Truth and Lies in PR and Media

It is foolish to believe that articles in media are the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is also imprudent to say that everything in the media is lies or untrue. The people that say, "I don't believe anything in the papers," can't possibly be right. They may not agree with the content of an article, and they may have a very healthy scepticism about the content of the media in general, but most people only know that Barak Obama is the President of the United States via the media having not ever seen him in the flesh.

Nick Davies, author of Flat Earth News, argues that journalists have become dependent on the public relations industry to such an extent that it is harming the media’s balance and objectivity in news reporting. Journalism’s primary task, says Davies, should be “to filter out falsehood” but journalism has now “become so vulnerable to manipulation that it is now involved in the mass production of falsehood, distortion and propaganda.” The easy access to information in today’s society, as noted by Frederick Williams- author of The New Communications- coupled with the rise of electronic communications and the media’s recent obsession with providing a constant stream of news, has meant that journalists are under ever-weightier pressure to file an ever greater number of stories. With this increased pressure, and given how email has made it easy, quick and affordable to disseminate press releases, Davies argues that the newsroom has become like a factory production line, with reporters’ role now being to “churn” out an uninterrupted stream of stories.

The change in the reporter’s role has had a striking impact on the reliability of the British news media. In a recent study of 2,000 news stories in several major national newspapers, researchers at Cardiff University found that only 12 per cent of the stories were wholly composed of material researched by reporters. Four fifths of the stories were wholly, mainly or partially constructed from second-hand material provided by news agencies and by the public relations industry. Journalism is easily influenced by PR, so if reporters are failing adequately to check their facts, then there are implications for the PR industry. The media has never before been so dependent on news stories created or influenced by PR. So, while a PR person’s job is primarily to provide information and opinion, they are in an almost uniquely powerful position when it comes to influencing the veracity of news that appears in the media. The industry as a whole must take care not to abuse this power, and be seen actively to contribute to the truthfulness of news stories. This leaves aside public relations’ ethical duty to the wider public. But that ethical duty to the public goes further than merely disseminating accurate and truthful information. If PROs have a duty to the public at all, then they must also be committed to influencing the media to ensure that what appears therein is truthful. Journalism and PR are two professions supposed to keep the public informed.

Over the course of the autumn and winter of 2009, more than 444 PR professionals from a wide variety of organisations and consultancies were invited to take part in an online poll to establish their opinions on the importance of honesty in public relations and the media. There are limitations to the poll. It is an online poll conducted in isolation- it analyses the opinions of a single industry's practitioners on the truthfulness of their own profession and on that of the media. Also, the construction of the questions encouraged respondents to take a very absolutist approach to the ethics of communication and lying - you either lied, so "Yes", or you did not, "No". In an absolutist sense, white lies are still lies, and we should be aware that if the industry absolutist in its defence - stating that its practitioners never lie - then they must also be absolutist in their communications ethics.

The results reveal a streak of cynicism within the PR industry, with the vast majority of PROs claiming personal probity, yet criticising their industry peers. Although 88 per cent of PR practitioners say they have never made a claim or disseminated information that they knew to be false, 73 per cent believe that public relations professionals lie in the course of their work. This huge disparity in perceived ethical conduct suggests that people in the PR industry have a very low opinion of their own industry. That said, 96 per cent of PR people agreed with the statement that they regarded themselves as fundamentally honest (55% "agree", 41% "totally agree").

When considering the media environment as a whole: presenting truth in an absolutist sense - as in the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth - is very difficult to attain whether by journalists, sub-editors, editors, advertising executives, publishers and public relations practioners. So if truth in this sense is unobtainable, the currency of the media can be seen in general as fact, opinion and interpretation of facts. Or maybe "angles".

There are often many unconsidered facts, opinions and interpretations that do not appear in articles, however dressing up lies as fact is of course morally reprehensible. Lies do appear in the media from time to time - unquoted "sources", someone in an online forum and maybe even journalists themselves. That does not mean that everything that appears in the media - either from a PR operation or a journalist is a lie. Both industries must necessarily provide fact because without those facts, trust as a source of information will be lost very quickly.

One does not need to write an essay on ethics to conclude that public relations, like journalism, has a duty to wider society to tell the truth. When a journalist checks facts, and puts the time into investigating an article in an unbiased manner, this gives more value to the article - both to society and often to the PR operation itself if the article or subject matter is truly useful to society.

Deservedly or not, the PR industry has a reputation among the public for spin and untruthfulness, and the survey results show that this perception is current even among PR people themselves. The issue of truth needs to be considered more by the industry rather than just through this simple survey. It needs to get to a point where PR people can be confident that they and their peers are acting ethically. When there is confidence about the ethics of people working in the industry, that ethical confidence will be communicated to critics. If public relations practitioners are not truthful, this threatens any genuine attempts to foster productive and mutually beneficial relationships with publics.

Read the full report: Facts, Angles, Opinions And Interpretations - How Much Is Truth And Lies In The Media