Free Blog Resources

These resources will be useful to any content creator, site manager, blogger, or writer. This page will expand as I incorporate suggestions from you, the reader.

Google Trends

Google Trends is a tool that is used in the analysis of trending searches and keywords on Google. Google Trends is useful for identifying seasonal, local, and other search trends with a break-down of where these searches are coming from. An important tool in the arsenal of any blogger or content manager.

Blog Ideas Generator

The Blog Ideas Generator helps those who are stuck with creating consistent topics and posts on their blog or website. Enter a few nouns and this site will generate one week of ideas.

Slideshare

A slideshow presentation can do wonders for spreading content across the internet. Slideshare is a great way to import content to LinkedIn and creates a lot more engagement than a typical written post. Visual aids are especially helpful when complex topics are being discussed.

Bubbl

Visual planners will love this free tool. Bubbl is a brainstorming application that is free to use and can even be trialled without registration or sign-up.

As an example, I have made a basic brainstorm for a new blog site.

Google Analytics And Google Search Console

Both of these free web-based applications provide a huge amount of data for any type of writer or content manager of a website. I have paired them because they work very well together as a way to analyze a site, basic SEO, and traffic performance.

Google Analytics provides real-time date for your website or blog, allowing content creators to see where their traffic is coming from and the behaviour of their site visitors. Google Analytics may seem daunting for first time users, but the Google Academy (100% FREE) allows a rookie to become qualified in Google Analytics in a couple of online sessions.

The Google Search Console will help to optimize site performance, crawl your web pages, see who is linking to your content, and much more. According to Google, "Search Console tools and reports help you measure your site's Search traffic and performance, fix issues, and make your site shine in Google Search results".

An example of Google Search Console in Action

Please comment below if you have any useful resources and I will add them to this page

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Propaganda In Hollywood: Case Studies

Estimated Read Time: 4 Minutes 20 Seconds Propaganda originates from the Latin “Congregatiode Propaganda Fide” , meaning to "spread the faith". The contemporary definition of the word has roots as far back as World War One when the term became associated with political messages. Propaganda has been defined in the modern sense by Jowett and O’Donnell as, “the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist” (2006: 163). The seven elements of propaganda contain the ability of propaganda to tap into emotions , source credibility , opinion leaders, using music or other media as a way to trigger an irrational response, group norms, visual symbols and the language used when engaging in propaganda. A modern propagandist can gain access to many sources of mass media, including television, movies, and radio, not to mention social ...

How Does A Story Make The News? Who Defines The News We See?

Estimated Read Time: 6 Minutes 24 Seconds The news is defined by Mitchell (2007) as any “new information or information on current events that can be presented by print media (Newspapers, magazines), broadcast media (Television, radio), Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience”. The news that consumers receive has gone through a process of news selection, essentially deeming what constitutes news and what does not. How Does A Story Become Newsworthy? Galtung and Ruge (1973) have provided ten key qualities that a story should have to become newsworthy . These ten criteria are: Timeliness ( frequency) of the story, for example, a story must be within the news cycle and the information is new or recently released Clarity or unambiguousness Proximity , or familiarity, of a story with regards to geographic and cultural proximity Significance or amplitude of the story, Consonance (meets expectations or predictions) Novel...

How Do Sources Influence Media Content?

Estimated Read Time: 3 Minutes 36 Seconds “The relationship between journalists and sources has been linked to a tug-of-war where each is trying to manage the other to his or her own advantage” (Tully, 2008: 23). In order to produce a news story, journalists must rely on a source for information and clarity of the story. Otherwise, the news story would become non-objective, unclear and opinionated, which is what journalists try to avoid. Journalists should select sources that will give the most appropriate information to them and therefore provide relevant information to frame a story around. Manning (2001), claims that “news media are usually regarded as a playing an important part in maintaining the flow of ideas and information upon which choices are made” (2001: 133). Manning also claims that “the less powerful are significantly disadvantaged to secure access to the media” (2001: 134). This causes problems due to the elite within society having the majority ...

Are Memories Of Old Wars Used As The Fodder For New Ones?

Estimated Read Time: 3 Minutes 36 Seconds Collective memory , before, during, and after wartime plays a large part in forming a narrative that plays an important role in society. The collective memory of an event is often expressed through the media, especially within the past 100 years. Habitually, this happens through the voices of bureaucratic institutions or figures. Fishman argues that these bureaucratic institutions are a “fountain of information” (1999 [1980]: 108) and journalists know that there will be vast information within these institutions. An example of bureaucratic institutions forming a narrative of war and collective memory was when journalists truthfully reported on the statements of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld regarding weapons that Iraq ‘had in their possession'. These statements made by the dominant social ideology (The United States Government) formed a pre-war (and post 1991 Gulf War) narrative that society could understand; Iraq has weapons and...

The Legal, Political, and Economic Marginalization of Maori in New Zealand

Estimated Read Time: 6 Minutes 12 Seconds Maori people living in New Zealand have found themselves in what Laguerre (1999), describes as ‘minoritized spaces’, dislocated from ‘white’, ‘normalized’, majority spaces. This article seeks to explain the legal, economic, political, social and cultural marginalization of the Maori people within New Zealand and how this has affected Maori society. The colonial paradigm for power and control will also be introduced to further understand how systematic marginalization has taken place in New Zealand. What Is Racial Marginalization? Cram, 2004, describes marginalization as; “totally removing the importance and power of someone…..the forcing of peoples out of the mainstream of political, economic or social life…to push to the sidelines or the periphery of a society or dominant group” (pp1-3). Cram then applies marginalization...

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