The Consumerist is a blog dedicated to informing consumers about products that may be scams or advise about any good deals available in the market. It is published by Consumer Media LLC, a non-profit subsidiary of Consumers Union. Users can also share their experiences on the site. Some hot topics for discussion deal with bad customer service like early termination fees, warranties, and customer service in general. Every year they hold a Worst Company in America contest.
www.consumerist.com
As I scanned the blogging site, The Consumerist the first article that peaked my attention was the one about Walmart. The person writing the blog sounded very bitter about the store and everything inside of it. The examples of the "uncleanliness" of one store were generalized to all Walmart locations. Just knowing that this was made up by one person and they are trying to push their opinions on everyone else sickens me. Everything the author of the blog had to say was negative and all the feedback was negative as well. This makes me believe that everyone who responds to this article feels some type of way about the store, and not a good way!
ReplyDeleteThe blog about junk food acting like crack on the brain immediately grabbed my attention. The title was simply too strong to pass up. Obesity is a growing problem in this country and addiction to drugs has been a problem for decades but this blog points out that they may be related. Indeed this is a chilling development. This blog draws most of its facts from a research experiment and also gives a link to the full article on the results of the experiment. The blog ends with a rhetorical question to the audience that leads one to wonder what further research will uncover. Even though this blog is short its message is powerful and the author uses rhetorical techniques well to ensnare the audience.
ReplyDeleteVisually i think this blog is appealing. The heading of the page clearly sates that blogs name and it gives a picture of a well dressed man next to it. The blog gives a toolbar to help you navigate through the blog. In the margin of the blog it gives you helpful suggestions of most popular, and most discussed articles. It also give a section of who the editors of this blog are. In the middle of the page, the main portion, is a lost of articles, their titles, a portion of the article, and a picture that correlates to it.
ReplyDeleteThe blog that i read was one about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. This blog was only up for about 30 minutes and it already had about 15 comments. This makes me think that this blog is popular and well known, make it seem very credible. The article i read was about 2 congressman wanting Zuckerberg to answer questions about facebook privacy issues.
I thought this was odd because in this article there was no opinion from the writer. Just 2 small paragraphs about what happened then the questions needing answered from Zuckerberg. All of the comments were positive supporting Mark. There was only one semi-negative comment that said Facebook is on its way out. But other that that is was positive feedback and support for Zuckerberg. I thought that this Blog was put together very well and it was well organized.
This blog lives up to it's billing as a consumer driven resource to empower the consumer. The sheer amount of posts and the diversity of said posts allows a visitor to the blog to find information about a wide range of topics. The most interesting part of the blog to me was the How To section and in particular the article entitled "Save money by emailing phones rather than texting". This post not only provided you with the information on how to obtain your phones email address but it also showed how to receive text as email. This feature alone makes this blog a very valuable resource.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I noticed about this blog was the vast amount of blogs of certain topics they have. There were four main categories for topics and under each category were at least 10-15 sub-topics. Each sub-topic had plenty of blogs to read. I found myself looking in the "Badvertising" sub-topic of "Taking it Seriously." This sub-topic focuses on the effects of all different types of current advertisements or news on their creator. One of the most interesting blogs I saw in this section was the "KFC Expands On-Butt Ads for Double Down." The blog explains how KFC is paying some college girls $500/day to wear sweatpants with a Double Down logo on their butts. But the question that came to my mind is: is this really bad advertising(or "Badvertising")? After all, objectifying women as tools for advertisement is no new advertising strategy. Perhaps the recent KFC criticism as being "the Hooters of fast food" has led the consumerist to label it under the "Badvertising" section. Regardless, this form of advertising wouldn't be so popular if it wasn't effective. It may not have an immediate effect, but subconsciously I am sure something happens. Personally, I don't see how seeing a Double Down logo on a girl's butt would lead me to want a Double Down. Do I immediately want a Double Down as soon as I see the logo? No, but I think one of the reason's companies do this is to get their product into your head, so that the next time I am thinking, "what's for lunch?" KFC might be fresh in my mind.
ReplyDeleteThe overall point of this blog is to inform and protect consumers. It does a great job of giving up-to-date information about to consumers about recalls of products as well as bringing up unfair practices done by businesses such as practices of Verizon, Facebook and Walmart. The only fault I think people could possibly find in this blog is the that its writing style is a bit aggressive for example equating junk food to crack is a bit of a hyperbole but it grabs your attention and makes you want to read the article so in that respect it does what it sets out to do.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking around The Consumerist, the blog promotes relevant issues and provides very informational ideas to its readers. The site uses catchy text, tabs, clip art, and networking devices to connect with their audience. I was surprised to see a positive article, the "Helpful Best Buy Employees Recycle Van Full Of Computers, Delight Customer", most of the time on these blogs I see negative articles bashing retail stores. But the quoted author used her everyday pathos to persuade readers like myself of the quality service Best Buy offers. All in all this blog does well informing and educating its readers through this blog.
ReplyDeleteThe first thimg I noticed about this blog is the titles. Many of the titles are very catchy and appeal to me as a reader. After being captured by the title, naturally I read the article. The article was also very surprising. The articles were tiny compared to the other blogs that we read. Tiny articles capture the audience and keep them to the very end, which is important. It is important because now the reader reads the entire article about sometihng they may not care about that much since the title was so interesting. The lay-out of this blogs articles was simply outstanding and user friendly.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading over the titles, I felt that most of those titles had a little humor to them. I then read a couple of blog posts and saw that the content was sometimes funny and wasn't anything really important at all and that the person who posted was just sharing a past experience. But that did't stop me from reading the more serious titled ones. Some blog posts also gave facts about the market today and facts about businesses. I don't feel like its a strong activist blog. It feels more like a blog where people exchange experiences, facts of businesses where they have shopped at or just news about recalls or other business related news.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that particularly caught my interest about this blog is that it is not defined by a single cause (i.e. gay rights). Instead it is based on all consumer related products and information. This seems like a well-defined plan by the authors of the blog to gain an extremely large following. Using so many products in the blog ensures that a reader has knowledge of atleast one of the companies being spoken of. Giving the audience something they can relate to will instantly grab their attention and make them more likely to continue following the blog. The sarcastic tone of the authors also tries to lure readers in. Instead of being a news-based blog; this blog takes a more light-hearted approach. Jokes are often used to make light of a subject. This is done by the authors so that the audience will enjoy reading the blog because of the humor. Overall the authors of the blog use a broad array of topics and a light-hearted approach to material in order to gain as many readers as possible.
ReplyDeleteI read the article about Gamestop requiring phone numbers. In the article, a person is trying to buy a game and the cashier is constantly trying to get them to join their rewards/membership program and ask for their phone number. The author of this post does not list their credentials but obviously being a consumer would be one. The author also tries to ellicit (?) a response from people by asking them to call and complain to the manager to change the policy of not selling anything without a phone number. The author tries to appeal to people's emotions by pointing out how ridiculous the act of the store was. He/she said that you cannot shop at the store unless you are a member now since you cannot by anything at this particular location without giving them your phone number or joining their club. Why the places try this tactic is beyond me. People generally think a business does not need our phone number in order to sell us something. Some places even sell your information. This situation is similar to having to show a driver's license in order to use a credit card. Mastercard does not require you to show a driver's licensce if the back is signed yet places do this anyway. If our goverment cannot keep our information safe, do you expect a business to protect our information.
ReplyDeleteAfter reviewing this blog, I was curious about how this site falls under our umbrella of activism. We can define activism as "vigorous and sometimes agressive action in pursuing a political or social end" (Webster Online). If this is true, then what social or political end is this site aiming for? By asking this question, I am not suggesting that it doesn't have one per se. Rather, I am asserting that this blog's agenda could be more implicit than the other two we have talked about so far.
ReplyDeleteI read the blog about the argument between hulu and cablevision. This blog uses slang terms, which gets people's attention, especially when the terms used include "pissing." Also, more people can relate to the use of slang, so this is definitely an effective strategy, although it can downgrade the article's credibility, as use of slang often seems amateurish. The use of quotes from people who are directly involved in this whole skirmish offsets negative effects of slang, because this does add ethos.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I noticed from this site is that it mixes genuine consumerist problems that customers have, with interesting and funny antecedents- such as the man who tried to punch out Elmo in a store.
ReplyDeleteAnd then lost the fight.
This seems like a good idea, because it draws people in for entertainment reasons, but can keep them there for the meat of the site- trying to get attention to unsavory practices. The large, widespread focus of this blog also ensures that there is something important or relevant to anyone who reads.
Since this blog is looking out for consumers and everyone is a comsumer of something, everyone has a vested interest in the topics covered in this blog. People do not even have to be activists in consumerism. This blog is more of a watchdog site with its goal set on protecting everyone from the unscrupulous nature of large corporations trying to make a profit any way possible. This blog would do better to divid up the products covered into specific categories making finding information about a certain product more accessible for the public.
ReplyDeleteI read the blog about the stroller recall. 2 million strollers were recalled because their have been 4 reports of strangulation occurring in children under 12 months old. Recalls are commonly heard of (toyota cars/lead-based paint toys) and this recall is very important. I cannot imagine how a stroller can pass its inspection, if it has one, and no one realizes it could lead to strangulation. I would imagine that Graco, the stroller company, would inspect and test the strollers in the same way car companies crash test cars. Graco should put dummies the same size as babies and have multiple "aged" dummies so they can test all the size children who could end up in that stroller. There were 2 million strollers recalled but only 4 reports of strangulation so it is possible that those 4 strollers were just broken, as compared to the other 1,999,998 strollers. The price of the strollers ranged from $90-$250 so they are not cheap. The blog did not form much of an analysis or opinion on the topic, it was very factual and summarized. The article was interesting, but very summarized.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking over The Consumerist blog and reading the comments made by my fellow classmates, I noticed a reoccuring theme. A large majority of our posts mention the use of catchy titles, slang words, and humor to make The Consumerist a popular blog. Obviously, the blog does recieve a lot of traffic after reading what Maggie wrote about the Facebook post on the site. I believe that when a blog uses humor and slang terms in their posts, the site loses some of it's credibility, but at the same time, the blog gains traffic and popularity which ultimately gets the word out about consumer activism.
ReplyDeleteI also read the article about Gamestop refusing to sell a game to a customer who didn't give them his information. The saleslady outright refused to sell Jeff a game because he didn't want to join the rewards program and didn't want to give his phone number to them. In a comment posted by another reader, he/she explains that their friend used to work at Radioshack and the clerks there were basically forced to do the same thing or risk getting fired.
ReplyDeleteStupid insignificant things like asking for personal information to buy a simple product or shoddy outsourced tech support is the reason why consumers have to be aware and that makes the existence of this blog valid.
The general overview of the blog is that it seems mostly geared at those interesting stories that keeps a person busy for a few minutes on the internet. While there are a few articles that provide any source of knowledge, the rest seem to be fun facts. The articles such as a Verizon employee transferring a customer to a sex hotline, a disgruntled GameStop employee needing a phone number, and the most ticketed cars are just fun things to read and people don't read those articles to change their purchasing habits.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking through the blog, my impression was that it is a very up-to-date blog with lots of articles and topics. The site has everything from ways to save money to dumb consumer quotes and because of the wide variety of topics, the blog will have something for everyone. The site is friendly and light-hearted with many of the articles and their titles poking fun at the subject in some form. Most of the blogs are very short too and just kind of share experiences instead of go in-depth about a topic.
ReplyDeleteIn glancing over The Consumerist site, many of the blogs posted are very short and takes a direct approach to the issues discussed by the author. The short writing makes the blogs lack analysis, possibly decreasing the ethos of Consumerist bloggers.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I do find the blog interesting in the fact that things such as customer service can be a legitimate cause for activism, as activism is a fight against some injustice to a group of people.
Like we were saying in class today, this site is based on consumerism, and consumerism is a very broad topic. Furthermore, going through the class comments, it seems like everybody thinks most of the blogs on The Consumerist are short stories about consumer experiences. Like the other two blog sites that were picked by classmates, the blogs mostly seem like an online “newspaper” site (on a specific topic). However, this site is full of blogs with just single paragraphs accompanied by big pictures which tell you more about the situation than the words of the blog itself. One blog in particular was “Norton Has Detected Itself” (http://consumerist.com/2010/10/norton-has-detected-itself.html). The blog title definitely caught my eye because I use Norton Antivirus myself (and so do many other consumers out there), and it’s not very reliable. The blog consisted of one single sentence complemented by a big, simple, obviously made-up pie chart of a person’s Norton Antivirus detecting itself as something that slows down his PC. What does this tell a new reader about the site? It accepts short, unimportant blogs that lack logos! Anyone this day and age can post a picture of something on a site and write a few sentences about it, and it might gain some attention if it contains enough egos or it’s interesting enough to the audience. Are these short blogs going to “activate” people against consumerism? We all know that we’re never going to be satisfied with everything we buy or use. Hence, this site might just be another place to vent about that well-known, uninteresting fact for the reason that, humans are never fully satisfied with everything.
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