John Lloyd - Journalism and PR: News Media and Public Relations in the Digital Age: News Media and Public Relations in the Digital Age

RISJ CHALLENGES

CHALLENGES present findings, analysis and recommendations from Oxfords Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. The Institute is dedicated to the rigorous, international comparative study of journalism, in all its forms and on all continents. CHALLENGES muster evidence and research to take forward an important argument, beyond the mere expression of opinions. Each text is carefully reviewed by an editorial committee, drawing where necessary on the advice of leading experts in the relevant fields. CHALLENGES remain, however, the work of authors writing in their individual capacities, not a collective expression of views from the Institute.

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

Timothy Garton Ash

Ian Hargreaves

David Levy

Geert Linnebank

John Lloyd

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

James Painter

Robert Picard

Jean Seaton

Katrin Voltmer

David Watson

The editorial advisers on this CHALLENGE were Tim Burt and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen.

Funding for this Challenge was kindly provided by David Ure.

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The most notable observation to emerge from the research done here is the diminution of public relations dependence on journalism, and the growth of journalisms dependence on PR. PR still needs journalism, which has always acted as a third-party endorsement of its claims. But now it has other, often more powerful allies.

Allied to that is the confidence on the part of many PR leaders that they can take over, and are taking over, many of the functions of journalism, and of the media in general. Every organisation is a media organisation has developed from being a slogan into becoming a growing reality.

The internet is the largest source of the shifts we now see between the complementary trades of journalism and public relations. The ease of access to it, its vast memory, and its huge data banks make all activities more transparent, pushing all organisations to greater openness. Social media increases transparency and opens up an infinite demand for engagement at every level, from mighty corporations to the individual. This puts a high premium on a constant flow of messages from prominent institutions and individuals, proactively and reactively.

A large new area has opened up for public relations in protecting and burnishing the reputation of companies, institutions, and individuals. Though always part of PR, reputation is now seen to be more fragile, more open to attack, especially on social media. New techniques of guarding reputation on the internet have been developed.

Corporations take part in the debates that concern them and speak to their business, including issues in the political and social spheres. The greater doubts about the efficacy and equity of the free market and of globalisation have impelled some leaders to enter the public arena, arguing both for the social and economic utility of their enterprises and for the viability of the free market system as a whole. The time when corporations proved their bona fides by displaying corporate social responsibility is being replaced with a call for an engagement with all stakeholders on the nature of their business, seeking to prove its social value and its ethical conduct.

Trust in, and the reputation of, public and private organisations and leaders is seen as more precarious than ever before in large part the outcome of transparency and social media. The search for trust and the strategies developed to restore it in turn put a high premium on truth, and the development of a more consciously ethical posture. The need to protect and project the reputation of institutions gives public relations practitioners a greater prominence and status. The counsel of consultants interpreting social and other trends and experienced in relations with the various stakeholders and constituencies which now surround companies, institutions, and people of prominence is seen as more essential.

The stress on ethics for clients naturally leads to a reflection on real or alleged lack of ethics among PR executives themselves. This in turn leads to a stronger and more strongly voiced disapproval of those firms particularly in London which represent foreign states or individuals whose record, especially the record on human rights, is generally criticised.

The British royal family has been a central element for public relations in the UK for much of the present monarchs reign, and this is likely to become more crucial for her successor. The media sophistication of Britains royal family is a barometer of how clients for all types of reputation management are now changing their approach to media-engagement. Reputations are no longer won or lost in a daily dialogue between PR agents and their media counterparts. Instead, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, both sides are redefining their roles and their business models for a new information age in which neither exercises the strategies and tactics they deployed in the past.

The US is the undisputed leader in political communications, and its techniques based on the use of large data sets allow it to individualise voters and speak more directly to their interests and demands. Political journalism in the US and elsewhere is now declining in newspapers and broadcast bulletins. Specialist publications and sites speak to niches and there is much more information available from actors in the political sphere than before. The legacy media are slowly ceding ground to specialist sites and individual journalist brands. Some of these retain a commitment to political neutrality; more do not.

As corporations are being impelled into an area of constant conversation, they both seek a larger quasi-political role and engage more directly and constantly with government at every level.

Thanks are due first of all to David Ure, whose generosity in funding the research has enabled this study both to range widely and to take the time needed to understand something of the state of relations between two trades at once antagonistic and mutually dependent.

We must also thank our many interviewees, some of whom are quoted by name, others who did not wish to be identified. Thanks are also due to the staff of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and I.B.Tauris for the editorial and other work on the drafts.