Dictating the News: Understanding Newsworthiness from the Journalistic Perspective (original) (raw)
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Public Relations and NewsworkA Neglected Relationship
Amer Behav Sci, 1989
My concern with television news lies primarily with its production and dissemination to large publics. My view of news creation is that it is best understood as a form of cultural argumentation-as an unending battle between a multitude of differentially powerful parties over the definition of reality. From that starting point. I would like to see more research on television news that grapples with a neglected aspect of this unending battle: the influence of the public relations industry on the news process. The scholarly neglect is curious. Certainly members of the press are quite aware that public relations is a driving force behind what gets on television and into print. A recent journalistic exposition of PR's activities on the American news scene (Blyskal & Blyskal, 1985) put the matter succinctly: Since World War II, PR has grown from a one-dimensional "press agentry" function into a sophisticated communications network connecting the most powerful elements of our society. Through this network, corporations, unions, government, non-profit organizations, and other interest groups attempt to influence the various "publics" with which they must deal all the lime consumers, employees, voters, investors, regulators, and other groups Publicity messages sent along this network are carefully constructed to put the interest group, its goals or its products, in the best possible light, so that the specific "target publics" will think and behave in a manner beneficial to the special interest group. (pp. 26-27) People who train reporters and public relations practitioners have also noted the overwhelming importance of PR materials for the contemporary press. The Columbia Journalism Review and similar publications routinely decry news stories that were reprinted verbatim from press releases in several newspapers. But Cutlip (1962), whose textbook on public relations has been popular for decades, sounded neither downbeat nor defensive when he told editors as far back as the early 1960s that about one-third of newspaper news is based on press releases. The same tone was taken by an assistant managing editor at the Wall Street Journal, who estimated that 50% of his paper's stories are spurred by press releases (Blyskal & Blyskal, 1985, p. 47). In fact, a Columbia Journalism Review ("It's in the Journal," 1980) study of a single edition of the Wall Street Journal found that 53 news stories had been based upon PR releases. Thirty-two of the releases were printed almost verbatim, and 20 of those carried the attribution, "By a Wall Street Journal Staffer." Asked about this labeling, one Journal reporter said, "At least we don't put our bylines on press releases, the way they do at the Times" (p. 35). Journalism textbooks generally take a suspicious-but-tolerant attitude toward public relations that recognizes an inevitability to the symbiotic relationship in the contemporary news system. One such handbook (Strentz, 1977) advises neophytes that "it would be folly to write off an organization or its potential news value simply because of stereotypes of public relations in general" (p. 79).
Address to the Public Relations Institute of Australia, 2009
Despite being extensively researched for more than 80 years, the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners remains obscured in ambiguity, ambivalence, and an institutionalized acrimony that belies the reality of media practices. Some journalists argue that they are not influenced by public relations while, at the same time, journalists point to the growth of public relations and empirical evidence of substantial media content influenced by PR as undesirable results of cutbacks in journalistic staff. In both cases, journalists claim that public relations is an insidious influence on public communication, referring to the practice as 'the dark side' and its practitioners as 'flacks' and 'spin doctors'. Meanwhile, the ranks of PR practitioners continue to swell, which rational analysis can only conclude is evidence that the practice is seen by others as necessary and beneficial. This paper presents three inter-connected arguments informed by analysis of existing research and new qualitative research that lead to important conclusions and recommendations in the public interest: (1) there is overwhelming evidence that public relations has a major influence on media agendas and content; (2) qualitative research rather than only quantitative data is required to understand the nature and extent of this influence; and ideologically-based hostility among journalists and stereotypes of public relations mask complicity and mutuality in the interrelationship that need to be made transparent and managed to ensure the public interest is protected and served in a dynamic and changing mediascape.
American Behavioral Scientist, 1989
My concern with television news lies primarily with its production and dissemination to large publics. My view of news creation is that it is best understood as a form of cultural argumentation-as an unending battle between a multitude of differentially powerful parties over the definition of reality. From that starting point. I would like to see more research on television news that grapples with a neglected aspect of this unending battle: the influence of the public relations industry on the news process. The scholarly neglect is curious. Certainly members of the press are quite aware that public relations is a driving force behind what gets on television and into print. A recent journalistic exposition of PR's activities on the American news scene (Blyskal & Blyskal, 1985) put the matter succinctly: Since World War II, PR has grown from a one-dimensional "press agentry" function into a sophisticated communications network connecting the most powerful elements of our society. Through this network, corporations, unions, government, non-profit organizations, and other interest groups attempt to influence the various "publics" with which they must deal all the lime consumers, employees, voters, investors, regulators, and other groups Publicity messages sent along this network are carefully constructed to put the interest group, its goals or its products, in the best possible light, so that the specific "target publics" will think and behave in a manner beneficial to the special interest group. (pp. 26-27) People who train reporters and public relations practitioners have also noted the overwhelming importance of PR materials for the contemporary press. The Columbia Journalism Review and similar publications routinely decry news stories that were reprinted verbatim from press releases in several newspapers. But Cutlip (1962), whose textbook on public relations has been popular for decades, sounded neither downbeat nor defensive when he told editors as far back as the early 1960s that about one-third of newspaper news is based on press releases. The same tone was taken by an assistant managing editor at the Wall Street Journal, who estimated that 50% of his paper's stories are spurred by press releases (Blyskal & Blyskal, 1985, p. 47). In fact, a Columbia Journalism Review ("It's in the Journal," 1980) study of a single edition of the Wall Street Journal found that 53 news stories had been based upon PR releases. Thirty-two of the releases were printed almost verbatim, and 20 of those carried the attribution, "By a Wall Street Journal Staffer." Asked about this labeling, one Journal reporter said, "At least we don't put our bylines on press releases, the way they do at the Times" (p. 35). Journalism textbooks generally take a suspicious-but-tolerant attitude toward public relations that recognizes an inevitability to the symbiotic relationship in the contemporary news system. One such handbook (Strentz, 1977) advises neophytes that "it would be folly to write off an organization or its potential news value simply because of stereotypes of public relations in general" (p. 79).
Journalism and public relations: A tale of two discourses
Discourse & Communication, 2012
argues that it is from news that the majority of people obtain most of their social and political knowledge. Therefore, it should concern us that current research evidence suggests that the discourse of public relations is growing in influence over the discourse of journalism to an extent that journalists are relinquishing their agenda-setting function . Using the concepts of intertextuality and genre, the form and content of examples of public relations material and the news stories which resulted from them are discussed. method of comparative analysis is employed to examine the texts as well as discuss the discourse processes. argument that texts are a set of options is used to show that the options journalists are choosing are not necessarily based on the accepted rules of news values .
Public relations and journalism: truth, trust, transparency and integrity
2008
Truth, trust, integrity and reputation are key concepts for understanding the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners. This the paper: first, considers the current debate on the inter-relationship between journalism and public relations; second distinguishes varieties of public relations and journalism; third, analyses the Editorial Intelligence controversy; fourth, deconstructs aspects of "truth" and "trust" in the context of that debate; fifth, considers why the virtue of individuals is vitally important for both public relations and journalism. Public Relations & Journalism: stereotypes and identity crisis In terms of public perception of both professions perhaps stereotypes of the practitioner as fundamentally dishonest are widespread. However, those stereotypes of journalism and public relations conflate the variety of activities that come under the headings "journalism" and "public relations". Public relations...
The Continuing Convergence of Journalism and PR
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
The influence of public relations (PR) on media content has been shown to be substantial, and research indicates that it is growing through new media practices. However, the interrelationship between journalism and PR remains obscured by paradoxical discourses and stereotypes such as "spin doctors." This article identifies gaps in the literature and current understandings, and reports findings from in-depth interviews with senior editors, journalists, and PR practitioners in several countries that provide new insights into how the fields of practice interact which not only debunk some myths but also expose a need for improved transparency and standards to ensure ethical media practice.
The Increasing Overlap of Journalism and Public Relations Threats and Opportunities
PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences
Journalism is facing a new era, in which traditional rules and approaches are changing completely. The traditional distinction between journalism and Public Relations is getting more and more blurred. The purpose of this paper is to investigate why this distinction is getting blurred and what the threats and opportunities are. Through a narrative approach, the article analyses three of the main current examples of the overlap of journalism and PR: Social media Journalism, Brand Journalism and Blogging. For each one of these examples, the paper points out threats and opportunities. The main threat is that of getting click driven, feeding our audience with sensationalist news and stories. In this case journalism may abdicate its duty to be one of the pillars of public opinion. The fall out of this behavior is basically the loss of credibility. On the other hand, the main opportunity today is the possibility for journalism to get closer to its audience, bringing it more tailor-made news and stories. The take away of the article, is that this overlap between journalism and PR rises an issue about transparency.
News Values and Newsworthiness
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication, 2018
How events become news has always been a fundamental question for both journalism practitioners and scholars. For journalism practitioners, news judgments are wrapped up in the moral obligation to hold the powerful to account and to provide the public with the means to participate in democratic governance. For journalism scholars, news selection and construction are wrapped up in investigations of news values and newsworthiness. Scholarship systematically analyzing the processes behind these judgments and selections emerged in the 1960s, and since then, news values research has made a significant contribution to the journalism literature. Assertions have been made regarding the status of news values, including whether they are culture bound or universal, core or standard. Some hold that news values exist in the minds of journalists or are even metaphorically speaking “part of the furniture,” while others see them as being inherent or infused in the events that happen or as discursively constructed through the verbal and visual resources deployed in news storytelling. Like in many other areas of journalism research, systematic analysis of the role that visuals play in the construction of newsworthiness has been neglected. However, recent additions to the scholarship on visual news values analysis have begun to address this shortfall. The convergence and digitization of news production, rolling deadlines, new media platforms, and increasingly active audiences have also impacted on how news values research is conducted and theorized, making this a vibrant and ever-evolving research paradigm.