Pet Peeves of the Media

Joe Ferry shares some great insights from yesterday's media panel that I co-moderated with my colleague, Maria Evans. http://prprowess.com/media-members-share-pet-peeves/ My favorite question to ask is, "What are your pet peeves?" The answers are usually the same: irrelevant stories, long press releases, not understanding the format or the medium, not taking no for an answer, sending the same story and photos to tons of reporters, not tailoring the pitch, not spelling the reporter's name right, not providing the media with enought time to plan for and attend an event and not understanding what "news" really means.

Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere

From Katie Noonan - The state of the union may be up in the air at the moment, but Technorati’s annual report for 2008 has found the state of the Blogosphere to be strong.

Their in-depth report found that blogs are increasingly becoming part of the mainstream, and that a growing number of Americans are now getting their news from blogs.

Here are some important findings from the study:

Who is blogging?

Bloggers may blog about very different issues, but bloggers themselves are not so different. In fact, they make up a very specific group in the United States:

• Three out of four U.S. bloggers are college graduates
• 42% have attended graduate school
• 57% of bloggers are male
• More than half have a household income over $75,000
• 37% are 35-49 years old

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to the most bloggers, followed by New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Broken down into specific types of blogs, 79% of bloggers identify themselves as personal bloggers, 46% identify themselves as professional bloggers, and 12% identify themselves as corporate bloggers, meaning they blog on behalf of their company in an official capacity. Interestingly, there is a great deal of overlap in these groups, with some personal bloggers blogging professionally or for their corporation and vice-versa.

What are they blogging about?

As mentioned above, bloggers often blog both professionally and personally, sometimes within the same blog, and sometimes using two different blogs. The topics they blog about overlap as well, with some of the most prevalent topics being, personal/lifestyle, technology, politics, computers, music, film, travel, business and religion. According to Technorati, the average blogger blogs about five of these issues.

Why do they blog?

Technorati’s report found that 79% of bloggers blog to voice their personal views on issues that fall within the topics above. Additionally, 73% say they blog to share their expertise with readers. Other reasons for blogging include, to connect with new people, to update family and friends, to get noticed by the traditional media, and to attract new clients, to name a few.


How do bloggers perceive themselves and their impact?

• 54% of professional bloggers have found that because of their blog, they are now more well-known in their field
• 49% of bloggers believe that blogs are as valid of a source for information as the traditional media
• Half of bloggers believe that in the next five years, the Blogosphere will surpass traditional media and become the primary source for news and entertainment
• 37% of bloggers believe that blogs are generally better written than news articles.

Personal thoughts on Technorati’s findings

Blogs are definitely one of the most important advancements to come out of the Internet age. They have revolutionized the way Americans, and increasingly the rest of the world, receive and process information. Consider the Drudge Report, which ran the Monica Lewinsky story when the traditional media wouldn’t touch it. For better or worse, this story radically changed the political landscape of the 90s.

However, unlike the traditional media, bloggers are not held to the same standards of ethics. While professional journalists are bound to their own code of ethics which includes truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability, bloggers are bound only to their personal ethics. This places the burden on readers to be critical of what they read in blogs or fall victim to the Blogosphere rumor mill.

Still, bloggers that want to be taken seriously by both the traditional media and readers will probably approach blogging much the same way the traditional media approaches reporting the news. If they want to be an expert in their field, and a trusted source of information, bloggers would be wise to play it straight.

From a Public Relations standpoint

Implications from the Technorati study are clear. Businesses hoping to grow their brand or reach a new or larger audience would be wise to get on board the blog train if they have not done so already. With a growing number of Americans using blogs as a primary source for news and analysis, businesses have an opportunity to create a niche for themselves as industry experts or the “go-to guy” through a medium that is familiar and increasingly vital to readers. Blogging is not right for every business though. For more, read our previous post “Remembering the Basics about Blogs.”

Justinians Honor Chief Justice Castille & Judge Rizzo

The Justinian Society of Philadelphia honored Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille and Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Annette M. Rizzo on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at a luncheon in Philadelphia. Chief Justice Castille served as the keynote speaker and was awarded The Justinian Society Outstanding Service Award. Judge Rizzo was presented with the Judge Lisa A. Richette Outstanding Woman in the Law Award.

From Left to Right: Edward J. DiDonato, Justinian Society Vice Chancellor; Mrs. Susan Castille; Chief Justice Ronald Castille; Judge Annette M. Rizzo; Gina Furia Rubel, Justinian Society Chancellor; Gaetan Alfano, Justinian Society Past Chancellor; Roberta Pichini, Justinian Society Secretary; Gino Benedetti, Justinian Society Treasurer. (Photo by Mike Mountain)

Founded in 1935, the Justinian Society is an educational and non-profit legal organization comprised of attorneys, judges and law students of Italian ancestry. Located in Philadelphia, the Society's members celebrate generations of involvement within the legal community. To foster a spirit of good fellowship and mutual cooperation among its members, the Society members strive to maintain the honor and dignity required of the legal profession and a high standard of ethical conduct among its members and with other members of the bar. Members also promote and encourage a more profound study of the law, the due administration of justice and reform in the law; and coordinate their efforts in the discharge of their civil and professional responsibilities to the community. For more information, go to www.justinian.org.

Stumbling Upon New Ideas

From Amanda Walsh – Recently, the PR Prowess blog introduced me to a neat new website, Stumble Upon. The plug-in is a special feature that users can download for their Internet Browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc). The Stumble Upon program installs a button on your toolbar when surfing the Web. When you click on it a new Web page is randomly produced for you. You can read more about it here on Joe Ferry's website.

Initially when you sign up with Stumble Upon, it allows you to indicate your interests so it can generate pages that may be of interest to you when you use the program.

I have downloaded the plug-in for my Fire Fox browser and frequently click on the button to generate random Web sites at my leisure. Much like PR Prowess blogger, Joe Ferry, I find a lot of the marketing/communications Web sites to be very interesting.

Here are some of my favorites:

• 10 Rules for Being Human and Chinese Proverbs both have wise sayings that help put life into perspective.
• Preciseedit.com is essential to write effectively in Public Relations. Check out this page of 10 over-used words in writing.
• 15 Sites to Becoming a Better Web Designer would have been very helpful to me when I was working on Web sites this summer.
• Advertisements from Around the World is interesting, especially the way that companies target different people and cultures.
  
  Stumble Upon is a great resource for bloggers or anyone needing a creative spark to get their creative juices flowing.