We humans love many inexplicable things, stuff that is bad for us, stuff that has no practical use and people that have no discernable talent. What we seem to hate is not being able to put a neat and tidy label on things, which is why the increasing blurring of boundaries between journalist and blogger is confusing the hell out of a lot of people in the communications industry.

Back in the day it was easy, you had journalists, they came in different flavours which depended on their chosen medium for output. Now it’s all a tad more difficult. Now you could say that a blogger is a person who writes a blog but there are many examples of journalists who blog and of main stream media outlets that have blogs which sit alongside more traditional news and opinion pieces. There are also examples of bloggers who have become journalists, which brings us back to the topic of labels and their usefulness. PR people know how to best work with journalists and those outside of both trades have a fair idea of what they can expect when they pick up a paper or turn on the TV news. Bloggers though are new(ish) beast and we're only just starting to get a handle on how to work with them and the role they play within society as a whole.

Back in the day building personal relationships with key journalists was viewed as crucial. This did not necessarily mean taking them out to lunch...

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