If you were lucky enough to be present for Matthew Horton's speech at the PRiNZ conference on Thursday, 22nd May, you will know that he managed to ruffle a fair few feathers. After he had made the comment about Maori, Pacific Islanders and political correctness I definitely felt a discernible chill settle over the room!
However, that is not what I want to speak about in this post. What I want to touch on is the comment that Matthew made about blogging. When questioned about the power of blogging, by a member of the audience, Horton claimed that blogging has no real influence or impact on perceptions. In his eyes, blogging is just another tool, like email or the telephone, which people use to communicate.
I do not agree with this view. At all. I have seen many instances where blogging has alerted readers to a certain situation, has challenged their mindset about a certain view or opinion and has driven them to change their perceptions and to make changes. For example, an equine blog that I follow has become hugely popular recently. It has opened peoples' eyes to the link between irresponsible breeding and the amount of horses going to the slaughterhouse. It has also brought to attention the fact that not everybody in the world looks after their animals. As a result, more people are reporting neglectful owners, are examining their own breeding programmes and those of others and are making an effort to help animals that are destined for the slaughterhouse or some other undesirable location.
Also, just because 'the internet is not yet the most popularly accepted means of imparting information and discussion' does not mean that this will be the case forever. Even now, teenagers and young adults spend more time on the Internet than they do watching TV or communicating in other ways and consuming other types of media. Surely, as they are the up-and-coming generation, we should be preparing ourselves for the very near future, when they will be the main decision makers and consumers??
I do not believe that Matthew had really considered the power of blogging prior to putting together his speech and standing up in front of a room full of public relations professionals. Or maybe he was simply, and understandably, trying to protect traditional, print media which is, after all, his domain.
Nonetheless, what I did find encouraging was that PRiNZ members were challenging his disregard of online media and were championing blogging- this shows that more PR people are embracing this form of communication and are realising that blogging, forums and online news sites are true PR tools of the future. Hopefuly, this means that the numbers of PR professionals occupying the online arena will increase (recent research shows that only 9% of PR practitioners write a blog, post to blogs or write the copy for someone else's blog and 40% of those working in the industry admit to lacking new media knowledge- follow this link for further details)
I would also like to point out that, even though I did not agree with all of his statements, I did find his speech entertaining and was somewhat disappointed with some of the hostile comments that came from the audience. After all, Matthew Horton, just like everybody else, is entitled to his own opinion. Isn't that what the conference was all about this year- the right to advocate, the right to free speech....?
As a final note, to all those who would argue that blogging is insignificant...if bloggers have no impact, no real effect, then why is the American governement so terrified of them? An interesting point to muse on as you browse the Internet at work today...
