Google, Sicko: Who Cares?

While many of the blog-o-pundits are chattering about the Google blog story around Michale Moore's new film Sicko, the majority of bloggers don't appear to be too interested. Sicko is generating buzz independent of the Google story.

In the world of social media monitoring, it is useful to consider the blogosphere as at least two distinct genres: the topical blogger (who strives to be considered an influencer) and the social blogger (who blogs to stay in touch with a community). While some issues that are picked up by the first category can spread to the later, this may not always be the case. I'm guessing that the audience for the movie has little to do with the economics of the online advertising world (that is to say, little interest - they are being bombarded from this corner minute by minute).

Comments

[FD]

the story broke on 29 june. there is no reason to plot anything before then. it's like plotting "earthquake izmit" before 17 august.

the (visual) comparison of the fraction of sicko posts including google seems significant.

it'd be more interesting if you actually broke down the "sicko +google" posts according to the occurrence of "google" (or other technologically-oriented terms) in the authors' entire post history.

[Matthew Hurst]

Fernando,

I have to say I disagree with you. It is relevant to show the stats prior to the event in order to establish the baseline signal. I don't think the relationship is significant, but it is borderline. Finally, yes - it would be nice to plot what you describe - however, BlogPulse is not designed or intended for that level of analysis (unfortunately).

[Jefrey Dach MD]

What is the real solution, if Michael Moore’s government sponsored universal health care is not the answer?

The crux of the "SICKO" documentary is the disconnect between our expectations and the reality of health care. We are expecting compassionate care from another human being, and instead we get a faceless corporation. The person behind the desk or window is an agent of a health care corporation, which is not a human being, whose primary goal is to increase corporate profit.

This is America, and corporate profit is good, the profit motive forming the basis America’s greatness. The basic problem is that a corporation is not a human being. Therein lies the fallacy of replacing a corporation with a government agency, neither of which is a human being, when what we really want is a human being to deliver compassionate health care, and assist in serious health care decisions.

Review of "SICKO", by Jeffrey Dach MD

Jeffrey Dach MD