secret’s blog

When I checked up on the Jezebel website the top story caught my eye.  It talked about an episode of Intervention which airs on A&E.  I happen to watch this show so I wanted to read what the episode was about.  Jezebel gave a brief description a woman with a large problem.  Not only was she a meth addict but she was also a stripper.  The article says that it was more shocking and upsetting to her parents to find out that she was a stripper, none the less a drug addict.  When I read Scobles Corporate Weblog Manifesto I felt that Jezebel fit with many of the rules.  Since I have been reading up on Jezebel the website has not once changed their URL, which according to Scoble is a good thing.  Also the blogs are very truthful, they tell the stories exactly like they are.  In fact they sometimes seem more real then what the media tells us.  The second rule in Scobles Manifesto says that you should “Post fast on good news or bad.”  This is exactly what the website does.   Although, the blog may not follow rule number 14 because the website does share articles about people/ celebrities that are going through hard times.  I feel that the principles of the Corporate Weblog Manifesto are applicable to the blog in question.

In an interview from Kline and Burstein’s, “Making Global Voices Heard” Rebecca MaKinnon spoke about many different blogs.  I chose to read The Kenyan Pundit (http://kenyanpundit.com/).  I chose this blog because I was familiar with the war that is occurring in Kenya and thought that perhaps the blog would talk about it. The blog that was written today discussed the problems in the country and how they may affect local towns.  I felt that the blogs were written as though Ory Okolloh where having a conversation with me.  The writing came off as being very personal.  On the homepage there is a picture of cars with what seems to be people standing around them.  When you click on Photos you are taken to a different site and are able to view many different photos of Kenyan culture.  I think that the blog as it now exists still corresponds to MacKinnon’s views on it.  From the blog I read it spoke about problems that are occurring in the country and in MacKinnon’s interview she said that “According to Ory the Kenyan blog world is growing very, very fast.  Plus, she has found that by being involved and by linking to other Kenyan bloggers, she is a sold part of the Kenyan political scene,” (Kline and Burstein 330). 

After reading “Blogs Will Change Your Business” by Stephen Baker and Heather Green, I came to the conclusion that the impact of blogging on businesses is more powerful than the impact of blogging on communication.  Blogs that deal with business could help get work accomplished in a very well-organized manner.  Baker and Green said that blogs are “the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the internet itself.  And they’re going to shake up just about every business-including yours,” (Kline and Burstein 222).  I feel that blogging in a new business is a great way to market a new product.  Customers or interested buyers will be able to discuss and also see what others think about the products.  Blogs would also enable the company to let buyers know about recalls, new versions of products, answer questions and most importantly customers could let companies know directly how they feel about their products. 

While reading Arianna Huffington’s interview “Punching Holes in Faded Mirrors” I came across a quote that interested me, “But with blogs an enormous amount of people have become their own reporters.  They are driven not by the assignment desk but by passion.  When they decide that something matters they chomp down hard and refuse to let go” (Kline and Burstein, 344).  I agree that people who blog write down and talk about what they enjoy, opposite of most reporters who seem to talk about things just because they are forced to and my experience as a student going through school I know that unless you take pleasure in what you are writing about there will not a great amount of effort put forth.  There is not much that I find myself disagreeing with but one section says that “The media is suffering from attention deficit disorder.  They can only focus on one story at a time.”(Kline and Burstein, 345).  I agree with Huffington up to a certain point.  Yes the media does focus on one main story sometimes, but most of the time there a many other issues being presented, such as news about the war and also many different things that are occurring in Hollywood.  Although it may seem that they are constantly centering their attention on Britany Spears, there are many other issues that are being shown. 

I believe that parents of middle school students should not monitor everything their children are writing online.  I feel that by this age they are old enough to make good enough decisions.  I am not saying that is it a bad thing for parents to occasionally check up on what they’re children are doing, but invading their space or looking over their shoulder can get annoying.  Not only can it get annoying but I feel that it shows a lack of trust from the parents to their children.  While growing up my parents were never nosey enough to look over my shoulders and I never did anything online that I was not suppose to do.  I think the most important thing to do is before you let your child use the computer for the first time sit them down and have a talk with them.  Make sure they know of the bad things that can happen from using the internet inappropriately and especially by giving out private information.  When I was younger I really enjoyed using the internet, it enabled me to research things that I never knew about, talk to my friends, and play games.  In Nussbaum’s article “My So-Called Blog,” she talks about how everyone should just enjoy the internet and what it offers.  “For many in the generation that has grown up online, the solution is not to fight this technological loss of privacy, but to give in and embrace it: to stop worrying and learn to love the Web,” (Nussbaum, 351).  I think that parents should know what their children are doing online but not in a sense of invading their space.  If a child began to spend too much time on the internet using Instant Messaging or you see or sense that they are doing things they are not suppose to do then that is the right time to say something to them. 

“Blogs help break through the anonymity and isolation of modern life.  They give people a voice and a forum with which to speak truth to power or at least to reach out and touch someone.  And although blogs certainly won’t give rise to a million new citizen-Shakespeare’s, they do enable talented but heretofore unacknowledged people with something to say it find an audience- and thereby pluck from the indifference of daily life a bit of validation for themselves, their ideas, and their creative abilities,” (P.247-248).  After reading this paragraph in “I Blog, Therefore I Am,” by David Kline I questioned whether I agreed with all of the things Kline had to say.  During my lifetime I have always noticed that people liked to get their opinions out there.  In my opinion this piece of the article strongly relates to the title… because I blog, therefore I am, therefore I can say what I feel.  Although I do not deny what Kline is saying I just wonder how many bloggers feel this as well.  In my opinion I question how long blogging will continue, how much longer will people be able to speak their minds online?  While reading this article there was nothing that I felt myself totally disagreeing with that is why I chose to speak about the paragraph above.    

“Blogs help break through the anonymity and isolation of modern life.  They give people a voice and a forum with which to speak truth to power or at least to reach out and touch someone.  And although blogs certainly won’t give rise to a million new citizen-Shakespeare’s, they do enable talented but heretofore unacknowledged people with something to say it find an audience- and thereby pluck from the indifference of daily life a bit of validation for themselves, their ideas, and their creative abilities,” (P.247-248).  After reading this paragraph in “I Blog, Therefore I Am,” by David Kline I questioned whether I agreed with all of the things Kline had to say.  During my lifetime I have always noticed that people liked to get their opinions out there.  In my opinion this piece of the article strongly relates to the title… because I blog, therefore I am, therefore I can say what I feel.  Although I do not deny what Kline is saying I just wonder how many bloggers feel this as well.  In my opinion I question how long blogging will continue, how much longer will people be able to speak their minds online?  While reading this article there was nothing that I felt myself totally disagreeing with that is why I chose to speak about the paragraph above.    

This is my first post on Keeneweb blog

After reading Dan Burstein’s twelve key ideas in “From Cave Painting to Wonkette,” number eleven really struck me.  Although I’m not the most politically savvy person, I felt that Burstein had interesting thoughts comparing the 2008 presidential election with blogging.  When he said that blogs could decipher who the next president will be I found it to be a little shocking, but after thinking about it more I figured why not, bloggers would be able to share their thoughts with other bloggers about the different candidates.  Burstein compares blogs during presidential campaigns to be just as important as watching debates on TV, etc.  Even though I am new with the whole blogging world I can still get a picture of how blogs would help people choose which candidate is more worthy of being president. Although Burstein says that blogs could less important in the 2008 election than they were in the 2004 election I believe that to be untrue because people today are forever doing things online.

“Toward a More Participatory Democracy” by David Kline shows an overall view of different opinions bloggers have on the America’s political importance.  Kline immediately shows how conflicts take place between two bloggers with unlike opinions. It also shows the impact blogs have on politics in general, especially elections.  Before I read any of this I would have never thought that blogs would have any sort of effect or even relate to presidential elections.  Kline stated that “bloggers have had such a dramatic impact on the American political scene over the past two years, not only in the run up to the 2004 presidential election but afterward as well.”  Before taking this class I had little knowledge on blogging, and I still have a lot to learn about it, but while reading this piece I was surprised to see that “the ten most popular political blogs collectively had 28 million visits from readers, which rivaled traffic to the three 24/7 online cable news networks.”  28 million visits seemed like a vast amount until finding out that ‘DailyKos’ was attracting 434,132 visits a day!  Americans today tend to believe that most of what they read today in newspapers tends to be false information.  Kline acknowledged that political blogs have turned politics into a participatory sport instead of a spectator sport.  I enjoyed how Kline really stuck to his point of convincing the reader of how important blogs are especially with the United States political outlook.