Blog Assignment - Week 3

The internet has proliferated and evolved to a great extent from its humble beginning. Internet is the new tool for "world domination via collaboration". As with most things there are pros and cons, the pros being learning, sharing, accessing and interacting with information much faster with clicks of the button. cons can be summed up as ethical issues pertaining to the websites on the internet.

For an example when creating a community web site, one of the important things to not to do is lie. Wal-Mart in America did just that, to portray a better picture of themselves to the public.

Wal-Mart sponsored a couple to blog while traveling around America. The blog was called "Wal-Marting Across America". According to critics the site was set up as publicity stunt and fake, which mislead viewers. the blog was created to find people who have anything positive to say about the company.

Every Wal-Mart employee that the couple ran into, from store clerks to executives, absolutely loved to work at the stores. With the reputation of Wall-Mart being a stingy employer with wages and benefits would question this ordeal. As an example Wal-Mart fought hard against a Chicago city rule that would raise the minimum wage to $10 by 2010, and threatened to sue if the rule went into effect. At the same time, Wal-Mart has claimed that the average wage for its employees is $10.11. The question arises then "why fight a rule that proposes less then the average wage", this leads to suspicion of Wal-Mart wage structure.

The couple were provided with a flight to Las Vegas, RV (Recreational vehicle), free gas for the whole trip, a blog site created, and a freelance pay to the lady (of the couple) to blog her entries. All this was taken care and paid by Wal-Mart.

One of the blog entries from the stop at Amarillo, Texas, reads: "Cragg Thompson joined the Wal-Mart team six years ago…Cragg's son, Brandon, contracted cardiomyopathy—a serious disease in which the heart muscle becomes inflamed and does not work as well as it should because of a viral infection. This necessitated expensive surgery and a pacemaker totaling over $300,000 in medical bills, paid for by Cragg's Wal-Mart Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance. Today, 19-year-old Brandon Thompson has returned to work in the automotive department of the Pampa, Texas, Wal-Mart. Cragg feels his Wal-Mart's health insurance is a life saver.

The above can be questioned considering Wal-Mart fought long and hard against a Maryland law that would have required non-government employers with more than 10,000 workers to spend at least 8% of their payroll on health benefits.

The news article argues that the blog site does not mention that Wal-Mart has paid for the flight, the RV, the gas, and the blog entries. "They pay an unspecified sum to these people to say how great Wal-Mart is—I think it is deceptive," says Jonathan Rees, a labor historian and associate professor at Colorado State University at Pueblo.

I believe that lying to get people acceptance and trust is not the best way to success.


Wal-Mart's Jim and Laura: The Real Story

Dos and don'ts of community Web sites