Keri Algar
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The currency of information.
It is an established truth among media scholars that Western journalistic ethics are systematically degraded by economic pressure (Herman and Chomsky 1998, McChesney and Schiller 2003, Merrill 2004). For decades now, they have cautioned against the damaging effects of a market driven press system on democratic society. The crux of the issue is that the self serving interests of the news business are incongruent with the press’ traditional role in serving the public.
As a consequence of market pressures as well as rapid technological advances, the economic squeeze in newsrooms internationally has constricted the time frame in which a journalist works for the pursuit of truth and objectivity. It has also however, opened a conduit for public relations to assert itself as a critical source of information.
The increasing influence of public relations on the press has a negative impact on the dissemination of impartial and accurate information (Salter 2005). The globalisation of media systems and ownership guarantees that the impingement on journalism is experienced internationally.
To understand how the public relations profession can be detrimental to good journalism it is critical to appreciate the fundamentally disparate functions of the two occupations. A journalist’s role in society is to provide information that serves the public’s best interest (Dueze 2005). This requires a commitment to the inflexible principle of reporting the most accurate and balanced version of events insofar as possible.
On the other hand, public relations utilises persuasive speech to serve a particular interest. Whether it is corporate or political advocacy, public relations experts are not at all bound to a journalist’s ethical code. Salter (2005) reasons that the purposeful roles of public relations and journalism conflict. Put simply, journalism is in the business of reporting, public relations is in the business of selling. The consequence of this conflict is the inevitable decay of quality journalism.
Fengler and Russ-Mohl (2008) cite a study on how German public relations agents value telling the truth. The study reveals a dubious commitment to honesty: about half the experts thought lying could be acceptable in their profession. The ethical divide between journalism and public relations is apparent.
Dueze (2005) asserts that ethical journalism is bound by objectivity and autonomy. Yet the commercialisation of the news means that journalism is beholden to public relations. Newspaper advertising is systematically decimated whilst the demand to produce online copy for an information ravenous internet is relentless. Journalists lack the time and budget to elect newsworthy stories, meet contacts or assure accuracy. Thus, newsroom cost cutting reduces the calibre of journalism; it also causes a dependency on public relations (McCrystal 2008).
The degree to which journalists rely on press releases for news stories undermines ethical journalism. It eliminates the professional journalist’s knack for discerning a newsworthy story.
The undercutting of news values appears to be a common thread in science reporting, according to an article in Colombia Journalism Review (Russell 2008). What is news, and what is not can be determined by a well turned-out press release. In 2007 researchers discovered that an ancient plant species growing in southeast Queensland uses its natural scent to manipulate the insects it relies on for pollination. The University of Utah’s press release titled the story, “Living fossils have hot sex”. This was picked up by media outlets internationally and while the mating habits of ancient plants might not be of much interest to the public, the marketing adage that ‘sex sells’ was certainly verified. Media outlets regurgitated the press release, almost word for word; public relations moonlit as journalism. Reuters reported that “Primitive plants have hot, stinky sex,” New Scientist wrote “Ancient plant has hot, stinky sex,” and Australia’s ABC announced “Plants enjoy hot, smelly sex in the tropics.” The real issue lies in the notion that the press’ dependency on public relations removes its ability to work autonomously of private interests. As Merrill (2004) points out, good journalism should present relevant, substantial and significant stories. Good public relations is not so obliged.
While public relations might benefit the cost cutting feature of the news business, it desecrates reportorial integrity. It is impossible therefore, to assert a symbiotic relationship between the two occupations. For the good journalist it is a vexation that the interplay between the press and public relations can be best described as a catch-22.
In a sense, public relations hitches a ride on the back of the trust which the public traditionally has reserved for journalism. Furthermore, it is of great concern to the media’s scholarship that public relations experts use journalism acumen to better access their potential market (Berkman 1992).
The two careers are commonly packaged together in learning centres so that public relations practitioners gain an intimate knowledge of press news values, routines and pursuit of objectivity (Yoon 2005). This is further aided in recent years with a perceptible shift from journalism to the more profitable livelihood of marketing information.
Using the stem cell and cloning debate, Yoon (2005) documents the relationship between public relations and journalism. The study gauges the way in which public relations legitimises itself to the press so as to receive favourable media coverage thus sway public opinion. The manipulation of the media by these experts is perhaps the clearest example of the insidious capacity of the spin industry. The press’ ability to disseminate a certain understanding of issues means that organisations actively seek representation by news media. As media space is limited, competition is fierce and progressively sophisticated marketing methods are employed.
Public relations campaigns are well planned and coordinated. Press releases are constructed as fleshed out news stories; they are often full of detail, evidence and quotes. If a news outlet lacks the time or resources to investigate a press release thoroughly, a well prepared statement can be used directly. Additionally, taking into consideration journalism’s ethical responsibility, spin doctors tailor information so that it addresses public concerns rather than promote private interests. The albeit spurious regard for the public lends credibility to the promoted organisation and it is assumed the journalist will be more likely to pick up the story.
As such, public relations has the alarming ability to set a nation’s political agenda and influence policy making. By comparing public relations advice for foreign nations, press content and public opinion Kiousis and Wu (2008) evaluate the influence of public relations on United States media. The authors assert that roughly 25 percent to 80 percent of news content is directly influenced by public relations. It concludes that public relations counsel impacts the perception of foreign nations by reducing negative coverage. Furthermore, the same counsel is successful in creating positive coverage of individual political members. The research reveals a crude case of political spin campaigns being printed in the press precisely as they were delivered by the candidate’s public relations practitioners.
Taking Merrill’s (2004) stance on the ideological function of the media in cultivating political democracy, the impact of public relations on US political agenda exemplifies how journalism’s dedication to accuracy, perspective and the encouragement of public participation is belittled by public relations.
The press is accountable for creating public awareness, perception and attitudes. In a study dealing with the impact of public relations on the public’s ability to assess health risks associated with the chemical dioxin, Nelkin (1987) finds that public relations practitioners use intelligence to manipulate news presented in the press. The author claims that public relations firms employ scientists to communicate knowledge in a way that enhances a corporation’s credibility and legitimacy. Journalists supply the public with information that they themselves can hardly judge. Is this a reliable observation and recording of reality?
The danger of unchecked information finding its way into the public forum is evident. The non-transparency is twofold, and the disservice to the public is blatant.
Certainly, market pressure shapes the way in which information is disseminated. Public relations is an adjunct to advertising in that it is influential in shaping policy agenda. The merging of editorial content with advertising forms what Erjavec (2004) describes as ‘advertorial’. The ‘interpractice’ between journalism and advertising means that commercial interests are prioritised over balanced and accurate information. In other words, advertisers are given the power to publish or kill a story (Erjavec 2004). Promotional news is when editorial emphasises certain values and ignores others so that a positive light shines on an advertiser. News is thus partial and subjective.
Merrill’s (2004) analysis of international press systems indicates how the ideology of the free press and its democratic values is undercut by finance and politics. The shift from journalism to business combined with the press’ disregard for the worth of ethics in democratising society is contemptible.
The commercialisation of the news and the consequent capitalistic shift from truth to profit qualifies social, political and ideological suppositions. The press’ ironic lack of skepticism for public relations practice ratifies Gramsci’s prevailing theory of hegemony and the way in which the media operates to engineer consent.
Erjavec (2004) examines the impact of a market driven press on the news discourse of Slovenia. The author credits the political and democratic revival in Slovenia for the swift shift to commercialisation of the news. The Slovene media system, once characterised by promoting the success of a Communist regime, lost state funding in the early 1990’s. The only way it saw continued existence was by adopting the West’s approach to the media by maximising profit. In a subsequent study, the author uses participant observation and in depth (often anonymous) interviews with four quality daily newspapers to assess the extent to which public relations is embedded in journalistic practice. The study concludes that along all stages of news production the passivity of the press ensures its subordination to public relations. Public relations material is often printed without the acknowledgement of the source. Moreover, the study notes that by publishing public relations information without citing the source, journalists are breaching ethical codes relating to a conflict of interest. Specifically, Articles 13, 14 and 15 of Slovenia’s ethical code prohibit hybrid promotional news, stating the promotional materials such as press releases or advertising needs to be clearly marked as such (Erjavec 2005).
The most alarming repercussion of market pressure on the media is the extent to which savage cost cutting limits the resources available to journalists. As spin-off, public relations practitioners are able to exert substantial influence in the global press system; manipulating opinion, decisions and policy making. This erodes the belief of journalism in the public interest.
The sometimes deceptive tactics employed by the public relations industry are definite; however, this does not absolve journalism’s personal responsibility to truth, balance and accuracy.
Indeed, a journalist’s trademark talent is the healthy amount of cynicism required to objectively analyse a situation. It is unfortunate this talent does not extend to the perception of public relations spin nor circumvent financial pressures. The “good story” is compromised journalism.
REFERENCES
Berkman, Dave (1992) ‘The rush to PR: public relations and journalism aren’t the same thing, and their respective schools don’t belong under the same roof’ (Special Report: Campus Redux) in The Quill, 80, 31-34. Dueze, Mark (2005) ‘What is Journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered’ in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, 6(4), 442-464. Erjavec, Karmen (2004) ‘Beyond Advertising and Journalism: Hybrid Promotional News Discourse’ in Discourse Society, 15, 553-580. Erjavec, Karmen (2005) ‘Hybrid Public Relations News Discourse’ in European Journal of Communication, 20, 155-181. Fengler, Susan and Russ Mohl, Stephan (2008) ‘Journalists and the information-attention markets: Towards and economic theory of journalism’ in Journalism, 9, 667-692. Herman, Edward S. and Chomsky, Noam (1998) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media, New York, Pantheon. Kiousis, Spiro and Wu, Xu (2008) ‘International Agenda-Building and Agenda-Setting: Exploring the Influence of Public Relations Counsel on US News Media and Public Perceptions of Foreign Nations’ in International Communication Gazette, 70, 58-77. McChesney, Robert W. and Schiller, D. (2003) The Political Economy of International Communications, Foundations for the Emerging Global Debate about Media Ownership and Regulation, Technology, Business and Society Program Paper Number 11, October, Geneva, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1-33. McCrystal, Damien (2008) ‘It’s more fun on the ‘Dark Side’ in British Journalism Review, 19, 47-53. Merrill, J. (2004) ‘International media systems: An overview’ in Global Journalism: Topical Issues and Media Systems (4th ed) A.S. de Beer and J.C Merrill, Boston, Pearson Education, Chapter 2, 19-34. Nelkin, Dorothy (1987) ‘Risk and the Press’ in Organization Environment, 1, 3-11. Russell, Christine (2008) ‘Science Reporting by Press Release: An old problem grows worse in the digital age’ in Columbia Journalism Review, 14 November 2008. Accessed 11 September 2009, http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/science_reporting_by_press_rel.php. Salter, Lee (2005) ‘The communicative structures of journalism and public relations’ in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism 6(1), February, 90-106. Tebbel, John (1966) ‘Journalism: Public Enlightenment or Private Interest?’ in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 363, 79-88. Yoon, Youngmin (2005) ‘Legitimacy, Public Relations and Media Access: Proposing and Testing a Media Access Model’ in Communication Research, 32, 762-795.
SYDNEY, NSW: It’s not news, it’s a matter of fact: social media impacts brand awareness and opinions, according to the latest Nielsen report which says almost three quarters of Australians are “tapping” into other consumers’ opinions as seen on social media sites.
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