Week 7 PR blog: Media relations

The most obvious role of public relations within society is that of media relations-dealing with the media therefore integral to public relations activity. Often confused with publicity, media relations is however a much broader field encompassing crisis management, community relations, special events and sponsorship, and political campaigns, and may mean dealing with a few, or hundreds, of media personnel.
Increasingly, media convergence permits a single message to reach wider audiences, with audiences able to seek out items in their own time. Good avenues of publicity include community and alternative presses and broadcasters, professional and occupational trade presses; each examples of flourishing media platforms targeting specific audiences. Mainstream media is more concentrated and relies on “synchronated work, press agencies and news subsidies” channelled though public relations practitioners (Johnstone & Zawawi, 2004, p. 263). The good news being (for PR practitioners) is that less staff and complexity of news issues means it is easier to gain access to media- one study showing 30% of newspaper articles were wholly or partially based on press releases. All media should be monitored Johnstone & Zawawi (2004) suggest, to gauge public opinion and trends noting that professional media monitoring or clippings services are also available to provide daily ‘clippings files’ for organisations.

Public relations practitioners need to be, in the same way as journalists, focused on the differing news values, these being:
- Impact
- Conflict
- Timeliness
- Proximity
- Prominence
- Currency (the story was already topical)
- Human interest
- Unusual
- Money
Depending on the media, PR practitioners should be familiar with that mediums styles and deadlines and work within them; in this way assisting the media as information providers while maximising their opportunities for gaining exposure for their organisation. By understanding the personnel make-up of a newsroom and knowing the names and roles of those within the newsroom hierarchy, positive working relationships are fostered. Typical newsroom hierarchal structure being:
- Editor
- News editor/chief of staff
- Section heads
- Chief sub-editors
- Journalists/roundspeople
- Copy people
(Journalists and roundspeople are responsible for sourcing stories and as such are the ones to approach and allocate stories to)

The term ‘media’ Johnstone & Zawawi (2004) argue is not amorphorous but complex and multi-layered requiring the needs of each to be known and considered by PR practitioners. For example, magazines may require photographs while TV may require written press releases which will be adapted by television journalists. Less commonly used are Video News Releases (or VNR) which are packaged PR generated stories containing vision, interview grabs, and scripted stories but are largely viewed by Australian journalists as being too promotional- the lesson being to allow for journalistic input while servicing the client organisation and the media.

Media Tools

Media release:
press or news release written in news style i.e. who, what, where, when, why and how; for print news use an inverted pyramid style of writing as editors take 30 seconds to peruse a media release, their key concerns being who you are, the headline, and the lead (all media releases are controlled by gatekeepers so should not be too weighty)
Media conferences:
- Held to allow widespread dissemination of a story and give all media access to a story at once, also allows journalists to ask questions
- It is necessary to find a time convenient for journalists (10 a.m. early in the week being most desirable)
- Consider who the message should reach and the best media available to reach that market (keep up current lists of who to invite- media guides provide information from which to compile lists e.g. Margerat Gee’s Australian media guide)
- Invitations should be appropriate to the conference being held
- Media response will depend on the event (will veer towards less commercial events knowing they can pick up other news by phone or news release)
- Venue is also dependent on the event
Media kit:
- May contain one or several media releases
- a business card is essential
- Backgrounders: background to an event or organisation (factual account written in narrative or chronological order
- Feature articles: may be written in full or idea developed and passed on to journalist to develop (these articles do not date, are novel, usually human interest or unusual stories)
- Profiles or blogs: background on a individual or company (latest information first, may be included in a media kit)
- Media passes: should identify the event, dates of entry, person or organisation distributed to)
- Other items include: Maps, posters, T-shirts, key-rings, caps, newsletters, brochures, annual reports, calendar of events (Gantt chart)
*The overall design and style of a kit should be consistent and uniform in order for messages to be clearer.
*Media relations requires writing, organisation and planning, and interpersonal skills, and current news and events knowledge.

This week’s reading made me consider just how much of PR is, in practice, journalism and accordingly the responsibilities that this role incurs. Added to this is the need to gain the approval of gatekeepers which at this stage seems more than a little daunting…

However I found the Drew (2001) oral presentation skills reading useful (it’s always reassuring to realise that you’re not alone in being concerned about something) and plan to keep this, and the article by Van Emden & Becker (2004) for future reference. In particular the points made about looking at group work as being sharing of the load, and ways in which to divide the work up, helpful in that it gave some practical guidelines to follow. Van Emden and Becker (2004) suggest that group work allows a variety of ideas to be proposed and that each member works to support others. Groupwork also means that individual strengths can be used to the groups advantage, and to consider the image the group wishes to convey (a concept I had not previously considered). Van Emden & Becker’s (2004) suggestion that question time should be welcomed gave me another perspective as generally this part of a presentation is the one I like least probably because as Van Emden & Becker (2004) argue, this is when the audience gets to set the agenda. I also found the timeline of audience interest useful as the worst thing when giving a presentation is knowing that you are failing to keep the audiences attention.

These notes taken from: Johnstone & Zawawi (2004) Chapter 10 ‘Media relations’
"The student skills guide", Chapter 8, 2nd ed., c2001, pp. 98-114
Van Emden, J. & Becker, L. (2004). Presentation skills for students. pp. 77-93