Gallicano, Brett & Hopp -- Public Relations Journal – Vol. 7, No. 3, 2013 1 Public Relations Journal Vol. 7, No. 3 ISSN 1942-4604 © 2013 Public Relations Society of America Is Ghost Blogging Like Speechwriting? A Survey of Practitioners About the Ethics of Ghost Blogging Tiffany Derville Gallicano, Ph.D. University of Oregon Kevin Brett, M.A. Brett Communications Toby Hopp, M.A. Doctoral Student University of Oregon Abstract Based on the support of 71.1% of the public relations practitioners in our online survey (total n=291), there is a general consensus in favor of undisclosed organizational ghost blogging, provided that the ideas for the content come from the stated author and the stated author gives content approval. Moreover, about half of the practitioners in our sample who had organizational blogs (53.7%) indicated that the blogs were not written by their stated authors. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the practice is not necessarily ethical just because many practitioners believe it is and just because many practitioners are engaging in it. This study explores reasons to support undisclosed organizational ghost blogging and reasons to reject it, so practitioners can make an informed decision until more research can be conducted to determine whether audience deception is occurring and to determine whether radical transparency provides a strategic advantage with regard to ghost blogging disclosure. 1 A recent survey of public relations practitioners showed that about half (54 percent) of the 1,616 respondents believe that blogs are somewhat or very important to their public relations efforts, and most of the respondents (80 percent) believe that blogs 1 The authors thank the International Public Relations Research Conference committee for recognizing this study with the Jackson-Sharpe Award, and we thank the Jackson-Sharpe Award sponsors, Likely Communication Strategies and Jackson Jackson & Wagner, for their support. Special thanks also goes to the Public Relations Society of America for assistance with data collection. Correspondence concerning this study should be addressed to Tiffany Gallicano, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, 1787 Agate Hall, Room 124, Eugene, OR 97403- 1275.