4, 07. 2006
Blogs are now beginning to bear more significance than mere websites where individuals express or dispatch their opinions. One aspect of this trend is the power of influence they have on the public. There are today blogs and websites managed by individuals that are accessed by more than 100,000 people every day. The "Kikko no burogu (blog of Kikko)," that dispatched a series of scoops on such news developments as the one that drew wide public attention when an architectural engineer was found to have falsified legally required earthquake-resistance data in designing buildings, is just one of such blogs. Another aspect which should not be overlooked is that they are now playing the role like that of the journalism. An increasing number of people now do not hesitate to request public figures for interviews by sending them e-mails. In the United States, it is seriously debated whether to recognize bloggers as journalists or not.
Press conference rooms might be filled with bloggers in the near future.
When the "livedoor case" surfaced, it is said that there were bloggers and the operators of small and medium news-sites on the web got in touch with the press service of organizations and firms related with the emerging markets. Against this background survey was conducted on the "present condition of gathering information by website operators and journalism" by sending questionnaires to 45 companies and other organizations centering on IT and information-related firms. Replies were received from 15 companies and other organizations.
Making of Appointments, Presenting of Name Cards Required
The results of the survey showed that in Japan the blogs and news-site are not playing the role of the journalism so much as they do in the United States. But the situation in Japan is clearly shown they are catching up.
The most noticeable question was whether or not the companies or the organizations would allow the bloggers and the "reporters" from the net news-sites to attend press conferences they give. Because of the press club system which is rather strictly practiced in Japan, almost all the companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange have hitherto not allowed reporters not belonging to their exclusive press clubs to attend press conferences they held. There were some exceptions where some reporters who were not members of such press clubs were allowed to attend such news conferences. These non-club member reporters were mostly from trade newspapers or other well established mass media. There was almost none from net news-site.
The replies to the questionnaires, however, indicated that the "barrier" between the conventional and net mass media is apparently being broken down in some respects. Softbank Corp. is a good example in this respect. Its reply was that:
"Basically, there is no problem for any non-press-club-member reporter to attend a meeting which the company calls for to make announcements or ordinary press conferences. It is required, however, that they make appointments beforehand and present name cards to attend such meetings. So far there have been some reporters from small-scale net news-site who
participated in such meetings."
Divulging Information to Bloggers Considered
Among other replies were:
"We invite net news-site reporters to press conferences." (from Cybozu, Inc.)
Matter to be considered in the future, meaning "Have not had any experience as yet, but prepared to consider in case of request depending on the nature of the site." (from an IT-related firm)
"We do not refuse." (from TV Tokyo)
"Would like to consider it in the future." (from CyberAgent)
In the United States there are now bloggers who have powerful influence in their particular field. Business firms hold that it would be more advantageous to divulge information that they want spread amon the public to these blogs rather than conventional mass media. Also in Japan, there are business firms which are beginning positively to take advantage of bloggers. One of those firms is Cybozu, which replied to the survey: "We use the means of dispatching information through blogs by, for example, organizing events for the bloggers to promote our products."
Among other replies were: "It is a possibility for the futures." (CyberAgent), "Deal flexibly with given conditions and developments at different times." (IT-related firm), and "Depend on the futures developments." (Sharp Corp.)
The question items and their contents were as follow:
1. Have the bloggers and small-scale net news-sites ever requested your permission to collect information? If any, would you let us know, so long as it causes you no inconvenience, what they wanted, their methods of collecting information, and their attitudes.
2. Do you treat the bloggers and small-scale net news-sites as part of mass media? If you do, would you give us specific examples. If you avoid them, give us the reason/s and criteria for doing so.
3. Do you distribute your news release among the bloggers and small-scale net new-sites?
4. Do "reporters" from the blogs and net news-sites attend press conference you give? If they do not, do you plan to let them attend in the future?
5. Do you know of anyone who is not a journalist but have influence as blogger? Let us know, if you do, about specific examples in the industry your company belongs to.
6. In the United States, there are more and more occasions where information wanted to be divulged to the public are given to the well known bloggers but not to major mass media companies. Could this be thought to happen in case of your company? How about in the futures?
