According to Walsh (2006, p. 104) ‘multimodal texts are those texts that have more than one “mode”, so that meaning is communicated through a synchronizations of modes’. Blogs are non-print form multimodal texts and consist of a range of semiotic modes. In other words, text is not the only mode in a blog. Others semiotic modes (visual presentation of a text, pictures and different context) come into play as a whole at the same time (Kress & van Leeuwen 1998, p. 186).
Blogging is an amazing activity that allows bloggers to practice and use multimodal text to present an issue or a message. Through blogging, bloggers share not only their ideas or feelings in text form, but they can add videos, pictures, animations, music, and hyperlinks to enhance the content. They can raise issues for discussion and give comments freely without the restrictions which the traditional media (newspapers, radio and TV) have.
People view and perceive things differently because of the environment in which they have been raised. Social and cultural practices help people in making sense of their world. Different people may perceive and interpret the same content differently from their own cultural background (Schirato & Webb 2004, p. 16). Additionally, people within a society share the same meanings of certain words and beliefs (Schriver 1997, p. 364). So, dissimilar ideas between individuals will not result in common agreement on certain aspects of an event that is currently occurring or has occurred.
Issues relating to the media are topics that the blog ‘Gagpotatoes’ is concerned about and which have arisen for discussion. Some media practices in Australia are different from Malaysia. ‘Gagpotatoes’ find that the way the Australian media cover news is more interesting and open minded compared to the Malaysian media. However, ‘Gagpotatoes’ also finds that some media issues contradict his/her beliefs and learning because it is inappropriate to raise them in the media in Malaysia. Overall, blogging activities allow ‘Gagpotatoes’ to get in touch with the Australian media, which is still new to his/her. It is an opportunity for ‘Gagpotatoes’ to look at the media that is not what he/she is used to since he/she is from a different culture.
The same text or message may have different meanings and effect when it is presented on different medium. One example is one of the issues mentioned in this blog, “The use of multimedia in politics”. The same issue was published in The Australian newspaper as well as broadcast on the ABC radio. There are people who read the newspaper and listen to the radio, however, they might explore different things from the internet or weblog. They might gain information that was not provided by other media or they might have a clearer idea of what is that issue about.
It is not a difficult process to learn how to blog. Bloggers need only simple computer and internet browsing skills and the weblog software is user friendly. This blog site <http://www.blogger.com/>is useful for people who do not have experience of blogging because it is easy to use.
This is an online video teaching you step-by-step how to blog in the 'wordpress.com'. Try it out!
References
Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Bell, Allan & Garrett, Peter (eds.) 1998, Approaches to media discourses, Blackwell, Oxford, Chapter 7, pp.186-219.
Schirato, T & Webb, J 2004, Reading the visual, Allen & Unwin, Australia.
Schriver, KA 1997, ‘The interplay of words and pictures’, Dynamic in document design: creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York, Chapter 6, pp.361-441.
Walsh, M 2006, ‘The “textual shift”: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal text’, Australian journal of language and literacy, Vol.29, No.1, 2006, pp.24-37.
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