Another Threat To The Fourth Estate

Negativity and rampant skepticism apparently doesn't have the appeal it once had. The transformation I went through 30 years ago when I realized I had way too positive an attitude to succeed in journalism and jumped to PR is now becoming the predominent view, posing yet another threat to the future of the Fourth Estate.

The Miami Herald details it in a column by Edward Wasserman, a professor of the difficult subject of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University:

At last month's annual gathering of media academics, the difference in tone between journalism and PR sessions was striking. While the journalism people wondered and whined about how to recover a lost sense of purpose and direction, the PR academics were asserting an audacious and expansive view of their industry's ethical role: Not only should PR people be telling the truth; they should be telling their clients not to do things they'd be unwilling to tell the truth about.

As recruiting pitches go, that's a pretty good one, and it seems to be working. While the percentage of undergraduates majoring in journalism and mass communications has remained steady for the past 15 years, the proportion who intend to be journalists -- a slippery category that includes local TV anchors -- is apparently falling. Numbers are elusive, but academics seem to agree the main beneficiary is PR.

We see this in our recruiting. PR job applicants used to be the starry-eyed "I like people and love special events" types. Now we see bright, involved, change-the-world types -- the type that used to go into journalism.

But today, the world they want to change is one of negativity and imposed hurdles to progress, and they see journalism as a friend of that school of thought, and PR as a way to defeat it.

h/t Media Bistro