PRlogging (P/R blogging)

So last week I looked at the relationship between journalism and blogging. This week I'm going in the opposite direction and looking at how journalists can use P/R blogs as a news source and why it's more preferable.

 As Chris Frost writes that press releases are very useful and 'have grown in importance over the last twenty years as editorial staffs in many provincial papers have been reduced and more and more organisations have become media sensitive.'

This is beneficial as news teams get smaller and smaller especially in the situation with the Lincolnite in which the staff has tendency to be only two people  and can also be step in the right direction for researching a story. For example a few months ago I was sent a press release about a new texting service in which you text a question and they respond for an answer. I used this press release as part of my basic research for a story in which I researched if these text services have a more sinister side,  the story was rejected as it's didn't really have any geographic viability for the Lincolnites target audience.

However it's strongly advised not use this a your only news source. Chris Frost writes that press releases and 'handouts are a propaganda vehicle for the sender. No one sends a press release which shows them, their company or group in a bad light.' However the interactive nature of blogging could add some balance to these corporations unbalanced representation.

Mohammad Ahmadinejad the current leader of Iran who has been known manipulating his nations media to hide certain occurrences in his country has his own blog (http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/fa/) and thus has a commenting system, this then allows anyone to take a post and have a series of balanced comments to go on to do further research to back up their facts with solid research. Chris Frost however puts it better 'You must read between the the lines to get at the real story and you may need to ring the contact for further information.'

An example of when I had to do this is when I was sent a short press release from Grindhaus skate boarding shop talking about an event he was holding. If I hadn't gone I would simply written a short article about an event planned. However since I went to the event (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/11/businesses-put-on-fun-day-for-lincoln-shoppers/) I was able to discover a stronger of angle of the fact the shop has it's own skateboarding team and also I found a series of follow up angles including the underground nature of skateboarding.