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webster_small.jpgThe PR Institute at Webster University in St Louis, live-blogged the highlights of the the day-long seminar entitled “In a Fog About Blogs?” that I presented yesterday. That’s me (L) with Webster School of Communications Dean Debra Carpenter. The creation of the University’s PR Institute and the blog seminar were part of the Master’s Thesis of Nancy Higgins, Webster Special Events Director.
They’ve done a great job on the blog posts, so I will just add a few observations:
Quotes of the day:
Answering a question about why he started blogging, Dr. Craig Hildreth, author of the inspiring The Cheerful Oncologist blog, said explained that it originally was an outlet for his grief over losing two related patients. He sells hope, he said, and he wanted to share his message of hope with patients all over the world.
He found the experience of joining the social media revolution “…was like leaving the earth in a spaceship.” He quickly found his voice and says he is thoroughly delighted with blogging.
St Louis Mayor Francis Slay (D) blogged about his presentation at the seminar here
Mayor Slay: Blogging is Fun
He pointed out a fact that many people forget — blogging is fun. The mayor, who says he uses staff only for editing and formatting, claims to write all his own posts in about an hour a day.
Mayor Slay’s blog doesn’t have comments, he explained, because he doesn’t have the staff to check the validity of identities, or to deal with comment spam. While I think comments are a crucial part of what makes blogging a conversation, I find his response acceptable.
Hey! Mayor Bloomberg! Where’s Your Blog?
Now if only Mayor Bloomberg would blog. Or buy himself a blogger. Oh yeah, I forgot… he doesn’t need to listen, or debate.
Kurt Greenbaum, Interactive Editor of The St Louis Post-Dispatch, who made some excellent points about blogging, took the requisite swing at bloggers:
“They run the risk of getting to the point of nobody paying attention in the tug of war between ‘arrogant mainstream media’ and the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants blogger.” Bloggers, he repeated several times, have no editor, and are not objective.
And, of course, journalists are.
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