Public relations is something that is very dear to me, this
season I am going to dedicate my blog to anything communications, public
relations and media. One thing I realize is how public relations is being
confused or misunderstood with other professions. I will share with you one
after the other. Enjoy…………….
Public relations is usually confused with allied professions.
PR draws on expertise and experiences from many fields while also overlapping
with other disciplines and the profession tends to integrate rather than
exclude and this is mainly due to the history and development of the practice.
Public relations encompasses various functions, from issues
management to public affairs, advertising, lobbying and investor relations. This
serves as strength for the practice but when it comes to definition and
description of the profession this becomes a weakness.
There are recognizable differences between PR and these
allied professions and the focus of this is to look at these professions,
bringing out not only their differences to PR but also demonstrating how PR
complements these other professions and vice versa.
PR and Journalism
Public relations and journalism have a long history. In fact
founding fathers of the profession started their career as journalist. Thus it
is no wonder a lot of people see PR as synonymous to journalism. Journalist and
PR practitioners have a mutually beneficial relationship.
Organizations actively try to exert influence on
policy-decision process and so they tend to seek access to the news media, with
an assumption that greater and sympathetic media coverage of their stance will
result in public opinion and policy making being favourable to them. As media
space is limited, those who seek media attention inevitably have to engage in
the intense processes of competition for this media attention (Anderson, 1993;
Schlesinger&Tumber, 1994)
Many suggest that if organizations are to attract favorable
media coverage, journalists must view them as a legitimate news source. Journalists
rely on their own “judgments” when selecting sources. They treat sources
differently “according to the degree of respect” with which they regard those
sources(Blumler &Gurevitch, 1995, p55). They may view regular and accurate
sources as more reliable and thus more legitimate. They may evaluate sources
that can command more resources, as more important and thus more
legitimate.(Anderson, 1991)
Theorists argue that journalists view certain sources as more
legitimate, thereby allowing those sources to prompt media access and dominate
the news in a public debate. Journalists tend to confer “a de facto legitimacy”
on certain sources although it is “something that has to be gained by other sources”
(Goldsmiths Media Group, 2000, p.36). Institutional sources for example,
receive priviledges access to media and become the “primary definers” of news
agendas by virtue of their power, representatives and Journalists also tend to
assume that certain sources are entitled to know certain things by virtue of
their social structural position and routinely rely on these authoritative
sources; as it is the most efficient way of gathering news. Public relations
practitioners are viewed as reliable, legitimate source of information for news
content by journalist.
PR could be a key strategic choice that “already legitimate”
and alternative sources should pursue, either to consolidate their media access
or to make frequent interventions as they contend for media space. Public relations
in some cases helps sources bypass the commonly cited obstacles such as lack of
economic resources and realistic strategy for groups off the “beaten” path and
without institutional legitimacy, to achieve media access.
Journalist for example may consider a large pressure group
with a separate public relations staff as a legitimate news source. The size of
the membership base of a social movement group may enhance the legitimacy of
the organization in the eye of journalists. It should be noted, however, that
not all actors in the public arena pursue media access. Rather, some
corporations want to stay out of any news. Some groups pursue strategies of
avoidance and secrecy. Other concentrates on their involvement in legal,
political or education areas rather than on obtaining media coverage (Corbett,
1998). Thus, it is possible that such organizations may use their Pr
departments to minimize rather than increase media attention. Studies of how PR
influences news content to date have generally assumed a rather narrow view of
PR efforts.
Much of the literature focuses on how news media utilize
sources information subsidies are accepted whereas others are rejected.
Other studies highlight journalists’ perceptions of PR
practitioners and the information subsidies they provide and the potential and
actual effect of those perceptions on new coverage of the practitioners’
clients. Sources that can provide journalists with constant and usable story
ideas are likely to become regular and favorable source. As a result,
journalists and the sources can establish relationships, and the journalists
may become dependent on the sources of news. Working under deadlines and competitive
risk of being scooped, journalists also would consider responsiveness – the speed
with which requested information is delivered to journalists- as a prime
quality in practitioners (Hess,1984)
For their information to become news, practitioners must
supply the information to the media by using the methods that coincide with the
techniques journalists use to gather news. Although many accept press releases
as the most ubiquitous information supply tool, other techniques include press
conference, press interviews, background briefings, phone calls, and staged
events. Journalists prefer information from sources that they perceive have no
obvious self-serving economic interests. The “public interest appeal” strategy
has proven particularly advantageous for nongovernmental groups, often operating
in unfriendly political and media environments.
Access to news making is a critical political resource in
that it provides organizations the opportunity for their voices to be heard and
to have an influence in public debate. Recent studies show that nonmainstream organizations
increasingly achieve and maintain an authoritative and legitimate source
through their media strategies developed by their public relations departments.
