“Everything Else is Public Relations” How Rural Journalists Draw the Boundary Between Journalism and Public Relations in Rural Communities

ABSTRACT

Rural journalists are news professionals, but also citizens engaged in their communities. The function and purpose of local journalism and public relations have become interdependent as media and communication has become more digital. These relationships create some tensions and it is in this environment that rural journalists make daily choices to cover a story or run prepared content provided by an outside source. Through the lens of boundary work, this study explores how (N = 33) self-identifying rural journalists navigated this gray area and walked the line between creating authentic journalistic content and publishing public relations content. We found that in principle they identified stark boundaries between public relations and rural journalism based on journalistic norms, but in practice these journalists were often put in a position to engage in public relations work to support their communities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ A full breakdown of the journalists’ demographics can be found in Table 1A.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mildred F. Perreault

Mildred F. Perreault, (Ph.D University of Missouri) is an assistant professor at the University of South Florida. Perreault has studied natural disasters and crises and how public relations practitioners, journalists and citizens interact during them. Perreault has also studied representation, technology, social media, and brand management.

Jessica Fargen Walsh

Jessica Fargen Walsh is an assistant professor of journalism in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She studies local, rural, and environmental journalism.

Louisa Lincoln

Louisa Lincoln is a Ph.D student at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines sustainable funding models for journalism, with a focus on nonprofit news and public media organizations in the United States.

Gregory Perreault

Gregory P. Perreault (Ph.D University of Missouri), is an associate professor of Digital Media and Literacy at the University of South Florida. Perreault is a scholar of journalistic adaptation. His research extends to journalistic epistemology, hostility in journalism and digital labor.

Ruth Moon

Ruth Moon (Ph.D, University of Washington) is an assistant professor of media and public affairs at Louisiana State University. She studies power relationships and knowledge production with a focus on communication processes and journalistic practice in the Global South.