so this is mass communication?

I’m headed out to NCA in the morning & will be there through Saturday. Any old (or new friends) going should let me know!

Cliff Jones, a law professor at the University of Florida and a friend, sent me this link about the recent Federal Election Commission ruling that bloggers do not have to disclose campaign-paid endorsements on their blogs:

Bloggers will not have to disclose election-related payments they receive, nor will they have to post disclaimers about such payments. In essence, the six federal election commissioners voted unanimously to preserve free speech online, at least to the extent the court would allow.

This is a big deal in the wake of recent stories that the Lincoln Group paid for pro-military coverage in Arabic language newspapers on behalf of their client (DoD) and more specifically the pay for exposure coverage the Dean campaign forked over during the 2004 presidential primaries.

While I have often been accused of being a bit “Pollyanna-ish,” I still contend that if a blogger is paid to post something for a campaign or candidate then his or her readers will see right through it. The blogger will be found out — as the blog for Dean & get $3k per month bloggers did.

As a result, the bloggers will lose credibility. In a tool governed by credible, street props & links - you are indeed only as good as your content.

I’m the first one to say that PR people should reach out to bloggers in an attempt to communicate a message. My colleague Lance Porter, who has done a great deal of work on the professional use of the Web by PR practitioners, would say that blogs allow PR practitioners the ability to “laser target” a specific audience that may be smaller, but more engaged & interested in the message. That said, I am a proponent of letting the facts & content speak for itself, not letting the Benjamins do the talking, when pitching items to bloggers.

So I’m glad the FEC ruled in bloggers’ favor - we don’t need government telling us what to write anyway. In case you haven’t noticed - blog readers are pretty harsh when crossed & self-governing as is.

Next week is Blog Week for the Florida Public Relations Association, an organization I have been an active member of since moving to Gainesville in 2001. They have a full slate of posts planned from 10-14 April, ranging from crisis communication and investor relations to the accreditation process. Like many practitioners and PR organizations, FPRA is cognizant of this new way to reach publics and communicate a message.

I recently collaborated with colleagues from LSU, University of Kentucky & Indiana University on an online survey of public relations practitioners in PRSA. When all is said & done we will have about separate 5 academic studies for journal articles & conference papers looking at blog use & perception of the tool among professional journalists & PR practitioners, as well as journalism & PR educators. (If you took our survey - THANK YOU!)

I don’t want to talk about it too much because possible reviewers might be reading this, but we had some interesting findings regarding the use of blogs in PR:

• Communication industry folks use blogs at a similar level to the nation overall (comparing our data with Pew numbers)
• Professional blog use is low across the board
• Journalists use blogs more frequently for day-to-day work than PR practititioners
• PR practitioners use blogs for strategic planning/tasks more often than jouranlists
• Both sets of professionals think a professional use of blogs should be taught to students
• All groups believe that blogging will increase over the next 5 years

More interesting than these simple data points is the feedback I received from people who had taken the survey.

Christie L. Goodman, APR, Communications Manager for Intercultural Development Research Association in San Antonio, wrote me to share how her local PRSA chapter is teaching members how to blog. She sent me the link to their chapter blog & told me how they are “learning by doing.”

Not all comments were favorable.

Some wrote back saying that blogs were stupid & they didn’t see a need to jump on the bandwagon of the “next big thing” of the moment. And others seemed short-sighted in the understanding of the differences of communication technolgooy, like this comment where the practitioner said:

I am skipping blogs & moving right on to podcasts.

The AP is reporting that there is a free guide with tips for bloggers and dissidents to sneak past Internet censors in countries from China to Iran:

Reporters Without Borders‘ “Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents” (pdf) is partly financed by the French Foreign Ministry and includes technical advice on how to remain anonymous online. It was launched at the Apple Expo computer show in Paris on Thursday and can be downloaded in Chinese, Arabic, Persian, English and French.

According to the article, the guide has:

• advice on setting up and running blogs (with tips on protecting identity)
• circumvention technologies that can break through government filters