d need for access to raw material from sources outside of the news desks. The senders - or agents promoting a specific interest - are well aware of the situation and use it consciously:
The everyday work of a journalist is very stressful/So/they often consider contacts with PR agents as useful, if we practice serious work conduct and do no gold digging. Because we know exactly what journalists want (PR Consultant). p> The information flow directed towards the editorial staff has thus allegedly increased, partly as a result of a much more flexible attitude towards promotion-related activities from the communications sector.
Today the news desks experience an in-flow of information never seen before, especially from the corporate sector. The input is overwhelming - if previously it was a stream, it's now more like a river. Handling this flood of information is problematic, and there is a risk that journalists will get caught up in it and thereby decrease their ability to control the news agenda.
This raises questions of whether the media may become dependent on this subsidy of information and material. Some journalists reflecting over their own work situation suggested there is a risk that reporters will become dependent on the influence of different activist experts. Even journalists with special beats sometimes experience a lack of knowledge, especially those within technical, medical and natural-science-related subject areas: "While we become too specialized we also become too dependent ", said one public service TV journalist.
PR people call both openly and under cover to try to sell an idea to us. It's presented in a very feasible way and then we're under extreme pressure to put together a paper for the next day. They know our work situation and they know exactly what things to pull.
By serving the media with news material, the activities of PR actors have caused their industry to move towards taking on the shape of a news desk located outside the media.
PR Agents 'and Journalists' Perceptions of Each Other
The PR experts 'and journalists' views of each other differ a great deal. It seems that, in principle, many representatives of the PR industry have great respect for journalism and the media's role in society. They underline the media's obligation to review the PR sphere just as they expect journalists to do with other social phenomena. At the same time, some of the PR actors in reality showed less respect for the media's professional task, as attempts to manipulate or steer the media in a favorable way seemed acceptable. Even among those who claimed a profound respect for the media, instrumental aims became discernible.
Hardly any of the journalists expressed a corresponding respect for the PR agents. In principle, PR experts, especially consultants, were described as opponents, in line with the general normative thinking of journalism, which supports the view that PR people are to be kept at a distance. They are "my most important opponents," claimed one journalist of a national newspaper and continued by saying that the group has become so "unbelievably much more clever with what they do". As PR agents inevitably exist in the media professionals 'work context, journalists are forced to respect them in the same matter as one has to respects an opponent:
I dislike the phenomenon/PR consultants/terribly. But I do realize that 'this is the way it is' and what am I to do? They're a part of today's society. And an influential part too (Editor, evening newspaper). p> Journalists 'mainly skeptical approach to PR is familiar to those working in the PR sphere. It is mirrored in the strategies of the latter - How to present material as well as how to present themselves in order to establish contact - and perhaps also in their professional self-image. Some of the consultants pointed to the fact that they are always straightforward in their contacts with the media and always explain whom or what interests they represent.
In their comments on PR agents, a journalists tended to group information officers and consultants. The journalistic approach seems to be that there is actually no need for any PR agents. Meanwhile, in reality, the relation in itself may function differently depending on whether a PR person is placed inside or outside an organization - the latter case often making it more restrained. Still, some journalists claimed to make use of consultants in terms of information overviews and ideas for suitable sources. In addition, while they also fill a censoring role, information officers admittedly seem to be useful in negotiating contacts higher up in the organizations. Journalists, however, often find these officers annoying, as they want to speak with the person in charge; they do not to wish to get the answers "fil...
