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Author and Political Activist Robert Jensen Visits San Jose

by Robert B. Livingston (gruaudemais [at] yahoo.com)
Professor Robert Jensen, author of The Heart of Whiteness, Citizens of the Empire, and Writing Dissent, presented a film and gave a talk at the MACLA Center of the Arts in San Jose, California.

The title of the talk was "Unspun: The Problem of Journalism and Public Relations".
robert_jensen.jpg
November 17, 2006
San Jose, California

Robert Jensen, Professor of Journalism from the University of Texas Austin, presented a film and talk at the MACLA Arts Center this evening in San Jose, California.

The film and lecture was sponsored by MACLA Arts Center (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana) and the South Bay Mobilization, a group whose mission is to Educate, Involve and Mobilize for Peace and Justice.

A small audience filled the Community Room where lemonade, cookies and loaves of bread were offered from tables covered with political literature.

Professor Jensen introduced himself by describing his background: his years as a reporter and editor, then as an academic and critic, and (for the “last dozen years”) as a political activist on the Progressive Left. He then introduced the evening film, “Truth Merchants.” Although first shown in Canada in 1999, Jensen remarked that the film is relevant to us in the U.S. today. Jensen explained that Public Relations is big business. Advertising and marketing businesses (which concern themselves primarily with trying to control what we think about goods services-- and our government) account for approximately a seventh of the entire U.S. economy.

The 45 minute documentary focused on the “who what where why when and how” of the PR industry-- and its relation to standard journalism.

It made a number of interesting points. Here are a few:

Public Relations success depends on the knowledge that news is very subjective.

Public Relations works best when a private interest can be sold as a public good.

It helps to bring in the right people to help “sell” a story. For example, doctors often make excellent spokespersons.

Public Relations works best when it presents a compelling human drama-- a story.

Government Public Relations utilizes three tiers of professionals:

In the top tier one or two highly placed PR representatives talk with the most influential people.

In the middle tier, there are “charmers” (often attractive females).

And lastly, there are functionaries who perform routine tasks, such as providing schedules etc.

Almost every story one reads in newspapers today was crafted with some input from a PR advisor.

Many Public Relations professionals are former journalists who understand the mechanics of the newsroom. They often know when to time the release of their info so that it appears, for instance, right before a major news story breaks. Or, they know how to put out a truncated version of a story early to draw attention away from (or to) a news story. By so doing, a public relations firm can influence or neutralize a story that threatens the reputation of the business the PR firm is representing.

Personalities and human interests help push PR stories.

News organizations that ignore a PR story risk losing an audience when it is taken up by its competitors.

NASA is an example of an organization that takes its PR very seriously. It never fails to deliver a clear thematic message whenever its rockets lift off.

Without a free press, PR could hardly exist. Public relations and journalism are both corporate entities that feed off each other. They are almost like cartoon characters that chase each other every day-- who suddenly become civil to each other after they punch a time clock to rest.

The film concluded by asking troubling questions about the Truth: what truth can we extract if today's truth will be tomorrow's sales pitch? Or today's sales pitch becomes tomorrow's news story? What truth can we find if journalism becomes a morality play about a war between good and evil? Or more simply, if news becomes theater? What truth lies behind the media's hunger for “characters?” What truth lies behind most people's desire to be a part of publicity's gaze? What do we make of the eternal PR message that “you are nothing unless you are famous?” What good are journalists if Public Relations considerations can keep them from asking the tough questions?

After the film, Professor Jensen declared that what struck him most about it was that “PR practitioners and journalists are forced to lie to themselves.” PR practitioners, he said, do not say to themselves that their job is to manipulate public opinion. Instead, they say that their job is to be an intermediary between their clients and the public. Likewise, journalists lie to themselves. They do not say to themselves that their job is often to recycle information fed to them from government and business. Instead they say that their job is to provide independent and credible information to empower citizens.

Jensen added that the self-deceptions of public relations people and journalists are not unique. Educators seldom admit that their job is less to educate their students than to socialize them for accepting their reserved places in society. Corporate heads are unlikely to admit that maximizing profit to shareholders is their real motivation-- not “providing quality goods and services at the lowest cost.” Suggesting that the world we have created over a long period of time has most of us working for institutions that force us to lie to ourselves as a matter of survival, Jensen noted that “we can't just quit and join the Revolution.”

“I haven't found the revolution yet” he stated bluntly.

In unison, several in the audience said “You're in it!”

A general discussion ensued, followed by a series of questions and answers.

Jensen described VNRs (Video News Releases that business and government provide news organizations which are often unattributed). He said that more can be learned about Public Relations and its impact on the media from organizations like the Center for Media and Democracy which is directed by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, authors of Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry. He said that PR Watch (which is published by the Center for Media and Democracy) is disliked by the PR industry and journalism associations alike. The RTNDA is an example of a journalism association he gave.

Jensen said that while he is a teacher of journalism, he believes his task is also to teach democracy. When journalists are not fully independent of PR influences then their ability to serve the public is undermined. Independent and critical journalists help provide citizens what they need to execute their duties as citizens.

Answering questions from the audience about what activists can be doing now, Jensen argued that it is important for them to take a long view and have reasonable expectations when the realities of today have so much stacked against them. He suggested that activists get involved with political organizations working for media reform (such as Free Press). Jensen said that activists should try to understand and help journalists where they can.

Jensen said that he does not think that newspapers will “go the way of the dinosaur”-- adding that newspapers are in reality profitable enterprises today despite layoffs of workers.

Jensen, responding to questions about “big lies” being foisted on the American people, said that the U.S. is the most propagandized society in the world. He did, however, say that he does not accept or believe in the “9/11 theories”-- that purport that our government is lying about having been involved in the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001. “I have never heard a plausible theory that has convinced me,” elaborating only to suggest that he believes the Left is attracted to conspiracy theories because it wants a tidy way to explain and combat the world's problems.

This statement brought some discussion and reservations from his listeners.

Further questions and answers addressed the subjects of radicalism in general ( the need to understand root causes of world conflict, like corporatism, imperialism etc.), Al Jazeera's public relations struggles, how to get activist's events noticed by the local media (expect normal glitches), Jensen's involvement with a Presbyterian church in Texas, and corporate forays into marketing organic food.

Here are some useful links for more information:

MACLA
http://www.maclaarte.org/index.html

South Bay Mobilization
http://www.southbaymobilization.org/

Truth Merchants
http://www.primitive.net/truthmerch.html
http://www.nfb.ca/trouverunfilm/fichefilm.php?id=33660&v=h&lg=en&exp=${\

Robert Jensen, Ph.D.
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/%7Erjensen/index.html

Center for Media and Democracy
http://prwatch.org/

Free Press
http://www.freepress.net/
§sign outside
by Robert B. Livingston
sign_outside.jpg
§MACLA Arts Center
by Robert B. Livingston
macla_center.jpg
"MACLA is an energizing contemporary arts space located in San Jose, California. The organization was founded in 1989 by a group of community activists engaged in a broad mobilization to change the representation of multicultural artists within the City's art allocations."
§Refreshments were provided
by Robert B. Livingston
refreshments.jpg
§A scene from Truth Merchants
by Robert B. Livingston
truth_merchants.jpg
§South Bay Mobilization's T-Shirt
by Robert B. Livingston
t-shirt.jpg
§Some prizes were given
by Robert B. Livingston
raffling_a_t-shirt.jpg
§Robert Jensen announces a winner
by Robert B. Livingston
drawing_a_winner.jpg
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