CODES OF THE TENSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOURNALISTS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONERS: A STUDY OF JOURNALISTS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONERS

The relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners has been defined in the literature with phrases such as “love-hate” or “historical hostility”. journalists need public relations practitioners as a news source and public relations practitioners need journalists to communicate with the public. however, the structure of this interdependent relationship and the conflict of interests between the two occupational groups make the relationship tense and complex. this article attempts to define the issues between the two occupational groups and to determine the differences between journalists’ and public relations practitioners’ views of the relationship. in may 2014, in-depth interviews were conducted in istanbul with 12 journalists and 12 public relations practitioners. the results of the study, it was shown that journalists’ and public relations practitioners’ perceptions of the relationship showed differences in six categories. these were differences in their views of the relationship, differences in their views of the profession, differences in their approaches to work, differences in the views of the news and differences in their perceptions of the negative attitudes of journalists.