Week 4

Reading Diary: Week 4

Journalism, PR and Promotional Culture

We live in a time of dramatic changes where the media has the power to influence on our own lives. Promotional culture is just one example which describes the public attempt to influence people`s perception, opinion and disposition. It is more about selling ideas and branding rather than promoting products and goods.  The rise of Public Relations is thought as a philosophy and has become a major concern for the government and the media.

I found this week`s reading by David Miller The Media, An Introduction, very interesting and essential for my understanding as identifying and explaining in a very good way the nature of promotional culture, promotional strategies and practices. The author also suggests the resource-poor companies often form alliances with the resource-rich ones in order to share marketing strategies and goods. No matter how strong the press-releases of a “poor” company are, they could not win in a battle with an organization with more resources. Also not always the “rich” ones come up with the best idea. But what I am wondering is if the media coverage is distributed fairly to the both groups? This will be my topic for future investigation and I am thinking about a semiotic analysis.

When thinking about the promotional culture there are debates whether its effect is positive or negative. It’s true that the impact is varied and substantive because it is overtaking every single area of our social life turning our world into a “symbolic” one.  “Promotional culture extends brand awareness, shapes values and ideals, impacts decisions making and functions as social communications” ( Davis, Aeron, 2013)

There are some promotional strategies used for influencing people.  As Miller suggests, the branding has become the key instrument dominating as the society is turning into more promotional. Neoliberalism is strongly related to the rise of PR. Lobbying for example is one of the types of public relations and by using direct influence , is available only to organizations with established influence on society.

The practices in contemporary media such as propaganda, advertising, lobbying, political campaign, PR, promotions manipulate, exploit and control the public sphere systematically in order to capture their interest. I believe that every person has an own opinion and can’t be made like or follow something. It’s about the balance between communication for sharing knowledge and communication for manipulation.

Referencing:

Albertazzi, D. & Cobley, P. (eds.) (2010), The Media. An Introduction, Harlow, Essex: Pearson

Davis, Aeron. (2013) Promotional Cultures: The Rise and Spread of Advertising, Public Relations, Marketing and Branding.