Book Review: Integrated Marketing Communication, a Consumer-Centric Approach for the Digital Era, by Thomas R. Flynn, James R. Smith, and Michael F. Walsh and Principles of Strategic Communication, by Derina Holtzhausen, Jami A. Fullerton, Bobbi Kay Lewis, and Danny Shipka

Abstract

Part 2 introduces five principle skills examined one by one and distilled in part from eight cases studies researched by the authors in 2018 and 2019. Principles 1 and 2 assert that journalism is an essential democratic practice where the interests of journalists and citizens align to promote trust. A third relational principle, which the authors acknowledge departs most from familiar approaches, adds the role of “democracy capacity builder.” Case studies include soliciting user-generated content, such as “It’s a Southern Thing” at Alabama-based AL.com, and “dialog journalism” on important community matters, such as the journalist-moderated discussions organized by The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville and The Times Record News of Wichita Falls, Texas. Left unexplored is the risk that all this attention to lived experience will be deployed by self-serving residents at the expense of necessary public works. For example, a consideration not addressed is how a commitment to relationship-building with, say, NIMBY voters will advance democratic values of a fair and just society. A fourth relational principle urges transparency in gathering and presenting news. It also advises demoting the role of conflict as an element of newsworthiness. Case studies illustrating this principle highlight Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Neighborhood News Service, with its emphasis on “hyperlocal” reporting, and a voter guide based on listener-submitted questions and produced by KPCC radio in Pasadena, California. The fifth principle is centered on democracy’s interest in financially stable news organizations. Discussion of this principle includes the case study of a digital publishing project undertaken by students at West Virginia University; a concise history of print news industry economics; and an overview of the four quadrants of revenue possibilities. As Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, observes in a foreword, the end of traditional news-industry business models has led to crucial interest in audience development that, in turn, deserves re-thinking. “What of deeper engagement,” he asks, “the kind that speaks to a purpose beyond a customer transaction?” The authors, all veteran journalist-scholars, have supplied a real-world answer: “We’re not advocating that journalists abandon all worthy types of journalism,” they explain. Instead they propose relational journalism as an “added dimension, [a] mindset that will inspire everything journalists do.”