Public relations… the dark side?
Public relations and journalism have always had an uneasy relationship, but we have far more in common than not. Both are concerned with the definition and presentation of news and practitioners share the same basic skill set.
Nevertheless, there’s no doubting that some would divide us into good and evil and the inclusion of public relations practitioners like myself in the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) sticks in some people’s throats.
Typical is this letter in the NUJ house magazine. Here a rather simplistic view of public relations as the ‘dark side’ is presented. It implies that journalists are always a force for good. But how should the public relations officer of a charity working with refugees react to an enquiry from the authors of this national newspaper front page? I suspect they’d be rightly cautious; it’s very dark reporting indeed.
Just as it would be silly to claim that all journalists are whiter than white, some PRs do indulge in heavy handed or unethical practises. However, the idea expressed here that a public relations officer’s job is to distort, suppress or censor is a caricature few in the industry will recognise. A good PR will put their client or employer’s case openly and honestly, correct misconceptions and hold their hands up when mistakes are made. That’s no easy job because many in business, government and the voluntary sector are simply not brave enough to be open with the media; they fear misrepresentation. I wonder why.
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[...] editor to date – seems custom made for a future TV career. But even if he decided to turn to the Dark Side and seek a career in PR, Bizarre could well be his ticket into the corridors of [...]
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