Conflicts of Interest with Public Relations Professionals

Maria Stroia
ms973013@ohio.edu


Despite the fact that all content posted by a newspaper or news source may seem curated by those who work at the organization, unfortunately, that is not always so. Many news stories are the result of public relations campaigns. The modern-day journalist must be able to still answer the question "Is this news?" while facing outside pressures from public relations professionals.

Press Releases

http://sadtu-pol-ed.blogspot.com/2014/06/press-releases.html

The above image is an example of a press release; a straightforward, piece of news that is released by PR professionals to various news organizations. By writing and sending out press releases, PR professionals hope to gain news coverage to give their clients free advertising. For example, a family-owned coffee shop may submit a press release to a local newspaper to announce the release of new flavored coffees. If the newspaper chooses to write a story about their new products, they will gain media attention and advertising that will hopefully boost their business and the sales of these coffees.

For journalists, it can be easy to write a story based on a press release. Often, the PR professionals give journalists access to the information and sources needed to write a well-informed story. Many news stories are the result of press releases. 

According to an article from The Poynter Institute, journalists are encouraged by PR professionals to use information straight press releases, as long as it is attributed back to the organization the release is from. But the article also offers ways to 'spice up' a story from a press release and make it your own, so it is not a direct copy of the release.

Chris Atkins investigated how often journalists lift text directly from a press release to make a story, something he calls "Churnalism". In order to do this he created a fake product, "The Penazzle" that was quite controversial and outlandish, and sent a press release about the product to huge news sources. It got picked up by The Sun and various other news sources, and they found that the stories posted by these journalists had large sections of text from the press release in order to make their stories. Watch the video below for the details:

Journalists must keep in mind that they need to inform their audience. A story that might be easily made with a press release may need to be pushed aside if more newsworthy stories arise. Journalists must remember that their job is to inform the public of relevant information. And sometimes, information from press releases is not always relevant.

Press Releases as Conflicts of Interest

The biggest issue that can be run into for journalists is the pressure they feel from PR professionals to run stories based on press releases. Many journalists will develop relationships with the PR professionals they work with, making it increasingly harder and harder to deny them media coverage. Even if the news outlet has a long established relationship with a PR firm, it is important for the outlet to remain focused on it's purpose of informing the public, and not clogging up their news with stories that are the result of a PR stunt.