Das Verhältnis zwischen Journalismus und Public Relations. Ressort und Status der Informationsquelle als Einflussfaktoren.

Abstract

The theoretical departure point of this thesis is the determination hypothesis , for which Baerns first provided scientific evidence. She showed that Public Relations influenced both topics and their times of publication. Furthermore Public Relations is detrimental to the drive behind journalistic enquiry. In the field of Communication Sciences these statements were widely acknowledged, but also drew criticism. If correct, the statements contradicted both the function and the theoretically democratic role of the mass media. Furthermore, Baerns surveys were also based upon a ceteris-paribus assumption: ignoring all other factors that influenced the selection of information by journalists. The editorial department and the status of the source are two factors that have remained unexamined in regard to determining the relationship between journalism and public relations. Accordingly, my study inquires: Does the performance of journalism depend on Public Relations, and if so, what roles do the editorial department and the status of the source play in the process of producing, processing and disseminating information within a mass media? On the basis of current research into the relationship between PR and journalism, and suggestions made there, I have formulated six hypotheses on the determination hypothesis, the influence of the editorial department and the status of the source, and the journalistic process of selecting information. The aim of this research is to examine and more clearly define the determination hypothesis by observing editorial working processes, editorial structures, and production routines. I have chosen the Thüringer Allgemeine as my exemplary case; the market leader among the regional daily papers in Thuringia. The local editorial office in Erfurt and the state editorial office for Thuringia were compared in the analysis. Both editorial offices are distinguished by their close proximity to one another and their occasional use of corresponding information sources. On the other hand, according to the study Journalismus in Deutschland 1 the local and the state journalists appraise PR-sources differently: local journalists consider PR sources more positively than their colleagues from the political news department (in the case of the state editorial office in Thuringia) - an assessment that could be expressed in the acceptance or rejection of these sources of information. In order to collect data on the possible influence of editorial departments and the status of information sources on journalistic reporting and the publication of PR sources, in September and October 2004 I conducted participant observations of editorial offices, guided interviews with experts, and an input / output comparison of all written sources with the total reporting output.The results of the study fail to demonstrate that journalism is unduly influenced, in the sense of a problematic dependency, by PR services. Although journalists in both of the departments studied did use PR sources in their reporting, they gave precedence to their own texts. Less than a quarter of all reporting originated at a PR source. According to this, the journalists set their own topics, research these and fill three-quarters of their articles with the results of their research. A counterbalance of independently researched journalistic topics to adopted PR texts is present in every newspaper issue. When PR texts are adopted, the state journalists publish the majority of PR sources immediately after their receipt. The determination of the timing is weaker in the local editorial office. Compared to the total volume of reporting, department-specific differences are evident not so much in the frequency of PR texts adopted as in the type and kind of publication, for example; by taking on the source s central statement, in the proportion of research conducted in following up information from a PR source, and in the levelling of criticism and the exercise of control. In the selection of information, state journalists meaning predominantly political news journalists are more attentive to the status of an information source than local news journalists, who undertake to provide balanced reporting.The results show that only a comparison of the proportion of PR text printed to the total volume of reporting can provide information on the possible determination of journalism. This empirical approach creates a reference point with which to approach Schantel s criticism that the supposed determination of journalism by public relations was in fact a construct resulting from the failure to compare the proportion of adopted text to the total volume of reporting.