HW 13: Blogs of The People

In my view, the impact of blogging on communication by individuals is more important then the impact of blogging on business. Some companies are unaware that communication by blogs is changing the way people view their company. AT FRIST GLANCE, BUSINESSES MIGHT SAY THAT what people are blogging about is irrelevant to their company and its success. Some blogs are about Snoopy the dog or vacationing in the Bahamas. BUT ON CLOSER INSPECTION, businesses will find out if they research their name over all the blogs, that a portion is actually talking or possibly criticizing their company on the web for everyone to see. "There are some 9 million blogs out there, with 40,000 new ones popping up each day...that leaves some 40 new ones every day that could be talking about your business, engaging your employees, or leaking those merger discussions you thought were hush-hush" (Kline and Burnstein 223). Clearly, the individual bloggers have the fate of businesses in the palm of their hands. IN AN INCREASINGLY technological WORLD, people are blogging more and listening less and less to the mainstream media. For decades, regular civilians and the mass media had a dividing gap between them. If a person had a comment or disagreed with what a magazine or newspaper was saying, there wasn't much an individual could do to be heard because what the company chose to publish was up to their editors and publishers. Now with blogs, there has been a total change of events and people are now being heard. "Blogs...they represent power. Look at it this way: In the age of mass media, publications like ours printed news. Sources try to get quoted, but the decision is ours. Ditto with letters to the editor. Now instead of speaking through us, they can blog. The divide between the publishers and the public is collapsing. This turns mass media upside down. It creates media of the masses" (Kline and Burnstein 224). The communication that is generated by blogging is forming the way of the future. People now and will continue to be a vital part of every business and media production.