Thoughtful Thought of Recent Talk

Multimodality boosts credibility?!

After the lecture, I was thinking about the word “multimodal” and trying to link it with the information I’ve heard on the radio that morning. The DJ said in these days, all the text had to be integrated with pictures and videos, otherwise, there is no news. He used a secret video of Romney, Republican presidential candidate, as an example to show that the ‘conviction’ was simply non-defendable by Romney. Imagine if there was only text supporting the news, the news could not be a scandal at all, as not many people would believe it as it’s been.

The tricky thing was that at the same time, a historian from Harvard found a passage showing that Jesus had a wife and people were debating over it, or even trying to use it as a legitimate reason for priests to get married. This really shows the contradictory picture- only text, not multimodal- can create more rows. So, I believe that multimodal representations are far better than just dull text because it can, of course, increase the credibility, but also can intrigue all readers to read through your whole passage – is that your ultimate goal?

What do you think about multimodality, or you just want to read the text instead, to grab the main idea without any room for ‘imagination’, given by videos and images?

Maybe the smartest answer is “It Depends”.

Without video and image support, do you think Gangnam Style can 

be that well-known overseas, and even have lots of remix versions?

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Specific Layouts for certain types of Sites?!

‘Different layouts convey different meanings,’ said Christoph. I was surprised that there are different names and types of layouts – what is more surprising is that different types of websites use different types of layouts.

The most frequently-browsed website of mine must be Google. In fact, it seems to have the most complex layout compared to others, because it is centre-margin dominated, but clusters with left-right (Search, Images, Maps and so forth) and top-bottom (the search engine separating the top and bottom). The trickiest thing is that most search engines choose this type of layout, like Bing and Baidu (maybe they just copy Google, who knows.)

The top-down layout is so common among all extravagant fashion labels, like Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

‘Shopping For Labels, Shopping For Love…’

It really only appears on those big brand names? Maybe the so-called relatively lower class labels, like Bossini and Uniquo, are using this type, but maybe so much information is on top that blurs readers’ eyes. Personally, I do love the websites of ‘Extravaganza’s brand names’ because they are so elegant and grand. This is truly a type of layout that can catch readers’ eyeballs. Maybe those relatively lower class labels can imitate this type of layout to attract more customers.

The typical left-right layout always pops up on the ‘log on’ page of your emails. Have you ever noticed it? No matter what accounts you are using, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo mail or whatever mail, you can find this type of layout. Maybe some experts have found some clues that people are get used to this type of layout for logging on their emails.  

It’s so interesting to find out they are all using the same type of layout, but is it possible to interchange their typical layouts? Let’s say, Louis Vuitton is using the centre-margin one, while Google is using the left-right one only.

Will we get lost??!!!! I think it is still possible for us to navigate, maybe.

An innovative blog's layout is like classic newspaper.

to see more innovative blogs' layouts: click here

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“Be Critical!” Hypertext said.

I’ve learned that there are various internal and external organizations on a web page, like hierarchical, hypertextual and linear structures. And what I am surprised is that most of the websites of newspapers’ organizations, like SCMP, have mixed all these various types with external links, like ‘people may also read’.  There is also a ‘Comment’ box for all the readers to type what they feel about the current issue, which is really amazing as it’s no longer one-way, but two-way communication between the writers and readers. What a fascinating deed NEW MEDIA can make!!!!!

Although hypertext can guide us to explore more, it has its own bias that readers should pay attention to. This is also what I was inspired a lot throughout the lecture-criticism on hypertext. Like the example of Diaoyu Islands, it’s interesting to find out that the position of a well-known online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is pro-Japan, as it deliberately named the Islands as Senkaku Islands, and when I flipped through the references below, most of them are in the US and Japan’s perspectives. But ironically, if it is in Chinese, it will say as ‘Diaoyu Islands’. That’s the trickiest thing.

What I’ve learned is “Be Critical”!! No matter how the hypertext links you to whatever websites, “Be Critical” of every simple click on the blue text, otherwise, you’ll be trapped, misguided, confused and bamboozled.   

                                   To know more about criticism of hypertext: click here