Journalism and Public Relations: Sleeping with the enemy

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 (4^th 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.

Meaningful Media Matters

Community media emerges in societies struggling to find meaning from the mainstream media, which is failing to reflect their reality. As a medium for democratic discourse, journalism is compromised through the concentration of mainstream media ownership and through state controlled press systems (Hacket and Carroll 2006). When the dissemination of information is manipulated by anyone other than the public, a need for community media arises. Around the world, disenfranchised cultures are using community journalists to democratize society and empower people.

In Korea, media needs to be understood in historical and political context. Since Korea’s emancipation from Japan in 1945 and the subsequent political North-South split of the peninsula, the media has been an ally of dominant political paradigms (Park, Kim and Sohn 2000a:111). Korea’s cultivation of political superiority has pervaded the mainstream media, which has thus alienated itself from its audience. Furthermore, the limited number of nationwide networks means that Korea experiences cultural and social homogenisation (Park, Kim and Sohn 2000b:118). However, the Korean audience has exhibited pockets of resistance to authoritarian media control since the 1970’s. It continues to do so today.

Aspiring to democratic communication and in the face of an elite media system, the South Korean media organisation Ohmynews was established in 2000 (Hamilton and Kim 2006). Drawing information from over 40,000 members of the public, OhmyNews might be one of the world’s clearest examples of ‘citizen’s media’ as described by Rodriguez (Rodriguez 2001). Certainly, audience participation and access describe the horizontal structure characterizing community journalism (Carpentier, Rie, and Servaes 2003a). The number of citizen journalists who contribute news to the internet based organisation is testament to the lack of real representation by the conservative mainstream media, which comprises 80 percent of the news market (Min 2005). Public participation through the construction of news content and online debate, are vehicles through which OhmyNews seeks to balance the nation’s skewed media regime and foster self representation. The emergence of participatory media practices as seen in Korea offers the public the chance to reproduce their own culture as they themselves interpret it.

Similarly in Venezuela, the dramatic growth of community media is symbolic of the public’s discontent with mainstream journalism, which functions in a culture of economy. With financial stakes in the oil industry, Venezuelan leaders have traditionally held a tight grip on the flow of information (Klein 2003a). The manipulation of information by the oil industry sponsored press has caused widespread discontent in a nation plagued by poverty. In 2002, the failed coup to oust democratically elected President Chavez was blatantly encouraged by the media. In a bid to offset the strength of the private press sector, the Chavez regime has supported community journalism by deregulating the previous government’s strict legislation. In an affront to Venezuela’s media cartel, community media outlets have doubled since the coup as they endeavor to recover balance in the media sector by supplying news that reflects the community (Wilpert 2004). This is an exemplary case for the public’s call for the democratization of the media in the public sphere and the promotion of community solidarity.

However, free press remains a contestable subject in Venezuela. If community media is to be the carrier of counter hegemonic discourse it needs to occur in a context independent of the market as well as the state (Carpentier, Lie and Servaes 2003b). Since community journalists reported resistance of the coup, they have enjoyed active support from the autocratic leader. Furthermore, there is evidence suggesting that the Venezuelan government is investigating a national newspaper that “vilified” a state representative (Klein 2003b). This begs the question: Has the pendulum swung in the opposite direction from privately controlled press to state controlled? What will happen to journalists critical of the government? Will they have the opportunity to marshal opposition (Klein 2003c)? It would seem that in Venezuela the war for media sovereignty parallels the political war for oil.

As in the case of pre-Chavez Venezuela, the corporate interests of powerful media moguls have immense influence on mainstream journalism and on the way in which they impact culture. The citizen’s ability to make informed decisions, a concept vital for a functioning democratic society, is eliminated by the concentration of a commercially driven private sector. This is particularly true in Australia where Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation owns over 70 percent of the daily newspaper market (Cunningham and Flew 2000a:237). The quest for profit concedes diversity of information and expression. As in the Korean experience, Australian mainstream media aligns itself with government practice, political economy and the resulting cultural nationalism. The mainstream media has been implicit in propagating the Australian government’s historical reluctance to address the problem of Indigenous stereotypes and racist behavior (Meadows 2001a). Furthermore, Australia experiences proportionally the world’s second highest immigration with 40 percent of the population born in another place (Cunningham and Flew 2000b:241). Consequentially, the ubiquity of community journalism in Australia is indicative of the public’s protest at the mainstream media’s deficiency in reporting plurality while marginalising minority groups. In fact, four million Australians tune into community radio each week (Meadows, Forde, Ewart and Foxwell 2009a). This validates community journalists’ role in countering the mainstream media tendency to manufacture political and cultural consent.

Indeed, the objective of community journalism in Australia is to empower the politically disenfranchised by presenting them with ownership of the content and production of information (Jankowski 2002:7). Resistant agendas in the media, which provide positive coverage of marginalised and deterritorialised populations, are achieved through the efforts of community journalists. They intend to address the lack of democracy and challenge hegemony by managing the production of culture in the community from which they evolve and are directly related to (Meadows 2001b). The financial facility and accessibility of radio, as well as community radio’s trademark ability to encourage active participation, makes it a successful medium through which to do this. There are almost 400 community radio licenses in Australia that are serviced by 30,000 people who regularly participate in their production (Meadows, Forde, Ewart and Foxwell 2009b; Forde, Foxwell and Meadows 2003a).

Barlow’s (Barlow 2002:153) case study into a locally conceived Aboriginal people’s radio station found that ownership of a communications medium was integral to empowerment. Located in a remote regional centre, the setting of paid positions as an alternative to volunteers provided a sense of propriety in an industry otherwise unreachable to the Indigenous community. The opportunity for actual self representation of culture and language in one’s own environment is critical to democratic discourse and fundamental to contesting the deep seeded racial sentiment pervasive in Australian social doctrine (Meadows 2001c). Maintaining it’s independence from commercial stations and commercial advertising means that the station is typically reliant on increasingly limited government funds, placing its original anti hegemonic ethos (and future) on shaky ground. Since 1985 the amount of government spending on community broadcasting has remained the same despite the sector trebling in size (Meadows, Forde, Ewart and Foxwell 2009c). Yet the tenacious grip of community radio reflects Australia’s multicultural and Indigenous people’s determination to be represented. In fact, almost 50 percent of community radio workers are volunteers and a further 20 percent are part time volunteers (Forde, Foxwell and Meadows 2003b). The public’s commitment to community media is further substantiated by evidence indicating that over half of paid employees work for considerably less than Australia’s annual mean income (Forde, Foxwell and Meadows 2003c).

The encouragement of social, cultural, geographical and linguistic diversity is met through the community media sector across the Australian continent as well as across the world. In an attempt to decentralise the mass media’s power and the tendency it has to homogenize culture, the north eastern Catalan region of Spain promotes community broadcast and the internet as mediums through which to activate cultural and political pluralism (Domingo, Lopez and Moragas Spa 2002a:294).

Catalonia’s experience with community journalism needs to be placed in historical context. Cultural homogenisation has a long standing tradition in Spain. The 700 year long campaign to oust the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula marked the unification of the political landscape of Spain in the seventeenth century. More recently the fascist regime of General Francisco Franco from 1939 to 1975 worked towards further unifying the socio-political divides. During Franco’s regime the Catalan region suffered the persecution of Catalan culture and language (Rodriguez 2001b:85). Catalonian people contested this by discovering unique ways in which they could unite and maintain their cultural identity in the face of autocratic repression. Rodriguez (Rodriguez 2001c:86) describes the very grass roots of Catalan community media via chess clubs, dances and small pamphlets.

Since the 1980’s the articulation of Catalan language through the broadcast sector significantly impacts the fostering of culture. Due to the hazy legalities of independent television stations, committed Catalonian’s have established the Federation for the Regualtion of Catalonian Local Television Stations, which regulates distribution, programming and financial management (Rodriguez 2001d:92). The active participation of the public to create its own ‘voice’ signifies a clear resistance to the dominant culture produced by mainstream media.

While the face of Franco fades, it is fast replaced by the global concentration of media ownership and its suffocating control over the currency of information. Spa, Domingo and Lopez (Domingo, Lopez and Moragas Spa 2002b:293) state that in spite of this, local community media continues to enjoy dramatic growth. Indeed, if community journalism arises out of a need for actual representation, then the industrial convergence of the international media sector will present an ever greater need for the ability of community media to empower people and cheer plurality. In the digital arena, the authors encapsulate community media with social and civil society, so that the resulted decentralisation of power serves to counter the dominant ideologies expressed by the mainstream media (Domingo, Lopez and Moragas Spa 2002c:295).

The mainstream media’s role as the Fourth Estate, that is, as an independent body to provide critical assessment of policy makers, is continually challenged in the international culture of economy. While the ethical fibers of journalism wear thin in a press system driven by market forces, the media’s power to produce meaning is unraveled by its alliance with the hand that feeds it; the government. In every case however, the dogged determination of the public to be represented fairly, accurately and truthfully, forms a solid foundation for community journalism to spring from.

REFERENCES 1. Barlow, David (2002) “Conceptions of Access and Participation in Australian Community Radio Stations” in Community media in the information age: perspectives and prospects Hampton Press, Inc. Chapter 9, 141-161 2. Berger, Carl (2002) “Theorising the Media Democracy Relationship in Southern Africa International Communication Gazette 64; 21 3. Carpentier, Nico and Rie, Lico and Servaes, Jan (2003) “Community Media: muting the democratic discourse?” Continuum: Journal of cultural and media studies 17:1 4. Carroll, William K and Hackett, Robert A (2006) “Introduction: beyond the media’s democratic defecit?” in Remaking media: the struggle to democratize public communication, New York, Routledge, Chapter 1, 1-14 5. Couldrey, Nick and Curran, James (ed) (2003) Contesting media power: alternative media in a networked world Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 6. Curran, James and Myung-Jin, Park (ed) (2000) De-Westernising Media Studies Routledge 7. Cunningham, Stuart and Flew, Stuart (2000) “De-Westernising Australia? Media systems and cultural coordinates” in De-Westernising Media Studies Routledge, Chapter 19, 237-248 8. Domingo, David; Lopez, Bernat and Moragas Spa, Miguel (2002) “Internet and Local Communications: First Experiences in Catalonia” in Community media in the information age: perspectives and prospects Hampton Press, Inc Chapter 16, 293-313 9. Dueze, Mark (2006) “Ethnic media, community media and participatory culture” Journalism 7(3); 262-280 10. Ewart, Jacqui; Forde, Susan; Foxwell, Kerrie and Meadows, Michael (2009) “Making good sense: Transformative process in community journalism” Journalism 10; 155 11. Eun-Gyoo, Kim and Hamilton, James W. (2006) “Capitulation to Capital? OhmyNews as alternative media” Media Culture and Society 28; 541 12. Forde, Susan; Foxwell, Kerrie and Meadows, Michael (2003) “Through the Lense of the Local: Public Arena Journalism in the Australian Community Broadcasting Sector” Journalism 4:314 13. Jankowski, Nicholas W. with Prehn, Ole (ed) (2002) Community media in the information age: perspectives and prospects Hampton Press, Inc. 14. Kim, Chang-Nam; Park, Myung-Jin and Sohn, Byung-Woo (2000) “Modernisation, globalization, and the powerful state: The Korean media” in De-Westernising Media Studies Routledge, Chapter 8,111-123 15. Klein, Naomi (2003) “Lookout” The Nation http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030303/klein, (accessed 8 June 2009). 16. Lewis, Peter M. and Jones, Susan (ed) (2006) From the Margins To The Cutting Edge: Community Media and Empowerment Hampton Press, Inc. 17. Min, Jean K (2005) “Journalism as a conversation: only as an afterthought did it dawn on us that the audience is the real content on the web” Nieman Reports http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-141213637.html (accessed 8 June 2009). 18. Paranjape, Nitin (2007) “Community Media: Local is Focal” Community Development Journal Oxford University Press 19. Rodriguez, Clemencia (2001) Fissures in the Mediascape: An international study of citizens’ media Hampton Press, Inc. 20. Tacchi, Jo A. (2002) “Transforming the Mediascape in South Africa: The Continuing Struggle to Develop Community Radio” Media International Australia (Incorporating Culture and Policy) 103; 68-77 21. Wilpert, Gregory (2004) “Community Airwaves in Venezuela” NACLA Report on the Americas 37:4; 34-35