On Final Reflections

Producing a Weblog

The journey of production and maintenance of this blog is indeed a valuable experience for me. It all started with an assignment i need to complete for the subject of 'Issues in Publication and Design', where i am required to create a blog of my own and post current issues of media and publication with academic referencing and resources.

At the beginning, i was as blur as a person could be and i had no idea on how to create much less to maintain a blog. Nonetheless, along the way, with the guidance of my lecturer, Ms Jenny Heng and my coursemates, i managed to familiarize myself with intertextuality of weblogging besides incorporating good writing skills and applying publishing and design theories to my work.

What have i learned?

Along the process of blogging, i learned that as sensible web-users, moral and ethics should always be applied to my work. All web-users should always respect the feelings and personal space of others (Patterson & Wilkins 2005, p. 256-257). All internet sites, including personal websites like blogs should always be abiding by the ethics line, where content should be always made neutral to avoid causing discomfort to other web-users (Patterson & Wilkins 2005, p. 256-257). As Walsh (2006, p. 33) explains it, "The way we interpret new text, whether words or images, will then produce new interpretations, new responses and new meanings".

Hence, different people have different perspectives towards the same topic or issue. To avoid any misunderstanding or discomfort to other web-users, all web content are made neutral. As bloggers, before we publish something online, we must consider the implications of our blog content to the wider society. Think before you post.

According to Schriver (1997), text and images complement each other in a way where both coexist together to convey a message to the audience and to enhance the clarity and understanding of the audience. Therefore, besides just words, i included images into my blog posts as well, with captions under them to explain the picture. Walsh (2006, p. 30-31) stated that multimodality of a document helps strengthen the message intended to be conveyed across to the audience. Hence, there are multimodal modes in my blog as well. For instance, there are hyperlinks in it, connecting my blog to other sites, building a network of links.

Credibility and accuracy of information in a useful website as stressed by Lannon (2006, p. 468), is an essential element thus, all acedemic citations and quotes are properly referenced. All pictures taken from the World Wide Web are properly sourced. This is as to avoid issues like copyright infrindgement and defamation.

Skills I Have Acquired

As a blogger, one should have an objective in mind when blogging. To blog without a clear objective is no different from spamming. As an academic blogger, i planned my postings and i researched my information thoroughly. This is to ensure the credibility and accuracy of my content.

All bloggers should be ethical. In that sense, as a blogger, it has become my moral responsibility to respect other cultures and norms of the society. Hence, sensitive issues that might spark misunderstandings are avoided.

Besides that, i learned to incorporate the theories of web design to my work. As it is always easier on the eyes for readers to read a clear and simple looking document as compared to reading a complex one, hence, i made sure that the layout for my blog is simple but still attractive enough to pull in readers.

Conclusion

Blogging has expanded to be one of the largest phenomenon in today's modern society (Tremayne 2007, p. 3), therefore, i certainly believe that blogging is a skill that everyone must equip themselves with. But, there is a right way to do it. For that very reason, i find that the publication and design principles and theories that i have learned from my course, have been of great assistance to me in the overall production of this blog.

Reference List:

1. Lannon, JM 2006, 'Technical Communication', 10th Edition, Pearson Education, USA

2. Patterson, P & Wilkins L 2005, 'Media Ethics: Issues and Cases', McGraw-Hill Higher Education, New York

3. Schriver, KA 1997, 'Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Text For Readers', Wiley Computer Publisher, New York

4. Walsh, M 2006, 'Textual Shifts: Examining The Reading Process With Print, Visual and Multimodal Text', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 24-37