Suhtekorralduse mõjud uudistetoimetuse töös
Date
2006
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
On the average, a couple of hundred press releases arrive the television’s news office
during the day. Among those, there are both clearly formulated informative messages and
those filled with an information pollution or barefaced commercial announcements,
which are put aside already after the first glimpse. Therefore, I set an objective to control
the hypothesis as if the news office used only one tenth of the incoming PR information
(press releases by e-mail and post, informative phone calls, invitations).
As it appears from the research conducted at the news office of TV3, the journalists
prefer choosing subjects about which there were press releases. At the same time, it
appears that press information is used to the extent of 10-50% depending on the day.
In the analysed news day, the information arrived by phone and press releases that were
predominantly irrelevant that day were set aside. Hence, altogether 84 press releases were
filtered. 8 of them were used and reached the programme. From the press releases arrived
at the observation day, 49 were set completely aside, the main reason – too commercial.
Three criteria that more and more influence the content of the contemporary commercial
television are visuality, emotionality, and conflict. Hence, the more emotions one or the
other event causes, the bigger the probability to get into the television news. An
expressive example thereof is impressive media reflections from demonstrations, “mud
throwing” between the politicians, murders, bomb explosions, etc. The most
presumptions for getting into the news programme have the human tragedy. Often, the
subjects that seemed important at the beginning of the news day, lose their relevance
during the news flow and some stronger events might even exclude them from the
programme altogether.
While choosing the news, the events that turn out to be surprising or more important than
expected are preferred. In such circumstances, the negative news becomes so-called good
news or such that sell – that is watched, read, that are talked about.
The hypothesis that journalists patronise public relations officers was not proved.
Relations are predominantly considered as friendly ones. Journalists do not consider
public relations officers their enemies, they rather hope for the improvement of their
cooperation and acknowledgement of common objectives. Both the public relations
officers and journalists serve the interests of the public, one more, the others less.
Common elements in their activities may be found in informing the public, to which in
case of public relations officers creating a positive image of the organisation where
he/she works will be added. Public relations officers of the public sector have thereby an
advantage, as the interest of the public towards their institutions is through everyday life
and safety inevitably higher. Mutual attacks come from not perceiving each other’s
objectives and often also from poor communication. Also personal characteristics cannot
be underestimated, primarily the communication skills. Public relations are primarily a
dialogue between the both parties.
At making the stories, the journalists gladly use the information materials received from
the public relations officers. Due to the fast work pace, the news journalists are forced to
make fast choices. The news journalists of TV3 considered both the written press release
and communication by phone equally useful as the primary causer of interest. The
interest of the journalist is influenced by personal knowledge base and the skill of the
public relations officers to deliver the subjects interestingly. Decisive will be the way of
presenting the information, primarily the formulation of the press release. In case of a
press release, the news journalists consider informativeness, clarity and extraordinariness
as most important. For example, long and ambiguous texts with no interesting headlines
and summary subject matter to which they wish to draw the journalists’ attention to will
not be chosen.
To gain attention, most often they use consistent insistence of urgency, presence of VIPs,
sending numerous press releases, and consistent phone calls.
Making presents and offering bonuses to journalists generally have a positive influence
on the attitude towards the company. At the same time, journalists unanimously
acknowledge that they do not feel obliged to turn the favour to the company that made
the present. However, the most typical influencing methods are not connected with the
offering of material benefits. A widespread way to get into the policy news is the so-
called leak of an intrigue. Usually, the knowledge that the information is meant “just for
you” or “just for your channel” works well. Of course, you cannot underestimate the
work of the public relations officers at forwarding the materials, but the journalist will
always have a freedom not to use the pre-fed information or process it pursuant to his
judgement.
As a conclusion, it may be said that the choice of news is made as a result of a constant
filtering. A classic goalkeeper’s model where the decision-maker is just one editor does
not apply for the news office. Due to the fast work pace of the news office, the journalists
gladly use press releases, which are informative, enticingly formulated and supplied with
the contact data. Choices are made by journalists depending on the probable expectation
of the audience, filtering the information according to their judgement, bearing the mass
audience in mind. The main criterion assessing the right or wrong decision/choice is the
rating that can be measured and that has a clearly defined market value. The
communication with public relations officers is generally smooth. A good public relations
officer is according to journalists helpful, available and the one who keeps the
agreements. If the holding of information and obtrusiveness are condemnable, then lying
is considered completely prohibited by journalists.
Inconsistencies are caused by misunderstanding the peculiarities of each other’s roles and
specialty. As journalism and public relations are both equally important in the success of
mutual communication, then an intense and smooth cooperation between these two
specialties should take place. An understanding of common objectives at informing the
public is a common part that should overlap in the activities of journalists and public
relations officers and create possibilities for a successful cooperation through a dialogue.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General)