Airing Erris: The Media and Shell Corrib

From Left to Right: Betty Purcell (former Editor of Features and Current Affairs RTE), Harry Browne (Journalist and lecturer in Media Studies DIT), Joe Murray (Afri Co-ordinator), Lelia Doolan (documentary-maker and former CEO of the Irish Film Board), and Liamy McNally (Mayo-based freelance journalist) at Airing Erris in Co. Mayo on Saturday 18th January.
From Left to Right: Betty Purcell (former Editor of Features and Current Affairs RTE), Harry Browne (Journalist and lecturer in Media Studies DIT), Joe Murray (Afri Co-ordinator), Lelia Doolan (documentary-maker and former CEO of the Irish Film Board), and Liamy McNally (Mayo-based freelance journalist) at Airing Erris in Co. Mayo on Saturday 18th January.  Photo: Dave Donnellan

By Harry Browne

By honoured tradition, we journalists still half-jokingly call public-relations (PR) professionals “the enemy”. But we know they have a job to do, we know they often help us do their job – and we know that if we’re really at war with them, we’re losing.

The basic reason is pretty simple: they’ve got more and more resources (money, time, people) to push the corporate or government line, and we’ve got fewer and fewer with which to filter out the truth from the propaganda.

And when PR people are good and do their job really well, they get the ears of our bosses and make our jobs even harder. Continue reading “Airing Erris: The Media and Shell Corrib”