Google “big bad blogger” and you’ll find dozens of search results related to a story in the Sunday magazine of another newspaper.
The article alleged a certain blogger and a public relations agency of going all Mafia on a restaurant owner who refused to avail of the agency’s buzz creation services via the use of social media.
The Philippine blogosphere, obviously shaken, picked the story up and bounced it all around.
Blogging is, for the most part, personal. No one will tell you what to write or not write about. There’s no editor to slash paragraphs off of your story that are inappropriate or subjective. There’s no proofreader to correct your spelling, grammar and syntax. It’s all you. And if it becomes a sensation that companies start begging you to feature their products on your blog, for a price or otherwise, it’s up to you to decide if you will accept the offer or not. Full, partial or nonexistent disclosure is also your own personal discretion. There are no rules and regulations.
(Various publications and news bureaus even have blogs on their Web sites, as a way to present the news differently and more upbeat and to reach out to a broader, younger audience. Still, these blogs undergo editing, albeit less constrained, and are written by mainstream media practitioners. This is different from news-oriented Web sites and blogs that are not affiliated with and bank on the credibility and/or reputation of any traditional media outfit.)
The story of Big Bad Blogger, The Firm and Georgia has been reprinted in countless blogs; some questioning its veracity, some asking for more details, some assessing the statements, some reacting positively to it and others reacting negatively. This proves that what we read in blogs are personal opinions. It’s a matter of taste, preference and beliefs. We really can’t expect them to be objective. (Some blogs actually thrive by trolling and publishing personal attacks, a form of cyber bullying. After all, who’s to stop them?)
The Big Bad Blogger brouhaha also proves the power of social media and how self-aware and unfiltered it is. Bloggers are almost compelled to weigh in on the controversy, as they do with every other scandal. What makes this a hot topic is the fact that it hits close to home. While some bloggers have provided insightful dissertations on the issue, the author of the Sunday magazine story didn’t get away without being called names by a few opinionated netizens.
It is a PR truth that blogs have become a substantial part of publicity efforts. Bloggers are amongst newspaper and magazine writers at junkets. They also cover events. They are sent products to review as well. If they blog with fairness and impartiality is something we will never know. At the end of the day, there are no good or bad bloggers when publicity is concerned, only bloggers who have readers and those who don’t.
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