Consider how the trend of shrinking news rooms affects how you perform your job as a public relations professional. Are there ethical considerations? According to the 2006 State of the News Media Report, newsrooms are in trouble due to shrinking news staffs and increasing pressure for profitability. In 2005, The New York Times cut 60 people from its newsroom; the Los Angeles Times, 85. The smaller the newsrooms and the fewer support services the reporter has, the more receptive the reporter will be to pitches from PR professionals. After all, the need for detail-rich stories and visuals hasn’t gone away. According to a 2004 survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Committee of Concerned Journalists, 66 percent of national news people and 57 percent of the local journalists questioned believe that increased bottom line pressure is “seriously hurting” the quality of news coverage.
Here are some ethical considerations to ponder as a public relations practitioner in this volatile news environment:
- Does the lack of fact-checkers in the news room lower my accountability in ensuring my information, statistics and figures are always completely accurate?
- Does the increasing likelihood that a news release may run verbatim affect the way I write that news release?
- Am I ever tempted to target a hole in the news room with more attention?
- How often do I consider photos, B-roll or a video news release as critical to the chances my story will be picked up by a news department?
- Has my relationship with a reporter changed after their news room has shrunk?
Above all, public relations practitioners must be cognizant of these changes to the news environment and examine our actions to ensure they are ethical. |
