To the point: credibility
The relationship between public relations and journalism prompted Ronnie Grob to formulate ten questions in Medienwoche and to answer them himself. The questions and the partly provocative answers led to a number of tweets and a sharp counter-opinion from one of the scolded public relations employees.
In the last Advertising Week, our editor Isabel Imper dealt with a similar topic. She was talking about PR interviews. We let PR people, journalists and researchers have their say. In a comment to this article I wrote: "The growing influence of public relations on the topic setting and reporting of the media is a problem for their credibility. The step to becoming a PR post or a dull announcement medium is often smaller than one might think." That this statement is not simply plucked out of thin air is shown by the survey mentioned in the article, which Publicom conducted in 2007 and which found that a good half of the texts provided by the authorities were taken over unchanged by the editorial offices.
The Research Institute Public and Society (Fög) came to a similar conclusion in 2011 (Jahrbuch Qualität der Medien). In examining the influence of public relations in corporate reporting, the Fög found that "no less than 56 percent of corporate reporting is characterized by uncritically adopting the interpretive perspective of corporate PR." Media would thus become an advertising channel for corporate communications.
These results give pause for thought, all the more so because the situation has certainly not changed for the better in recent years. The reasons for this are well known. The pressure on editorial teams is increasing: Fewer and fewer people need to know about more and more topics in less and less time, and dossier knowledge is - if at all - only partial. This increases the likelihood that announcements from authorities and companies will be taken over unchanged. This is not about passing the buck.
The point is that both sides - journalists and those responsible for communications - should have a vital interest in preserving the credibility of the press. Because without credibility of the press title, the most beautiful PR text is of no use.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief [email protected]
