The reason to why Blogging is the new craze!

Blogging to me was something out there that people who have all the time on their hands to just talk about anything. I have never been a wizard with computers, so when being asked to make a blog and share my views towards media issues was a big ask. Realizing that making a blog was just like skiing down the river, once you’re up and going there is a sense of freedom. This is what the blog was like creating it, there was no limit to what was discussed and it was my own personal opinion.

Blogs are known to have a core topic; with the one topic per blog, allows the author to have a broad opinion. The media issues have created a blog about how changing media is affecting the world and how much people take note with each different media. To help my understanding of the articles, each were discussed as I am not someone who regularly sits down to read a paper like The Australian. I am the person who reads The Advertiser, reading to the confidential section and stopping. With blogs, that is a whole other story, the closest thing to a blog I have encountered is Facebook.

Overall, the assignment side of the blog made me learn that there are ways of having a say and expressing my own opinion on certain issues. Although the blog isn’t just the media issues there are many other aspects, for example, professional links to other blogs and news sites and the debate print verses online. Although, my blog has only had a couple of visitors, I have put my opinion out there for those who want to read it. The main positive of the Blogger program is that it is free and easy to use for anyone.

Image source: I Love Blogging

Michael Jackson’s concert film was released into cinemas for the two weeks that the concert was going to be performed. This Is It managed to smash box office records over the Halloween weekend, records reaching $112.6 millions of dollars. Even with the record sales the film still managed to fall below some expectations within the first week. The film contains the behind the scenes documentary of the Kings concert up until his death.

After five days in the cinema This Is It has already made the highest amount of money, out running Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, which made 70.6 million dollars worldwide last year. There obviously has been a lot of hard work that has gone into the film with it reaching world wide audience.

Michael Jackson has always received mixed emotions from his fans because of the scandals that have followed him. Despite the scandals, the film was a hit and Sony has now released a media release to say that This Is It will play for an extra week in the US, taking the total up to three weeks. In Australia the film will be extended for up to an extra three weeks depending on each state. Now all that is left for the film is an Oscar, something that would have defiantly happen when he was alive.

Image Source: Michael Jackson This Is It

Newspaper Article: Michael Jackson’s This Is It sets worldwide box office record by Lauren A.E. Schuker November 2 2009

Digital advertising to be seen less frequently

Most adverts that are seen on television are digitally enhanced and computer generated for more entertainment. The computers have been used to improve the landscapes of environments in adverts, the most common being city skyscrapers like the Eiffel Tower and the Pyramids of Egypt being placed in the background.

Now with technology becoming faster everything from ironing out wrinkles to creating the perfect meal is done digitally to engage more of the audience and persuade them into buying the product. The main positive with the computer created images is the fact that better results and better pictures are received. Sport adverts have the appearance that the players are there on the shoot, where in fact they are digitally enhanced to be placed into the picture after the shoot.

This sort of advertising is false and should be used only on a need to be used basis. Especially with cars, the exact specifications need to be shown for the safety aspect. The people who produce the adverts don’t know that some people actually prefer the old fashion adverts.

Image Source: Car Advert

Newspaper Article: Digital Image takes truth out of advertising by Lara Sinclair, viewed on October 12 2009

Neighbours characters appearing on Twitter

Twitter, a place for ‘regular’ people to follow the celebrities throughout their day. Channel Ten’s soap Neighbours is the first Australian series in the world to establish Twitter accounts for the fictional characters. The main reason for the accounts is a great way for the audience to engage with the Neighbours world, off-screen. Characters like Donna Freedman, Declan Napier, Ringo Brown and Zeke Kinski have all taken to this new form of communicating with their audiences.

For Channel Ten, this is not the first time a social networking site has been used for fans. Shows like, Australian Idol, The Biggest Loser and MasterChef have been known to set up accounts on Myspace and Facebook.

The Twitter accounts in the characters names allow the fans to interact with the stars on and off screen. So far, the response to the new step up in technology has been positive with the story lines being discussed by characters and loyal fans. Twitter accounts for the characters will continue to grow with many other characters joining and reaching a wider audience for the Neighbours series.

Image source: Twitter Bird

Newspaper Article: Neighbours take roles to Twitter by Michael Bodey, viewed on September 7 2009

Advertising fails to grow for pay-TV viewers

Adverts, the annoying two minutes between favourite shows that keeps the viewer under suspense even longer. Well, for pay-TV viewers there has been little growth in advertising for this year with just 0.1 per cent.

This information on the low growth on advertising was not meant to be released to the public the Australian Subscription TV and Radio Association explained. The reason for this is, because the decrease from 30 per cent in 2007 to just 15 per cent in 2008. Overall this year the free to air television advertising has dropped 11.8 per cent in just six months.

Channels like TV1, Sci-Fi and The Movie Channel on pay-tv are those that have a relatively flat due to the longer shows and with the fewer adverts. There have been more channels being added to pay-TV. These channels range in sports and movies which were launched on to pay-TV at the end of October. The new channels are the main savor and hopefully increase growth of advertising.

Image Source: Foxtel

Newspaper Article: Advertising stalls for pay-TV by Lara Sinclair, viewed on August 31 2009

Are newspaper subscribers and buyers purchasing a different paper?

The local newspaper in South Australia, The Advertiser, was the first to have a different looking paper for subscribers and for news stands. The newsstands had a paper with a large title and an even bigger picture that was eye catching. Whereas, home subscribers unwrapped a newspaper directing the reader to more news inside.

The main use for the subscribed newspaper is so that the reader receives the most value, for example, the continuing special offers on page two. The new design for the front page will become more eye catching for the newsstands and more detailed and informative for subscribers.

The main reason behind changing the papers for subscribers and newsstands was for better engagement for both subscribers and newsstands. With the new technology the ability to have two different newspaper front pages is possible.

Changing the design of the Monday to Friday papers will not cost extra but it will attract readers and increase money and target audiences. Even with the changes to the front pages, the letterhead The Advertiser will remain the same size and roughly the same position.


Image: The Adevertiser for Subscribers

Image: The Advertiser for News Stands

Article: Paper with two front pages hot off the press by Gavin Lower, viewed on August 10 2009

London's The Observer to close down

Picture this, you are in London on a Sunday morning, walk to the local shop to collect The Observer, come home and sit down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee to read the paper. Well, all that is about to end with the stopping of The Observer, London’s and the World’s longest running Sunday paper.

The Observer newspaper began back in 1791 by W.S Bourne and has been around for 218 years. Each week an average of 400,000 London people will purchase a copy of The Observer, although, the newspaper has suffered millions of dollars worth of losses in the recent years. The most talked about reason for the loss is related to the purchase of The Guardian back in 1993.

The Guardian Media Group (GMG) has cut down on the amount of copies of The Observer being produced and sold to places such as airlines and hotels and an overall trim of the newspaper itself, for example, the television guide. For The Observer to continue to be successful GMG will have to undergo structural change, remodelling some of the business sections in order for the newspaper to continue. With the restructuring and cost cutting it is not clear if The Observer’s closure will go ahead.

Image: The Observer Picture

Newspaper Article: Fight in London trust to stop closure of The Observer by Dominic O'Connell, viewed on August 3 2009.

Classification of Blogging and their Communities

Blogs come in a range of different formats therefore, the topic and context and the information written changes with each. Saying that, each blog revolves around a certain topic, in which the author can express their thoughts, opinions and ideas in the topic of interest. When searching ‘Blog’ into Google there are a range of different search options, most being Journals which are Dear Diary blogs and others range from sport to political.

Blog is defined as a ‘type of website which is maintained by an author or just a regular writer’ explained Hidalgo (2007). Entries are updated regularly on any issues to the author’s interest. Some of the most common blogs are informational, personal, corporate, media, music, medical, genre and celebrity.

Blogging communities are formed when people with ‘similar interests or organizations are then able to instantly, easily and effectively create a single point of access and content aggregation. This then leads to the advantages of having a blog community. The advantage of establishing a blog community, either amongst friends, colleagues, or communities of interest, lies in the group effect. Users can benefit by networking, finding new friends, or simply have a stronger communication tool within the blogosphere’ explained Kinkeldei (2007).

Blogs have a tendency to attract a certain age group. The first type of blog that is going to be discussed is the Personal blog, to which most people would know as the ‘Dear Diary’ type. The most common type of personal blog is LiveJournal. LiveJournal mainly attracts the younger audiences and through word of mouth has increased in popularity. When entering the LiveJournal site there are many different subcategories, in which people can relate to. Different topics of discussion, such as music, news, life and technology. Although LiveJournal has a large following, Facebook, which is the latest craze at the moment, has stopped the amount of personal blogs. LiveJournal has now become the main place for people to sell wedding planners, bands and even different celebrity news.





The second type of blog that is going to be discussed is medical blogs, which answers any questions on most problems. The most common medical blog is MedWorm. MedWorm attracts all audiences and is increasing in popularity. MedWorm has many different areas of discussion, ranging from medical conditions to medical discussions.

There are endless amounts of blogs online, they each have a different common interest. These interests are in the readers advantage with the discussions and blogging reaching a wider audience without intention. This happens because people comment and ask questions, most people are a part of a Blogging community.


Image Source: MedWorm

Image Source: LiveJournal

Hidalgo, C 2007, Blogs/blogger/blogging/blog/weblog, viewed 26 October 2009, <http://webweevers.com/blog.htm>.

Kinkeldei, B. 2007 "Forging Connections and Promoting Growth Through Blog Communities", 21publish.com, viewed 26 October 2009, <http://www.21publish.com/pub/21publish/blogging-whitepaper.pdf>.

New Forms of Publishing, is it the way to go?

There has been a large amount of talk amongst newspapers and magazines to start making the switch from paper to online. The most common reason to why most newspapers and magazines are making the change is for the editing and printing costs. With the online news there is an immediate source to the headlines. As Adams (2008) explained that ‘newspapers are a dying art form. With rising costs and declining subscriptions, in a few years times, local newspapers will be actively exploring the option of going completely paperless’. Newspapers are now thinking of saving the environment and also saving the cost of printing.


Need to buy a car, bed frame, fridge or even a pet? The Trading Post is the local Australian paper that sells anything and everything and is now being turned to an online only newspaper. The Trading Post would average around ‘469 000 readers a week’ whereas the website would have around ‘1.8 million browsers in one month’. This show that people would rather save their money and look at a product online before looking at the product in real life.

This shows the difference in technologies and the way that people are getting information on products. To find a product that is needed, for example a fridge, is now all being done in people’s living rooms, on their computers. Using online newspapers will help people to find time to look for the products that are needed because people will have more time on their hands.

Image source: Trading Post Online

Jackson, S 2009, ‘Trading Post may axe print edition’, The Australian, 10 August 2009, <http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story>.

Adams, K 2008, ‘Future of Local Newspapers’, Associated Content, viewed 20 October 2009,
<http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/801009/future_of_local_newspapers_making_the.html>.

The Great Debate – Print verses Online

Just like any other debate, printed designs verses online designs, each have the advantages and disadvantages that have to be taken into consideration. The main points that have to be taken into consideration are readability, cost, editing and most importantly the audience. The pros and cons to all the considerations will be outlined below.

Readability
As known reading documents on paper is a lot easier that reading from a computer screen. The computer screen is harder to read off because the monitor projects light and also sometimes a glare from sunlight, making it difficult to read the information. This is when line spacing and bigger gaps between paragraphs make it easier for the reader and create larger white spaces. Whereas, print creates a clearer document and do not have to worry about glare affecting the reader. To sum it up Reep ( 2006, p. 157) explained that ‘white space helps readers process the text efficiently’, which helps people to want to read the document.

Cost
The cost for online documents is rather low compared to print. Printing costs are getting more and more expensive every year because of the large amount of paper that goes into each document. Not to mention that some people might see the large amount of paper as waste in today’s society. That is assuming that everyone has access to a computer and internet, otherwise, cost issues are reversed. The main issue to online document cost is the amount of access that is allowed, some sites might have a payment fee just to browse the site.

Editing
The obvious problem with editing printed work is that it has to be finalised before going to print. Basically the final product is unchangeable and the ‘deadlines’ have to be met with documents that have no spelling or grammar mistakes visible. Whereas online allows some flexibility when it comes to editing because if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes there is always the ability to change them in the matter of minutes. Therefore, it can be said that there is no ‘deadline’. Overall, in this case online is seen as the easier option because of the ability to change last minutes mistakes, with print what is done is done.

Audience
With the audience there are two considerations, one being reaching the audience and the other being the reader’s capabilities. Reaching the audience is easier with printed text because the information can be handed to them. More people are going to read the newspaper in print everyday that sit down at a computer and find the latest headlines. With printed documents, it is sort of a ‘one size fits all’ motto, there is no changing the size of writing to suit, it is up to the reader to be able to read it. Whereas, online can make the information larger with the zoom button. There is the chance that the information is read by a wider audience but that doesn’t guarantee that people are actually reading it. With the larger audience it is more difficult to judge who to aim the document at.





Image Source: Erin Ludwicks Portfolio

Image Source: Cosmopolitan Magazine

Image Source: Cosmopolitan Website

Reep, DC 2006, ‘Document Design’, Technical writing: principles, strategies and readings, 6th edn, Pearsons/Longman, New York, Chapter 6, pp. 133-172.

Salahub, J 2009, Print v Online Advantages and Disadvantages, viewed 19 October 2009, <http://writing.colostate.edu/index.cfm>.

Is blogging the only way to receive news as it happens?

Placing out a survey ten years ago asking what blogging is would have given a one way answer to ‘no idea’, now it is the latest craze with millions of people joining the ‘blogger’s world’. Blog is short for ‘web log’. As Ng (2009) explained ‘blogging used as a place where people who think they are a writer have a chance to have an opinion and freely write’. Which explains that a blog is a place where regular people like you and me communicate and express our opinion on media issues, or any issues for that matter. With a blog, there is no need to bore someone else with your opinions, there is now a place where there may be people with the same opinion as you and are happy to listen.

I am not the best at computers; seriously you’re lucky I know how to turn them on. I found making the blog difficult at the beginning but it really is not that hard. Just type into Google, blog, then there are many different formats. If you like the design of my blog, go to blogger.com. there are also many other blogs out in the internet world ranging from different information; for example; there are dear diary, medical blogs, science blogs and even the forum blog, where it enables people to have a discussion.

Blogs have changed the way of receiving daily news because the information is immediate and there is no waiting for the newspaper to be printed the next day. As Ng (2009) explained ‘anyone who makes a controversial statement had best be well prepared to back it up’ with information. As long as the information backs up the argument the news can be received immediately.

Image source: Bloggers http://www.blogger.com/start

Ng, D 2009, wiseGEEK, viewed 20 October 2009, < http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-blogs.htm>.

Introduction

Welcome,

Hope you enjoy reading My Blog.

Mayley