HW 17: Issues such as these need all the attention they can get!

I chose Broadsheet to look for my favorite post of the week and I found a post called, Planned Parenthood Will See You Now written by Lynn Harris. I really enjoyed this post because in a world where the mainstream media is being tightly controlled this type of article is just what we need. It highlights the problems women are facing getting affordable healthcare, let alone being able to walk into a clinic without getting harassed. Planned Parenthood’s president Cecile Richards explains that, “We are concerned that the struggles the Aurora center faced in opening may be reflective of a growing battle against politics trumping health care, and increased barriers to reproductive health care access” (qtd. in Harris). In making this comment Richards calls attention to the increasing politicizing of healthcare and how detrimental that is to Americans who really need medical attention. It is so important that these types of issues get the attention they deserve so kudos to Broadsheet!
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2007/10/03/aurora_clinic_opens/index.html

HW 16: Broadsheet Follows the Rules

I looked into the Broadsheet blog and tried to see if they were following Robert Scoble’s Corporate Weblog Manifesto. It’s a little hard to say if they are following the principles because it is not a blog about a product or company, it’s a blog about news and politics, community, opinion etc. I think perhaps there needs to be a different set of principles for blogs that aren’t about businesses. I think there are a few that coincide like using a human voice, I think on the Broadsheet blog they do that very well they don’t try to sound like a newspaper or magazine, they use their real voice which does help speed up the process I’m sure. Also they have links to their “competitors” namely other blogs similar to theirs. They have the title as “Blogs We Read” which is a nice touch because it gives the blogs importance. It’s a way of being nice and saying nice things about them. Again it’s hard to say what standards they aren’t following because they aren’t really promoting their business, they are a community.