It is finally time for reflections through the 3 months period of studying issues in publications and designs.
I would say that much have been learned but there are still many more to be learned. As a casual blogger, I was not aware of ethical and cultural issues that would arise from blogging until I have done this assignment. As argued by Schriver (1997), culture strongly influences the way individuals decipher words and images. Code of ethics should be strongly held upon even when blogging in personal blogs and sites.
In addition, I have learnt that images and texts are equally important in creating a good document. Multimodal presentation works better in maintaining audience interests. (Walsh, 2006) According to Reep (2006) color in a document catches the reader's eye and is appealing to reader. This stresses the importance of document designing especially the colour, which may or may not appeal to the readers.
The journey has came to an end in this blog, however I will still continue the journey of learning document design in my daily life.
References :
Reep, DC 1997, Technical writing: principles, strategies, and readings, Allyn and Bacon, Boston.
Schriver K.A 1997, Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.
Walsh, M. 2006,” ‘Textual shift’: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts,” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, p.24-37.
The tensed battle of presidency between Barack Obama and John McCain back in 2008 sees Obama venturing into a new age of election campaign using the Iphone as a portal. The Obama Iphone application can be downloaded here, it features breaking news, and up to date news from the campaign, plus videos, photos and talking points to convince friends to vote for Obama. (Sherwin, 2008)
Presidential election season is always contentious, but increasingly tech-savvy pundits, campaigners and others have turned to new ways to get the news out. (Cohen, 2008)According to Chris Hazelton (2008), it is a brilliant marketing move by the Obama campaign, which simultaneously targets the demographic that's most likely to have an iPhone and support Obama.
I would agree that the use of Iphone app to reach out to the mass public is a brilliant move by Obama. Besides Iphone app, Obama's campaign uses Facebook, YouTube, and Twiter as well. By penetrating technology, Obama is able to reach out to more, at the same time providing supporters with a platform to invite friends to vote for Obama.
Walsh (2006) states that the use of multimodality, specifically, the incorporation of texts, visuals, audio and other cues are vital components of Internet sites.The launch of Obama 08 Iphone app shows great effort from Barack Obama to venture into the world of technology and touching his supporters. Obama's campaign shows that even political parties are turning to new media such as Facebook, Twitter and now even Iphone apps to reach out the the audiences. With the availability of a range of public communication modes and forms in a certain society in this case - Iphone, Facebook, Blog and Twitter, can only visual communication happen. (Kress & van Leeuween,2006)
Video 1 : Barack Obama's Inauguration Speech Source : Youtube
Kress G. & van Leeuwen T. 2006, Reading images, Chapter 1 : The semiotic landscape : language and visual communication, p. 23 - 24.
Walsh, M 2006, "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
Facebook launched a new face lift in 2008, causing more than100 million facebook users fuming over the change. A petition against the new Facebook was launched by Scott Sanders, a student at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, and has more than 1.5 million names. (CNN, 2008)
“Life is about to change, but I like good change, not crappy change… the changes are horrible” Nikki Gerwel, a Facebook user wrote in a “Who hates the new Facebook format” forum. (TheAustralian, 2008)
The large number of protestors against the new Facebook face-lift proves that audience acceptance of document design is vital in the field of document design. Schriver ( 1996 ) states that people are extremely knowledge-driven and text-driven when it comes to interpreting texts or documents. The new Facebook face-lift pushes Facebook users out of their comfort zone. The new Facebook brings unfamiliarity and distaste to old users as they have already been so used to the old Facebook.
According to Armano (2008), sites like this have evolved depending on how people want to use them, but Facebook – considering its large amount of traffic, may need to slow down and formalize its process. Fahey (2008) states that a designer's job is to interpret carefully what may lie behind even cantankerous feedback. I believe in Web 2.0, majority of users think that it is ‘their’ site. Thus, document designers have to be cautious about what users want to see, rather than throwing in a new face-lift that causes uproar among them.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that any change can be a big deal to our users because this is how they connect with family and friends, so when you move things around, it can be perceived as being not a positive thing even when it is a positivie chance. (BBC News, 2008)
Figure 1 : Tempo magazine cover 'Last Supper of Suharto'
Source : Google.com
One of Indonesia's top news weekly Tempo has featured a sketch of Suharto taking the place of Jesus Christ place at the table surrounded by his sons, causing an uproar by the Christians.
Figure 2 : Original painting by Da Vinci
Source : www.oceanru.com
Koran Tempo, a daily published by the same outfit posted an apology with large headings on its second page stating that Tempo had no intetions to hurt the Christians stating that they were only inspired by the composition of the painting.
It is understandable why did the Christians protest over the cover of Tempo. The picture represents Suharto as Jesus Christ, the god that they have faith in. The replacement of Jesus Christ with Suharto will also raise questions among Christians where they will wonder if Suharto is being compared to Jesus Christ? Or, is Suharto eligible to take Jesus Christ’s place in the picture.
It is indeed unethical and immoral for the magazine to mimick the painting of Jesus Christ as it shows disrespect to Christianity. Feijter (2008) states, exploitation of religious themes or persons for the selling of products is deemed as morally wrong and it should not be done by anyone.
For one that does not practice the religion of Christian, it is not surprised that they do not realize the picture as a representation of Jesus Christ. Same goes to one who is not familiar with the Holy Bible, the event of the 'Last Supper' will not be understood in their cultural context. Schriver (1997) argues that culture strongly influences the way individuals decipher words and images. Therefore, it is unavoidable that people interpret the picture of the 'Last Supper' differently, first printing it on the front page of a magazine, and last, evoking the anger of Christians. According to Haynes, what exactly is considered blasphemy can vary between religious groups and people (Michael, 2007).
Putnis & Petelin (1996, p. 224)state that a document designer should take into consideration the audience, purpose and context to design a good document. In this case, document designers neglected the sensivity of the minority audience in Indonesia – the Christians, causing a global uproar.
In my opinion, document designers should always bear in mind the cultural issues of others. An apology can be said, but the reputation of the magazine will be tarnished by the disrespecting the sensitive issue of religion.
