The document discusses the relationship between news, power, and public relations, emphasizing how news serves as a representation of authority and the strategic interactions between journalists and sources. It highlights the influence of powerful institutions in shaping media narratives, the commercialization of news, and various communication models utilized in public relations. Additionally, it examines concepts such as framing, information subsidies, and the role of 'spin' in media representation.

1. News, PR and
Power

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 what’s 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)

5. 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
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.
 “It’s 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)

10. 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

11. 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)

15. 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)

16. 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. ”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).

18. 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)

19. 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.

20. 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

21. Spin and propaganda in
wars
 The Gulf war in 1991: The pool system
 The invasion of Iraq i 2003: embedded journalism

22. 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 can’t refuse)