Still stuck in "A love-hate relationship": Understanding journalists' enduring and impassioned duality towards public relations.

Abstract

This article reports the results of a qualitative survey question asking New Zealand journalists for their thoughts on public relations. The findings provide the first empirical support for the widespread anecdotal suggestion that there is a deeply held antagonism between these two professions in this country, but also indicate that the antagonism is not straightforward. Overall, the results show that many New Zealand journalists are profoundly conflicted about the value of public relations, often holding two dissonant views and expressing each passionately. These findings indicate New Zealand attitudes mirror international historical attitudes in most respects, but depart from them in some notable ways. The research gives a clearer picture of the origin and nature of some of the stereotypes and resentments that characterise the relationship between these two professions. It also raises important questions about the implications for both journalists and public relations practitioners of working within a relationship in which there are forceful and dichotomous conceptualisations by one party of another. The strength of ambiguous feeling evident in many of the statements suggests that there is a need to consider the impact on individuals and on professional decision-making processes of such entrenched, ardent, and in many cases hostile, views, as well as to question the applicability of this kind of longstanding professional cultural ‘stance’ to today’s changing media landscape.

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