Pinkie’s Realm

So now after reading more of Blog! I’ve come to learn about how blogging can affect politics and the business world. In the latest essay I’ve read by David Kline he discusses how blogging relates to culture. In his essay, “I Blog Therefore I Am”, he emphasizes the idea that the blogging world of reporting news and events is essentially killing the mainstream media, or as he puts it the ‘Big Media’. My only problem with Kline’s essay is not necessarily the ideas he supports, but rather his own contradictions of such ideas. Firstly, he states his own biased opinions, arguing that the Big Media itself is biased and he then goes on to say that their reports are “hidden by a screen of presumed objectivity”. Furthermore he goes on to argue that bloggers’ biases are openly and proudly stated. This statement of his is biased in itself, not only because he does not give any evidence or examples to demonstrate why he believes traditional news reports are so untrustworthy, but because he also generalized the blogging commyunity by insisting they are all open and proud to share their sometimes conflicting viewpoints. I can only object to these points of his because I believe the blogging community is far to large and diverse to generalize even one small portion of the blogosphere. If Kline had perhaps offered a few facts or example to support his statements, than I would not be so quick to critizize his method of discussing the subject matter at hand.

On the other hand, he is fairly accurate when he brings up the fact that most bloggers provide readers with links to documents and information sources. In that respect, bloggers are much more trustworthy because they aren’t omitting anything like the Big Media: they tell you exactly where they are getting all of their information (at least from what I’ve seen thus far). While it’s true that traditional reporters working for newspaper and news programs don’t always mentions where they are getting their information from, I wouldn’t say I necessarily think they are lying to the public. It’s just easier to track where a typcial citien, a blogger, finds their sources…especially since it’s almost always an internet source. Not to mention these sources are also often other forms of mainstream media news-reporting. So while Kline brings up good points, that makes myself question the media (as I often have in the past) I just don’t know what to think of the Big Media at this time. And while his argument, in that the mainstream media is being pushed out of the way by the bloggers, I can mainly only question the nature of his argument itself. After working on convincing the reader that blogging is quite likely to eventually overcome the Big Media, he contradicts himself yet again when he says that the mainstream media will “in all likelihod not only survive its encounter with blogging, but will actually profit from it”. Yes, I do support many of his theories and ideas brought up throughout the chapter, but not to the extremity that he does. Though I can’t say I fully trust the Big Media, I don’t think it will ever die out. Where do bloggers thet their information from in the first place, after all, but the mainstream media itself?

*Bold text indicates templates or words used from “They Say/I Say” by Graff and Birkenstein (Page 37, for this post).

David Kline’s essay, “The voice of the Customer” in Blog! focuses on the business aspect of blogging, and how greatly it can affect a company’s success. Many businesses in this modern age have begun to use blogging as a marketing tool, though some may have missed the point at first. A few corporations, in attempt to reach the vast community of bloggers, launched ploys to promote their products. The problem was bloggers caught on, and soon boycotted the fake blogs and the product. Other companies however took advantage of the blogging phenomenon in a more successful way. They created company operated blogs in which they offered useful information to their customers regarding their area of business, not just advertising their products alone. And other companies mapped out blogs that concentrate on their area of business, and so they could discuss and promote their product throughout those particular blogs. Because of the raw truthfulness and sometimes unforgiveable nature of the blogosphere, many companies have experienced negative outcomes of bloggers discussing their faults. Recently though, there has been yet another method in which companies are reaching their customers–companies are having their very own employees talk with the customers via blog.

One such company (mentioned by Kline on page 114) that has has experienced positive feedback is Microsoft. Robert Scoble is a programmer who works for the company and now has his famous blog “Scobleizer”. It has revolutionized the way customers and companies communicate, and Scoble himself has so drastically transformed the firm’s image that he has been named “Chief Humanizing Officer”. After searching for his site on the internet, I found two. Both of them seem to be his blog, Scobleizer, but after reading them both I found that one is his new site and the other his old. Both of the websites can be found at http://scoble.weblogs.com/ and http://scobleizer.com/. His heading for his previous website was “Microsoft Geek Blogger” and his new heading is “Tech Geek Blogger”. Other than the headings, I can’t find much of a difference between the sites other than the URL. I was surprised by how personal his website was, it didn’t exclusively focus on Microsoft, computing, or programming, but his personal life as well. He posts videos and provides links to everything he discusses, including advertising, traveling, Google, Yahoo, and of course Microsoft. Overall I can’t say that I’d be a devout reader of his blog, but I did find it interesting and perhaps helpful if I get more into programming one day.

 I enjoyed reading David Kline’s essay “Towards a More Participatory Democracy” in the book Blog! more so than Burtstein’s introduction, because I found it was much more stylistic, and less repetitive. He brought up numerous points from opposing sides and many examples as well. Like Burstein, he discussed the mainstream media, referred to as the “Big Media”, and how blogging may not primarily report the news but rather helps expose the lies of the media. It is too often that our government officials and news reporters tell us things that do not add up–yet the inconsistencies, however, do add up. Although he does not say so directly, Kline apparently believes that the media is extremely misleading and often times, false. I agree with him strongly on this matter. I did however find it interesting to discover just how much of an effect blogs have had on political situations and scandals. I knew it had helped to sway voters’ opinions in the past, but I wasn’t aware of so may specific examples in which thousands of people were led to write letters in protest against politicians who were proven to be hypocrites or liars. Hopefully someday with the help of the general population, I’ll have enough faith and trust in our government to actually vote.

*Bold text  = templates taken from “They Say/I say” By Graff and Birkenstein

After reading Dan Burstein’s introduction, “From Cave Paintings to Wonkette” in his book Blog! (co-written with David Kline), I found that his enthusiam for digital revolution left me both intrigued and skeptical. Though I fully agree with him that blogging is indeed a modern source of more reliable, and trustworthy reports of world news, I don’t believe that it will fully change the world. Blogging and online communication, without a doubt, does have an international effect on the opinions of bloggers and other citizens egarding political matters, as well as the spreading of truth. The fact of the matter is, however, more people are likely to sit down on their couch and watch the TV to hear the news reports rather than search for more credible reports that can be found on the internet. I, more than most people, do not trust the media and believe they omit vast amounts of information, likely due to government intervention. Though I wish  blogging indeed could change the world and spread the truth, I know that the news on television is still the primary source that even bloggers go to, to discuss what they really believe happened.
     And as far as his 12 key ideas are concerned, I do actually agree with most of them. His third key idea however is by far my favorite. He states that, ‘blogging, in addition to being a huge phenomen in its own right, is the key metaphor for interactivity, community-building, and genuine conversation: one to one, one to many, many to one, many to many’. Even in my freshmen year of high school I had an online journal of sorts. I don’t believe any of us called it a ‘blog’ at that time, we just called them ‘online journals’ or something of the sort. Livejournal and Xanga journals were the most popular: they were free, and anyone could join. That way multiple people could interact and read each others posts. Some people used them to record stores and ideas and could even maintain anonymity if they chose to. Soon myspace came along, then facebook with privacy settings. The point is, the internet is now endless. There are so many sources of information and people speaking out, and waiting to be heard, in virtually every way. Maybe blogging can’t change the world for good, but it certainly is making a difference.

I have successfully created a Keene blog for my blogging class. Nice.