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Of the textual properties of press releases intertextuality and informativity significantly influence the communication between the PR practitioner and the journalist. The article defines the release intertextuality by highlighting its specific characteristics and suggests future research directions. The notion of informativity as it was defined by R. de Beaugrande and W. Dressler does not apply to releases and therefore, it is re-defined and its sources of expectations are identified. The article also proposes a model of analysis, which can be used for didactic or research purposes to identify the release informativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U.S. news media serve a critical health education service in the provision of timely, accurate information (Brown & Walsh-Childers, 2002; Chapman & Lupton, 1994). For this reason, this study investigates the presentation of genetic research relating to cancer outcomes and behaviors (i.e., prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, smoking and obesity) from its original presentation in a scholarly journal (N=20), through an intermediary press release (N=23), to its publication in mainstream print media (N=71). Central claims, expressing gene-outcome relationships, were extracted and evaluated by expert raters. Raters judged claims within the press release as being significantly more representative of the material within the original science journal article compared with news article claims. Findings partially support a social constructivist approach to science reporting. That is, claims originating in news articles which demonstrated contact with individuals not directly involved in the research were judged by experts to be more representative of the original science as compared with those that demonstrated contact with individuals directly involved in the research. Our evaluation methods prove to be highly reliable and valid, contributing to future research by providing an alternate approach (i.e. expert raters as "parallel instruments") to evaluating complex science and its presentation in subsequent sources. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how genetic science is communicated to the lay public is of great import, given that media coverage of genetics is increasing exponentially and that the ways in which discoveries are presented in the news can have significant effects on a variety of health outcomes. To address this issue, this study examines the presentation of genetic research relating to cancer outcomes and behaviors (i.e., prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, smoking and obesity) in both the press release (n=23) and its subsequent news coverage (n=71) by using both quantitative content analysis and qualitative textual analysis. In contrast to earlier studies reporting that news stories often misrepresent genetics by presenting biologically deterministic and simplified portrayals (e.g., Mountcastle-Shah et al., 2003; Ten Eych & Williment, 2003), our data shows no clear trends in the direction of distortion toward deterministic claims in news articles. Also, other errors commonly attributed to science journalism, such as lack of qualifying details and use of oversimplified language (e.g., "fat gene") are observed in press releases. These findings suggest that the intermediary press release rather than news coverage may serve as a source of distortion in the dissemination of science to the lay public. The implications of this study for future research in this area are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking agenda building approach, this research analyzed how major U.S. newspapers used Saudi Arabia's press releases during the country's image restoration campaign in the United States. Results showed that more than half of the press releases were used by the newspapers. Among these, nearly half were used in stories with headlines favorable to Saudi Arabia, half in stories positive to the country, and some quoted in front page stories. The majority of the press release was quoted for journalistic fairness. It was concluded that the press releases were used in a way favorable to the country. The possible reasons for the press releases' high odds of entering the major press include the conflict nature of the event, Saudi Arabia's capital-intensive campaign, and the synergistic effect of other campaign strategies. The findings and methodology of the research contributes to the literature of international media relations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]