How public relations functions as news sources in China

Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 697–703

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Public Relations Review

How public relations functions as news sources in China

Xianhong Chena, Ouyang Chena,∗, Ni Chenb

a School of Journalism and Information Communication, Huanzhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu street, Wuhan, Hubei, China b Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 25 September 2011

Received in revised form 5 April 2012

Accepted 14 April 2012

Keywords:

News sources

Involvement

News coverage

Public relations

a b s t r a c t

This study re-conceptualizes the interaction between public relations (PR) practitioners and

journalists in news construction. Proposing a new conceptual framework of “news-source

involvement,” this study applies two dimensions – “involvement width” and “involvement

density” – when examining how information and/or stories generated by PR people affect

news coverage. Empirically,this study identifies seven types of news sources derived from a

systematic content analysis of 1600 stories in four selected Chinese newspapers from 2001

to 2010 – 10-year period. The major findings include: (1) information subsidy has become a

popular phenomenon in China; (2) over the past decade, the Chinese government has been

slowly but surely becoming more tolerant of public’s expression of their opinions relating

to social and political issues. Though the government remains as the dominating “news

source” for newspapers, other non-mainstream news sources (e.g. grass-root civilian) have

emerged. Growing from the used-to-be “silent mass,” they have become the “subordinate

majority” nowadays, having strong influence in certain coverage; and (3) PR people as one

of the major news sources, interact with media in a selective manner; and such interaction

takes places largely on tactical level.

© 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Much as their Western counterparts, Chinese Public Relations practitioners treat management of media relations as their

most important job. By supplying news reporters with press releases or other news-worthy material, they aim to help

their clients obtain more exposure, higher recognition and better reputation. This is becoming increasingly popular among

Chinese journalists, particularly when they rely on PR practitioners in information collection or study on complex issues

involving science, medicine, education, and social welfare. In this sense, PR practitioners, government publicists and interest

groups’ communicators tend to play more and more a key role in shaping news coverage in China. Acting as news sources,

PR practitioners are affecting Chinese news construction with clearly defined PR strategy and tactics so significantly that

they tend to affect media and, subsequently, social realities.

Little scholarly attention has, however, been devoted to how media interact with PR as news sources in China. Few

empirical studies on this issue from a public relations perspective have been generated. Hence is this study, which aims to

explore the PR influence on news construction in China with a content analysis of how four newspapers in China engaged

with PR supplied news sources from 2001 to 2010.

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 18676666422.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (X. Chen), [email protected] (O. Chen), [email protected] (N. Chen).

0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.04.007