KARACHI: Do bloggers have more freedom as compared to journalists when it comes to writing about brands? And is that freedom necessarily a good thing?

A debate revolving around this question and more was held between those from the corporate world and bloggers at a session titled “Corporate Blogger Meetups: Building or Buying Loyalty?” on the first day of the Pakistan-India Social Media Mela on Friday.

During the session, bloggers insisted that the lack of restrictions and editorial control on bloggers gave their opinions greater value for corporations.

“News stories are regulated and managed by editors to make sure the content does not come off as too promotional, whereas bloggers are bound by no such restrictions and are able to promote or discredit a certain product as they feel is justified,” said Shoaib Taimur, a panellist and regular blogger.

“The beauty and risk of blogs is that they lack objectivity,” said Taimur.

“Corporations cannot dictate content to bloggers, as they do in press releases,” added Faisal Kapadia, a renowned blogger.

But the speakers admitted there were certain drawbacks that came with such freedom.

Bloggers who have written negative reviews of products, or have not covered certain events are not invited to future events by the same corporation, said Aly Balagamwala, commonly known as DiscoMolvi on social media. Dr Awab Alvi, another blogger, added to this, stating that he was aware of many bloggers, including himself, who had not been re-invited to certain events due to the critiques published on their blogs.

Discouraging negative press through freebies?

Many of the bloggers stated that bribing them with ‘freebies’ challenged the integrity of the blogger and the content could be compromised. They reiterated that negative as well as positive feedback should both be taken with a pinch of salt.

Raheel Khursheed, a panellist and director communications at Change.org, responded: “Social media takes up a lot of space, as far as mind space is concerned, so the gift tends to determine the outcome of what a blogger writes.”

Samra Muslim, another panellist from the corporate world clarified that there was no agreement signed between corporations and bloggers to write a good or a bad review. She explained that the intention of the corporation is “not to buy the bloggers loyalty but build it based on experience”. She went on to state that fashioning an opinion is not the intention of the corporation, but trying to get someone to advocate their product is.

The general view of the panellists highlighted that if a blog was reflective of any influence from a firm, corporation or brand it would lose its credibility with its audience.

Issue of reach

“Why would corporations be willing to pay bloggers to write about them when total reach is of a few thousand people?”

Responding to this question posed by the audience, Muslim giving an example of the number of attendees at the Social Media Mela, said that social media was now a forum that was big enough to demand attention and “corporations could not ignore social media” any longer.

The verdict? The need to blog, tweet and have a piece of the social media pie is felt by corporations, which are now trying to cope with the alacrity of change in social media trends.

Transferring animals from the wild into closed compounds with the promise of controlled living conditions, food and other facilities is what zoos aim to provide. 

There is however,  no comparison between an animal’s natural habitat and those artificially created in cages, zoos and other animal facilities, especially in Pakistan where there is an extreme lack of resources and a seeming lack of compassion.

Animals in the Lahore Zoo were found to be caged and suffering in extreme weather conditions, with either no facilities to cool them, or such facilities being off due to loadshedding or disrepair. Certain compounds were not equipped to cater to the needs or requirements of the animals.

In Lahore, the image of a healthy zoo is far from reality, with visitng children expressing concern over the ill-treatment of animals. This has become a source of concern for many including teachers, parents, NGO’s and even children.

Just last week, Pakistan lost a Sri Lankan elephant who died due to an injury on her foot. The World Wide Fund for Nature Biodiversity Director Uzma Khan said that foot conditions are one of the reasons for mortality amongst elephants, however, this fact is not known by many of the zoo caretakers, and hence ignored.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif, during an address in Islamabad, said that Pakistan would have prospered if his party had been given more time.

Speaking at a laptop distribution ceremony in Islamabad on Friday, Sharif said that, “If they had let us construct, if we hadn’t been thrown out, if we hadn’t been sent to jail, if we hadn’t been banished, today Pakistan would have been a country where degree holders got jobs as soon as they graduated. That is the Pakistan we were trying create.”

The PML-N leader accused the current government of non-cooperation, stating that had they cooperated with the Punjab government, Pakistan would have had a different face today.

He said that with the work being done by the current regime, it was hard for him to imagine a prospering Pakistan.

Sharif called on the people to “recognise those people who had devoted themselves to serve the country”.

He said that education is flourishing in Punjab and their work was standing out. Sharif said his party had taken up the role to make a “progressive” Pakistan by making sure that the youth could hold their heads up high.

What are they doing there?

Lalita is very rudely informed during her transit flight to London that due to delays on the current flight, she has missed her flight to New York and shall be given a hotel room to compensate for the loss. Nikhil, happens to be travelling to London to enroll himself in acting school, but will be staying with his uncle for the first few days.

The two “bump” into each other when Lalita drops her book, which Nikhil picks up to give back to her and from there begins the “unexpected” magical love story of Nikhil and Lalita.

After indulging in cordialities at the airport, the two end up spending a day in London together. How that happens is again the beauty of Bollywood! Bouts of jealousy, spurts of anger and the tension surrounding sexual attraction give away the concept behind the movie. This was one of those flicks that you can predict scene to scene. But a guilty pleasure nonetheless. The one thing, however, which was a tad confusing and weirdly refreshing was the fact that the movie literally concentrated on the two lead actors with barely any supporting cast. It worked because Zafar and Rao-Hyderi were able to carry the film through on their own — no one else was required.

Zafar in particular was brilliant. Certain scenes, in my opinion, were shot “too in the face”, but he played it off well and his acting was heart wrenching at one point.

Rao-Hyderi, who played the role of an inquisitive journalist in Rockstar, did a decent job. A very pretty face, did not overact, but didn’t make a lasting impression as such. Her role, however, changed throughout the movie and the different looks that she was going for, she adapted to just perfectly. Her skills in the French language were impressive and used brilliantly in LPNY.

All in all, the movie was a great one-timer! A fun experience, which allowed for loud laughter; this typical but not-so-typical Bollywood movie was anything but a bore.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2012.