READING DIARY: A response to A Compromised Fourth Estate? UK news journalism, public relations and n

A response to A Compromised Fourth Estate? UK news journalism, public relations and news sources by Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams and Bob Franklin.

This paper mainly focuses upon the concept of PR practitioners pre-packaging information for journalists. There are many ethical debates surrounding this topic, however the one I am going to focus on is the problems of PR carrying "an increasingly influential role"1 in the news gathering process. Lewis, Williams and Franklin state that this formula "signals source supremacy in news making"2, which contributed to my conclusion that PR practitioners take advantage of an over pressured industry for their own agenda. My argument is further supported by Baistow who claims, "journalists must establish their independence of sources or risk the fourth estate being driven by the fifth estate of public relations."3

Over the last decade journalists have became increasingly outnumbered by PR, as well as gaining tighter deadlines, thus contributing to desk bound journalism. This makes it harder for stories to be investigated in depth, and sources to be validated, hence why press releases and pre-packaged information finds itself so easily into the news agenda. This is made very apparent in news papers such as the Metro. Many pages are presented as beauty articles etc, however upon further exploration they are clear advertisements for selected brands. In order to investigate this further, I would distribute a false press release to several organisations, and see how many interpretations are featured in news outlets. The aim would be to prove, that due to the extensive pressures on journalists, that sources are not checked extensively.

In conclusion, the concept of the fourth estate refers to journalists and the news, and the term compromised relates to the idea that PR is controlling the news agenda through manipulation. My investigation would be to assume the role of a PR practitioner in order to provide evidence for the arguments I have raised in this short response.

1 Davis, 2002; Fletcher, 2006; Franklin, 1997, 2006; Maloney 2006; Manning, 2008; White and Hobsbawm, 2007

2 A compromised fourth estate? UK news journalism, public relations and news sources by Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams, and Bob Franklin

3 Baristow, 1985, pp. 67-77