The Blog Digest gets presidential this week.
Barack Obama’s Blog (pictured)
With only days left before the US presidential election, it is interesting to see the sheer volume of posts going up on both Obama’s and McCain’s blogs. Obama’s looks a lot slicker though, and you can tell he (or his aides) really get social media, as well as the added cool factor of having videos of celebrities like Natalie Portman endorsing him.
McCain’s blog looks a little blockier and less polished. As a US comedian said recently, if Obama is YouTube then McCain must be feeding tube.
Obama’s blog diligently posts all the latest media coverage of his campaign and adds in plenty of extra content in the form of plug-ins from YouTube and Flickr, as well as giving readers the option to add items of interest to their Facebook page or online bookmarking service.
So if McCain is not ‘down with the kids’, what better way to reach them than get his daughter to blog about how cool he is and how amazing and pop culture-tastic the campaign trail seems.
There’s not a lot of writing here, mainly too many photos of Meghan McCain looking super-excited to be supporting her dad. I’m not buying it. Wouldn’t it be better if McCain actually blogged his own experiences? But this seems to be done by several aides instead.
It seems as though the world and its mother has an iPod or wants an iPhone, but what about people who love Apple to the point of obsession? This is one of several professional blogs that is dedicated to the full-time coverage of anything Apple-related, and if Steve Jobs so much as sneezes, you’ll read about it here.
A tad over-zealous? Maybe, but Apple is not just a technology company, it is part of popular culture and what it means to be connected and mobile in a globalised society.
A few euros more? No, this is not a blog on how to save fistfuls of cash in the recession, it is actually one of the longest-running blogs on cultural aspects of Europe as a concept, state, financial entity and socio-economic experience.
There is also a really comprehensive blog roll which is categorised into left, right, eastern and western Europe, economics, humour, technology and so on. A great place to start immersing yourself in European culture.
A great read, as long as you skip any mention of the Eurovision Song Contest.
By Marie Boran
