A note on blogging and design

Despite the fact that this blog is fairly recent, I have been blogging for quite a while now and I'd like to share some of the things I have learned from my blogging experience. I'd also like to talk about what I now consciously know about document design and creating effective communications - I saw conscious because design is instinctual for a lot of people, but I have learned a lot about design principles and why we should make the decisions we do when creating a document.

Blogging IS an effective way to communicate

Whenever I talk to someone new about blogging, I sometimes - but not always - get a negative reaction. You've probably all heard it, maybe you've even thought it: "there's nothing credible about blogging, it's just people giving their opinions", quite often I get "blogging isn't journalism". Thankfully, I would never claim blogging to be a form of journalism, though it can be if you want it to be. Just because you don't have a newspaper headline or a name behind you doesn't mean what you're presenting isn't factual or important. Newspapers don't always present all the facts or the right facts either, all that matters is that you do your very best to present the truth, and to back up what you are saying. 

However, I think blogging is much more than journalism. Blogging invites people to interact with one another, to share their ideas and to express their opinions - what's wrong with expressing your opinion? It's how people learn from each other, and it's how we learn about one another. I think it's a very raw form of communication and learning. If we aren't sharing, we aren't learning. Anyone can look up what you have to say to find out for themselves if it's true or if they believe it or not.

I believe using blogs to communicate our message is an effective way of sharing information and learning from one another - especially in this digital age.

There is a reason for every design choice we make - conscious or not

I made a blog earlier based on theories by Karen Schriver, and her principles of design. She talks about the balance and proportion of a document, use of white space and choice of font and colour to help a document be more readable and visually appealing. All of these design principles are for a reason. The eye can remember and read better when a document is balanced and has an appropriate amount of white space. Colours help readers to remember and create an aesthetic appeal that makes people want to read on. Many of these decisions come naturally because our eyes know what we want to see and what helps us read, but knowing the basic principles of design and the reason these decisions are important really helps in creating a more effective document.

I've made a few posts about design, a few about writing and a few about media issues and I have learned more about all of these things by actively writing about them than I could have by reading any theory or hearing about it in a lecture. Blogging has helped me to learn and to process information about issues in publication and design in a new and interesting way.

Putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!)

Putting pen to paper - people do it every day for different reasons; to remember something, to write something personal, to tell something to a loved one, or perhaps to communicate to a wider audience. Whatever the reason, writing is an important way to communicate, but in order to effectively send a message there are a few things a writer should consider before putting pen to paper.

Whether you are writing a professional letter, a story, or even a shopping list (maybe...), writing can help you to achieve anything you like if you do it well. Get that job, influence your readers... and don't forget the bread!

Writing is a complex process, and - aside from in a literary, grammatical sense - there is no right to wrong way to do it, it just depends on what you are trying to achieve. To write well you must first consider your readership; who are you writing for? Perhaps you are writing for yourself, in which case your writing style will probably come pretty naturally, because you can read your own mind. Maybe you're writing an academic essay, in which case a more formal approach to writing is probably most appropriate. Or you could be trying to entertain a wider audience; of course a formal writing style wouldn't work here, your language will be more light hearted and easy to digest.

Besides audience, the purpose of writing should also be considered before putting pen to paper. Unless you're writing for yourself, your audience isn't going to understand what your talking about unless you are clear about what your message or purpose is. Think thoroughly about what it is you are trying to communicate with your writing and make sure that comes across in your final product. Being clear are concise about your message make a much more digestible, helpful piece of writing.

According to Paul V. Anderson in Technical Writing: a reader centered approach there are three things to consider when writing:

1. Readability (how easy to read is your communication?)
2. Usability (how useful is it for readers?)
3. Reader-centeredness (have you considered your audience?)

These three considerations are perhaps the best three starting points for an effective piece of writing. Remember these three things before putting pen to paper and you are on your way to writing well and communicating effectively. But most importantly, just write! Write for yourself, for others, any opportunity you have to write is an opportunity to improve your skill!

Mel Greig: The true story of the royal prank call

On June 1, 2104, Mel Grieg, one of the Sydney radio DJ's behind the infamous 'Royal prank call' appeared on Sunday Night to reveal her side of the story, and how she tried to prevent the call from going to air.

The call took place in December 2012, Mel and her cohost Michael Christian made a call to Kind Edward VII Hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated for acute morning sickness, pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles.

The nurse who took the phone call revealed details of Kate's condition. The call made headlines around the world. Three days later, Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who took the call, was found hanged. She left behind a note which blamed the two radio DJ's for her death.

In her interview with Sunday Night, Mel Greig revealed how she had pushed for the recording to be altered to spare the nurse the embarrassment, but was ignored. As a consequence of this scandal, Greig lost her career and her health. She received hate for the call and her family were also attacked.

There is a lot to be said from this story about the standard of media today, and the effect the media can have on people. As a result of this prank call, a woman died, children lost their mother, jobs were lost, careers ended, families were threatened, hate was spread, and more than one life was ruined.

The media is a powerful tool, especially in this technology-driven age. Events such as these can quickly become widespread, and it is not only mainstream media that are involved, it usually spreads to online and social media outlets, where anyone had to power to comment or get involved in media issues - this can be a good thing in some circumstances, but people can be ruthless as we saw in this case, Grieg's mother was threatened during the scandal, receiving phone calls stating "an eye for an eye- she died... and now you have to die".

It is not only Grieg who should have been responsible for the story that went to air (though she definitely was responsible on some level), everyone involved should have considered the possible outcomes of airing something like this. The nurse clearly did not know the call was a prank, and the media were ruthless in their consideration of her part in this and the possible effect it could have had on her.

I believe this is a very strong example of the negative effect of the media. There are many more cases in which lives have been ruined by media - mainstream and online, and I think it is an opportunity for everyone to step back and take a look at just how serious careless media reporting can be.

Document Design

In her book Technical Writing, theorist Diana Reep discusses the importance of document design in conveying information to readers.

A writers job is now not only to write, but to use design techniques to enhance the readers' experience and increase the usefulness of the document.

According to Reep, design considerations such as graphic elements, written cues, white spaces, and typographic devices can help to enhance a document in the following ways:

1. Guide readers through the document by directing them to individual topics and increasing their ability to absorb and remember important, highlighted information.
2. Increase readers interest in the document by using graphics and formatting devices to hold the readers attention rather than unbroken blocks of text.
3. Reflect an image you want your readers to have eg. conservative business may want a solid, no-nonsense traditional image but an artistic company may want a more trendy or dramatic look.

Why the 'March in March' didn't get more media coverage

Over the past three days, over 50,000 people have protested across Australia in opposition of Toby Abbot's government. However, significant as the event was considered, the protests received very minimal coverage in mainstream media. They made no headlines and led no bulletins, so why didn't the event receive a more prominent coverage?



According to Crikey there were a few reasons that the protests were difficult to cover.

The most prominent reasons was the complex number of issues that were being protested at the same event - making simplifying the march into a 300 word hard news story very difficult.

However, social media played a prominent role in the coverage of the protests, and people tended to turn more towards sites such as Facebook and Twitter to hear about or discuss the event.

I think that - despite its lack of coverage in mainstream media - the Abbot Government protests were certainly a significant and well-known event across Australia. I believe that most people today consume their media through the use of new media such as Facebook and Twitter, and perhaps this was the best way for the story to be covered anyway.

New media is unique because it hands over the power to 'the people'. People who are covering the story, people commentating on the story - everyone has a say, and isn't that what the March in March was all about?

Everyone got to voice their opinions on the matter through online forums, and perhaps some people even became more aware of some of the issues in the Australian Government in this way. Although mainstream media is still very important, as it has been said previously, the event was just too complex to be covered in a 300 word news story.

So while the March in March didn't receive extensive mainstream media coverage, I think it was still adequately covered through new media, and not by an outside party, it was covered from within the event, and by the people which I think makes for a better story anyway.

Beautiful Blogs

There are some fantastic blogs out there on the internet. As blogging becomes more spread, we are seeing more content about a wide variety of topics. It's hard to create a good blog today; the medium is so widespread that it can be difficult to make your blog stand out against others and make people want to read your content over someone else's. 

A great way to make your blog stand out is... well first of all to create good content. But once you've got that sorted, the best way to make your blog unique is to have a great blog design. Blogs that are reader friendly and beautifully designed are bound to keep readers on your blog and have them coming back for more.

One of my favourite blogs out there at the moment is ohdeardrea. Not only does this blogger create great content on a regular basis (think weekly), but her blog is very aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. 

Her blog style is simple. Everything is laid out in front of you, right on the top of the blog. The title of the blog is obvious and creatively designed, and the navigation is quirky, arty, interesting and helpful. Through the navigation links, that feature relevant images, users can click through the main themes of the blog: 'home', 'food', 'make' and 'living', as well as read the 'about' page, 'advertise' with the blog (which can be seen along the far right side of the page), and visit the 'shop'. Users can either navigate by clicking through these links or simply by scrolling down to view the most recent blog entries. Personally, I prefer this style of blog navigation for it's simplicity and the ability to stay on one page, rather than clicking through to different sections of a blog and getting completely lost.

Another blog I really love for this reason is the appropriately named minimal student.

This blog is even more simple than the previous, which suits the theme of the blog which is (obviously) minimalism. I think that having a blog design that suits the theme is an important aspect of a blog. Professional blogs should look simple and professional, arty blogs should be quirky and creative and so on. 

Again, the blog layout for minimal student is simple and easy to navigate. On the right hand side of the blog (further down than shown in the above image), readers can navigate through the most popular posts or click through the key topics of the blog including 'minimalism', 'health', 'travel' and more. Readers can also choose to simply scroll through the most recent posts from the first page of the blog; simply and easy to use.

There are tons of different styles of blog out there. Some are more visually driven, with flashy links and modern navigation techniques that allow readers to leap from one section to another. However, I prefer the simple blog layout. I find traditional navigation more pleasant to use, and blogs that don't have too many links or colours prevent me from getting distracted from the most important part: the content.

I think the right use of colour, a simple yet beautiful design, good use of images and easy navigation are the most important aspects of great blog. Design your blog well and you're sure to stand out against the others!

Australia Network Budget Axing

Last week's federal budget revealed that the ABC would see a $29 million reduction in it's funding from July 1. This means that where previously the network had a $35 million budget dedicated to international broadcasting and foreign affairs, they will now only have $15 million. On top of that, the Australian Network - which primarily airs material from the ABC to an international audience - will be axed.

“There’s real concern among foreign correspondents that the ABC will use the loss of the Australia Network contract as cover to drastically cut its foreign bureauxa senior journalist told Crikey after the budget announcement.

 “There’s real concern among foreign correspondents that the ABC will use the loss of the Australia Network contract as cover to drastically cut its foreign bureaux”

So who will these cuts effect and how?

Foreign-based journalists

With the axing of the Australian Network, foreign journalists primary funding, it is very likely that many foreign-based journalists will lose their jobs.

• Australian viewers

These budget cuts mean that there will be less overseas coverage, therefore less news and foreign affairs for Australian viewers.

The International audience

If the Australian Network is axed, Australian television will no longer be broadcast to the 46 countries it currently transmits to, axing the Australian perspective the network offered to international viewers.

• Other ABC services like  iView and News 24

The ABC fears that with funding cuts it will no longer be able to support additional ABC services such as iView - the ABC app that allows viewers to re-watch shows aired on the network either online or on a tablet - and ABC news 24 - the networks 24 hour news channel.

Personally, I fear for the loss of foreign correspondence and believe that the axing of the Australian Network is a big step back for Australia in a globalised society. We are becoming more connected to overseas places over time and the media is a huge contributor to this connection.

The loss of foreign-based journalists and our primary link to overseas news could mean we are less connected to foreign countries, not only in a news sense but in our overall international relations - something that should be nurtured in today's society.