How organizations want to be viewed

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Public Relations Review 34 (2008) 74–76

Short communication

How organizations want to be viewed: Public relations

photographs in online wire services

Samsup Jo ∗

Department of Public Relations & Advertising, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Received 27 March 2007; received in revised form 21 August 2007; accepted 24 August 2007

Abstract

The study explored the characteristics of photos in online news wire services. Nearly 70% of the photos represented product, CEO

and events when examining photo content. The most distinguished purpose of the public relations photos were publicity and public

announcements, followed by image building. Almost all of the publicity photographs were provided by business/industry organi￾zations. Supporting arguments for the independence of public relations do not seem to be voiced by public relations practitioners in

the analysis of photos.

© 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Publicity photos; Public relations photos; Online news wire; Image building

1. Introduction

One of the biggest advantages of a press release is that it allows for free publicity whereas an advertisement requires

the purchasing of media to place the message. Public relations practitioners utilize publicity techniques such as press

releases, press conferences, and staged events. These are all designed to draw media attention. It has been known that

publicity has two major advantages over advertising: enhanced credibility and reduced costs compared to advertising.

Thus public relations practitioners believe that third party endorsement is an essential theoretical assumption to practice

media relations. Limited research exists on the public relations photos in spite of their enormous usage in public relations

practice. The present study attempts to examine the contents of public relations photos and its impact on media agenda.

Public relations practitioners value news releases, which provide news materials and additional background infor￾mation such as photos. Most of public relations research of information subsidy has concentrated on the relationship

between journalists and public relations practitioners, the proportional ratio between the news release pitching and story

placement on the news media. Although many studies have been conducted to examine how news releases appeared in

news media, little study has sought to examine publicity photos presented to media. Although photographs have long

accompanied news releases, the study of publicity release photographs has not been explored extensively. The general

purpose of this study is to examine public relations photos on the PR News Wire (http://www.prnewswire.com/) and

Business News Wire (http://www.businesswire.com/), whose electronic news releases are distributed to media.

∗ Tel.: +82 2 710 9377.

E-mail address: [email protected].

0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2007.08.022