Innovative Blog - Treehugger

http://www.treehugger.com/

Technology
The only technology used in this eco-blog is the internet, which is used as a platform from which to access the blog (the website). Blogs are replacing traditional forms of gathering information – books, TV programmes – because they give the viewer specialised information, normally on a nice topic.

This is why it is relevant, because people can access the detailed information that they want and all the up-to-date news on that topic, in one place. Which before would have been hard to do, because for niche topics you often have to search for the information.

Media Content
The media content involved in this blog is the website and the blog itself.

The Website www.treehugger.com
The main content of the home page is the main blog but then along the top the website is put into 3 categories; Get Informed, Interact, and Take Action. Each of these has the archives of the main blog within them. For example in interact the sub-heading ‘Pop Quizzes’ and this has all the daily, mini quizzes in it which appear on the main blog. The ‘Get informed’ section holds most of the posts as it has 11 sub-headings, including; culture and celebrity, business and politics and transportation. The website is a little confusing visually, as it has lots of sidebars and bright adverts. Its main colours are dark green, bright green, pale green (background) and white – with mainly black text. All of the adverts and related links are completely themed around the idea of being eco-friendly – for example, petitions and sustainable energy. Google also has a clear share in the blog as it has a sidebar of ‘Top Searches’ which has a list of topics (bamboo, plastic bags, solar energy) and if you click then a Google-style search appears on the main page.

The Blog www.treehugger.com
The blog has around half a dozen new posts daily and has many regular features. For example, it has a daily ‘pop quiz’ where viewers answer a Q, see how many people agreed with them and learn the answer – I think features like this are really great because they keep the feel light-hearted and also increase loyalty to the blog. They are also have a feature called ‘How to green your…’ to which articles and suggestions are constantly added. This feature is great because it provides something for everyone – how to green your; pet, wardrobe, meals, sex life, furniture etc. The structure of the blog is also a lot more non-linear than other blogs; on the homepage there is the title of each post and then the first few paragraphs. This gives you a little taste of the article and then you open the full article if you wish to learn more. You can also comment on any post, and the most recent run down the side of the page for readers to see when they open the article in full. The blog literally covers all topics relating to sustainability and being eco-friendly, which at the moment is a very hot topic, it has 11 sub-headings (as shown above). This again helps to widen its audience and provide something for everyone – celebs to business, however, it is still a niche and specialised audience.

Audiences
The audience for an eco-friendly blog is quite small as it is a niche group and a specialised topic, but this blog has definitely maximised its reach.

The target audience is probably 20s-30s who are probably the most environmentally conscience as the problem has only really been mainstreamed in the last 10 years or so (first eco-campaign was the 60s though). Roughly equal gender wise, but probably slightly more of a female audience as it many articles on eco-fashion (materials etc) and celebs.

The audience are using it to gain information on a niche topic because without eco-blogs like this one this amount of information isn’t really found in one place. The audience are also using it to voice their opinions via comments and to meet other people with similar interests via forums. The main benefit is that these things aren’t provided elsewhere all in the same place.

Institutions
The institutions involved are Google (and other advertisers) and the owners of treehugger.com

Owners of Treehugger.com
The owners and creators of treehugger.com are using the internet to distribute their media and the blog to exhibit it. It mainly brings them profitable benefits from advertisers but it also helps them to give information on topics which they are clearly passionate about. Topics like the environment are really popular at the moment and the blog provides a platform for people not only to give information about it, but to also make money.

Google and other advertisers
Treehugger.com is a great place for advertisers which are environmentally friendly – for example, sustainable energy - because the website and the company have exactly the same audience. Therefore companies can market directly to their target audience from the website. It also helps larger companies, such as Google, because it gives them a better, greener image – this is particularly important at the moment as climate change is such a large part of global affairs.
These institutions

Key Concepts
The key concepts involved are; proliferation, Interactivity, Fragmentation, Narrowcasting, Reach and Immediacy

Proliferation
Due to the sheer size of this blog (linked to its age), it is an example of proliferation, it has lengthy articles on all topics related to environmentally friendly behaviour etc, giving viewers a huge choice. This widens their audience greatly therefore increasing appeal and popularity.

Interactivity
The blog/website is broken down into 3 main categories, of which ‘interact’ is one, this contains 4 sub-headings; forums, comment central, hugg and pop quizzes. On the forums feature there are over 2804 topics currently being debated, 2500 are environmentally based and some are other topics, but there is also a section for complaints, suggestions and questions. This increases loyalty because people can voice their opinions and debate with other people also interested in the environment. The suggestions etc feature means that they feel like they are being heard more and that they can help make a difference.

Narrowcasting
Although the blog provides something for people from walks of life, it provides it from an environmentally friendly point of view. All the information surrounds sustainability and environmental world affairs and therefore the blog is narrowcasting, as this is a specialist topic being projected at a niche audience.

Fragmentation
The effect of narrowcasting is fragmentation, because audiences can access more information on their topic/hobby it means that the audience is broken down into groups. Treehugger.com narrowcasts to environmentally friendly people who want to make their lives sustainable and keep up with environmental affairs.

Reach
The website provides environmental information for many different types of people – from business men to teenagers who are interested in celebrities. This dramatically increases their reach – particularly so because it is on the internet which provides global audiences for smaller companies (such as treehugger.com)

Immediacy
As a website treehugger.com is instantly a form of immediacy because it can be accessed at anytime, from anywhere, easily. However, due to the nature of the content – often specialist – it is a form of immediacy because it takes so much less time to consume the information, it takes much longer search through books and other websites than to look through a blog.