Media and PR: The cozy marriage
Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations”. Orwell certainly seems to have hit the nail on the head with this observation. Almost all around the world, mainstream media coverage of issues is elitist (excluding the perspective of vast sectors of societies it claims to serve), ideologically exclusive (contrary to the false aura of “objectivity”) and reeking of PR tactics. Many ordinary people reiterate in various ways their distrust in media, it’s as if they are saying: "If you don’t read newspapers you are uninformed, and if you do you are misinformed.” Doesn’t leave us much choices, does it? Well, that might not be true but more on that later.
First, let’s see what warrants this rather harsh critique of media outlets and practitioners. Most people working in the media know, at least theoretically, what their duties should be: Reporting on events and issues in a manner that serves the community by attempting to convey the truth as best as possible.
Of course that is easier said than done, and so is every worthwhile endeavor man takes upon himself. Exposing lies (government, corporate, etc.), providing sound context (as opposed to a contrived one), and contributing to the raising of awareness and understanding respon-sibilities of a journalist. In the context of a Muslim society, it is almost a partial implementation of the widely misunderstood — especially in Muslim societies — Islamic concept of (Amr bil Marouf wa Nahi Aan Almunkar). I would roughly interpret this concept (though I don’t believe it carries the full Arabic meaning) into a watchdog function that attempts to guard the public against inefficiency, illegal practices, lies, encroachments on the rights of human beings, and any abuse of power.
Surely some journalists still believe in these guiding ideals and wish to practice them. The reality though is painfully different, and it is safe to say that mainstream media has failed the people. Some would even call it a betrayal, and they wouldn’t be exaggerating much.
Most of the newspapers and magazines these days read like PR releases and profiles, and television cannot claim to be doing any better. Is the use of the term public relations a mere analogy? I wish it were, however PR seems to be the trend of the day in media circles. It is so pervasive it became almost invisible to media people themselves much like water is to a fish.
Perhaps the fact that most universities treat the majors of media/journalism and PR as inseparable is evidence of this dubious marriage between both professions. But why is it dubious? In a nutshell, because journalism is concerned with truth while PR is concerned with beautifying images and perceptions of clients. It is not difficult to see how truth and the embellishment of image and perception can quite consistently collide.
It is important to note that PR is not exclusive to companies that want to sell products or services, rather it is a technique that is continuously sought and used by governments, private institutions or organizations (educational, medical, etc.), NGOs, and many others to: shift blame away from themselves, sell an agenda or even a war, cover up lies, and appear trustworthy. Just look up Ivy Lee and his invention of the “press release”, or Edward Bernays’s famous work on a vast propaganda operation for the White House to sell the idea of the US entering WWI to the American people (a fascinating documentary titled “Century of the Self” is highly recommended).
Those men were the fathers of modern day public relations and they wrote openly about “engineering consent” and manipulating the irrational masses for the benefit of whoever is lining their pockets. In this environment, journalists become middlemen between the PR company — who represents the client’s version of the truth — and the people, printing only what is safe and suitable to the interests of the “clients” and parroting the official line on everything and anything without questioning or skepticism. It is a strange state of affairs , and I believe that many journalists in the world resent this but are incapable of changing anything.
Nontheless , the question glaringly begs us to ask it: Why don’t we just lose the ineffective superfluous middlemen? After all, their only function appears to be legitimizing the PR story by portraying it as objective and professional journalism, thus lending credibility to a story that so desperately needs it.
Aaah, I guess we will not lose them then; they serve the purpose.
