Journalisms, Public Relations And The Politics Of Society-Client Satisfaction
By: Hashim Muhammad Suleiman, PhD
Stop, before you read, understand the context: This piece is about my understanding.
The world over, journalism is a noble profession that is geared towards the betterment of the generality of the population of the normative society it operates within. Journalism is about checkmating the excesses of the powers that be so as to have purposefully inclusive societies where leadership, particularly democratic one is answerable to the yearnings of the electorates.
It is postulated that any democratic society that has a normatively functional journalistic realm would never go wrong for long. For, journalism functions as an omnipresent entity, daily scouting the horizon and informing society where it goes wrong and how to be right.
Though journalism has its shortfalls, typical of all social institutions, the presumed positive side of journalism far outweighs its not lofty sides. Journalism is said to perform at least four basic functions and around eighteen further functions to any given society.
Indeed, the four basic functions of journalism include informational, correlational (enlightenment), educational and entertainment. While the other further eighteen functions of journalism include ethnicisation, narcotisation, mobilisation, agenda setting, framing, priming, watchdog, social construction, social representation, cultural transfer, ideational, political control, economics, ideological, cohesion, etc. However, many scholars argue that any piece about journalism functions should not forget the issues of journalism dysfunction.
Conversely, public relations is another strand of communication that is philosophically and professionally at variance with the concept of journalism. At philosophical level, public relations is for the betterment of clients that hire the services and the expertise of public relations. Professionally, public relations strives to project the positive side of those who pay for its services, hence the popular maxim Positive Communication.
Indeed, public relations itself has several, almost interloping branches that include political public relations, media relations, stakeholder relations, brand management, events management, pressers, celebrity management, narrative control, political communication, campaign management, sales promotion, etc. One common denominator among all these branches is the promotion of positive communication of whoever is footing the bills of the expertise of public relations. This itself is not professionally wrong as public relations, just like journalism, is also guided by its professional ethics and callings.
It is worthy of note that one professional can change professional lines, that is from journalism to public relations at different epoch of his or her professional progression. And, perhaps, that’s where the confusion sets in, in Nigeria. Nigerians are (sic) expecting a hitherto journalist who has moved into public relations, particularly political public relations to still maintain his journalistic flavour. Well, professionally, that’s not only wrong but suicidal to his professional life.
A journalist has the professional license and liberty to criticise and publish what others don’t want to see in print. However, a professional public relations expert has the professional license of positively changing what the journalist has published into a euphemistic truth to the brand and person of his principal. And he is both ethically and professionally right. His is about positive communication, he allows the journalist with his truth seeking while waiting strategically to colour the unearthed truth in favour of his principal.
So far, what we should appreciate is the fact that both journalism and public relations have their different clients to satisfy. While journalism satisfies the needs of society for objective truth, the public relations expert satisfies his clients’ subjective truth. Both are right, ethically and professionally.
The onus is on us to appreciate and understand the fact that today’s journalist can be a tomorrow’s public relations expert. However, being each call for different callings and different approach. The only misnomer is when one wants to be both concurrently.
Therefore, read what a journalist publishes as journalism and read what a public relations expert publishes as a PR stunt. Understand their peculiarities and hold them immanently to their different callings.
While a journalist turned public relations expert is no more a journalist, know that journalism is into the politics of promoting the truth while public relations expert is into politics of promoting the positive communication of its client.
Dr. Hashim writes from the Department of Mass Communication
Faculty of Social Sciences, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria-Nigeria
mshashim@abu.edu.ng
