Korean practitioners and journalists: Relational influences in news selection

This study investigates how source–media relationships influence perceptions toward news selection from the public relations practitioners’ viewpoint in Korea. The results show that Korean public relations practitioners who perform formal media relations believed that journalists would select news stories based on journalists’ media routine principles, such as using government sources. In contrast, Korean public relations practitioners who perform informal or monetary media relations believed that journalists would select news stories based on journalists’ extra-media factors, such as personal relationships with public relations practitioners.     

The portrayal of public relations in the era of Ivy Lee through the lens of the New York Times

Public relations has and, it appears, always has had an image problem. From public relations’ protohistory, through the rise of the publicist and press agent, the history of the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners remained rocky. Using the New York Times as a lens, this study seeks to examine, through a qualitative framing analysis (N = 106), how public relations was perceived and discussed by one of its most important audiences, the journalist, during the early years of the twentieth century. The study found that while the tasks and media used in the practice of public relations as framed by the Times may be accurate, the cultural context of the early 20th century called the very “doing” of public relations into question.     

Identifying the best practices of media catching: A national survey of media relations practitioners

Web-based services, like Help-A-Reporter-Out (HARO), that allow journalists to send content requests to a multitude of public relations agents are becoming more popular among media relations practitioners. The purpose of this study is to examine how practitioners are using HARO and to measure success rates of media placements against the proposed best practices of “media catching”. An online survey (n = 110) was conducted of members of Public Relations Society of America who identified themselves as working in media relations. Analysis revealed five best practices that had a positive significant correlation to journalist response rates and placement success rates. The results also indicated what media outlets practitioners preferred to reply to using the HARO service. As more practitioners are integrating media catching services in their daily routine, it is important to ensure they are employing best practices in order to develop and maintain positive working relationships with journalists.     

Dropping the ball on media inquiries: The role of deadlines in media catching

Deadlines have always played a significant role in the practice of public relations, especially the media relations specialization. Public relations textbooks and practitioner handbooks encourage budding practitioners to learn how and when journalists, broadcasters, and Internet authors work so that they may pitch story ideas to them appropriately. Even though media catching, an emerging trend in media relations, reverses the traditional direction of story pitching, deadlines are still critical for this new media relations approach. Through a content analysis of 2802 Help-A-Reporter-Out media requests, this study examines how deadlines vary among media outlets engaging in this new media relations story. Statistically significant differences provide insights for public relations practitioners as to how they can best utilize the service to compete for media placements.     

Are ‘journalists’ own problems’ aggravating their hostility toward public relations?—A study of Korean journalists

Journalists’ own job problems have been found to be detrimental to media recognition of public relations: journalists vent frustration from their worsening job conditions at public relations practitioners. This outlook of occupational psyche casts a shadow over the bright prospect for media recognition of the profession. Journalists’ problems operate outside media relations, thus beyond direct attempts of public relations practitioners at media recognition via enhancing professionalism in their practices. There have been, however, only a few qualitative studies on this significant issue, all pointing to journalists’ occupational psyche running against media recognition. The purpose of this study is to determine quantitatively whether journalists’ own job satisfaction and their envy of public relations practitioners lead to their negative attitude. A survey of 128 Korean off-line journalists was conducted, and its results suggested that occupational psyche has little influence on media attitude—contrary to the findings of previous qualitative studies. For future study, this paper issues a call for cross-country, comparative research on the subject of journalists’ occupational psyche.     

An exploratory study of transformed media relations dimensions after the implementation of an anti-graft law in Korea

The Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, which went into effect on September 28, 2016, strictly prohibits gift giving to journalists, thereby making a traditional media relations practice in Korea illegal. A survey of 342 public relations practitioners revealed that providing monetary gifts, performing formal responsibility, building informal relationships, receiving paid media coverage, and giving and accepting informal support were found to be significant subdimensions of media relations. After implementation of the anti-graft law, public relations practitioners expressed a belief that the practice of providing monetary gifts would shrink the most and that performing formal responsibility would experience the most growth. The formal responsibility factor was significantly positively related to support for the new law and public relations ethics, while giving and accepting informal support was negatively linked to public relations ethics. Paid media coverage showed a positive relationship with public relations practitioners’ perceptions about difficulties of increasing outputs of media relations. Finally, this empirical study shows how new external regulations arising from implementation of the anti-graft law can affect the personal influence model of media relations in Korea.     

An examination of the role of online social media in journalists’ source mix

Using telephone surveys of business/financial journalists in the United States (n = 200), this research investigates the agenda-building role of social media content in journalists’ work. Understanding that more non-public relations content from user-generated and social network sites, like YouTube and Twitter, are fast becoming resources for journalists to get story ideas, break scandals, and find sources, we began this scholarly work to determine the frequency of such uses of social media. Overall, findings indicate very little use of social media by these business journalists. Results and implications for public relations practitioners are discussed in detail.     

A media framing analysis of a U.S. presidential advisor: Alternative flacks

Political public relations became headline news when Kellyanne Conway, Advisor to U.S. President Trump, described provable falsehoods as alternative facts. Other memorable/misstatements became part of the cultural zeitgeist even as journalists continued to interview her. Public relations professionals are inextricably connected to the journalists who shape public opinion. The author therefore conducted a qualitative framing analysis to understand how journalists framed her occupational role and job performance. Articles from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal revealed that journalists assigned Advocacy and Gendered framing for her occupational role. Analysis also indicated that journalists alternately depicted her performance as adequate, unreliable, and manipulative. The author considers implications of findings for public relations professionals.     

Socially distributing public relations: Twitter,Haiti, and interactivity in social media

Social media and communication technology have shifted the power of communication from public relations practitioners to social media users who may not have a recognized role or defined interest in an organization. What results is a social model of public relations in which traditional public relations responsibilities are distributed to social media users, and which depends on interactivity, legitimacy, and a user's social stake. This study explores social public relations through a qualitative analysis of user involvement on Twitter regarding relief efforts to support Haiti following the 7.0 earthquake that hit Port-Au-Prince in January, 2010. This analysis of Twitter posts also expands understanding of interactivity online and demonstrates social media user fulfillment of public relations objectives.     

Understanding how health journalists judge public relations sources: A rules theory approach

The research presented here offers public relations practitioners and scholars insight about how health journalists (N = 598) view practitioners and evaluate the appropriateness of public relations materials by public relations source (e.g., nonprofit, government). Also assessed are differences in journalist perceptions according to medium (e.g., newspapers, magazines) and market (e.g., national, metropolitan). Rules theory guides the analysis, allowing practitioners to discern journalists’ general and specific rules for accepting publicity materials. Findings show that health journalists are least accepting of material from businesses and federal government agencies. Newspaper and freelance health journalists are more reluctant to use public relations materials than are other journalists.     

Do public relations practitioners perceptually share ingroup affiliation with journalists?

Upwards of 200 studies over the past hundred years have reported on the relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists. However, no experiment has compared the group members’ perceptions when seeing their roles in action. Inspired by frameworks of social identity theory, intergroup deception, and the black sheep effect, we test how public relations practitioners and journalists respond to a crisis communication media interview. In our experiment, a company spokesperson either answers questions or engages in stereotypical “spin,” which journalists historically consider one of the most offensive public relations strategies. Results indicate that public relations practitioners align with journalists in their perceptions of a spokesperson’s trustworthiness and the organization’s trustworthiness across treatment conditions. Practitioners also manifest the black sheep effect, disliking their group representative engaging in deception. Furthermore, we explore whether the effects on perceptions of trustworthiness are moderated by psychological identification with their respective industry. Discussion concerns the theoretical and practical ramifications of the groups sharing ingroup affiliation, contrary to prevailing notions of acrimony.     

Networks of social capital: Extending a public relations model of civil society in Peru

Scholars have argued that public relations can and indeed must be used to improve society. This article builds on the work of Taylor and Doerfel (2005), who advocated for the continued study of civil society through the lens of public relations theory. This study contributes to a normative public relations model of civil society by examining how interorganizational relationships, which may initially be established for purposes of resource exchange, benefit civil society through the creation and maintenance of social capital. The study examined a segment of Peruvian civil society dedicated to media development, as media is a key partner in building civil society (Taylor, 2009). The results of the study help to explain how interorganizational relationships contribute to the creation of social capital in a civil society network, and how certain network positions are integral to maintaining the social capital of a community of actors. Implications for the role of public relations in building and maintaining networks of interorganizational communities are discussed.     

Agenda-Building role of state-owned media around the world: 2014 Hong Kong protest case

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to advance theoretical and practical knowledge of political public relations and mediated public diplomacy through analyzing the agenda-building relationships between state-owned media and foreign news coverage in 16 countries during the 2014 Hong Kong protest. The results indicated significant correlations of issues and stakeholders between the Chinese state-owned media and the English language media outlets of 16 foreign countries, thereby supporting the international agenda-building role of Chinese state-owned media. An exploratory analysis was conducted to test the role of intercultural or international relations variables in the agenda-building process.     

Journalists’ assessments of public relations subsidies and contact preferences: Exploring the situation in Spain

The aim of this article is to offer journalists’ assessment of their relationships with public relations professionals in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia (Spain). We analyzed quantitative interviews (questionnaires) and in-depth interviews conducted with 68 Catalan journalists regarding their relationship with public relations practitioners and investigated their assessments of public relations subsidies and contact preferences. An explanatory view is offered.     

Power to the people—health PR people that is!

Inspired by the seminal typology of power first suggested by French and Raven, this study identified five types of power (Expert, Information Reward, Information Coercive, Advertising Coercive, and Influence Powers) that health public relations practitioners believed they have in media relations. This study also examined the effect of four variables, such as personal closeness with reporters, openness towards the media, perceived media job performance, and perceived expertise in the health field, on these five types of perceived power. The results suggested that public relations practitioners who highly evaluate themselves as an expert in health and as a competent media communicator, and who are personally close with reporters have greater Expert Power in media relations. Also, when practitioners are personally close to reporters, they are more likely to use Information Reward Power.     

Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-press relationships in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions

Northern Ireland's democratic governance is consociational (i.e. power-sharing is mandatory) and therefore substantially different from the majoritarian electoral system which characterizes most Western democratic societies. Consociationalism has been advocated as a form of democracy which can reconcile post-conflict societies fragmented along ethnic, religious or linguistic lines. Political public relations within mandatory coalitions have received little attention from scholars to date. Drawing on data from elite interviews with Government Information Officers (GIOs), Ministerial Special Advisers (SpAds) and journalists in Northern Ireland, this paper analyses their perspectives on political public relations in Northern Ireland's evolving democratic institutions. Our findings suggest Northern Ireland's public sphere is characterized not just by the usual contest between government communicators and journalists over political stories, but also by competition across government departments and within departments between GIOs and SpAds. Our research investigates the role of public relations in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions and more generally identifies important issues surrounding government communication in post-conflict power-sharing democracies.     

Journalism–PR relations revisited: The good news,the bad news,and insights into tomorrow's news

Extensive research over the past 100 years has shown that the interrelationship between journalism and PR is tensioned and paradoxical, with negative perceptions of PR among journalists and trivialization and demonization of PR as ‘spin’ contrasted by claims of ‘symbiosis’ and evidence that 40–75% of media content is significantly influenced by PR. However, studies have been predominantly quantitative and most predate the recent ‘crisis in journalism’ and rapid growth of new media formats. This article reports in-depth interviews with senior editors, journalists and PR practitioners in three countries that provide new insights into journalism–PR relations today and identify trajectories for future research, education and practice.     

Protocol journalism as a framework for understanding public relations–media relationships in Kosovo

There is growing interest about the ways in which the public relations field can contribute to democratization and civil society initiatives. Some scholars see enormous potential for public relations by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help get important social issues on the public agenda in transitional nations while other scholars have critiqued the practice of public relations in newly formed nations as a form of hegemony that privileges Western ideas, values, and standards of practice. One thing is certain: more scholarly attention is required if the field of public relations is to truly understand its evolving role in civil society. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the public relations–media relationship contributes to civil society development in Kosovo. The researcher interviewed media professionals, public relations/organizational spokespersons, and civil society experts about the opportunities and challenges of the public relations function in building civil society in Kosovo. The findings suggest that “protocol journalism” is the guiding metaphor for explaining and critiquing the public relations–media relationship in Kosovo. The implications of protocol journalism for media development and public relations credibility are discussed.     

Predicting Indonesian Journalists' Use of Public Relations-Generated News Material

Abstract

The news media are the main channel for public relations practitioners to get messages across to their publics. In recent years, little research was conducted on predicting journalists' use of public relations news material. As the largest Southeast Asian and the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia presents a complex media and public relations environment. This study found fundamental tenets in journalism, however, which remain the most important factors in predicting the use and acceptance of public relations-generated news materials. At the same time, however, business interests have highly significant effect on journalists. Informal relations can also influence their use.     

Investigating relationships between journalists and public relations practitioners: Working together to set,frame and build the public agenda, 1991–2004

A content analysis of 413 reports of interviews conducted with 418 journalists from 1991 to 2004 grounded in agenda-setting, framing and agenda-building theories found that journalists giving higher estimates of practitioners’ influence on the news reported having better relationships with practitioners. On average, journalists estimated that 44% of the content of news media in the United States is influenced by practitioners. Journalists who were interviewed in 2002–2004 valued public relations more, but expressed love–hate sentiments as much as those interviewed in 1991–1996. Journalists who had worked 18–45 years reported improving relationships with practitioners more often than journalists with 8 or fewer years of experience. Journalists believed good relationships with practitioners are important, but hold practitioners responsible for them.