ABSTRACT
The challenge in scrutinizing the press coverage of the probation service is not interpreting the message, but finding that coverage in the first place. While local authority social services staff appear to yearn for a mediafree world, the probation service is trying to raise its profile in the news. The search for news media visibility is being pursued both nationally, through organizations like NAPO and the Association of Chief Officers of Probation (ACOP), and locally. By mid-1991 about a quarter of probation services had a full-time external/public relations officer; nearly all the remaining areas had an officer who had PR as a part of their responsibility.
