Representation of “Public Relations” in the Newspapers: An Analysis on the New York Times and the Guardian

Year 2023, Issue: 61, 134 - 152, 29.03.2023

Beris Artan Özoran

https://doi.org/10.47998/ikad.1170879

Abstract

Public relations is considered synonymous with concepts such as "perception management", "spin doctor", "opinion engineering". There is a negative perception towards the field. The field of public relations is criticized as a field that distorts and changes reality and turns it in favor of the people and institutions it serves. One reason for negative attitudes towards the field is the representation of public relations in the media. In this study, it is aimed to examine the representations of public relations in the newspapers of two different countries, New York Times and The Guardian. In the research, the news in these newspapers which contains the word "public relations" were analyzed using mixed methodology. First of all, categories were determined for content analysis to analyze the context of public realtions and emotion (positive, neutral, negative) towards the field. Then, with the text mining, the concepts used together with "public relations" and the most used words in the news containing public relations were examined. As a result of the research, it was seen that public relations were mostly included in the categories of "public relations professional", "public relations versus reality" and "public relations as a negative concept", and a negative feeling about public relations was created in almost half of the news. It has been revealed that there is a difference between the two newspapers in terms of representation.

Keywords

Public relations, representation, newspaper, content analysis, text mining.

Halkla İlişkilerin Gazetelerdeki Temsili: The New York Times ve The Guardian Gazeteleri Üzerine İnceleme

Abstract

Halkla ilişkiler “algı yönetimi”, “spin doctor”, “zihin yönlendiriciliği”, “kanaat imalatçılığı” gibi kavramlarla eş olarak ele alınmakta, alana yönelik olumsuz bir algı bulunmaktadır. Halkla ilişkiler alanı gerçeği çarpıtan, değiştiren ve kendi çalıştığı kişi ve kurumların lehine döndüren bir alan olmakla eleştirilmektedir. Alana yönelik olumsuz tutumların bir nedeni halkla ilişkilerin medyada temsilidir. Bu çalışmada halkla ilişkilerin iki farklı ülke gazetesi olan New York Times ve The Guardian gazetelerindeki temsillerinin incelenmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Araştırmada bu gazetelerde yer alan ve içinde “halkla ilişkiler” sözcüğü geçen haberler karma yöntem kullanılarak incelenmiştir. Öncelikle içerik analizi yöntemiyle kategoriler belirlenmiş ve halkla ilişkilerin hangi bağlamda kullanıldığı ve alana yönelik oluşturulan duygu (pozitif, nötr, negatif) araştırılmıştır. Daha sonra metin madenciliği yöntemiyle “halkla ilişkiler” sözcüğü ile birlikte kullanılan kavramlar ve içinde halkla ilişkiler geçen haberlerde en çok kullanılan sözcükler incelenmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda halkla ilişkilerin en çok “halkla ilişkiler uzmanı”, “gerçeğin karşısında halkla ilişkiler” ve “olumsuz bir kavram olarak halkla ilişkiler” kategorileri çerçevesinde yer aldığı, haberlerin neredeyse yarısında halkla ilişkilerle ilgili negatif bir duygu oluşturulduğu görülmüştür. Temsil konusunda iki gazete arasında da fark olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır.

Keywords

Halkla ilişkiler, temsil, gazete, içerik analizi, metin madenciliği.

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