PR Industry Fills Vacuum Left by Shrinking Newsrooms

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.propublica.org/article/pr-industry-fills-vacuum-left-by-shrinking-newsrooms?utm_source=socmed&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_content=tweet1&utm_campaign=PR



This story has been co-published <1> with the Columbia Journalism Review <2>.

The Gulf oil spill <3> was 2010's biggest story, so when David Barstow walked into a Houston hotel for last December's hearings on the disaster, he wasn't surprised to see that the conference room was packed. Calling the hearing to order, Coast Guard Captain Hung Nguyen cautioned the throng, "We will continue to allow full media coverage as long as it does not interfere with the rights of the parties to a fair hearing and does not unduly distract from the solemnity, decorum, and dignity of the proceedings." It's a stock warning that every judge gives before an important trial, intended to protect witnesses from a hounding press. But Nguyen might have been worrying too much. Because as Barstow realized as he glanced across the crowd, most of the people busily scribbling notes in the room were not there to ask questions. They were there to answer them.

"You would go into these hearings and there would be more PR people representing these big players than there were reporters, sometimes by a factor of two or three," Barstow said. "There were platoons of PR people."

An investigative reporter for The New York Times, Barstow has written several big <4> stories <5> about the shoving match between the media and public relations in what eventually becomes the national dialogue. As the crowd at the hearing clearly showed, the game has been changing.

More at the link --

[elleng]

1. Just what we need

NOT!

repugs have been using 'pr' for ages to slant and create 'news.' That is why we are where we are now, with a seriously uninformed electorate, and 'journalism' is dead.

[Ship of Fools]

4. i'm with you on this one for sure

[SidDithers]

2. Yup. Be cautious whenever you see someone using PRNewswire as a source...nt

Sid

[snot]

3. Great article! K&R'd and bookmarked.

[snot]

5. {self-delete -- duplicate}