Journalism’s role in society is substantially compromised by the insidious nature of public relations and the mechanism of spin. For a comprehensive understanding of the implications public relations has on media and society it’s essential to grasp the role journalism plays within society and to explore its function for the public. The objectives of PR and the influences of spin have become key components of modern media and their actions are important to note in discussing the undermining of journalism. Public relations and the use of spin as a persuasive device have seeped into modern media in many ways and an examination of the extent of this concept provides a deeper understanding of the issue. Finally an analysis of the ways that public relations and spin have affected modern society reveals how journalism is essentially being undercut within the public and disregarded as a communicative pillar within society.
Most of recorded history can account for the pertinent and invaluable service the roles of journalism play within society and an understanding of the ideology of journalism is a key element in recognising how public relations and spin are undermining the principles of this profession (Lamble, 2011). Journalism, by definition, is a trade based purely on communication, of asking and answering, gathering and disseminating newsworthy information (Harcup, 2009). Journalism is a job that goes beyond producing commercial products and marketing, it’s about informing society, reflecting society back upon itself and giving the public the opportunity to make informed decisions on their lives (Lamble, 2011). It’s a defining part of our community to be able to have an information system like journalism, a valuable communicative resource that has the principal objective of conveying information to the public (McQuail, 2013). Journalism fulfils its societal criteria through the application of five key roles (Lamble, 2011). The first of these roles is to reflect society back onto itself, exposing the positive and negative elements of the world and allowing the public to reflect and react to its own actions (Lamble, 2011). The importance of this aspect of journalism is to allow communities to grow from their own experiences, recording their actions and statements as the process continues. As an example, during the United States’ invasion of Iraq, journalists to the calibre of Megan Stack reported on stories that were near genocide, in direct contradiction to those that were selling papers ‘back home’, filtering propaganda through the government’s public relations staff (Stack, 2010). These reports gave society the information needed to be able to see both sides of the story, not just the side they wanted to see but the events their decisions had led to. Another of journalism’s most vital roles is to keep the influential and powerful honest and accountable for their actions and to play the ‘fourth estate’ role (Lule, 2001). This limits a person or organisation’s ability to control their image by keeping their activities and structure as transparent as possible. Journalists also maintain an element of advocacy in their work, working for the good of society and being able to provide a voice for those who require it (Lamble, 2011). News media also serves as a body to promote democracy and similar ideals, fostering public conversation and an element of equality for the population (Lule, 2001). Lastly, journalists and news media organisations maintain the essential function of keeping people in different parts of the world informed with information from others, helping to set a public agenda through awareness of global events (Lamble, 2011). For its ability to gather and convey information to the public whilst fulfilling the aforementioned roles within society, journalism has become one of the defining elements of the modern age (Ntilosanje, 2013). Understanding the ways journalism functions within society shows clearly how public relations and spin can undermine the craft.
The evolution of society has brought with it the age of public relations and the use of spin to control the identities of businesses and public figures, examining this trend will exemplify the ways in which it undermines the role journalism plays in society (Michael Temple et al., 2008). Fundamentally the role of public relations is to aid individuals or groups in enhancing their various relationships within society, this practice has existed in every major culture in human history (Wisner, 2012). Spin is an essential tool for those involved in the public relations field, it is a mechanism for managing the image of a person or group and protecting their carefully cultivated identity. Spin is the act of managing and moulding the words of public figures and organisations, making sure their profile is moved in a favourable direction (Safire, 1996). It’s essentially a trade based upon misleading the public, omitting and creating information for situations that would suit their organisation best (Stockwell, 2007). PR professionals will use spin to manufacture consent through misleading political advertisements, smear campaigns and propaganda, adjusting policy in accordance with public opinion (Stockwell, 2007). Spin is a pervasive and generally negative aspect in democracy and its presence directly antagonises the role of journalism in society, truth and transparency are difficult to attain with a band of PR specialists propagating information that they deem appropriate (Stockwell, 2007). Spin is the art of persuasion and journalism is the art of communicating truths, it’s basic conflict. All forms of journalism are being targeted by public relations experts and ‘spin’, the increase in PR materials being deposited on journalism is to the point of being nearly immeasurable (Michael Temple et al., 2008). With the rise of PR, especially in Western cultures around the 1950s, all fields of journalism are becoming increasingly inundated with spin and this massive amount of information meant to mislead the public and journalists alike has been leaking into the public for quite a while, sometimes through poorly constructed journalism works (Michael Temple et al., 2008). Public relations isn’t an essential part of a healthy democracy, it doesn’t cultivate goodness in society but tries to make its employer more appealing. Public relations and spin deny a journalist’s ability to reflect society onto itself because it cultivates its own reality, expecting people to believe that what they have made is truth (Michael Temple et al., 2008). Public relations and the use of spin are profoundly impeding the role of journalism in society through the fabrication of positive imagery.
Public relations is a craft that has consistently seeped into the public sphere since the dawn of communications, the extent of this secretion is a measurable way to determine the level to which journalism is being undermined by PR as a craft (Hanitzsch, 2009). The sheer volume of public relations professionals is increasing exponentially, as of 2013 in the United States alone, PR workers outnumbered journalists and reporters in a ratio of 4.6:1 (Williams, 2014). With much greater numbers PR professionals are able to essentially bombard journalists with content making it difficult for them to be able to decipher and fact check information, especially with the deepening wage margin as PR workers earn much more than journalists, on average (Williams, 2014). This information works directly with findings that state that there is an increase in journalists relying on one source of information in their stories and not properly examining an issue or taking both sides into account (Williams, 2014). This trend has revealed a large amount of news stories, even in some of the most independent of news providers, have become saturated with press releases and other PR content . The implementation of public relations work into journalism has been termed ‘churnalism’ (Lewis, 2011). Studies of many different and reputable newspapers have been conducted, finding a considerable amount of content within these papers is directly copied from press releases, even to the point that on average 54% of news stories contain some form of PR (Tom Steinberg et al., 2006). Churnalism is an infinitely rewarding form of spin for public relations professionals because it provides its audience, the public, with information that makes the client look exemplary through a medium that is mostly trusted by the public to be fair and unbiased, it essentially allows PR content to become imbedded in the public sphere whilst maintaining an organic appeal (Moore, 2011). Public relations has also become imbedded in the journalism industry through sponsorship and native advertising. Through newer news outlets who have gained considerable traction in recent times, such as Buzzfeed, public relations thrive (PR Council, 2015). Businesses are now using journalists, intermediated by PR workers, to produce ‘content’ that loosely but effectively markets their brand, a prime example being GE’s sponsorship of the “10 Lifechanging Ways To Make Your Day More Efficient” Buzzfeed article (GE Brand Publisher, 2013). Journalists are being paid to promote brands, and with media outlets such as Buzzfeed who have a large reach they can spread the ‘spin’ even further. The reach of public relations and spin in the modern communication technology age has spread considerably and it makes the ‘fourth estate’ role of journalism increasingly difficult to sustain (Hanitzsch, 2009). The expansion of public relations and spin within society, especially through the means of journalism, expresses the ways in which journalism is being undermined by the PR industry.
The most crucial element in understanding the premise of public relations undermining journalism as a service, is the ways in which the public is effected by this evolution. The effectiveness of public relations is measured by the quality of the interaction between the public and an organisation (Seltzer, 2005). As building positive relationships between public figures, organisations and society is the role of PR professionals, then the ways these relationships are created are the ways their impacts on society can be measured. Public relations is used to change and to prevent change in society, so they are using information to manipulate the public sphere and to create mass consent (W. Timothy Coombs et al., 2013). Through PR being a positively focused asset, often through the dissemination of ‘spin’ information through news media and journalism, the public is only given a single side to an issue, a one dimensional knowledge of a topic or an organisation (PRIA, 2015). Public relations also shape public opinion, this is especially true of spin, based in the realm of politics (Michael Temple et al., 2008). Spin effects society by altering public opinion, causing a range of reactions. During the 2013 federal elections in Australia, public relations firms for both sides of parliament were employed to skew public opinion favourably towards ‘their’ side. Newsletters, Facebook posts, Twitter updates and comments were all used by PR firms in an effort to make former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd look incompetent and unprepared to run the country and the result of these campaigns was a Liberal government victory (Day, 2013). Public relations has also turned what was once an unbiased and objective way of communicating information, being the newspaper, into what is predominantly advertising material. With the high concentration of press release content in news stories, papers have now virtually become promotion sections for the public awareness of groups or figures (Kinnear, 2015). The role journalism plays in keeping the influential members of society transparent and accountable is deeply threatened by the expanse of public relations as groups will fashion information for their own purposes and only expose information for their betterment (Stockwell, 2007). It’s very difficult to vet someone or something that is saturating the market in an effort to make themselves look, as defined by the role of PR, more favourable to society (Grattan, 1998). So public relations professionals are able to build trusting relationships between the public and people of power, through manipulating the availability of information and by keeping transparency out of the equation. This creates an uninformed society, unable to make enlightened decisions or to evaluate both sides of a situation (Oliver, 2004). The prevalence of public relations and spin in modern society has created an environment that is hostile to honest and objective journalism by undermining the craft with biased information.
Understanding the nature of journalism and the various but significant roles the craft plays within society, is key to knowing the impacts that public relations and spin can have when they undermine journalism. Public relations and its core communication mechanism ‘spin’, have become the antithesis to the role journalism plays within society and their impacts are only measurable by understanding their definitions and examining the ways in which they work. Being able to analyse the ways in which public relations and spin have seeped into society and the public sphere, especially through the use of journalism as a medium, is also a poignant feature in this topic. The effects of public relations and spin on society, were also important to investigate as they are the cornerstone of how these two elements undermine journalism. Ultimately public relations and the mechanism of spin, are elements in society that substantially compromise journalism’s ability to perform its essential roles.
Harrison Johnstone 