Media reception of PR activities in the discourse of British and Ukrainian quality newspapers: comparative analysis

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of the recent changes that are currently taking place in the field of public relations and the transformation of the interaction process of the PR Institute with the media. The actuality of the work can be explained by the fact that the main world trends of the functioning of PR at the present stage are examined and this experience is extrapolated to Ukrainian realities. And considering the fact that the process of integration into the world economic and cultural space is crucial for our country, the development of the public relations field in all spheres of the country's activity and the coordinated mechanism of interaction with the media system are a priority. The main features of the development of public relations under the influence of modern technologies and in the conditions of new media were determined, the analysis of changes in PR-manager’s profile was made. The use of the content analysis method in the process of investigation of high quality British and Ukrainian newspapers has revealed the most common stereotypes of public relations as an area and profession in Britain and Ukraine. The novelty of the study is to apply comparative practices, which on the base of the distinguished stereotypes allowed to demonstrate some differences in the modality of media representations made by foreign and domestic media outlets as social and communication technology. It has been proved that the media reception of the public relations specialist`s professional activity is mostly negative in color, due to the pragmatic orientations of the industry. However, in the British media, the trend towards the image of PR as the “agent of change”, especially social ones, is highlighted, high level of work of specialists is emphasized. Instead, in Ukrainian high-quality mass media, public relations continue to be viewed as a kind of manipulative technology or just a publicity tool.