Transparency, Public Relations and the Mass Media

Combating the Hidden Influences in News Coverage Worldwide

Katerina Tsetsura, Dean Kruckeberg

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781135935399
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book is about media transparency and good-faith attempts of honesty by both the sources and the gate-keepers of news and other information that the mass media present as being unbiased. Specifically, this book provides a theoretical framework for understanding media transparency and its antithesis--media opacity--by analyzing extensive empirical data that the authors have collected from more than 60 countries throughout the world. The practice of purposeful media opacity, which exists to greater or lesser extents worldwide, is a powerful hidden influencer of the ostensibly impartial media gate-keepers whose publicly perceived role is to present news and other information based on these gate-keepers' perception of this information's truthfulness. Empirical data that the authors have collected globally illustrate the extent of media opacity practices worldwide and note its pervasiveness in specific regions and countries. The authors examine, from multiple perspectives, the complex question of whether media opacity should be categorically condemned as being universally inappropriate and unethical or whether it should be accepted—or at least tolerated—in some situations and environments.

1 An Incomplete Truth

• Purpose: To introduce the agenda for this book’s discussion about media transparency and opacity in presenting news and other information that the mass media present as truth. To establish the conceptual framework of the book by examining and contextualizing the concepts of transparency and opacity, as well as truth, incomplete truth, and a lie, by identifying opacity in the news media as problematic for many reasons, emphasizing its harm to both individuals and to society-at-large. To introduce and examine the moral/ethical arguments against news media opacity.
• Scope: To illustrate the complexity of the ethical questions related to news media opacity.
• Method: To provide the context for the authors’ argument for an “ideal state” of transparency by and between the discrete professionalized communities of public relations practitioners and journalists.
• Results: The reader will understand the concepts and phenomena examined in this book as well as the authors’ arguments for an “ideal state” of transparency.
• Recommendations: The reader should reflect on the issue of news media opacity and is encouraged to consider and accept the thesis of the book.
• Conclusions: That media opacity is harmful to individuals and to society-at-large and should be discouraged, indeed not tolerated, in the news media worldwide; it can be combated by publicly declared and universally adhered-to ethical standards that require transparency within the professionalized communities of public relations practitioners and journalists.

Transparency, Public Relations, and the Mass Media

This book is about news media transparency in the presentation of news and other information that the news media present as truth. Specifically, we provide a theoretical framework for understanding news media transparency and its antithesis—media opacity—by reporting and analyzing data from more than sixty countries throughout the world. While transparency in the news gathering/dissemination process is inferred by news media throughout much of the world, media opacity exists to greater or lesser extents worldwide. Lack of transparency allows powerful hidden interests to influence news media gatherers and disseminators, whose publicly perceived role is to present news and other information based on these gatekeepers’ perception of this information’s truth. Empirical data we have collected over the years illustrate the range and varying extents of media opacity worldwide as well as its pervasiveness in specific regions and countries. From multiple perspectives, we examine the complex question of whether media opacity should be categorically condemned as being universally inappropriate and unethical or whether it should be accepted—or at least tolerated—in some situations and environments.

What Is Transparency?

Before we examine other important concepts in this book, it is essential to define transparency. Wakefield and Walton (2010) noted:

With the term transparency bantered around considerably today, it is easy to jump into the discussion; but the more difficult task is to dissect what transparency really means. Does transparency entail full disclosure of all information to all people at all times from every organization? Does transparency mean complete honesty and accuracy in information that should be disclosed? If so, what information should be disclosed and how or when that disclosure should take place? How are we to discern those conditions and boundaries? (p. 4)

This book examines news media transparency, particularly the news media’s presentation of accurate, complete, and unbiased information in which no hidden influences exist in the process of gathering/disseminating news and other information that is presented as truth.

Thus, our definition of news media transparency is:

No hidden influences exist in the process of gathering/disseminating news and other information that is presented as truth, or these influences have been clearly identified in the end-product in the media. To achieve media transparency, any influences that have been present should be clearly communicated in the end-product in the media. In other words, if a journalist gets influenced by a news source but then mentions this fact in the final product, such as an article or a broadcasting program, then the influence is transparent, or clear.

We define a conscious lack of transparency as news media opacity. Hidden influences might exist in the process of gathering/disseminating news and other information that is presented as truth, for example, any form of payment for news coverage or any influence on editorial and journalists’ decisions that is not clearly stated in the finished journalistic product (Tsetsura & Grynko, 2009; Tsetsura & Kruckeberg, 2009). As an analogy, transparency exists in a lighted room, but opacity occurs when the lights are turned off and darkness results. What can be seen in the light is hidden in darkness. Perhaps the darkness hides nothing, but it certainly can hide a lot. Turning the lights off and thus bringing darkness into the room (purposeful opacity) creates a perfect condition for violating established rules and norms. Now, if someone punches you in the dark room, you may not know who has done it. Darkness hides the one who punched you so that the offending individual does not have to explain why he or she has done it. This punch, which has no consequences for the unknown offender, is only possible in the darkness. The same is true when we see media opacity through purposeful non-disclosure of influences on the news, which allows for non-transparent media practices, including but not limited to direct and indirect payments to the media from news sources, pressure from advertising departments, and financial pressure on the media.

What Is Truth?

Lack of transparency, that is, opacity, in the news gathering/dissemination process is a significant threat to people worldwide, both as citizens and as marketplace consumers. Consumers of news want—but do not always get or even expect—truth from their news media, and the presence of hidden influences suggest that truth is not being presented. Of course, truth is an abstract and complex concept. What is truth, and how can it be operationally defined? Is truth absolute? Is it even knowable or attainable to anyone other than to an omniscient being? And, do multiple and perhaps conflicting truths exist, which affirmative answer would seem logically inconsistent if truth were an absolute?

These larger questions can be left to philosophers. However, all of us as citizens and as marketplace consumers want and need the truth to make the best life decisions. We require accurate, complete, and unbiased news and other information that has been gathered and verified conscientiously and competently and that is presented fairly and in good faith by those who are attempting to achieve the ideal of objectivity with complete transparency in gathering/disseminating this information. In particular, those in democratic nation-states need accurate, complete, and unbiased news and information from impartial gatekeepers to inform public opinion for citizens’ self-governance. Thus, for the purposes of this book, the definition of truth is:

Accurate, complete, and unbiased information that has been gathered and verified conscientiously and competently and that is presented fairly and in good faith by those who are attempting to achieve the ideal of objectivity with complete transparency in gathering, analyzing, and presenting this information.

This definition acknowledges that a well-intentioned communicator who believes he or she is telling the “truth” may in fact be wrong, that is, the information later may be found to be incorrect or incomplete and thereby misleading. However, it is the truth as the communicator had believed it to be at the time and that the communicator had presented in good faith. Such a definition allows us to restrict our discussion to moral/ethical questions related to truth as it is presented in the process of gathering/disseminating news and other information.

If consumers of news are being presented incomplete truths by the news media, is such lying both blatant and pervasive? Or are citizens and marketplace consumers simply not being told the “whole truth” by some journalists and their news media because of hidden influences? This book provides evidence that news media opacity, that is, lack of transparency, is, in fact, pervasive in much of today’s global news media and that this opacity oftentimes hides news media bribery and other influences that alter what we consume as news. Furthermore, news media opacity is exacerbated by today’s changing business models of news media that are responding to people’s use of new forms of communication technology. We argue for the exposure—and ideally the elimination—of these hidden influences in the news gathering/dissemination process, calling for transparency in particular by both public relations practitioners and journalists in their relationship to one another as they perform their discrete, but complementary, roles in society. Finally, this book will make specific recommendations to help ensure news media transparency that will reduce—or at least expose—news media bribery and other hidden influences that alter what we consume as “news”.

The Most Insidious of Evils

The contention that consumers of news are not being told the truth because of news media bribery and other hidden influences that alter what we consume as “news” is a provocative—if not alarming—statement that begs clarification, substantiation, and contextualization. We have already defined truth as it is conceptualized in this book, noting that all of us as citizens and as marketplace consumers want and need truth to make the best life decisions.

But do the news media and their sources really lie? To answer this, we must define and examine the concept of a lie, which is arguably among the most insidious of evils because it is a violation of trust. Lying may be among the most reprehensible of acts because the liar is attempting to mislead the individual being lied to by attempting to create, but then exploit, trust. All of us are lied to myriad times throughout our lives, oftentimes inconsequentially, but sometimes resulting in dire consequences. At the interpersonal level, a lie may have encouraged us to have made a decision that we otherwise would have considered foolhardy had we known the “truth”; a victim’s discovery of a lie may have resulted in emotional hurt, together with devastating feelings of betrayal, and such discovery may have prompted a painful realignment of that individual’s personal beliefs as well as a recontextualization and reassessment of his or her memories. Deceitful lovers, unscrupulous salespeople, duplicitous colleagues, misleading advertisers, dishonest government officials—such liars can cause incalculable harm to the victims of their lies; furthermore, with lost innocence, a liar’s victims may develop an unhealthy suspicion of all information providers, including those who may be worthy of these victims’ trust.

Communication ethicists provide a range of perspectives and insights about lies and lying. These include Immanuel Kant’s duty-bound (deontological) Categorical Imperative that advocates universal and absolute principles of truth and Sissela Bok’s observation that lies add to the power of the liar while diminishing that of the deceived because the latter’s choices are altered (Johannesen, Valde, & Whedbee, 2008). The concept of a lie remains morally complex; for example, some argue that the morality of—and tolerance for—lying may be culture-bound, suggesting that its ethicality must be contextualized within a specific culture (Johannesen et al., 2008; Sriramesh, 2009). Also, the act of lying in some situations is oftentimes defended, for example, morally compelling reasons may exist to tell a lie. Scenarios might range from lying to save the life of a potential victim of a death squad to the insincere utterance of a “white lie” to spare hurt feelings over inconsequential issues. However, despite situational moral justifications, these falsehoods remain lies by definition. Just as with truth, the definition of a lie must be viewed as an absolute, the presentation of information that the communicator believes to be untrue with the intent to deceive and/or mislead. Importantly, it is not the false information, itself, but the conscious intent of the communicator of a lie to deceive and/or mislead that is central to the definition of a lie as well as to any moral condemnation of the communicator of this lie. Thus, in this book, the conceptual definition of a lie is:

Information that the communicator knows to be false that is presented with the intent to deceive and/or mislead.

Despite the concept’s moral complexity as well as its possible situational justifications, it is safe to say that most people do not enjoy being lied to because a lie disorients them at best and indeed can do them much harm. People make decisions based on information that is communicated to them, and a lie may result in decisions that otherwise may not have been made. When false information is communicated purposely, that is, with knowledge and with the intent to deceive and/or mislead, the consumer of that lie must be considered a victim because his or her decision-making is being influenced by deceitful and/or misleading communication of false information. The motive for communicating a lie usually is a self-perceived benefit for the liar or that individual’s perception of a “greater good”.

We do not contend that most news media blatantly and pervasively lie; however, global research presented later in this book suggests that the news and other information that the news media present as truth oftentimes do not satisfy this book’s definition of truth. However, if truth is an absolute, and most news media do not blatantly and pervasively lie, can there be an imperfect truth, that is, information that is not the truth, but neither is it a lie, the latter which we say is also an absolute? Yes, but it is better to call it an incomplete truth, suggesting that the news and other information that the news media present as truth may be by-and-large accurate, but that the news media have intentionally omitted contextualizing information, for example, that a source paid for placement of the information or that other hidden influences may have altered the presentation or content of this information with the intent to deceive and/or mislead. While semantically a lie and an incomplete truth may appear by-and-large synonymous, we prefer the concept of an incomplete trut...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• 1 An Incomplete Truth
• 2 Multiple Truths
• 3 Media Practice or Media Bribery?
• 4 Dispelling the Myths of the Ethical Significance and Validity of the Concept of Cultural Relativism and the Need for Cultural Tolerance in Combatting Media Bribery Worldwide
• 5 The Global Study of Media Transparency
• 6 Professional Communities against Media Bribery
• 7 A Normative Theory of Media Bribery
• Index