Blogs power in public relations

The Internet provides limitless opportunities for issues management, relationship management, environmental scanning, and other key public relations functions. Yet, researchers disagree on whether the potential and opportunities availed through the Internet are actually being used (Springston, 2001). As more Internet-based communication tools emerge and gain popularity, it behooves practitioners to understand how to integrate such tools early on. However, practitioners have been labeled “laggards” when it comes to technology (Anderson & Regan, 1992; Porter, Sallot, Cameron, & Shamp, 2001).

Generally the blogs are not used as a standard public relations tool. But the practitioners see the blogs play an important role. Some of them have the impession that the use of blogs gives them more prestige and expertise. Practitioners started using blogs for informational purposes – seeking out alternative viewpoints, the latest news, and experimenting with blogs for research purposes. Then they continued to use the blogs for information but in a more strategic and professional manner. The final step in the evolution of blog use is to begin engaging in two-way communication. Here the users are aware of how their organization or client is being discussed in blogs, and are then ready to become an active part of the conversation as well by maintaining a blog or interacting on others.

This is a way practitioners of public relations use the blogs in the effort of building communication and trying to contact with the publics in a more realistic way.

How Public relations are influenced by technology?

In general the strategy and the tactics the public relations practitioners use are related with the use of media. For this reason any change in this area will force public relations practitioners to adapt. Some of these changes are made to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the tactics that are used but some others have the adverse result.

The new technology creates implications to the exercise of public relations. The internet and the World Wide Web have changed the way people have access to information. Moreover, wide ranges of other technologies, ranging from satellites, to cell phones, to video news releases, have developed into the standard means that influence public relations practices and policies.

There are different areas that the technology influence how the practitioners exercise public relations, how the messages are developed and exposed, how the management- culture of an organization are influenced and how the relations between an organization and its publics are effected.

As a public relations practitioner what is your opinion?

Do you know what is a Wiki?

When we try to write a paper and find sources our professors tell us " Don't use wikis as your resources! We will not accept them." And I wonder why???

A wiki is a Web page that can be viewed and modified by anybody with a Web browser and access to the Internet. This means that any visitor to the wiki can change its content if they desire. While the potential for mischief exists, wikis can be surprisingly robust, open-ended, collaborative group sites.

Wikis permit asynchronous communication and group collaboration across the Internet. Variously described as a composition system, a discussion medium, a repository, a mail system, and a tool for collaboration, wikis provide users with both author and editor privileges; the overall organization of contributions can be edited as well as the content itself. Wikis are able to incorporate sounds, movies, and pictures; they may prove to be a simple tool to create multimedia presentations and simple digital stories.

The information about the wikis can be found in http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf

According to these data wikis can provide students with useful information about a research topic, but on the same time the reliability of the sources are under consideration.

What do you think?