pr-media-blog.co.uk

It isn’t often that we opt for introspection on this blog but we think that being shortlisted for a hotly contested award is cause enough to briefly break the habit.   PR Media Blog has been shortlisted in the ‘Best Use of Social Media’ category in the 2009 CIPR Pride Awards.  It is up against some very tough opposition but we are all proud to have made the final cut. Congatulations to all the contributors listed on the right.

Staniforth, the PR agency behind PRMB picked up three awards in last year’s event and is shortlisted for five this year with campaigns for Smokefree NorthWest, Chill Factor^e and two for Kellogg’s completing the line up.  The results are announced at a ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester on 16 November.

Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian philosopher and professor said that media themselves and not the stories they carry are important; their characteristics being more significant and influential than their content.  He famously proclaimed that “the medium is the message”.

With the myriad reports of the decline of newspapers and broadcasters it is tempting to believe that what McLuhan pronounced is in the process of being disproved.  It is argued that the channel is not important, the stories, if good enough will find us.  Content rules supreme.   Well yes and no.   By way of example I cross posted the same story in two blogs last week.  Here at PR Media Blog and on PR and The Social Web.  The story (about real and fake celebrity twitters) gained more than double the number views here at PRMB, because this is the blog with more authority, both in the literal sense and in the Technorati sense. (Google the words PR and Blog if you need confirmation).

Whilst new arrivals on the web battle to gain trust and authority much of the media old guard arrives on the web with their authority established.  Journalistic ethics and accuracy will continue to carry weight no matter how easy it becomes for arrivistes to establish a presence through the web.   There is good reason for this; we can trust traditional media because we have learnt that the trust is well placed and because they operate checks and balances to ensure quality and veracity.   In time many print newspapers will disappear but the best will survive, thrive and continue to set the news agenda, with their pixellated versions gradually replacing the ink and paper.

As candidate for the biggest job in the world (that’s President of the United States, by the way), which commentators would keep you awake at night? The big journalist guns of the New York Times or Washington Post, perhaps? Or might it be a 61-year-old Pennsyvanian housewife and part-time (wait for it…) BLOGGER? Keeping journalists out of a recent Barack Obama campaign event in Pennsylvania clearly lulled the presidential contender into - well - saying what he really thought.  Unfortunately for him, the 37 cataclysmic words of his speech which included references to small town people being “bitter” and somewhat attached to “guns” and “religion” were reported on an influential liberal blog by Mayhill Fowler - an Obama supporter!

Within a day, the post had 100,000 hits and the Clinton PR machine was in full swing to capitalise on Obama’s comments.

Despite having zillions to spend on the best comms strategists in the business, Obama has learned the hard way about the new reality: in the world of citizen journalism, everything is fair game

An interesting insight into online professional networks can be found here with an audio discussion between FT management writer, Adam Jones, and LinkedIn’s Kevin Eyres. LinkedIn positions itself as a professional - as distinct from social - networking community in which business people can build contacts, get expert advice and manage their careers. Strictly no biting zombie applications or virtual sheep being hurled at one another here, methinks.