Influence of the political PR on the editorial policies of Montenegro dailies case studies of the dailies Pobjeda, Dan, Vijesti and Dnevne novine

Abstract

PR services of state institutions, political parties and NGOs strive to reach the citizens through the media. The spokespersons and PR staff try to promote the ideas and goals they represent to the general public and use various methods and techniques to this end. Although the services dealing with PR and the relations with the media in Montenegro are rare, it is evident that the phenomenon of placing information had been an accepted practice even before these services were established. This paper will try to determine the extent to which the political PR affects the editorial policies of the dailies in Montenegro, as well as the consequences. We start from an assumption that the organizations with political activities do influence the media thus indirectly influencing wider public, too. A method of quantitative and qualitative analysis of the content of media releases and as well as a comparative method were used. The dailies published in Montenegro, namely Pobjeda, Dan, Vijesti and Dnevne novine are the subject of analysis, while the period of analysis is the period following announcement of electoral results in presidential elections of Montenegro i.e. April 20-26th, 2013. The study will determine to what extent the PR services are used sources of information and how much the journalists process or otherwise directly copy the information received, how many releases are sent to the media, if they are crosschecked at all and how much the media have reported on current events or independently searched for particular information.