PR professionals discuss on the changing face of the news industry and its impact on PR practices, reports Kavita Bajpai and Neha Bachuwar
PRCI is a council body which provides a platform to upcoming PR professionals to exchange their ideas and thoughts. It has influenced various corporate, media houses and other related fields to gather under the same roof and discuss related emerging issues in the country. The views and experiences shared by the professionals at the PRCI Global Meet help the participants to build up a large network, which would guide them to create a niche in their professional careers ahead.
The Panel discussions encompassed themes on climate change, communications, and practitioner’s dilemma which were related to the emerging trends in marketing, media, PR and other related communication domains. The first group of invited panelist who spoke on the theme Adapting PR to Media Aggression were Jitendra Bhargava (Former PR Executive Director, Air India), Sunil Jain ( Sr. Associate Editor, Business Standard), S. Bhattacharjee (News Editor, Financial Express), Deepak Jolly (Vice President, Corporate Communications, Coca-Cola India).
Moderating the panel, Bhargava emphasized on PR and media relations. According to him, “The competence level is high and the media channels are increasing. Every media professional needs to be immediate and fast.”
Panelists discussed on how earlier journalists and PR professionals used to work in tandem. But the scenario has changed tremendously over the past five years. The communication industry is becoming more profit oriented and everyone has become more career-oriented.
The discussion then moved towards the change in scenario of media and its response. Jolly said, “Media doesn’t report the real face but information from some unreliable sources which gets published and transferred to public domain.”
As the discussion moved on Bhattacharjee strongly pointed out, “The thin line which divides news and paid news disappears when we focus on the relationship of journalists and PR professionals.” He added that most of the companies are absolutely clear about what should be spoken about. PR professionals need to change their perception that anything can be polished simply by offering money to the media i.e. paid news, rather than focusing upon the quality of news and information exchange.
At the end of the discussion, Sunil Jain elaborated on the category of journalists. “First who know the subject, second those who don’t know but are willing to know and the third are those who don’t know the subject but have the mindset of knowing everything,” quipped he.
Deepak Jolly gave an example to prove the above statement, “Around 15 years ago, a journalist published a news about Shiv Sena chief who wanted to have chicken, but the fact was he was a vegetarian. All this happens because the journalist himself doesn’t make the headline.”
Bhattacharjee concluded on a positive note by stating that developments are happening and journalists are changing.
