Churnalism

There has been much comment in the press this week following the coverage of Nick Davies book ‘Flat Earth News’  where he states that ‘Churnalism’ has replaced real journalism…….and naturally the PR industry gets the blame.

In the book Davies complains of ‘pseudo events manufactured by the PR industry’ and global news stories ‘generated by a new machinery of international propaganda.’

Strong words.

Yes, there has been an increase in PR people over the last ten years and yes, companies and organisations are now realising the importance of PR at the board room level, how they need to manage their reputations and present themselves to their stakeholders. I believe that much of this actually comes from the public. We want to know the story, we want to be communicated to, we want transparency and we’re all too ready to cry ‘watch dog’ if something goes wrong.

The increase in public relations professionals I’m sure can be tracked against the increase in the number of news mediums available to us too. But pick up a newspaper and remove the sport, the crime and the politics and you have very little left. As PR people we are competing for that space so we have to make sure that our story is relevant, well researched and appropriate in order to gain the journalist’s interest.

Within this space and coupled with the fact that more and more people want a share of voice, PRs have to work harder. We have to be transparent and act in an appropriate and ethical way. We have to work with journalists not against them. And as CIPR members we have to abide by our code of conduct.

When I first started working in PR, I worked in house at Birmingham Airport. We regularly held press conferences and a variety of local, regional, business, trade publications and broadcast journalists would attend. I actually can’t remember the last time I organised a press conference – the media just don’t have the time or the resources to attend. Journalists need PR people as much as we need them and it’s important that we work together in an appropriate and professional way. If we issue PR puff we know it won’t get used, we know that our reputations are reliant on providing solid, well researched information in order to hit that crucial deadline.

I always work by the rule ‘never lie, never speculate and always meet a deadline’ – it’s something that the CIPR courses on media relations really drive home. We have to be totally transparent.

Just before Christmas I went and spoke to the MA course at Cardiff University. The students were fantastic but the one message I took away was their frustration at how journalists view PR people. They noted that even at the University the PR students take a journalism module but the journalism students don’t do a PR module.

Books such as this really do reinforce this ‘them’ and ‘us’ culture. Danny Rogers in PR Week (8^th February) writes a brilliant editor’s column and the irony around the publicity and the traditional PR techniques used to get coverage for ‘Flat Earth News’ isn’t lost on him.

I am often asked by editors to ‘provide me with 350 words and a picture quick’ and they rarely alter a word. Rightly or wrongly this does come down to the fact that perhaps news teams need to be better resourced – or does it now show the trust journalists have in us and the fact that PRs can provide newsworthy, well researched copy rather than just a sales pitch?

Comments

[Eamon]

I think there are lots of interesting things going on everyday. Perhaps, journalists have just lost the ability for languid, cool writing (and instead, think, that getting all hot-under-the-collar is the way to sell news).

[Eamon]

I think there are lots of interesting things going on everyday. Perhaps, journalists have just lost the ability for languid, cool writing (and instead, think, that getting all hot-under-the-collar is the way to sell news).

[John]

Typical PR-speak: "I believe that much of this actually comes from the public. We want to know the story, we want to be communicated to, we want transparency and we’re all too ready to cry ‘watch dog’ if something goes wrong."

"We?" No. YOU are the PR industry. WE, outside the PR industry, are "the public."

But of course, PR-speak only gets noticed when it's badly written.

[I James]

Therefore, in essence, you are agreeing with the concepts conveyed in 'Flat Earth News' by Nick Davies. You have just described how the PR industry possesses the keys to the information that is locked up.
Journalists are often forced to 'trust' the PRs... If the modern journalist is generating 10 stories a day, do they really have time to investigate whether or not the story is 100% accurate? Churnalism is the combination of overworked journalists and the PR Industry providing these journalists with the same bland information, resulting in the stagnation of news stories and newspaper coverage.

[I James]

Therefore, in essence, you are agreeing with the concepts conveyed in 'Flat Earth News' by Nick Davies. You have just described how the PR industry possesses the keys to the information that is locked up.
Journalists are often forced to 'trust' the PRs... If the modern journalist is generating 10 stories a day, do they really have time to investigate whether or not the story is 100% accurate? Churnalism is the combination of overworked journalists and the PR Industry providing these journalists with the same bland information, resulting in the stagnation of news stories and newspaper coverage.

[Adrian Jones]

"Journalists need PR people as much as we need them and it’s important that we work together in an appropriate and professional way".

Very true. I had a conversation with the editor of a b2b title the other day who said to me, "Good PR companies are worth their weight in gold." What he meant was this: Well-written, well-researched, newsworthy PR material, which requires minimal subbing to get it into a usable form, benefits hard-pressed editors enormously by helping them to do their job. Conversely, poorly-written, badly researched b/s has the opposite effect and benefits nobody - least of all the client.

As John points out in his post;

"Churnalism is the combination of overworked journalists and the PR Industry providing these journalists with the same bland information"

The answer to "Churnalism" lies in our hands: Journalists and editors are our clients too. We are an integral part of today's news gathering process. As such, we have a duty to deliver the best quality material to them that we can. By failing to do so, we deserve all the bad press we get.

[I James]

A classic example of a group of naughty children ruining it for the rest of the class...