Gisela Reiter, researcher at FHWien der WKW, spoke at the renowned “Future of Journalism” conference in Cardiff, Wales, about ethical challenges in communication practice.
In her talk “Role conflicts and coping strategies in communication practice in times of blurring boundaries between journalism, public relations and advertising”, Gisela Reiter identified and presented unclear professional roles, ethical challenges and corresponding coping strategies in the communication industry. The results of the study of the project “Blurring Boundaries between PR, Advertising and Journalism” were presented to numerous international academic journalism researchers at the “Future of Journalism” conference in Cardiff in September 2023.
Journalism and media funding as a socio-political choice
The topic is directly related to the crisis of journalism due to digitalization and lack of funding models for journalistic online content. Gisela Reiter focused her presentation on three different groups and their everyday ethical conflicts:
- Traditional journalists
- Journalists who also work as content producers
- Former journalists who are now, for example, press spokespersons for a political party.
A sustainable change in the financial imbalance of the various communications sectors must be seen as a decision for society as a whole, or a political decision. This is directly related to media funding that is measured by quality and not quantity.
Research project on the blurring boundaries between PR and journalism
The study is part of the project “Blurring Boundaries between PR, Advertising and Journalism” at the University of Vienna, which is being carried out in cooperation with FHWien der WKW, the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and the University of Innsbruck. A teaching program developed from the study will use exemplary case studies to raise awareness of ethical boundaries and to discuss and work out different ways of arguing.
Further information on the topic
You can learn more about the contents and background of the project in an article in “Die Presse” or on the project page “Blurring Boundaries between PR, Advertising and Journalism”.