week 12 discussion & course reflection by Janice W

week 12 discussion

The new technologies will have a continuous impact on the ever changing publishing and print industry, however i dont think the print media will ever ends, even with the emerge of online newspapers, magazine and digital social media like ipads and smart phones. Trends are often a manifestation of new enablers unlocking existing human needs. Doubtlessly, global networks have given rise to online publishing, enabling a higher degree of interactions and engagement of the publics, yet it seems like a matter of convenience and a manipulated trend by the new technologies, anyway trends usually just come and go around. Also, there are critics about the credibility of online users generated content i.e. Wikipedia, news websites; 'Produsage' is a new term to describe users generated content, unlike the print media, these contents aint being proofread/edited by professional journalists. Personally speaking, reading a newspaper is more a physical act/thing, its like you have to turn over a page with your finger instead of touching the 'next' button on your ipad/e-reader. Though you cant really interact with the print media, you are physically engaged when you are reading your newspaper. Admittedly, digital media allows human interactions, but what if the print media disappeared, do you still think it can generate interactions? With just online based news, you will probably be sitting home alone, staring at your screen...Simply buying newspapers from a newsagent is a kind of interaction, people with shared interests and similar habits come across each other in the news agency everyday. Without print, you will lose physical communication and interaction with the rest of the world


Course reflection:
The elective was fun and engaging! i pretty much enjoyed the letterpress art work throughout the course; my first time participating in design courses, i would definitely suggest my faculty students to take this interesting and amazing course. Typography and publication are quite similar (my majors --> advertising and visualization), i hope i can really apply the skills i have learnt here to media publication/production in the future.