In some ways it is surprising that the Syrian uprising is being covered to the extent it is in the UK broadcast media.

Yes, the events in Syria are marking a radical shift in thinking and politics in the Arab world.  Yet with so little substantiated news it is surely very hard for this story to dominate news agendas as it should.

There have been no iconic images such as the one of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young women who lost her life protesting against the almost certainly fraudulent Iranian elections results two yeas ago.

And with next to no verifiable footage taken within Syria, independently minded journalists banned by the Assad regime have to rely on the accounts of refugees streaming across international borders.

In Turkey, President Erdogan, who has been building up strong economic and political ties with Assad’s regime has offered refugees from the town of Jisr al-Shughour – which has been the target of a concerted military assault – protection on the understanding they do not talk about their experiences to journalists keen to update reports.

So when the established media cannot report there is a vacuum.

It is left up to citizen journalists such as Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari, a 25-year-old gay woman in Damascus to tell the world what is going on.

Amina, within a few short months, was able to give an insight that no journalists could.

The blog was attracting hundreds of thousands of hits, and no doubt was used as a source by many reporters.

Then Amina was abducted, but by whom?  No one was sure although one of the many branches of the Syrian secret police or security services must have been involved – an online campaign to free her resulted.

However, it has been unmasked as a hoax, a complete fraud.

It was the work of a US student residing in Edinburgh, Tom MacMaster and possibly his partner Britta Froelicher (although MacMaster now claims it is his work alone).

Even the pictures of Amina were stolen from the Facebook page of a Croatian girl living in London who had no connection to the material being used on the blog.

MacMaster had the gall to explain his deception:  “While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on this blog are true and not misleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone – I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.”

There are many issues raised by such behaviour but I want to concentrate on just one:  The reliance of news sources where there is no legal or editorial safeguards to ensure a commitment to follow standards of integrity and professionalism.

Of course no news outlet is free of bias, but the issue with Citizenship Journalism is that those basic standards we expect from a news source might be there or not, through design or lack of it.

This is one reason why established media outlets such as national newspapers do not have to feel threatened when there seems to be others with greater access, speed or credentials disseminating news.

It has been nearly 4 years of entries and I have covered everything from the marketing potential of Knut the Polar Bear – he never got his cut from Berlin Zoo – to the vagaries of the PR  world and the spectacular rise of social media.  The next piece should be an assessment of Google Buzz.

Blogs are the most taxing of social media because it requires commitment and writing skill – intonation, use of words, structure all count.  I must have spent many valuable hours researching material and writing up, time that many would have not done.

So what have I learnt – am I a better professional, can I hold my head up high?

I can say that I am a publisher – I am sure I can say that without any fear of serious rebuke.

And with that perhaps I have more of an appreciation of traditional and online media.

Perhaps I am a better writer.  I know when I look at my earlier posts from an aesthetic and editorial point of view I can see I have improved.  I don’t actually want to look at my earlier entries like someone that looks at their earlier creative work with a little disdain although some are good pieces.

(I admit that having no sub-editor typos do occur: my constant apologies).

I can as one of the first PRs in the region to blog (that I am aware of) I can say that I am able to present myself as someone with an appreciation of social media; I can offer training and guidance with confidence because I have proof of my commitment and application.

I have also, far from dampening my enthusiasm, enjoy writing more than ever.

Return On Investment? – many would have not contemplated writing a blog on that score had they known.  Yes, I have had pitches from it, one from a very substantial enterprise.  I have helped colleagues and causes I believe in.  I have built relationships.  These things count as ROI for me.

I think that if I had just a static site then perhaps I would not have improved – I think I have though.

Despite peaks and troughs in enthusiasm I am, at present, keen to use my channel to express my views as I want.

A little credit to Simon Wharton for making me blog although at times I cursed you for it.

I don’t need to say how important bloggers are in modern communications, but if you have any doubts I picked up the following stats from the Future Buzz blog:

• 133,000,000 – number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002
• 346,000,000 – number of people globally who read blogs (comScore March 2008)
• 900,000 – average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period (seems a bit low)
• 77% – percentage of active Internet users who read blogs

This naturally presents a golden opportunity to convey your message.  And if you have a very sector specific target audience there is bound to be a multitude of blogs that will cover the topic.

Yet, I still hear of companies and agencies that go about pitching the wrong way.

It is certainly harder to pitch to a blogger than a journalist (although there can be a correlation).

The media needs stories.  The media relies on PRs to supply those stories / interviewees on a regular basis, it has a continuous appetite.   A relationship with a journalist is very helpful but not essential for getting your release or article published.

A blogger does not need a PRs’ stories, of course they need material but that can come from a number of sources.  A blogger might post every day, week, month – there is not the same pressure generally to deliver content.  Gaining coverage with a blogger relies far more on relationships.

It is a different dynamic: a journalist is paid to generate content for an organisation, a blogger tends to be working for him or herself, often for nothing, and they can relate to their blog in a very personal way.

(With way over 100 million blogs these observations can be nothing but generalisations, there are bound to be exceptions but I think they are rough guidelines nevertheless).

For me the key difference is that I can pitch to a media channel whether I have or not in the past worked with them, it is not too important if I have a good idea or subject – I would not do the same with a blogger.

The key, I believe, to taping into the blogosphere is spending the time to develop relationships, learn about individual blogs.

Use Twitter to initiate a conversation.  Better still if your client has a blog leave (relevant insightful) comments on the target blog.  It will help show you have some knowledge of social media, which will help gain acceptance, it will show interest and it might make the blogger feel that they are obliged to reciprocate.  It is a first step in the pitching process.

So, for me, it is the conversation before that really counts.  Of course you might contact them directly and succeed with a brazen salesy press release, but you might be deleted as spam more likely.

And remember, if you have developed a reputation though social media or indeed traditional media then you might find that you are pulling in interest from bloggers.

This all takes time and that is where it goes wrong: PRs and clients don’t often have the luxury of time.

Please note

I have just upgraded my blog and there were a few issues with plug-ins, so I have (hopefully) reset the comments, which had requested a WordPress account to leave a message.

I would be appreciate if you did leave a comment to see if it is working and if not please drop me an e-mail rob@artisanmc.co.uk

Crain’s Business Manchester ran quite a special story this week on blogmail.

The story focussed on disatisfied customers of property Dylan Harvey recovering their money with blog mail.  The pressure exerted by leaving comments on influential property sites that it uses to gain investors that told of their trouble with Dylan Harvey proved enough.  The  unhappy customers were able to recover their money without resorting to legal means, hence the title.  The link above will give both sides’ views.

The special thing is not so much the power of PR, using blogs to influence but where the story was placed: front page of Crain’s.

How often does that happen now?

It has been a little while since I added to my blog.

But I will be rectifying that shortly. One reason is an article that evangelises blogs in the Guardian. So if you are a blogger, like to surf blogs or want to reignite your enthusiam this article should be of interest.

The Guardian – Diary of a somebody

Hard copies were in the Saturday Work section of the Guardian.