When I first got this assignment, I dreaded it and put it off as long as I could. However once I actually started it, I realised it was my most enjoyable assessment all semester. Blogging provides a type of therapeutic release, even if you don’t actually enjoy writing posts, reading different blogs is fresh and interesting.
On my search for student discount blogs, I came across many interesting blogs dedicated to other great subjects which I have now started following on my own personal blog (which I made three weeks ago). Although I am partial to my student life blog also. I believe if explored properly, my blog has the potential to fill a niche void and really contribute to the online community and help students all across Melbourne.
As my holiday project, I am now going to dedicate a part of my free time to developing and workshopping my blog. I already have another 10 or so topics that I wish to write about, however with time escaping me, and all 4 of my assessments due in tomorrow, I cannot physically do it at this point in time.
I have plans to promote my blog already in mind also. After the lecture which talked about the importance of social networking in blog promotion, I will set up a student life Facebook group, open a student life twitter account and also use some old school promotion techniques. It dawned on me as I was sitting in the library last week procrastinating and reading every pamphlet and sign around that other students would do this also. Therefore I will make and distribute some pamphlets and leave them around student hot spots around exam/uni times. I.e the library, south lawn, melbourne central food court, local uni cafes ect.
Everyone loves a freebie, so people will be more inclined to visit my blog if they think there will be some good deals to be had out of it. Understanding that there is no blog (that I know of) at the moment that is similar to my subject in Melbourne makes me more confident to go forward with my project, because it is imperative that a blog be a niche, and original for its survival in the big wide blogosphere.
But for now that is all, This blog is complete!! xx
“Blogs create communities of like-minded people. Debates happen within homogenous webclouds… Most bloggers would admit that it is not their aim to foster public debate. If you disagree with a fellow blogger, it is even unwise to write a comment. Instead, it is much safer to post the remark on your own blog. “I blogged you”. The chance that someone will respond to it is almost zero. Herein is the limit of blogging.” (Geert Lovink)
The comment above by Geert Lovink suggests that bloggers do not aim to foster public debate, and for my niche category this is true. I choose student lifestyle blogs; with particular reference to student discount blogs. Finding a blog specifically dedicated to student discounts was a very hard and tedious task, with just one blog coming up that I would consider truly dedicated to this purpose.
However in terms of more general student blogs I found an abundance of blogs dedicated to giving students advice on a whole range of issues that effect students lifestyles.
When examining the comment culture of these blogs, it becomes clear quite quickly that these blogs are not being established to cause some kind of public debate. An example of a typical comment thread can be seen below:
9 Responses to “Win a Student Rail Pass”
nakul sharma Says:January 18th, 2009 at 8:05 am truely saying usa is a land of opportunities.i would love to come to usa for higher studies.american lifestyle is amazing.must enjoy best moments.
BOATENG BISMARK Says:January 19th, 2009 at 10:37 am HELLO, I AM BISMARK BOATENG A GHANAIAN, A GRADUATE FROM MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. I AM LOOKING FOR FINANCIAL ADVICE AND SUPPORT TO PURSUE A GRADUATE PROGRAM IN WELDING ENGINEERING IN OHIO UNIVERSITY. TRULY I NEED TO FURTHER MY CAREER, HELP.
GoforGreenGal Says:January 22nd, 2009 at 8:26 pm It’s very nice to see this kind of opportunity. Studying abroad is already expensive as it is, so getting a free rail pass would let students travel to more places and to learn about a wider variety of cultures.
Zeeshan Says:January 24th, 2009 at 7:48 am Hello its zeeshan Qureshi Graduate from University of Sindh Pakistan.Its my dream to study at foreign Institute.Studying abroad is already expensive as it is, so getting a free rail pass would let students travel to more places and to learn about a wider variety of cultures.
STEPHEN OBIRI YEBOAH Says: January 28th, 2009 at 12:23 am Dear sir/madam,am Obiri Yeboah Stephen a Ghanaian and a third year student of Wisconsin University College-Ghana.I will be glade if you could assist me financially and also assist me to continue my education in abroad.Am counting on you for your help.
eric Says:February 11th, 2009 at 8:32 pm I spent some time browsing internationalstudent.com and enjoyed while reading through the stuff. Specially this post inspired me to write comments for it. I am from mydocstuff.com but yet i found this site really Great!
Adams Abdul Razak Says:February 18th, 2009 at 9:54 am i am a second year student in the islamic university college, Ghana. i always spend greater portion of my time browsing justget an oppotunity to study abroad. lifeis useless without quality education.
robert amissah Says:March 1st, 2009 at 7:56 pm it will be a great pleasure to be part of the Win a Student Rail Pass.i am ROBERT AMISSAH,a second yaer student of methodist university college ghana.i will be much glad to be assited in furthering my education in abroad.
Eurostar student travel Says:April 7th, 2009 at 10:06 pm I am a student at Kent college am I too late? Did you know that Eurostar have a promotion where you can travel for third the cost of flights to anywhere in Europe. Also you get free train from some uk rail stations. The ticket are so cheap that we are going again in May, so don’t say you weren’t warned! This summer will be a party train!
This comment thread was on a post about the opportunity for students to win a free rail pass for travel in the UK. The nature of content on these student blogs are non controversial, and are more helpful in nature.
When a service is being offered to the audience you are going to struggle to find people who will write or leave argumentative comments on the post because there is no provocation to do so. If bloggers were to leave any kind of negative comment, it would most likely be a constructive criticism on how to improve a service.
However not all blog or website comment threads can be seen in such a positive or neutral light. An example of this can be found when looking at the comment thread of ‘Angry Ginger Kid’ a video posted on YouTube by a boy with orange hair who lashed out in anger at South Park’s depiction of people with orange hair.
The video itself had over 260,000 views and thousands of comments. The thread read remarks such as:
Garrbear12399 16 minutes ago stupid fuckin ginger they dont have souls…
8100901 45 minutes ago your yust a focking ginger
10MMILLER 1 hour ago ginger abd nigger are spelled with the same words :]
21flame12 2 hours ago i’ll tell you the difference, you’ve got red hair WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
MrRossDunn 3 hours ago you don’t have a soul mate, get over your self !
Mdawg514 4 hours ago well the fat part isnt are fault its yours
The majority of comments on this video are completely horrible, with the comments mirroring a social construct that people with red hair don’t have souls. It seems completely ridiculous, but this sentiment toward auburn haired people has risen dramatically over the past few years. While YouTube is not a blog, it holds similar principles to a blog in that it offers a web based platform for users to interact.
Lovink likened the idea of user interaction in the blogosphere to an ‘army of ants contributing to the great hive called public opinion’[i]. In this circumstance the army of ants are users contributing to the cyber bullying of this boy who is trying to express his frustrations through the means of a YouTube clip. Arguable, given the fact he has red hair, he picked the wrong medium to express this view, and perhaps would have been more successful with a blog post that was well articulated and didn’t feature his image. However this gathering of people commenting on the clip emphasizes the idea that what these social networking sites and blogs do is create ‘a dense cloud of impressions around a topic.’[ii].
In my opinion the limit of blogging is not the fact that it has limited capacity to facilitate debate. Rather I find one of the biggest limitations of blogging is that blogging is not as revolutionary as it is hyped up to be.
Blogging was heralded to be a replacement of mainstream media and a voice of the people. However this is not true. Blogs generally just regurgitate already known information, and at best attach someone’s opinion or bias to it. Which in my opinion is the same function as the media.
This is view is supported by Terry Flew who states that ‘instead of complaining and arguing, the blogger puts him or herself in the persuasively pleasurable position of the media observer.’[iii]. Furthermore, Flew says that ‘blogs are witnessing and documenting the diminishing power of mainstream media, but they have consciously not replaced its ideology with an alternative’[iv]. Bloggers are different to journalists in that they don’t have the same skill set or resource to do investigative journalism, therefore no new content is coming from bloggers, but rather bloggers are just attaching links to already existent media and or giving their opinion on events.
[i] Lovink, Geert, (2007), ‘Blogging, the Nihilist Impulse’, in Zero Comments: Blogging ad Critical Internet Culture, London: Routledge, pp 8
[ii] Lovink, Geert, (2007), ‘Blogging, the Nihilist Impulse’, in Zero Comments: Blogging ad Critical Internet Culture, London: Routledge, pp 8
[iii] Flew, T. (2008), ‘Citizen Journalism’, in New Media: An Introduction, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, pp 144
[iv] Flew, T. (2008), ‘Citizen Journalism’, in New Media: An Introduction, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, pp 145
In the words of Dr Axel Burns, ‘web 2.0 describes the technological framework for a notable shift from static to dynamic content’[i] on the Internet.
With the aid of websites such as YouTube, Flickr and Myspace, an increase in user styled web pages have emerged. The considerable shift of user generated sites is now more than ever occurring on an amateur level, and expression on the web is no longer limited to those with a depth in computing knowledge or those with money to employ someone with website based skills.
The evolution of web design has had a profound impact on the way the Internet looks. Users now have the ability to express themselves on a platform that was once not accessible to those without computer coding skills. Olia Lialina believes that the way people design web pages express’ the way the people believe the web should look.
Lialina then goes further to say that ‘these peoples likes and mistakes [in web design] gave today’s web its current shape’[ii] and that ‘nothing demonstrates the state of the web in general and the state of its services… as clearly as the style of its ordinary users’ home pages’[iii]. However, professional web designers often criticize the rise in amateur web design, with one professional likening the people’s expression on the Internet to ‘getting stuck on the highway behind a caravan’[iv].
Now the traditional notions of what a ‘homepage’ is has shifted from being just a site with virtually no purpose to encompassing a range of sites that have been altered to meet a range of specific purposes.
The appearance of these personal sites has also improved because they are no longer built up from scratch, but rather a range of templates on the Internet help users to make their particular platforms look appealing.
With the example of WordPress.com, there is a range of blog themes that users can select from. If a user had no coding skills to design their own site they have the ability to make their page look good just by selecting a theme that suits their message.
Themes on WordPress tend to be quite clean and slim line when compared to other blog websites or social networking sites. With the example of MySpace, the type of visual you get form these pages tend to be quite tacky in their form. An example of this is found when you look at the most viewed layouts on MySpace.
The majority of these pages have a large picture on the background that repeats itself either vertically or horizontally[v]. The existence of the repetitive picture was actually a flaw made by a computer programmer in 1996, that wasn’t deleted or rectified, but has now been adapted to amateur web design users. This use of old aesthetics is tied to HTML coding, based on the modular approach, an approach that is over a decade old[vi].
But the real question is does it really matter? To some yes, as they are avid web designers and to them it is an art, but to others it does not matter at all. In fact some who use the web are ‘Anti-Design’ all together.
Understanding sentiments of ‘Anti-design’ can be seen when viewing the flash intro video on Cory Arcangels Spash Page[vii]. The website intro goes for over 2 minutes until it gets to a button to move on to the home page. Many people saw this type of ‘Web Art’ as arrogant and excessive as it takes up the audience’s time for no purposeful reason other than to boost the designers ego.
Modern preference for web design is now leaning more toward a minimalist ideal, where less is more. The focus of web design is now directed toward information cool, where the information takes precedent over the visual.
In a modern era where consumers are bombarded with an overload in visual stimulus, an over the top website can overwhelm audiences and in turn lose web traffic. Dave Edgars said, ‘What very few designers realize, particularly the younger ones, is that most people would rather read something—actually read the words—than look at all of their lines and arrows and silly pictures they’ve screened back’[viii].
For my blog I had adopted the attitude of minimalist design culture, by the template I choose when designing the appearance of my blog. Initially I used the ‘Twenty Ten’ WordPress theme, however I found that the colour and minimalist look of the blog was too dull for my audience of students.
When evaluating my niche market I took note of the deliberate use of colour in student blogs, so I opted for a change in theme and went for a theme called ‘Greenery’. The theme inspired me to have a green fresh feel for my blog, and I liked the fact that the posts text was written on a white background. To me the theme was more visually appealing than a stark plain white page that felt formal and sterile.
I have four widgets on my side bar and I think these are important in practicality when using my blog. Because my theme has lengthy posts running in consecutive order of one another it can be timely for readers to scroll down to find the specific type of blog they want to see. Therefore I have added in a categories widget, where each category is labeled according to its content; cheap activities, cheap fashion, cheap food and assessment posts.
With web design in the platform of a blog, it is important to let the information and words written to be the feature, however the way the blog looks on first glance is important so as to encourage users to stay on your page.
For my Niche Analysis I have taken inspiration from Student Beans[i], a blog dedicated primarily to student discounts and student financial support in the UK.
The site has tabs that offer students discount coupons and deals from a range of companies. The offers include anything from “2for1” movie tickets to discount furniture removal services. The types of services and offers on the site directly correspond to the target audience needs.
Obviously the blogs target audience is students, and the site boasts over 1 million visitors to its page each month. It has clearly become commercialized, with a large abundance of advertising featured on the site.
In terms of blog posts, one section that the blog offers is called Savvy, and this part of the site is where the blogs posts are featured. Savvy offers articles written by students, and while the subject of these posts are mostly dedicated to student financial advice, other student subjects come up from time to time. Examples of post headings are:
“Where are the best sales?” (Which is a guide to distinguishing between different store sales to make the best savings.)
“Top 3 countries to backpack through” (This gives advice on the most student friendly countries and the most affordable way to enjoy them.)
“How to do a festival on a budget” (This gives advice on how to save at festival by cutting food costs, accommodation costs and travel costs ect.)
“Make a statement with affordable jewelry” (This shows students how to make and buy jewelry that is fashionable and effective, but at a fraction of the cost.)
The lengths of posts usually range from 300-450 words, however some posts were up to 900 words long due to lengthier and more in depth content.
Advertising on the blog is really dominant, with the basic charm of the blog being about the advertisements themselves. This is because all of the student offers and coupons are a form of advertisement (no, they are not simply there because companies want to help poor students). So basically without all the advertisement in the form of coupons and offers, the site would not be as popular. Obviously there is still the student written articles, however on first glimpse at the blog, these articles are not the first thing you are looking at, rather it is an array of advertisements that first grabs your attention.
For my blog, I do not want advertising to be as prevalent as it is on the Studentbeans website. The content of their articles are actually really good and helpful, and it is an injustice to the material that the posts have come second to commercial interest.
Whilst obviously my blog is no where near as established as Studentbeans, if it were to become more successful and commercial, I would have a tab where students can go into to access discount coupons ect, and make my blog posts the first thing to be seen on my home page.
This design of the blog is quite simplistic, with a colour scheme that is just a white background with blue and pink writing for headlines and text. Besides the overt array of advertisement, the model for the blog is very minimalist. This simplistic format is necessary as it is an information blog. If the blog were to take an artsy format, it may become overwhelming for the reader if there were a bulk of text and image and advertising mixed together. Having something like dirt art on the blog would look out of place and clutter the page.
Student bean does not enable comments on their articles. This is most likely because of the sheer magnitude of people who view the blog. At an administration level it would be tedious for the blog to monitor such a large inflow of comments. Given the subject of the blog there are probably no comments enabled, as it is not the type of blog that would facilitate debate surrounding the content anyway. The site openly advertises for new journalists, so if students want to have a say on the sight they have the opportunity to do so through that formal means.
In terms of blogs that focus on student discounts, it was not easy to find blogs specifically dedicated to this in particular.
Most student blogs talked about things like getting through exams, handling student debt and how to look for good post grad courses. Generally as a rule of thumb, there was one post if any dedicated to student discounts and savings on student life blogs.
Given this, Student Beans was a rarity because its main focus was finding student savings. In Australia it was hard to find blogs devoted to this, therefore I believe this blog, if explored properly, could very well fill a niche void in the market place.
Copyright pre-1980 was a useful means to protect artistic work from plagiarism. However in the late 1980s U.S copyright law changed so that anything produced became instantly protected. With this suffocation of copyright licensing, people no longer had the liberty to share and influence each other’s work and artistic collaboration became stunted. Hence the Creative commons license evolved. The creative commons license was established as a response to heavy copyright laws, and the creative commons website went online in December 2002.
Thomas Jefferson established the original concept of Copyright in 1790, and he envisaged that ‘ideas should remain in the public domain rather than bound by legal restriction’[i] and that ‘only expression of such ideas in artistic works would be eligible for copyright protection’[ii]. Furthermore those expressions of ideas would only be protected under a strict copyright license for a limited time[iii]. The original drafting of copyright law saw ‘the need to provide a limited monopoly to creators of artistic work as an incentive [for artists] to [continue to] create.[iv]’ However more modern expansions of the copyright law have squashed this goal.
The issue with copyrighting work is that work becomes co modified and commercialized; therefore the innocence of artistic expression for arts sake is lost. On the other hand though, not copywriting work means that others may steal ideas, brand it as their own, and co modify it without the original artist reaping any benefit.
Thus the creative commons license provides for a happy medium between these two scenarios. The creative commons license allows for artists to choose that their work may be shared and influenced by others work or that their work may be influential on others work.
The music industry is a perfect example of why heavy copyrighting licensing can suffocate an art form. With creative commons licenses all different types of artists can collaborate together to produce art, from writers working with musicians to working with producers and so on.
One possible issue with CC licensing is that people using it do not completely understand the legislation and law surrounding it. However, the CC licensing group advocates that the licensing code is accessible to the average persons understanding, providing a ‘human-readable summary of the Legal code’[v] and a full version of the code when you view the license.
Creative commons licensing supports community building and a ethos of sharing in the online realm. The CC license sets default rules for the reuse of user-submitted content on your site, and plays an important role in outlining the correct procedural relationship between the users of your site and the way they interact with content on your page.
With the example of a blog, the CC license allows you to identify in which circumstance material you have posted can be reused, recycled or reproduced.
Full copyright more or less benefits the big corporations far more than it does the individual, and it benefits the co modification of art far more than the individualized expression of idea. Garcelon believes that ‘copyright law bears directly on the interests of large media companies’[vi] and as a result the media conglomerations did not use their resource of mass communication to education the American public of the debate surrounding the issue, consequently hindering democracy.
I have chosen to include a CC license as my material is all taken from other resources, and my blog simply notifies its audience about the potential savings that are available through the fact they hold a student concession in Australia. In any case I am not sure exactly how my work would be copied, if similar student sites were to use the information I am posting they would be able to as it is already public information. However if I were to make a blog concerning my personal research, or ideas, I may be more inclined to protect it more heavily.
[i] Marc Garcelon, ‘An Information Commons? Creative Commons and Public Access to Cultural Creations’, New Media & Society 11.8 (2009): 1307-1326, Pg 290.
[ii]Marc Garcelon, ‘An Information Commons? Creative Commons and Public Access to Cultural Creations’, New Media & Society 11.8 (2009): 1307-1326, Pg 290.
[iii]Marc Garcelon, ‘An Information Commons? Creative Commons and Public Access to Cultural Creations’, New Media & Society 11.8 (2009): 1307-1326, Pg 290.
[iv]Marc Garcelon, ‘An Information Commons? Creative Commons and Public Access to Cultural Creations’, New Media & Society 11.8 (2009): 1307-1326, Pg 290.
[vi]Marc Garcelon, ‘An Information Commons? Creative Commons and Public Access to Cultural Creations’, New Media & Society 11.8 (2009): 1307-1326, Pg 292.
Melbourne is infamous for its broadway shows, however on a student budget it can be really hard to access good performances due to the $$$ issue.
One of the better shows at the moment is Jersey Boys. It’s everywhere! When the show first came out a year ago, there wasn’t a newspaper or television show that wasn’t talking about it.
But at $129.00 a ticket? Can we really afford it?
The answer is YES!
On selected performances, the first 29STUDENTS TO LINE UP PAY ONLY $29.00. Students simply need to line up at the box office prior to the show and they can score tickets to this world-class performance.
29 for 29-that is pretty good!
However conditions do follow. Students must hold a valid full-time student card, and must queue prior to the performance to obtain tickets. But hey, for a $100.00 saving, who cares!
Selected shows are on:
Tuesday 7pm
Wednesday 8pm
Thursday 8pm
Sunday 6pm.
*Tickets go on sale 2 hours prior to each performance.
My friends and I went to the show on a student night. First we went to the Princess Theater at 6 pm to ensure we had tickets. Buying the tickets was really easy, we just showed our student cards and they gave us the best seats left in the house. With our spare two hours we then made our way down to China town and had some delicious Yum Cha. In total it was a $40.00 night out, for dinner and a show. Definitely a treat worth indulging in! xx
To find out more information visit the Jersey Boys website, but hurry, the shows about to move on!!
The beginning of this blog has been a long time coming, but with assignments for other subjects out-of-the-way, finally I can devote some attention to Student Life. For many student sites out there, it is all about finding accommodation and getting jobs ect, but that’s all a little bit boring. What happens if you have a home and a job? Sometimes we just want some good deals for being on concession. If that is you, then this blog is just the tool for you. I will let you in on all the little secret goodies that students benefit from just because we study. To some uni is like being on the dole, except your parents are proud of you! There are many deals to be had and discounts to be used.
