Journalism issue "The News Funnel"

The 'news funnel' refers to the process journalists undertake in filtering the information they are presented with to find deeper meanings and angles in the story. This is particularly prominent when dealing with public relations media releases. Public relations practitioners are responsible for crisis management situations and will often send out cover up stories to journalists and media outlets. The journalist must ask themselves what the motive behind the release was and if there is anything further to uncover about this situation. Some key questions to consider are; why was this sent out? What was the underlying motive? Is there a hidden agenda? Who wrote the release and why? What sort of issue might be being managed here? Who has the most to gain or the most to lose? If a journalist can find something in these questions they made be able to turn the table on the spin doctored media releases and uncover that which was being covered up.