Determination thesis

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The determination thesis , often also called the determination hypothesis, is a model for explaining the relationship between journalism and public relations . The term comes from journalism and communication studies .

The model

Communication scientist Barbara Baerns developed the determination thesis - even if she didn't call it that herself. The starting point for them was the conspicuous consonance (agreement) of the reporting of different media on each topic. In its study, which was completed in 1981, it compared the state public relations work (PR) in North Rhine-Westphalia in the form of press releases and press conferences with the general reporting on state political issues in the press. It found that 60–70% of media coverage is due to public relations work. From her research results she concluded:

  • The journalistic job description of the independent critical reporter contradicts actual job characteristics in the division of labor and large company organized and scheduled production process.
  • The more influence PR has, the less influence journalism has (and vice versa). (Baerns calls this a "zero-sum game".)
  • Journalists (including agency journalists) act passively as mediators when it comes to PR material. The meaningfulness of PR messages is hardly changed by journalism.
  • There is a reduction in the variety of information to the different interpretation, selection and media-technical-dramaturgical implementation of the given material.
  • As an autonomous information system, journalism takes a back seat to the self-portrayal of PR. The service of the media consists largely in the reflection of what is offered by PR.

Critique of the determination thesis

These results have led science to further study the relationship between PR and journalism. Criticisms include:

  • the methodological one-sidedness (only the influence of PR on journalism examined),
  • the disregarded differences in different media,
  • the disregarded other influencing factors on journalism,
  • the view that PR and journalism are competing systems. Baern's model does not allow both systems to benefit symbiotically from one another, e.g. B. through media partnerships at events and economic advantages for the journalistic system through, for example, inexpensive takeover of PR material and subsequent reporting.
  • the neglected difficulties of PR in communicating its messages in crisis situations.

Further development of the determination thesis

The research results triggered a great deal of research in this area. Research findings in other regions have made the determination model appear overly simplistic.

In 1985, René Grossenbacher examined 18 Swiss newspapers with regard to the processing of information material from 53 press conferences using an input-output analysis . In addition, he asked 12 journalists about how they deal with sources, about work processes and about their professional self-image. His conclusion:

  • Hardly any modification of the PR texts by the journalists except for increasing quotations and neutralizing the language. The actual production of information is the responsibility of PR; journalism is only responsible for the selection, neutralization and compression of the input.

Grossenbacher thus confirmed Baern's thesis for the Swiss newspapers that public relations determine journalism. At the same time, however, he stated that there was a mutual dependence.

In 1992, Wolfgang Donsbach and Henrike Barth examined the reporting of press conferences. They come to the conclusion that there is a competitive relationship between the two systems in the design of media content:

  • Selection of topics by professional values ​​and goals of the journalist; active role of the journalist in the procurement and selection of media content
  • The construction of the media content is determined by the PR of the political, economic and social actors; passive role of the journalist, which is mainly due to the structures of the communication system.

This means that the influence of PR on journalism varies. This depends on the one hand on the news value of the event (for example, crisis press conferences are more researched by journalists than everyday press conferences) and on the other hand on the journalist's attitude towards the source. In the sense that the WWF would express itself positively about nuclear power, whereas a press conference about nuclear reactors would be more negative.

In 1992 Saffarnia came to completely different conclusions for the Austrian daily Kurier with regard to the handling of PR material. The result:

  • High transformation performance / personal contribution by journalists (additional research, commenting, ...)

The determination thesis is now considered out of date because it does not consider all aspects of the relationship between journalism and PR. Other models, such as the integration model, have expanded the determination thesis. Systems-theoretical considerations about the relationship between journalism and PR currently dominate in communication science, albeit on a very high level of abstraction.

Medialization thesis

In contrast to the determination thesis, the medialization thesis assumes that public relations are subject to journalism or the media. From this perspective, too, there is an imbalance in the power relationship between the two actors. But representatives of the medialization thesis assume the opposite direction of action and focus the considerations on the influence of the media on public relations. The thesis is primarily used in relation to political communication and political public relations.

The approach emerges from a comparatively recent debate ( medialization ) in communication science, which deals with the increasing importance of mass media for society and politics and sees a problematic dependency. The consequence of the growing relevance of the media is therefore the adaptation of politics and thus also its public relations work to the logic of the media system. This goes hand in hand with an increasing importance and professionalization of public relations. This has the consequence, for example, that political parties change and adapt events such as party congresses with a view to the later reporting by the media. This also includes adapting the communication strategy during the election campaign.

Nevertheless, the medialization thesis does not assume that public relations are controlled by the media, but rather by self-control. Whether it is a "voluntary submission", as the former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt called it, or not is a matter of debate in research.

From the point of view of the medialization thesis, the relationship between public relations and journalism appears problematic for some authors, since organizations would become dependent on the media. This happens because they are dependent on their function as message transmitters, which in turn make demands on the information they report on. News value research, for example, deals with these requirements of the media with its 'news factors', which describe the properties of news “which contribute to making them worthy of publication or providing them with news value”. The agenda setting and the framing approach also deal with the selection processes of journalism. The agenda setting describes the influence of the media agenda on the public agenda and the framing describes the influence of the media representation on the formation of opinions.

It is important to note with regard to the medialization thesis that it does not see any control of public relations work by journalism, but rather a "medialization of the decision-making programs of the PR systems". Like the determination thesis, it only considers a partial aspect of the relationship between journalism and PR, above all the influence of journalism on public relations systems. Possible mutual effects are not considered.

Intereffication model from Bentele / Liebert / Seeling

Based on the assumption that PR and journalists depend on each other, Günter Bentele formulated the intereffication thesis in 1997: Journalism and public relations are two differentiated subsystems of public communication that mutually influence one another. Intereffication is a made-up word that is composed of the Latin words inter (between) and efficare (to enable something), which means something like "mutual enabling". The central thesis: Both in journalism and in public relations, the respective communication services are only possible "because the other side exists and more or less willingly plays along". [1] PR performance enables journalism and only journalism enables PR.

Bentele et al. a. (1997,240) understand the mutual influencing process of PR and journalism as intereffication, i. H. "[...] as a complex relationship of a mutual influence, a mutual orientation and a mutual dependence between two relatively autonomous systems". They are based on an “arena model” of the public, which was developed by Friedhelm Neidhardt . The public is therefore understood as an open communication forum for everyone who says something or wants to hear what others say.

Based on this assumption (1997, 228ff), they develop a model based on four actors in public communication. Between the PR communicator groups, journalists and specialist communicators (political, economic, cultural communicators etc.) as well as the audience or recipients (1997,228) "[...] there are complex and differentiated relationships [...]".

The intereffication model aims to organize and structure empirical research as a model. It maps processes on the systemic (journalism - PR), the organizational (PR agency, press office - editorial office) and individual level (PR practitioner - journalist). Two central processes describe the relationship between PR and journalism on the three levels:

  • Induction: Describes intended, directed processes of influence on one side on the other (e.g. inclusion of a press release in a newspaper article)
  • Adaptation: Describes the adaptation processes of one side to the other (e.g. PR pays attention to journalistic selection criteria or editorial routines such as editorial deadlines)

Induction and adaptation can be of different strengths and intensities in different areas or dimensions. Both processes take place simultaneously on both sides, which in turn influence each other on each side - the model thus represents a double dual communication system.

With this model, the one-sidedness of the determination thesis was given up. It includes several levels and processes that are not only caused by one side, but have been seen and analyzed in cooperation. A final operationalization of the complex structure of the model is still pending. Bentele himself describes the model as descriptive and only describes it as the basis for further empirical studies. This model has received criticism because of its alleged “power forgetting” and linguistic invention. Other authors ( Stephan Ruß-Mohl ) suggest the term parasitic relationship, although no direction should be given here either.

literature

  • Baerns, Barbara : Public Relations or Journalism. On the influence in the media system. Science and Politics, Cologne, 1991 (1st edition 1985).
  • Bentele, Günter / Tobias Liebert / Stefan Seeling: From Determination to Intereffication. An integrated model of the relationship between public relations and journalism. In: Bentele / Haller (ed.): Current emergence of the public. Actor structures changes. Konstanz 1997, pp. 225-250.
  • Bentele, Günter: Parasitism or symbiosis? The intereffication model under discussion. In: Rolke, Lothar / Volker Wolff (eds.): How the media control reality and are controlled by themselves. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1999, pp. 177–193.
  • Bentele, Günter, Howard Nothhaft: The Intereffikationsmodell. Theoretical further development, empirical concretization and desiderata. In: Altmeppen, Klaus-Dieter / Ulrike Röttger / Günter Bentele (eds.): Difficult conditions. Interdependencies between journalism and PR. Wiesbaden 2004, pp. 71-116.
  • Hoffjan, Olaf: Journalism and Public Relations. A draft theory of inter-system relationships in social conflicts. VS publishing house for social sciences. Wiesbaden 2007.
  • Jandura, Olaf / Sufferer, Melanie: Opposition is crap. The influence of political contextual conditions on the success of party PR. In: Romy Fröhlich and Thomas Koch (eds.): Politics - PR - Persuasion. Structures, functions and effects of political public relations. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2015, pp. 33–48.
  • Kepplinger, Hans Mathias: News Values. In: Wolfgang Donsbach (Ed.): The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2008, Vol. VII, pp. 3281-3286
  • Lippmann, Walter : Public opinion . Munich 1964, ISBN 3-88339-786-5 (original edition; Public Opinion . New York 1922).
  • Schweiger, Wolfgang: Determination, Intereffication, Medialization. Theories on the relationship between PR and journalism. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Schweiger: Determination, Intereffication, Medialization. Theories on the relationship between PR and journalism. Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden 2013, ISBN 978-3-8329-6935-6 , pp. 106 .
  2. ↑ a b Wolfgang Schweiger: Determination, Intereffication, Medialization. Theories on the relationship between PR and journalism. Baden-Baden 2013, ISBN 978-3-8329-6935-6 , pp. 107 .
  3. ↑ Olaf Jandura, Melanie Leidecker: "Opposition is crap". The influence of political contextual conditions on the success of party PR . In: Romy Fröhlich, Thomas Koch (Ed.): Politics - PR - Persuasion. Structures, functions and effects of political public relations . Springer VS, 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-01683-8 , pp. 37 .
  4. ↑ a b Olaf Hoffjann: Journalism and Public Relations . 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-90744-4 , pp. 136 .
  5. ↑ Helmut Schmidt: People and Powers . 2012, ISBN 978-3-641-08262-8 , pp. 315 .
  6. ^ Walter Lippmann: Public opinion . New York 1922.
  7. ^ Hans Mathias Kepplinger: News Values . In: The International Encyclopedia of Communication . Vol. VII. Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-1-4051-3199-5 , pp. 3245 .
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Schweiger: Determination, Intereffication, Medialization. Theories on the relationship between PR and journalism . Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden 2013, ISBN 978-3-8329-6935-6 .
  9. ↑ a b Olaf Hoffjann: Journalism and Public Relations. A draft theory of inter-system relationships in social conflicts . 2nd Edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15530-2 , p. 136 .