Curating conversations in times of transformation: Convergence in how public relations and journalism are “Doing” communication

Abstract

Purpose: In an era of networked production of the public sphere and with the arrival of new communicator roles such as citizen journalists, influencers and bloggers, the “old” roles and professions of “the journalist” and “public relations professional” are challenged. In this paper, avoiding the familiar debate about antagonisms between journalism and public relations, we provide empirical insights that identify specific characteristics of a convergence in the “doing” of public relations and journalism. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper presents recent data from a series of comparative interviews, conducted in Central Europe (Austria, n = 10, Germany, n = 25), New Zealand ( n = 7), Australia ( n = 25), and the Pacific Islands ( n = 5). The conversational narrative interviews bring in self-reflections on skillsets, professions, normative frameworks and the doing of professional communication from a range of communicators, primarily public relations practitioners and journalists, but also activist campaigners, science communicators, bloggers, and social influencers. Findings: The findings show that while interviewees were likely to represent their roles as related to a singular, across those roles they presented what they did – the “doing” – as akin to that of an authorial “curator” of communication in the context of societal transformations and constantly changing and converging media environments. Across different communicator roles professional communication is increasingly perceived as a co-creational process of entering, initiating, sometimes managing, and, thus, driving public discourses and conversations. Originality/Value: The paper complements the debate around skills and professionalization in public relations and adds to broader discussions about role responsibility, agency, and authorship related to public conversations in an age of digital transformation and social change by bringing in the concept of curating as the co-operative ‘management of stories’ between, and across, professional roles.

Scooped by the town drunk”: COVID-19 as an actor in the rural journalist’s network

“…While journalists did not tend to identify this as a professional identity shift, they noticed that it affected their relationships with audiences, in that audiences would critique them for taking political stances and adopting a collaborative role. This aligns with and extends recent research finding that public relations is increasingly integral to rural journalism work (Weder et al 2023;Perreault et al 2023). This role also reflected journalists' intimate relationships with their publics, a tension that rural journalists felt was especially acute as it threatened their relational identities (Wahl-Jorgensen, 2022b; Wahl-Jorgensen & Boelle, 2023).…”

“…These newsrooms also feel crises, such as COVID-19, heavily; the pandemic reinforced the importance of small-town local news and journalists' senses of value while also exacerbating budget concerns (Finneman et al, 2021). Beyond the pandemic context, rural journalists are supported by shrinking populations and staffing shortages as more people move to urban and suburban spaces (Davis et al, 2022;Walsh & Martin, 2021) -hence relying to an increasing degree on local public relations to serve their local audiences (Weder et al, 2023).…”

“…Finally, COVID placed an information-dissemination burden on journalists beyond what they had previously experienced. This burden resulted in an identity shift, with journalists adopting more collaborative professional identities than they had previously occupied (Perreault & Perreault, 2021;Perreault et al, 2023;Weder et al, 2023). In rural and small-town areas, where journalists already faced some suspicion because of their outsider status, increased government alignment put additional pressure on relationships.…”

Revisiting Hallin and Mancini's Media Model: Albania and Kosovo

“…The qualitative study of the newsroom is an effective method for this problem because the researcher defines some key themes that he wants to explore (Nelson & Tandoc, 2019). This role of the journalist comes from the perception he has of what is expected of him, his personality, integrity, attitudes, knowledge, professional ideals, and the challenges in the era of digital journalism (Weder et al, 2023;Ferrer-Conill & Tandoc 2018).…”

“Everything Else is Public Relations” How Rural Journalists Draw the Boundary Between Journalism and Public Relations in Rural Communities

“…Journalists primarily provide context and facilitate discourse around information of consequence such as education, politics, health, disaster, and economics. They often are dependent on public relations content to provide this information (Gandy, 1982;Weder et al, 2023). The Public Relations Society of America code of ethics de nes PR as "a strategic communication process that builds mutually bene cial relationships between organizations and their publics" (PRSA, 2023).…”