Becoming "quirky"
towards an understanding of practitioner and blogger relations in public relations

"Dr. Smith’s article is based on the assumption the growing influence of consumer-generated media (CGM), including blogs, online forums, podcasts, and other social media tools, has changed the environment in which public relations practitioners conduct campaigns for their clients and connect with their stakeholders. The article points out that rather than working solely with journalists to reach publics, practitioners may now become part of “the quirky blogging community” to influence the online conversations about their clients. This shifting media environment raises questions about the future practice of public relations, in particular, the strategies practitioners use to work with new media representatives (i.e. bloggers) who are inexperienced in media relations. Results of this study show that practitioner-blogger relations can be tracked on a continuum between impersonal mass message distribution to personal relationship-building, based on blogger experience with communication professionals." [Information des Anbieters]