Anya RichardsSenior Communications Manager

Powys County Council

Journalism, PR and Professionalism

Journalism, PR and Professionalism

Symbiotic RelationshipSymbiotic Relationship

JournalismJournalism

“[The Press] is like a beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about, bringing one episode and then another out of darkness into vision”

Walter Lippmann 1920s

PRPR

“the requirement, for those people in power, to shape the attitudes of the general population” Edward Bernays

“an industry designed to alter perception, reshape reality and manufacture consent” Stauber & Rampton (Toxic Sludge is Good for You, Lies Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry)

“truth has been destroyed by public relations executives, or ‘scum’ as we like to call them” Bryan Appleyard

What’s the problem, why don’t you like us?

What’s the problem, why don’t you like us?

• Don’t trust them

• It’s all about spin

• They don’t tell the truth

• Specialists in subjectivity

• Morally bankrupt

60% of the UKs national newspapers comprised entirely of wire service or PR material, with a further 20% containing at least some of theseOnly 12% of UK press articles are independently sourced

(The Quality and Independence of British Journalism – Tracking the changes over 20 years, Cardiff University, Journalism and Public Interest Project, 2008)

Arms RaceArms Race

What do you think PR is?What do you think PR is?

J + A = PRO

PR goes legitPR goes legit

2005 PR gains chartered status

PR recognised as a discrete occupation, with its own set of skills seen to operate to the public good