Bloggers: ruining political journalism or recharging it?

The New York Times Sunday edition has an interesting lead-in paragraph about bloggers and political journalism. It ends with the question: Are they ruining political journalism or recharging it? (registration needed)

The online version of the article is 10 pages. I haven't finished it, yet. This provides fodder for later blogs.

The question, though of, are bloggers ruining political journalism or recharging it is identical to the concerns of PR and Marketing agencies about branding. Are blogs ruining a brand or recharging it? What they really ask is "Are customers speaking freely, and with no corporate restraint, helping a company's brand?" Or stated another way, "Can a company trust it's brand in the hands of its customers?"

The question of "Are bloggers ruining political journalism or just recharging it?" sounds remarkably like "Are citizens' discussions ruining democracy or 'just' recharging it?"

It's curious to see such a question posed by a newspaper or any media outlet. It goes back to the real issue which is who controls the message? Who has power over the message: form and content? Those who have this power control the discussion and the perception of reality. So, it's to be expected that a traditional media outlet such as NY Times would have such a concern, ahem, question over the role of blogs and it possibly encroaching on what they feel is their exclusive domain.

The same concern exists with traditional PR agencies in their efforts to 'control' the brand message of their clients. When really it's their customers who control their client's brand message through word-of-mouth. Wise and long-lasting are the companies that recognize that the opinion that most matters is that of their customers not their highly paid traditional PR agencies. Their best bet is to invest their PR budget in creating a remarkable product. And then get out of the way as customers evangelize their products to their friends and neighbors, freely and with honesty.

It's interesting to see how those who profit from controlling the brand of a politician or the brand of a company (sometimes synonymous) are most concerned about the power of blogs. Blogs are just a very powerful resource for maximizing word-of-mouth for the respective consumers: voters in a democracy and buyers in a market.

It's a sign the powerful resource of blogs is being made manifest today that a front page article is devoted to the issue in a publication the size of the NY Times.

Politicians like companies are best served by providing remarkable solutions to their consumers' needs. Then blogs and their power- squared for maximizing word-of-mouth spread of their remarkable contribution to our days will be seen as "recharging". While those politicians and companies who product is a french-fry short of a happy meal will look at blogs as 'ruining' their brand message when in fact only the news of their ruin is being spread...quickly.

Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. And a company's brand and our democracy rests in the hands of their customers.