Rini Sudarmanti Ika Karlina Idris, M.Si is a lecturer in Communication Department, Universitas Paramadina, Jakarta. She was a journalist in local newspapers before lecturing in Paramadina. Her research interest areas are corporate communication, cross cultural communication, and social media. She can be contact at ika.karlina@paramadina.ac.id. Dr. Rini Sudarmanti is a lecturer in Communication Department, Universitas Paramadina, Jakarta. Her doctorate are from Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung and was a corporate communication manager before lecturing in Paramadina. Her research interest areas are public relations, gender, and women empowerment. She can be contact at rini.sudarmanti@paramadina.ac.id.
Abstract The mass media is one of the most important key public in Public Relations field. Unfortunately, PR is still considered the media only as a tool to get free and massive publicity. The father of modern PR, Grunig, stated that there are four communication models between PR and its public: press agentry/publicity model, public information model, two-way asymmetric public relations, and two-way symmetric public relations. The first three models focus on persuasion and only the fourth model indicate that PR not only persuade its public but also promotes mutual understanding and respect between organization and its stakeholders. In 1984, Grunig and Hunt (Theaker, 2001: 147) said that over 50 per cent of practitioners operate the public information model of PR, where the dissemination of information is the main purpose. While this model emphasizes honesty, it still does not really address the opinions of stakeholder groups. In media relations activities, the communication models that PR used twenty eight years ago have not changed much. This paper analyzes thirty four definitions
and concepts of media relations that written by either practitioners or academicians (from Indonesia and abroad) using content analysis methods. The result, indicate that media relations activities is still emphasizes on public information model, which means PR still considered mass media as their publicity tool.
Introduction Until now the mass media is still considered as the most reliable media to disseminate important messages or information to public at large. News report that carried out by the mass media can form publics opinion about a company or organization. Corporate image can be determined by how the mass media report the companys activity. If the mass media proclaim the disgrace of information about the company, then the audiences will also have a poor perception about the company (Idris, 2012). The importance role of this mass media encourages PR practitioner to make special activity called media relations. Media relations activities are vary, from writing and distributing press release to running a press tour, special events, press gathering, and exhibition (Nurudin, 2008: 13). Wragg in Theaker (2001: 148) say that the main purpose of press relations is not simply to answer questions from journalists or distribute publicity material. The main purpose of press relations is to enhance the reputation of the organization and its products, as well as inform and persuade the target audience. This activity is one of the functions that must be done by public relations practitioner. Basically, any activity conducted media relations rests on the provision of accurate and rapid information in accordance with the needs of the mass media. However, not all PR practitioners are aware about this. There are still PR practitioners who showered the media with manipulated information. In other words, there are still many PR firms that do not understand the news value of an information and media profile that meet the news values criteria (Idris, 2012). The very basic of media relations activity was known doing by Ivy Lee in his 1906 Declaration of Principles:
In brief, our plan is, frankly and openly, on behalf of business concerns and public institutions, to supply the press and public of the United States prompt and accurate information concerning subjects which it is of value and interest to the public to know about. Later on, Grunig and Hunt (1984) identified Ivy Lees workexplaining complicated and misunderstood facts to a popular audience to help business explain and defend itselfas the primary model of public information model (Grunig and Grunig, 1991: 288). Beside this model, Grunig in 1976 also introduce three other models: press agentry/publicity, two-way asymmetrical and two-way symmetrical. In the first three models, PR communicates its message to the methods of persuasion (one-way and two-way), but in the last model, PR already engage with the companys public to achieve company goals. Most of the public relations activities, according to Grunig and Hunt (1984) in Theaker (2001: 147), are still using persuasion model, especially the second model: public information model. "Over 50 per cent of practitioners operate the public information model of public relations, where the dissemination of information is the main purpose. While this model of emphasises honesty, it still does not really address the opinions of stakeholder groups. " Authors believe that the same condition is still happening in pr practice nowadays. Supa and Zoch research in 2009 about relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists of paramount (Florida, US) show that there has been little change in the relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists over the past 17 years. The study also addresses current potential problems with the practice of media relations, including the hitchhiker concept (sending out blanket releases via email or other methods with the hope that it will be picked up by a media outlet), a lack of targeted media pitching and the future of the press release in public relations. Idris research in 2010 about media relations practices in Jakarta also show that media relations activities undertaken by public relations practitioners are still struggling in the information penetration activity to attempt to get the coverage from journalist. This research also found that PR practitioners
measure the quality of a journalist by their report: a good journalist is the one who write a report based on PR's perspective. For the sake of publicity, PR also held some media relations activities such as writing contest for journalist and media tour. Some of them also still practice giving the money to journalist who attend press conference. In this research, Idris also found that PR still believe that press conference is an effective tool to get massive publicity, even though there's no significant news value to publish to the media. From those two previous researches, researcher wants to find out how's the concept of media relations written in the textbook. Academician and practitioner have tried to explain about media relations concept and activities, some of them are theoretical concept and the rest are practical. Most definition and texts about media relations tend to focus on how to gain publicity by doing activities which purposes are media appearance such as press conference, press tour, press gathering, press release distribution, and special events for the press. Researchers assume that media relation definitions and concepts are also focus on public information model or two-way asymmetrical model. This research analyzes thirty four definitions and concepts of media relations that written by either practitioners or academicians (from Indonesia and abroad) using content analysis methods. By doing this content analysis, researcher expect to know whether media relations concept in the textbook is ideal or still emphasize in publicity. Literature Review In 1976, after finishing his study of behavior of public relations, James Grunig provides four models of public relations. These models are the simplified representation of public relations practice in reality. Grunig and Grunig (1992: 288) said, We use the term model to describe a set of values and a pattern of behavior that characterize the approach taken by a public relations department or individual practitioner to all programs or, in some cases, to specific programs or campaigns. Grunig's models are press agentry/publicity model, public information model, two-way asymmetric PR, and two-way symmetric PR. The press agentry model referred to "public-relations-
like" activities which done by the press agents in mid-19th century were the first full-time specialist to practice public relations. Wilcox and Cameron (2006: 48) wrote that these old-times press agents and the show people they most often represented played on the credulity of the public in its longing to be entertained. Advertisements and press releases were exaggerated to the point of being outright lies. Further described by Wilcox and Cameron (2006: 63) that the first model of public relations activities are one-way communication and aims to gain publicity for the company or in other words, PR (in various ways) try get publicity as much as possible. Characteristic of this model is the penetration of overloaded and exaggeration information. The public information model referred to Ivy Lee's work who could explain complicated and misunderstood facts to a popular audience. This model is characterized by the dissemination of truthful, accurate information rather than the distortion, hype, and exaggerations of press agentry (Wilcox and Cameron, 2006: 52). Clark says that before 1920's, public relations was simply an extension of the journalistic function and was focused on the dissemination of information or oneway communication models in which the quality of information was important but audience feedback had yet to be fully considered (Wilcox and Cameron, 2006: 61). The two-way asymmetrical model referred to scientific persuasion as the purpose, and communication is two-way with imbalanced effects. The idea of issues management was added to the job description of the public relations manager. Public relations should be more than persuading people that corporate policy was correct (Wilcox and Cameron, 2006: 62). In this model communications sought to gain an understanding and/or modify public behavior. PR has made measurementsthe impact of the messages transmitted solelyin order to make an effective communication planning. The two-way symmertrical model referred to the use of research and other form of two-way communication. According to Grunig and Grunig (1992), Unlike the two-way asymmetrical model, however, it uses research to facilitate understanding and communication rather that to identify messages most likely to motivate or persuade publics. In symmetrical model, understanding is the
principal objective of public relations rather than persuasion. The explanation above can be seen in the following quote: Table 1. Grunig's Four models of Public Relations Type of Model Name Communication Press One-way agentry/publicity communication model Uses press releases and other one-way communication techniques to Public Information One-way distribute organizational information. Public relations practitioner is often model One-way One-way asymmetrical communication model Two-way Two-way promote mutual understanding and respect between the organization and symmetrical model communication its public(s). Source:http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall99/westbrook/models.htm In the first three models, PR communicates its message with persuasion method (one-way and two-way), but in the fourth model PR has been engage with its public to work together to achieve company goals. Media relations activities, according to Grunig and Hunt (1984) in Theaker (2001: 147), still practice the persuasion model. According to Grunig and Hunt (1984) over 50 per cent of practitioners operate the public information model of PR, where the dissemination of information is the main purpose. While this model emphasises honesty, it still does not really address the opinions of stakeholder groups. With the development of the internet, practitioners have had to take on board the need for openness and accessibility to companies affairs. about the organization. Uses communication to negotiate with publics,resolve conflict, and organization desires. Does not use research to find out how it publics feel communication referred to as the "journalist in residence. Uses persuasion and manipulation to influence audience to behave as the organization desires Uses persuasion and manipulation to influence audience to behave as the Model Characteristics
Reseacher choose this model because it has been reliably measure, valid, and exist in real organization. Grunig and Grunig (1992: 297) have also proved that the ideal modeltwo-way symmetrical modelis a real as well as a normative model.
Methodology This research is using content analysis methods. According to Berelson (1952) in Holsti (1969:3), content analysis is a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication. Rife, Lacy, and Fico (2005) define quantitative content analysis as a research method defined in brief as The systematic assignment of communication content to categories according to rules, and the analysis of relationships involving those categories using statistical methods. The data collected in a quantitative content analysis are then usually analyzed to describe what are typical patterns or to identify important relationship among the content qualities examined. If the categories and rules are conceptually and theoretically sound and reliably applied, the researcher increases the chance that the study results will be valid. Author give code 1 for model I, code 2 for model II, code 3 for model III, and code 4 for model four. In this research, author use Grunig's model as a categorization for media relations model. The categorization can be seen in table 2: Tabel 2 Categorization of the model Characteristic of the Model Keyword This is one-way communication, primarily through the mass One-way communication Aims to gain publicity for the company PR (in various ways) try to get as much as possible
Model
Communica
hype a cause, product, or service. Its purpose is advocacy, and little or no research is II (code One way required. One-way distribution of
overloaded information PR aims to provide accurate and comprehensive information The benchmark of accurate and comprehensive information is determined by company
purpose. It is based on the journalistic ideal of accuracy and completeness, and the mass
media is the primary channel. There is fact finding for content, but little audience attitudes is research and the
PR
aims
to
gain
an
understanding and/or modify public behavior. PR has made measurements of the impact of the publicity (media monitoring evaluation) PR do research in order to make communication planning is more effective.
model
feedback loop, but the primary purpose of the model is to help the communicator better
understand the audience and how to persuade it. Research is used to plan the activity and establish objectives as well as to learn
whether an objective has been IV (code Two way 4) way symmetri c PR twomet. Gaining mutual understanding is the purpose, and communication is two-way with balanced effects. Formative research is used PR aims to gain public
understanding There's a formative research in communication planning PR (and companies) have been willing to listen to the public or even change the policy in accordance with input from the public is concerned
mainly to learn how the public perceives the organizations and to determine what consequences organizational actions/policy
might have on the public. The result may be to counseling take certain policies.
management actions or
change
relations effort has improved public understanding. This idea, also expressed as relationship building as to have policies and action that are mutually
Populations in this research are the definition and concept of media relations in public relations'
and media relations textbook. Samples used in this study were the definition and concept taken from 34 books which collected in April 20120 and commonly use for students references. This research is using purposive technique sampling. According to Neuman (1997: 206) purposive sampling is an acceptable kind of sampling for special situations. It uses judgmental of an expert in selecting cases or it selects cases with a specific purpose in mind. Purposive sampling is appropriate in three situations. First, a researcher uses it to select unique cases that are specially informative. Second, a researcher may use purposive sampling to select members of a difficult-to-reach, specialized population. Third, a researcher uses it when he/she wants do identify particular types of cases for in-depth investigation. This sampling technique is used because in analyzing definition and concepts about media relations researcher must find a specific book and content inside the book to find specific information about media relations. This sample is also difficult to reach since media relations book is hard to find. Unit of analysis of this research is media relations definitions and concepts. According to Kriyantono (2006: 233) there are four unit of analysis in content analysis: theme, physic, reference and syntaxes. This research use reference unitseries of words or phrases that indicate something that has meaning by category. In sample collecting, first, researcher collected books about public relations and media relations. In media relations book, researcher read the entire book and then find the definition, activities, and evaluation method about media relations. In public relations' book, author first find a chapter about media relations, read it, and find the definition, activities, and evaluation method about media relations. Sometimes, in public relations' book, the evaluation method is in the different chapter, thus the author must read this chapter and find whether any evaluation activities that related to media relations. After collecting the data, author analysis the three sentences and paragraph that referred to the categorization that has been made. And then researcher analyzes the result with descriptive statistic by count the frequency. In this study, author test the reliability based on Ole R. Holsty formula (Kriyantono, 2006: 235). Lombard et al. (2002) applied the following criterion for accepting content analysis findings as
sufficiently reliable: .70, otherwise %-agreement .90 (Krippendorff, 2004). From the reliability test the result of coefficient reliability is 0.77, thus the author argue that the categorization can be considered reliable. CR= 2 (21) N1+N2 CR = 2M 27+27 CR= 0,77
CR = Coefficient Reliability M = The number of coding decisions on which the two judges are in agreement N1, N2 = refer to the number of coding decisions made by judges 1 and 2, respectively.
Sample if this research are books about Public Relations or Media Relations. The following are the sample characteristic from this research (34): Year of Publishing 1991-2000 4 2001-2010 26 2011> 4 Language Indonesia English 17 17 Author's Background Academicians Practitioners 23 5 Topic of the book Media Relations Public Relations Corporate Communication 5 28 1
Findings The result of this research shows that most of the concept of media relations is still stress on public information model (55,88%) and two-way symmetrical model (23.52%). There are two books (5.88%) which still assume that media relations work is only about spreading the information and even manipulate it for the sake of positive publicity. There are five books (14.70%) which explain comprehensively about media relations as a two-way symmetrical model (the ideal model). The result can be seen in table 3. Model I (code: 1) 2 5,88% Model II (code 2) 19 55,88% Model III (code 3) 8 23,52% Model IV (code 4) 5 14,70%
Year 2001-2010
Year 1991-2000: 2 2001-2010: 14 2011> : 3 Language Indonesia: 12 English: 7 Background Academician: 16 Practitioner: 2 Both: 2 Topic PR: 16 Media Relations: 2 Corp.Comm: 1
Year 1991-2000: 2 2001-2010: 5 2011> : 1 Language Indonesia: 2 English: 6 Background Academician: 6 Practitioner: 1 Both: 1 Topic PR: 7 Media Relations: 1
Year: 2001-2010
Language Indonesia: 1 English: 4 Background Academician: 1 Practitioner: 2 Both: 2 Topic PR: 3 Media Relations: 2
The table above also shows that the definition of media relations as press agentry/publicity and public information model are mostly written by scholars from Indonesia. While the models III-IV are mostly written by a scholars from abroad (USA and Europe). The result of this research shows that most academicians define media relations as public information model and two-way asymmetric model. While practitioner is define media relations as a public information and two-way symmetric model. Most of the PR's book in Indonesia, publish in 2001-2010, and written by academician define media relation only as a tools to get publicity. Most of this book stress on PR's obligation to provide publicity material and response to press needs. In the third model, most of the author are from abroad (USA and Europe) and have a background as an academician. Contrary to the model II, most of the author who define media relations as a two-way symmetrical model are from abroad (USA and Europe) and have a background as practitioner or practitioner who also lecturer in university. This is indicating that the practitioners have better understanding than the academician about the ideal model of media relations. Most of the book which define media relations as a public information models are published in
2001-2010. All books that published after 2010 define media relations as the persuasion tools for the company. Only five from 34 books define media relations as two-way symmetrical model. This indicate that the concept of media relationsone of the most important public relations function media relationsis not changing since 1976. The samples of this research are mostly taken from public relations book (28) and only five from media relations book. In PR's book most of the author have one chapter about media relations or press relations. The content of this chapter usually emphasize on two issues: first, about media typology and editorial management, second about guidance in media relations activities such as how to write press release, distribute press release, how to make a successful press conference, media events, and also how to make the media press cover company activities. In the different chapter, there are also concept about research and evaluation. Most of them only write about media monitoring report or how to count PR value based on publicity in mass media. The fourth model is explain in media relations and PR's book, but the PR's book topics are about evaluation in PR, Strategy in PR, and Marketing PR. There's only one Indonesian who define the media relations as a two-way symmetrical model and its written in media relations book. The others media relations book, written by Indonesia, are not even mention about evaluation or formative research. This research shows that the condition in 1984 where over 50 per cent of practitioners operate the public information model of PR is still occur by analyzing media relations concept in textbook. This might be happening because one of the media relations function is to get publicity and penetrate information to the media. But unfortunately, this activity is still lack of evaluation and mutual understanding. Grunig says that in the fourth model, PR supposes to listen to public needs and opinions by evaluative research. Most of the authors only talk about media monitoring and very rare talking about measuring public's perception. This result can also indicate that pr is not really care about media perception as long as the journalist writes positive news about the company. And it also can indicate that even though media is the one of most important public in public relations but their opinion
is not counted. This is such a pity because media could have lots of information about the company/organization that might important to company's reputation. Conclusion The ideal model of media relations should come from the textbook as students reference. Unfortunately the textbook couldnt give a better perspective about media relations but publicity for the company. Defining media relations activities using Grunigs model looks simplifying the context. But in fact, although the technology is highly developed and the mass media already and segmented on a particular public, media relations activity is still not showing changes in a particular concept. Unlike the marketing concept, which was originally oriented to the sales, then evolved into marketing and continues to spiritual marketing. Even today, consumers no longer treated as a king, but as friend who will always be together in happy or difficult conditions. Media relations activities such like stagnant in publicity activities. They do not provide meaningful guidance for the development of the activity. Based on the references analyzed in this study, it will be an opportunity and challenge to find concepts and theories which can be more suitable to portrait the nature and the nurture conditions, dynamics and complexity of the media and news sources in the PR activity context. Media relations in public relations is not only convey information simply but also publication. Appropriate strategy is needed to allow delivery of information run smoothly effective and efficient. Audience acceptance of information received will influence and in turn will lead to the perception. This perception is a shaper of public opinion which is accumulating power. In other words, media relations will decide the role of public against the institution. The capability to identify the purpose of media relations and public desire will serve more than just merely a publication.. This is a major contribution that PR can be given without huge costs. Models 3 and 4 adequately represent this condition and provide confirmation that media relations is not just delivering news but also judging latent aspect behind it.
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