Original scientific paper
The Influence of Public Relations Services on (Non)Transparency of News Sources in Television Journalistic Texts
Vesna Laban
Abstract
Public relation agencies, which appeared in response to growing needs to
cultivate the relationship between different social actors and mass media, have
under the specific circumstances of modern capitalism developed in all present,
cheap and therefore indispensable partner in the process of mass media
production. Their press releases and press conferences are treated with special
journalistic attention, and this is connected with their raising influence on
modern journalistic discourse. The content analysis of television news reporting
and the comparison with information, that come daily into the editorial office,
reveals a high level of totally non-transparent sources of information;
these are mostly press releases and other texts released by public relations
agencies and practitioners. This information, obtained through entirely routine
channels, is perfectly composed and they most often reach the public unchanged.
The most frequently used and the most transparent sources in journalistic
texts are the “real” official sources – representatives of social, economic
and political power and authority. Therefore information is no longer a
right, but a privilege, and this has negative consequences not only on journalism
as profession, but on all society.
Keywords
public relation services; transparency of sources of information; sources of information; television journalism
Hrčak ID:
22996
URI
Publication date:
25.6.2005.
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