Journalists as ghostwriters
Column: As Long as the Facts Are Right: Karl Lüönd knows that newsrooms are only too happy to take PR consultants at their word without doing their own research.
Column The main thing is to get the facts right:
Editorial offices are only too happy to eat out of the hands of PR consultants without
I never lie," the PR consultant said to me.
at an advanced hour. "I only shape the truth!" Lying is stupid
and uneconomical. Because you usually get caught lying,
because in an open society there is always someone who can help you.
contradicts. The art of shaping the truth consists of emphasizing and
concealing, emphasizing and omitting, accelerating and delaying, sometimes in curls and curls.
Stimulation, including playing off competitors.
After an hour and a half of reading the paper on Sunday morning, a mere
average newsworthy day after the 2:0 win for the Swiss
national team against the Turks, it quickly becomes clear who is
most skillfully directed. First prize for the Bishop of
Solothurn for an outright impertinence. The for months
He selectively slips the indecently withheld statement on the Röschenz case into the weekend's news gap
fill: quotable original sound on DRS 1 ("Samstagsrundschau"), more in-depth information on "NZZ am Sonntag".
The place of honor goes to PR consultant Andy Bantel, currently on the road for
the Kronenhalle Foundation. He has succeeded in all three
Sunday newspapers to launch the consistent message that the
Parties in the pending inheritance dispute are on the way to reaching an agreement. Whether
Here the wish was the father of the thought, the attentive reader can
at best, because all three editorial offices have given the enterprising
PR man eaten out of the hand and no research of his own
employed. This is how the professional "shapers of truth" at the
favorite.
Two random examples of a mega-trend. Up to 80 percent of
current content in our media are through "public relations",
i.e. influenced by the interest-based information industry. The fact that a significant part of daily
Information and opinion menus from convenience food and
semi-finished products from the PR kitchens, now has a new
Chair of Journalism Studies at the University of Leipzig
study once again confirmed (quoted here from "Message" 4/05,
p. 52 ff.).
For one week at a time, the researchers analyzed the input and output in
three state capital offices of the German Press Agency (Dresden,
Düsseldorf and Stuttgart) and their branch offices and
spoke to 38 editors and employees at the same time. In these
three control weeks, all offices received a total of 1147 PR texts.
national and international institutions and authorities,
Private companies including media, cultural institutions, political parties
and associations. 17 percent of this input was utilized, after all!
This material was used by the aforementioned offices for more than half of the
of their entire news production. Only just thirty percent of the
The entire production was based on our own research on location and even
attended press conferences.
In 88 percent of the cases in which DPA took over a PR report, DPA made
They also adopt their core message: In every fourth report
lacked clear identification of the source. And 87 percent of the
The contributions initiated by the public relations department were one-source stories,
i.e. there were no confirmations from second or third parties.
nor conducted further research (just as in the case of the
Kronenhalle).
Among the explanations provided by those responsible for this is
This one is probably the most obvious: "You simply have to rely on
that the facts are correct, at least for uncontroversial issues, and that
the
Data reasonably objective
are. Otherwise you might be able to work on one topic a day and then the whole thing collapses
system."
PR input is the low-cost background noise of everyday media life. Its
Exploitation by agencies and editorial offices is neither good nor bad,
but normal operation - provided that the resources of the editorial offices
are at least still sufficient to ensure the production of the mostly lush
PR apparatuses for what they are: Sources,
from which the professional journalist can draw with interest and skepticism.
ideally provides the material for in-depth questions and
Clarifications.
The reality of day-to-day editorial work is, as the Leipzig
study has once again shown, another: Journalists
are increasingly functioning as ghostwriters for the PR apparatus. And they
suppress this inglorious fact by, among other things
arrogantly separate themselves from them.
Editorial offices are only too happy to eat out of the hands of PR consultants without
I never lie," the PR consultant said to me.
at an advanced hour. "I only shape the truth!" Lying is stupid
and uneconomical. Because you usually get caught lying,
because in an open society there is always someone who can help you.
contradicts. The art of shaping the truth consists of emphasizing and
concealing, emphasizing and omitting, accelerating and delaying, sometimes in curls and curls.
Stimulation, including playing off competitors.
After an hour and a half of reading the paper on Sunday morning, a mere
average newsworthy day after the 2:0 win for the Swiss
national team against the Turks, it quickly becomes clear who is
most skillfully directed. First prize for the Bishop of
Solothurn for an outright impertinence. The for months
He selectively slips the indecently withheld statement on the Röschenz case into the weekend's news gap
fill: quotable original sound on DRS 1 ("Samstagsrundschau"), more in-depth information on "NZZ am Sonntag".
The place of honor goes to PR consultant Andy Bantel, currently on the road for
the Kronenhalle Foundation. He has succeeded in all three
Sunday newspapers to launch the consistent message that the
Parties in the pending inheritance dispute are on the way to reaching an agreement. Whether
Here the wish was the father of the thought, the attentive reader can
at best, because all three editorial offices have given the enterprising
PR man eaten out of the hand and no research of his own
employed. This is how the professional "shapers of truth" at the
favorite.
Two random examples of a mega-trend. Up to 80 percent of
current content in our media are through "public relations",
i.e. influenced by the interest-based information industry. The fact that a significant part of daily
Information and opinion menus from convenience food and
semi-finished products from the PR kitchens, now has a new
Chair of Journalism Studies at the University of Leipzig
study once again confirmed (quoted here from "Message" 4/05,
p. 52 ff.).
For one week at a time, the researchers analyzed the input and output in
three state capital offices of the German Press Agency (Dresden,
Düsseldorf and Stuttgart) and their branch offices and
spoke to 38 editors and employees at the same time. In these
three control weeks, all offices received a total of 1147 PR texts.
national and international institutions and authorities,
Private companies including media, cultural institutions, political parties
and associations. 17 percent of this input was utilized, after all!
This material was used by the aforementioned offices for more than half of the
of their entire news production. Only just thirty percent of the
The entire production was based on our own research on location and even
attended press conferences.
In 88 percent of the cases in which DPA took over a PR report, DPA made
They also adopt their core message: In every fourth report
lacked clear identification of the source. And 87 percent of the
The contributions initiated by the public relations department were one-source stories,
i.e. there were no confirmations from second or third parties.
nor conducted further research (just as in the case of the
Kronenhalle).
Among the explanations provided by those responsible for this is
This one is probably the most obvious: "You simply have to rely on
that the facts are correct, at least for uncontroversial issues, and that
the
Data reasonably objective
are. Otherwise you might be able to work on one topic a day and then the whole thing collapses
system."
PR input is the low-cost background noise of everyday media life. Its
Exploitation by agencies and editorial offices is neither good nor bad,
but normal operation - provided that the resources of the editorial offices
are at least still sufficient to ensure the production of the mostly lush
PR apparatuses for what they are: Sources,
from which the professional journalist can draw with interest and skepticism.
ideally provides the material for in-depth questions and
Clarifications.
The reality of day-to-day editorial work is, as the Leipzig
study has once again shown, another: Journalists
are increasingly functioning as ghostwriters for the PR apparatus. And they
suppress this inglorious fact by, among other things
arrogantly separate themselves from them.
Karl Lüönd is a journalist and until the end of the year was head of the Media Institute of the Swiss Press Association.
