With declining trust in media, many media outlets have found themselves in the position of reinforcing and re-explaining what it means to be “on background” and “off the record,” because too many organizations and their PR representatives don’t seem to understand it — or they do understand it and are wilfully abusing it. Neville and Shel take a look at the extent to which some news organizations are going to make their positions clear.

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The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, March 21, 2022.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly or request the credentials in our Facebook group or send an email to fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Neville’s link blog, Outbox, is available, as well.

Links from this episode:

• Updated ‘On Background’ Policies Highlight Need for Better Media Relations
• Updating The Verge’s background policy
• ‘On background’ is common journalism lingo. What does it mean?
• Tech journalism’s ‘on background’ scourge

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