The Internet makes it easier for strategic communicators to address their PR audiences directly in a way that has never been seen before. This is even more true as media users increasingly turn to the Internet as an alternative source of information, especially in times of crisis and controversy. As a result, new forms of ‘particular interest oriented persuasive simulations of journalism’ (PIoPS) are spreading over the Internet. This chapter provides a first theoretical review and foundation of the troubled situation and briefly explains why and from which perspective we are actually dealing with a ‘problem.’ On this basis, it conceptualizes a user-oriented research program that enables us to measure whether and, if so, how PR’s simulations of journalism can be distinguished from actual journalistic products/content. The contribution discusses theoretical implications for a text-oriented approach that could be suitable for describing and operationalizing
criteria of distinctiveness. It also yields theoretical implications for a reception-oriented perspective which helps to describe users’ concrete differentiation behaviors and procedures in the reception of PR and journalism and operationalize these for respective reception studies. In conclusion, specific challenges that will inevitably arise for the outlined research program are outlined.
Citation: Fröhlich, R. (2022). Journalism or public relations? Proposal for conceptualizing a user-oriented research program on the confounding of the two genres online. In B. Krämer, & P. Müller (Hrsg.), Questions of communicative change and continuity. In memory of Wolfram Peiser (S. 167-207). Baden-Baden: Nomos.