HW 13- Business blogs or Communication Blogs..whats more important?

From reading the past assignments I think that the impact of blogging on business is more important than blogging on communication. Even though I think it is more important that does not mean that I do not think that blogging on communication is not popular or important. Stephen Baker and Heather Green write in “Blogs will change your business” that “if a company can track millions of blogs simultaneously , it gets a heap map of what a growing part of the world is thinking about, minute by minute”. They also made a good point by noting “Think of the implications for businesses of getting an up-to-the-minute read on what the world is thinking”. Blogging can really help businesses see and understand what they’re customers are thinking. Blogging can help businesses promote and grow. I think that the impact of blogging on communication has to do with the impact of blogging on business. Its individuals (customers) that are blogging about these businesses that are helping them grow. Ultimately what is at stake here is the businesses reputation. Businesses do however have to be careful about what they’re promising or saying on their blogs and they have to watch what are other people might be saying that could hurt the business.

HW 11

I chose to look up the blog holder [holder.com]. This blog is all about the problems that Iran has to face and is facing with in today’s society. I don’t really understand a lot of what I was reading during this blog because I am not familiar with these problems. The blog has some pictures on it and has a lot of different blogs on it. Some of the blogs are in a different language. Some of the blog posts are topics like “Rejecting military attack shows nothing about where one stands. The right question is if one approves or disapprove of the economic sanctions” or “Ahmad Zeidabadi's comment on a recent post on his (and many others') attempt these days to paint Rafsanjani as a moderate.” MacKinnon states that hoder’s blog is “responsible for triggering thousands of Persian blogs both within Iran and amongst the Iranian Diaspora”. She also says that these blogs are one of the few places that young Iranians can speak their minds. I agree with what MacKinnon says. I think it does give young Iranians a place to speak their minds and they get a chance to see what others think about the issues and concerns that they have to deal with. Although I grant that some young Iranians might be a little taken back from this blog or scared to post, I still maintain that its good way to get young people from Iran a place to talk.

Hw 10

“A weblog that saved my life” which was an interview with Ayelet Waldman was a very interesting read. I was surprised to find out that this author and mother of four children had a blog. It was kind of disturbing to see what she wrote on her blogs. This reading actually made me not want to have a blog because I don’t want to see things about sex life, suicide and personal problems in other people’s lives. I think she took blogging too far. I agree with Waldman up to a point, that blogs do help people get their worries and problems out. However I cannot accept the way she put herself out there on blogs. Maybe that’s just because I have never experienced or felt the way she has, and maybe the blog is what she needed for her cry of help. I’m of two minds about Waldman’s claims. On one hand I agree that blogs really do help people out especially women who are going through pregnancy or rough times and you just need someone to talk to. On the other hand I’m not sure if I would put myself out their like that. I don’t know if I would preach how I’m feelings or my worries to people I don’t even know. She however was lucky with what she did because like she said it probably saved her life.

HW 9 My so called Blog

I think this is a hard topic to really take a side on. I think that parents need to be aware of what they’re kids are doing or who they’re talking to online but they need to watch their boundaries. I know that I wouldn’t want my parents checking up on my facebook everyday to look at my pictures or see who I’m talking to. So I think I agree with the statement “Parents should not monitor everything that their middle school children are writing online”. I agree with this because it says should not monitor everything. Which means to me that the parents should not be oblivious to what they’re children are doing online but give them some privacy. Being a teenager or a middle school student you don’t want your parents to always know how you’re feeling. Like it says in the reading “My so called blog” by Emily Nussbaum when she interviewed a boy referred to as J. He stated that “it’s better than therapy” (Nussbaum page 352). When you talk to your therapist you don’t want them to report everything you said back to your parents, it’s all about privacy. J also says “a way to get out his true feelings- all the emotions he thought might get him in trouble if he expressed them in school or at home (Nussbaum page 352)”. This makes my point by saying sometimes kids just need to vent and get their feelings out without their parents trying to know everything about their life. Sometimes kids/teenagers just need to let their emotions out and say what they feel without worrying about getting in trouble or made fun of it for

HW 5B

In the chapter “I Blog, Therefore I Am” by David Kline it talked a lot about how blogging is giving people a chance to have a voice, be heard and how its making the world a more democratic society. Kline emphasizes how popular blogging is going to be and how it will take over mass media. I do not deny that blogging will be very popular but I question if it will be the ruler of mass media. I still believe that television and the internet itself will be the main news sources in the media. I agree with him when he says that most young people don’t read the newspaper anymore which used to be huge in the 1960 to probably the 90s. The generation now, however is more interested with what they’re saying on the news or internet. I don’t think my generation has really gotten into the blog world, but maybe that’s just my point of view because I had never heard of blogging before this class. Also when he talks about the fears of blogging and says that they are a lot like the telephone or telegraph when they first came to our society. I question the familiarities between the two fears. I think they’re should be worries about blogging because let’s face it; the internet isn’t the safest place. At least there are restrictions for the phone but on the internet you don’t know who the people are responding to you, and I think that could be a major worry. Although I agree with most of what Kline has stated in this chapter, I reject the thought of blogging over powering mass media. I guess I will just have to see and wait on how popular it gets.

HW 6

My main intrests for this paper is do somthing with instant message/social networking on young kids in the US. Chat rooms, instant messaging and things like facebook or myspace are starting to appear in young kids life. I want to focus on how young is too young to get involved in these socail computing technologies. I want to focus on this problem mainly in the US, because this is where i see it happening most.
Another idea for this paper is focusing on sexism through out the internet. You see sexism all through out the internet either in chat rooms or social networking services. However this would be my second choice.
My third choice for this research paper would be focusing on the topic of overcoming homophobia through the social computing technologies i have talked about.

HW 4 "The Voice of the Customer"

The brand I chose was Olay Body. It’s a moisturizing lotion that i use. On the lotion it states that its promise is that its lasting moisturization to break the cycle of dry skin it also goes on to say that it helps repair skin's natural moisture barrier for long term dryness relief and it leaves skin looking naturaling radiant. When I looked this product up online on its main home page it stated the same thing "The power to break the cycle of dry skin". It states that it goes beyond basic mositurization.My experience using this lotion has kept its promises. I do believe that it breaks the cycle of dry skin and it is a very dependable moisturizer. However I don’t know if it "goes beyond basic mositurization, I don’t know who would be the judge of that.I think it’s important that brands keep their promises espically on their blogs. After reading "The Voice of the Customer" I read about all of stories where brands lost a lot of their customers after breaking their promises. For example a bike company that didn’t have reliable locks was pointed out on the blogs. (Kryptonite) The bike company had to give back all free locks to the consumers.So to wrap things up I do believe that Olay Body lotion breaks the cycle of dry skin and fulfills their promises.

HW 3

When it comes to the topic of political blogs David Kline shows his knowledge in the reading "Blog toward a more particuipatory Democracy". Many people assume that the news on the television or on the radio gives you the best and most reliable information. After reading this essay i learned political blogs might be a better source of information. David Kline stated that "political blogs and online organizing played in the 2004 election will go down in history as being just as transformative as the role televison played during the 1960 Kennedy debates". I think this is really interesting because it tells you were blogging is going in the future and how powerful it will really be. American people hardly belive what they hear today what they hear on the news and thats why political blogs are becoming more popular. Also another thing about the news is that Americans today tend to belive that religion is really important in their everyday life, but yet they hardly talk about religion in the news. I believe that political blogs played a huge role in the 2004 election. I also belive that this new world of political blogs will continue to grow and spread. Before reading this essay i never knew the effects blogs had on politics, i am interested to see the effect blogging will have on the next election.

"HW 2"

After reading Burstein’s 12 key ideas in “From Cave Painting to Wonkette” I chose "Blogging is going global" as the idea I wanted to study. I am interested to see how far blogging goes in this world. I think that it was interesting that it says that the most influential blogs comes from places like Japan, Korea and China. I was shocked by this because before this class I didn’t even really know what blogging was. It amazes me how popular and wide spread blogging actually is. I wonder how long blogging will continue to grow and how far it will grow. I am curious about how much more i will learn about blogging and i am interested to see how fast blogging will grow. It says that Etienne Chouard, created the opposition vote againist the European constitution in France. It states " the infulence was undeniable when the votes were counted and "no" won the vote". I think its intresting how much power blogs have to change the way people think.