Image text analysis

Image text analysis http://www.sdnz.org.nz/index.html

Dance is viewed as another culture as people are free to express their feelings and talents. This webpage depicts the passion and love of dance through colour, pictures/videos, and links to others areas of the webpage.

The use of colour

The webpage has a dominant colour of grey. The title “SDNZ” is in white but is outlined in a light grey colour. The link buttons to others areas of the webpage such as contacts, gallery, and calendar, just to name a few are also filled with the same grey colour. News letter s and new information is on both sides of the page, those links have are also outlined with the grey colour, but have pictures included; which are bold and vibrant. The colour that is on the background is white; but as a reader you are immediately drawn to the advertising posters as they are of bright colour. The use of bright, vibrant colours for the new information and advertising were used to bring more attention to the reader as the illustrators are trying to persuade people to buy their merchandise and attend their concerts and fundraisers. The pictures included the bright colours of purple, turquoise, green, blue and red. The majority of the titles and texts are in black.

Just like Wysocki says “websites that want to give the appearance of being serious tend to use muted colours and a limited number”. As for this particular website they have used the muted colours in such a way but have also incorporated many other bright colours, thus, showing that they want to be seen as professional, yet approachable. The colours that are demonstrated on this website relates to the passion and love of everyone in the dance scene. When hip hop dance comes into your mind you would immediately think of high energy, bold, personality, freedom. And that’s what SDNZ are trying to illustrate in their webpage. Through the intense colour within the photos; that should be enough to describe what dance is about. Many readers tend to read in an “F shape formation” (Nielson, 2007), thus explaining why SDNZ decided to just draw the readers in by using bright colourful posters.

The use of pictures and videos

The bright eye catching pictures are the first things that a viewer of this website will look at. There are several photos on the home page showing winners, and competitors of past competitions. Wysocki refers to photographs as something that “is used to bring immediacy and “reality” to the layout”, which is exactly what these photos are displaying. Every photo and advertisement poster is very effective and gets straight to the point of what the webpage is about. The majority of these photos are of dancers in action, which provides the viewer a sense of realism as they feel they are coming alive. This is also the same with the videos that are shown at the bottom of the page. You feel closer to the pictures as their facial expressions are intense and honest. Showing happy young teenagers holding cheques and dancing on world stages, this is to pull the reader in and show them what dance is all about. It is not because they have to do it; it is because they have the love and passion to do it. And with this webpage they want to show everyone that anything is possible. Wysocki states that “the visual presentation of a page or screen gives you an immediate sense of it’s genre” (Wysocki 2004, pg 123), which is so true. When you first visit the page of SDNZ you are welcomed with a collage of different groups in action shot. That immediately gives the viewer a direct sense of performance and dance.

Links to other areas of the website

Most of the links to different areas of the webpage are located below the title “SDNZ”, which is at the top of the page in grey. There are also other links that are on both sides of the page (left and right), in a green frame supported with a bright picture inside. Within the 8 links, they take you to the gallery, contacts, different competitions, calendar and information about the company. Many of the links include the sales of their merchandise and the cost of tickets for concerts, and social events. Thus, showing that their main idea for this webpage is to welcome people into purchasing items and attract more people into supporting the dance scene. This demonstrates to me that the “SDNZ” company are interested in making money and spread their hunger for dance. Also another link that I found on this webpage was to another hip-hop site. I think that with this on their page they are trying to show that the dance scene in New Zealand especially dancers are going worldwide.
http://www.hiphopinternational.com/

Overall Effect

I think the overall effect of this webpage was eye-catching. The use of colour was used effectively to draw the viewer’s attention straight to the point and the genre of the webpage. I also think that the photos and videos that were used were also another good addition to the overall effect of the webpage. The thrill of seeing the passion and love of the dancers that were shown on the site also gives the viewer the hunger to be a part of all the fun. Seeing that they sell hip-hop merchandise the viewer would simply not really notice the price as they would want to become a part of the dance scene. But, I did feel that the page did lack a few areas. For example, there wasn’t much of an explanation about the company on the home page only through the links, and also another aspect that they could have worked more on was a little bit more writing. The page was just filled with mostly advertising and photos. But the overall effect of the page was good. The use of colour, photos/videos, and links to other areas were effective and useful.

References

Wysocki, A. F. (2004). The multiple media of texts: How onscreen and paper texts
incorporate words, images and other media. In C. Bazerman and P. Prior,
(Eds.) What writing does and how it does it: An introduction to analysing
texts and textual practices, pp. 123 – 163, Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Eribaum. (Retrieved on 07/06/09)
Nielson, J. (2007). Writing for the web: Research on how users read on the web and
how authors should write their web pages. (Retrieved on 07/06/09)

My delicious:
http://delicious.com/dqween



NZPA (2009):http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/plane-birth-mother-deported-baby-remains-nz/5/12597 Plane birth mother deported, baby remains in New Zealand, retrieved on (4th April 2009)

Thaindian News (2009):http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/woman-who-gave-birth-on-plane-admits-abandoning-baby_100177304.html Woman who gave birth on plane admits abandoning baby, retrieved on (5th April 2009)

Silver Scoprpio(2009):http://silverscorpio.com/woman-who-gave-birth-on-plane-charged-with-abandoning-baby/ Woman who gave birth on plane charged with abandoning baby, retrieved on (5th April 2009)

Asia one news (2009):http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20090325-130940.html Mother who abandoned baby on plane charged, retrieved on (5th April 2009)

Yahoo 7 news (2009):http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/mp/5489255/woman-admits-dumping-newborn-baby-plane/ Woman admits dumping newborn baby on plane, retrieved on (5th April 2009)

Babble Australia (2009):http://www.babble.com.au/2009/03/25/woman-gives-birth-on-airplane-abandons-baby-in-airport/ Woman gives birth on airplane, abandons baby in airport, retrieved on (5th April 2009)

Radio Australia (2009):http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/200903/s2520947.htm Woman gives birth enroute from Samoa to NZ and abandons baby, retrieved on (6th April 2009)

9 news (2009): http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=799617 Samoan mum abandons baby on plane to NZ, retrieved on (6th April 2009)

New talk ZB (2009): http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=154726 Onboard birth a mystery, retrieved on (7th April 2009)

The New Zealand Herald (2009): http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10563595&ref=rss Mother charged over abandoned newborn, retrieved on (7th April 2009)

Mail online (2009):http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1163247/Woman-abandoned-newborn-baby-planes-toilet-rubbish-bin-faces-jail--custody-child.html Woman abandoned newborn baby in plane’s toilet rubbish bin faces jail..but might get custody of her child, retrieved on (7th April 2009)

Latest

Latest new posted on the 25th of April says that on Saturday the 18th of April, Maika (the mother), had been deported back to Samoa, but her baby still remains in New Zealand. A spokeswoman from the Immigration Department “confirmed to The Dominion that Karoline Maika,29, left for Apia last Saturday without her daughter Grace”. Karoline intended on flying down to Wellington, give birth there and then hand the new born over to her brother. Sources say that “Grace will remain in Wellington, where she will be cared for by extended family” and that “long-term care arrangements are still being considered”.
Finding this article, I am glad and relieved to know that Grace is being cared for, and that Karoline has been deported back to Samoa. But, still feel that the New Zealand justice system is still slack. Having many people comment about this issue; I have found that many people feel the same way. What is happening with the laws now-a-days? People are pretty much being set free for attempted murder and that’s something that needs to STOP!

Woman who abandoned baby convicted without punishment

Well, I'm guessing by now everyone has heard about the tragic event that shocked the nation. Not long after boarding a Pacific Blue flight on March the 19th from Apia to Auckland, a woman suddenly gave birth to a baby girl and dumped her in the rubbish bin of the aeroplane cubicles. The mother, Karolaine Maika was 1 out of 72 other people that were hired and sent to New Zealand to work as fruit pickers. Immediately, after the baby was found, police were called as soon as the plane landed. Karolaine and her baby were taken straight to Middlemore hospital for further care.

I personally don’t understand how this woman was given permission to board the plane without people noticing that she was heavily pregnant. Before boarding a flight all passengers should be informed and aware of all rules before flying. I found on the Pacific Blue’s website, “pregnant women need medical clearance to board a flight if they’d had complications or were more than 36 weeks pregnant.” After researching this horrific event, I find it very hard to believe that absolutely no-one on the plane noticed something was wrong with this lady. You would think that the crew staff or even a person that was sitting beside her (if there was one) would have noticed how long she was gone for. Being realistic here, you can’t pop out a baby in 5 minutes, so I’m guessing she would have been in the toilets for an extensive amount of time. It is highly rare that there would have been no screaming or sounds during her labour and birth? And even if there weren’t people around at that time, I’m sure the toilets would have been covered in blood? So the next person to use the toilets would have found it a little strange. Don’t you think?

When she arrived in Auckland, “Auckland Staff became suspicious when the woman, who had misplaced her passport, approached a staff member, looking pale and blood-stained”, I mean come on, it is only natural to notice that something is wrong and pull her aside to ask a few questions. It is the staffs job to make sure every customer is well looked after. I feel that the Pacific Blue employees should be more aware of their customers and be more alert of the things that are happening around them. The rules and regulations should be stricter towards women flying whilst pregnant. They should at-least has to undergo some type of medical examination before being able to board any flight. Although staff had been “trained to check whether passenger are pregnant”, though the airline did not say whether these procedures were taken.

After this incident occurred police were likely to prosecute Karolaine after allegedly abandoning her baby. But, since appearing in Manukau’s District Court she was “convicted without punishment”. What are they showing the world? That it is okay to abandon your baby and even worse dump it in the bin and leave the airport like nothing had happened? Karolaine should have been prosecuted and not have been allowed to be reunited with her baby. Many people reckon that she should have been “charged for attempted murder” or even worse “sent straight back to Samoa and thrown into prison or locked up in New Zealand as soon as her baby was found”. New Zealand’s government should be cracking down on these types of women, avoiding and preventing this problem not helping them by giving them the easy way out. New Zealand’s government social welfare should take charge, separate mother and child for the mean while, and have Karolaine undergo psychological treatment.

Yes, I do understand how she would have been ashamed of giving birth to a child out of wedlock, but, I don’t see how she was able to just abandon her baby like that? Imagine if the cleaners chucked that bin into the next rubbish dump? Karolaine would have gotten away with murder and this innocent baby would have died. It was Karolaine’s decision to have unprotected sex so obviously there would be a high risk of getting pregnant. She should have thought about the consequences of her actions and how they would affect her life. I know the Samoan culture and I’m pretty sure they don’t tell you to throw your baby away? It was her choice she should just have just taken the crap. She should have stood up and taken possession of that innocent life. After asking a few people around school they also said that “she shouldn’t have tried so hard to condone her actions on being disowned from her family or ashamed, she should be given the right consequences”.

There are so many women in the world who are unable to have babies and I find it really sad as to how easy it was for this lady to just dump her baby in the rubbish like trash. I personally would advise all the women to realize the special gift they have been given instead of looking at it like a burden and for them to understand how lucky they are to be able to create life.