public relations – Journalism research news

Poor working conditions drive journalists into public relations

What drives journalists to become “turncoats” and how do they reflect upon their career change? Bernadette Kester, of Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Mirjam Prenger, of University of Amsterdam, interviewed 11 former journalists, who had abandoned journalism in favour of a career in PR. The interviewees cited two major reasons for “changing sides”. First, they felt … Continued

Tags: journalistic profession, political journalism, public relations
Published: 26 Feb 2020

ARTICLE: Young lifestyle journalists experience most commercial influence

Age correlates strongly with how much commercial influence lifestyle journalists report, University of Vienna researchers Folker Hanusch, Sandra Banjac and Phoebe Maares write. They analysed data from a survey of 616 Australian lifestyle journalists. Overall, lifestyle journalists reported relatively little outside influence to their work. However, this estimate might not be completely true, the authors … Continued

Tags: advertising, journalism, lifestyle journalism, public relations
Published: 1 Nov 2019

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ARTICLE: Organizational and news agendas influence each other

It takes two to tango when it comes to agenda building, the results of a new study show. Anne C. Kroon and Toni G. L. A. van der Meer of the University of Amsterdam, studied the causal relation between organizational and news media agendas. They used a time-series analyses to investigate 17 000 press releases and … Continued

Tags: journalistic norms, journalistic profession, public relations
Published: 27 Mar 2018

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ARTICLE: Indirect media bribery common at local and regional levels in US media

The non-transparency of media is related to the issues of native advertising and content marketing. Katerina Tsetsura and Kelsie Aziz, both of University of Oklahoma, surveyed 287 members of the Public Relations Society of America on media transparency practices. According to the results, media bribery is not a pressing issues in the United States. New … Continued

Tags: journalism funding, journalistic norms, public relations, United States
Published: 29 Sep 2017

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ARTICLE: The relationships between PR and journalists in Germany

Relationships between journalists and PR practitioners are complex. Thomas Koch, of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Magdalena Obermaier and Claudia Riesmeyer, both of Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, conducted a survey to which 835 journalists and 601 public relations practitioners in Germany responded, looking at how public relations exerts power over journalists. The research studies six bases of … Continued

Tags: Germany, journalistic identity, media systems, public relations
Published: 21 Sep 2017

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ARTICLE: Dutch papers don’t rely too heavily on press releases

In a new study, Jelle Boumans of the University of Amsterdam took a look on how press releases impact news content in the Netherlands. Boumans used automated content analysis on 4455 press releases between 2004-2013 and examined how press releases about different corporations and NGOs are used in Dutch newspapers and by news agencies. Boumans’ … Continued

Tags: newspapers, public relations, The Netherlands
Published: 11 Aug 2017

ARTICLE: Codes of ethics not adapted to the rise of sponsored content

The current codes of ethics do not address sponsored content sufficiently, a new study states. The article by Pasi Ikonen and Vilma Luoma-aho of the University of Jyväskylä and Shannon A. Bowen of the University of South Carolina studied ethical guidelines from journalism, public relations, marketing and advertising. Sponsored content has gained popularity in the … Continued

Tags: journalistic norms, media policy, public relations
Published: 22 Dec 2016

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ARTICLE: Gaming journalists defending their role during GamerGate

During the GamerGate controversy in 2014 and 2015, gaming journalists had to manage a debate on two fronts: defending gaming journalism and remediating attacks on women. Gregory Perreault of Appalachian State University and Tim Vos of University of Missouri conducted interviews with 17 gaming journalists and analysed several published responses to criticism. The authors conducted … Continued

Tags: audience, journalistic identity, public relations, sensationalism
Published: 14 Oct 2016

No sale by Steve Snodgrass, licence CC BY 2.0

ARTICLE: Advertisers have little influence over news

An advertiser’s financial importance to a publication usually does not influence the way that advertiser’s press releases are treated, write Juliane Lischka, Julian Stressig, and Fabienne Bünzli, all of University of Zürich. The authors compared the press releases issued by eight Swiss banks and the coverage the banks got from three Swiss newspapers. This was … Continued

Tags: journalistic norms, public relations
Published: 7 Oct 2016

ARTICLE: Play metaphor is common in political PR

The relationship between politicians and talk show producers is a tense one, write Marcel Broersma , Bas den Herder and Birte Schohaus, all of University of Groningen. The authors explore which interpretive repertoires political PR advisors use to describe their relations with talk show journalists. 10 interviews with PR advisors, and 11 interviews with Dutch politicians and … Continued

Tags: journalistic identity, political journalism, public relations
Published: 16 Aug 2016