Last Chance on Old Articles

Blogs to Riches

Study Questions for “Blogs to Riches”

(Due: Monday, May 8, 2006. 40 points)

1. Suppose that Gawker has a good day, drawing 120,000 more pages views than they normally do. How much money would they stand to make that day? How did you arrive at this figure? (I’m not kidding – show your work.)

2. What’s the maximum amount of money that David Hauslaib could be making?

3. What is a “meritocracy”? (It’s okay to resort to a dictionary if you have to on this one.)

4. What measure did Clay Shirky come up with to determine the relative importance of blogs?

5. “The A-list is teensy, the B-list is bigger, and the C-list is simply massive.” What term would my brother-in-law, Gary (an Economics professor at SCSU) use to describe this phenomenon?

6. Peter Rojas has become rich – really rich – thanks to his blog, Engadget. But it’s not easy. What’s an average work week like for Rojas?

7. What incident led to Joshua Micah Marshall’s blog (Talking Points Memo) making it big?

8. What formula did Andrew Sullivan (The Daily Dish) use to sustain his blog?

9. Why would you want to buy advertising space on the Busy Mom blog?

10. Blogs are the next frontier in political advertising. Why would one advertiser prefer Daily Kos, while another prefer Talking Points Memo?

11.Boing Boing is currently the number one rated site. How many readers do they have?

12. What is “the record label approach” to blog fame and fortune?

13. What is “the boutique approach” to blog fame and fortune?

14. What’s a good way for a little C-list blog to temporarily gain lots of traffic?

15. How is a blog like a shark? (I know, I know, if it _________, it _______. What does that mean?)

16. How was the Huffington Post “a death knell for the traditional blogger”?

17. What does Elizabeth Spiers think is the ultimate determining factor in whether a blog will survive and prosper?

Nancy Grace

Study Questions for “Nancy Grace: TV Crimebuster”

(For any question marked by an asterisk, do not quote from the article. Be sure to put the answer in your own words.)

1. What happened in Nancy Grace’s life to change her from a potential college English professor to a TV personality?

2*. How does Ms. Grace feel about criminal defense attorneys?

3. How has Nancy been doing, ratings-wise?

4*. Recently Ms. Grace’s staff were sent to a workshop. What were they there to learn about?

5. Nancy Grace was once an assistant district attorney. Was she any good? (How good?)

6*. What trouble did Grace run into (years later) concerning the Herbert Connell Stephens case?

7. What misstatement has Ms. Grace made publicly about the criminal record of Tommy McCoy?

8. How long did the jury deliberate the fate of Tommy McCoy? What has Grace publicly stated?

9. Why was Tommy McCoy spared the death penalty? (What is Ms. Grace’s memory of that event?)