Global PR Blog Week 2.0

By Jorge Camara, Dubai Development and Investment Authority | The PR Inquisitor

After some research, I think I can define it in a few words: not yet and not really by themselves.

Both the European Union (EU) and blogs are in the process of becoming something important but they stand in two completely different worlds.

Blogs are still not very big in Europe: out of the 25 countries that form the union, only two (UK and France) have a significant number of online blogs (source: Technorati). There is also the language problem: 25 languages and the great majority of blogs are written in English. Also, in terms of political tendency, a great portion of EU-related blogs tend to be anti-system and heavily criticize the European Union as negative or even as “evil.�

Communication-wise the European Union has great problems to reach the average citizen. Every communication action has to follow a strict political authorizing process, translated into 25 languages. It practically disables any chance for quick responses. This and other barriers create deep communication gaps between the union and its citizens and make impossible to reach the goal of the 2001 Laeken Declaration “to bring the EU closer to its citizens.�

Blogs have played a significant role during the ratification process of the EU constitution in France. They were heavily used particularly on the “no� campaigners side. They profited from the benefits of blogs as a quick and efficient communication tool to quickly post messages on the web to criticize the EU system. It also gave politicians a sense of proximity with their electorate: electors for once felt that these politicians used their same language to communicate because blogs are direct and exempt of mass media connotations.

However, while the “no� side won, blogs were only useful in small niches of the electorate market. According to statistics of the French Government, the portion of demographics that most likely to use blogs (a quarter of them are between 18 to 29) were the ones that were nearly 50% divided both in favor and against the ratification of the constitution. The most decisive portion of the population that voted against the constitution were the 45 onwards blue collar workers that perceived the constitution as a threat to the French social system.

It is a fact that blogs are starting to be active in the political field. Weeks after the France “no” victory, an article in the Financial Times gave a wakeup call to EU politicians urging them to start using more electronic communication tools such as websites or blogs.

In an effort to increase the direct communication between EU politicians and bureaucrats, Margot Wallström, the Swedish Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication created a blog where she has been posting articles on politically low key issues such as the London bombings, global poverty or the devastation of the tsunami.

One would think these types of blogs cannot start heated debates among EU citizens. One was wrong. An example is the post on the impact the tsunami had on Sri Lanka. It received 298 comments, mostly from UK eurosceptics and confronted them with a proeuropean minority. It immediately evolved into a political struggle between those who oppose the union and those who favor it, even to the point of reaching a “virtual fistfight� between a Spaniard and a British.

Blogs can and will be useful communication tools in the EU political field but they still have some pending issues to be confronted.

The three most important are the language differences, geographical and limited reach. The first two are linked to the ongoing problem of the EU: the balance between nationalism and the project of a political union of nations.

It is hard for a Swedish or a Danish politician to explain to an Italian or a Greek user how the union is important for him in his daily life when they don’t really understand it. It even creates a strong opposition if the audience has a negative perception of the EU. In addition, both parties are faced with a language and culture and it can be easy to fall under misconceptions or other barriers.

The EU already has highly successful exchange programs like Erasmus or the YOUTH program. It doesn’t need exchanges of opinions, it needs in-depth attractive explanations as personalized as possible made by someone who knows what the audience problems are.

I think it would be wiser to set up groups where politicians, local and regional civil NGOs and users from the same region that would gather in blogs to discuss European issues with those who favor and oppose the union. This way, everybody is at the same level in both language and knowledge of the concerns that citizens face when addressed with the EU. The participation of civil NGOs is crucial in this process as they can make the debate more interesting and credible.

In this sense, the EU could be one of the best examples of participatory democracy. Its Parliament has elected Members (MEP) from all nationalities and ideologies: from eurosceptics to eurofanatics, from left to right. I cannot think of another parliament that could represent such a vast scope of ideologies. MEPs could dedicate a portion of their time to participate in blogs to explain to their electorate what’s going on in the end user language and with a similar knowledge of their region’s concerns.

As far as reaching the audience, the problem we currently face is that not everybody uses the internet, its access is still low in some EU countries and is generally identified to a specific demographic chunck. Blogs have even lower amounts of usage. According to Gallup, and this applies only to the US so I guess it will be even lower in Europe, only 32% of regular internet users are familiar with blogs, only 12% read them usually and only 2% on a daily basis.

In conclusion, there is a lot of ground to gain until blogs are perceived as useful communication tools but nothing stops us from starting to plan large EU communication strategies that use direct tools such as blogs to communicate directly. These strategies need thorough planning and serious political and financial commitment and should involve as much citizens as needed both in favor and against the union. The EU will need tools like blogs but they need to be broader in their reach and in many more languages than English and French. They can get institutions closer to citizens and empower them to shape their future, particularly in the EU where grass roots communication is so desperately needed.

About the author

Jorge Camara is Assistant Manager at the Marketing and Communications Department of the Dubai Development and Investment Authority. From 2002 to 2005 he was Press and Communications Manager of the European Youth Forum. Jorge is an Affiliate Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (London).

{tags: prblogweek, pr, public+relations, weblogs, european+union, communication}