What is the media's role in public relations and public opinion?

Question

What is the media's role in public relations and public opinion?

Answer 1

Media organizations and public relations agencies share a perpetual friend-rivalry relationship.

While public relations agencies focus on image-building which involves operational tasks such as message dissemination, media organizations play the roles of message receiver, message filter and story-teller. In other words, a friendly relationship between media organizations and public relations agencies has a positive effect on delivering designated message to the public effectively.

However, public relations agencies develop messages favourable to a particular party and/or stakeholder, while media organizations aim at reporting messages based on empirical facts and their interpretation which may not be in-line with messages provided by public relations agencies, which creates clashes leading to a rivalry between media organizations and public relations agencies.

If we move on the more subject public opinion, it is a fierce warland. Public relations agencies take advantage on public opinion by creating a public mass of discussion in return for a favourable impression to their clients, while media organizations utilize public opinion as an extension of their ideas and perception. Since both media organizations and public relations agencies are eager to dictate the mass opinion, there will be co-operations (should they share common interest) or objection and attack to one another (should they have conflicts of interest).