PR and Weblogs: Ethical Issues

Journalists aren't the only media professionals who have discovered that weblogs can be a useful tool. PR professionals have as well. In some cases, though, they are used deceptively, as in this case in which a PR firm representing Wal Mart created a supposedly independent weblog to promote the company, and even hired a Washington Post photographer to contribute to the site while posing as just an average person. It's an interesting case in ethics (or better put, lack of ethics).

Update, 30 October: In a follow-up to the Wal Mart PR weblog blunder, Mediashift asks what impact the scandal may have on weblogs and the PR industry.