Rettberg on the Values of Blogs

Chapter 4: "Citizen Journalists?"

 

This Chapter of Rettberg's book detailed some of the important characteristics of blogs and in doing so, it showed three things: the diversity of blogs, the prevalence of blogs, and the significance of blogs.  According to a survey cited in this chapter, 37% of blogs are diary style which focus solely on the personal life of the blogger.   I have always considered these blogs to be essentially useless and about as significant as a Facebook profile.  The chapter cited multiple cases, however, in which these personal blogs provided insider information to key world events.  While this only happens to an extremely small number of diary bloggers, it underscores the importance of them and helps prove the point that the blogosphere does not have to be in direct conflict with mainstream media.  The blogosphere makes mainstream media better.  After all, what is the goal of mainstream media?  To inform the public.  Of course, there is corruption and a desire to control public thought that we can't forget about, but that is where the beauty of blogs comes in to play.  Money does not control blogs.  Blogs thrive because they are not slanted towards the economic ties of a television network or publishing company, they are only slanted by the bias of the blogger.  If you don't like the opinions of a particular blogger, there are countless others with their own opinions for you to follow.  Another benefit of blogs: many of them are true journalists.  Many professional journalists have blogs under pseudonyms so they can report things that their employer might not want published under their name.  These crucial differences between the blogging community and mainstream media make each other better because of their conflict.  As written in the chapter, it is symbiosis.

Chapter 6: "Blogging Brands"

The term "blogging brands" refers to the relatively new idea of corporate blogs.  If you had asked me before I had read this article what the ramifications of corporate bloggging are, I probably wouldn't have said much.  After reading it, it is clear that they have changed the game of marketing almost entirely.  Speaking as a consumer, I agree with everything that was said in the article about how the advertising methods of the past are becoming ineffective and that companies are searching for new ways to connect with their customers.  Interestingly, I don't think I would have been able to say how companies are trying to do this without having read this article.  The marketing departments in these companies know more about me than I do.  They know how to effectively advertise to me even if I don't know what will appeal to me.  I am curious to see if the corporate blogs can maintain the association of honesty and human connection or if after awhile we will start to view them as hollow as well.  We know that companies hire marketing teams to run these blogs with the sole purpose of maintaining their image and increasing sales.  For this reason, I could definitely see consumers losing trust in corporate blogs as well.  Personally, I do not think that there will ever be a permanent solution to connecting with customers because it will always boil down to money, and we know that.