technoculture314-09

On the University of Stanford newspaper website, there is a story by Annike Heinle who raves about the new iPod Nano. She gives the new piece of technology a great review and lets the reader know all about the fabulous new apps. Of course it would be typical for a student to review a new technology, but the article gushes at the new applications that the iPod Nano has. “Simply put, this nano is a work of art.” Heinle gave it such a great review that one might ask if she was given the new Nano for free. She does mention that she has more than one iPod already. It also leads to the question as to whether or not people who marvel at new products are being sincere or giving their actual opinions in the blog reviews? In other words, could a blog review just be part of a company’s scheme to ‘get the word out’ about their new product? Of course it would be. As a response the Federal Trade Commission in the United States has decided to moderate the relationship between reviewers, advertisers and endorsers. The FTC has decided to make a law for bloggers who receive free products, saying that they now had to reveal their connections with the companies who gave them products. “The new rules also take aim at celebrities, who will now need to disclose any ties to companies, should they promote products on a talk show or on Twitter.” This new law is quite strange because it is questionable as to whether the FTC will be able to monitor it or not. But it also adds to Jose van Dijck’s theorisation that, “The triangular relationship between media producers, advertisers and consumers has become more intimate.” There is no doubt that the differences between these three entities have become blurry, but there needs to be some control over the veracity of some of these "opinion" blogs. It seems that this is one of the FTC's first steps to try and do just that.