A moment with McNabb: A bad thing for society

There's been a lot of talk recently about journalists printing press releases and how that's a bad thing for society and modern civilisation. I find it hard to believe that nobody's considered the very real possibility that PRs have become so good at writing brilliant copy that journalists can't possibly improve on their releases and are being forced to run with it verbatim.

Yeah, okay. Maybe I'll give that one up early.

But it's interesting who's doing the complaining. It isn't the journalists. And it isn't the editors or proprietors either. Tellingly, it isn't the general public the letters pages are hardly full of missives moaning that the story on the 'SuperDuper Tower' was total puff of the worst order (well, they'd have to up the pagination to accommodate the letters pages if they did, wouldn't they?).

No. Perversely, the people complaining are the PRs.

So what's their problem? Getting the copy into the paper is the name of the game, isn't it? You just can't please some people.

Perhaps it's something to do with the 'size is everything' culture that's springing up around the region. If your announcement is worth over US$1 billion, then it's maybe worth getting a picture story.

This is a relatively reliable criterion for coverage. Perhaps the relentless positivity is something to do with it. "X says Kuwait is wonderful" (you can substitute any country for Kuwait. There are some subtle regional shifts, but the general idea's the same), is still a good player. So when a big real estate player with powerful backers launches a project with a celebrity endorser who says Oman is a great place to invest, the story is going to go places in the Omani media. That's a no-brainer.

But then there's 'company/individual with huge real estate interests and close to people in power launches something utterly daft and insignificant but leveraging the other stuff means coverage'. That's a touch more subtle. And so what if we have a society packed with fat, nouveau riche powerbrokers buying willing, pandering journalists who faithfully reproduce their every wicked word? Aren't we all getting along with things just fine?

But if you thought that was bad, consider this. What if things have got so bad that the very people whose job it is to promote the positive and garner buy-in are themselves becoming concerned? What if you've got a society where the voices of the public relations guys are alone in sounding that concern? What kind of society is that?

Alexander McNabb is group account director at Spot On Public Relations

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM