Online PR: CJN 771

Public Relations comes in all different forms. It can be in a press release, a press conference, newspaper article, magazine feature, primetime special, and anything else you can think of. With the growth of social media, online public relations has grown to amazing heights. Not only are these opportunities cheaper than other traditional options,  it has the opportunity to hit larger audiences than ever imagined.

Massachusetts General Hospital diabetes department has created a whole new social media public relations campaign. After starting their own twitter within their department, the MGH Diabetes Self-Management Education program has created their own blog. MGH Diabetes Views allows patients and other curious insiders to look into the best way to live with their Diabetes. This blog connects to their Twitter and updates their feed with conversations they may hold on Twitter. The blog posts regular cartoons about everyday life that people have problems with all the time, such as creating a normal sleep regimen, eating right, and handling stress. There are also articles written by patients, doctors, and the public relations staff. And each article is always fact checked by a doctor so their patients know they are getting the best information. This blog opens a whole new view of healthcare, and because it is from MGH, it comes from a reliable name that people trust.

Internet Policy Issues: CJN 771

With today's technology and the amount of accounts we share on the Internet, one policy that we can only hope to trust is the issue of privacy. Things like Facebook and online banking tell us to put a lot of faith in the Internet, and tell us that people will not be hacking our information and our bank accounts. However some websites sell our information to third party viewers and make it so we are bombarded with junk mail and other things we do not enjoy. People also post things that they believe are private but anyone can see, which makes things like Facebook's new privacy settings infuriating because things that were once private are not anymore.

Ineffective Websites: CJN 771

When it comes to the internet, I really cannot complain. The internet helps me with basically my entire life. Unfortunately, sometimes when looking for a product, it takes me some time to navigate their ineffective website.

www.kevinmurphy.com: Kevin Murphy makes a line of high end hair products. While their Angle Wash and Rinse makes my hair spectacular, their website (and their packaging for that matter) is fairly ineffective. First thing you are bombarded with is an intro with "Kevin Murphy" flashing in various pastel colors. From there it takes you to their homepage that is a college of strewn photos of models with great hair. Each photo has a link to their other pages with all different fonts. The page is very busy and can be hard to follow. I was looking for a place to buy their products for about 10 minutes. I almost lost interest and would have opted for a cheaper shampoo if I hadn't found it at the last minute. Once you find the "find us" page you are taken to another collage page, and then you are finally taken to the page to type in where you live. From there it dedicated a two inch section of the page for numerous salons which you have to scroll down the whole page to, and then you have to scroll on that certain section just to see all the collages. Too much scrolling, too much going on, and the colors are not effective with their page. For a product which such quality, I really think they need to reevaluate their web designer.

Space Jam Website: The Space Jam website was made in 1996, and while for the time this was probably an amazing website, in today's world it should be either be taken down, or remade. The page in general is very small, and does not expand when you make your browser wider. The links are in a circle with pixelated icons. Each page features some bulky writing on a black page with white polka dots that I am assume to be stars. The writing is also either bright yellow or red. Which is very hard to read on the back ground.

What is an Example of Diffusion of Internet Technology? CJN 771

Diffusion of technology is a theory that relates to how and how fast we react to new products, technology, and ideas. The idea of the internet is an example of itself. If you told people years ago that someday all the information at the world could be accessed in seconds they wouldn't believe you. But as we can see, it has changed our lives.

Pertaining to the functions of the internet however, email is a great example of diffusion of internet technology. When email came into existence, it was something that caught on fairly fast. Everyone was starting to get their email addresses down, and it started appearing in address books under your phone and fax number. Once or twice a day, people would rush to their computers, start their dial-up and wait to hear "You've got mail!" They even made a movie out of it.

So back when email took dedication to check, your address was only given to close friends and family. Something easy to keep in touch with. But as we fast forward to today, email is the main way of communication. Most of our everyday mail is sent to our email address rather than to our mailbox. Companies, like insurance or phone providers, offer discounts for customers who get their communication sent to their email addresses. However, today with most companies switching to we can be subjected to a lot of junk mail, and have switched to text messages for hearing from our loved ones.

Problems Online: CJN 771

AOL first introduced Instant Messenger in 1997 as part of their dial-up connection to the World Wide Web. Instant messaging people became a huge hit, because it was faster than email and encouraged people to stay online and chat while their phone line was being used for the internet. Over the years, AOL Instant Messenger turned into AIM and you didn't need AOL to access it. It became faster, larger, smarter, and better.

Chat rooms became accessible for people who wanted to talk to people with similar interests, and online computers with witty responses was an easy form of entertainment. However, instant messenger became a target for online predators to reach their target, due to people innocently talking to people online. It was easier for people to find out where people lived, and people hiding behind a computer were more confident and more willing to open up. So while online predators became a risk online, so did online bullying.

Bullying today is not the same old song and dance. It is not just stealing lunch money and pushing kids into lockers. Now people are going hiding behind their computers and sending horrible messages to their peers. Since the rise of online bullying, the impact on people of all ages has driven people to extreme measures, some even suicide.  One story that sticks out for me is when a mother signed on to a fake online profile and tortured a girl that was in her daughter's class. The poor girl committed suicide after the mother's torture became too much for her. This has became a huge online problem over the past 10 years. People hiding behind their computers are more willing to be cruel than someone in person.