How public relations functions as news sources in China

This study re-conceptualizes the interaction between public relations (PR) practitioners and journalists in news construction. Proposing a new conceptual framework of “news-source involvement,” this study applies two dimensions – “involvement width” and “involvement density” – when examining how information and/or stories generated by PR people affect news coverage. Empirically, this study identifies seven types of news sources derived from a systematic content analysis of 1600 stories in four selected Chinese newspapers from 2001 to 2010 – 10-year period. The major findings include: (1) information subsidy has become a popular phenomenon in China; (2) over the past decade, the Chinese government has been slowly but surely becoming more tolerant of public's expression of their opinions relating to social and political issues. Though the government remains as the dominating “news source” for newspapers, other non-mainstream news sources (e.g. grass-root civilian) have emerged. Growing from the used-to-be “silent mass,” they have become the “subordinate majority” nowadays, having strong influence in certain coverage; and (3) PR people as one of the major news sources, interact with media in a selective manner; and such interaction takes places largely on tactical level.

► We propose News-source Involvement to examine PR's influence on the news.
► Information subsidy has become a popular phenomenon in China.
► The Chinese government has been more tolerant of public's expression.
► Grass-root news sources are growing from Silent Mass to Subordinate Majority.
► PR as news sources selectively interacts with the media and at tactical levels.