Bloggers: an army of irregulars, by Paul Reynolds
Explain in your own words how Reynolds thinks that blogs are most useful. What do they do well, and what do they do poorly? Is Reynolds fair in his criticism?
Well ladies and gentlemen, blogs can be a good source of information, and be a good supplement or alternative to the main stream media (msm). However, they can be (and many times are) biased and unfair. While they can hold government and the msm accountable, they can also be too critical and devoid of useful information.
Why bosses blog - and why it's cheesy, by Stephen Evans
Why does Evans think that many corporate blogs are, in his words, "regulation corporate speak"? What's wrong with that?
Corporate speak is full of bias aimed at the stockholders to make them happy. It is also usually nothing but a load of fluff that one would usually see coming from the Public Relations Dept. Some of these blogs seem to be overshadowing the PR people since it is coming "straight from the horses mouth" high up on the corporate food chain. In this, it loses credibility. Also, there is the legality issue when the higher ups start spouting ideas tht haven't been approved by the board of directors. It is a slippery slope for these execs that do this type of blogging, who must watch out when they walk that line between useless blog fluff and insider information.Michael Crow's blog
Look through President Crow's blog and see if you can find instances of Evans' "regulation corporate speak" or times when Crow is being more personal. Quote him in your reply. Which do you find more effective? Why?
Nearly all of his blog posts are corporate speak in its finest form. President Crow certainly has a talent for saying nothing while speaking at length. His entire post entitled "More Important Budget Facts" has nothing in it that would serve the average student well. It mostly is an apologists rantings of why we the students will be paying even more tuition, but does nothing to say why he still gets a pay raise. Even in his more personal posts have little in the way of substance. This means even his most heartfelt (and I use that term loosely) posts is not effective. I have seen nothing from this president that puts my mind at ease. You see, the proof is in the pudding. As a student I have seen how this university has deteriorated in its academic capability. Sure, students are getting good grades, but are they really learning anything useful? As a former business student, I have gained most of what I know in the business world from actually being out there working. None of it (aside from accounting, so kudos there) have I learned from my business classes...which is why I changed to communications. I actually learn useful things there...sometimes.
GM's Official Blog, "FastLane"
Again keeping Evans' article in mind, how would you describe the usefulness of this blog? Who might find it interesting? In other words, who is the blog's intended audience?
Well, this blog could be useful to car afficianados, or people curious about the company (like potential investors). To the general public it seems to be a rather useless blog. It contains nothing I can't learn from their PR releases in the lates "Car and Driver" rag.SYNNEX CEO's blog
Again keeping Evans' article in mind, how would you describe the usefulness of this blog? Who might find it interesting? In other words, who is the blog's intended audience?
Now here is a blog that I found to be interesting. It gives information for CEO's, administrators, and managers who can use his bits of sage advice to be a better leader. He describes the kinds of posts that should be used to inform without being trite. As someone that looks to be a better leader, I found this to be a nice little treasure trove. It's just too bad more corporate execs haven't read this blog.
And that ends this assignment for today everyone. So in the words of Bill and Ted..."Be excellent to each other."
...oh, and "party on, dude."
Universal Tim Norris
