My Blogging Experience

The Advantages I have Experienced in Blogging

As I read from a business textbook earlier this year, blog is a web-based journals that users can editorialise and interact with other users. Hence, the main difference of blog from traditional diary is that blogging allows us to share our feelings with our friends. Unlike online social network where users are mostly sharing interesting stuff, say, real-time status, blogs are a meeting place where we reflect upon our lives and engage in thoughtful debate on meaningful issues. By leaving comments on our friends・ posts, we are showing our care and understanding. For instance, in the previous post which I have talked about new form of news reporting, my classmate Ken has analysed the impact of animation news from an ethical perspective. After reading his comments, I did spare some time rethinking about the benefits and harm digitalised news might bring to our society. Blogging is like meditating on the cyberspace. 

Besides,I have often come cross many useful facts from my friends・ blog. From one of Noc・s post, I learned of the fact that every content on Facebook hits an average of 150 friends. This piece of information helps me realise how effective Facebook is as a marketing tool. Also, I have read that Youtube is currently collaborating with the NASA in having live-broadcasting of experiments conducted on the space. To me, blog is an important source of news information.

Another benefit of blogging is that I have witnessed some improvement in my writing skills. Unlike academic writing, we are usually expressing subjective feelings in a natural way. To keep my friends・ attention, I need to keep things short and clear. Lengthy sentences are avoided; whereas the content can be based more on personal thoughts, rather than academic analysis. It is a good training on informal writing. 

From Rosilie: My blog

The most important things I have learnt

1) Writing quality posts
I found that I have to do certain level of research to make my blog posts more interesting. For example, I found that more classmates are interested in the previous post that I have researched on the Hong Kong newspaper industry before writing. In fact, doing research make the blog posts more reliable and convincing - and as well attract more people・s attention.

Also, it is important to acquire critical thinking skills in writing blog posts. Reviews are often seen in blog posts. Bloggers are eager to develop logical arguments in their posts and to convince their readers to believe or follow something, eg. watching a particular movie. So, having critical reviewing skills will help bloggers to boost their popularity and is one way to write quality posts with individuality.

2) Using multimodality
Words alone is not enough for blogs. To make the blog more interesting, to keep the audience awake, to leave a strong impression to readers, it is a must to include multimodality in blog posts. They can as well strengthen my arguments sometimes! I believe that images or movements are much more attractive than plain words.

Final words: Make the blog posts more interesting! Here are the TIPS for blogging.

Digital Ads in Web 2.0

   Today, I suddenly thought of checking my old Yahoo email account which I started ten years ago. I did not maintain it since two years ago. Amazingly, it has accumulated over 20,000 of spam mails! It took me nearly an hour to get them all deleted.

   I found out that the outlook of digital advertising has changed a lot over the recent years. In the age of Web1.0, “reading” was the main focus of advertising. The brochure-ware advertisements involve only one-way communication. Links, listings, banners, pop-ups, buttons and spams were the most commonly seen online advertisements. Most people who experienced this stage might find the digital ads quite annoying. Not only they invaded our inbox, but also brought computer virus to our hardware. These created a sense of “ad nausea” among the audience and was not an effective way to advertise.

By the way, I remembered that everyone was so contented when the "King of Spam" got arrested last year.

   The scenario is completely different in Web2.0. We start to do both reading and writing in new advertisements. We will respond and leave feedback on the advertising campaign and thus shape the communication channel as a two-way, interactive one. New digital ads intentionally get viewers to "participate" in the ad experience. Advertisers try to appeal to target customers by writing according to the context and behaviour of these people. For example, advertisers are more likely to add funny elements and make use of multimodality to attract online attention as teenagers take up a majority of online population. The audience are more willing to take a look at the ads that sound relevant to them.
   Moreover, online ads rely much on network sharing. Instead of using pop-ups or spams in the old model, advertising in new media counts on the voluntary sharing to spread the messages. Netizens may make use of networking tools like Facebook,Twitter or other forums to share interesting ads. This indirectly gives rise to a new style of new media writing for online advertising.

Wii launched a very interesting digital ad jointly with Youtube.

The game character, Wario, have shaken everything off from the webpage!

This is an example to show how Web 2.0 ads try to attract attention in a funny way.
Viewers are dragged into Wario's world!

(Very interesting, must see!) Click the following picture to view:

Blogs sharing - Reviews on digital ad campaigns

DigitalBuzz: Features the latest digital ad campaigns

ADVERBLOG: Shows the best digital marketing ideas worldwide.

   As we all know, the online population is growing bigger and bigger. Launching digital ads is an inevitable trend because they are speedy, informative, flexible, affordable, and are boundless across borders. Meanwhile, Web 2.0 provides them with better quality, access and openness so that customers have more control over the ads. The writing styles of digital ads have shifted largely as well. Direct promotion ad banners having “BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!” with offending flash lights are already outdated - customers expect to see interesting, playful or somewhat meaningful digital ads in the current age.

Doesn't it look ANNOYING!?

Newspapers in new media - A new climate of journalist writing

Writing for new media

Technology is providing us a lot of new ways to communicate. Writing for new media, in this context, means creating context in all the new forms of digital communication. It does not confine to just “texts”, but all kinds of  rhetorically sound, creative use and repurposing of media.






What’s hot?

I am always a fan of Apple - not only the technology firm based in the US, but also the newspaper Apple Daily in Hong Kong. I was barely surprised when I learned that Lai Chee-ying, the founder of Next Media Group, announced that he would enter the keen market of free newspapers last month.  Similar to the publication of Apple Daily in Hong Kong, the introduction of Sharp Daily has caused a public outcry in the past few weeks. Lai claimed that Sharp Daily is a newspaper which can be read, watched and listened to.



As the world is entering a new age of media, people increasingly adapt to an environment full of free information. Less and less people are willing to pay for newspapers. Everyone thinks the newspaper industry is on its decline. Considering this, Lai has changed the focus of his group from reporting exclusive news, to providing entertainment and information concerning livelihood for readers. Apple Daily first used 3D animation with sound effects in presenting the news. In the hands, every news item have become an interesting story with twists and turns. By now, the animation news has already penetrated into every corner in facebook, tweeter and many other media platforms - that nearly everyone with a smartphone on hand will have Apple Daily’s app installed. Some major Western news media even commented that “animated news might be the future of journalism” when they first knew about this in the Tiger Woods’s incident.

This blog commented on the animated news.
The blogger said the animated news is "fresh and exciting", but a bit annoying. Haha!

http://visualjournalism.com/tiger-woods-chased-by-his-wife-in-animated-news-from-apple-daily/2009/12/05/


The launch of Sharp Daily is a very critical issue in writing for new media. It provides a revolutionary insight in journalist writing with the use of multi-modality and in an interactive way.Traditionally, newspapers are quite monotonous because they are too formal and too long. They relied too much on text in conveying their message. Their messages are one-way down - readers are to receive information and they have nothing do with the news content. But the case is completely different when newspapers come to the new media platform. News are put online and they become more interesting, concise and interactive. Particularly, Lai’s Sharp Daily and Apple Daily have even added sounds and videos in news reporting. Readers are able to comment on news or even report a news to the editors with the use of new media. the level of interaction between them is unprecedented.


This video shows how Sharp Daily can be "read, watched and listened to".

Writing news in new media is an inevitable trend. A recent survey said that 50% of the teenagers in Hong Kong prefer reading news online, while only 14% will read it with a copy of newspaper. Other newspapers, no matter paid or free, such as the Oriental Daily and Headline Daily, are all creating videos for their news apps. Meanwhile, Sharp Daily is combining the physical and the virtual platform by providing a new function - one can be immediately be directed to the news story video by scanning the bar code on newspaper through smartphones. It is clear that Hong Kong journalism is eventually migrating to a new era of new media.


Free Newspaper War to Escalate in Hong Kong

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/free-newspaper-war-to-escalate-in-hong-kong/462727

Another free newspaper hits a crowded market

http://topics.scmp.com/news/hk-news-watch/article/Another-free-newspaper-hits-a-crowded-market



Features of writing for journalism in new media



Concise
The publishers have made sure their readers could finish most of the news items within the time of a bus trip. Complex things are explained in colourful graphs, and long conversations summarised into one line. Put it simply, user-friendliness is always the the key concern.



Eye-catchy
Eye-catching headlines are used extensively in the cover of almost every section. The news item which has the highest number of page-view will be recommended to other readers. The editors would not care too much about whether the sentences and the headlines are grammatically correct, as long as they can attract the readers’ attention.



Shared online
Another special thing is that new media often quote extensively from the Internet -either blogs or forums - as their source of information. In the ending part of many news items, they would report how bloggers and forum users were feeling about a particular issue.



Use of Multimodality
News will be written in a less formal way. Instead, they will be presented by sounds, pictures, videos and animations as mentioned above. These devices will make the new stories a lot more interesting.






My experience in writing for new media

I have just interned in CNBC Asia, a financial news channel which based in Singapore this summer. One of my tasks is to title the interview videos. These videos will be viewed worldwide - not just on CNBC’s website, but also in the iphone app!

Here is the work log I have blogged in Tumblr:
http://cnbc-internship.tumblr.com/








At last, I want to show everyone a video:

This baby thought the magazine was a broken iPad. 
It reveals that technology is replacing the physical magazines, or even newspapers!

My Digital Life

Life in the 21st Century is not as simple as before. Information and technologies penetrate every nooks and crannies. I enjoy being submerged in such a high-tech world. Having an iPhone in hand, I cannot stop my finger from swiping the screen.

One tool I use most frequently is "Whatsapp". This application helps me to connect friends with not only text but also images, audio sound tracks, videos, etc. It allows me to contact people whenever there is internet connection - which implies that I do not need to solely rely on telecommunication services. As a result, it reduces the possible cost on SMS. "Skype" or "Facetime" are applications that are important to me as well. I went on a three-month internship program in Singapore last summer. "Skype" and "Facetime" provide me the chance to connect my family members and friends visually. I am very glad that these new technologies helped me to survive that period of time.

I think I will start to notice a lot of new internet tools on this course. These tools might be useful in facilitating my studies or to increase my productivity. Apart from this, I think I might learn to think deeper about how the new media, specifically the internet, changes our life and social behaviors. Reviewing the affordances and constraints, I might start to reduce the use of computer. Most importantly, I think I might be able to write better in new media formats. I might learn how to express my feelings or to present something in a more concise and eye-catchy way.

My favorite website: http://www.appspy.com/
This website often gives excellent reviews on iphone applications.


Iphone addicted - Perhaps that's me.

Hello world!

Hi there! This is my first post!