Journalists give corporate media outlets high marks
Swiss journalists praise corporate media relations departments for their high level of professionalism. In a study conducted by the IAM and Farner PR, 451 journalists from all language regions were surveyed about the relationship between PR and journalism.
In a recently published study on the quality of communication services provided by media offices, Swiss journalists gave corporate media offices a rating of "good to very good". This surprisingly clear result emerged from a survey conducted by the Institute of Applied Media Studies (IAM) at Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur together with Farner PR. The journalists particularly emphasized the high level of professionalism of the corporate media offices, as Farner announced on Tuesday.The media professionals were more critical of the media offices of administrations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Their communications work is rated worse than that of companies, particularly by journalists in German-speaking Switzerland. Overall, more than 90 percent of those surveyed described the media offices as "very important" or "important" for their journalistic work. Only one person of the 451 business and political journalists surveyed from all language regions of Switzerland said that media offices were not important at all in their day-to-day work.
Despite the importance of media outlets, most journalists believe that the inclusion of media outlets makes their work fairer and more complete, but not more informative or original. "Media outlets provide solid basic information, nothing more," says Vinzenz Wyss, Head of the Institute for Applied Media Studies. Media releases from companies and organizations are judged negatively by those surveyed above all when, in the opinion of the journalists, the topic is uninteresting and promotional or the release contains too few facts.
Overall, journalists appreciate those information formats in which they can play an active role, such as interviews or personal discussions. Formats that are more strongly influenced by media outlets are less popular: Specialist articles, press trips or company blogs. In this sense, media professionals generally want more contact with senior functionaries in an organization - French-speaking Swiss and Ticino more with communication specialists, German-speaking Swiss more with board presidents, company bosses and technical experts.
The electronic version of the final report of the study "The media work of companies and organizations from the perspective of Swiss journalists" can be ordered from: [email protected].
Despite the importance of media outlets, most journalists believe that the inclusion of media outlets makes their work fairer and more complete, but not more informative or original. "Media outlets provide solid basic information, nothing more," says Vinzenz Wyss, Head of the Institute for Applied Media Studies. Media releases from companies and organizations are judged negatively by those surveyed above all when, in the opinion of the journalists, the topic is uninteresting and promotional or the release contains too few facts.
Overall, journalists appreciate those information formats in which they can play an active role, such as interviews or personal discussions. Formats that are more strongly influenced by media outlets are less popular: Specialist articles, press trips or company blogs. In this sense, media professionals generally want more contact with senior functionaries in an organization - French-speaking Swiss and Ticino more with communication specialists, German-speaking Swiss more with board presidents, company bosses and technical experts.
The electronic version of the final report of the study "The media work of companies and organizations from the perspective of Swiss journalists" can be ordered from: [email protected].
