PUBLIC RELATIONS AND JOURNALISM

Government, Public Relations and Journalism

Government, Public Relations and Journalism

Introduction

Relationship between journalists and public relations (PR) practitioners of government institutions or political parties has received a widespread attention from the researchers of communication and media sciences. It is very interesting to see that whether it is a journalism professional or public relations practitioner, they both possess many professional similarities. However, regardless of similarities in both sides, the relationship between the both constituents is usually found with some complexities and ambiguities (Fedler & DeLorme, 2002). This is because as it has been seen that the level of cooperation is significantly low as well as concept of trust if missing. This situation leads to a conflicting state where tensions between journalists and public relations professionals become norms of the game. Modern technologies (satellite, e-mail, Internet, pagers, personal computers, etc., etc.) allow the press to be scratchpad, the information space, not only expands, but becomes, so to speak, it is intense, compacted, "producers" and "consumers" of information are constantly changing places and not just a monologue is replaced by dialogue (Djankov, 2001). Modern researchers, classifying the press, including offering alternative, pair of socio-cultural models of journalism of present time, corresponding to the main cultural communities and allow to consider the complex manifestations of this activity in their organic integrity: global - regional, formal - informal, continental - island, quality - the tabloid, democratic - totalitarian, print - audio-visual. There is a growing stream of electronic media: television and the Internet bring down an avalanche of customers to images - vivid, moving, and sounding. Paper media is at war on several fronts. It is, therefore, important to realize that relationship between journalists and PR practitioners requires a serious attention as well as more research as this area plays an important role not just in the growth of media industry but also brings reforms in political and governmental systems.

Discussion

There is no doubt about the fact that Public Relations (PR) has proved to be an important and powerful industry in past few decades. As Public Relations (PR) has developed rapidly and become a growth industry, it has received significant concerns. PR in recent decades has appeared to be an essential function for every organisation that has been very helpful to communicate with all parties involved and to manage successful relationships concerning to general as well as specific agendas (Seitel, 2001). PR encompasses a range of professional roles such as commercial affairs, business communications, public affairs, political management, company's reputation and issues management. It plays a role to ensure organization successful and able to retain and attract new clients (Seitel, 2001). Customer loyalty will be higher if the organization considers establishing PR plans and fulfilling their commitments.

Ferguson (1984), declared that public relationships were a fruitful research paradigm for public relations research, the basket in which she would put “all her public relations theory development eggs”. Ferguson (1984) further explained that an emphasis on relationships in public relations research would go beyond the traditional research focus on ...