mediajunk

I recently told you about a man who had successfully used his blog to complain about shoddy service from his bank, embarrassing them into apologizing.

It seems like the idea might be catching on: a woman called Marie Griffith has become disgruntled with retail chain Mastercare and has set up a blog in order (so I've read) to launch an onslaught of complaints against the company.

It is tempting to make the argument that blogs are empowering, giving the general public access to a slice of media, however thin. On the other hand, what is to stop disgruntled ex-employees, even competitors, publishing blogs that masquerade as the moans of wronged customers? If there was a proliferation in such hatelogging (hey, I've just coined a term, let's see if it catches on!), could it lead to a boy-who-cried-wolf syndrome, where all such blogs become disregarded?

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The Guardian insists that panic over Google's imminent blog search is unfounded; the search engine will not remove blogs from its main index. Moreover, Neil McIntosh passionately defends the practice of blogging, using as his mantra a rapidly-spreading quote from A-list blogger Dave Winer: "If you want to be in Google, you gotta be on the web."

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To follow up the New York Times article that I talked about yesterday, I suggest you take a look at Elaine's Life as a great example of someone who is turning her private life into compelling entertainment. The diary is supposedly that of an 18 year-old girl but, me being the skeptic you know and hate, I'm not convinced.

The writing is excellent and the topics she chooses (losing her virginity, for example) make her diary a page-turner (or should that be a link-clicker?). She certainly gets a lot of readers, judging by her guestbook, but her life has a paperback-romance quality that feels untrue. (I mean, who do you know in real life that loses their virginity on Valentine's day, after following a series of romantic treasure-trail clues to the best restaurant in town, etc. etc.?)

Even assuming (as I know many of you will, sigh!) that it's true, I wouldn't fancy being the boyfriend, even if his name wasn't revealed, though (gasp!) it is.