Public Relations Management Session 4 News

Editor's Notes

• #5: No Definition available
• #8: Media attention is an important mean of communication. There are a number of reasons why you should seek to get media coverage, ranging from generating public debate and obtaining support for ideas and actions up to enhancing the visibility of the organization, facilitating fundraising. Institutions are here to serve the public and as such they must communicate with media frequently. Transparency and accountability are basic requirements of every democratic society, of societies that are built on the right of the people to know and be informed. The lack of information affects people daily lives. Misleading public means generating/deepening crisis in the society overall. Your right is to tell and lead, your role is to share, shape and influence. In other hand the media are here to reflect the reality, to bridge YOU and those whose lives might be affected by your decision. They are the mirror of society so everybody can see itself in the mirror. Media are link that resonates soundly, it is your amplifier, the amplifier of your good and negative attitudes. Ignoring media is ignoring seeing yourself in the mirror but on top of everything else is ignoring your audience, people whom you are supposed to serve. If you are transparent and accountable the media is good opportunity, otherwise from being your and your closest ally, media can turn in most hated enemies. Media are your mirror so use it to promote your good image and new model of leadership. Demonstrate with your appearance professionalism and courage . Show that you believe in the message you are giving and try to win the support of the audience. Win media with your good communication skills, your words, voice and your body language. You are the sender who has something to tell; media are transmitter that helps you to spread the word and reach multimillion audience. You are the source, so be professional media source. Cultivate good relationship with media, understand their nature and requirements. Help them in being professional as well. No journalist is supposed to know everything. They know what the sources tell them. If the sources are not clear and messages are not properly articulated the deficiencies will be reflected in the media. Your image and reputation will go down. Never forget who you are representing. Don’t say “we, me, I” use the name of the organization/agency you work for. If you appear in a longer interview than you can personalize slightly success stories, but instead saying I or ANE/ANIH say WE improved business/investment climate. However, central issue is the need to promote good image of organization/agency, to make it known and reliable.
• #12: Factual ( Stories are NEWS based on facts. If there is no new fact to reveal, or new angle towards the facts, there is no ground for appearing in the media. As more factual you are, more credible you will be in the eyes of your audience. The facts must be build upon the rights of the people to know and be informed. The credibility is bigger if the facts you reveal are complemented by their sources. Try to make the facts interesting. Give them a color and link them with human interest. Facts and statistic can always be followed by personal anecdote or another experience, that will enrich narration and illustrate better your point. In order to be more factual, try to avoid any political statement. The use of the facts for political purposes can destroy the credibility of the organization that you are representing.) F riendly ( Try to keep friendly relation with reporters and avoid calling them only when you need them. This does not mean that you should not feel free to call him/her to comment what they wrote/aired. Before meeting reporter for the first time try to learn more about his/her work. Approach him/her on name and try to be positive even when you have mental fights with the media organization he/she works. Keep reporter updated on the developments even when there is no daily/instant news. ) F air ( Never apply any form of discrimination against journalists neither media organization . Treat them in the same way, be honest and fair. Favoring one reporter or one media organization and leaving behind the others might have very big cost. In long run it can damage badly reputation of your organization. Media are part of the very competitive market so they have to run the stories which they will otherwise avoid. If you disseminate information in selective way, somebody will remain “short” while its competition will run the story. Remember it is not competing company who will be targeted first. The criticism will fall in you. Try to be fair even when you face the criticism. Never try to mislead reporter in hiding the truth or avoiding to give an answer. Never, ever lie reporter. If it is needed be self-critical, but use the reporters presence to reveal success stories as well. This will help in keeping the balance). Fast ( Remember: One day old news is not news anymore. News is immediacy. The nature of the media is connected with deadlines , so when the press rings to your office assume it is an emergency and try to be fast in requested response. When reporter cannot reach you assign person to help him/her or go back to him/her as soon as you can. A call returned even a few hours later may be too late for the deadlines set for the news. Try to avoid calling reporters during their deadlines. In particular if you are dealing with reporter working in electronic media who airs the news frequently. With print media situation is different since their deadline usually is in the late evening hours. An e mail or phone message returned the next day could be very late response. ) Frank (Be open and honest. If you are not happy with question use the “bridge words” and pass to the message you would like to deliver or simply say that you cannot give an answer. Professional sources of the media usually explain the reasons of rejecting to answer on the reporters question. As far as justification is valid and it is not a result of the attempts to hide something or save the time in unfair manner, you will be OK with media. In this case it is strongly recommended to set the deadline when you will go back to reporter with the required answer. )