- Email: [email protected]
Aligning values of practitioners and journalists
Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver
Aligning Values Of Practitioners And Journalists The wariness journalists feel toward public relations practitioners, and the consequent defensiveness practitioners feel about their communication zvith tile media, apparently has its roots in journalism education. Misunderstandings about the contributions both groups make to information dissemination move from the classroom directly into working relationships. The author of this article tested the attitudes of journalists and public relations professionals in Florida to determine how much understanding they have of each other's goals. While practitioners correctly assessed journalists" values, journalists failed to predict the professional values practitioners reported they held. Both groups disagreed strongly about the relative status of their professions. The need for professional reconciliation is readily apparent from the survey"s results. Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver is associate chairperson of the Department of Communication at Florida International University, North Miami.
ournalists generally measure the credibility of the public relations profession by their perceptions of the news values and motivations of public re ations practitioners and by the news releases which they receive from these individuals. Aronoff sees both the personal and impersonal factors as influences. The interpersonal interactions between practitioners and journalists play a "substantial role," yet the majority of the information which public relations professionals disseminate to the media is "communicated impersonally" via the news release. 1 Honaker contends that journalism students are being taught to "hate and reject" news releases. He noted that in two surveys he conducted of editors in 1978 and 1981, the journalists were "repulsed" by the "fatuous" and poorly-written releases they received, used an idea from maybe one percent of these vehicles, and appreciated the public relations practitioner who "knows news, who has a sense of the language and who has sense enough to localize the news. ''z
Jl
Aligning Values Cline reinforces the point that these negative attitudes toward public relations practitioners and the news releases they send out are part of the educational training given those entering the news profession. She found strong biases against public relations in the 12 introductory mass communications textbooks she surveyed. Cline says students studying the mass media are being given "information that says public relations is a prostitute's profession, one which includes terrorists, the Ayatollah Khomeini and the first U.S. president to resign his office." These books, dominated by authors with news/editorial backgrounds, may "perpetuate the antagonism between reporters and practitioners" since they echo the "resentment of reporters for their former colleagues who have "sold out' to the higher-paying public relations jobs." Jeffers views the problem as being one of occupational stereotyping and finds that journalists do not consider public relations professionals their equals in status; in contrast, practitioners in his study assign a slightly higher status to journalists than to individuals in their own profession. 4
Methodology Almost a decade ago, Aronoff studied the attitudes and perceptions of Texas journalists toward public relations practitioners in an attempt to ascertain how these attitudes influenced the editors' decisionmaking. In addition, he conducted a like survey of practitioners to measure the similarities and dissimilarities of their perceptions of their role and of journalists' values. His study was replicated, with a few additions, in Florida early in 1984. 5 The first part of the Florida study consisted of 25 questions to evoke the respondents' perceptions of the public relations profession in relation to the news business. A seven-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree, was used to measure perceptions of each statement. The second part asked respondents to rank-order 16 professions/occupations in the order of their respect for them; journalist and public relations practitioner joined physician and politician, among others. The third section also requested a rank-order in importance of eight news values (mechanical/ grammatical accuracy and news story style were added to Aronoff's six) as perceived by the respondent. Journalists were then asked to rank-order the eight as they perceived public relations practitioners would rank them; public relations professionals were asked to do the same as they perceived editors would rank the news values. The final part of the survey was an addition to Aronoff's. In an attempt to elicit specific reasons for the rejection of news releases, editors were asked to rank-order six factors: lack of timeliness, mechanical/grammatical errors, lack of local angle, poorly written, lack of news values and lack of information. They were also requested to estimate the number of news releases received each week and the percentage used.
35
Public Relations
Rextew
Both editors and public relations practitioners were asked for demographic data to facilitate cross-tabulations of specific attitudinal questions. Frequency of publication and circulation were requested from journalists; public relations professionals were asked the type of organization they worked for (profit, non-profit), educational background and number of years in the profession. A stratified random sample was drawn from the 1983 Directory of the Florida Press Association to include all 50 daily newspapers listed (27 responded) and 51, nearly one-third, of all non-daily newspapers listed (20 responded). Questionnaires were addressed to editors; the response rate was 47 percent (n = 47). The Florida section of the Public Relations Society of America directory was used to draw a random sample of 100 public relations practitioners. Responses were received from 57 percent (n = 57); 70.2 percent (n = 40) represented profit-making corporations or businesses and 29.8 percent (n = 17) represented not-for-profit/non-profit organizations or groups.
The Role of N e w s Releases
More than half the editors responding (57.4 percent, n = 27) represented daily newspapers, and nearly that many papers (n = 26) had a circulation of 25,000 or fewer papers. Slightly more than one-fourth (n = 12) had circulations of 50,000 or more; six papers, more than 100,000. As far as news releases were concerned, nearly half the editors (42.6 percent, n = 20) said they receive between 51 and 100 a week, and nearly a third (29.8 percent, n = 14) receive more than 150 in that period of time. More important than the number of news releases received is the percentage used by editors and the reasons for rejecting the others. Nearly half the editors (48.9 percent, n = 22) use between 1-10 percent of those received. Only six papers use more than 25 percent (four dailies and two weeklies). Sixty percent of the weeklies use more than 10 percent, while only 48 percent of the dailies do. TABLE 1 Reasons for Editors' Rejection of News Releases
Category
Mean
Rank
Lack of news value Lack of local angle Lack of information Lack of timeliness Poorly written Mechanical/grammatical errors
1.617 2.170 3.234 3.617 4.830 5.532
1 2 3 4 5 6
36
~Uigning V a l u e s Editors reject news releases for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is that they lack news value, followed closely by the fact that they lack a local angle. Lack of information ranked as a reason for rejection, followed by lack of timeliness, poor writing and mechanical/grammatical errors. There was strong agreement among editors surveyed the public relations practitioners must consider the news value and local angle on any news release they send to the media. In addition, a common complaint from journalists is that important information is frequently missing, most notably time, place and date. On a breakdown by frequency of publication, newspaper editors showed one basic difference in their ranking of the six factors for rejecting news releases. While daily editors ranked lack of news value first and lack of local angle second, weekly news executives placed the lack of local angle first as their major reason for rejecting news releases. They ranked the lack of news value second. In an interview, Suzanne Levinson, suburban editor of The Miami Herald (circulation 421,000 daily), who has responsibility for the 11 Neighbors sections published twice weekly in The Herald, said that they receive 50-60 releases a day at each Neighbors office. They use less than half, and 85 percent of those are for the calendar. She said most are not newsworthy, are inappropriate for the zoned area and are too commercial. Levinson noted that one out of 10 public relations practitioners is really very helpful: "Most don't understand what we are looking for. They don't see our point of view. They know what they want and what their boss wants, and they want us to be their bulletin board." She feels that practitioners could be more helpful if they become "reporters for their company and provide us with vital information to get us started;" if they serve as a facilitator for the press, not blocking reporters' access; and if they look for the "different or unusual angle" and communicate it quickly in an easy-toread, accurate manner. Levinson offered three recommendations for improving relationships with the press. First, practitioners should have journalistic training and develop good news judgment; second, they should make themselves very familiar with deadlines and sections of the media with which they are working; and, third, practitioners should spend some time at the newspaper getting to know the paper and the staff. She added that summer internships or part-time jobs should be considered. Susan Burnside, editor of Tile Herald's Neighbors South (circulation 70,000) echoed Levinson by saying practitioners concentrate too much on the client and "forget the when, w h y and how." She said she receives a "lot of stuff that doesn't tell me anything--it lacks a news peg," and too many practitioners have a "scattershot approach to sending out news releases." She noted she often receives as many as eight of the same news release. Sources obviously need to keep mailing lists updated and not waste the editor's
37
Public Relations Review time. However, she concluded, "We depend on them; they're good sources of people and progress items, which is what Neighbors is all about." Mark Mathes, managing editor of The Lakeland Ledger (circulation 66,000 daily), estimated that of the 300-350 news releases his paper receives a week, about 60 percent are used. He said that public relations professionals are generally helpful, particularly those from larger companies, since they are "well-trained or know what the paper needs." He appreciates practitioners who are "candid and honest" and provide access to top company officials. Mathes said practitioners can be more helpful in three ways: first, they should get a solid background in newswriting, perhaps spending a year or two in a reporting job; second, they should get to know the representatives of their company and impress upon them the need to be "candid, honest and open"; and, third, they should get to know the editors and writers at the papers, visiting them and finding out what they will and won't run and why. He said practitioners "can help in a lot of ways and make our lives simpler.'" News releases which are incomplete or sloppy, or where facts are missing, won't be used, said Mathes. Be he is interested in people news and growthrelated projects and will use more of these than he rejects. Zoned editions and special sections, particularly those on business, allow newspapers to utilize a broader range of news releases, particularly people news, calendar items and appointments; however, editors stressed that it is important for practitioners to know what the zones are before sending releases. In an attempt to guide those in public relations to better provide what they want, some papers run one-day seminars where editors and reporters discuss how to most effectively communicate various types of information to them. Other papers have printed brochures; one example is "How To Get Your Press Release Into the Right Hands At the Right Time," put together by The State~The Columbia Record, Columbia, S.C. Many media are interested in developing more effective lines of communication with those seeking publicity. The key is to broaden those efforts throughout the industry. Perceptions of News Values, Roles In the survey, Florida editors were asked to rank eight news values in order of their importance to them and then in the order that they perceived they were important to public relations practitoners. Editors ranked "accuracy" first and "interest to readers" second in their own value orientation and "depicts subject in favorable light" and "prompt publication" as first and second, respectively, for practitioners. "Interest" and "accuracy" followed as 3 and 4 in their ranking for practitioners, while editors listed "'completeness" and "usefulness" to reader as 3 and 4 in their hierarchy. 38
Aligning Values
Editors placed "favorable light" and "prompt publication" at the bottom of their own value list. When practitioners were asked to complete the same rankings, their own news value hierarchy agreed almost identically with the editors' own hierarchy. Both ranked their top five news values in the same order and the last value for both was "depicts subjects in favorable light," which journalists perceived to be practitioners' primary news value. In contrast, in their perceptions of journalists, practitioners were fairly accurate (see Table 2). Editors' opinions of practitioners' values as they relate to news may be due, in part, to their perception of where both professions rank in status in a hierarchy of occupations. When asked to rank-order 16 occupations/ professions, editors ranked journalists first on the list and public relations practitioners 15, ahead of only politicians, whicla were 16. Practitioners ranked physicians first and politicians at the bottom, with themselves 4 and journalists 9 (see table 3). Obviously, editors feel they occupy a significantly higher status than practitioners. Jeffers c a m e to the same conclusion: " N e w s m e n . . . do not consider either practitioners in general, or the specific ones with w h o m they work, status equals. ''6 These perceptions of differences in status can and do affect attitudes toward cooperative working relationships. Those attitudes were best expressed in the first part of the study consisting of negative and positive statements toward public relations designed to elicit an answer on a seven-point scale of "strongly agree" (1) to "strongly
TABLE 2 News Value Orientations of Respondents And Perceptions of News Values Of Other Group Surveyed Editors
News Value
Factual accuracy Interest to reader Completeness Usefulness to reader Mechanical/ grammatical accuracy Prompt publication News story style Depicts subject in favorable light
PR Practitioners
Own Of PR Practitioners Of Editors OWtl Mean Rank Mean Rank Mean Rank Mean Rank
.55 .98 .40 .43
5 4 5 5
3.17 3.83 4.17
2.76 2.67 4.31 5.09
2 1 4 7
.17 .55 .21
5 3 5
4.62 5.90 5.31
4.60 4.57 3.76
6 5 3
.77
1
6.86
7.78
8
1.64
39
Public
Relations
Review
TABLE 3 Perceptions of the Status of Occupations/Professions Editors Occupation
Journalist Physician Clergyman Farmer Architect High school teacher Engineer Artist University professor Corporate executive Carpenter Barber Policeman Lawyer Public relations practitioner Politician
Rank
Mean
1
4.35 5.16 5.84 6.93 7.00 7.26 7.65 8.14 8.33 9.05 9.33 9.91 10.05 10.96 13.02 14.61
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Public Relations Practitioners Rank Mean
9 1 2 10 8 11 5 13 3 6 15 14 7 12 4 16
8.42 4.37 6.29 8.92 8.40 8.98 7.83 10.10 6.85 7.94 11.89 10.64 8.35 9.50 6.92 14.62
disagree" (7). An answer of 4.0 would indicate a neutral reaction. A large majority (85.1 percent of daily editors and 76.4 percent of weekly editors) feel that practitioners too frequently insist on "promoting products, services and other activities which do not legitimately deserve promotion" (mean = 2.64). Almost as m a n y (81.4 percent of dailies and 62.5 percent of weeklies) agree that practitioners "often act as obstructionists, keeping reporters from people they should be seeing" (mean = 3.13). N e w s releases are characterized as "publicity disguised as n e w s " by three-quarters of all editors (mean = 2.81). A majority (78.3 percent of daily editors and 70.5 of weekly editors) feel that practitioners too often try to "deceive the press by attaching too much importance to a trivial, uneventful happening" (mean = 3.17). With regard to the prime purpose of public relations, more than half of all editors feel it is to get "free advertising space for the companies they represent" (mean = 3.64). Nearly two-thirds of daily editors (6.29 percent) and almost half the weekly editors (43.8 percent) do not feel that practitioners are "typically frank and honest" (mean = 4.67). On the status question, 74 percent of daily editors, but only 37.6 percent of weekly editors, disagree with the statement that "public relations is a profession equal in status to journalism" (mean = 4.85). In contrast, 64.7 percent of weekly editors and 45.4 percent of daily editors feel that public 40
Aligning Values relations and the press are "partners in the dissemination of information" (mean = 3.94). In addition, more than half the daily (59.2 percent) and nearly half the weekly editors (47.1 percent) believe that practitioners understand such journalistic problems as "meeting deadlines, attracting reader interest and making the best use of space" (mean = 3.89). Of those practitioners responding, more than half (57.9 percent) have worked in public relations 10 or fewer years; another quarter (24.6 percent) have been in the field 11-20 years, and 17.5 percent have practiced their profession for 21 or more years. One is a veteran of 40 years. It is interesting to note that more than one-third (38.6 percent) have spent 5 years or less in public relations. In addition, half have done some graduate work or have graduate degrees. Almost all (94.8 percent) have college degrees. More than three-fourths (77.2 percent) feel that public relations is a profession "'equal in status to journalism" (mean = 2.33) and almost all (84.5 ~'percent) believe that public relations and the press are "partners in the dissemination of information" (mean = 2.36). Most (82.7 percent) disagree that the prime function of practitioners is to get "free advertising space" for their employers (mean = 5.83), and agree (89.7 percent) that they understand such journalistic problems as "meeting deadlines, attracting reader interest and making the best use of space" (mean = 2.03). They also largely disagree (72.4 percent) that practitioners play an "obstructionist role, keeping reporters from the people they really should be seeing" (mean = 5.26).
Conclusions It is obvious that the results of the Florida study reinforce the findings of Aronoff and Jeffers with regard to news values and role and status perceptions of journalists and public relations practitioners. Cline's contention that journalists are educationally conditioned to have negative attitudes toward practitioners has a great deal of validity when one considers that the news value orientation of both groups is virtually identical, with one minor exception (see Table 2). Public relations professionals are as strong in their assertion that they do not act as obstructionists and do not try to promote activities that do not legitimately deserve promotion as editors are in their assertion that practitioners are obstructionists and issue news releases which are merely "publicity disguised as news.'" Yet both groups hold the same news priorities and orientations. If public relations professionals do indeed put into practice those principles and priorities they profess to hold, perhaps editors' attitudes can be changed so both truly become partners in the dissemination of information. At the same time, if editors accept news releases believing their authors share a similar education and training in news values with them, perhaps the experience will be enlightening and the news releases will appear more informational and less promotional. 4I
Public Relations Rel~ew Finally, if indeed, as H o n a k e r points out, journalism students are being taught to " h a t e a n d reject" n e w s releases, t h e n communication and journalism schools a n d d e p a r t m e n t s m u s t w o r k t o w a r d facilitating a greater u n d e r s t a n d i n g b e t w e e n public relations and journalism s t u d e n t s and the goals a n d expertise of each. Both g r o u p s of professionals p r o v i d e a special service, a n d each m u s t be appreciated for its particular ability a n d contribution to the dissemination of information a n d knowledge. Both professions t h e n benefit, a n d so does the public.
References 1CraigAronoff, "Credibility of Public Relations for Journalists,'" PublicRelations Review 1 (Fall 1975), p. 46. 2Charles Honaker, "'News Releases Revisited," Public Relations Journal (April 1981), p. 25. 3Carolyn Cline, "The Image of Public Relations in Mass Comm Texts," PublicRelations Review 8 (Fall 1982), pp. 70-71. 4Dennis M. Jeffers, "'Performance Expectations as a Measure of RelativeStatus of News and PR People," Journalism Quarterly (Summer 1977), p. 306. STheresearch reported here on news values and roles is part of a more comprehensive study on public relations practitioners'/editors" news values and attitude perceptions. For more details, see Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver, David Martinson and Michael Ryan, Journalism Quarterly, Winter 1985. ~Jeffers,op. cir., p. 306.
Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education The Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization, established by members of the Public Relations Society of America in 1956, to foster, sponsor, and conduct basic research and study in the general field of public relations. For more information about the Foundation contact: Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education Room 1816 310 Madison Ave. New York, New York 10017
Foundation Publications
Committee
Peter Osgood (President, Carl Byoir & Associates, Inc.) Chairman
42
Aligning Values Of Practitioners And Journalists The wariness journalists feel toward public relations practitioners, and the consequent defensiveness practitioners feel about their communication zvith tile media, apparently has its roots in journalism education. Misunderstandings about the contributions both groups make to information dissemination move from the classroom directly into working relationships. The author of this article tested the attitudes of journalists and public relations professionals in Florida to determine how much understanding they have of each other's goals. While practitioners correctly assessed journalists" values, journalists failed to predict the professional values practitioners reported they held. Both groups disagreed strongly about the relative status of their professions. The need for professional reconciliation is readily apparent from the survey"s results. Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver is associate chairperson of the Department of Communication at Florida International University, North Miami.
ournalists generally measure the credibility of the public relations profession by their perceptions of the news values and motivations of public re ations practitioners and by the news releases which they receive from these individuals. Aronoff sees both the personal and impersonal factors as influences. The interpersonal interactions between practitioners and journalists play a "substantial role," yet the majority of the information which public relations professionals disseminate to the media is "communicated impersonally" via the news release. 1 Honaker contends that journalism students are being taught to "hate and reject" news releases. He noted that in two surveys he conducted of editors in 1978 and 1981, the journalists were "repulsed" by the "fatuous" and poorly-written releases they received, used an idea from maybe one percent of these vehicles, and appreciated the public relations practitioner who "knows news, who has a sense of the language and who has sense enough to localize the news. ''z
Jl
Aligning Values Cline reinforces the point that these negative attitudes toward public relations practitioners and the news releases they send out are part of the educational training given those entering the news profession. She found strong biases against public relations in the 12 introductory mass communications textbooks she surveyed. Cline says students studying the mass media are being given "information that says public relations is a prostitute's profession, one which includes terrorists, the Ayatollah Khomeini and the first U.S. president to resign his office." These books, dominated by authors with news/editorial backgrounds, may "perpetuate the antagonism between reporters and practitioners" since they echo the "resentment of reporters for their former colleagues who have "sold out' to the higher-paying public relations jobs." Jeffers views the problem as being one of occupational stereotyping and finds that journalists do not consider public relations professionals their equals in status; in contrast, practitioners in his study assign a slightly higher status to journalists than to individuals in their own profession. 4
Methodology Almost a decade ago, Aronoff studied the attitudes and perceptions of Texas journalists toward public relations practitioners in an attempt to ascertain how these attitudes influenced the editors' decisionmaking. In addition, he conducted a like survey of practitioners to measure the similarities and dissimilarities of their perceptions of their role and of journalists' values. His study was replicated, with a few additions, in Florida early in 1984. 5 The first part of the Florida study consisted of 25 questions to evoke the respondents' perceptions of the public relations profession in relation to the news business. A seven-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree, was used to measure perceptions of each statement. The second part asked respondents to rank-order 16 professions/occupations in the order of their respect for them; journalist and public relations practitioner joined physician and politician, among others. The third section also requested a rank-order in importance of eight news values (mechanical/ grammatical accuracy and news story style were added to Aronoff's six) as perceived by the respondent. Journalists were then asked to rank-order the eight as they perceived public relations practitioners would rank them; public relations professionals were asked to do the same as they perceived editors would rank the news values. The final part of the survey was an addition to Aronoff's. In an attempt to elicit specific reasons for the rejection of news releases, editors were asked to rank-order six factors: lack of timeliness, mechanical/grammatical errors, lack of local angle, poorly written, lack of news values and lack of information. They were also requested to estimate the number of news releases received each week and the percentage used.
35
Public Relations
Rextew
Both editors and public relations practitioners were asked for demographic data to facilitate cross-tabulations of specific attitudinal questions. Frequency of publication and circulation were requested from journalists; public relations professionals were asked the type of organization they worked for (profit, non-profit), educational background and number of years in the profession. A stratified random sample was drawn from the 1983 Directory of the Florida Press Association to include all 50 daily newspapers listed (27 responded) and 51, nearly one-third, of all non-daily newspapers listed (20 responded). Questionnaires were addressed to editors; the response rate was 47 percent (n = 47). The Florida section of the Public Relations Society of America directory was used to draw a random sample of 100 public relations practitioners. Responses were received from 57 percent (n = 57); 70.2 percent (n = 40) represented profit-making corporations or businesses and 29.8 percent (n = 17) represented not-for-profit/non-profit organizations or groups.
The Role of N e w s Releases
More than half the editors responding (57.4 percent, n = 27) represented daily newspapers, and nearly that many papers (n = 26) had a circulation of 25,000 or fewer papers. Slightly more than one-fourth (n = 12) had circulations of 50,000 or more; six papers, more than 100,000. As far as news releases were concerned, nearly half the editors (42.6 percent, n = 20) said they receive between 51 and 100 a week, and nearly a third (29.8 percent, n = 14) receive more than 150 in that period of time. More important than the number of news releases received is the percentage used by editors and the reasons for rejecting the others. Nearly half the editors (48.9 percent, n = 22) use between 1-10 percent of those received. Only six papers use more than 25 percent (four dailies and two weeklies). Sixty percent of the weeklies use more than 10 percent, while only 48 percent of the dailies do. TABLE 1 Reasons for Editors' Rejection of News Releases
Category
Mean
Rank
Lack of news value Lack of local angle Lack of information Lack of timeliness Poorly written Mechanical/grammatical errors
1.617 2.170 3.234 3.617 4.830 5.532
1 2 3 4 5 6
36
~Uigning V a l u e s Editors reject news releases for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is that they lack news value, followed closely by the fact that they lack a local angle. Lack of information ranked as a reason for rejection, followed by lack of timeliness, poor writing and mechanical/grammatical errors. There was strong agreement among editors surveyed the public relations practitioners must consider the news value and local angle on any news release they send to the media. In addition, a common complaint from journalists is that important information is frequently missing, most notably time, place and date. On a breakdown by frequency of publication, newspaper editors showed one basic difference in their ranking of the six factors for rejecting news releases. While daily editors ranked lack of news value first and lack of local angle second, weekly news executives placed the lack of local angle first as their major reason for rejecting news releases. They ranked the lack of news value second. In an interview, Suzanne Levinson, suburban editor of The Miami Herald (circulation 421,000 daily), who has responsibility for the 11 Neighbors sections published twice weekly in The Herald, said that they receive 50-60 releases a day at each Neighbors office. They use less than half, and 85 percent of those are for the calendar. She said most are not newsworthy, are inappropriate for the zoned area and are too commercial. Levinson noted that one out of 10 public relations practitioners is really very helpful: "Most don't understand what we are looking for. They don't see our point of view. They know what they want and what their boss wants, and they want us to be their bulletin board." She feels that practitioners could be more helpful if they become "reporters for their company and provide us with vital information to get us started;" if they serve as a facilitator for the press, not blocking reporters' access; and if they look for the "different or unusual angle" and communicate it quickly in an easy-toread, accurate manner. Levinson offered three recommendations for improving relationships with the press. First, practitioners should have journalistic training and develop good news judgment; second, they should make themselves very familiar with deadlines and sections of the media with which they are working; and, third, practitioners should spend some time at the newspaper getting to know the paper and the staff. She added that summer internships or part-time jobs should be considered. Susan Burnside, editor of Tile Herald's Neighbors South (circulation 70,000) echoed Levinson by saying practitioners concentrate too much on the client and "forget the when, w h y and how." She said she receives a "lot of stuff that doesn't tell me anything--it lacks a news peg," and too many practitioners have a "scattershot approach to sending out news releases." She noted she often receives as many as eight of the same news release. Sources obviously need to keep mailing lists updated and not waste the editor's
37
Public Relations Review time. However, she concluded, "We depend on them; they're good sources of people and progress items, which is what Neighbors is all about." Mark Mathes, managing editor of The Lakeland Ledger (circulation 66,000 daily), estimated that of the 300-350 news releases his paper receives a week, about 60 percent are used. He said that public relations professionals are generally helpful, particularly those from larger companies, since they are "well-trained or know what the paper needs." He appreciates practitioners who are "candid and honest" and provide access to top company officials. Mathes said practitioners can be more helpful in three ways: first, they should get a solid background in newswriting, perhaps spending a year or two in a reporting job; second, they should get to know the representatives of their company and impress upon them the need to be "candid, honest and open"; and, third, they should get to know the editors and writers at the papers, visiting them and finding out what they will and won't run and why. He said practitioners "can help in a lot of ways and make our lives simpler.'" News releases which are incomplete or sloppy, or where facts are missing, won't be used, said Mathes. Be he is interested in people news and growthrelated projects and will use more of these than he rejects. Zoned editions and special sections, particularly those on business, allow newspapers to utilize a broader range of news releases, particularly people news, calendar items and appointments; however, editors stressed that it is important for practitioners to know what the zones are before sending releases. In an attempt to guide those in public relations to better provide what they want, some papers run one-day seminars where editors and reporters discuss how to most effectively communicate various types of information to them. Other papers have printed brochures; one example is "How To Get Your Press Release Into the Right Hands At the Right Time," put together by The State~The Columbia Record, Columbia, S.C. Many media are interested in developing more effective lines of communication with those seeking publicity. The key is to broaden those efforts throughout the industry. Perceptions of News Values, Roles In the survey, Florida editors were asked to rank eight news values in order of their importance to them and then in the order that they perceived they were important to public relations practitoners. Editors ranked "accuracy" first and "interest to readers" second in their own value orientation and "depicts subject in favorable light" and "prompt publication" as first and second, respectively, for practitioners. "Interest" and "accuracy" followed as 3 and 4 in their ranking for practitioners, while editors listed "'completeness" and "usefulness" to reader as 3 and 4 in their hierarchy. 38
Aligning Values
Editors placed "favorable light" and "prompt publication" at the bottom of their own value list. When practitioners were asked to complete the same rankings, their own news value hierarchy agreed almost identically with the editors' own hierarchy. Both ranked their top five news values in the same order and the last value for both was "depicts subjects in favorable light," which journalists perceived to be practitioners' primary news value. In contrast, in their perceptions of journalists, practitioners were fairly accurate (see Table 2). Editors' opinions of practitioners' values as they relate to news may be due, in part, to their perception of where both professions rank in status in a hierarchy of occupations. When asked to rank-order 16 occupations/ professions, editors ranked journalists first on the list and public relations practitioners 15, ahead of only politicians, whicla were 16. Practitioners ranked physicians first and politicians at the bottom, with themselves 4 and journalists 9 (see table 3). Obviously, editors feel they occupy a significantly higher status than practitioners. Jeffers c a m e to the same conclusion: " N e w s m e n . . . do not consider either practitioners in general, or the specific ones with w h o m they work, status equals. ''6 These perceptions of differences in status can and do affect attitudes toward cooperative working relationships. Those attitudes were best expressed in the first part of the study consisting of negative and positive statements toward public relations designed to elicit an answer on a seven-point scale of "strongly agree" (1) to "strongly
TABLE 2 News Value Orientations of Respondents And Perceptions of News Values Of Other Group Surveyed Editors
News Value
Factual accuracy Interest to reader Completeness Usefulness to reader Mechanical/ grammatical accuracy Prompt publication News story style Depicts subject in favorable light
PR Practitioners
Own Of PR Practitioners Of Editors OWtl Mean Rank Mean Rank Mean Rank Mean Rank
.55 .98 .40 .43
5 4 5 5
3.17 3.83 4.17
2.76 2.67 4.31 5.09
2 1 4 7
.17 .55 .21
5 3 5
4.62 5.90 5.31
4.60 4.57 3.76
6 5 3
.77
1
6.86
7.78
8
1.64
39
Public
Relations
Review
TABLE 3 Perceptions of the Status of Occupations/Professions Editors Occupation
Journalist Physician Clergyman Farmer Architect High school teacher Engineer Artist University professor Corporate executive Carpenter Barber Policeman Lawyer Public relations practitioner Politician
Rank
Mean
1
4.35 5.16 5.84 6.93 7.00 7.26 7.65 8.14 8.33 9.05 9.33 9.91 10.05 10.96 13.02 14.61
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Public Relations Practitioners Rank Mean
9 1 2 10 8 11 5 13 3 6 15 14 7 12 4 16
8.42 4.37 6.29 8.92 8.40 8.98 7.83 10.10 6.85 7.94 11.89 10.64 8.35 9.50 6.92 14.62
disagree" (7). An answer of 4.0 would indicate a neutral reaction. A large majority (85.1 percent of daily editors and 76.4 percent of weekly editors) feel that practitioners too frequently insist on "promoting products, services and other activities which do not legitimately deserve promotion" (mean = 2.64). Almost as m a n y (81.4 percent of dailies and 62.5 percent of weeklies) agree that practitioners "often act as obstructionists, keeping reporters from people they should be seeing" (mean = 3.13). N e w s releases are characterized as "publicity disguised as n e w s " by three-quarters of all editors (mean = 2.81). A majority (78.3 percent of daily editors and 70.5 of weekly editors) feel that practitioners too often try to "deceive the press by attaching too much importance to a trivial, uneventful happening" (mean = 3.17). With regard to the prime purpose of public relations, more than half of all editors feel it is to get "free advertising space for the companies they represent" (mean = 3.64). Nearly two-thirds of daily editors (6.29 percent) and almost half the weekly editors (43.8 percent) do not feel that practitioners are "typically frank and honest" (mean = 4.67). On the status question, 74 percent of daily editors, but only 37.6 percent of weekly editors, disagree with the statement that "public relations is a profession equal in status to journalism" (mean = 4.85). In contrast, 64.7 percent of weekly editors and 45.4 percent of daily editors feel that public 40
Aligning Values relations and the press are "partners in the dissemination of information" (mean = 3.94). In addition, more than half the daily (59.2 percent) and nearly half the weekly editors (47.1 percent) believe that practitioners understand such journalistic problems as "meeting deadlines, attracting reader interest and making the best use of space" (mean = 3.89). Of those practitioners responding, more than half (57.9 percent) have worked in public relations 10 or fewer years; another quarter (24.6 percent) have been in the field 11-20 years, and 17.5 percent have practiced their profession for 21 or more years. One is a veteran of 40 years. It is interesting to note that more than one-third (38.6 percent) have spent 5 years or less in public relations. In addition, half have done some graduate work or have graduate degrees. Almost all (94.8 percent) have college degrees. More than three-fourths (77.2 percent) feel that public relations is a profession "'equal in status to journalism" (mean = 2.33) and almost all (84.5 ~'percent) believe that public relations and the press are "partners in the dissemination of information" (mean = 2.36). Most (82.7 percent) disagree that the prime function of practitioners is to get "free advertising space" for their employers (mean = 5.83), and agree (89.7 percent) that they understand such journalistic problems as "meeting deadlines, attracting reader interest and making the best use of space" (mean = 2.03). They also largely disagree (72.4 percent) that practitioners play an "obstructionist role, keeping reporters from the people they really should be seeing" (mean = 5.26).
Conclusions It is obvious that the results of the Florida study reinforce the findings of Aronoff and Jeffers with regard to news values and role and status perceptions of journalists and public relations practitioners. Cline's contention that journalists are educationally conditioned to have negative attitudes toward practitioners has a great deal of validity when one considers that the news value orientation of both groups is virtually identical, with one minor exception (see Table 2). Public relations professionals are as strong in their assertion that they do not act as obstructionists and do not try to promote activities that do not legitimately deserve promotion as editors are in their assertion that practitioners are obstructionists and issue news releases which are merely "publicity disguised as news.'" Yet both groups hold the same news priorities and orientations. If public relations professionals do indeed put into practice those principles and priorities they profess to hold, perhaps editors' attitudes can be changed so both truly become partners in the dissemination of information. At the same time, if editors accept news releases believing their authors share a similar education and training in news values with them, perhaps the experience will be enlightening and the news releases will appear more informational and less promotional. 4I
Public Relations Rel~ew Finally, if indeed, as H o n a k e r points out, journalism students are being taught to " h a t e a n d reject" n e w s releases, t h e n communication and journalism schools a n d d e p a r t m e n t s m u s t w o r k t o w a r d facilitating a greater u n d e r s t a n d i n g b e t w e e n public relations and journalism s t u d e n t s and the goals a n d expertise of each. Both g r o u p s of professionals p r o v i d e a special service, a n d each m u s t be appreciated for its particular ability a n d contribution to the dissemination of information a n d knowledge. Both professions t h e n benefit, a n d so does the public.
References 1CraigAronoff, "Credibility of Public Relations for Journalists,'" PublicRelations Review 1 (Fall 1975), p. 46. 2Charles Honaker, "'News Releases Revisited," Public Relations Journal (April 1981), p. 25. 3Carolyn Cline, "The Image of Public Relations in Mass Comm Texts," PublicRelations Review 8 (Fall 1982), pp. 70-71. 4Dennis M. Jeffers, "'Performance Expectations as a Measure of RelativeStatus of News and PR People," Journalism Quarterly (Summer 1977), p. 306. STheresearch reported here on news values and roles is part of a more comprehensive study on public relations practitioners'/editors" news values and attitude perceptions. For more details, see Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver, David Martinson and Michael Ryan, Journalism Quarterly, Winter 1985. ~Jeffers,op. cir., p. 306.
Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education The Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization, established by members of the Public Relations Society of America in 1956, to foster, sponsor, and conduct basic research and study in the general field of public relations. For more information about the Foundation contact: Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education Room 1816 310 Madison Ave. New York, New York 10017
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Committee
Peter Osgood (President, Carl Byoir & Associates, Inc.) Chairman
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