[Air-l] Blog as a collective action tool

[Aristides Emmanuel Pereira]

I can see that by a certain kind of factors and what can be called a chain 
reaction of curiosity/gossip a word can get into the top ten or, as in this 
case, first place in the technorati ranking - for some technical reasons 
like number of hits, search strings, etc, right?

I am wondering if the same can be said to blogs as a "collective action 
tool" in the sense of blogs being manipulated and used collectively to act 
as a agent of social transformation.

In my case, studying the marketing of celebrities in blogs I found out that 
the exposure of privacy together with the use of language helps the 
increasing in popularity of certain celebrities here in Japan - the audience 
consumes the celebrities' images as a specific product that is seen 
associated with the celebrity in other medium.

Aristides Emmanuel Pereira, M.A. Int. Cultural Studies
PhD Candidate
Department of Multi-Cultural Societies
Graduate School of International Cultural Studies
Tohoku University
Kawauchi, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi
980-8576 JAPAN
www.bleepsblops.com
Tel. +81-90-6255-2095
************************************************************************





>From: Homero Gil de Zuniga <hgildezuniga at wisc.edu>
>Reply-To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>To: blogclub at journalism.wisc.edu, Air-L <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
>Subject: [Air-l] Blog as a collective action tool
>Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:40:39 -0500
>
>That blogs are rapidly changing the landscape of information is not new. 
>How
>they do it is very interesting though. Here you have the domino effect in
>its purest essence. Blogs conspicuously provide an outstanding setting to
>promote collective action and mobilization (as a paper we recently 
>submitted
>to AEJMC attest). In this particular case it does not refer to politics. It
>just exemplifies collective action to change the course of things.
>Nevertheless, it is a living proof of the potential of blogs as a tool.
>
>Hazruido.com (under the auspicious of Organe cell phone company in Spain)
>launched a viral contest to position a "the made up word" HABITAQUO into 
>the
>top ten in Technorati (http://technorati.com <http://technorati.com/> ) .
>The word is still number one!
>
>I bet that now it is not only the inclusion of the word in many blogs but
>also the "curiosity circle" produced by people who search the word once 
>they
>see it is number one.
>
>Here is some info in English
>
>http://www.whatsnextblog.com/archives/2007/04/why_is_habitaquo_technoratis_m
>ost_searched_tag.asp
>
>http://www.brandtarot.com/blog/?p=711
>
>Here is the info in Spanish for those of you who are able to read it.
>
>Contest page : http://www.hazruido.com/
>
>Google news:
>http://google.dirson.com/post/3292-palabra-concurso-posicionamiento-2007/
>
>Cheers,
>
>HGZ
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>The air-l at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: 
>http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
>Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>http://www.aoir.org/

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/