Silence is no Longer Golden: Media, Public Relations and the Judiciary in Israel
Keywords:
Public relations, Judicial public relations, media logic, judicial logic, judges and judging, media court relations, Relaciones públicas, relaciones públicas judiciales, lógica de los medios de comunicación, lógica judicial, jueces y juicios, relacionesAbstract
The media policy of judiciaries is inherently fraught with potential conflicts. On the one hand, judiciaries have strong incentives to foster their relations with the media, and recognize the fact that public confidence is in many ways dependent on quality reporting of the courts. On the other hand, according to classical judicial ethos, silence in the public sphere outside the courtroom still appears to be a central tenet of judicial ideology.
Our study, based on interviews with 40 Israeli judges conducted between 2005-2012, points to the contradiction between the formal restraints on judicial media conduct and the judges' acknowledgement of the need for a pro-media approach in an age of transparency and growing public distrust of governing institutions. Our findings regarding the PR practices of the Israeli Judiciary and its responses to the challenges of the media age are analyzed in light of current theories in public relations.
La política de medios del poder judicial está llena de conflictos potenciales. Por un lado, el sistema judicial tiene grandes incentivos para fomentar sus relaciones con los medios de comunicación, y reconocen el hecho de que la confianza del público depende en muchos casos de la calidad con la que se informa de los juicios. Por otro lado, y siguiendo los valores judiciales clásicos, todavía es un principio básico de la ideología judicial que se mantenga el silencio en la esfera pública, fuera de las salas de los juzgados.
Este estudio, basado en entrevistas con 40 jueces israelíes llevadas a cabo entre 2005 y 2012, pone de relieve la contradicción entre las restricciones formales en la conducta de los medios de comunicación judiciales, y el reconocimiento de los jueces de la necesidad de acercar los medios de comunicación, en una época de transparencia y mayor desconfianza pública hacia las instituciones gobernantes. Se analizan los hallazgos sobre las prácticas de relaciones públicas del sistema judicial israelí y sus respuestas ante los retos de la era de los medios de comunicación, a la luz de las teorías actuales sobre relaciones públicas.
DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2506604
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