Moral Progress Or Regress? Exploring Journalist PR Practitioner Professional Shift

Moral Progress or Regress? Exploring Journalist – PR Practitioner Professional Shift

Aurelija Juodytė

Vilnius university, Faculty of Communication, Institute of Journalism [email protected]

Abstract

Coming to the scene public relations modify usual information exchange among the journalists and their sources with bigger or less amount of information brokering. Due to this, as Jean Charron puts it, “the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners is both complex and ambiguous. It is characterized by both cooperation and conflict” (Charron, 1989).

Being complicated from the starting point situation becomes worse when back and forth migration between professions begins. First of all, such a transition causes ethical dilemmas while those in transition preserve close relationship with the colleagues from editorial board or political/ economic institutions: after the shift in career former colleagues start to aim at the different final discursive product in news production process. Those micro-level influences and individual agency up till now remain unexplored in Lithuania.

Secondly, the shift in professions has consequences on macro-level as well as it affects power balance between the interest groups. The influence on news coverage may be strengthened or weakened by news management skills of hired professionals. Besides, close and hidden contacts help to construct legitimate ideology of both professions and enhance effectiveness of media power on civic society:

“Perhaps the most significant obstacle to defining where public relations ends and journalism begins is the fact that the two have become inextricably linked in a relationship that is largely invisible. Media and PR practices are most successful and appear most legitimate when the process of interaction between the two remains undeclared” (Davis, 2002: 27).

Recent research on Lithuanian journalist professional values (Juodytė, 2011) showed transgression towards commercial and pragmatic professional values – from consensus to conflict; from rational to sensational; from double check of sources to editing on-line (starting with one speaker and adding other statements during the day), etc. The decline originated from the materialistic interest and the size of the journalists’ salaries. It was made a conclusion that news management intervention to the news production process is influenced by the economic factors as well as by the self-serving interests of the journalists and the sources. It has negative impact on the journalists’ professional culture as in response it raises the use of a bigger amount of the manipulative schemes (Juodytė, 2011).

In addition, abroad made surveys indicate that “journalists-turned-PRP appears to be a rising phenomenon as journalists lose their jobs and/ or seek the better conditions and pay of the public relations industry. Public relation practitioners work fewer hours, earn larger salaries, have better working conditions, and are better resourced“ (Davis, 2002: 38). However, even the foreign studies of PR-backward- journalism shift, if exist, are rare as the author of this paper did not find any in the decade.

How professional values are modified when functions and role in the news production process change? What reasons and motives are activated as driving force for the transition in occupation? What about traditional unprofessional sources: do they, armed with spin-doctors, preserve autonomy of the decision making? Whether the merge of public relations and journalism leads to new form of mediacracy?

Qualitative research that allows identifying micro-level activity of national agents in media field and enables recognizing their views and opinions should give the answers to these questions. The results of the research would be presented as a conference paper. The economic recession period is better for the investigation as any other time because both sectors underwent losses and cuts, and impact of staff transition. Communication specialists who survived in the field were forced to responsible reconsideration of their future professional career aims and professional values both on the personal occupation and the organizational level of the media and public relations industry.

References:

CHARRON, Jean (1989). Relations between Journalists and Public Relations Practitioners: Cooperation, Conflict and Negotiation. In Canadian Journal of Communication [interactive]. Vol 14, No. 2, 1989. Accessed following the link: .

DAVIS, Aeron (2002). Public Relations Democracy: Public Relations, Politics and the Mass Media in Britain. Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7190-6069-9. JUODYTĖ, Aurelija (2011). Manipuliaciniai scenarijai naujienų vadyboje: žurnalistų profesinių vertybių tyrimas. Daktaro disertacija. Humanitariniai mokslai, komunikacija ir informacija (06H), Vilnius 2011.