Everyone goes Blogging !!!

Blogs is a fast growing trend the past couple of years. It has become a very popular way of communicating. Many organizations and public relations professionals or agencies create their own blog as a new way of communication with the public, as a New Media. What exactly is a Blog?

The online Encyclopedia www.wikipedia.com refers to the blogs as a website in which journal entries are posted on a regular basis and generally displayed in reverse chronological order. The term is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called "blogging". Individual articles on a blog are called "blog posts," "posts," or "entries". A person who posts these entries is called a "blogger". A blog may include any commentary or reporting on the chosen subject of the blogger and may also include hypertext, images and links to video, audio and other files. Blogs Are now part of a lot of professional Fields such as politics, economics, marketing, public relations and so on.

Blogs are used by Media to cover News stories and opinions. The Guardian newspaper launched a redesign in September 2005, which included a daily digest of blogs on page 2. The influence blogs can gain, changes opinion and influences decisions. In 2002 blogs helped to create a political crisis that forced U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to step down as majority leader. Bloggers supported their blogs on documents and live interviews. That showed Blogs are reliable sources. “The shaping of this story gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news dissemination. Though often seen as partisan gossips, bloggers sometimes lead the way in bringing key information to public light” Wikipedia

Public Relations practitioners apart from journalists they also have to reach and get the attention of bloggers as they have made firm their position in media family. However, reaching a blogger can be more challenging than reaching a reporter. Lloyd Trufelman and Laura Goldberg writing for the PRCA highlight that “The most important thing a publicist can do before pitching a blogger is to carefully read his or her blog. Unlike beat reporters at typical news outlets, bloggers are extremely idiosyncratic in choice of subject matter and slant.”

Journalists also have blogs either in groups or personal, in which they cover variety of stories and subjects. PRSA also advice that, “the ability to check out journalists' blogs offers an invaluable opportunity to gain insight into their true interests and viewpoints”. Journalists-bloggers in addition to their job they also read and comment other blogs. This New Media requires a new approach and a new way of reaching the media target by the public relations practitioners. It can be also an opportunity to reach the wishing target more effectively since blogs as a new media have gained enormous influence.