Legitimacy, Public Relations, and Media Access: Proposing and Testing a Media Access Model

Abstract

This study examines how an organization's access to the media reflects two sets of influences—its public relations (PR) expertise and legitimacy. A context of stem cell and the cloning debate is used to test the relationships. Two surveys and a content analysis show that the legitimacy of sources perceived by journalists has an impact on the regularity and valence of those sources' media coverage, whereas the PR expertise of sources does not have an impact on any of the media access indicators. Public relations expertise, however, shows some impact on the legitimacy of sources as perceived by journalists, indicating that legitimacy operates as an intervening variable between PR expertise and media access of sources.