Being first rather than correct

COMMUNICATION, as media critic and theorist James Carey defines it, is "a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed." In his 1992 book, "Communication as Culture," Carey posited that we define our reality via sharing our experience with others. Public relations (PR), on the other hand, is the "set of techniques and strategies related to managing how information about an individual or company is disseminated to the public and especially the media. Its primary goals are to disseminate important company news or events, maintain a brand image and put a positive spin on negative events to minimize their fallout. PR may occur in the form of a company press release, news conference, interviews with journalists, social media posting or other venues." Strategic communication is "the purposeful use of communication by an organization to fulfill its mission." It is multidisciplinary in that it draws from a variety of methods and subject areas. Some misconstrue communication as PR. PR is a tool of communication. It is not the sum total of communication.

Prior to the advent of social media (SM), there was no 24-hour news cycle. There was the early, late and breaking news. There was no real-time news or developing news. Agenda setting, framing and priming were easy tasks and didn't have to compete with first to break. Real journalism was about "nurturing sources, verifying facts and making sure you've got the story right, a process which, unfortunately, is being whittled away little by little even with many of the best journalists these days because of the need and pressure to be first rather than correct."