Case Study

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Media Survey

After asking 25 people to take the class-given survey, I must say that I was not very surprised by the results. A lot of those questioned read print newspapers, such as, Iowa Wesleyan's, Mt. Pleasant News, Burlington-Hawkeye, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, and the St. Louis Dispatch. The heavy majority reading newspapers in print that are relatively local. In regards to how often, it was across the board ranging from 1 day ago to over a month ago. For online readers, 1 day ago was the heavy favorite in the poll. For a few, the question simply did not apply. Print magazines read by those who took part in the survey were Cosmopolitan, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, People, US Weekly, and other tabloids. People really enjoy their scandalous gossip around here. The winner in for that question was reading one with in the last week at 60%. However, for 60% of those readers, they did not read magazines online. The AM radio question did not really surprise me at all. A high majority did not listen to AM radio via an antenna. And those listening to online radio was split almost equally between that day and over a month ago. The stations that people did listen to were NPR and SportsTalk Radio. The people who answered my questions listened to a variety of stations ranging from pop to country to hip hop. Again 60% had listened to FM radio within the past day, with in the last week coming in a hard second. Over 60% had listened to an Ipod or portable music device during that day. Favorite TV stations included, MTV, BET, VH1, FX, TNT, TBS, and many others. For all but two people, they had not watched TV with an antenna in over a month. And finally for those who had recently watched a video on the Internet, all answers were either that day or in the last week. Of all the questions asked in the poll, the only result that really surprised me was the first one that dealt with print newspapers. I thought for sure that a lot of people would answer in the over a month category. Surprisingly enough to me, the answers were spread throughout the past day, the last week, the last month, and the last month plus. The other answers that sort of surprised me was about the portable music devices. I thought that at least 20 if not all of the people would say within the last week. However, there were a few that said that they had not used one within the last month, let alone in over a month.

Blog Analysis

The title of the blog I picked is Amazon Web Services Blog. The URL for the blog is http://aws.typepad.com/. The blog is written by an individual named Jeff Barr. He has been deemed a "Web Services Evangelist at Amazon." He is definitely pro-Amazon when it comes to using the services and products it has to offer. The blog is written professionally but Barr writes in a way that allows the reader to fully understand the content that he discusses. Barr employs a formal writing style when it comes to using proper grammar but it reads with a touch of informality because it is understandable to anyone. The AWS blog is extremely topic-based. It talks about the web services that Amazon provides and how to use them successfully in one's business. Barr's content is informative because it tells the reader about the services, educational because it shows the reader how to use them (see blog from Feb. 3 for example), and persuasive because Barr solely talks about the benefits of Amazon's services. The blog tends to be updated every 3-5 days. Barr posts new content but takes advantage of links, as well. The blog has been in existence since March 2005. After searching the archives, a reader is able to see how these services came to be in existence and how they have progressed as technology has over time. The links that Barr includes in his website take a reader to the AWS website and how-to demonstrations of particular services. Glancing over the blog roll shows a number of technologically savvy indidviduals and groups that either are looking to employ the use of these services or already do use them in their daily business. The majority of the sites that link with this blog are other blogs that discuss the benefits and downfalls of these types of services. Barr's blog does use trackbacks to see who else is referring to or linking to his blog. The blog does enable two-way communication by allowing readers to post comments to Barr's entries. There are not a large number of comments but this may be because the comments are moderated and have to be approved by Barr before they appear on the blog. Comments seem to come from a number of different blog followers. Generally, the people who follow Barr's blog are technologically savvy people who can benefit from purchasing and incorporating these services into their businesses. On the other hand, a lot of the readers seem to be avid supporters of AWS. I think that the visual design supports the blog because it is simplistic and basic. The site is very easy to navigate. Down the sides of the blog are a number of links to Barr's posts by specific dates or topics. My overall impression of the blog is that although it is put together well, it seems rather simplistic for the technologically advanced topics that it talks about. On a personal level, I would rank the blog as a 3. For those in the business world and that could really use these services, I would give the site a 5. I do not really need to use these services seeing as how I am still a college student. But for those small and large companies that want to compete in certain industries, these services and the knowledge on how to use them properly, is extremely important.

PRSA

After reading about the PRSA, I have come to realize that Public Relations has ties to every aspect of the sport industry. Which is a fact that is very important to me, because someday I would like to be working in the professional sports industry. Under the "Public Relations Defined" sub-section, it discussed how important it is to be able to deal with the attitudes of the public. This is very crucial to operating a professional sports team for many reasons. One part, in particular, is the development of the sports team facilities and it's relationship with the community. Many sport organizations make efforts to appeal to various interests that would drum up more financial gain. Examples would be, breast cancer awareness games, girl and boy scouts day, and offer support to a variety of local and national charities. For any group or organization to be successful with the public, I think it is a necessity to address advocacy, ethics, and diversity. PRSA clearly states where they lie in all three of these categories and I agree with their position. Advocacy is important because staying current on issues that impact your clients or targeted audience is fundamental to being competitive in whatever industry you are employed in. Ethics are a rocky topic in society due to the recent actions of many top officials and authorities. By drawing a publicly known line, PRSA is basically saying that they will not deal with any member's bull. Rules and standards to operate by are extremely beneficial because it allows your employees or members to know what they can do within the context of their job descriptions. Lastly, diversity is something you run into every day in this country. I like how they come right out and say reaching a high level of diversity is no longer a goal for them but basically a strategic way of operating and reaching the levels of success they strive to obtain. Public Relations is not my area of study, nor really something I strive to be employed in, but I can clearly understand why it is such a necessary tool for doing business in society today.

"Show me your friends and I will tell you what type of person you are: How one's profile, number of friends, and type of friends influence impress"

In this article, Dr. Sonja Utz examines how one's profile presentation, their number of friends, and types of friends influence their attractiveness. Utz says that since there are social networks that allow a person to express themselves, one can now push past anonymity on the Internet. For example, SNS is a social system that allows people to connect and make friends. One such popular social network is Facebook. People can request a Friend to add them. But Friend is not always used in the traditional sense. One can request a friend acceptance from celebrities and music groups. Utz believes that SNS is important for one's perception by others. Because we can identify ourselves through our profiles, it is extremely hard to be fake or lie on these sites. That is in large part thanks to the addition of Friends. The Brunswick lens model was developed based on this, in that, one's profile can be used to portray their personality. The number and types of friends we add to our sites are called cues and also contribute to our online persona. Basically, Utz's article discusses how a number of studies have come to the conclusion that based on the people you make your Friends on SNS sites, people can come to see what kind of person you really are. These sites have broken down the barriers of the Internet that existed when it first began, anonymity and false perceptions.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123248036/HTMLSTART

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