I think the corporate sector may be a bit worried about the advent of new media.
They are worried (rightly so) about how their business practices are viewed by consumers and activists?
The first reason of this worry could be that the internet has long been a powerful medium for anti-corporate messages. Moreover, material posted on these websites often remains accessible via search engines long after it is first published. A Google search for "Nike", now considered a leader in managing labour conditions in its factories, still brings up a "Boycott Nike" website.
The second reason could be that a blogger has zero accountability, he has no advertisers, infrastructure or cost model to worry about and nobody's going to sue him.
I think new media forces the business towards a new level of transparency, since the online users are quick to uncover "flogging" (fake blogging) and to deride companies for any differences that emerge between their rhetoric and their actions.
The business organizations need PR more than ever in order to constantly gauge reactions of consumers and create a favourable image of the company in the minds of the stakeholders.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9e2800f2-6ecd-11db-b5c4-0000779e2340.html?nclick_check=1
I think you have merit in saying that Business needs PR more now. It is more about telling their part of story then planting their story. I feel business has to have limited transparency and unlimited ethics.
ReplyDeleteBlogger could be concerned citizen and could be interested party. Views on cyberspace give freedom of expression to its nth power, it comes with lots of baggage and in end it boils down to viewer selecting right from wrong as per his/her views and the writer’s point of view gets lost.