News, PR and Power

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News, PR and Power

• Sigurd Allern

2
News as authorithy

• News is a representation of authority. In the
  contemporay knowledge society news represent who
  are the authorized knowers and what are their
  authoritative versions of reality (Ericson,
  Baranek Chan Negotiating Control, 1989 3).
• The key issue at the heart of the study of
  sources is that of the relations between the
  media and the exercise of political and
  ideological power, especially, but not
  exclusively, by central social institutions which
  seek to define and manage the flow of information
  in a contested field of discourse (Philip
  Schlesinger 1990, Rethinking the Sociology of
  Journalism Source Strategies and the limits of
  Media-Centrism).

3
Journalists and news sources

• The relationship between sources and journalism
  resembles a dance, for sources seek access to
  journalists, and journalists seek access to
  sources. Although it takes two to tango, either
  sources or journalists can lead, but more often
  than not, sources do the leading (Herbert Gans,
  Deciding whats News, 1980 116)

4
Two aspects of news production

• These two aspects of news production the
  practical pressures of constantly working against
  the clock and the professional demands of
  impartiality and objectivity combine to produce
  a systematically structured over-accessing to the
  media of those in powerful and privileged
  institutional positions (Stuart Hall al. 1978
  58, cited in Cottle 10)
• but the most advantaged (sources) do not secure
  a primary definition in virtue of their position
  alone. Rather, if they do so, it it because of
  successful strategic action in a imperfectly
  competitive field (Schlesinger, cited in
  Cottle 13)

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Actors on the news market

• News organisations (in different media)
• Organisations and institutions (like governments,
  political parties, corporations) and individual
  news sources (like a witness in an accident)

6
The exchange model

• Information in change of publicity
• Example 1 The politician calls the journalist
  and proposes an exclusive interview.
• Example 2 The celebrity invites the gossip
  magazine to take pictures in his/her home and as
  a result get a favourable treatment
• Example 3 A corporation invites a group of
  journalists to attend a presentation of a new
  product

7
Commercial exchange on the news market

• Commercial news enterprises (like Reuters, CNN,
  AP and the national news agencies) selling news
  stories, pictures and other journalistic
  information
• Commercial data bases (for example providing
  financial information)
• Institutional actors selling broadcasting rights
  from events (like the Olympics)
• Cheque book journalism (paying sources for
  news, interviews etc. )

8
Gaining access is only half of the story

• High profile institutions and high-profile
  figures (like presidents and prime ministers)
  have routine access. Their most important job are
  therefore news management.
• High profile institutions and corporations often
  want to restrict media access (no exchange of
  information for publicity) and quash potential
  negative stories.
• Its now a very good day to get out anything we
  want to bury (Internal e-mail from governmental
  special adviser Jo Moore, GB, to her colleagues
  in the Press office within minutes of the attack
  on the world trade centre 9/11 2001, cited in
  Cottle 45).

9
Media power

• all news outlets have some fundamental assets
  that put them in a powerful position the power
  to deny a source any access the power to sustain
  coverage that contextualizes the source
  negatively the power of the last word..
  (Ericsson al. 1989)

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Public relations

• The management of communication between and
  organisation and its publics (James Grunig 1992)
• The propaganda- or publicity model
• The information model
• A model for asymmetric two ways communication
• A model for symmetric two ways communication

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The publicity man

• ..it follows that the picture which the
  publicity man makes for the reporter is the one
  he wishes for the public to see. He is censor and
  propagandist, responsible only to his employers,
  and to the whole truth responsible only as it
  accords with the employers conceptions of his
  own interest (Walter Lippman 1922)

12
A creator of events

• The counsel on public relations not only knows
  what news value is, but knowing it, he is in a
  position to make news happen (E. Bernays 1923)
• A PR success story The smoking female brigade in
  the Easter parade

13
Perception management

• Managing perceptions that drive performance
  (Burson Marsteller)
• A well placed news story creates action and
  changes perceptions (Burson Marsteller,
  Directory of Resources 1996)

14
Free information..

• The provision of subsidized information carries
  with it the necessity of meeting real, and often
  quite substantial, costs. Free information is
  really only free to its recipients its producers
  incur extensive costs (Randall Bartlett 1973
  188)

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Information subsidies

• News as a press release, printed or electronic
• Press breakfast/lunch/seminar with press material
  and interview possibilities
• Offering selective interviews with interesting
  sources (politicians, company bosses, other top
  leaders)
• Offering negative news about other sources
  (competitors in business, government or political
  parties)

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Information subsidies (2)

• Free or subsidized facilities (free office,
  telephone, fax, pc, food etc.)
• Public opinion poll measurements (Gallup poll)
  offered as news input to news media
• Statistics and background information from
  official sources and organisations
• Video-release about news events and news persons
• Free travel and hotel for reportage journalists

17
Pseudo-events

• Events consciously arranged to become news on
  television or print media, it is not an
  occurrence that happens of its own accord
• A pseudo-event takes account of newsgatherers
  concepts of what is newsworthy.
• Example An anti-abortion group appearing with
  tiny white caskets at a hospital, and a dramatic
  angry encounter between anti-abortion activists
  and shocked hospital staff
• (Jamieson Campell 2006 136)

18
Women behind the wheel

• Political campaign (Norway 1996) demanding lower
  taxes on new cars, using the safety of women as
  the main argument
• Officially presented as a front of ordinary
  women. Behind the scene Organized by a PR-firm
  and paid by car importers.
• Different types of press subsidies and
  pseudo-events

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News feeds

• News managers attempt to exercise even greater
  control by offering radio stations news feeds
  containing audio bites of a politicians speech
  complete with wrapped around context narrated
  by someone on the politicians staff. Statements
  recorded specifically for feeding are also
  distributed. Such news feeds are common on
  Capitol Hill, in political campaigns, and in the
  executive branch
• (Jamieson Campell 2006 137)

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Why journalism needs PR

• For the journalist who has to cover a story in
  half an hour (and often less time than that), the
  communication expert can be a lifeline for facts
  and figures and basic information gathering..
• ..The reality is that the balance of information
  has shifted, from being news based to being
  entertainment or opinion based. Journalists need
  PR not just to give information, but to provide
  access to sexy spokespeople to fill volumes, host
  programmes and give sound bites
• (Julia Hobsbawn, PR consultant, The Guardian
  November 17th 2003).

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Framing

• To frame is to select some aspects of a
  perceived reality and make them more salient in a
  communicating text, in such a way as to promote a
  particular problem definition, causal
  interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or
  treatment recommendation for the item described
  (Entman, 1993, p. 52)

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Framing contests

• Political actors and public relations
  practitioners use frames as strategic tools to
  further the interest of their organizations, and
  one goal is to get the media to adopt the same
  frames. A frame is important in that it promotes
  a certain definition and perspective at the
  expense of competing ways of understanding a
  particular issue.
• For politicians it is important to be in the
  news, but even more important to influence how
  journalists frame their news stories and the
  media versions of reality. Public relations
  practitioners also often share the same interest.

23
Spin and spin doctors

• Polite definition Political framing expert
• Impolite definition Expert in political
  manipulation, biased leaks, Orwellian newspeak
  and the production of shit bags against
  opponents

24
Spin and propaganda in wars

• The Gulf war in 1991 The pool system
• The invasion of Iraq i 2003 embedded journalism

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Favourite news dances (from the sources
perspective)

• Inviting the journalist to use text and pictures,
  produced by PR- specialists, as her own.
• Organizing pseudo-events and photo opportunities
• Giving selected journalists and media VIP
  treatment (exclusives an offer you cant
  refuse)