Ralph Savage

Third year magazine journalism undergraduates have been given a taste of the ‘dark side’ and a unique perspective on public relations from one of the faculty’s guest speakers.

Ralph Savage, director of Manchester-based PR agency RTS Media, presented students who graduate next month with a talk on how their chosen profession interacts with the world of public relations.

“Very often the interface between PR and journalism is one of mistrust and mutual antagonism,” explained Ralph. “I was trained as a journalist and worked in the field for eight years before switching to PR and I know from experience of both sides how the two sides are thought to be in constant opposition.”

The essence of the talk, ‘Business Journalism and the PR Interface’ was aimed at quelling a few of these anxieties amongst UCLAN’s next generation of journalism undergraduates, with some practical examples of how reporters work in partnership with public relations experts to generate stories and exclusives.

“My work is informed by journalistic values,” said Ralph; “For me this means topicality, public interest, audience and whether a story has broad implications for media consumers. I tried to show the students a few examples that illustrate how what you see in the media often has the tell-tale signs of PR involvement, but that doesn’t make it bad journalism.”

Cathy Darby, senior lecturer in the School of Journalism Media and Communications, added: “We were delighted to have someone with Ralph’s experience come and brief the students. Our journalism undergraduates really value the perspective provided from someone in PR which is an established part of the media supply chain and needs to be taken seriously by professionals. We’ll hopefully have RTS Media back again for future talks.”

PR is often considered a good second choice for budding journalists who struggle find employment in their target career, because of its close connections to the overall editorial, features and news agenda of most media outlets. With this in mind, RTS Media came armed with the news that its sister company, TwentyFour7 is offering three months’ work experience this summer and it welcomes applications including a CV from anyone interested to Christina.Savage@247comms.co.uk

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