A few kind words about PR How about we talk about career possibilities for young journalists in the current market? Goodness knows, it wants some strategizing. The news about newspaper jobs has not been good. It has been a consistent tale of cutting staff and closing bureaus. Then this week, Sam Zell, an investor known as "the grave dancer," bought the Tribune Corporation, which owns an honor roll of fine newspapers -- the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, Newsday and others.* He is called "the grave dancer" because he buys up companies within troubled industries, radically cuts costs, and after some few years sells them for a big profit. He knows nothing about journalism. Massive, nationwide layoffs of experienced journalists surely cannot gladden the heart of young journalists like those subscribed to this list with graduation on the near horizon. But, in a kind of sad irony, there may be some good news for you guys in these layoffs. Hiring relatively low-paid newcomers fits right in with the cost-cutting that is largely pervasive in the newspaper industry. So it's really necessary these days to take a large view of employment possibilities for people infected with the desire to dig up dirt and craft compelling sentences. Which brings me to PR. Journalists and public relations people start life in a kind of cat-dog animosity. There's good reason for this. Journalists see themselves as truth-tellers, who served the public gathering and reporting the straight dope. Journalists see PR people as spin-meisters committed to twisting the truth to benefit some specific corporate or governmental special interest. When you look at the situation a bit more closely, journalists are more involved with PR people down there typical professional narrative lets on. Estimates vary, but about three quarters of news stories have a significant start in, or presence of, PR material. Then, you often find highly experienced journalists going over to the PR side when their kids' college tuition has to be paid or they're sick of toiling for mediocre money. This might be viewed as a forgivable sellout but it makes the point that the journalist's ability to recognize news angles and pitch them in appealing, credible journalistic style is fundamental to the enterprise of public relations. But does working in PR have to be a sellout? Let's look at public relations from a broader, media studies angle. As we all know, we live in a media-saturated culture. The "world" we inhabit is less a palpable physical-biological entity lying "ready-made" before our eyes then it is a stream of images, terms, narratives that form "the pictures in our head." Are there not many causes you believe in, not because you get paid to do so, but because they resonate with your ethics and your social concerns? Think of environmental causes, public education, welfare rights, decent housing, a political party or any other issue that engages you. There are numerous nonprofits, non-governmental organizations and other groups out there struggling to win media attention for good causes. To do this job, you must have solid journalistic skills that cut across media. For instance, you might need to understand, not only how to write a credible news story but how to set up an outdoor press conference so that light and angles are right for the TV guys. You need to exercise imagination to create an event that will get attention. It was progressive PR people who conceived the "sweat-shop fashion shows" staged in front of Gap stores a few years ago, bringing attention to the plight of underpaid and mistreated workers in the developing world. I would argue that this kind of communications work can be every bit as socially beneficial as journalism. (I would admit that it is often not very well paid.) What should you do if you want to pursue this possibility further? As I hope is clear by now, you don't have to enter a completely separate track from journalism. You should first take all the journalism that your schedule will permit and work to amass a portfolio of clips. They would "count" for potential PR employment as much as they would for journalism. Secondly, we offer a course on Public Relations. Take it. Third, use some internship credits (maybe 3 -- you can count up to 12 toward your degree) to get experience doing public relations with an organization you respect. Lastly, look for opportunities to play a public communications role for campus clubs or other organizations you might belong to. It's all just a supplementary job-seeking strategy in a tough market for people, who, like journalists, want to foster communications in the public interest. *Two winners of the 2006 Aronson Social Justice Journalism awards work for papers owned by Tribune Corp. (the Los Angeles Times and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.) they will be on campus to accept their awards at 5 p.m., April 17 in the Eighth Floor Faculty Dining Room of Hunter West. In addition to discussing their wonderful work on uranium mining on Navajo reservation land and AIDS orphans in Haiti, they will have interesting things to say about the newspaper industry at the present moment. Peter Parisi, Ph.D. Dept. of Film & Media Studies Hunter College 695 Park Avenue New York, NY 10021 212-772-4949 "People don't change; they just find out who they are." -- Ray Skean