PR and the Media - Networking and Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

PR and the Media - Networking and Ethics - Essay Example Introduction Public relations are one of the most important parts of marketing. Public relation is one of the key elements of the promotional mix. Public relations can be defined as a way of communication through which the products or the services offered by one marketer is promoted or evaluated by a third party and hence this helps the marketers to develop an atmosphere of credibility and trust among the customers. Journalists and reporters happen to be one of the most important parts of the modern media. From the perspective of the marketing and public relations, the journalists play an important role as a reference group. The evaluation made by the journalists about an organization or a product can actually influence the buying behavior of the public and hence the marketers usually look to develop strong relationships with the journalists. However, among all these the ethical aspects of the journalism are some that needs to be maintained. The present study has been conducted in or der to analyze the relationship between journalism and PR keeping the ethical aspects of journalism in mind. Also the study looks to understand how the three different businesses can use one media connector to great effect (Belch and Michael, 2005). Part -1 How journalistic ethics affects marketing public relations professionals Journalistic ethics comprises of the principles of the ethics and good practices applicable to the specific challenges faced by the journalists. Presently this subset of the media ethics is mainly known as the code of ethics. Increasing influence of the public relation professional has been quite detrimental to ethical journalism. The role of a journalist in the society is to provide information that serves the best interest of the public. This needs commitment to the relatively less flexible principle of reporting the most balanced and accurate version of the events and stories. On the other hand PR uses persuasive speeches to serve specific interests. Howe ver, the public relations experts are not at all bounded by the ethical code of the journalists. To explain the roles of journalism and public relations in simple terms, it can be said that role of journalism in the business of reporting and public relations is inevitable. But the penalty of such conflicts would lead to the inevitable decay to the overall quality of PR and journalism (Kapferer, 2008). Importance of building relationships with journalists for the marketers The relationship of the marketers with journalists is extremely important and this is also the base of the interaction with the media. If someone is heading a startup company that has not been established yet it would be extremely important for the marketer to read the local publications and get the names of the local journalists and the reporters. Then the marketer may decide to contact appropriate reporter or journalist. It can be assumed that majority of the time the offer made by the marketer would be accepted simply because the journalists are constantly searching for news and happen to be a lot more approachable than what normal people may perceive. However it is also advised that the marketer should not appear as though the marketer is looking for free publicity because at the end of the day it is a win-win situation for both the parties. The same concept applies for established firms also as journalists can act as a credible source of communications as the buyers would