The power of blogs

My students at Vidzeme University got a good taste of how important blogs can be and the power of Google. When typing in some keywords, such as "public relations education Latvia" or online journalism Latvia, two of their blogs that they created just a week ago show up as the first entries.

Should every story (or massage) have a happy ending?

Aleksandrs provides a nice list of good music listening for the month of October, with brief reviews of the various songs that are informative. If you can ignore the puke-colored green of his background site, he actually writes in a sardonic yet informed way that is well worth reading. His mention of Mika's song "Happy Ending" makes me wonder if he knows the various meanings of the phrase, especially in the massage sense? Although I hadn't heard of Mika until recently as I generally stopped seriously following popular music since about 1987, it does seem Mika is very popular. However, I find his songs generally pretty annoying and repetitive, and the suspenders just don't do much for me.

The role of ethics in PR

There are five main categories of ethical issues in PR in Latvia, according to Zane Birkena. The first point she mentions, that journalists move to PR and PR people switch to journalism (and sometimes back again), is probably the least serious of the ethical issues and would only affect ethics in so far as if the former PR person now working as a journalist gives more importance to good stories of former clients, let's say. But that is more an ethical issue of truth and honesty than switching professions.

Her second point, however, is a serious ethical breach by PR standards, and I was surprised to hear it goes on in Latvia. I look forward to hearing more about this issue and hearing ways she thinks these issues can be resolved.

Issues of online identity

Vaira Avota brings up some very interesting issues around online identity, both good and bad points.

These are all very good points and the cartoon is a classic in Internet culture. Another interesting area to consider regarding the online world that is still primarily text is what is called the lack of social context cues. In other words, it is hard to tell exactly what someone may be feeling simply by reading what they write. In face-to-face interaction, however, we can tell if someone is joking by the expression on their face, and so on. That is one reason emoticons have become so popular online, because they add social context cues to what we are writing. It is also interesting to consider that a lack of social context cues also helps weaken issues of prejudice or sexism, precisely because they don't know who you are (which, as you mention, has good and bad points to it). What will happen as we move to a more video-oriented online environment, when Internet users expect to see (and hear) the other people online, not only in text? It could bring back issues of racism or other forms of discrimination into what are now relatively democratic forums.

Kvass: The breakfast of champions

Yesterday morning, as I waited in the dark at a bus stop at 7 a.m. for the bus to take me to Riga, a watery-eyed guy emerged from a side street carrying a hedge cutter and backpack. He then pulled out a 2-liter bottle of kvass, took a mighty swig, and held the bottle to me and an elderly man who was standing by me. The elderly man took a drink, but I politely declined with a "Ne, paldies." I then asked, "brokastis?", but he didn't understand my accent and held the bottle to me again. I still refused, but had never thought of kvass as a breakfast drink before.

The importance of learning Latvian

Here in Latvia, they have really big, mean-looking dogs. It's hard to tell if they really are mean or not, because they look at you in a kind of cautious doggie way that could either mean "Please come and pet me" or "Hold still; I'm calculating the best angle to rip your throat out."

An important sign to learn to avoid the latter fate is "NIKNS SUNS", usually with a picture of a dog on the sign as well. I think the phrase would make a great name as a brand for an Extreme Sports line of clothing.