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Gatekeeping Applied to Public Relations: How a Newsroom Behavior Improves Knowledge Management

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Gatekeeping Applied to Public Relations: How a Newsroom Behavior Improves Knowledge Management GATEKEEPING APPLIED TO PUBLIC RELATIONS: HOW A NEWSROOM BEHAVIOR IMPROVES KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT By CASSIANO POLESI A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN MASS COMMUNICATION UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2011 1 © 2011 Cassiano Polesi 2 To my family, with special care to my wife, Denise 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank the 17 professionals who invested their time to share experiences about their practices—they are informal coauthors of this work; Dr. Juan-Carlos Molleda, for his support; Dr. Spiro Kiousis and Dr. Ronald Rodgers, for keeping me focused; Rosana Dias, João Cumerlato, and Miriam Sanger, for their networking; Donald Cook, for his comments; Ariel Gunn and Charlie Meyer, for helping me organize the thousands of words ahead. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER 1 FROM JOURNALISM TO PUBLIC RELATIONS ................................................................9 Seeking Information in Journalism and in Public Relations ....................................................9 How is Gatekeeping Defined in Journalism and in Public Relations? ...................................11 A Tool to Improve Attention ..................................................................................................13 Are Public Relations Theories Blind to Important Journalism Practices? .............................14 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................17 Gatekeeping in Journalism Studies .........................................................................................17 An Idea Grounded on Decades of Research ......................................................................19 Gatekeeping, a Management Task, a Filter, or Both .........................................................22 Levels of analysis on gatekeeping .....................................................................................23 Research questions .............................................................................................................28 Gatekeeping in Public Relations Studies ................................................................................30 Information Management Skills in Public Relations .........................................................33 Issues Management ............................................................................................................34 Environmental Scanning ....................................................................................................35 Boundary Spanning ............................................................................................................36 Modern and Contemporaneous Views of the Three Topics ..............................................37 3 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................41 Research Strategies: Method, Procedures, Sampling, and Recruitment .................................41 The Field Procedure ...........................................................................................................43 The Sampling Process and Recruitment ............................................................................44 The Research Instrument and Protocol ...................................................................................45 4 FINDINGS ..............................................................................................................................47 Sample Summary ....................................................................................................................47 RQ1: Selecting Information ....................................................................................................49 Criteria Follow Strategy .....................................................................................................49 Internal Culture Defines the Value of Communication .....................................................50 Systematic Searching of Information .................................................................................53 Criteria Follow the Client ..................................................................................................55 Criteria Follow the Market .................................................................................................56 Criteria Follow the Society ................................................................................................57 5 Defensive/Offensive Strategies and New Contexts Also Set Criteria ...............................57 Gathering Information With News Providers ....................................................................59 RQ2: Evaluating the Selected Information .............................................................................61 Experience, Subjectivity ....................................................................................................61 Journalistic Flair, Sensibility .............................................................................................63 Criteria for Evaluating Information ...................................................................................65 Knowledge as a Social Activity .........................................................................................65 Other Perceptions Enhance Evaluations ............................................................................66 RQ3: Sharing Knowledge .......................................................................................................67 Informal Sharing of Knowledge ........................................................................................67 Systematic Ways of Sharing Knowledge ...........................................................................69 Unexpected Findings ..............................................................................................................74 Marketing ...........................................................................................................................74 Human Resources ..............................................................................................................75 Public Relations .................................................................................................................76 Research and Relationship Building ..................................................................................76 Low Profile Communication..............................................................................................76 Outline Disguised the Purpose of the Interview ................................................................77 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ....................................................................................78 Implications of Gatekeeping in Corporate Communication ...................................................79 Gatekeeping and Management Efficiency .........................................................................80 Gatekeeping, Structure and Agency ..................................................................................81 Corporate Opinion or Positioning ......................................................................................83 Systematic Information ......................................................................................................84 The Communications and Public Relations Functions ......................................................85 Marketing, Human Resources, Policies .............................................................................86 Gatekeeping and Research .................................................................................................86 Limitations and Future Research ............................................................................................87 Nonbusiness Organizations ................................................................................................87 Differences Among Countries ...........................................................................................87 Internal Culture ..................................................................................................................88 Decision Making ................................................................................................................89 Conclusion... ...........................................................................................................................90 APPENDIX A INTERVIEW REQUESTING ................................................................................................91 B INTERVIEW OUTLINE ........................................................................................................92 C RESEARCH INSTRUMENT .................................................................................................93 D INTERVIEW #1 .....................................................................................................................94 E INTERVIEW #2 .....................................................................................................................95 6 F INTERVIEW #3 .....................................................................................................................96
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