Research Blog #3

Wright, Donald K., and Michelle D. Hinson. "How Blogs and Social Media are Changing Public Relations and the Way it is Practiced." Public Relations Journal 2.2 (2008): 1-21. Web. 15 Sep 2010.

I chose this article because it offers a bridge between academic and industry views of how blogs operate as communication channels. The authors see themselves as approaching blog use from a theoretical stance but are conducting their research on individuals who are industry insiders.

Wright and Hinson point to a lack of scholarly inquiry regarding the impact of blogs and other social media on public relations practice. Most studies, they contend, have been conducted by parties with a vested interest in the outcome, such as large public relations firms or authors of books on blogging. Wright and Hinson acknowledge the importance of understanding how key constituents in public relations are gathering and sharing information. The rise of bloggers who are becoming “influentials” or “opinion leaders”, for example, has direct implications for central components of Lazarsfeld’s two-step flow theory. Additionally, the faster pace of feedback allowed by digital media is changing the dynamics of communications.

This article reports on a three-year international survey of public relations practitioners. The 2006 and 2007 surveys suggested an increase in the number of public relations professionals who were aware of blogging by employees in their organizations. Questions regarding the ethics of blogging and corporation’s reactions to blogging by employees reported mixed results. The 2008 survey, with which this article is most concerned, added additional research objectives:

·      Have blogs and social media enhanced the practice of public relation?

·      Do blogs and social media influence traditional, mainstream news media? Is the reverse true?

·      Has the emergence of social media (including blogs) changed how organizations communicate?

·      Do blogs and social media compliment or conflict with mainstream traditional news media?

To answer these questions the authors issued email invitations to public relations practitioners randomly sampled from the membership of professional organizations. Respondents represented an international sample that also spanned corporations, small agencies, and academic institutions.

Survey respondents agreed that blogs have changed how their organizations communicate and believe that blogs have a complimentary relationship with mainstream media. They believed that blogs were beneficial to the practice of public relations, that blogs influence major media, and that the reverse is also true. The major advantages of blogs were seen to be the more instantaneous communications available through blogging and the low cost associated with growing relationships with strategic publics. Respondents did not, however, feel that blogs are as credible or reliable as mainstream media.

This study shows that blogs are seen as a valuable and increasingly commonplace method for communicating with publics. What it does not do is to reinforce the opinions of industry professionals with evidence of actual benefits. While it is possible that blogs are growing relationships between corporations and individuals and influencing opinions, it is also possible that public relations professionals are basing their beliefs about blogs on nothing more substantial than the current vogue within the industry.