Are ‘journalists’ own problems’ aggravating their hostility towardpublic relations?—A study of Korean journalists

Public Relations Review 37 (2011) 305–313

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Public Relations Review

Are ‘journalists’ own problems’ aggravating their hostility toward

public relations?—A study of Korean journalists

Seong-Hun Yuna,∗, Heesang Yoonb

a Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Dongguk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea b Korea Medicare, Seoul, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 10 November 2010

Received in revised form 7 February 2011

Accepted 4 March 2011

Keywords:

Media attitude

Public relations

‘Journalists’ own problems’

Occupational sociology

a b s t r a c t

Journalists’ own job problems have been found to be detrimental to media recognition of

public relations: journalists vent frustration from their worsening job conditions at pub￾lic relations practitioners. This outlook of occupational psyche casts a shadow over the

bright prospect for media recognition of the profession. Journalists’ problems operate out￾side media relations, thus beyond direct attempts of public relations practitioners at media

recognition via enhancing professionalism in their practices. There have been, however,

only a few qualitative studies on this significant issue, all pointing to journalists’ occupa￾tional psyche running against media recognition. The purpose of this study is to determine

quantitatively whether journalists’ own job satisfaction and their envy of public relations

practitioners lead to their negative attitude. A survey of 128 Korean off-line journalists

was conducted, and its results suggested that occupational psyche has little influence on

media attitude—contrary to the findings of previous qualitative studies. For future study,

this paper issues a call for cross-country, comparative research on the subject of journalists’

occupational psyche.

© 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The ever-growing competition in the media market has resulted in strains on journalists in terms of increased work hours,

decreased salary, lowered occupational status and job satisfaction, weakened autonomy, and peaked burnout. This work

milieu of journalists—called “journalists’ own problems” (DeLorme & Fedler, 2003, p. 108)—has been cited as aggravating

their hostility toward public relations. The linkage between journalists’ work problems and their negative attitude to public

relations is a psychological mentality arising from the occupational sociology involving both professions. At the heart of

the mentality lies the view that journalists vent anger and frustration from their deteriorating job conditions at public

relations practitioners. Also, journalists’ envy of perceived better working conditions of public relations practitioners fuels

this occupational psyche.

Yet, the role of the problem or, by extension, the changing media landscape in forging media hostility has evaded serious

attention from public relations scholarship. A handful of studies, primarily based on qualitative analysis, have touched upon

this issue, not as the focal research question from the onset but as one of many descriptive and explorative findings on media

perceptions of public relations (DeLorme & Fedler, 2003; Sallot & Johnson, 2006; Stern, 2010; Tilley & Hollings, 2008). The

research situation is quite disproportionate to the role’s critical implication for the century-long efforts of public relations

∗ Corresponding author at: K 325 Culture House, Dongguk University, Jung-gu, Janchung-dong, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 02 2260 3929.

E-mail address: [email protected] (S.-H. Yun).

0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.03.004