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1、Blogging PR: An exploratory analysis of public relations weblogsKeywords:WeblogPublic relationsInteractivityUsabilityAbstract：Although there are ever more weblogs on the Internet, this is an area that has been little researched in public relations, and where they have been analyzed it has been as a
2、tool for communication rather than a primary information source in the public relations body of knowledge. This paper provides an exploratory study of the structure and content of 67 blogs on public relations to determine what issues they deal with and whether they are a tool for the theoretical dev
3、elopment of the eld. In addition to their content we have looked at the structure, usability and interactivity of the blogs.1. IntroductionBlogs are seen by some authors as major tools for online communication, whereas by others they are little more than experts opinions on a given issue (Herrera &
4、Celaya, 2006). They are such a recent medium (beginning in 1996) that the concept remains controversial and arguable (Barton, 2005). In any event their persuasive and informative function is of great relevance as they can obtain opinion leadership with a huge inuence over public opinion. In this sen
5、se Sweetser and Metzgar (2007) have demonstrated that in crisis situations, people who read personal blogs have a lower perception of crisis for an organization.The rise of blogs seems to be unbridled and it is a phenomenon that is occurring in all knowledge elds (Jenkins, 2006). There are currently
6、 over 60 million blogs in existence and 75,000 new ones each day (Cohen & Krishnamurthy, 2006). More than 14 million people worldwide keep a personal diary on the Internet and a further 100 million (one third of the active Web universe) read blogs habitually (Gordillo, 2007). Every six months the bl
7、ogosphere population doubles, and it is today sixty times greater than three years ago. No communication medium has ever burgeoned so rapidly. Weblog writers produce 700,000 to 1.3million articles every dayalmost one a second (Gordillo, 2007). Since their arrival blogs have been changing, as have th
8、eir social perception, objectives and cultural, economic, political and media impact (Yang, 2007). Weblogs have diversied and are developing in such diverse spheres as education, business, politics, journalism and public relations.According to Hallett (2005), the communicative use of weblogs in publ
9、ic relations has twofold foundations. On the one hand they enable professionals to analyze the market and ascertain the opinions of their audiences to gauge public opinion on a business, product or brand. On the other, they are a major technique for participating and giving opinions both personal an
10、d organizational, be it by posting comments on other blogs or creating ones own.This study, however, does not focus on analyzing corporate blogs, which are used as a public relations tool, but looks at blogs concerning public relations in which public relations or one of its activities is the main t
11、heme. Our aim is to analyze what public relations blogs are about, or what issues are dealt with in blog posts, in addition to any structural elements of this new communicative tool that may affect its efcacy to transmit information: objectives, structure and degree of usability, interactivity, and
12、level of connectivity.2. MethodDatabases of public relations blogs are few and far between. One of the most comprehensive, and regularly updated, is the Online Public Relations (http:/www.online-)1 directory, created by James H. Norton. We have chosen this database which encompasses a public relatio
13、ns blogs directory split into four categories: Public Relations General (67 blogs), Directories and Aggregators (7),Miscellaneous (3), and High-Tech PR (8). In order to avoid any bias resulting from the categorization criteria, for the purposes of this study we took 67 blogs from the Public Relation
14、s General category. The data collection was carried out between October 2006 and January 2007. Therefore, the sample selected for analysis consists of 67 blogs on public relations from around the world.For the data collection we drew up an analysis template that measures 50 items which were later ca
15、tegorized to create the main analysis variables. These variables were:(a) Author: The blogs were classied as personal, organizational written by an employee, and purely organizational and, therefore, impersonal.(b) Content: Analysis was carried out of both the issues arising in the blog posts and th
16、e images or other resources. The content of blogs is tied up with its pursued objectives, which were also examined.(c) Interactivity: This measures the degree of user participation, according to the interactive resources available on the blog. These include: the option for external users to post comments or contact the blog author by e-mail, podcasting, audio and video downloads, sales of products and services, user surveys, and the possibili
