The PR industry has even taken over a part oF the media.An early example was the 1995 joint venture between ITN and BURSON-Marsteller ,one of the most controvercial PR firms in the world .PR firms have become quite buzy developing certain channels .One venture pioneered by Brunswick,the secretive PR firm whose former CEO Stephen Carter recently became Gordan Brown’s chief spin advisor,provised what its called ‘Londons premier buisness presentation centre;based in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London .The Lincoln centre provides a webcasting servise for companies such as private finance initiative from Atkins and drinks giant Diageo,which are able to make their own uncritical video content that can be published online .
The PR industry is quite open and enthuastic about the reasons for webcasting .This kind of total messege control has emerged alongside the provision to news outlets of broadcast quality clips ,made uncritically and sometimes used by broadcasters without attribution.
In the US ,the integration of journalism and PR is further advanced ,and the recent trend has been labelled as journo-lobbying.Tech Central Station ,a washington -based project pioneered by the journalist James Glassman ,is a cross between a website and a magazine that acts as a lobbying company.The DCI Group,a prominent Washington Lobbying firm ,not only publishes the site,it shares most of the same staff and offices.
As Nicholas Confessore notes in washington monthly ;’The new game is to dominate the enitire intellectual environment in which officials make policy decisions ,which means funding everything from think tanks to phoney grassroots pressure groups’.
The wider projest of the PR industry is to do away with independant journalism while maintaining the appearance of independant media .The only solution in our view is to separate journalism from PR and ensure that lobbying firms must disclose their clients and how much they are paid for their work.
Is there a possibility to completely separate the two entities? As many other concepts ,PR and Journalism are interconnected or interdependant? Some people seem to have a very wrong notion of the Public Relations industry.It is typically what the word says establishing,maintaining and building relationships with the public and organisations .Controversies exist in every industry ,however,it is difficult to imagine a world without Public Relations specialists ….Public relations has always existed,under different names and canopies,it will continue to do so even with the growth of the new social media …
Richard Bailey said,
April 15, 2008 at 6:34 pm
But have you considered that Miller and Dinan might have an agenda? On what grounds do you describe Brunswick as ’secretive’: they’re the best known name in financial public relations…
radi6 said,
April 17, 2008 at 4:30 pm
There might be an agenda but i am a bit unsure as to how one can entertain the thought of separating the two entities.As we constantly realise in theory and in practice that a lot of concepts like Marketing,PR etc are interconnected ,it would be a rare possibility to separate PR and Journalism ? ‘Brunswick is the leading agency in Financial PR.the word ’secretive’ was used in the article ….