Unless you’ve been stuck in a cave somewhere for the past three years contemplating the mysteries of the universe, you’ve no doubt heard all the buzz about blogging. Phrases such as “citizen journalism” and “media watchdog” have been bandied about willy-nilly. The people who are really into it speak of it (or write about it) as though blogging is some revolutionary new concept that will obsolete the PR industry and change all the rules.

Hmmm, change all the rules. Where have we heard that phrase before? Oh yeah – in 2000 when we were told that the Internet was changing all the rules of business. How’d that work out?

Still, when a sizeable (or vocal) percentage of the business population is thinking that way, it’s best not to ignore it. That’s why Tech Image decided in November to make a serious effort to get underneath the surface, and the hype, in order to see what was really going on and whether it was really a threat to public relations as we know it.

What the world found back in 2000, and what we found again here, is that the Internet is simply another channel, with its up sides and down sides. Online stores didn’t make brick and mortar stores obsolete; last time I looked the shopping malls and strip malls still had plenty of tenants. And blogging won’t make traditional journalism (or the PR machine that feeds it) obsolete either. It may add to what’s already there, create new opportunities for some, and open mass communications up to more people. But that’s not really all that revolutionary either.

For some reason there seems to be a mystique about blogging that scares some people. Perhaps it’s the idea of ordinary citizens having a say outside the control of the traditional media. That, however, is not as new a concept as one might think, especially if you break it down to the essential elements.

Let’s go back in time to the Middle Ages. Most of the ability to disseminate mass information in Europe is controlled by a single institution: the Catholic Church. Monks sitting at high benches laboriously copy the Bible, fine literature, and other important documents by hand. They have the time and resources to do it, especially on longer pieces. What that means, though, is that the Church controls what information gets out by deciding which documents to copy. Similar scenarios play out around the world, where various ruling entities have the means and the mechanisms to determine what is copied for mass consumption and what is not.

Fast forward to 1440, when Johannes Gutenberg unveils his first printing press with movable type. Now, rather than expensively copying documents one-by-one, you can make multiple copies – as many copies as you have paper. Ironically Gutenberg’s first production is a Bible, and within a short period of time the monks are moving on to wine making. While printing is not free, it’s a lot less costly than copying by hand, so more people are able to put their thoughts in writing and share them with “the masses.” This is truly a revolution.

Now let’s move ahead to 1776. A malcontent named Thomas Paine, unhappy with the British rule in the colonies, anonymously publishes the pamphlet Common Sense. This pamphlet is a collection of his private thoughts on a particular topic that he then puts out for anyone and everyone to read. What does that sound like? A blog!

Enough of the history lesson. Let’s look at it in practical terms. In many ways a blog is similar to a journal or a diary. Daily (or almost-daily) entries are made on whatever topic happens to strike the writer. The entries are normally fairly short and single-focused, and often brutally honest. There is little in the way of a common thread between entries, unless a particular topic is weighing on the mind of the writer.

About the only material difference is that a journal or diary is kept private, while a blog is put out there for everyone to see. That, in fact, is one of the most interesting things about the whole MySpace phenomenon. Throughout history many a younger brother or sister has suffered a good pounding for reading an older sister’s diary. Parents have been shocked by the revelations they’ve found when the diary “happened” to click open after repeated attempts to pick the lock.

Yet now those teenage rants and hormone-driven feelings are being posted voluntarily on MySpace blogs without so much as a second thought. If you ever want to know what your kids and their friends are into you don’t have to snoop through their drawers or rifle through their garbage cans anymore. You can simply open up a browser, go to their MySpace page, and they’ll tell you all you want to know – as well as a lot of things you’ll probably find you didn’t want to know.

From a business standpoint, one of the biggest things blogging has done is provide ordinary citizens direct access to people who until recently had an entire mechanism designed to insulate them from their customers. Take General Motors, for example. Try to put a phone call in to the Vice Chairman of GM in 1960 and odds are you’ll get as far as a gatekeeper before being turned over to a PR person who gives you the party line. Send a letter in 1980 and you’ll likely get the same result. An e-mail in 2000 might get through, but more likely than not it will be intercepted and again re-routed.

But today, if you have something to say to GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, all you need to do is go out to his blog http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/, choose the appropriate entry, and leave a comment. It is almost guaranteed he will read what you have to say, and very well may respond to it right then and there. That’s the etiquette of blogging, and its advantage as a communications channel.

The other thing blogging has done is made it easier for business leaders as well as ordinary citizens to become recognized as experts and thought leaders in their field. Traditionally, thought leadership required convincing an editor of a well-known publication that you have something worthwhile to say, and getting said editor to devote space to your thoughts in an upcoming issue. If the publication you’re targeting doesn’t accept contributed material then you’re out of luck.

While there is still a lot of value to that method, especially if the publication is well-respected and has a good reputation, blogging has opened up the possibilities. You can start your own blog and post your thoughts to your heart’s content. You’ll be challenged to get your target audience out to your blog to read it, but once you’ve drawn in that audience you’ll be in a position to communicate with them regularly. As for that publication that doesn’t accept bylines, don’t despair. If they have their own blogs, you now have an avenue to post your thoughts to their readership by commenting on their posts without having to obtain prior approval from an editor. For those who are dedicated and can communicate intelligently, it opens one more channel to the people you want to reach.