The New Statesman has recently run an article on the way corporates have rapidly (and more in the mainstream) begun paying people to blog about their products or services. It seems the incumbents are now waking up to the New Media that is blogging and all that comes with it.
I know that some of my friends write for Blogcritics and have had ‘free’ stuff sent to them to critique. John Wayne DVD box sets for example. It’s all good. It seems it’s not enough to get Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear to talk about a new car, companies will pay you to talk about your new car in chatrooms, on MySpace, wear the T-shirt and everything in between.
In a future where the divide between rich and poor is likely to become even more prevalent and a barrel of oil reaches $200 a pop will the poor have to top up their income by selling their bodies to advertising? If I can supplement my feeble salary by blogging about products and getting my friends to buy them then why wouldn’t I?
The thing is about Blogcritics is that it tries to ensure that the corporates don’t make people biased. But why would a corporate pay someone money to slag off their product if it proves to be no good? And if corporates use stealth tactics (i.e. they don’t actually brand their ‘blog’) in creating a blog, how quickly will it be before savvy readers of the site cotton on to the fact that this blog is really a marketing stunt in disguise? They could then leave in droves. I suppose if people did think like that they’d be leaving MySpace for WordPress. MySpace, having been bought by News Corp., will soon be deluged with adverts for Fox, Sky TV and more Murdoch products - as well as those that get advertised through the partnership with Google’s AdSense. How long will it maintain its ‘underground’ feel? Not long I don’t think. But then again all of the chat networks have gone through the process of being ‘by the geeks - for the geeks’ to mainstream and still remain popular 
Incidently, neither Audible.com, Blogcritics, Jeremy Clarkson, Rupert Murdoch or anyone called Charles Aznavour paid me to put this post together.