The changing and challenging environment of journalism is a topic we always discuss with our clients. Traditional media (broadcast and print) has been under siege by a new medium (the internet) and outlets (blogs). Their revenue-generating business models have failed to adapt to the new environment resulting in slashed budgets and staff and the disappearance of many print publications. Journalists that survive are now often responsible for multiple beats and have access to reduced resources to investigate stories. Media outlets inevitably depend on third party sources for a significant part of their news.
In many cases the new environment helps our clients disseminate their stories as they can help journalists understand the significance of news relevant to our clients. Our clients can help journalists reach out to experts in a particular field who can add color and perspective to their stories.
In some cases, however, the new environment can lead to the dissemination of misinformation. This was highlighted in an article by Mark Bowden in the October issue of The Atlantic. The article, entitled The Story Behind the Story, describes how a political activist blogger, looking for information to challenge the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, found archived speeches and panel discussions that included significant material from the Judge. He downloaded segments that he believed made the case against her and sent them to numerous broadcast outlets. The outlets, apparently without identifying the context in which the comments were made, broadcast them on national television. The segments, taken out of the context in which they were found, put the judge in a negative light. Media has a responsibility to act as arbiters of the news and to critically evaluate a story that is submitted to them. Unfortunately, possibly due to journalism’s challenging environment, the outlets did not do their job vetting the story and putting the comments in the correct context so that their viewers would have a better understanding of what she said.
There is not much that we, as public relations counselors, can do about the post-journalistic environment. What we advise to our clients is to manage it by focusing on what they can control, which is the key messages they want to communicate about their company.
