Opinion | Chapman’s PR needs better PR

Jamie Altman
PR professional
Former Editor-in-Chief

I had mixed emotions when I first read that Chapman officials lied to The Panther, telling reporters that the Bush office required prior approval of an article on former President George W. Bush’s visit to campus, when in reality it was Chapman that enforced the restrictions.

As a former Editor-in-Chief of The Panther (2017-2018), I was proud of the editors for bringing this issue to light and not compromising their journalistic integrity for the sake of coverage.

As a current public relations professional, I was shocked that those in my profession thought this was an acceptable request to make. In the media world, it’s widely understood that a reporter’s work is not to be touched or reviewed prior to publication. 

Once outed by The Panther, Chapman President Daniele Struppa wrote a short but to-the-point response column: “We were wrong and we apologize.” I worked with Struppa a lot during my years at The Panther and I grew to respect him. In my experience, he made a distinct effort to support our role as student journalists and he understood that our purpose was to inform and educate Chapman students – not to advocate for the university. 

I don’t believe that Struppa knowingly lied to The Panther staff. Rather, what went wrong was a symptom of poor public relations.

I am now at a technology public relations firm in San Francisco where we work with enterprise tech companies to help tell their stories. It’s a crowded space – for every one reporter, there are six PR professionals competing to place their clients in the news. 

Despite this statistic, I am impressed with the respect my colleagues extend to reporters. They read journalists’ coverage daily so they can pitch stories that align with their beats. When they can, they tailor pitches so they’re not robotically mass-emailing reporters. They take them to coffee to learn more about them personally. It takes time and energy, but they understand the importance of treating reporters like humans, not vehicles for carrying out clients’ messages. In general, I’ve observed a mutual respect between tech reporters and PR professionals.

In education, there is no such mutual respect. As a student reporter for The Panther, I was often ignored or led astray by Chapman’s PR team and I frequently had to jump through unnecessary hoops to learn important information. I received countless “no comment” emails (public relations 101 stipulates to rarely say “no comment” – it just looks suspicious). When I was a freshman, the head of communications even left me a voicemail suggesting that I was a bad reporter. 

In The Panther’s editorial last week, the staff wrote, “Contrary to popular belief, we aren’t Chapman’s PR. We have no obligation to paint a picture that isn’t accurate.” While it makes me sad that some reporters perceive PR as a profession that tells inaccurate stories, it’s not difficult to see where they’re coming from, given the way Chapman’s PR team has historically treated Panther reporters. 

I acknowledge that it can be difficult to work with student journalists, in part because they make mistakes (they’re learning!) but also because they rotate every semester, so it can be tricky to maintain relationships with editorial leadership. It’s not surprising that Chapman’s PR team would prioritize Chapman’s reputation, which is lasting, over building temporary relationships with reporters whom they perceive to be unreliable.

But in this case, Chapman’s move to cut off press to an event (PR 201: transparency is everything) had the opposite effect, damaging the university’s reputation rather than preserving it. The response to The Panther’s coverage has been a PR nightmare, with features publishing in the Orange County Register, Poynter, the Institute of Higher Education and several other outlets.

Chapman is an educational institution. University officials should encourage opportunities for student reporters to learn and hone their journalistic skills, instead of slamming doors in their faces and lying to them. Struppa’s column was a good first step (PR 301: admit when you’ve made a mistake), but Chapman needs to invest in a PR team that understands the role of a student newspaper. 

Respect student journalists. Help them. Support them. Sometimes, it can be the easiest way to avoid a scandal.