The Wake

You might say the first journalist was a caveman with a piece of chalk, and that the first public relations executive was the town crier. Much later (in the 1700s), both journalism and strategic communication (i.e. PR and advertising) in America were revolutionized with the emergence of the printing press and an independent United States. Today, both fields exist in a state of flux, again playing catch-up with innovations (the Internet, computer technology). Perhaps it is this congruency that has led to the misguided marriage of journalism and strategic communication in our society and educational institutions. This relationship is eroding the foundation of ethics for up-and-coming journalists and contributing to journalism’s perilous place in the world today.

In most colleges, advertising, PR and journalism programs are grouped together. The University of Minnesota’s own school of Journalism and Mass Communications is a shining example of this principle. However, the ideology, knowledge and skills behind strategic communication are very different from those involved in professional journalism. Moreover, with the rise and subsequent gorge-fest of American Consumerism, strategic communication’s role in society has become ethically questionable and incompatible with responsible journalism.

Hopes, dreams and aspirations are used to sell vacuum cleaners. Every culture, every person has been classified and dissected, trait by trait. We swim in a sea of messages intended to convince us to do one thing or another; primarily to buy shit we don’t need.

You awaken. The alarm triggered the radio - a commercial for Shane Company Jewelers (now you have a friend in the diamond business!). You get dressed, a flash of Levi as you zip. There’s a real barrage of logos in the bathroom - Crest, Colgate, Suave, Dove, Lysol, Cottonelle. Which shoes? Converse All-Stars? There’s a consumer group for everyone. You drive somewhere. Drive a Honda and buy gas at Conocco. Signs outside entice you to buy Marlboro, Camel, (lowest prices legal in the state!). On the road, billboards fly by left and right, “drink Smirnoff,” they urge, “find God.” Make no mistake – you are being targeted.

I’ve taken strategic communications classes – so I know all their secrets. It’s very simple really: you start with something you want people to do (like buy vacuum cleaners). Then you pick a homogeneous audience (middle aged housewives). You think long and hard about all the ways the people in your audience are the same (they all fear growing old and unattractive). You manipulate these similarities to craft a message that convinces your audience to do what you want (the MegaSuck Vacuum will make you young and sexy by eliminating housework). Then, you broadcast this message to the masses and cross your fingers. If your audience acts accordingly, then you’re good at your job.

Good journalism, on the other hand, is about the message itself, not necessarily about inspiring some kind of particular action. It’s pretty much the opposite of strategic communications because the content of the message is shaped by the story you’re telling, not by the effect you intend to have on your audience. An environment that teaches “spinning” the truth in pursuit of a desired reaction is toxic for aspiring journalists, and dangerous for the future profession.

Educational institutions are injecting the already bed-ridden journalism industry with young writers who have muddled ideas about bias and independent reporting. There is much confusion and debate about media bias. International news coverage often exposes journalists’ and media organizations’ points of view, while many American media organizations are adamant about the almighty, sterile “non-biased reporting.”

In addition to creating confusion about non-biased journalism, the combination of strategic communication and journalism in universities encourages the idea that journalists should tell people what they want to hear, rather than what they need to know. Thus, the industry’s tendency towards “puff” pieces about kittens stuck in trees.

Journalism in America has not always been this way. When Benjamin Franklin founded the Pennsylvania Gazette, writers and publishers were expected to have opinions. Journalism students who miss the difference between having point of view and having an agenda could use a reminder from Franklin himself: “Printers are educated in the Belief, that when Men differ in Opinion, both sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Public; and that when Truth and Error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter: Hence [printers] cheerfully serve all contending Writers that pay them well, without regarding on which side they are of the Question in Dispute.”

For any hope of surviving, journalism needs to get serious. J-school graduates should be brave, broadly educated, politically conscious writers. Public relations and advertising belong in business school.