Blogging: A global virus of information

The rise of the blog has become widespread in the internet community, its estimated that 12 million Americans are writing blogs and that there are at least 57 million blogs currently being written and updated in the world.

Sometimes blogs are created on an impulse reaction to tell the world something the blogger deems necessary for people to know, this would explain why 60% of started blogs are never continued or updated at least 2 months after its original date:

http://www.caslon.com.au/weblogprofile1.htm#many

Blogs are often used to spread information amongst the internet community, sometimes positive and sometimes negative, blogs need to be taken with a pinch of salt as they are most definitely opinions and not always factual. Blogs can be political and can be humorous too, many celebrities and famous people like to write blogs so that fanatics can subscribe and learn more about their icons.

There was recent controversy about a blog started by an Iraqi woman who was living in Basra, there was much suspicion if the blog was a true account or someone from the allies posing as a Iraqi for propaganda purposes, however with the blogging culture its quite hard to out who some bloggers are.

The blogging tools, or an online diary are used for socialising, but they are sometimes used for the wrong reasons, using this information tool, blogs are used to spread abuse to people as explained in this BBC news report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6499095.stm

Wikipedia - 'Reliable' information

I decided to have a look at wikipedia to see how it differs from other information sources such as Encarta. There are many features of this ‘online program’ which I was impressed with, for example all the information can be changed into many different languages:

http://www.wikipedia.org/

The main homepage for the English website has a lot of listed categories and interesting news features such as Featured picture of the day, Events in history on this day, Key featured documents and key stories:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

There are many extensive and very detailed subject resources and extra information sources within searches which also very good, there are many sub sections within certain areas that list various aspects of certain searches, it also puts headings in a bullet pointed box so you can click hyperlinks to key information that you are looking for.

There are a few problems with this website, firstly the Wikipedia websites are created by people submitting information so there is a good chance that it could be biased or inaccurate, this could lead to accusations or even lies being spread across as fact. Wikipedia also has a function that allows you to edit the information on the screen so you can add information that is not even true, but they have systems in place that review articles and amend them if its untrue or slanderous.

This would make obvious sense why universities do not deem wikipedias as reliable for assignments.

‘Reliable’ news sources and information – Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch the Australian Media Superpower has a huge influence and partial responsibility for many political and social decisions.

His huge Media firm News Corp own a series of newspapers and television companies across the world, more popular and widely known companies include Myspace, Fox, BSKYB (Sky TV) The Sun newspaper, etc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2162658.stmk/2162658.stm

Murdoch’s huge influence in the media not only benefits political interests by printing views and ideologies of the owner into its principle sources, therefore all their beliefs are instilled into the public, these influences also spread to advertising, with such a huge scale of media to use on the public, Murdoch can expose his firms to the mass market.

You could argue that the printed media in particular newspapers, will all have a political backing or political alliance, Murdoch a renown Conservative in political views has backed and bought newspapers to spread political messages and even change elections, there was a usual assumption that what ever political party The Sun was backing, would usually win the election, having such a large readership.

However The Sun over the last 10 years, which was previously a Conservative supported newspaper opted to change to Labour and in 1997 the Labour party were elected.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/budget2001/story/0,,448652,00.html

A disadvantage of having such influence over how information is portrayed is that Murdoch will not print, publish or broadcast any news related to friends, colleagues or him, that would incriminate, expose or degrade, although you would expect to occur anyway, still seems unreliable, but consumers will still buy it and consume the information.

Have my shares changed? Can I get any more info on it?

I decided to write another blog on my shares and try to see if there are any other new ways I can access my share information and if it is possible to find out any financial information about Tottenham Hotspur.

Going back to the Hemscott website as of this day the value of my shares is 84.75p per share, a drop from a month ago, various factors such as Tottenham’s exit from the FA and Carling Cup mean that Tottenham appear less desirable to invest in when such events happen, this results in a fall in the value of stock.

http://www.hemscott.com/companies/company-summary.do?companyId=634

The shares are back in recovery though, current financial incentives are Tottenham’s efforts in the UEFA cup, albeit a tricky second leg at home being 2-1 down, I can see the shares rising if Spurs beat Sevilla in the next leg.

The London Stock Exchange allows you to buy PDF documents on all financial information, however if you are a shareholder you receive this information as standard, its more of an information service for potential buyers

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb/pricesnews/prices/system/detailedprices.htm?sym=GB0008962986GBGBXAIM%200896298TTNM

Tottenham Hotspur are heavily invested in by a large firm called ENIC who also have interests in:

96.7% of Slavia Prague
99.9% of Vicenza Calcio
50% of FC Basel
47% of AEK Athens

There have been rumours of a potential takeover of Tottenham Hotspur by a consortium from abroad I am hoping all this speculation makes the value of my shares increase.

Premiership Football: The Actim Index

The Premier league have a statistical system called the Actim index that uses data and collates it into a table showing who the best footballers are in a season.

The data consists of all players including goals, shots on target, corners, fouls, offsides, passes, tackles, blocks and clearances. The raw data can be used to generate a wide range of tables and statistics such as player profiles, team and player head to heads and form guides.
http://www.premierleague.com/fapl.rac?command=forwardOnly&nextPage=actimFAQ#2

The data is collected and then the players are grouped in different ways such as Top 5 Goal Keepers, Defenders, Midfielders and Strikers. They also do a team of the week as well as a team of the season.

There is also a list of the top 100 players in the Premiership here is the top 10 players:


http://www.premierleague.com/fapl.rac?command=forwardOnly&nextPage=actimTop100


As you can see there are a few suprises as players like Mikel Arteta and Steve Finnan who hardly get much recognition in the media are among the best technical players this season.
There is a similar statistics website and company that is called OPTA Index however this is a Private company and to view certain statistics you have to purchase them.

The website does have some handy facts such as:

Ryan Giggs and Gary Speed are the only 2 players to score in every Premiership season.

Liverpool are the only team to win back to back games 4-0 in the history of the Premiership.

Chelsea have not lost a home game in the Premiership since the 03/04 season.

http://www.optasportsdata.com/

(Simply go to sports then choose football)

The Actim index is a good measure and quite interesting to read, especially when a player in the team you support makes the top 10.

Accessing information on economies of countries

When researching for statistical information on countries for various assignments, I found it quite hard to find particular economic statistics for China that didn’t require paying a large fee for huge documentation complied by independent firms. I came across a website called CIA Factbook:

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html#Econ

This provided me with lots of useful information about the countries I was researching. Although on this website there was a lot of information, some of it had not been regularly updated, this could be down to many reasons such as countries declining to disclose certain information, or could be a political reason.

I also came across another website called Nation Master which has a large number of statistics for countries, many of them taken from other websites, but the information is updated often.

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ch-china

The website also offers a feedback feature that allows researchers and opportunity to say what they think of the website, also to put recommendations, almost like a warning to potential researchers.

The website has a statistics area that tables all countries in ranking order of any chosen stat so it allows you to compare and analyse for assignments and for general interest.

For example it shows how much money in Aid is given per $1000:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_eco_aid_don_pergdp-economic-aid-donor-per-gdp

I was surprised to see Denmark as the top country, also considering its size and wealth to see the USA at 23rd is quite amazing. This website really helped me in my assignment and allowed me to support my ideas with recent statistics and quality presentation on the website aided that as well.

How I access information about my shares in Tottenham Hotspur

Using a great share website I found whilst browsing on Google, I came across this company called Hemscott who publish and update all PLC firms in the UK.

Last year I was given 200 ordinary shares in Tottenham Hotspur, from recent club success over the last 2 years I have been interested in how the success of the club relates to differences in share prices.

Using the link I have now saved to my computer:

http://www.hemscott.com/companies/company-summary.do?companyId=634

My shares are currently to date 86p per share, compared to 27p when I purchased them, this shows a £118 profit.

I can now access what the prices of my shares are, also it shows me reliable key financial information such as revenue generated by the company and profit, so I can tell if my club is achieving off the pitch too.

However when I want to look at charts and see how trends in my share prices change I use:

http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=qkchart&cb=1173056096&symbol=L%5ETTNM

Although the ADVFN website comes across as very basic looking and very drab, its very reliable and is a great source of information also the graphs show me that my shares are at one of their highest points for some time.

As you can see in this diagram there is a good positive increase in the value of the shares.

Ratings for films in cinemas - how they vary across the globe

Throughout the world, different countries censor films with different age ratings, from using the IMDB website again I can see what films that would be considered to cause little offence would cause greater offence in other countries. This is mainly based on the DVD releases, some can be the actual cinema ratings.

Here are a list of Films and the rating in the UK, then any countries with a surprising change in rating:

Titanic’s UK rating was 12 in South Korea it was considered an 18, even more closer cultural countries to the UK like Norway had its rating at 15:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/

Also with Batman begins with an age rating of 12A verging on PG, but again Norway opted to censor it at 15:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372784/

But there are cases where the UK seem to over rate films or so it would appear, Christian Bale starred in American Psycho in 2000 and the UK censorship board gave it a rating of 18, where as Denmark and Japan opted for a 15 rating:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/

You could argue that in particular countries try to limit the number of people who try to watch a film as it may have a negative or derogatory reflection of a particular country, its also a case of politics, some countries try to keep its population in its own ideologies and representations such as communist countries like South Korea, China and particular former Soviet states.

How much info can we get about up coming films and sequels?

Looking on good old IMDB I wanted to see how much information I cud get on upcoming sequels and whether certain aspects of information is true or simply blogged info put in by someone who has no idea, or is merely putting it on there for fun.

I wanted to find out any information about the sequel to Batman Begins, so I typed Batman into the search engine on IMBD and it gave me a fantastic list bibliography of possible matches:
http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=batman

The film isn’t dated to come out in cinemas for another year but I wanted to see what info I could view, firstly I was intrigued to discover the cast list has been included and that actor Christian Bale is in the sequel which is a good for fans, also its interesting to see what characters are going to be in it, the return of The Joker will be much appreciated by fans.

On the Batman Begins 2 IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/ as its working title is referred to it also happens to list the alternative project names its been given such as:

Rory's First Kiss (USA) (fake working title)
Untitled Batman Begins Sequel (USA) (working title)

A feature I like that allows you to save you time looking for information is the FAQ section that attempts to answer some of the burning questions related to the film in question, this feature is very good and is only updated by people in the industry so no lies.

My INS topic: IMDB film and television database

I decided to use IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase) as a subject for my blog as the information on this website is amazing and very reliable for Media, Drama and Marketing students as well as the general public:

http://www.imdb.com/

The IMDB website features so much information, from searching for one of my favourite films Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, the stream of information presented to me is in excess:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0357413/

I can look at film posters, production stills and clips from the film as well as trailers.

What is also a great feature of this website is it tells you the genre of films and TV and will give you a plot outline explaining what the film is about. As well as the original taglines from the films posters, campaign and DVD/Video cover.

I would have to say that the most useful feature of this website would be the User comments, normal people, not hired marketing experts covertly trying to get us to watch their films, but real people adding their own comments, some brutally honest and some building up a great response to the film.

If you want to find out more about a particular actor you can click the links and see their filmography as well as any writing/directing history that person may have had.

For example Will Ferrell: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002071/

For my next blogs I will be looking at sequels coming out and how much information is available about them