Week 11- Let's talk about me for a minute

After a few weeks of looking at the industry as students, we've been given the opportunity to put on our journalism hats to research and write our own piece (scary stuff).

Image Source: http://ninjasandrobots.com/you-need-some-experience

Being ambitious, I've decided to go for a topic that's a little sensitive and completely out of my comfort zone- Politics. I've decided to go for a written feature because, well, I have a face for radio and the voice for print. Just joking, although writing is what I would consider my greater asset.

So the story I'm working on stems from the idea of WikiLeaks, but looks at the phenomenon of mistrust in the government. I've decided to hone in on this idea and keep it local, looking at the politics in my area Port Stephens. As of late there has been a bit of an outcry from residents to have ICAC investigate the Port Stephens Council, well so I thought. 

My research is leading me down a path a little different to what I expected. In a bid to be objective and tell the whole story, I've been speaking to members of the Tomaree Rate Payers and Residents Association (TRRA), a local Port Stephens councillor, the Editor from local newspaper The Port Stephens Examiner, Council General Manager Wayne Wallis and a local resident who has lived in Port Stephens since birth (impressive!). 

From the research I've done prior to interviews, it seemed that the resignation of Newcastle Lord Mayor Jeff McCloy had put doubt into the minds of Port Stephens residents and there was now this mistrust rife in the community, calling for a corruption enquiry. In particular into the 2012 election campaign of now mayor Bruce MacKenzie, and the council relationship with development company Buildev- as we've all heard it's illegal for developers to fund electoral campaigns. 

I've posted below a few links to articles I've used as background research and to provide a little context on the issue I'm tackling:

Newcastle mayor Jeff McCloy quit before being pushed 

ICAC: Investigate Port Council: TRRA

Bruce Almighty

Without giving too much away, my interview with the TRRA went as expected- they are in fact the body who submit evidence to ICAC. This interview actually went for hours; they had a lot to say. It gave me the impression that all local residents had it in for the local council, but further interviews made me realise that this may not be exactly as I thought. It's fair to say my research and interviews have given me different answers that I thought i would find. Some of the other interviewees were more tight lipped- understandable as it's a sensitive topic- although happy to talk nonetheless. I also managed to have a brief chat with The Examiner editor Anna Wolf, who gave me a run down on political coverage in the publication. 

My feature is still a work in progress, although I'm looking forward to constructing the final product. One thing I've learnt is chasing interviews is time consuming! I refresh my email inbox more than my Facebook lately, but it's a learning curve and nice to work on my own project for once. 

Of Course when I'm finished within the next two weeks, I'll post my feature in my next blog. Until then, I'll be writing! 

Week 9- Would you like spin with that?

Journalism and PR:

Image Source: http://kylajanebanks.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/pr-and-journalism-friends-with-benefits.html

PR practitioners and journalists seem to have a love hate relationship. Described by scholars as a ‘tug of war’, or a ‘parent-child like relationship’, media scholars have long studied and tried to understand the way in which these two separate industries work together. In today’s modern news landscape, research outlined by Jane Johnston shows that a lot of our news comes from PR, be it media releases, press conferences, even tip offs. A study conducted by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism along with news media website www.crikey.com (source: Journalism research and investigation in a digital world) found that nearly 55% of news stories were driven by some form of public relations.

As journalists, or future journalists so to speak, we can establish that balance, the right to know, and reporting objectively are our main goals (unless you’re Rupert Murdoch). But for PR, all communication is strategic, designed to influence opinion, and make clear a certain point of view. Differing motivations is one aspect that can cause conflict between PR practitioners and journalists. The idea is not that all PR people are shady, untrustworthy spin-doctors. Most perform their job in an ethical manner. But journalists have to be aware that sometimes, the information we get from PR is worth a second look before we send it off to print (but shouldn’t we know this by now!).

For instance, astroturfing is one maneuver that falls under the unethical PR category. It generally involves faking public support at the grass roots level, hence the witty name.

Take tech giant and Apple rival Samsung. According to engadget.com, this company was fined nearly $340 000 Australian dollars by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission for faking online comments in an attempt to market their already successful smart phone the Samsung Galaxy. Even though it’s only loose change for a billion dollar company such as Samsung, it goes to show that there are indeed consequences for unethical PR tactics. It begs the question, if the product is already successful, why fake online comments to make it look as if the public are digging the latest Galaxy? Sick of always coming in second best? Inferior to the iPhone perhaps? They do say jealousy is a curse...

With that aside, it brings to light the importance of always double checking PR and keeping in mind the motivations of some practitioners. In this 24 hour news cycle we exist in where time is a factor, we can be guilty of not fact checking and hastily publishing. But with that being said, some PR can make for great news stories, so it is important to judge individually and not generalize patterns of behavior.

So not all PR is dark and covert. It would probably be more appropriate to say that most PR is ethical. It’s important to build relationships with public relations practitioners and forge a little bit of trust. As journalists, it can be more beneficial to attempt to work with PR practitioners rather than against them.