Eason Jordan - The man brought down by Bloggers

Eason Jordan was the former chief executive of CNN. He was forced to resign from his role as a result of the pressure from campaigning bloggers, following a controversial blog post by Ronny Abovitz, who was covering a World Economic Forum event in Davos, Switzerland.

Abovitz' post commented on an 'off-the-record' discussion, at the meeting, in which Jordan reportedly admitted to knowing of 12 journalists who were targeted and killed by US troops in Iraq. Abovitz asked him if he had any true evidence to back up the claims, as "if what he said was true, it would make Abu Ghraib look like a walk in the park". After, Abozitz' remark, Jordan backtracked and seemingly wriggled his way out of what was a very difficult situation.

However Abovitz, a man who had never written in the mainstream media, and who was writing his first ever blog, decided to take the 'leap of faith' and ignore the notion taken by most journalists present that the subject was 'off-the-record'. He went away and created the post, headlined: "Do US Troops target journalists in Iraq?". The rest as they say, is history.

The post caused a huge stir in the blogosphere, with right wing activist bloggers swarming all over the story, keen to present Jordan's comments as evidence of a self-hating head of a liberal network. In a later post, Abovitz offers Jordan solutions, and casts slight doubts over the ethics of the bloggers who were seemingly hunting him down. He talks of the power of the 'new order' and calls for the truth from all mainstream media, or risk the wrath of the blogosphere. With no substantiation to back up his claims, Jordan was eventually forced to resign.

The whole episode is seen as a classic David vs Goliath triumph. Some would argue that the bloggers hounded out Jordan, collectively ganging together to force their predominantly right-wing agenda. Others see the essence of the story, of how a blogger went against the 'cover-up' of the mass media and simply published the truth - what was said. When Jordan's comments didn't make the news, one blogger took it upon himself to force the issue.

Abovitz subsequently wrote; "This is not a left- or right wing phenomenon." "The story is much, much bigger than Eason Jordan. This is John Lennon's Power to the People, but turbo-charged and amplified. The people want a voice, and now they really have it. Their own voice, unedited, and unfiltered. It is not pretty. The people are quite irritated, mad, and upset."

Workplace Blog - Pizza Hut Team Member

When looking at Personal Journalism we were taken to a blog written by James Richards. He looks at Workplace blogs, and has collected a mass of different blogs at which to look at. Some may argue that due to their diary-like nature, they cannot be read as true journalism.

However, some of the personal experiences written in these blogs often have larger social references, and discuss matters that effect our lives on a day-to-day basis. Within a larger context, workplace blogs can take us to a world we don't know, whether it be the life as a paramedic, or what it's like to work in a restaurant. Either can tellus something new about the world in which we live, and in events that we actively participate in. With this in mind, I feel that workplace blogs have to be considered as a form of Journalism.


When browsing through the list, I happened to stumble upon an amusing yet intriguing blog that offered an insight into the world of restaurants, and more specifically Pizza Hut. 'Pizza Hut Team Member' is a blog written by an anonymous male who works in a Pizza Hut Express restaurant in a shopping centre somewhere in the UK. The blog seems to be well read, with the writer having 294 profile views, and each post averaging 4 comments. There is an obvious 'select' of hardcore readers, who read and comment on the blog almost daily.

The blog takes on a similar format to other retail/restaurant workplace blogs. The writer describes his day to day tasks, the various troubles he has with annoying customers and their range of requests. His writing style is short, sharp and conversational, and through humorous anecdotes he takes the reader through the 'daily-grind' and all the stupid and funny things he hears and sees whilst working.

He in parts also takes the form as a 'whistle blower' (although of course reveals nothing of any major importance), revealing newsletter comments, statements from head office regarding their situation on bird flu, and any new menu changes. He also gives us a look into some of the things that actually go on within his restaurant, whether it be the manager out back having a Red Bull and a fag, or the till being £10 down.

Some of his posts have larger social references. He speaks about Bird Flu (see link above) and the impact upon his restaurant, and Heelys and their various annoyances, both of which have been big news even in the mainstream media.

Overall, Pizza Hut Team Member is a very enjoyable blog to read, and anonymity permitting, I think the writer will be delighting us refill mishaps and ice-cream machine mayhem for some time to come.

Commenting on a Blog - Who Ate All The Pies

I read so much Online, yet as of yet have rarely crossed the final-frontier that is the comment box. This of course has to change, and so I went back to my favourite blog, Who Ate All The Pies. I done a short review of this blog right at the beginning of the course, and have been reading it ever since. However, I have never felt the urge to comment. This was until last night, when I was greeted with one of the funniest posts I have seen on the blog (and there have been a few of them).

The post was simple, but effective. A picture and matching humorous caption. Like the competitions you see in magazines and phone-ins on TV. You know, the 'insert a funny, ridiculous but perfectly suited caption here' competition. I saw it before the game and laughed. After the game,I felt compelled to comment. With Lampard gone, Gerrard put on a one man show that ultimately saved Macca's job.

My comment prompted other comments, especially from a suspected Chelsea fan who was keen to get behind Frank Lampard, and point out that in his opinion the win was meaningless and other still weren't performing. The Editor, Ollie also added a few immediate comments, which I generally agreed with. It was good as it added to the interactivity of the blog, as the commenting tool was acting like a forum. The comments went on to discuss the best team for the next match against Estonia. Team selection is always a hot topic, and didn't fail to provoke the pub-like banter you get with your mates on a night out.

After losing my commenting-virginity, I now crave more. Everyone has an opinion on everything right? It's time for us all to let it be known. I'm off to my beloved 'pies' to checkout some more of the post-match reaction.

Critical Evaluation - ReviewTube

After looking at blogging, different people's blogs and starting our own, the time came for us to work in groups to produce a couple of blogzines. After a short session of pitching ideas, we shortlisted the best and chose what we thought would 'work' online. After a bit of housekeeping, we got into groups, my group consisting of myself, Michelle, Fogg and Hayley. Michelle took the role as editor, as we embarked on her own personal idea, a 'YouTube blog'.

The idea was simple. Or at least it seemed this way. A blog containing all the best videos from YouTube, categorised within Music, Sport, Humour, Film & TV or whatever. After a couple of weeks preparation, we set off in an attempt to post daily in our chosen fields on the wonders of Online Video. We brainstormed a title, and ReviewTube was born (thanks Jim). After a pretty successful effort, the time has come to look back at the week that was, in the good old Critical Evaluation...

Critical Evaluation


Within the evaluation, I will endeavour to look at what I thought went well with the blog, and what may have not gone so well. Taking a look at the group has a whole, I will analyse the planning and production of the blog, whilst also taking a closer look at my individual contribution. One particular angle to evaluate is the strength of our work in comparison to other blogs or online journalism, and whether we made full use of the potential weblogs hold. I will also take a small look at possible ways we could market the blog, if we were to take the blog to the next level and aim to increase visitor/reader numbers.

One of the main strengths of our blog was the in the name 'ReviewTube', the logo, and the brand identity that came with it. The photoshoped logo worked really well, and the title summed up everything the blog was about in a succinct name that readers could remember and easily relate to. I guess you could say it was 'google friendly'. The name of the blog formed the focal-point within the header of the page, and set the tone for a layout which I thought worked really well.

In general we tried to keep the colours of the text red and black, upon the main white background which corresponded with our logo, again adding to our brand image and style. Typical to the standard layout of blogs, we formed our navigation bar on the right hand side, which comprised of a blog roll, a list of site links, a link list of our team members, and short introduction to the blog. I thought the introduction worked well, and allowed new visitors to immediately get an understanding of what the blog entailed. I also thought the blog roll, and list of links was of appropriate length, and offered a good variety of complimenting sites that readers may want to visit.

I also thought it would be good to add a 'featured' section, in which we would highlight particular running series or videos we liked. I also added a small picture of lots of 'video clip' stills put together, and added the caption "You watch it, We blog it" which would form our slogan. All these added features not only added to the accessibility and interactivity of the blog, but also contributed greatly to the success of the design layout, and filled a vast amount of white space that would have otherwise looked very dull and unprofessional.

I thought the overall planning of the production of the blog worked really well, with the final product finishing very close to what we all had both wanted and expected. Our target market of 'students' was spot on, and the simple, effective layout of the blog was beneficial to the target audience. The posts in general were all very effective, and overall we managed to keep a strong house style in regard to length, tone and structure. The planning of who was to post when, was kept to the very simple rule of somewhere between lunchtime and midnight, but don't post too near to somebody else, and this proved really effective. Everybody on the whole posted when they were meant to, without posting lots of content all at the same time. The 'Tube of the Day' idea was a particular favourite of mine, and planning of who was to write thison which day and when was near on seamless, which was both shocking and satisfying. Of course there was the odd occasion when people couldn't post for whatever reason, and although possibly it could have been detrimental to the blog, there was often enough content on there to be done with.

The decision to post the videos at the top of each post was in my opinion justified, as it made sense for the reader to watch the video, then read the review/response. The use of humour was prolific throughout all the posts, and again was a strength of the blog in that this style would be more suitable for our target market.

The posts were arranged in categories, which could then be accessed via the navigation area on the right hand side. Although we all had our separate categories within which to write, there were some issues in 'tagging' the posts into each individual category, particularly when trying to define 'humour', and for a while the system of organising the posts was struggling to work. However, with a little regular housekeeping, this problem was eventually overcome.

When looking in-depth at my own posts I was generally very pleased. Within my category of sport, I tried to encounter a number of different sporting videos from a variety of sports, and offered a range of choices from serious disciplinary issues in football, to funny and amazing moments in basketball and diving. I like Fogg, tried to post within another category, however due to time constraints only managed one post concerning Gadgets and Games (see 'Video Review' below on this blog). My favourite post was my Tube of the Day concerning the Dove campaign for real beauty. I thought my writing style was fluent and conversational, whilst at the same time I tried to be humorous, which was the general style we were going for with the blog to reach our target market.

When linking, I predominantly tried to link to other videos on YouTube, as I was writing for an 'online video' site. In some posts I thought this worked well, especially when I linked to a reaction to a video I was commenting on, or when I was showing somebody who was trying to copy the video. However, I may have focused on this too much, and on some occasions a link to a particular website or another blog post may have been more appropriate.

Another weakness for myself and a group as a whole was the tendency to make punctuation and grammar mistakes, as we rattled out the copy a little too quick. In future we would all do well to remember to do a few more proof reads before finally submitting our posts. However, on the whole I thought ReviewTube was a great success, and something that all the team can be very proud of. Even when at times it seemed that we would never be able to source material from the endless pool of video talent that YouTube has to offer, we all pulled through and produced an entire package that was both interesting, exciting, accessible and attractive.

If we were to continue to up-date ReviewTube with content, it would be essential to begin marketing our blog to pull in more readers, so we could eventually sell advertising on our blog and make millions (MWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH). No really, evil world domination aside, a few more readers would really be the next step, so that we could actually start writing for a real readership. I began to put in a few minor measure to increase our readers, by creating a Technorati account, and offering a feed subscription service with Feedburner so that readers could stay up-to-date with the blog, and could find us and link to us via Technorati. However, a real marketing strategy would be needed to fully launch ReviewTube and as a group we thought of a variety of methods.

The prospect of releasing a promotional video on YouTube was regarded one of the most suitable and effective ways of getting the blog noticed, as after all it would be advertising a YouTube blog, on YouTube. We also thought that it would make sense to lurch on other blogs and related forums, and from time to time, when relevant comment on posts and link back to our blog. Finally, we decided we could resort to 'spam-post' flyers across the entire University with showing the ReviewTube logo, and the address. This inturn would create mass curiosity and hysteria over what ReviewTube is, so that our target student market would then get online and find out for themselves. Genious! No? Well, just a thought.