Business, Blogging and the BBC

To blog or not to blog? It seems in today’s climate it seems to not keep up with the pace of society and in particular the online community one may find oneself out of the loop rather fast. It seems to go further than the one-person one blog, as once you have your blog up and running one becomes a small and unique dot in the huge and ever expanding Blogosphere.The Blogosphere or any social network platform for that matter has had a large impact on business, marketing and branding, increasing market flexibility and promote and show themselves to the public (Richards & Katarzyna, 2013). ‘Initiators and entrepreneurs aren't just using social media to make their efforts more transparent and accessible, they're using these platforms to improvise and organise new ways to get the job done’ (Schrage,2013).

Blogging allows the brand to develop personality, generate online conversations and interactions. The interconnectedness of social media, allows a single customer to share an experience with their own network, allows online visibility and presents opportunities for the business reach many more people that it may not have been able to without the help of this virtual tool. In short, business blogging is a low-cost way to create opportunities to get your website found by the people that you want to find it (Eridon, 2013).

A good example of company blogging is the BBC. In addition to their news blogs, the BBC publishes a series of behind the scenes blogs, including an editor’s blog in which the BBC news editorial staffs dissect the broadcasters news coverage and the media industry in general. They also have just to name a few a Glastonbury blog, Twitter and YouTube accounts (Catone,2008).

I think blogging has become a sort of norm, people do it without realising it, businesses do it to promote and the world keeps turning. I may not have had a Blog before this class, however I was essentially doing it through Facebook and YouTube, I still find it fascinating that people actually want to take the time to read what I have to say.

• Catone, J 2008, 15 companies that really get corporate blogging, http://www.sitepoint.com/15-companies-that-really-get-corporate-blogging/

• Eridon, C, 2013, What is business blogging, http://blog.hubspot.com/what-is-business-blogging-faqs-ht

• Richards, J & Katarzyna, K, 2013, In the end, you can only slag people off for so long: Employee cynicism through work blogging, New Technology, Work and Employment, Blackwell publishing

• Schrage, M, 2013, The real power of enterprise social media platforms, http://blogs.hbr.org/schrage/2013/07/the-real-power-of-enterprise-s.html

• http://www.clickclickmedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/why-arent-you-blogging.jpg (Cartoon Image)  
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/Glastonbury_2x2.jpg (Glastonbury Image)

Life in and around the Blogosphere

If the public sphere is a area in social life where individuals can come together to freely and openly discuss and identify social problems and with this discussion potentially influence political action (Habeas, 1991:2), then how does it differ from the blogosphere? According to Lim, 2013 the blogosphere is a vehicle for worldwide interaction, and this ‘storm’ of blogs and social networking is perceived as an enabling instrument for many people (Lim, 2013:127).

A person with these means (social networks) can have access to discussion on an international scale, becoming more interconnected with people the world over boundaries and borders are blurred. Sounds great right, you can have your voice heard over millions of others you can shout out your beliefs and feel empowered.

This is a great tool and it could be you if you are part of a nation or country that is well developed has a strong economy and a healthy successful population, but what if you are not part of something like this?

Almost half of the world, that is over 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day, 1.1 billion people living in developing countries have inadequate access to water and 1.6 billion people live without electricity (Shah, 2013).

I know these examples are opposite ends of the spectrum and may seem extreme but for many people in fact half the world’s population this is a reality. They have no access to the Internet let alone social networks, so in this case how do we here their voices? Should the public sphere and the blogosphere remain two separate entities? One allows access to public discussion on a physical level and the other on a virtual and if they were to work parallel each other than it would allow for a more fair and impartial public discussion whether face-to-face or through a keyboard.

•  Habermas, J, 1991, The structural transformation of the public sphere, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p.p 1 – 299 http://pages.uoregon.edu/koopman/courses_readings/phil123-net/publicness/habermas_structural_trans_pub_sphere.pdf

•   Lim, M, 2012, Life is local in the imagines global community: Islam and politics in the Indonesian bogosphere, Journal of Media and Religion, p.p 127 -140

•  Shah, A, 2011. “Poverty Around The World.” Global Issues. 12 Nov.<http://www.globalissues.org/article/4/poverty-around-the-world>, viewed 20/8

•   http://www.instantshift.com/media/uploads/2012/06/science-of-networking.jpg (Network Image)

•   http://pigeonproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Poverty-in-India.jpg (India Image)

Evolution or Knock Off

Mash up artists and D.J’s, what are they? Pirates or innovators, thieves or pioneers. When they sample other artists music is it just coping or an innovative idea? Clearly there is no straight answer as it really depends on who you are and what you think is right or wrong and whether you like it or not sampling plays a huge role in todays music industry.

The second half on the 80’s is when sampling really kicked in. Artists like Public Enemy and De La Soul were probably the pioneers of this art form and they did this with digital music sampling. The digital music sampler may not be a real instrument, however it cannot be ruled out as an important piece of music kit.

(original image - s3.amazonaws.com)

Sampling has been an area of contention from a legal perspective. Early sampling artists simply used portions of other artists' recordings, without permission; once rap and other music incorporating samples began to make significant money, the original artists began to take legal action, claiming copyright infringement. Some sampling artists fought back, claiming their samples were fair use (Scholes:2004)

One of the most recent and popular/ commercial a use of sampling is ‘Flo Rida – Good feeling’. When I first heard this I thought that women’s voice in the sample sounds familiar, then I realized it was Etta James and the original song ‘Something’s got a hold of me’

(original image -www.musicrow.com)

  

If you read my first post you will understand how much I love soul music so when I heard this version I thought ‘what the hell’. Although after hearing it several times I must admit it grew on me and I realised that this version breathed new life into the original. Jeff Chang of SoleSides records says that sampling presents us with ‘snatches of history’(pbs.org).

Now I’m far from saying its better but what I am saying is the positives of the sampling in this song is that it has now been exposed to new ears, a new generation that are not just listening but also singing along to a classic song that was written in 1962. So sampling is it good or bad? its up to you to decide.

• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 2013 http://video.pbs.org/video/2331999981/, viewed 13/8

• Scholes, Joseph G. (2004). Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip Hop, p.36. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press.viewed 13/8

•  http://www.musicrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/etta.jpg(Etta James image) 

• http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/filepicker/sH5WAOiOSBCET781L7XV_De_La_Soul.jpg(De La Soul image)