Well belated Christmas greetings to one and all. As you can see from the most brief perusal of my date-based archives I am still struggling with the whole Work-Life-Blog balance and as a result posting continues to be lighter than I’d like, but that’s the way it is, for the moment anyhow.
The recent blog hiatus has provided me with some useful perspectives on the world of blogging in general and PR specifically. On the plus side the PR blog ecosystem continues to grow nicely and the new and existing PR bloggers are publishing some very interesting content and viewpoints. On the negative side there’s still far too much navel gazing going on. In my not so humble opinion too many people continue to be distracted by the shiny new new thing rather than getting on with life and using the tools already in place. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong keeping an eye of what’s going on, but if we’re in the business of public relations let’s start driving best practice on what we already have before running off like a child on Christmas morning.
That leads me to the to my second observation – nothing terribly new here but it should be re-stated – if bloggers want to assume the mantel of “citizen journalists” then they damn well better be willing to take the responsibility that comes along with it. It’s one thing to publish a stream of conciousness (I do it all the time) but it’s another thing to be reporting things as fact when the only research you’ve done is a quick Technorati or RSS scan. I have always maintained that the quality of online information will be self-regulating. If all bloggers do is re-print unfounded accusations, or give their opinion on something they know nothing about or haven’t bothered researching, then the wheels are going to come off the blog train sooner than you think. The problem with blogs is that everyone thinks they’re an expert and everyone believes their *views* represent the truth. They don’t. If you want to provide readers with your opinions, then the least you can do is a little research.
Man re-reading that I sound like the grinch! But at least I researched this post. I asked myself a number of questions and I then verified the answers with myself. So you see I do practice what I preach – unless I’m tired or bored. That’s my disclaimer.
Murphy's Law 