Painting a picture of America's nonprofit foundations: a content analysis of public relations photographs distributed through online wire services |
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| Authors: | Richard D Waters Weijia Wang |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Communication, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA;2. Department of Marketing Communication, Emerson College, Boston, USA |
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| Abstract: | Studies have shown that nearly 75% of news coverage in print publications stem from public relations information subsidies, such as news releases, fact sheets, and position papers. Often, organizations send photographs along with these materials in hopes that the media will publish these pictures; thereby, increasing readership of the news story and maximizing the organization's exposure to key audiences. This study examines 339 randomly sampled photographs distributed by American nonprofit foundations through online news wire services from 2006 to 2009. The results indicate that the majority of photographs are staged rather than more intriguing live‐action photographs. The implications of these results are further discussed with formal suggestions for improving this element of media relations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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