Corporate communication is ultimately about preserving credibility, and even in 2026, that credibility still rests on the most basic professional courtesy: returning a call, says Priyabrat Biswal

 

I spent nearly two decades on the edit desk of a media house before walking away when self-respect became non-negotiable. My work was largely confined to editing, punctuated occasionally by visits to corporate press conferences. Yet those rare field assignments, combined with years of interacting with corporate communication teams from behind a desk, offered a revealing education in how public relations in India has steadily drifted from relationship-building to hierarchy management.

For journalists outside the handful of “elite” media brands, invisibility is often the default setting. The experience repeats itself in conference hall after conference hall: the same event, the same questions, the same deadlines — but very different treatment. At an FMCG press conference in 2014, I asked the COO for his business card and was told he was “out of stock.” Minutes later, I watched him warmly hand out cards to reporters from two leading national dailies, smiling with the enthusiasm reserved for circulation figures and television ratings. I never asked again. Dignity, I realised, should not require a masthead.

The problem, however, goes far beyond selective hospitality. Accuracy itself is now often treated as an inconvenience. Once, while reviewing a press release issued by a reputed private aluminium company, I pointed out a glaring factual error to the PR agency handling the account. Instead of appreciation, I received a lecture. The agency representative — eager to flaunt his “25 years in print media” before moving into PR — dismissed me as “too young” to identify mistakes in their copy. The error stayed. Ego mattered more than credibility. Somewhere along the way, fact-checking began to be viewed not as professional responsibility, but as an act of defiance.

The one-way nature of corporate courtesy became even clearer in my interactions with the communications head of a power distribution company operating in Odisha. Out of professional courtesy, I routinely flagged errors in their press releases through calls, texts and emails. None were acknowledged. No reply. No “thank you.” No correction update. Yet the moment I published a fact-based report that portrayed the company unfavourably, the machinery sprang to life. Calls arrived instantly. PR intermediaries were activated. The message was blunt: take the story down.

That, increasingly, is the modern corporate communication model. Engagement exists for damage control, not dialogue. Courtesy is optional. Criticism is treated as a crisis.

Behind this behaviour lies an unwritten but rigidly enforced pecking order. Many corporate communication and PR professionals first judge journalists by the brand they represent, then by the designation they hold within that organisation, and finally by their usefulness in either amplifying corporate messaging or suppressing inconvenient truths. Satisfy all three conditions and doors open effortlessly. Fail one, and messages remain unread, calls unanswered, invitations selectively withheld.

What has disappeared is not merely professionalism, but basic human regard. Many PR executives who once maintained cordial working relationships now struggle to extend even the elementary courtesy of acknowledgment. The experience increasingly feels transactional to the point of indignity — journalists are useful during moments of vulnerability, then instantly discarded once the crisis passes.

The contrast with an earlier era is striking. Long before I entered journalism, I wrote a letter to J. R. D. Tata through the corporate communication department of Tata Steel. The letter reached his office, and his secretary arranged for an autographed photograph to be sent back. There was no audit of my social standing, no scrutiny of institutional affiliation, no calculation of utility. There was simply an institutional culture that valued responding to people with dignity. That culture now appears dangerously diminished.

What should corporate communication and public relations actually represent? At its best, the profession demands individuals mature enough to understand that they are custodians of an institution’s credibility, not gatekeepers protecting personal ego. A journalist who points out an error is preventing public embarrassment, not staging rebellion. Respect cannot be conditional on the size of a newsroom because media landscapes are fluid. Today’s regional reporter may become tomorrow’s national editor, influential independent journalist, or RTI activist exposing an environmental or financial lapse.

Courtesy must also function both ways. If a company expects journalists to attend a 10 a.m. press conference, it should be willing to answer their calls when an industrial accident occurs at midnight. If a WhatsApp message sent late at night can request that a damaging story be withheld, then a simple acknowledgment when factual errors are pointed out should not be considered excessive effort.

More importantly, the profession must rediscover the difference between relationships and transactions. Relationships survive difficult quarters and uncomfortable headlines. Transactions collapse the moment coverage turns critical.

Above all, corporate communicators must remember one uncomfortable truth: they are not the story. Their role is not to manufacture reality or police access to it. Their responsibility is to facilitate the flow of truthful information between institutions and the public. They are meant to be bridges, not bouncers.

This brand-tier approach to public relations is quietly creating a media underclass, and the consequences are corrosive. Journalists who are repeatedly ignored do not disappear. They become cynical. They stop calling to verify facts. They stop extending the benefit of doubt. When every interaction is reduced to transactional utility, public trust erodes alongside corporate credibility.

Corporate communication is not celebrity management. It is credibility management. And credibility, even in 2026, still begins with the simplest professional decency of all: returning a call.

 

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the website or its management.)