English abstract
This study aims at identifying, characterizing and analyzing the interaction between journalists and public relations practitioners in governmental corporations in the Sultanate of Oman, while focusing on the attitudes of journalists regarding to public relations practitioners and vice versa. The study also tends to discover the stance of both sides on the ethical professional practices that govern the work of the press and public relations, through a qualitative approach executed on a sample of journalists and public relations practitioners in governmental corporations. The information was collected through the media survey methodology via the in-depth interviews. Interviews were held between the time period from 17th January to 27th April 2017 with 15 journalists registered in the Association of Omani Journalists and 14 public relations practitioners working in governmental corporations belonging to the sectors of transport, aviation, ports, services, energy, tourism, oil, gas and petrochemicals.
The study concluded that the nature of the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners is complementary and positive most of the time, based frequently on cooperation and understanding between the two sides and confidence between them as well. The study also revealed a number of factors that intervene in
the nature of the relationship between journalists and public relations practitioners. These factors include: personal relations, previous experiences between the two sides, and the awareness of each side about the nature of the occupation of the other side, and whether the sector is governmental or private sector.
The results also indicated that public relations practitioners and journalists adopted different attitudes towards each other. Some of them had positive attitudes towards the other party and some had negative attitudes as a result of previous experiences. Most journalists and public relations practitioners emphasized the importance of each other's profession.
Finally, the study pointed out that there are supportive and opposing attitudes towards some ethical practices that govern the work of the press and public relations, such as preserving the confidentiality of the institution, documenting the sources of information, gift giving, organizing recreational tours, etc, as a result of the organizational culture of the institution and the surrounding environment, in addition to some personal traits for both journalists and public relations practitioners.
