mediations

PR vs Journalism: the movie

This is for my MAC266 PR Strategy students who got rather grumpy when their journalism colleagues responded to their book review pitches...

It was produced for the Public Relations Society of America's National Capital Chapter's 2007 Annual Thoth Awards Gala; apparently "These Mac/PC Spoof Commercials personify the battle between Public Relations (PR) and Journalism (and the Media/Press)."

Citizen journalism - or PR?

Right at the beginning of our PR degree I ask students to think about the difference between a news release and a news story. I expect this to begin with an idea of who writes them and for what purpose, and to progress towards a consideration of style, tone and content. As we also teach them journalism, some students find switching from one mode to the other something of a challenge.

I was thinking about this when reading a fascinating post on citizen journalism by Kristine Lowe. Her report on a debate that marked the launch by ABC Startsiden of what she believes to be the first commercial Norwegian news site to feature a mix of citizen and traditional journalism. 

It is well worth reading, but my attention was drawn to the very end.

One of my favourite 'citizen' articles from ABC Nyheter so far is a 50-year-old who writes a letter to the business life which has made him redundant due to his age. It's a very eloquent and moving piece I doubt would have been published by mainstream media. On the other side of the coin, I also found a story on ABC Nyheter which clearly was a press release for a fair trade shop.

I asked (ABC Nyheter's community editor Heidi) Nordby Lunde, (aka Norway's blogging queen, Vampus) about this, and she told me yes, they had spotted it and taken it down, but when she had tried to explain why they had removed it to the person who posted it, he simply couldn't understand it and said: "All the other media published it uncritically, why can't I publish it on ABC Nyheter?" That, I think, sums up some of the challenges, both for citizen- and mainstream journalism.

It is indeed a challenge, and neatly summed up Kristine.

Symbiosis + two-way communications

There have been a few comments recently about the PR blogosphere being rather small and disappointingly inward-looking, and some academic criticism of the true nature of blog 'conversations.'

It is interesting, therefore, to see UK Minister of Communities and Local Government David Miliband commenting about Neville Hobson's post on 'The real symbiosis between PR and journalism.' The debate was notable in itself in that within two days it had attracted 41 comments - which is a conversation in my view.

But the intervention of Miliband certainly helps those of us who are aguing that social softwares are significantly changing the nature of public discourse. Twice a week Neville, who lives in Amsterdam, puts together a podcast with a chum who lives in America. On Sunday morning he posts a few comments on web log. Within hours he is being 'engaged' by the waspish Amanda 'Strumpette' Chapel, and a few other bloggers join in. By Tuesday, one of the rising stars of British politics has joined the debate.

Merely by joining the debate Miliband has shown an appreciation for the new medium that is more perceptive than many PRs who see blogs as just another command and control channel.

But, before thinking too carefully about the motivations of those concerned, or about the implications for the public sphere of such a levelled playing field, just read again the above paragraph about how this came together - and marvel.

The world is changing very quickly indeed...      

Gatekeeper recruits gatekeeper

Hans Kullin (Media Culpa) has a fascinating post on what was, for me, a rather unexpected twist in the changing relationship between PR and news operations. Apparently Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter

has signed an agreement with Newsdesk where the paper is paying Newsdesk to "manage all distribution of press information to Dagens Nyheter's all news desks, editors and reporters". Metro has signed a similar agreement, according to Resumé.

- We will sort the material in a relevant way for DN, says Kristofer Björkman at Newsdesk.

In a sales letter from DN and Newsdesk, press contacts are asked to send all press releases to a central email address at Newsdesk, but Newsdesk clarifies in an interview that it is still an acceptable procedure to send press releases directly to journalists.

Like Hans, I, too, can understand that individual journalists might need help in filtering the flood of emails that are being sent to them (my University of Sunderland colleague Chris Rushton's research is bringing this into sharp focus), but I share his doubts as to whether this is the way forward.

Hans goes on:

"Press releases rarely get picked up by journalists you have absolutely no relation to. What will happen is that PR practitioners will add the central address to their mailing lists and still continue to send press releases to their regular journalist contacts. PR people don't want another layer between themselves and their audience... I prefer to look in the opposite direction by experimenting with a direct dialogue with the target audience as a complement, via blogs and RSS for corporate information.

Turning this on its head, I am intrigued by the notion of a newspaper allowing an outside organisation to determine what is newsworthy. Perhaps something is being lost in translation, but this is certainly a development to watch...