Imagine the world without blogs.

For starter, you wouldn’t be reading this. But this is the interesting thing. Once upon a time newspapers are the true source of information and readers trust what they read because it is third party endorsement. Journalists are objective and what they write is trusted.

I am a cynical person. I like to think that I don’t believe anything and I can’t believe anything. I think this is postmodernist thinking but I don’t like to pigeon-hole myself, not yet anyway.

Now that I am working in PR I am becoming more cynical when it comes to the media, traditional or new. Don’t get me wrong, I like to think that I am practicing the CIPR code of conduct and I do try my very best to do so, but I can’t help but think that some PR people out there are abusing the system.

Maybe this is why PR gets such a bad name for itself – too ironic to be true!

But things have moved on. Ever since the blogosphere took over with the list of fancy words – blogs, vblogs (video), moblogs (mobile), podcasts etc – my latest dilemma becomes “What can I trust?”

I was doing some research on Irish political history and Wikipedia was a very tempting choice with its comprehensive information comparing to other websites, but this is history and I can’t just hope that whoever wrote the entry in Wikipedia has actually got it right.

That being said, there are many cases that demonstrate

“bloggers hailed another victory over the supposedly duplicitous mainstream media”

The Reuters photo clone is a good example.

But this still doesn’t solve my cynicism obsession. And this is just the beginning.

The Times last week taught us a new word – flogs.

A “flog” is a fake weblog that purports to chronicle an ordinary consumer’s passion for a business or product, typically without the company behind it declaring an interest. It is a scandalously dishonest practice.

Admittedly Edelman has had some issues with the blogging practice but we have learnt our lesson. (Cynicism aside, trust me on this, there is compulsory training for all the staff across the world.)

So where does this leave us? I’d say continuing reading newspapers and blogs but take it with a pitch of salt. I’m often surprised at how much more new information I know when I’m reading blogs comparing to the traditional media. One thing for sure, unlike the traditional media, blogging is real-time and isn’t heavily edited. When I read my published articles on The Guardian website, I wasn’t sure how much of it was actually my work after the editor got her hands on it.

And if you are writing a blog, then make sure it is transparent and do make an effort to ensure that the information is correct. As for Wikipedia, to be honest, I’m still not too sure about it but I will no doubt continue to use it as an information bank, or at least as a starting point.

Now imagine the world without blogs. If you weren’t reading this, what would you be doing now? How would you get your information about the Edelman graduate scheme?

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