If Kittywood Studios produces all the cat videos then who is writing all these blogs?!

There's a nice new spoof video of Kittywood Studios, the entertainment empire that is responsible for all the cat videos on YouTube. As the Huffington Post writes:

Meet Kittywood Studios, a hilarious (and fictional) company devoted entirely to creating cat videos. They meticulously plan cat clips down to the "prrr charts" and claim to be the creative geniuses behind "cat who likes to watch the toilet flush" and even the "kitten attacking the watermelon".
If cat videos are manufactured by Kittywood Studios the obvious question is then who produces all the content for development-related blogs, which probably make up another 30-40% of Internet traffic ;))?!
I have a few suspicions, because quite frankly, it's hard to believe that all this 'groundbreaking' research and 'eye-opening stories' from the field are really happening...

1. The IMF
To distract from its tarnished image and play a practical joke on the colleagues from the World Bank (who have devoted time and energy to learn more about the 'impact of economics blogs'), the IMF has a team of communication people at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. that diverts the time and attention of students, researchers and aidworkers to read stories about how 'challenging' life as an aid worker or researcher can be.

2. A disgruntled professor
Let's be honest, but all this blogging, no matter how critical, makes the development industry only more appealing to students and researchers. Fully aware of his/her impact the former (adjunct!) classics professor takes revenge on his/her field by indirectly encouraging students to sign up for developement-related courses only to make them get stuck in unpaid internships, dubious volunteering programmes or boring desk jobs in hot offices with unrealiable Internet access.
 
3. A PR firm working on behalf of a range of universities
Similar to the disgruntled professor, a visionary marketing firm has been asked to create the viral image of a vibrant, intellectually rewarding and fulfilling aid industry that now encourages students to sign up for expensive Masters degrees or even lures them into the arms of graduate schools where they start pursuing PhDs! Previous success stories of this firm include creating the mirage that 'MBAs' are a useful qualification to work in the private sector.

4. A multi-national company
I'm not at the liberty to disclose any names, but there are some indications that 'development blogging' is an invention of the global financial-petro-chemical-agribusiness-arms industry. To divert attention from their shady business in developing countries they have hooked critical minds on blogs that discuss development challenges in a village at length without ever producing tangible results. But all the re-tweeting and comments on the blog along the lines of 'dude, you are totally wrong', 'not all middle-aged aidworkers have failed relationships and are borderline addicts of adrenaline, alcohol or impact assessments' or 'this is really interesting-I should write my thesis about it'. Given how many blogs deal with travelling, airlines and airports there may be another group of companies behind all the writing-because who would otherwise book trips to Kabul or Khartoum?!

I'm sure readers have their own theory about the content production industry behind development blogging and you can post them safely and anonymously in the comments section below...

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