HW#13 Business blogging more important.

After reading Stephen Baker and Heather Greens chapter "Blogs Will Change Your Business," we were asked to express our opinion on how we feel about business blogging. Is it more important than blogging for communication? I believe that blogging for business is a lot more important. Think of the impact that it has on businesses, whether it is good or bad. In the chapter its talks about a man named Mark Jen who worked for Google. He made a blog and in it he complained about googles health plan and how his previous jobs health plan was better. Google later saw this blog and fired Jen. Two weeks later Google was blogbusted for overreacting, and sending warnings to dozens of bloggers at the company. People who read Jen's blog may be turned off from the company because of his views and experiences with Google. There are 9 million blogs out there, 40,000 new ones everyday. People are able to see how businesses work, and what goes on with them, whether it turns them on or off from the company. So it’s a good thing too, plus other businesses are able to see and then compete with that business. So I truly believe that business blogging is starting to have a huge affect with businesses itself.

HW#11 "making global voices heard."

After reading "Making Global Voices Heard: An Interview with Rebecca MacKinnon," (Kline and Burstein) I chose to talk about the blog by Isaac Mao (isaacmao.com/meta). When you first come to the blog you see that it is very plain, nothing to fancy, it’s just getting the blogs out there for you to read. It has a white background with the normal black text. As MacKinnon stated, he is a well known blogger be cause he is the only blogger who blogs in both English and Chinese. On his site you can see that Mao mostly talks about the issues that are going on in China. His last post was on September 9, 2007. This blog talked about the World Economy Forum. And also internet censorship, and how it is becoming more serious in China. In MacKinnon’s reading she mentioned how Chinese blogs are very strict, and that if you wish to post something you have to set up an account on Mao's blog and then use keywords to see what you can then post. And sometimes their are cases where the blog may not even be posted because their was something in it that they didn't like. She also stated that many people have actually gone to jail because they posted something that was wrong for their blogs. MacKinnon stated that one of Mao's blog (The Great Firewall) had recently been shut down for revealing too much information. I agree with this because you really need to be careful about what you post on your blogs. Yet some people may challenge my views about what you post on your own blog because you do have the freedom of speech, but in China you must be careful. Before I read the blog my expectations were correct. It was about events going on in China.

HW#9 An interview with Ayelet Waldman.

For our homework 9 we were asked to pick one of two narratives to respond to. I have to say that Ayelet Waldman's "A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night," was one of the most interesting pieces i have read so far. Weblogging is a new way of life. A new way to express ones self. I love how she is able to talk about all her life experiences, especially when she talks about the abortion of her son Zeke. I think it truly takes a strong person to talk about these very private and upsetting issues. I agree that more of the weblogs tend to be negative because my experience with viewing a lot of different blogs confirms it. The negative side is when people talk down on people. Like with famous celebrities, their will always be someone out there who is talking about the negative sides. Take Perez Hilton, a famous celebrity blogger who is known for bashing celebs. Take a look at his webpage, Perezhilton.com. As soon as you get on their most of the stories are negative. Although I have to agree that it does make good stories and for some reason people are always more interested in the negatives than the positives. Like I said before it is a way of life, but whether it’s positive or negative blogging, its still blogging. People are able to read and respond however they feel.

HW#7 "My So Called Blog"

I actually have opinions for both sides to the question if parents should be allowed to monitor everything that their middle-school child writes on the internet. Yes it is good for the children to begin to get some privacy in their lives. It is a part of growing up, a way of expressing themselves. In Kline's "My So-Called Blog" Nussbaum states "peer into an online journal, and you find the operatic texture of a teenage life with its fits of romantic misery, quick-change moods and sardonic inside jokes." "And everything that parents fear comes true." "But the linked journals also form as a community, and intriguing unchecked experiment in silent group therapy." (Kline 351) Basically saying that kids can and will express their feelings and their friends are there to give them advice, and read and respond to the issues at that time. Although parents may not like the idea of having everyone look at their child’s personal issues, it is a way to communicate with others. I do believe that the children should be monitored while online, not saying you should stand over them and watch every move, but keep them in a place where if you needed to check on them you could. Like in the living room, not their bedroom. And if you feel that your child is having serious issues, and they're not confronting you about them, then you should pursue going online to check these journals. That is because its then for the safety of your child. So monitor your kids, but don’t watch their every move. Some privacy is good; it teaches the teenager that you have trust for them. And just be aware of how they are acting and feeling, so that if something is wrong you can check in on them.

HW#6 Interest statement for semester long research project.

For the semester long research project I am interested in a few topics. For my first choice I would like to pick social networking services. Services like this would include "Myspace," of "Face book." Both of these which really interest me because I have an account with each of them. They are a good way of communicating with people that you do not get a chance to see or talk to everyday. You can post pictures, leave comments, and there are a million different applications for these networking services. My second choice would be instant messaging. Like the social networking services instant messaging is another great way to talk to friends from all over the place. You can talk to people from your town, or across the United States. You can't post pictures or do other things like Face book or Myspace, but it’s just a simple way to chat with a friend. My third choice would be text messaging. As an 18 year old teenage girl, I can vouch for the rest of us, that text messaging is addicting! We all know that we love to do it in the middle of class or when you're on the go and don’t have time to physically talk on the phone. It’s an easy way to just say "hi," or "what’s up?"
Next we were asked to pick a few marginalized groups that we would be interested in researching. I have an interest in overcoming sexism, overcoming racism, and also issues of disabilities or learning differences. Next we were to choose a few countries that we would be interested in. I would like to get to know more about the US, North America, and possibly Europe. All of these with the exception of the US, I don't really know much about. So it will be interesting in seeing how they deal with these topics. I look forward to this project; I think it will be a great way to learn about all these different topics.

HW#5b. "I blog, Therfore I Am."

After reading David Kline and Burstiens chapter "I Blog, Therefore I Am," I came across one particular paragraph that i did not agree with. On page 239 they state that numbers for traditional media is not looking good. They also claim that newspaper circulation had fallen 11 percent since 1990, and continues to fall. Basically saying that in time newspapers will fall off completely from the media scene. I would like to argue this because although today some people are getting their daily information from other sources than the newspaper, not everyone has the technology, the money, and other resources to get information other than the newspaper. Do to poverty the internet and computers are not always available to some people. So those people will resort to reading the daily newspaper for free. So with that, I would like to question and disagree with how they believe newspapers are going to completely fall of from the media scene. I believe that they will always be around.

HW#4 Option 2. Herbal Essences

After reading "The Voice of the Customer," in David Kline and Burstein's "Blog," we were told to find a product in our room, and see what promises that product makes. Right away I looked and saw my shampoo and conditioner which is made by Herbal Essences. So I googled Herbal Essences and it brought me to their website http://www.herbalessences.com/us/. On their website the first thing that you see is a flash logo that says, "May your hair drink to good health, may your hair be so clean its rated G, may your skinny hair turn into the perfect body." With that said I believe that they are promising clean, healthy, and wonderful hair. I think they do a great job of upholding their promises. I use a specific kind of Herbal Essences called "Totally Twisted" which they state is for curls & waves; make a curl's life happy. "We're for girls who want curls, and babes who want waves that are smooth, lush and defined." This shampoo defiantly holds up my curls all day long without frizzing up. So with that said I think Herbal Essences does a wonderful job with keeping their promises, and I would recommend any of their products to other women.

HW#3 My writting response to "toward a more paticipitory democracy"

Many Americans today tend to believe that blogging is beginning to have an effect on political views. In our reading it mentions various examples of how political blogging is affecting our democracy today. It was TheMemoryHole.com blog that scooped the media by publishing defense department photos of the caskets of the soldiers who had died in the Iraq War. Which Bush preferred to keep from the public. The DailyKos blog was the first to reveal that a bush campaign ad called "Whatever It Takes" used a photograph of a presidential speech that had been digitally altered to make the crowd seem larger than it really was. Then there was BlogActive.com that first published audio tapes of Republican congressman Edward L. Schrock, a vocal opponent of gay rights and key supporter of several anti-gay laws, soliciting sex acts from men on a telephone sex line. I believe that if some people were to read these blogs they may have a new opinion on some of these people. So that’s why I think blogging is beginning to have an effect in our political world today.

HW#2. I am responding to the 12 Key ideas of David Kline and Dan Burstein.

There is an enormousinfluence that bloggers are beggining to have upon the american political scene. The impact begins with an examination of how its reshaped the way in which americans get their political news and discuss the contraversies of the day. In November, 2004 there were a reported 33 million readers of blogs that had to do with polotics. This could have effects on the character of our democracy. Bloggers offer their readers not only political attitude, but political scoops as well. Political blogs often serve as effective opinion research tools that helped the various candidates test our ideas and campaign slogans. The real influence of political bloggers come from their ability to reach the right people. Political bloggers may have overtime prove capable of mobilizing large enough sectors of the voting public unsatisfied with the limited choice offered by the two main political parties. "Blogs are fun," says Ezra Klein on his own blog.

My first ITW Blog

My Name is Jackie, and for one of my classes at Keene State college, we are required to create a blog. The class is called ITW 101 A Blog Of Ones Own: Women and Authorship in the Digital Revolution. So.. here it is.