The relationship between the PR industry and journalists has been brought under scrutiny again this month, with the release of a new British study which found that, within a 2 week period, 80 percent of the stories run by quality daily papers were re-written from wire services and press releases.

Although journalists continue to cite on-going cost cutting, pressing deadlines and increased workload and possible causes for what has been called “churnalism”, critics say that journalists are simply not doing their job by taking information given to them at face value.

2ser’s Ekaterina Kossian spoke with Jim Macnamara, Professor of Public Communication at the University of Technology in Sydney.