"Issue: Weather the Storm! The crucial methods of crisis communication"
172008

Index


The relationship between journalism and Public Relations has always been fraught with difficulties. They can hardly live with one another, nor can they live without one another. PR specialists fear what they believe flows out of journalists’s pens: criticism, incomplete interpretations and biased reports. Journalists, on the other hand, tend to try to imitate the behaviour of Pavlova’s famous dog in dealing with communications experts. As soon as they hear the word PR their eyes glaze over and expect nothing but embellishment. Their general impression is that PR professionals do nothing but spin stories. Additionally, journalists feel more and more short-handed. While the media, print in particular, are having to overhaul their business model to survive and the number of journalists constantly decreases, Public Relations has flourished. Critical voices have become stronger, claiming that an alarmingly high percentage of stories in today’s mass media originate from PR. Certainly this black and white analysis does not mirror reality, as black and white views never do. That is why Communication Director magazine has dedicated this issue to the relationship between PR and journalism. Ryszard Lawniczak explains how PR and journalism helped Poland make the shift towards capitalism. Samuel Marti¬n Barbero explores the role which education plays in influencing the two professions in Spain; and Nick Davies, award-winning UK journalist, criticises the insidious influence which he claims PR has in today’s media. I hope these fresh perspectives on an age-old dilemma will be a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate.

Marc-Oliver Voigt
Editor-in-Chief