This key message from this weeks reading was the importance of good media relations, specifically fostering positive and effective relationships with journalists.
All reading point out the importance of good writing skill, that is correct grammar, punctuation and spelling so I believe this is a key point to take on board.
There a numerous misconceptions that journalists hold of PR practitioners, these include pr practioners put a spin on everything they do, practioners are dishonest and untrustworthy, lacking ethics, a new sense and values, accuracy, timeliness and style of presentation such as the implementation of the inverted pyramid. Therefore I agreed with the quote from a journalist that a professional must “know the nature of the beat, know the style of the journalist, know how they write and what interests them, and the result will be mutually beneficial relationships”.
The readings made the think more about PR in theory as they suggested best practices to form effective relationships with journalists. These were ensure the media release has local relevance. Give accurate information with no spelling mistakes, contact via email or face to face, honing their news sense by journalists’ definitions of news, and using accepted styles of news presentation, such as inverted-pyramid format. The most important point to remember I believe is a professional must learn journalists preferences.
The 10 steps for perfecting a press release were useful in pointed out ways to make a press release successful. I though they were important as they pointed out things I would not have thought of. The points were:
• Make sure you are presenting information of genuine worth
• . Don't mistake a press release for an advertisement
• Don't think one-size-fits-all. Always write to your audience
• Keep it short and succinct. A press release should be no more than two pages.
• Make the heading relevant.
• Be careful and clever with quotes. out a quote from a credible third- party who supports the point you're trying to make, and include it in your release
• Do the reporter's job for them.
• Keep the boilerplate to a minimum.
• Give a tag-team of contacts.
• Check and double check. Before any press release is distributed, be certain it is both spell and fact checked.
Sallot, M. & Johnson, A. (2006). To contact … or not?: Investigating journalists’ assessments of public relations subsidies and contact preferences. Public Relations Review. 32(1) 83-86.
Media Release readings:
The Importance of Writing Skills by Kurt Wise in Public Relations Quarterly; Summer 2005; 50, 2; ABI/INFORM Global. pg. 37
Update blog each week
NOTE: THIS WEEK I COMMENTED ON MICHELLE HOGAN'S BLOG
4 comments:
Hey Taegan,
Your blog this week covered the reading really well, i also agreed with the journalist whom you quoted in your blog - it is evident that it is important that practitioners stay on the beat - and check there writing.
From this weeks readings i thought it was important to note that in media writing, a practitioner must always be aware of their audience or publics and the medium they are writing for. You stated that the central importance is that students develop good writing skills but the readings reinforce that a practitioner will be most successful if they are adaptive in their writing.
I also found the how to write a press release interesting - it pointed out some key things that we must consider when writing a news release - even if some were obvious others i also would not have considered when writing.
Cheers!
Felicity
Hey Taegan,
I found your blog really interesting.
I, also, took away from this week's readings the notion that we, as PR practitioners, must build and maintain positive and effective relationships with journalists in order to develop our work as practitioners.
I found the part about how we must be very careful with spelling and grammar in relation to what we give to journalists a bit odd. I know that we must have very good skills in this regard, but I was also wondering isn't this also the job of the journalist-to be highly skilled in the areas of spelling and grammar.
I too learnt new things about press releases from the third reading which I didn't learn in last semesters professional writing course.
Good blogging
Alex
Taegan
You comment on the two important points from this week's reading; having, as Alexandra notes, positive and effective relationships with journalists and good writing skills.
Well you said a lot of what I felt when I read these readings Taegan, however I didn't articulate my impression nearly as well.
You locked on to the key message (sustaining benefitial relationships with journalists) right away before elaborating in further details later on. After reading yours I feel there were a lot more angles I could have approached this week's readings from. it put it into perspective for me.
I also thought it was useful to explore the misconceptions between journalism and PR and their perceptions of each other's role.
Well done!
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