Week 1

Reading Diary: Week 1
Relationship between PR and Journalism

Both Public Relations and Journalism have a significant influence on the modern world so their relationship is very worth exploring for practical reason. Last semester I had to write an essay about: “The relationship between PR and journalism is like that of the prostitute and the regular punter” which I found quite difficult at first but after reading a lot of reports, books and articles about this topic, I made up my mind. As Julia Hobsbawm stated in her “Where the Truth Lies: Trust and Morality in PR and Journalism” (ed. 2006) “the relationship between the serious news media and the truth is under scrutiny as never before.”
The set reading from the first week “New journalism and public relations: a dangerous relationship” by Kevin Moloney, Daniel Jackson and David McQueen has introduced us a critical overview of the emerging trends between the two industries. Their common interest is receiving independent reporting which is one reason because there is an obvious tension between them. The reading connects to the themes of the lecture and the other special reading in terms of identifying and evaluating the rise of the public relations.

 This leads to a very big challenge for the journalists as they try to produce news that “retains a critical distance from it sources”. It is not hidden that PR specialists are more engaged with their clients because their main role is to promote them, to raise awareness, to create understanding and to change behavior whilst journalist are the “seekers of truth” who are piled with work so that sometimes they starts copying press releases and other PR agents` works. Moreover, theorists came up with a word for this, called: ‘churnalism’. The example with The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph about the 80% copied information from a Waitrose press release really attracted my attention.

To conduct my knowledge, I read Public Relations and Journalism: Truth, Trust, Transparency and Integrity (Davies, 2008) where I found very interesting points of view. The author has separated the two industries into “hard” and “soft”. Both “hard” journalism and PR are concerned about their truth and trust in order to save their practitioners` integrity and reputation. “Soft” journalism is focused on entertainment industry but its content does not affect the public, while “soft” PR is concerned with providing publicity for their clients.

I agree with the theories above that journalists have to stop or at least reduce their dependence on the PR works. Both readings explain the importance of limiting the PR intrusion into newsrooms and the rise of the new kind of journalism – churnalism.
For my future studies I am interested in “What should be done in order to be stopped this so-called “churnalism”?” And I will use rhetorical analysis for that aim.

Referencing:
Moloney, K., Jackson, D. McQueen D. 2013. News journalism and public relations: a dangerous relationship. Bournemouth University
Davies, F. 2008. Public relations and journalism: Truth, Trust, Transparency and Integrity. Occasional Working Paper Series, 1.
Hobsbawm, J. (2006) Where the Truth Lies: Trust and Morality in PR and Journalism, The University of Michigan, Atlantic.