Megan

In order to successfully develop my thesis, I feel that it is important to first create an initial understanding of what blogging is, and how it relates to public relations.

Blogging: PR’s True Claim to the Internet by Rob Hecht helps to define both blogging and online PR.

Hecht argues that blogging “belongs” to public relations because it helps PR professionals reach highly targeted audiences, and it helps to build and maintain relationships with these audiences.

I somewhat agree with this. Like Hecht, I too believe that blogging is a powerful PR tool. Like radio and newspaper, the internet is yet another media outlet that can be utilized by PR professionals. It can be used for a variety of reasons, such as gaining opinion or helping to determine what competitors might be doing. Also, the ability to create mass conversations with customers helps PR practitioners gain valuable feedback from audiences. In these ways, blogging can be used as a PR tool.

However, I don’t believe that blogging “belongs” to PR. It has other uses, such as journalistic and marketing value.

Despite my slight disagreement, this article is a good starting point for understanding some of the ways in which online communications can be used in PR.