What are Weblogs ?

Weblogs (abbreviated: "blogs") are online publications, which are characterized by having
- comparatively short entries, which are regularly updated
- in reverse chronological order (latest entry is coming first on top of page)
- with a strong dialogue orientation
- which allow a uncluttered, authentic and expressive voicing of the author(s).
The strong association of a blog with its author and his/her worldview is recognizable in the word "weblog": The first part of the new word is a colloquial abbreviation of the "world wide web", a synonynom for the graphical, browsable Internet and "log", which is short for logbook, this can be either a log in the traditional sense (e.g. on a ship) or a personal diary.

Weblogs are being published by easy to use content management systems with a high learning curve (setting up a blog takes around 5 minutes) on the Internet and have neglectable costs. Weblogs are usually highly interdependent, this means that the entries in a blog can be commented by its readers and can be linked to other blogs in real-time. This tight web of content, comments and automatic references creates the so called "blogosphere", the global social space of all blog entries.
The users and authors of weblogs are called bloggers. Their subjective opinions are for many readers so interesting, that blogs have become an authentic and interactive alternative to traditional internet portals and increasingly standardized mass-media (print and broadcasting).

Relevance for Public Relations

Weblogs are a communication phenomen which receives more and more academic attention. The explosive growth of weblogs during the last few years and the ever increasing list of corporations and agencies using weblogs to communicate challenge traditional ways of communicating. With this survey we want to understand the impact of weblogs on PR professionals.