as it was not seen as unethical or illegal. Mr Morgan denied the claims from Hipwell and targeted Hipwell's credibility instead.

What Natalie's Media Spot says:

Another news group using phone hacking to create stories? I won't be surprised if more companies are accused of it. To editors it probably seems like the easiest way to get stories, they no longer have to leave their offices, just listen to a few phone calls or voice mails  however, it isn't right. A person, no matter how famous they are, is still entitled to their own privacy. And what a good way to try and take the spotlight off you, just attack the accusers credibility. No matter how much Mr Morgan denies it, an ex-staff member shedding light to this issue would have put some doubt in people's minds.

Wilson, P 2012, 'Hacking scandal sweeps Mirror stable', Australian, 23 October, viewed 23 October 2012.

Microsoft offers free music

Microsoft is appealing to their target audience, particularly teenagers and young adults who play Xbox or have windows 8, by allowing them to stream selected music for free. This new feauture is called Xbox Music. There is a catch though, you have to be willing to listen to an audio ad every 15 minutes.

What Natalie's Media Spot says:

This software is much like an app called spotify, however microsoft have taken it one step further and differentiated themselves from the app by making it free.

So, let's look at the pros and cons of Xbox Music. Firstly, the pros: it's free! and you can use it on your tablet whereas other software like this has fees for tablet use. The cons do outweigh the pros though. You can not download the songs and play them offline unless you wish to pay fees, you will need to have a good amount of internet data and you have to listen to an ad break every 15 minutes. If you can push all that aside though, it's a great idea. As long as you are connected to the internet, it allows you to chose any songs you wish to listen to and away you go!

The Australian 2012, 'Microsoft offers free music', Australian, 15 October, viewed 16 October 2012.
Image source: Microsoft news - tmc.net

Fairfax TV uses BitTorrent to get videos

Fairfax's Chief, Ricky Sutton, has said '"One of our major ways to get content is going to BitTorrent, and other BitTorrent sites, and find what people are illegally downloading to then go to the content owner and say, 'hey, I watched this last night it's going awesome on BitTorrent' and then say 'how about giving it to us?"''

What Natalie's Media Spot says:

Fairfax's technique to attaining their videos is smart, they are not downloading these videos illegally, they are only using the website as a source to find out what is popular and then contacting the owner of the video to inform them of people illegally downloading their content. BitTorrent allows people to download and watch content illegally and the last thing companies want is their content being downloaded illegally, so by Fairfax offering to show this content that is being downloaded, companies content is still being shown and making money. It's keeping their industry alive in the sense that not everything is just being downloaded illegally and being ignored in the media or television.

Colley, A 2012, 'Fairfax TV opens up on viedo content acquisition', Australian, 9 October, viewed 9 October 2012.

American's can't stay away

This week, The Australian has pointed out that half of all adult Americans now own either a tablet computer or a smartphone, and one-third use their mobile devices to view news stories and video clips at least once a week.
About 20 per cent of the mobile news users surveyed said they paid for an online subscription in the last year.

What Natalie's Media Spot says:

We can't say we didn't see this coming. Yes, there are still peole who don't have a smartphone, tablet or still use printed newpapers, but when someone offers us something easier, of course we will take it!

Now we can access newspapers and news articles from wherever we are, but there is a catch, you usually have to pay for it. So why do we bother still buying going to the news agency and buying newspapers if we can get it on our phone? Tradition. We're so used to the print newspapers and the tradition of getting up on a Sunday morning, buying the paper and reading it with a hot coffee. 


Australian 2012, 'Half of US adults own tablet or smartphone, Australia, 1 October, viewed 1 October 2012.

Why do we love blogging?

It's easy! You can write whatever you want, whenever you want, it doesn't get much better than that. Blogs are accesible and easy to use. You can be as creative as you want or just keep it plain Jane. There are many, many more reasons why people write blog, I'll explain a few. People blog because:

- It allows them to have attention. When people are able to tell someone all the good things they have done, even if it is the entire world, it makes them feel good about themselves.
- It's a way to show people how unique you are; blogs set you apart from the rest of the world.
- You get to complain! If no one else will listen, or you just like to complain, then blogging is right for you.
- You can share what you want with everyone.
- Blogs let people be writers. All these aspiring writers who just can't seem to get published can now share their work with the world.

Blogs began as something we used as a personal publishing place, we could write want we wanted to. Then blogging became categorised, there were blogs on politics, on gaming and on food. People then started to comment on other peoples blogs and people were able to add 'tags' on to their blogs so readers could find what interested them as easily as writing in a 'tag' for example, shoes.

Blogs allows peolpe to have their own identification, something that makes them unique and they can interact with people who enjoy reading what the blogger has to say so they have a shared interests, it makes bloggers feel important.

Dvorak, J 2002, 'The Blog Phenomenon', PC Mag, Feb 5 2002

White, N 2006, 'Blogs and Commnity - launching a new paradigm for online community?' The Knowledge Tree, no. 11, viewed 16 October 2012, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>