ABSTRACT
The self-interest of journalism in the overuse of 'breaking silence' is double. The negative silence as a journalist ideologeme indirectly targets sources by conditioning the public against the attempts of the sources to fight back their independence and speak or remain silent on their own terms. In that regard, there has been a professional-ideological and discursive dominance of the media silences over the silences of the sources – including public relations (PR) silences. Along those lines of conflict and cooperation, PR and journalism live in a state of symbiosis. PR practitioners get their message across mostly through news stories – indirectly through subsidising news media and directly through the use of their own media. The guild-paternalism hidden behind the claims of 'quality journalism' is something that PR practitioners learn to appreciate and use for their own ends. The mediators – organisations, movements or individuals – determine the status of PR, including its publics, objectives and strategies.
