In searching for information about internal blogging for publications and various media outlets affiliated with The Tribune Company, I came across this rather interesting article from The Baltimore Sun (owned by The Tribune Company), and dating all the way back to 2003 (remember ’03? George W. Bush, Outkast, Three-button suits?). Anyway, it’s an interesting article that was written during a time when blogging- like Outkast- seemed to be everywhere, and the term “microblogging” didn’t even exist. Check it out: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2003-09-07/business/0309070390_1_blogs-workplace-online-diaries
The article presents an interesting predicament that a reporter for The Hartford Courant (yes, also owned by The Tribune Company) found himself in back in ’03. This reporter was keeping an online diary of sorts (affiliated with and connected to The Hartford Courant) in which he “kept a personal online diary”. Apparently, the powers-that-be at The Hartford Courant got wind of this and were not too happy,; so he quickly was forced to shut down the blog.
This has always been an issue with blogging, in my opinion. It’s almost too easy to do, with far less parameters and guidelines than, say, writing an article for a daily publication or writing a research paper for a college course. It’s easy for one to get carried away with a blog, and start typing endless details of their personal life as though it were a diary, and quickly forget that this could be read by countless others out there in cyberspace.
I did also stumble upon an interesting internal blog directly targeting employees of The Tribune Company and their various affiliates: http://www.tribuneemployeetalk.blogspot.com/ While it seems like it was a good concept in theory, it hasn’t been updated in close to three years, and several of the last posts wrote of various bankruptcy issues the company was facing in the chaos that was post-September 2008.
I found the internal blog for union workers at The Baltimore Sun (once again, owned by The Tribune Company) who posted a rather telling blog in 2009 that was a true sign of the times: http://newsofthesun.blogspot.com/. It’s as though they’re throwing their hands up and saying “OK, OK…. We get it- blogging is dead. Here’s the link to follow us on Twitter”. They also get rather cheeky and post an email address for what they call “private rants and news tips”.
I do think Twitter is the better way to go for internal communications and networking within companies. Rather than put everything out there on cyberspace in the form of a blog (though some blogs do require a password for readers to have access to it), the idea of tweets being protected would probably put far more minds at ease. Employees of a particular organization would have to request to follow the Twitter page and hope to be given that access. The tweets could directly relate to all matters important to people within the company and organization (details about open enrollment every November for their medical benefits, updates about changing to summer hours in May, etc.) and could be written by somebody in HR.
In looking at the aforementioned article from 2003, it’s amazing to see the shift and advancements made over the course of the last eight or so years. There was in fact a time when blogging seemed to incredibly cutting-edge and new (yet also so simple). Then again, during that time Outkast was also in the Top 40. So here we are In 2011 and blogging seems to be a thing of the past, especially when compared to the even more simplistic microblogging of Twitter. Could internal communications get even simpler in the coming years? We’ll find out.
This employee blogging thing seems like playing with fire often with the “offending” employee getting burned as in reprimanded or terminated for such. Just read a story in Sunday’s Washington Post about a Zynga employee who was let go. With regard to tweeting: remember the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader who was accidentally tackled last week by a player? She too posted what she thought was an innocent missive. No such luck, she was told not to do so anymore.
ReplyDeleteBoth of the items these two wrote were printed word for word, nothing incendiary about them.
A couple of things here, one, most employers are no so interested in “transparency” or your opinion as they are in “control”. This is especially true of “messages”.
Two, are the bloggers/tweeters/former e-mailers first amendment rights (freedom of speech) being infringed upon? At some point this will go to the Supreme Court, if it has not done so already.
Who wants to take a chance and err on the wrong side? Let them post their own propaganda.
Interesting points, Jon and Jocelyne. I'm also interested in the evolution of blogging - what started a decade ago as "online diaries" (remember live - and dead - journal?) lost some steam when MySpace turned into Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr joined the crowd, then gained momentum again a few years ago when blogging became a bit more "legitimate". I think both the immediacy and the permanency of blogging and micro-blogging is introducing interesting questions for professionals - once you share a thought, it's permanent. Even deleting it doesn't totally get rid of the footprint it leaves somewhere in cyberspace, and no matter how quick an employee (or celebrity, or politician) may try to back track or explain himself, the controversy will not go away.
ReplyDelete(Kind of like when I make a typo and use the wrong "there" on Twitter and then get 900 people pointing it out to me before I can delete and repost it.)