How the News is Supposed to Work
Last night's Cold Case had a storyline that took place in a broadcast newsroom in the early 80's, about when the news was getting to be profitable, not just a service for television stations. While I highly doubt the problems shown were that severe, even back then, it still plays off of misconceptions about the news (sometimes real, but often not).
So I felt that it would be important to let people know just how advertising and the actual newsroom interact, or not.
(Blogger's note: I may not have worked professionally in a newsroom, but I have worked in a few, and have experienced a few possible controversies based on the subject of PR vs. News).
To start out with, there are two sections for news organizations, basically of any kind: the newsroom and advertising. As long as the news is completely or partially reliant on advertising, those two sections will exist.
However, for all intents and purposes, those two don't interact all that often. Before any page layout or broadcast is done, the advertising section takes out what it needs (ideally without showing the ads, but due to time constraints this may not be done), then the news people take what is left for the actual news.
For a mass market, this isn't bad deal. If a story or another forces an advertiser out, another can come up or they may just eat the small loss.
The problem mostly happens in a niche market, like video games or technology journalism. There are fewer advertisers, which are often in the same subject as the news organization (which makes sense, because if gamers are watching, you'd want to sell games there). If an advertiser threatens to stop advertising, the loss is much greater. This is one of the major reasons that Gertsmann-gate happened, and why some other game journalists say they get plenty of pressure from the advertising department to fudge reviews.
I've experienced personally one other possible problem with PR vs news: when a press release becomes a news story.
And there are times that without any doubt a story that originated from a press release is news worthy. And because of this, reporters of any type are often get press releases shoved into their face, hoping that it would become a story (or as the PR side would see it, free advertising).
A reporter has to filter those press releases, and figure out what is news worthy. And more over, figure out an angle to that story that isn't a) biased for the company and b) is actually giving information that the audience wants. There are times that this can be hard, and reporters do make mistakes (or worse, just post the stupid press release in whole, IGN).
I do believe that most, if not all, reporters at least try to keep some objectivity in their news. If there's one thing that people should know, is that journalists are aware of possible problems and try to avoid them.
So I felt that it would be important to let people know just how advertising and the actual newsroom interact, or not.
(Blogger's note: I may not have worked professionally in a newsroom, but I have worked in a few, and have experienced a few possible controversies based on the subject of PR vs. News).
To start out with, there are two sections for news organizations, basically of any kind: the newsroom and advertising. As long as the news is completely or partially reliant on advertising, those two sections will exist.
However, for all intents and purposes, those two don't interact all that often. Before any page layout or broadcast is done, the advertising section takes out what it needs (ideally without showing the ads, but due to time constraints this may not be done), then the news people take what is left for the actual news.
For a mass market, this isn't bad deal. If a story or another forces an advertiser out, another can come up or they may just eat the small loss.
The problem mostly happens in a niche market, like video games or technology journalism. There are fewer advertisers, which are often in the same subject as the news organization (which makes sense, because if gamers are watching, you'd want to sell games there). If an advertiser threatens to stop advertising, the loss is much greater. This is one of the major reasons that Gertsmann-gate happened, and why some other game journalists say they get plenty of pressure from the advertising department to fudge reviews.
I've experienced personally one other possible problem with PR vs news: when a press release becomes a news story.
And there are times that without any doubt a story that originated from a press release is news worthy. And because of this, reporters of any type are often get press releases shoved into their face, hoping that it would become a story (or as the PR side would see it, free advertising).
A reporter has to filter those press releases, and figure out what is news worthy. And more over, figure out an angle to that story that isn't a) biased for the company and b) is actually giving information that the audience wants. There are times that this can be hard, and reporters do make mistakes (or worse, just post the stupid press release in whole, IGN).
I do believe that most, if not all, reporters at least try to keep some objectivity in their news. If there's one thing that people should know, is that journalists are aware of possible problems and try to avoid them.
posted by SeanM at 10:03 AM
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