Four Things My Students Taught me about Blogs

I just finished my first semester teaching Introduction to Mass Communication at Northwest Vista College. As part of an exploration on new media, students were asked to pick one blog in the Technorati 100 and follow it for three weeks.

While several of the students regularly read blogs, most had little experience reading them. As part of their final grade, they presented their findings to the class, comparing the spirit of the blog to the spirit of the Cluetrain Manifesto and to our examination of media literacy.

Here’s what they found:

Some blogs are a complete waste of time. This was true for blogs which just re-posted content and links from other sites. It was also true for many of the celebrity-driven blogs and one blog about national security.

Blogs can be reputable sources. Some of the students examined the phenomenon of sites like TMZ.com which are now reputable sources of “breaking news.” This was also true for tech blogs they examined.

Blogs are no more than one person’s opinion. This was the conclusion from several students who followed blogs authored by a singular individual; it is also evidence of the increasing difficulty of separating fact and opinion in the blog medium.

News can spread like wildfire because of blogs. Each student was monitoring a different blog, but during the course of the project, they easily compared crossover stories like the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the military, the TSA “pat-down” phenomenon and, particularly distressing for San Antonians, the impending divorce of Eva Longoria and Tony Parker.

It’s interesting to note that while one of the main theses of Cluetrain Manifesto was transparency in organizations, many students could not find “ownership” information for many of the blogs studied. Even in new media, there is a long way to go for outlets to be transparent.

Two Days Left to Vote for Kami’s PR Blog

Yes, this is a shameless plug for our own Kami Watson-Huyse, APR. I know, I know, she has practically moved out of the country (Houston). But she has remained a member of the San Antonio chapter. And she was, after-all, our Del Oro PR Practitioner of the Year.

But this isn’t really about Kami. It’s about her blog, Communication Overtones. Out of hundreds of PR blogs in the country, hers is one of 32 in the running for best PR blog in a competition being held by PR Week. It’s PR Week’s 10th anniversary, and they have decided to honor “one of the most important technological advancements in content distribution of the past 10 years” – the blog.

Each blog competes with one other in a sort of elimination tournament. And there is only two more days to vote for Communication Overtones.

But don't take my word for it. If you've never read her blog, go check it out. It's really insightful and creative.

The second cool thing is that this contest presents you with a list of 32 PR blogs to take a look at. You may find a few that become good references for you or that you want to engage with. Once you’ve identified a few, subscribe to their newsfeeds through an iGoogle page so that you can receive their headlines in one place.

Learn about Social Media with the Help of the Common Craft Show

I’ve been leading a series of sessions for our staff to introduce them to the world of social media and to specific online social tools they can be using right away. I’ve led a two-hour overview session a couple of times that introduced them to a world most had no idea existed. I’ve walked them through using Jott and setting up an iGoogle page and finding RSS newsfeeds to populate it with. (One senior staff member was practically doing cartwheels when he started using Jott, I kid you not.) I’ve also begun to introduce them to Twitter, which is really hard for anyone to grasp until they dive in. Soon, I’ll be leading sessions on using Delicious, which I think they’ll love.

There is one web site that I’ve found really helpful: the Common Craft Show. Headed by Sachi and Lee LeFever, this web site provides short (two- to three-minute) videos that clearly describe certain social media elements. They are simple and highly creative. But most importantly, they are instructive. They help folks get the big picture.

Here is a list of topics from the site:

Social Media in Plain English
Blogs in Plain English

Podcasting in Plain English
Social Bookmarking in Plain English

Twitter in Plain English
Online Photo Sharing in Plain English
RSS in Plain English
Wikis in Plain English

The only change I would make is that I wish the video that focuses on Twitter would give a little more attention to how organizations are using it. But frankly, since they came out with this video so quickly after Twitter use took off, people may not have been using it yet professionally.

The LeFever deserve lots of praise for taking this on. They’ve developed something really innovative in order to help others. It really reflects the generous spirit of Web 2.0