微博营销外文翻译---博客公关：博客公共关系的探索性分析.doc

Blogging PR: An exploratory analysis of public relations weblogs Keywords: Weblog Public relations Interactivity Usability Abstract： Although there are ever more weblogs on the Internet, this is an area that has been little researched in public relations, and where they have been analyzed it has been as a tool for communication rather than a primary information source in the public relations body of knowledge. This paper provides an exploratory study of the structure and content of 67 blogs on public relations to determine what issues they deal with and whether they are a tool for the theoretical development of the ?eld. In addition to their content we have looked at the structure, usability and interactivity of the blogs. Introduction Blogs are seen by some authors as major tools for online communication, whereas by others they are little more than experts’ opinions on a given issue (Herrera Celaya, 2006). They are such a recent medium (beginning in 1996) that the concept remains controversial and arguable (Barton, 2005). In any event their persuasive and informative function is of great relevance as they can obtain opinion leadership with a huge in?uence over public opinion. In this sense Sweetser and Metzgar (2007) have demonstrated that in crisis situations, people who read personal blogs have a lower perception of crisis for an organization. The rise of blogs seems to be unbridled and it is a phenomenon that is occurring in all knowledge ?elds (Jenkins, 2006). There are currently over 60 million blogs in existence and 75,000 new ones each day (Cohen Krishnamurthy, 2006). More than 14 million people worldwide keep a personal diary on the Internet and a further 100 million (one third of the active Web universe) read blogs habitually (Gordillo, 2007). Every six months the blogosphere population doubles, and it is today sixty times greater than three years ago. No communication medium has ever burgeoned so rapidly. Weblog writers produce 700,000 to 1.3million art