Blogging, journalism and public relations

After geeks, the next single largest group at bloggercon seemed to be current and former journalists using blogs to overcome the problems of traditional media.
Problems like narrowness of viewpoint, arrogance, bullying, and a disturbing inability to meet even minimal standards of accuracy and fairness.
It's not for nothing that the public has a low regard for the media.
Yet, few of these journalist bloggers seemed to recognize that these very media flaws are a major reason for the existence of pr.
Another major reason for pr professionals is that there is a lot more to effective communications than just prattling on about anything.
This is especially true when you want to communicate with large numbers of people , who often have very busy lives.
As I noted in an earlier post on podcasting, good communications requires some thought and preparation as well as a computer and a microphone and an adolescent delight with the 'freedom' of onair swearing.

Comments

[Marius Coomans]

Trevor,

Don't you feel that PR is about to be "disintermediated"? A lot of agencies rely on their relationships with journalists and publications and purposely interpose themselves between supposedly clueless clients and the market.

The market will be looking for clueful customers with their own voice. That's a challenges for companies AND PR.

[trevor cook]

I agree in the sense that a lot of agencies have been ripping their clients off by stressing the dangers and taking retainers while urging clients to do as little as possible.
Thankfully I think those days are coming to an end. Nothing short of full engagement will be acceptable in the future and blogs will help make that happen.