A Simple Thought

"Thank you for spending the time to read my thoughts".

- Dionne Yeo -

Creating this serious weblog as part of my assesment was truly a great learning process for me. I have learnt to understand that blogging is not merely a place where someone pens down his/her thought in a diary-like form but it is also a place where communities are form.

I have learned to be diligent, patient, disciplined and focused as the creation of this blog proved to be tedious at times. Also, I have improved myself in my research process, as much research and background information had to be attained fto build this site.

One of the theoretical positions I developed during the development of this blog is the complex interplay of words and pictures. As a document designer, one must be able to combine the elements of text and image in a smooth blend in order to create a coherent meaningand good flow. This is justified by Schriver (1997) as she noted that document designers are expected to integrate the visual and verbal as well as cross the disciplinary gulch between writing and design.

In my opinion, bloggers should write ethically to avoid defamation. However, he/she must not hold back the truth when discussing any issues. A blogger shold pay attention to certain background and culture to avoid troubles. Internet sites vary in the modes they use, but they have the potential to combine words and images in complex structures (Walsh, 2006).

References:

Schriver, KA 1997, ‘The Interplay of Words and Pictures’, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Text for Readers', Wiley Computer Pub, New York.

Walsh, M 2006, The textual shift: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, pp. 24-37.

The Power of Photographs

"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... It remembers little things long after you have forgotten everything... "

- Aaron Siskind -

According to Kress & Van Leeuwen (1998), in the early years, the linguistic (writing) mode has always been the dominant mode for communication to take place. However, there has been a transformation among the literate culture when visual communication emerged.

Personally, I do not agree to the violation and visual alterations for manipulation purposes in order to achieve a particular impact for the audience. However, according to Winslow (2006), the photojournalism and visual ethics have become prevalent among the journalism community.

Tim Leberecht published an article for Cnet News on May 18th 2008 with the title, ‘... just make something look nicer?’. In this article, he mentioned about visual ethics amongst document designers in current times. The article focused on an issue concerning the ethical media presentation - photojournalism ethics. In contrast to popular saying of ‘camera never lies’, Lester (1999) said that the faking of photographs is done either through stage direction or picture manipulation which have long traditions. It is also rumoured that a few of the Pulitzer Prize winning images which are filled with human’s depiction of joy, sorrow and hardships were all done by digital manipulation to achieve an impact.

Children suffering in Somalia

The media had been criticized several times for publishing gruesome images to the public which is unethical. As an example, the shocking photos of Nurin Jazlin, whose body was badly battered, were published on the front page of the mainstream media which aimed to attract the readers’ attention. According to Webber (2000), the principle of utilitarianism, in which consequences of one are considered in relation to another’s consequence, may be used to justify the publication of gruesome accident photos.

Media consumers ranged at different age group, culture, background and so forth. Their perspective of a photo may differ from one another due to their background and upbringing. As suggested by Shriver (1997), a reader’s knowledge and cultural context plays a role in the evaluation of graphics. Therefore, in my opinion, photojournalism should be done ethically with respect, dignity and consideration of all audience.

References:

Leberecht, T 2008, …just make something look nicer?, Cnet News, viewed on 13th June 2009,< http://news.cnet.com/8301-13641_3-9947035-44.html?tag=mncol>.

Lester, P 1999, Photojournalism an ethical approach, Fullerton Education, viewed on 13th June 2009, < http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/chapter6.html>.

Shriver, K 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York.

Webber, J 2000, The ethics/skills in interface in image manipulation, Australian Journal of Information Systems, vol.7, no.2, pp.90-94.

Winslow, DR 2006, ‘A question of truth: photojournalism and visual ethics’, National Press Photographers Association, viewed 13th June 2009, <http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2006/08/ethics.html>.

Obama uses iPhone

"My first job is to say thank you to those who voted me. Those who didn't, I am going to get your vote next time".

- Barack Obama -

These days, politicians use the alternative media to try to win people's hearts to vote for them. One of the biggest examples is Barack Obama, the 44th and current President of the United States. He is also the first African-American to hold the oval office. According to Louie (2007), Obama managed to win the Presidential seat because he also made passionate speech in hopes of delivering equality between races and political lines.

iObama application

On the 2nd of October 2008, the then Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign launched an iPhone application that turned the vaunted device into a political recruiting tool (Cnet.com). The Obama election campaign team launched an application for the Apple iPhone with the intention of attracting more voters and turning its supporters to active campaigners via the feature of iPhone (Information Policy, 2008). The application, iObama, is a combination of interactive networking tools with the latest updates and information regarding the Obama’s election campaign. iObama also allow supporters to browse images, videos and propaganda from the Obama campaign, and scan their personal phonebooks for friends in states where Obama 'needs more support'.

The iObama campaign is aimed to targeted audience such as the young voters, the non-Whites and the American women. His success was proven by the National Election Poll when majority of his targeted audience (Schiffers, 2008) voted for him using the iPhone application.

As mentioned by Bear (2006), everything has its own function be it to sell, inform, educate, impress and entertain. Obama made use of the iPhone to ‘sell’ his ability of making progress and bringing changes to the United States. He also used the application to inform his supporters of his recent updates and ‘educate’ the Americans that the country needs a change. He ‘impress’ and ‘entertain’ his supporters with the features available in the iObama application which enables them to download stuff from the campaign.

Hence, the ability of Barack Obama to use the iPhone to win votes has definitely been a smart choice which made him the current President of the United States.

References:

Bear,JH 2006, Your Guide to Desktop Publishing, online, viewed on 13th June 2009, <http://desktoppub.about.com/mbiopage.htm>.

Information Policy: Obama Becomes Second Politician to Use iPhone 'App' 2008, online, viewed on 13th June 2009, <http://www.i-policy.org/2008/10/obama-becomes-second-politician-to-use-iphone-app.html>.

Schiffers, S 2008, Who Voted for Obama?, online, viewed on 13th June 2009, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7709852.stm>.