From theory into practice: How intertwined are corporate PR, political PR and journalism in reality?: A content analysis of the communication elite in Germany from a biographical perspective
2017 (Engelska)Självständigt arbete på avancerad nivå (magisterexamen), 10 poäng / 15 hp
Studentuppsats (Examensarbete)
Abstract [en]
The relationship between public relations (PR) and journalism is not only a controversially discussed research topic in media and communication science but is also an important issue for practitioners and society in general. The decrease of journalistic jobs stands in direct contrast to the increasing demands for PR professionals. The increasing blurring lines between the fields were analyzed in this study from a biographical perspective. The aim was to find out how intertwined corporate PR, political PR and journalism in Germany are.
Theoretically based was the study on three theories that deal with the relationship between PR and journalism: the determination theory, intereffication concept and medialization theory. This study transferred the three theories, which view the two professions as strictly separated, from a theoretical influential perspective to a practical biographical one. Hereby, it was analyzed whether an intermixture of journalism and PR takes already place in the professionals themselves. Furthermore, it was examined whether the two professions can still be seen as separated ones as stated in theory or whether this is nowadays no longer applicable.
The sample size contained a total of 80 CV’s from heads of communication in Germany. A quantitative content analysis was used and the material was coded with a codebook into SPSS.
The study showed that the view on corporate PR and political PR led to different conclusions. They do have in common that journalism is an important field of departure. 35 percent of the corporate PR personnel have worked in journalism and 57,5 percent of the political PR have journalistic expertise. All in all, the professions of corporate PR, political PR and journalism are only intertwined to a minor extent based on the biographical analysis. Having the majority only changing fields one time one can say that a jumping back and forth between the different fields of communication does not often take place. This needs to be seen of course in terms of declining journalistic job opportunities. In corporate PR no case was found were a PR person turned back to journalism. The opposite was seen in the group of political PR where 10 out of 40 persons transitioned from PR back to journalism.
Ort, förlag, år, upplaga, sidor
2017.
Nyckelord [en]
Journalism, public relations, corporate, political, interrelationship, intermixture
Nationell ämneskategori
Samhällsvetenskap
Identifikatorer
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-36318ISRN: JU-HLK-MKA-2-20170115OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-36318DiVA, id: diva2:1113245
Handledare
Examinatorer
2017-08-082017-06-212017-08-08Bibliografiskt granskad