Blogs, PR, Spin Doctors und die Journalisten

--- Blogger Steve Rubel (Micro Persuasion) hat gerade zur -- natürlich rein virtuellen -- Global PR Blog Week 1.0 geladen. Hauptsächlich dreht sich das Online-Event um die Frage, wie und ob Unternehmen Blogs für Marketing und PR einsetzen können und sollen. Doch es gibt dort auch ein paar medientheoretisch interessantere Beiträge, etwa ein Interview mit dem New Yorker Journalismus-Professor Jay Rosen, der selbst das aufschlussreiche Blog Pressthink betreibt. Auszüge aus dem Online-Talk: A little orchestra of interpreters instantly comes along and does something to journalism, plays back its significance, but first editing out all the noise. It's like a reply. Smart journalists are tuning into that because its an intelligent use of their work-- and a departure point, a place where criticism flashes. Sometimes what they are reading surpasses their work. ... public relations should first understand that to the extent that its art is a form of "spin"--whether it's reasonable spin, accepted spin, good spin, bad spin, terrible spin--it is selling a service for which there is less and less value, and less mind is paid to it. Spin was possible in the era of few-to-many media, and a small number of gatekeepers who could be spun. There are fewer who listen (or have to listen) and more who hear only dull propaganda, witless repetition, one of the many forms of mindlessness to which citizens are subjected. ... Today many knowledge monopolies are breaking up, and this corresponds with what the British media scholar Anthony Smith once identified as a shift "in the locus of sovereignty over text," a shift toward the public. We could say "toward consumers," but what Smith meant is that more power has fallen into the hands of the people who were mere receivers before. They are more sovereign-- as consumers, yes. But also as producers of their own media. Via PR Watch.