Blogosphere: We can smell the bad PR.

Public relations practitioners serve as liaisons between organizational goals of the clients they represent with the information they provide to the public(s). The ethical dilemma arises when organizational goals conflict with professional standards of protecting public trust and ensuring the integrity of the profession.

From a professional standpoint, public relations practitioners or integrated marketing firms are in the business of providing a specific return of investment for the clients they represent. Basically, a client wants to see where they money is being invested for a desirable result, which could be influencing the publics perception or the medias perception of the organization and its goals.

The goal of public professionals is to promote corporate responsibility through the concept of full disclosure of corporate practices and goals to the publics PR professionals serve within their communities. In essence, the PR professional is not only accountable to the client they represent, but to the public they serve.

What is corporate responsibility? According to Jacquie L'Etang and Magda Pieczka in "Public relations: critical debates and contemporary practice" the authors states “corporate responsibility” has two distinct characteristics. The first is those voluntary and benevolent actions taken by corporations in society outside the primary economic function and the second those actions taken by corporations in response to corporate disasters

The focus will be on the former of these two distinct characteristics of corporate responsibility in public relations. As a public relations practitioner, the goal of corporate responsibility is not always the agenda of the corporations.

Many corporations utilize public relations programming and tactics to alter negative pre-existing perceptions about the nature of their business. This is including using new platform stages such as blogospheres. There have been some notable instances, where these tactics have backfired including the Walmarting Across America.

Let’s paint the picture. Wal-Mart hired the public relations firm of Edelman for a campaign to help clean up the company’s public perception of the treatment of their employees. Steve Rubel, one of the best and the brightest in the blogosphere, joined the firm and has been in the forefront of figuring out how to intertwine public relations and the world of blogging.

Well, he developed the Walmarting Across America campaign where a couple named Jim and Laura would park a RV in Wal-Mart’s parking lots and write folksy blogs about how the employees all “love” working for Wal-Mart. The couple was hired by Edelman and Wal-Mart to perform this task.

Well there were two smelly elements to this picture. One is the couple did not let the audiences know they were hired employees for Wal-Mart by way of Edelman. Secondly, they were professionals. Laura, was freelance writer and Jim was a staff photographer for the Washington Post.

You might be asking yourself this, “what’s wrong with it?” It is called disclosure to your audience and it backfired. Wal-Mart and Edelman perpetuated the corporate idea that full disclosure is not part of the agenda of the corporate community.

It is about maximum results on image and less on being responsible to the community where these businesses operate. Also, it is about quick a return on investment with no accountability. Social responsibility in my opinion is a conscious concept that corporations and public relations practitioners must take time and careful consideration before it can be established in the mindset of the public.

It involves disclosure as well as consideration to all publics where these entities operate and serve. If these elements are not present, it is nothing more than just a quick tactic or program to alter public perception.

I believe if there is a negative pre-existing perception of corporations and if they choose a “quick fix” approach with public relations tactics. Positive perception will only be short termed because the bigger issue was not really addressed in the public mindset.

My advice for any public relations practitioner, who uses the blogosphere for PR initiatives or tactics, is to be honest and practice full disclosure. We are living in a digital age and where professional credentials can be easily verified.

A retort to Rupert Murdoch

Many of the newspapers in the U.S., including The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer are experiencing decreased paid circulation "Pressure on the Presses,"Wall Street Journal. One contributing factor is the decline of readership of younger audiences and emergence of multimedia platforms on the Internet.

The other causal factor is the economical cost involved in the production and distribution of the newspaper product. Simply, it is expensive to produce a product that people can simply obtain online or via their mobile device. The outcome is younger citizens are technologically savvy and utilizing home computers and portable devices to get news information when and how they want it.

So, why is Rupert Murdoch more concern of government assistance than new platforms of information distribution? Well, the answer is simple. It is the corporate bottom line that was established by such conglomerates like News Corp.

A defining characteristic of media conglomerates is the practice of diversification and acquisitions of other media products across different media markets. News Corp practice diversification to ensure that performance does not depend on a single product or service News Corp's media products.

The main advantage of the diversification into different media businesses comes from sharable content across different platforms of distribution. The potential pitfall is the repurposing of information across these different platforms in local markets. Also, it will negatively impact the coverage of issues or angles of stories important to the local communities that newspapers serve.

Guess what, Mr. Murdoch? You have enabled the fall of print journalism with this practice of diversification and turning content into a “product” that is supposed to yield a return on your investment. Now, Internet and mobile technologies have given people another choice.

I agree with your second point content is not free. But, younger consumers will pay for quality content not repurposed content that is streamed from one distribution channel to another. Yes, the hyperlocal market will be the future of print journalism. It will bring back some of the early principles of reporting where journalists are reporting the operations of the government and even local governments, which are not covered much in local newspapers.

Secondly, the hyperlocal media markets will bring back investigative reporting in local communities, which has been phased out by diversified conglomerates like News Corp. Also, it will allow reporting of national stories with a local angle using local sources. Finally, the hyperlocal media markets allow users to interact with the story within their communities Printed Blog.



These new hyperlocal media markets will allow communities to connect. Also, they can generate advertising revenue from the untapped small business market. These small businesses can advertise cheaper comparatively to print ads. Again, younger consumers will pay for relevant content within their own communities. Also, small businesses can get voice in the sea of advertising competition of larger competitors at a local level.

I agree the First Amendment was designed for an informed citizenry by means of the press. Yet, the capitalistic model and greed of conglomerates such as News Corp have put a veil on citizens for at least three decades. Now, technology has enabled the younger audiences to see beyond this model and made them savvy of the repurposing of content.

Young news consumers are now able to stream video, Podcasts, blogs, and Tweet news events as they happen with others. I believe Rupert Murdoch’s next acquisitions venture will be in the hyperlocal market due to its potential to reach the local audience he has lost. He knows if there are many eyes reading content that there is money to be made.