- Charities think journalists are high-handed, rude, unreliable and untrustworthy. Journalists think charities are uncooperative, slow, mistrustful and not proactive.
These are the findings of a new report which looks at the tense relationship between charities and the media. The survey found a lack of understanding and mutual respect between the two sectors.
'The attitude of the journalists when they wanted something was always guaranteed to put our backs up as everything was about their deadlines and always 'I have to have this now/tomorrow etc',' said one charity worker interviewed by Britain's Voluntary Action Media Unit.
Charities need the media to increase awareness of their work and raise money. And the media needs access to strong human interest stories.
But many charities say journalists have no idea how limited their resources are and give them totally unrealistic deadlines for finding case studies.
And when a charity does invest time in helping to track down someone willing to talk to the media it is naturally upset when the journalist asks insensitive questions, uses inaccurate, sensationalist reporting, refuses to mention the charity or drops the story altogether.
Hearts of stoneFor their part, journalists say their e-mail inboxes get inundated by badly written, generic press releases, which have little relevance to their publication or programme. And when they call up for a case study the charity says it will take days to arrange.
"The charities think that because their cause is a good one that that's all that is needed," said one editor. "They don't seem to realise that journalists have hearts of stone when a deadline is threatening..."
What journalists want but rarely get is suggestions for exclusive stories targeted at their readership or viewers and backed up with case studies to bring the issue alive.
The report suggested there were huge areas of the media that were under exploited by charities who were missing a trick in focussing on news desks rather than pitching tailor-made ideas to features desks and magazines.
Although the research only covered the British media and voluntary sectors, many of the findings chime with those of the Fritz Report, the biggest-ever study of the relationship between the media and relief charities.
That study, conducted in partnership with Reuters AlertNet and the Colombia School of Journalism, highlighted a perceived lack of professionalism in many charities' PR departments.
But the British investigation is not all bad news.
It notes the perhaps unlikely relationship between the NSPCC children's charity and the tabloid Sun newspaper.
Many charities are wary of Britain's often sensationalist and racy tabloids, but the survey said the Sun's editor Rebekah Wade was passionate about children's welfare and had worked with the NSPCC on an anti-paedophile campaign.
The NSPCC's deputy communications director Keith Bradbrook said he had had to overcome anti-tabloid prejudice within the charity, but he believed the benefits of tabloid coverage far outweighed any simplistic reporting.
Culture Clash? An investigation of the relationship between charities, the media and commercial PR agenciesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
