hw13: blogs will change your business

I feel as though the impact of blogging on communication that is not business or non-profit related is very important. To me, the feedback from the consumer and random individuals is more important than what the business itself has to say. Clearly, the business is going to talk up everything that is good about themselves and try to get the readers on their side to prove that their business is the best. Ultimately, what is at stake is the business’ reputation and to me, the best way to get the true feelings on the business and what they stand for is by hearing what different individuals have to say about it. For instance, Baker and Green state that blogs "represent power" and that "instead of going through us, they can blog" (Kline, 224). I feel that it may be easier for bloggers to talk about businesses freely without knowing or caring who is reading what they have to say, rather than going straight to the source and talking to the business itself.

ohmy

The blog I chose to view was the online type of newspaper, OhmyNews (english.ohmynews.com). The website basically looks like an online source of news, there are different columns where you can choose what kind of news you want to read about and where in the world it is going on. I chose to view this blog because I thought it would be interesting to see what this pseudo blog, which was set up before blogs existed, would look like. MacKinnon’s statements were correct when she said that this website is not necessarily a blog, rather it is a good example of an online source where alternative media can show their impact on politics and how this information will spread faster online. This "blog" does in fact correspond to my understanding of what reading"Making Global Voices Hear" lead me to expect from the blog. I figured that from the title of this chapter, it would have something to do with how people communicate their feelings through blogs to people all around the world and the blog that I chose to view is a great example of that. I feel like it is a good example of it because it has different places where you can choose what type of news you want to read about and where the news is coming from. Of course, many will probably disagree with this assertion that this blog can be helpful to society because after all, the sources may not be as reliable as a source such as CNN or MSNBC, but they in fact can be a good source of information.

parental control

It is my opinion that parents should not monitor everything their middle school children write online. I personally believe that children, regardless of what grade they are in, should have some type of freedom in what they say and where they say it. I think that it is a good thing that children in the middle school age level are opening up and letting their peers and other individuals in their lives and what is happening to them. According to Emily Nussbaum, in her article, she states the "the solution is not to fight this technological loss of privacy, but to give in and embrace it: to stop worrying and love the Web" (Kline, 351). I could not agree more with her in this statement. I feel as though it’s a good thing for children to get their feelings and emotions out for people to read. Although most of the time the children are not necessarily writing to please people and get their feedback, it is nice to know children are expressing how they feel. Therefore, parents should not be worried about what is going on in their children’s online lives unless there is cause for some suspicion. Most sites have privacy settings, and it is my belief that children are smart enough to make the decision to set them if they are not comfortable with everyone reading what they have to say. I feel as though parents should back off and let their children live their lives and let them make decisions on their own.. with a little guidance every once and a while

the death of newspapers

In the chapter I blog, therefore I am Klein and Bernstein’s Blog! there is a particular paragraph that I do not fully agree with. They are speaking about the decline in the amount of young people that read newspaper articles daily. It has been said that only 28 percent of young people read the newspaper, which is less than the 33 percent who have claimed to have read a book (Gallup poll of teenagers) (Kline, 239). I will not deny the fact that I do not read a newspaper daily, nor do most of my friends. However, there are other ways of obtaining information about what is going on in the world. Since the internet is becoming evermore popular, it makes it that much easier to go to an informational website and gain the same knowledge that a person would by reading the newspaper. I feel as though it is quite ridiculous to renounce our generation just because we do not read a newspaper on a daily basis.

(hw5b)

customer voices should be heard

In the reading entitled The Voice of the Customer, in the book Blog! by David Kline and Dan Bernstein, it has been said that blogging is breaking down barriers between customers and the makers of the products society will buy. I think that having blogs about different products is a good way to help the consumer decide whether or not to buy that certain product. I have always believed that opinions of a person will influence another person’s decision. Steve Hayden said it best when he said "You’re fighting with very powerful forces because it’s real people’s opinions" (Kline, 105). I have noticed that people that blog are very passionate about their values and opinions. It is often said that smart companies will create their own blogs for the marketing benefits. I believe that it is in the companies best interest to create a blog to check up and see what the customer thinks of their product, it will help the companies to fix issues with the product and to keep with the things they were doing right.

blogs contribute to a participatory democracy

In discussion of whether or not blogs contribute to a more particpatory democracy, some will argue that "The media is owned by the right wing and is being used to control and manipulate the masses" (Fick, 3). It has also been argued that there are no youth around to read the blogs in order to sway their opinions and determine their voting status. I will have to agree with this because I do not know of many people my age that go to a blogging website to read opinions and views about politics for fun. However, it has been said that "political bloggers can mobilize and unite large groups" (Kline, Burnstein, 14). My own view is that blogging can and will be helpful to reach out to new people and share political opinions with the world. However, I feel as though it could be hard to reach and make everyone aware of these political blogs in order to gain a more participatory democracy. It has been said that political bloggers have opened up new opportunities to get a more particpatory country and help to shape the political future for the better and so long as it can be done the right way, I feel as though it is a definite possibility.

blogging is particularly interesting?

Many people assume that blogs are particularly interesting because they marry so much personality and attitude with this complex mix of software technologies At the same time that I believe this to be true, I also believe that blogs can be over-telling and too much like a diary. To me, blogs are hard to understand because in some cases, the way a person writes how they are feeling may not be read the way they want it to sound. For instance, if a person is trying to be sarcastic, it can be hard to read if it is not obvious sarcasm. I have always believed in freedom of speech and saying what is on your mind, therefore my feelings toward posting blogs is very unclear. Blogging can be a good way to voice a person’s emotions, opinions and feelings on a certain subject because some people are better at writing down how they feel, rather than expressing that emotion in person. I agree that blogging is a great way to keep in touch and communicate with people all across the world, however when do you know when you’ve written too much or offended a person in your blog because you are opening yourself up for the whole world to understand your feelings.