HW:13 "Blogs Will Change Your Buisness"

Although I feel that Blogging is more of an important impact on communication, Blogging affects businesses to a larger extent. The impact of blogs on communication I believe is more important because it enhances connections and reviews of ideas about everything from diaries to politics. It is a way to transfer information fast and efficiently, and it is a way to get your voice heard with all kinds of opinions by the general public. Although all this is true about blogs on communications, Blogs on business has a larger impact. This impact is greatly larger because many give their opinions of the business whether it is going well or not, and everyone can see if there is a repetitive complaint or compliment by the consumer. Frank states that "We can't afford to lose our eyes on blogs, because they are simply the most explosive outbreak of information since the Internet itself. And they're going to shake up just about every business--including yours" (Kline and Burnstein 222). This shows that blogs are a huge impact on how a company succeeds. Although I feel the impact is stronger on business, to me, the impact of blogging on communication is more important to the people.

hw 11:Making global voices heard

The blog that i chose was "Ohmynews." The blog is a different form of an online newspaper with a lot of information. It gets thousands of submissions everyday from ordinary people. This blog was created in South Korea and has a large impact on politics in South Korea. The blog has many different news articles, some from South Korea, but also news from other places in the world. The blogs themselves are not listed on the website you have to go to global voices online to read the blogs. The blogs are posted by ordinary people from all over the world. The topics that are blogged about relate to the articles posted on the website of "Ohmynews."
MacKinnons views and statements about "Ohmynews" are somewhat agreeable, it does not necessarily follow everything on the blogsite today. The only thing that i don't think corresponds with Mackinnons views, is that the blogs don't necessarily relate to the articles. I expected more out of the website with a lot of different opinions about the news that was currently going on that related directly to a specific article. The blogs relate to the news as a whole, which i didn't expect. I also expected the blogs to be based more on politics in South Korea, rather than news all over the world, since Mackinnon talked mostly about how blogs effected the last election of the South Korean president.
Of course, many will probably agree with the assertion that the blogs are a large impact on politics and alternative information, i felt it lacked politics, and was largely based on the alternative information.

Hw 9: applying ch 4 to interveiw

In the interview with Arianna Huffington, “Punching Holes in Old Faded Mirrors,” she explains her blog that she has launched that was propelled by celebrity power. Arianna Huffington is a social and political activist, and once a candidate for the governor of California. The point of Huffingtons bogs, is to “enrich and strengthen the blogs’ impact on the national conversation.” (Huffington 343) Huffingtons Blog is a combination of conversations of news and blogs. She calls this a “blogazine.”
There are many points that I agree with that Huffington has to say. Her Theory of blogs is extremely useful because it sheds insight of the difficult problems of the monopoly of the mainstream media. Where journalists head in sometimes a misleading direction, blogs are a larger group of people that have reports of their own giving blogs more opinions than just one particular reporter may have. I also agree with what Huffington has to say when she talks about the mainstream media “With the mainstream media there are so many constraints. And the biggest constrain in my opinion, is that the media is suffering from ADD. They can only focus on one story at a time……In contrast, in the blogoshere you can stay on a topic and return to it.” ( Huffington 345) I agree with that because my experience of watching and reading mainstream media confirms that. The blog that Huffington created is to show as many different views of the news that involve the opinions from celebrities, to people of all ages. She wants to show as many sides possible to have a blog that is true to the people as possible.

HW 7: "My so called blog"

One of the most important factors in a teenager’s path to self discovery is having some personal space away from the two people who are constantly telling you what to do. Although it might be helpful for the parents of teens to find out what kind of trouble their teenage son or daughter might be up to, it's almost more important to express what you have to say, even if it involves something that your parents should know. In Emily Nussbaums chapter, "My So-Called Blog," she interviews a variety of teens that have an online journal. One 15-year-old boy "J." tells Nussbaum his feelings toward his online journal and she says:
" He called it "better than therapy," a what 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. Online, he could blurt out confessions of loneliness and insecurity, worrying about slights from friends."(Kline and Burnstein 352)
The way J. explains his online journal, shows how it not only helps him confessing his insecurities, but it aids his through rough times with his friends. I think that teens should have a confidential online journal, because it could help them out in the long run and may even reach to them more than a therapist could.

Hw 6 : interset statement for semester-long project

There are many topics to chose from for the semester long writing project but there are a few that interest me a little more. To start out with geographical areas, i am interested in places like Asia, Europe, US, and Africa. For empowerment of marginalized groups, things such as Rights and empowerment of people with illnesses such as HIV/AIDS are one of the largest issues going on in Africa. Thousands and thousands are dying from it and there is little being done to stop this tragic issue. I find this topic very interesting because of the amount of people that are being killed from this disease and how it is not improving. In The US there are many empowerment issues, such as sexism,racism,ageism,religious intolerance, and homophobia. Although these issues are not as strong as they were years ago, they continue to be an issue for many Americans today. I find these topics so interesting, because it is awful how people are discriminatory towards people after the many years trying to fight for things, such as sexism, racism etc. Social computing technologies that interest me most are instant messaging, podcasting, social networking services, and wikis. All of these social computing technologies interest me because of the way they have evolved for the past few years. From the amount of people that join social networking services and instant messaging, to the way the podcasting has taken over. All of these subjects really interest me and there is a lot to write about with all of these topics.

Hw 5b

In the chapter "Therefore I Am," by David Kline, there were many points of the chapter that were disagreeable. On page 250, there are a few paragraphs that Kline talks about, that I disagree upon a little more than the rest of the chapter. In these few paragraphs, Kline talks about Netspeak. Netspeak is an online communication often used on instant message and Blogs. "It's methods of conveying text, thoughts, and even emotions in the shortest form possible"(Kline 251). An example of this would be "g2g, ttyl" meaning got to go, talk to you later. What people are worried about, is that we will start speaking, and writing like this all the time They are concerned that generations from now, our language will be completely transformed from online communication.
I disagree strongly with what Kline had to say about Netspeak. He thinks that our classic literature will be ruined from this and that the English language will be transformed from the way we communicate online. However, a panel of experts at a recent Washington symposium on language and Internet refuted the thought that Netspeak was not undermining our literacy. They verified Netspeak, as an encourager for younger people to write more, even if it is not 100% good at first. I support with what they had to say about Netspeak, because i have been writing on instant messenger for years now, and it hasn't affected the way that i write at all.

Hw:4 responding to "The Voice of the Customer" Option 2

The product that I chose, was "Snyder's of Hanover," the honey wheat organic pretzels. I think the promise of this product is not only that it is a tasty and healthier snack, but that it is USDA organic. When a product is USDA organic, that promises the consumer that it is organic and doesn't just say it is. On the Snyder's of Hanover website (www.snydersofhanover.com) the site implies that "Each of our time-honored recipes is baked only from the finest organic ingredients. Ingredients that are naturally grown without harm to the environment, and meet the strict standards for organic certification… like our Organic Honey Wheat Sticks, always delicious and low-fat." In my experience, i agree with the promise that was on the website because although they are low in fat and organic, they are very tasty. I also believe that Snyder's it trying to draw more of a crowd in by having organic products and promising that they "meet the strict standards for organic certification" and also that they are "delicious and low fat." The company doesn't have a blog, so all of the comments about the product are all positive.

Hw 3: Toward a more participatory democracy

In the first chapter of Blog! by David Kline and Dan Burnstein, David Kline writes "Toward a more participatory democracy." In This chapter, there are many different opinions and opposing views about blogging in America from politics, to the media. The chapter gives examples of many bits and pieces of different blogs but it mostly talks about two very popular blogs that were made with such different opinions. The 2004 election was a very popular time for bloggers to get their political views out there for everyone to see. During this time, blog visits beat fox news online visits by 1.3 million viewers. This shows how much of an influence these blogs are on opinions of voters. Even after this election, millions of viewers were still attracted to these political blogs. Common sense seems to dictate that "political blogs have become a vital source of news and opinions for millions of Americans and an alternative to traditional newspapers and television"(Kline 6).
The media has made a large impact on blogging because so many Americans have lost respect and trust from the media, that many people have found blogging more truthful since it is coming from the people and Americans would rather be persuaded by blogs than the media.The conclusion of this chapter talks about how political blogging is opening up new opportunities to make the political future of our country better for the people.
I was intrigued by how people are so against the opinions in the media, and how they think it is reflecting politics. I wasn't fully aware how much blogging has effected peoples opinions in politics or even how much people thought the media is corrupting our views.

Hw 2 : Blogging is going global

Americans today tend to believe that "Blogging is going global." According to Burnstein's 12 key ideas about blogging, he also believes that it is going global and changing our culture and politics not only in America, but worldwide. I find this topic very interesting because i was unaware that blogging was so popular here or that it has become influential in countries all over the globe. For blogging to become so popular in places like Iraq and Iran, it really shows that we have urges and needs to express our thoughts. Another intrest that came to mind in while i was reading"Blogging is going global," was how it can impact a culture to the point where people can change their opinion. The school teacher from Marseille who opposed the European Constitution in France in May of 2005. It amazes me how her blog and other contributions to her blog made the pubic realize what needed to be stopped. This section on "Blogging is going global" is a very interesting and important factor in blogging because it really shows how not only the nation, but the globe is making a contribution towards it.