PR provides half the news published in Australian newspapers

About 55 per cent of the news published by Australian newspapers was fed to them by PR and marketing sources, according to a study of 10 newspapers conducted by local university students, the Australian news website Crikey and the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism. More than 2200 stories from a five-day period were analyzed. A story was categorized as PR-dependent if it originated from a press release or other promotional material or if it “clearly presented only one, highly positive slant or framed one source in a promotional manner without including any independent verification or additional source.” Individual newspapers’ placings on this PR-dependency scale ranged from 42 per cent (Sydney Morning Herald) to 70 per cent (Daily Telegraph).