Online Ethics Panel Coming Up

The PRSA Silicon Valley panel on online ethics for journalists and PR professionals, rescheduled from September, is coming up: it’s scheduled for October 30, 8-9:30 am at the offices of Cooley Godward Kronish in Palo Alto.
If you can make it, I hope you will join us. Here’s the reg form and here’s the description and [...]

Another Version of Blogola

The Wall Street Journal uncovered another form of blogola in this weekend’s paper — restaurants handing out free meals in return for hoped-for good coverage from food bloggers and posters on consumer-oriented sites like Yelp.
An excerpt:

Dine, a contemporary American restaurant in Chicago, has been open for less than two years. But on one popular Web [...]

New Date for Online Ethics Panel

We’ve set a new date for the online ethics panel referenced below. It will be Oct. 30 at Cooley Godward Kronish in Palo Alto. Click here for all the details.

Some Attempts at Ethical Guidelines for Bloggers

More on the issue of blogola and the ethical questions it raises for PR:
In searching around, I’ve found a few attempts by journalistic organizations to articulate ethical standards for journo-bloggers. Here are the links:

CyberJournalist.net: A Bloggers Code of Ethics
USC’s Annenberg School, Online Journalism Review: What are the ethics of online journalism?
Poynter Institute: Online Ethics [...]

Is Blogola PR's Problem?

I’m fast coming to the conclusion that blogola — giving bloggers the use of valuable stuff (like Nikon cameras) or exclusive access (like on-set access to a TV show) — is not PR’s problem.
I think Strumpette makes some spot-on points about the seaminess of the practice, but really, is it PR’s job to establish ethical [...]

Phil Gomes on Corporate Blogging and Blogger Relations

More from the Bulldog Reporter Media Relations conference: Phil Gomes of Edelman on corporate blogging and relating to bloggers:

Join online communities instead of trying to create them
Your company really has more social media content than they think (Example: recording stories from the Butterball turkey hotline call center and turning them into podcasts)
Finding your online voice [...]

Strumpette v. MWW on Blogola

Great give and take on blogola between MWW CEO Michael Kempner and Strumpette:
Blog Relationship-Building: My Point of View (Kempner) 
MWW CEO Kempner Puts Nikon Blog Program in the Spin Cycle

Nikon and MWW try blogola

Another version of the blogola story: the MWW agency sent out $1000 Nikon cameras for bloggers to “try” for 6-12 months, after which they technically have to return them. Needless to say, this is another attempt to score positive publicity by showering blogger/journalists with goodies that the traditional media won’t accept.
Some links:
An Indiana-based blogger jumping [...]

More on blogola

Nice post over at Deep Jive Interests on blogola. Check it out — this subject is not going away.
In fact, it’s just starting. The only reason why blogola is even happening is that blogs have gained enough clout to make it worthwhile to try to influence them. But blogola does flag a key difference between [...]

"Blogola"

The Wall Street Journal had a fascinating story (sub. req.) last week about the publicists for the show “The New Adventures of Old Christine” ignoring mainstream TV critics and wooing bloggers to create buzz around the show.
The term “blogola” plays off the term “payola,” which was the word used when record company executives paid DJs [...]