Blogging revolution is on the rise and there is no telling when it will calm down if ever. Blogs have given individuals a power that they lacked and craved until only recently.

The way I see it; is that the media history will be classified as pre-blogs and post-blogs phases or eras.

Pre-blogs was a phase where we had assigned individuals with the sole responsibility of communicating with the media and providing them with well revised content that was compatible with all laws and policies available. These contents did not necessarily reflect the ideas of their own writers and editors, rather; they reflected the ideas of the general policy of the entity as a whole.

Some journalists were really brave to speak out their minds and outline their opinions about events or policies in countries or regions or the world for that matter, and they were marked for doing so either positively or negatively, and many of them dealt with consequences of such markings.

Post-blogs is a revolution that the whole world is experiencing and many of us are taking part of this completely different approach to media and communication and on a large scale that extends to be global.

Internet brought down all the boundaries and barriers that crippled communication and interaction between worlds and civilizations, but there was a missing link to all this great new technology; the media was not reaching the people. Blogs however; have completed the cycle and provided the missing link in this rapidly growing means of communication and now utilizing the power of blogs, real people are reaching their peers from different civilizations, backgrounds, locations, etc.

Bit by bit; the gaps that used to exist and being bridged and exposure to new things is always the controlling factor in the wonderful journey that we are taking part in.

As the power of blogs is continuously on the rise; corporations are beginning to realize how important it is to reach their customers and consumers through this genuine method, and what makes it even more interesting is that they can conduct researches and run surveys to get consumers’ feedback on their products or services in an easier, faster and less costly methods.

The question here is that: are corporations in the Arab world ready for such a leap?

What makes blogs so famous and sought by readers from different ranks of life, is that they give a more genuine and personal perspective about the content provided. So, when I visit a blog and read the content about anything provided there; I already have the pervious assumption that this information is credible and trusted, which brings me to the next question: are corporations in the Arab World ready to place a credible blogger that will list their negatives as well as their positives?

A friend of mine sent me a great article about this issue and the writer focuses on the credibility of provided information, as false information is easily spotted and marked by readers and other bloggers and if a corporation was caught in the fatal act of misleading the audience; this is what is called: “Death by Blog”.

Should a blogger be appointed to maintain the corporate blog; he/she must be brave and credible enough to provide the audience with trusted content that will promote the credibility of the corporation as a whole. But are Arab corporations ready to give such power to one of their people? Are they willing to trust someone that much and stand accountable for their own mistakes and talk about them before anyone else does?

The way I see it; we still have a long way to reach this stage, as blogging as a concept is still taking the baby steps in the Arab World, and not until it is all grown up and strong that we will see such transparency and accountability provided by our corporations be them in government or private sectors. The mentality behind these organizations is what governs the attitudes of their representatives, and no one wants to be the scapegoat and initiate this concept. Even if someone was bold enough to take such a step; he/she will be risking getting the pink slip from the company they work for and represent, hence; they stay in the shadow, at least for the time being.

What these corporations (or those behind them) don’t get is that nothing would give them more credibility than to humanize their brands and give them a face that people can relate to and communicate with, but they are still afraid of the power that they might be giving away by doing so, and overlooking the humungous benefits they would reap if they gave such empowerment and acted as proactive leaders.

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