Dr Mohamed Kirat
By Dr Mohamed Kirat
For decades, scholars, researchers and public relations professionals have been looking for a clear, straightforward definition of the media and PR relationship. They’ve examined how PR practitioners influence media frames and public interpretation. They’ve even looked at the encoding and decoding of meaning by the media, PR practitioners. In fact, the whole issue is an eternal love-hate relationship, fuelled by mutual dependency and devoid of trust. By trying to provide the general public with information based on the public’s right to know, both PR practitioners and journalists perform their tasks with different principles and goals. Journalists usually look for controversial issues, problems, mismanagement, misconduct…etcetera; while PR practitioners tend always to provide information with a motive of building the image of the corporation and adding a new dimension to it through what is published and aired.
The relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners has been hotly debated in the sphere of media and communication studies. Journalists and public relations people have always had an ambivalent relationship. In other words, there is mutual dependence, but also mutual caution which automatically leads to a milieu of suspicion and mistrust. Sometimes journalists feel being used by PR practitioners, and they might believe that the whole truth is not being revealed to them. On the other hand, PR practitioners complain that journalists are not reporting what they have been given and they are continuously looking for sensational, odd and disaster-related stories.
A basic grasp of media relations work begins with understanding the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners. Journalists who gather and organise information for the media tend to take their responsibilities to society and the story’s subject matter very seriously. They conceive of themselves as the public’s eyes and ears, being watchdogs of public institutions undertaking the public’s business. They see their jobs as seeking the truth, putting it in perspective, and publishing it so that people can conduct their affairs knowledgeably and subsequently make the right decisions. To the journalist, a story is a transient element in the ongoing flow of information, whereas the public relations practitioner wants the story to make a lasting impression and to be seen in a positive light. The journalist is more interested in news reports that are accurate, fair, and balanced regardless of whether the organisation is seen in a negative or positive light and regardless of whether the PR practitioners like it or not.
Reporters resent anything and anyone they perceive as standing between them and the facts. Anyone who seeks to keep a secret is regarded with deep suspicion. Organisations of all types invite media scrutiny when they conduct themselves in ways considered less than open. Journalists collectively maintain that they not only have the responsibility to provide information to the public, but also provide feedback from society at large to the administrators of public institutions. As society becomes more complex and institutions have greater impact on private lives, journalist hold that more thorough reporting and investigating provides necessary checks on possible business, governmental, and organisations excesses at the expense of the larger society. Accurate and accountable reporting are the essence of professional journalism and the cornerstone of democracy.
Journalist sometimes have difficulty getting the information they need. They claim that highly placed news sources are generally overly insulated, secretive, and sensitive, recognising neither the public’s right to know nor the value of the media’s role in exposing questionable practices. From the public relations practitioner’s perspective, the journalist is at once an audience, a medium through which to reach the larger public, and a gatekeeper representing and responding to the public’s need to know.
PR practitioners know that they must facilitate the work of journalists if they expect their organisations to get covered, and hence get publicity. Because of this dependency, practitioners’ selection and presentation of information often conforms more to journalistic standards than to the desires of their superiors in their own organizations. In a sense, both the journalist and the practitioner, in dealing with each other, are caught between the demands of the organization they represent and the demands of the opposite party. In short, the relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists is one of mutual dependency. Public relations practitioners, as boundary spanners, are often caught in the middle between journalistic responsibility and the public’s right to know. The relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists is important for the process of gathering and disseminating the news and information the general public. The source-reporter relationship is an ongoing exchange where PR practitioners try to influence the news process and journalists try to defend against unnecessary influence, with each act in accordance with differing roles, values, needs and goals.
One of the biggest examples of the freebie system was Disney World’s invitation in 1986 to thousands of journalists to go to Florida and celebrate the park’s 15th anniversary. Five thousand journalists generated lots of free publicity for Disney. Some journalists insisted on paying part of the trip, but others took advantage of it and did not pay anything. Disney’s media relations supplied many press releases, talk shows, and they invited many magazine writers and travel writers in order to increase publicity. The ethical dilemma rises when reporters write a story, vividly, they won’t write anything negative as they wont “bite the hand that feeds them.” That was expected, for that reason, journalists should always refuse accepting such gifts in order to prevent any unethical practices.
The Peninsula
Kirat is a professor of Public Relations and Mass Communication at the College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University.By Dr Mohamed Kirat
For decades, scholars, researchers and public relations professionals have been looking for a clear, straightforward definition of the media and PR relationship. They’ve examined how PR practitioners influence media frames and public interpretation. They’ve even looked at the encoding and decoding of meaning by the media, PR practitioners. In fact, the whole issue is an eternal love-hate relationship, fuelled by mutual dependency and devoid of trust. By trying to provide the general public with information based on the public’s right to know, both PR practitioners and journalists perform their tasks with different principles and goals. Journalists usually look for controversial issues, problems, mismanagement, misconduct…etcetera; while PR practitioners tend always to provide information with a motive of building the image of the corporation and adding a new dimension to it through what is published and aired.
The relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners has been hotly debated in the sphere of media and communication studies. Journalists and public relations people have always had an ambivalent relationship. In other words, there is mutual dependence, but also mutual caution which automatically leads to a milieu of suspicion and mistrust. Sometimes journalists feel being used by PR practitioners, and they might believe that the whole truth is not being revealed to them. On the other hand, PR practitioners complain that journalists are not reporting what they have been given and they are continuously looking for sensational, odd and disaster-related stories.
A basic grasp of media relations work begins with understanding the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners. Journalists who gather and organise information for the media tend to take their responsibilities to society and the story’s subject matter very seriously. They conceive of themselves as the public’s eyes and ears, being watchdogs of public institutions undertaking the public’s business. They see their jobs as seeking the truth, putting it in perspective, and publishing it so that people can conduct their affairs knowledgeably and subsequently make the right decisions. To the journalist, a story is a transient element in the ongoing flow of information, whereas the public relations practitioner wants the story to make a lasting impression and to be seen in a positive light. The journalist is more interested in news reports that are accurate, fair, and balanced regardless of whether the organisation is seen in a negative or positive light and regardless of whether the PR practitioners like it or not.
Reporters resent anything and anyone they perceive as standing between them and the facts. Anyone who seeks to keep a secret is regarded with deep suspicion. Organisations of all types invite media scrutiny when they conduct themselves in ways considered less than open. Journalists collectively maintain that they not only have the responsibility to provide information to the public, but also provide feedback from society at large to the administrators of public institutions. As society becomes more complex and institutions have greater impact on private lives, journalist hold that more thorough reporting and investigating provides necessary checks on possible business, governmental, and organisations excesses at the expense of the larger society. Accurate and accountable reporting are the essence of professional journalism and the cornerstone of democracy.
Journalist sometimes have difficulty getting the information they need. They claim that highly placed news sources are generally overly insulated, secretive, and sensitive, recognising neither the public’s right to know nor the value of the media’s role in exposing questionable practices. From the public relations practitioner’s perspective, the journalist is at once an audience, a medium through which to reach the larger public, and a gatekeeper representing and responding to the public’s need to know.
PR practitioners know that they must facilitate the work of journalists if they expect their organisations to get covered, and hence get publicity. Because of this dependency, practitioners’ selection and presentation of information often conforms more to journalistic standards than to the desires of their superiors in their own organizations. In a sense, both the journalist and the practitioner, in dealing with each other, are caught between the demands of the organization they represent and the demands of the opposite party. In short, the relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists is one of mutual dependency. Public relations practitioners, as boundary spanners, are often caught in the middle between journalistic responsibility and the public’s right to know. The relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists is important for the process of gathering and disseminating the news and information the general public. The source-reporter relationship is an ongoing exchange where PR practitioners try to influence the news process and journalists try to defend against unnecessary influence, with each act in accordance with differing roles, values, needs and goals.
One of the biggest examples of the freebie system was Disney World’s invitation in 1986 to thousands of journalists to go to Florida and celebrate the park’s 15th anniversary. Five thousand journalists generated lots of free publicity for Disney. Some journalists insisted on paying part of the trip, but others took advantage of it and did not pay anything. Disney’s media relations supplied many press releases, talk shows, and they invited many magazine writers and travel writers in order to increase publicity. The ethical dilemma rises when reporters write a story, vividly, they won’t write anything negative as they wont “bite the hand that feeds them.” That was expected, for that reason, journalists should always refuse accepting such gifts in order to prevent any unethical practices.
The Peninsula
Kirat is a professor of Public Relations and Mass Communication at the College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University.
