How PR can help journalism survive with Tina McCorkindale

Tina with IPR discusses the data around local journalism and how we as PR professionals can help it survive.


Guest:

Our episode guest is Tina McCorkindale, CEO of the Institute for Public Relations. She serves on boards of several industry associations and has received several awards for her contributions to the profession.

Five things you’ll learn from this episode:

1.  What the Institute for Public Relations is and what it does
2.  Statistics on misinformation and disinformation
3.  Who people trust not to spread disinformation
4.  How disinformation affects elections and other important events
5.  How you can find disinformation and combat it

Quotables

• “We have disinformation as a threat to our democracy” - Tina McCorkindale
• “When you ask who's doing a good job combating disinformation, we also added to that me, I am great at combating disinformation.” - Tina McCorkindale
• “Most people say they're doing a very good job of combating disinformation, but we know that's not true because we are the primary ones who spread disinformation.” - Tina McCorkindale
• “PR professionals should look at opportunities like you're describing to support nonprofit groups who are doing things to support local journalism, fund local journalism, and equip them with the tools and resources they need to survive and succeed.” - Jason Mudd
• “For companies, sometimes it's very easy to see the disinformation, But where it gets difficult is when people are having conversations and people aren't listening, and it's hard to do that on your own as an organization.” - Tina McCorkindale
• “Doing it well and doing it right, not necessarily doing it for the clicks and not necessarily doing it just to be the first, but to get it right.” - Jason Mudd
• “Journalism has this huge responsibility (of combatting disinformation), and if we don't support journalism, then who is going to provide us with that information?” - Jason Mudd

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About Tina McCorkindale

Tina McCorkindale, Ph.D., APR, is the President and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations, a nonprofit research foundation devoted to research that matters to the public relations and communications profession. Prior to that, she was a university professor and has more than 10 years of experience working in corporate communication and analytics. She serves on the boards of several industry associations and has received several awards for her contributions to the profession.

Resources

• Connect and learn more about Tina McCorkindale on LinkedIn.
• Visit the Institute for Public Relations for more information. 
• The Expanding News Desert (UNC) Reports

Episode recorded: October 23, 2023