Current Blogging Trends and it's Future

The media available to us today has seen an enormous growth in its services as we now not only can search about anything with just a simple click. With the access available to us through the internet, almost anything is possible. This is why with the invention of weblogs, we have the freedom of writing our thoughts and sharing it with the world.


With time passing by, even blogs has emerged with with newer trends and issues. Not only can we blog by text, we now have the access to blog by video feeds as well as pictures and audio. This way connection with our peers regardless the distance is achievable in a matter of minutes.


Today, the roles of journalism is under scrutiny and risk being not favoured by readers as we have a blockage in the form of freedom of speech. Therefore, the public nowadays prefer to observe in an alternative route using online servics such as Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and other alternative online media.


In favour of these alternative media is primarily caused of the publics' curiosity in the accuracy and authenticity of the news published by our 'controlled' journalists. In other words the public just wishes to have a look at things from a different angle.


In Malaysia, this new trend of alternative media has taken its toll and renewed the publics view on a lot of things, mainly the politic landscape. With various questions being asked towards the government and answers which the public are sceptical of, a number of professional bloggers have used the advantage of the internet to put up their thoughts.


For example, we had Raja Petra Kamarudin who is under great scrutiny and chased by the government because of his seditious remarks and accusations towards the government under the basis that they are hiding the truth from the public.


Other than that, we can also see country leaders such as Obama and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak both having Twitter accounts as they use this form of media to connect with the public as to discuss certain issues which are being discussed. This way, they are also showing to their respective countries and the world that they are up to date and also a good way to promote public imagery. However, whether or not these men that are tweeting are actually them we will never know.
 

http://dominiquehind.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/obama_twitter.png?w=377&h=303

Reference

Naughton, J. 2006, Blogging and the Media Ecosystem, ReutersInstitute, viewed on 30 September 2010, (http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf)

The Blogging Community

Blogging communities in short sounds like a group or neighborhood of bloggers. Which is actually indeed what it defines. A more elaborate definition would be a hub or centre that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers.


A blogging community is essential towards becoming a successful blogger. Therefore there are a few steps that could be taken towards building your own community of bloggers despite wherever each blogger comes from.


The steps that could be useful would be:


1.  Read other blogs to discover other bloggers who share the same interests as you. This also serves as a starting point for you to have newer topics you could discuss with your homogenous readers.


2.  Leave comments on other blogs as it serves as a calling card for other bloggers to find you. Leaving your URL somewhere in your comment would make it a click away from other people to see your blog.


3.  Reply to your comments as to show courtesy towards their willingness to read your blog. Also return the favour of replying to their comments as to answer or discuss questions and comments towards your posted blog. In the end, a simple "Thank you for visiting my blog" would be a nice way of engaging an online friendship.


4.  List your blogs in directories to not only put your blog out in the world wide web but also for other bloggers or readers to easily search for you online.


5.  Blog and write often as to ensure readers anticipation of new discussions and information is fulfilled. This way they would stick to your blog and read and comment on it all the time.


6.  Posts that you blog have to be fresh and entertaining. Readers would be bored if you blog about short and uninteresting posts which has no value towards them readers at all. This would create negative feedback and lost of followers.


7.  Market your blog. You can achieve this by having a signature link to your blog on message boards and forums. An alternative route is to place a signature link in your email signature as well.


According to an article posted by White, N. 2006, the different types of blogging communities contrive of the Single Blog/Blogger Centric Community, the Central Connecting Topic Community, and the Boundaried Community.






  

http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community

 

One example of a well-known blogging community is the Global Voices community, which aggregates blogs from developing countries in an effort to get the mainstream media to pay attention to issues in those countries.

The structure of a blogging community can be observed by the chart below:

Reference

Nicky, S. 2008, How to Build a Blogging Community, Ehow.com, viewed 30 September 2010, (http://www.ehow.com/how_2152382_build-blogging-community.html)

White, N. 2006, Blogs and Communities, Flexiblelearning.net, viewed 30 September 2010, (http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community)

Gee Boy, Types of Blogs, viewed 30 September 2010, (http://www.geeboy.co.uk/different-types-of-blog.html)



Blog Classification

Blogging has come around with opportunities for anyone to share with the world regardless the subject, place, and intention. As for the types of blogging done nowadays, we can categorise it to 5 simple divisions which are; Personal, Collaborative, Corporate, Topical, and Spam. 


From this, we can clearly see the difference in the direction of the various types of blogs around. Intentions of writing the blogs could be from a personal hobby to a base for corporate identification and information. Other than that, people of all ages are open to the world of blogs and this gives us the many various subjects discussed.


There are also various ways someone could blog as technology is advancing by the minute. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs (Photo blog), videos (Video blog), music (MP3 blog), and audio (Podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.


Some examples of the different blogs are shown below:

http://chasnote.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/bbtv-vlogs.png

http://v1.wolfslittlestore.be/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/tumblr.png

 

http://www.blogshopmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/blogger.jpg

Reference

Blood, R. 2000, Weblogs: a Histroy and Perspective, Rebeccablood.net, viewed 29 September 2010, (http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html)

Blogging the Phenomenon 2005, Types of Blogs, Oracle, viewed 29 September 2010,
(http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01130/typesofblogs.html)Wisegeek 2007, What is Vlogging?, viewed 29 September, (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-vlogging.htm).

 
 

Blogging Phenomenon - Benefits to Community

Blogging came into the scene of 'free internet services' in August 1999 by Pyra Labs, which is now owned by Google. After that we can see that almost everyone who uses the world wide web either having a blog or simply just reading other peoples blogs for information as well as entertainment.

http://eagereyes.org/media/2010/blogosphere1.jpg

'Blogosphere' can be simply defined as the world of blogging and bloggers. As we can see in the charts above, seen clearly is the mass state of blog usage around the world as well as the criteria of the different individuals who blogs. 

The blogosphere has seen rapid growth over the years as more people and organizations have started to utilise the blogs as their informative compound. For example, according to technorati.com, 2009's state of blogosphere see's diverse types of blogs being produced by professionals as well as amateur bloggers for various reasons.

From the west side of the world to the east, blogging has caused quite a stir and been used widely. As shown in the chart above, every continent sees a big chunk percentage of weblog usage. Trends of blogging has seen various changes in the direction of the blogs from entertainment, to source of information, personal blogs, as well as a place to look for freedom of speech and write down just about anything. 


In Malaysia we have seen blogs being used as a hub for political issues and also in the same time to promote or pull voters. However, the blogosphere is very wide and you can blog just about anything that you're interested in.

In certain countries we can surely find prevalent issues being blogged about and this is surely seen in Malaysia as political issues have surrounded the public with talks of corruption and extortion. Therefore, blogs are now used to discuss this matter and also show personal persona or perception. 


Benefits of these  blogs for the community as well as foreign observers are that we can see the issue from a different angle and contemplate ourselves on what is right and what is wrong. This is why blogging has now seen a rise of users as it gives us space and in a way our lost right's of 'freedom of speech'.

Reference

Olsen, D. et al 2010, 2009's State of Blogosphere, Technorati.com, viewed 24 September 2010,

(http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/)

Podcast FAQ 2009, What is Blogosphere?, viewed 24 September 2010, (http://www.podcastfaq.com/glossary/blogging-and-podcasting-terms/)

Korte, A. 2005, A Short History of Blogging, viewed 24 September 2010, (http://www.blogherald.com/2005/03/06/a-short-history-of-blogging/)

What is a Good PowerPoint Presentation?

Attraction and concentration of the audience on presentations are rarely accomplished easily. This is not necessarily because of the presenter but simply because of the unattractive slides shown. However, cases of a too avant-garde and unconventional approach does not suit the billing and cause more questions then answers.


According to Krieger, S. (2010), she has laid out 12 tips for creating better presentations which starts off with the most important step; selecting or creating your own theme to give an edge towards your layout. A theme contrives of a coordinated set of fonts, colours, and graphic effects that could be used to enhance the intended information much more clearer and attractive towards the audience. 


In relation to this, Russell, W. (2010) tips the usage of contrasting colours for text and background such as dark text on a light background and vice-versa. She also discourages the usage of white backgrounds and recommends us to use colours like beige or another light color that will be easy on the eyes. 


As for the context of the slides, (AssociatedContent.com 2008) declared that slides should not have too much text. It is better to keep the text to a title and several bullet points. This is to keep it light on the eyes of the audience and not make your presentation draggy. 


Moreover, Marquez, Z.L. (2010) stated also that to make a good PowerPoint presentation, make sure that the slides are easy to read and as supported by Putnis and Petelin (1996), they stated that we should make sure in the document design there are recognisable pattern or flow of information. 

As you can see above, this is what my groups presentation slide looked like and by the layout, context, and colour, it is apparent that this is a not a good slide. The most obvious mistake is the amount of text used in the context. This could have been fixed with a substitute in the form of an image or picture. All in all, this slide is a good example of how not to do your presentation as it is not simple and unattractive.

Reference

Putnis, P. & Petelin, R. 1996, 'Chapter 7 : Writing to communicate,' in Professional communication : principles and applications, p.254. (UNISA electronic library).

Marquez, Z.L. 2010, How to Make a Good PowerPoint Presentation, Enzine Articles, viewed 28 August 2010, (http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-a-Good-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=4313178).

AssociatedContent.com 2008, How to Make a Great PowerPoint Presentation, Associated Content, viewed 28 August 2010, (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/645261/how_to_make_a_great_powerpoint_presentation.html?cat=59).

Krieger, S. 2010, 12 Tips for Creating Better Presentations, Microsoft.com, viewed 28 August 2010,                                                 (http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/skills/presentations.aspx)

Russell, W. 2010, 10 Tips for Creating Successful Business Presentations, About.com, viewed 28 August 2010, (http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointinbusiness/tp/bus_pres_tips.htm)

Freedom of Speech?

Leadership in forms of governance has seen lots of action taken being questioned. Issues of conflict and corruption has seen numerous law abiding citizens come out to speak their mind using the services of technology; primarily blogs. Nowadays, individuals from youth, especially tertiary level students to senior citizens are using blogs to give their perception and thought while utilising the significance of freedom of speech.