I have to admit that while I was completing my application for the MSc in Stirling I got a little bit surprised noticing that PR was under the department of Media and Journalism! Like probably many of you, me as well, I suspected PR to be -of course- related to journalism, but at the same time to be different from it. But what is the actual relation between the two subjects? Do they collaborate? And what happens when the one profession is considered to be a threat to the other?
In January 2009, The Independent published a rather provoking article entitled Shake hands, journos and PRs; we’re in the same business. This article, released just at the
beginning of this year of crisis, suggests that PR industry, despite some " negligible beginnings", now employs more people than journalism does. From their side, journalists "moan about being forced to produce even more with scant resources". Consequently, they see – and to be honest sometimes they have a right to see- PR profession as their "adversary" but they do not realise that it's only them who" have the last word over what is published". For example, lots and lots of news releases arrive at newsdesks but only a some of them get published as news. It’s the journalist who decides what is news-worthy and what is not. The author of this article goes as far as to claim that journalists are like magicians who do not reveal how they perform their tricks, because they are reluctant to admit how much of their resources "is delivered oven-ready by the PR industry". In fact, if we consider more carefully the articles we read every day in both broadsheets and tabloids, we will come to the conclusion that very often "big news stories are in reality PR battles fought between rival organisations", and – let me add- between MP’s, politicians, political parties and... why not celebrities.
To my mind, journalism and PR work together. Both PR people and Journalists need to know what makes news and should do their best to understand their publics. They are both story tellers but as far as I see it, PR creates a true but also well-told story, and journalism caries out the crucial role to make that story known to the public.
As the PR consultant, Clarence Mitchell said to the PR Week :"PR is no cancer eating at the heart of journalism. It is rather, a cure that can offer more informed, more intelligent, and ultimately, more powerful coverage in the correct context".
I'm sure that many of you will find intersting the following video. It is not just funny it is also worth-seeing for those interested in the misunderstandings between the two fields.
Finally, if anyone wants to find out more about the "uneasy marriage" between PR and Journalism the Guardian has the very interesting article, "Why Journalism needs PR".
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ReplyDeleteWere I a PR executive, I would despair at just being told to call back promptly and avoid telling lies. Such comments show journalists have no appreciation of the internal pressures and politics, egos and angst that govern comms strategies in an organisation. But if they did, they would be more sympathetic, so it is probably better we continue to misunderstand each other. So, it's essential to keep a balance beweent these two parts.
ReplyDeleteI really understand where this discussion is coming from but I don’t believe PR and journalism are two sides of the same coin. Their goals are completely different and I think journalists would be mighty relieved if they could just get the comments straight from the horse’s mouth.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a PR person I would actually put words into the client’s mouth and if the journalist had any questions about an incident involving my client he would have to call me for the answer.
That is incredibly frustrating for the journalist, at least it was for me, because he knows the comments and sound-bites aren’t genuine and he really doesn’t care about what some PR dude has to say.
Also the PR people make massive demands on the journalist when he is writing an article and the journalists, full of self admiration, don’t feel they need to listen.
It is all very push-pull and while the PR person is looking to publish his client’s side of the story, the journalist is trying to get the full story.
Those two goals will never co-exist.
Íris Alma Vilbergsdóttir
I don't if they are two sides of one coin. PR study media, media study public. Even we call ourself Public Relations, we don't understand public at all. All the thing I learned is how to sell something to media....
ReplyDeleteBut, i can't agree more that study journalism will help us a lot.