mediations

How small blogs bring big changes

From PR Business magazine...

Weblogs are having a significant impact on the way organisations communicate but many of the biggest successes are outside the public view, according to experts who will speak in London next month.

Although some use weblogs to reach a broad market, the most significant impact is on how organisations speak to niche, often internal, audiences, argues Stuart Bruce, one of six speakers at the University of Sunderland’s Delivering the New PR conference on May 12.

Bruce, a partner in Leeds-based BMA PR and a high profile PR  blogger, lists two major finance companies, a police force and a publisher among examples of organisations using weblogs to break new ground in internal communications.

He said: “It is a year since the cover story of Business Week claimed ‘blogs will change your business’ and put blogging on the boardroom agenda. But if they are being honest, some of the early champions were finding it difficult to find UK examples where blogs were making a difference.

“Now all that is changing, and much of the change is coming as people realise the power of blogs to improve and stimulate communications with specialist and niche audiences.”

And Philip Young, senior lecturer in Public Relations at the University of Sunderland and a lead researcher in the EuroBlog 2006 survey which tracks the impact of blogs on PR practice in 33 countries, agrees: “With experience people are realising that blogs are different than ordinary websites, which are often little more than static noticeboards. A good blog encourages dialogue, and it thrives on personal insights and a natural tone of voice.

Exploring PR - business or media?

There is some interesting debate going on across several blogs about the positioning of PR in in unversities - basically where should it be rooted, in media or in business? The exchanges come as UK academics are getting to grips with a significant new textbook, Exploring Public Relations, by Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans, both of Leeds Metropolitan University.

My first impressions are very favourable, not least because Exploring PR fills an large hole in UK reading lists. That is not meant to be a criticism of existing books, more a reflection of the fact that PR is maturing as an academic discipline and Tench and Yeomans have brought together a good range of respected writers who in many cases have gone beyond their contributions to previous texts. It is also very well presented for Level 2 students - engaging but still challenging, serious in intent and delivery.

Its significance to the broader debate lies in the framing of content. As one of the contributors, Richard (PR Studies) Bailey himself notes, it is located much more firmly as a business text than in media. Like Richard I accept that media relations is only a part of PR and that some PR has little or no connection with traditional media.

But at the same time I am very happy to be teaching at a University which locates PR firmly in Media & Culture. Our graduates leave with a strong grasp of both PR theory and its practical applications. they also understand something about journalism - again its practice but also its key skills, being able to write in a simple and effective way.

And they also gain an understanding of how PR shapes the world in which they will live. I am pleased that almost everyone who leaves wanting to work in PR will go on and get a job in the industry. But I am also pleased when students develop a critical understanding of PR and media which takes them in very different directions.

Exploring PR is good news, but by its very nature it is far from the whole story. Far from it being a weakness, or a problem to be addressed, I think we should welcome the fact that in the UK PR is taught in both media and business schools - the contrasts and tensions between these perspectives helps to deepen all our understandings.     

World View

Here's a fabulous way of visualising news perspectives across the globe

Press Freedom

Silvio Berlusconi's hold on the media is blamed for Italy being downgraded in a global survey of press and TV freedoms, to the same "partly free" class as Albania, Mongolia and Burkina Faso - Media Guardian

Here's the Freedom House press release; and here's the full report: Download allscore2004.pdf