The
relationship between Public Relations and Journalism has been the topic in
literature for many years. Traditionally, it is portrayed as being a very
negative one, but literature (Neijens & Smit, 2006; Morrell et al., 2014) shows
how it’s becoming a matter of co-dependency, shaped by factors like the
increasing importance of the media.
Leslie
Roberts, a Canadian news presenter, was recently forced to resign from his
position, when it became public that he was the co-owner of a PR-agency. The
problem is, he was promoting his clients through his news-show. When asked
about the ‘scandal’, however, Leslie stated ‘He did nothing wrong’.
Koch
and Obermaier (2014), reviewing the inter-role conflict that can arise from the
duality of roles of journalists who engage in PR as secondary employment,
commented on how PR-journalists have a low self-perception when it comes to
this inter-role conflict and the majority does not find it problematic. They
attribute this to the three prevention strategies that PR journalists employ:
topic separation, passive shielding and mindful selection.
In
the case of Leslie Roberts, passive shielding was clearly employed. However, he
didn’t separate topics, in line with research findings (Koch & Obermaier,
2014), where this strategy is being used the least. As such, his duality of
roles was perceived unethical by others, even though it was not perceived
problematic by himself - exactly because
he did not openly communicate about it, as if hiding a dirty secret. In terms
of mindful selection, it is a hard thing to judge from the outside, given that publicly
presenting a misalignment of persona and organizational values is a rare case
scenario. What’s more, for PR-journalists, it can cost them a client.
This
conflict, however, can also be perceived as an inter-professional conflict. Literature
has focused on the relationship between journalists and PR professionals,
trying to determine its nature. Traditionally, this has been perceived as a
tango dance. In other words, the two professions not only struggle against one
another, but are also co-depend. Yet, who leads this dance nowadays? And, building
upon the perspective of Bourdieu, who holds the power?
Let’s
take into consideration the Primark case. In 2008, Primark was accused by BBC’s
Panorama for engaging in child laboring. BBC invited the organization to answer
the accusations, so they can include their statement in the program, inviting
them to but leading the ‘dance’. However, Primark refused this invitation and
instead published a website through which they could address the
public directly, bypassing BBC. In fact, they even managed to reveal the
falsehood of the accusations, receiving an official apology from the BBC. What
Primark did in this case was employ its owned media, to control the flow of
information without including journalists in the process, demonstrating power
over them.
At
the end of the day, when looking at both literature and what is actually going
on nowadays, it can be stated that the power struggle between the two
professions is in a continuous state of evolution. Right now, PR seems to be
gaining more power, but journalists are still seen by many as the ‘watchdogs of
society’, thus proving their credibility and symbolic power. As for those who
perform both Journalism and PR, their position enables them to borrow different
forms capital from the two sides, perhaps capitalizing their strengths.
- Sofia Baptista & Ifigenia Papadogkona
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