Journalism just a PR exercise?
Simon Santow reported this story on
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 18:46:00
MARK COLVIN: Just how much of the news you consume is actually public relations masquerading as journalism? Researchers at a journalism school in Sydney say it's more than half and rising.
The team from the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism at Sydney's University of Technology looked at more than 2,000 stories across 10 newspapers over five days.
So is it just lazy journalism or a fact of life as newsrooms have resources stripped and increasing demands placed on them?
Simon Santow reports.
SIMON SANTOW: Looking at 10 different reporter rounds, from business to police, investigative journalist Wendy Bacon from Sydney's University of Technology set out to test just how dependent reporters had become on public relations.
WENDY BACON:
We found that over 50 per cent was generated by public relations. Now on some of those stories there had been some work done by journalists. But often pretty much they were just straight PR.
SIMON SANTOW: Now when you say straight
PR, does that mean that verbatim or basically the angle was adopted holus bolus by the reporter?
WENDY BACON: Oh look it does vary within the study but to some, we certainly had plenty of cases where it's holus bolus
PR. In fact we have cases where press releases come out for example from the police department and actually will have a bar line on it.
SIMON SANTOW: The journalism educator says the results didn't really shock. And she warns that the influence of
PR cannot be reduced to a simple question: is this piece of journalism based on a written media release?
WENDY BACON: If a story had a straight promotional tone without any questioning or sign of questioning from a journalist we did code that public relations or promotions driven.
SIMON SANTOW: Colleague Sasha Pavey puts some of the practice down to lazy journalism and some down to the growing strength of the
PR industry.
SASHA PAVEY: These are professionals who often worked as journalists at some point. They're very savvy. They're on top of the news agenda. And we've spoken to many journalists who have corroborated you know this testimony from
PR people that their role is now encroaching on journalism's territory.
You know they're finding the background. They're no longer simply the go-between, between source and journalist. They often are the source of information. They provide the quotes. They provide the bones of the story.
SIMON SANTOW: In the world of public relations there's surprise too at the findings - in this case that more of the news isn't
PR driven.
NICOLAS TURNER: In my view it's probably a bit higher than the 55 per cent that Crikey and the ACIJ found. There's a lot of information that goes from government, both departmental and political arms, from consultancies and from business out into the media.
SIMON SANTOW:
Nick Turner is the deputy president of the Public Relations Institute of Australia.
He says the hand of PR isn't always a simple handout.
NICOLAS TURNER: They prompt further analysis by the reporters that receive them in terms of perhaps interviewing the person that's quoted in the release or seeking an alternative view.
SIMON SANTOW: But from a public relations perspective essentially if the angle is in the press release and it's repeated again in the story it's essentially the same angle, is that in effect feeding the news agenda or setting it?
NICOLAS TURNER: I suppose there are a whole range of levels to look at. As a former journalist I know that when we write media materials we try to find an angle that's palatable for the media. So rather than actually it's really a case of trying to help out I suppose.
The occasions of late where we put out a media release and it's run verbatim or it's run as we've provided it are few and far between. I think though it's a case of pointing the media in the right direction.
SIMON SANTOW: When the research was put to Australia's major newspaper editors the response was mixed. Some interpreted the findings as an attack on the integrity of their journalists. Others conceded that reporters had become outnumbered by
PR operatives.
Wendy Bacon from UTS:
WENDY BACON: I think that there is a lot of sensitivity and I think that that's because every journalist knows and editors know that we don't want it to be like this. I mean the whole basis for journalism and the whole basis for our claim for example to confidential sources, access to information, is that we are supposed to be independent, not compliant.
So it's an incredibly sensitive issue and nobody wants to say they're the one who publish the press release.
MARK COLVIN: Wendy Bacon from the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism ending Simon Santow's report. For more on this we will have extended interviews on the PM website later this evening.