The role of social media in the journalist and PR practitioner relationship

The relationship between PR practitioners and journalists is a source of interest for communication professionals who need to manage the relationship with journalists to meet their clients’ objectives. The growth and adoption of social media by journalists is widely acknowledged and reported as is the symbiotic relationship with PR practitioners. What is not clear is the role of use of social media in the PR-journalist relationship.

The authors conducted an online survey with journalists in four European countries; Finland, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom to investigate the use of social media tools by journalists and their interaction with PR practitioners for different journalistic tasks. The findings suggest that social media tools are used extensively by journalists in all countries but that they continue to rely on the use of PR practitioners and personal contacts as their key mode of communication for sourcing and verifying a story.

Therefore, it seems that social media is supporting journalists’ work but is not supplanting the role of the PR practitioner. This implies that whilst PR practitioners need to engage with social media to communicate with journalists they should not neglect their traditional contact methods.