The good the bad and the blogger : the public relations challenge of the noughties

Technological advances such as the printing press, telephone, radio, television, facsimile machine and now the World Wide Web (the Web) have been the catalyst for changes in business operations throughout history. The Web is a worldwide network of information resources and a powerful communication tool; information on virtually any subject is available on the Web. Considerable ambiguity exists in the literature regarding the online practice of corporate public relations. The authors assert that public relations is central to the examination of blogs in an organisational context. Organisational blogs have been viewed by many as changing the role of corporate public relations— specifically the manner in which companies are now engaging with their publics. The Web has given those already in power (not just ordinary citizens) even greater potential to distribute filtered information to a mass readership. In many ways the Web presents publics with an overt sense of democracy. However, the filtering capabilities of the medium are not nearly as publicly understood or acknowledged as editorial regulations used in traditional, physical media. Although the vast library of theoretical public relations models are grounded in physical reality, they should not be ignored, but rather, used as platforms to develop theoretical models for an understanding of organisational weblogs. It is misguided to assign organisational blogs too much communicative power without first considering the theories that should underpin their use, and be used to develop frameworks for their strategic implementation. Blogs’ role in the corporate landscape is still ambiguous and unclear. This paper explores the impact of organisational blogs on public relations practice, academics and practitioners alike are yet to devise methodologies or a consistent approach to handle the future implementation of this new communications tool