HW 13: Business and Blogging, Two of a Kind

In my opinion blogging has had a huge effect on businesses today. With every expansion of a company or business there is a blog that will pop up and grow right along with it. While reading the chapter “Blogs Will Change Your Business”, from the book blog!, authors Stephen Baker and Heather Green bring up some fascinating points that support my opinion. Each company has a concern with blogs these days because it is a dynamic threat. “While you may be putting it off, you can bet that your competitors are exploring ways to harvest new ideas from blogs, sprinkle ads into them, and yes, find out what you and other competitors are up to” (Baker and Green, 223). Blogs have revolutionized the way companies can keep tabs on almost every aspect of their business. They can see what products their competitors are planning on coming out with and how their new merchandise will fair against their rivals. They can also keep tabs on how the consumer likes the product and the customer service of the company. With this knowledge the company can customize any characteristic that needs to be modified to please the consumer and to keep up with the competition.

Kline, Dave, Burstein, Dan, blog!

HW 11: Blogging Around the World

I chose to view Isaac Mao’s blog for this assignment. It is a pretty bland blog website, just a lot of text and some advertising. I can tell that Mao wants to just get his opinions across through this blog he is not concerning himself with the appearance of the website. Most of the blogs are about this new technology that is coming out that will have a robot for each person which is actually pretty intriguing. The latest though is about the censorship the Chinese government is putting on the internet, this was mentioned in Rebecca MacKinnon’s interview. Rebecca gave an accurate description of this blog and it is a free-spoken person who wants change. He is critical of how the Chinese government is censoring the people of China and he is right in thinking so. Government officials in China, of course, may want to dispute my claim that Mao’s views are helpful to the Chinese people. They would protest that China does not need these negative comments and that Mao needs to be more supportive of China’s policies to help clean up the internet.

HW 9: The Good and Bad That Comes With Blogging

After, reading the title for the chapter “A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night”, I became very intrigued and wanted to know more. In this chapter you hear about Ayelet Waldman’s personal life and her opinions about blogging. There were some interesting points brought up about blogging and I have come to find that I agree with many of these statements. Mrs. Waldman explains that bloggers have a different voice then people that would write to a newspaper. She states that when you blog it is needed to have a bigger or more profound voice to get your opinions heard. I cannot agree more with Mrs. Waldman on this subject, bloggers differ from other writers because of the attitude that goes into their written work. She also believes that when blogger’s write it is more out of anger than positive thoughts. From what I have seen from blogger’s I would have to concur with this statement. When I read blog’s it is usually complaining about a subject or issue, rarely I will see a positive blog. It is not a bad thing but it would be okay to see some more optimistic blog’s that people could get encouragement from. I did not agree with everything Mrs. Waldman said during this chapter, one point stuck out to me though. Mrs. Waldman protests that blogging is a great place to meat strangers, and on these sites you are able to open up with these strangers and get helpful advice. I think Mrs. Waldman is mistaken because she overlooks the fact that these strangers are not completely reliable. The main word in that sentence would have to be strangers, since growing up it has been implanted in each person’s head that you cannot trust strangers. I cannot open up with a stranger that I have not met in person and have not seen what this individual is like. How do you know if this advice is going to be helpful? It is too risky to have trust in a person with your deepest affairs when you don’t even know what they look like.

HW 7: The Parent Protection Agency

Do you think it is okay for a 13 year old to have his parents looking through his e-mails, text messages and IM’s? It is not appropriate for parents to do these kinds of things, by the time your son or daughter is in middle school they need to have some privacy. These forms of communication that kids use today are still supposed to be private. When parents look at their children’s technologies they use to communicate they should remember that these technologies are like a diary. As Emily Nussbaum states in her article, “My So Called Blog,” diaries were taken very seriously in a teenager’s life. “Back in the 1980’s, when I attended high school, reading someone’s diary would have been the ultimate intrusion.”(Kline and Burnstein, 351). Emily is stating that parents know how it is to have something like a diary and should respect their children’s “online diaries”. I feel like it is an intrusion when you look at text messages or IM’s because personal things are said to one another. I would not expect my parents to come and look through my phone try and find the text messages and read them while I am not present. That is disrespectful and parents may think that they are being mature and a good parent by doing this but it is childish.

Kline and Burstein, Blog!

HW 6: Interest Statement for Semester-Long Project

When it comes to social computing my top interests would have to be, aggregators, instant messaging and social networking services. Aggregators interest me because they allow me to get what I want in one established place. For example I frequently use ITunes, which is an aggregator. YouTube can also be classified as an aggregator which I also use a lot. Instant messaging interests me too because I am able to talk to my friends easily without waiting for the e-mail to send and get back. With instant messaging I can just IM them whenever I want and get a response back in one second. My last interest is social networking services such as Face book. This program is used by almost high scholar and college student, so it is to be expected that it would appeal to me.
I am interested in how refugees are being treated around the world. It is an ongoing problem and after learning about the struggles of refugees over the past couple years, I have grown an appeal to the subject. Another issue that I want to pursue would be that of illegal immigration. This problem is growing in America especially and I want to find out how my age group feels about this issue. The last thing that I want to draw more attention to is the rights and empowerment of poor or working-class people. I take interest to this subject because I can relate. My family has been part of the working class for a while and many of friends have had financial problems. I want to find out what rights we have and which rights we do not have.

HW 5b: What is the Problem With Main Stream Media?

In the chapter I Blog, Therefore I Am, David Kline protests that blogging will take over the mainstream media. Kline comes out with many facts that emphasize his point that newspapers, magazines and television are losing their fan base that they once had. In fact, they celebrate the fact that online use only increases in numbers while other sources for news are declining. When first reading this I would have to strongly disagree with these claims and found myself laughing at some points. When I thought that this chapter was going nowhere, Kline starts to contradict his earlier statements and verifies my beliefs that main stream media is still a major part in our world today. Main stream media will actually profit off of blogs, Kline admits. Then Kline goes back to the fact that blogs and other easily accessible media to the normal person are growing in popularity at an alarming rate. Kline claims that blogging gives citizens the voices they never had before in our society. People are getting a chance to express their ideas on a bigger stage where their voices will be heard.
My main concern with this chapter would have been the allegation that main stream media is dying. I know that Kline says later that this is not completely true, but he does not protest this point very well. He focuses more on the point that blogging is the future and newspapers and television will fail in keeping up. It just pisses me off that he contradicts himself later and plays it off like there is nothing wrong with that.

HW 5: Is Gatorade Really the Thirst Quencher

After searching my dorm room for a product to use for this assignment, I have come to find the popular drink Gatorade. After searching online for their website I found that there promise was to be the thirst quencher. It also says this on their bottle and the millions of commercials that have been advertised over the years. It seems that Gatorade’s marketing scheme is to keep its motto’s short and simple, but they also get the point across very well by doing this. The Gatorade Company also claims to rehydrate, replenish and refuel. After reading through the whole website though I have found that these are not just claims, these are facts. It has been proven in laboratories that Gatorade replenishes the athlete’s body faster and better than any other liquid. When they promise you these things on the website there are articles that prove all of the promises which I find impressive. In my opinion, Gatorade is right, they do have the drink that quenches your thirst.

HW 3: Summary of Chapter One

When reading the first chapter of the book Blog!, there were some main points that stuck out. The title of this chapter was, Toward a More Participatory Democracy, written by David Kline. In this chapter the author discusses the importance of blogging and the ideas expressed in some of these blogs. The main idea in this chapter though is the influence that bloggers are having in the political scene. When this book was published the election for the 2004 presidency was just ending. According to Kline these bloggers had a helping hand in the outcome of the election. The reason for this ever growing influence in the political world is that Americans have lost trust in main stream media. They do not desire to watch the news or read newspapers because they have been told lies. Another reason for the ever increasing popularity in blogging is that bloggers are able to say what they want. Bloggers are not censored or forced to say things that they do not desire to say. Kline claims that in media these day’s they are not allowed to express all of their ideals. Also bloggers give audiences stories that other media sources will not because the story may be controversial and not appropriate for television. It is often said that main stream media avoids controversy. When reflecting on this chapter I find myself torn. I feel that I agree with some of Kline’s ideas but I also disagree with some of his claims. I agreed with him that the election was affected by online blogging. I disagree with the fact though that he discredits almost any television source. I believe that there are some things on television that I can believe more than blogging.

HW 2: Will Blog's Ever Catch Main Stream Media?

After reading Burstein’s 12 key ideas in “From Cave Painting to Wonkette”, I have found one idea that has stuck out to me. Burstein claims that, “blogs will coexist with other media for a long time to come, and there will be continual interactions and cross-fertilizations. (Burstein,xxii)” I agree that blogging is being used more commonly in our society, but I would not go as far to say that it will be on the same level with other media outlets. When asking my friends and classmates I have seen that blogging is very rarely used in the young age group. It would make sense that blogging would catch on to the younger age group because it involves computer technology which teens use frequently. Teens don’t use this technology because we have a sense of security with television and newspapers. We were brought up watching the news with our parents not sitting around the computer reading blogs. That is why I would have to disagree with Burstein’s statement that blogs will be on the same level as main stream media.


D. Kline, D. Burstein, (2005), Blog!, New York, Squibnocket Partners LLC.