PR Industry Getting Serious About Blogs?

Posted on 16 November 2005

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San Francisco, California – The US edition of PR Week reports that a group of our industry’s finest thinkers is coming together to form a ‘think tank’ about the impact Peer Media (blogs, WIKIs, podcasts etc.) is having on the practice of public relations.

The grandly titled Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) hopes to foster "more dialogue and research on new communications tools". It’s an interesting development, not particularly as a ‘first’ (after all, just about every PR firm worth its salt is thinking hard about peer media already) but because it presents an opportunity for the industry to define some guidelines for embracing the blogosphere, which – in the aftermath of Dan Lyon’s dubious blog bashing sidebar in Forbes – corporate USA could probably use.

Rather ominously, however, at time of writing, the Society’s new blog was returning a "Page cannot be found" message. Hmmm….not the brightest of starts.

Assuming it does come back from the e-dead, we’ll look forward to comparing notes with the Society on our own recently-completed blogosphere survey, for which we quizzed technology PR professionals throughout the land on their engagement with and opinions on the Peer Media phenomenon. More on that soon. David.

Comments 3

Gerard

I like what I have read so far, but your blogroll to the left is so “Blogally Correct” as to be ridiculous. Believe it or not, there are hundreds of blogs that are as good – or better – than the usual suspects. Keep up the good work on Hypertext!
http://www.sncr.org Jen McClure, Executive Director, SNCR

Thank you for alerting your readers to the announcement of the newly formed Society for New Communications Research. I hope everyone who is interested in this new group will visit and comment on our blog, which has been live and functioning since our launch two weeks ago. The correct url is http://www.sncr.org.

I would also like to take this opportunity to clarify the SNCR’s mission. In addition to exploring the impact of new communications tools on the PR profession, the mission of the organization is explore their broader impact on business, politics, entertainment, culture, education, religion and society.

What differentiates the SNCR is
that it is the only organization that is solely focused on the
advanced study of the effect of new communications tools on business and society. With several seasoned academics and nearly 20 respected practitioners (journalists, professional communicators, publishing and media experts), we bring not only a rigorous academic approach to our research, but also the practical, in-the-trenches perspective of professionals who have been working with these tools for the past several years. This is truly unique, and this
blended approach will result in a broad range of research projects
that are both forward-facing and pragmatic in nature.

Finally, The fact that our research is being developed in an open environment is also unique. Our discoveries and findings will be made readily available, and all who are interested in these topics can contribute to the discussion and exploration of these issues.

I encourage all who are interested to visit our blog and/or contact me to find out more about how to get involved with this exciting new initiative.

Thank you!
http://text100.typepad.com David

Jen,

Thanks for posting the correct link to your site. Be sure to hunt down those scurrilous posts that sent us – and no doubt others – to the non-site!

David.

Author
- Kate Hill
- Kate is currently the Senior Sales and Marketing Executive at Text 100. She works remotely from Seattle, WA in her home office, looking out the window to the Space Needle and the Puget Sound. Kate has been with Text 100 for nearly seven years in various Sales and Marketing roles. She provides support to the Text 100 Sales team, managing collateral and content across the four North American offices. Kate also works on new business opportunities and manages the corporate website
- USA