Week 8

I think that the key points to remember from this week's readings were:

• How important it is for PR professionals to contact journalists the right way. This is because the news-gathering process is the transactional information exchanges between practitioners and journalists. This is what often becomes the news of the day. For journalists to want to publish your work, PR practitioners need to meet the needs of journalists and keep them happy by contacting them their proffered way!
• I thought it was interesting that studies show that many journalists perceived practitioners to lack professionalism and respect for journalists interests. Practitioners need to adhere to journalistic standards and practices.
• Journalists have strong preferences about how they like to be contacted by practitioners. E-mail has become one of the most popular but many still like face-to-face rather than having to sift through lots of text that they will probably not even use. Practitioners also need to effectively communicate with journalists by learning individual 'gate-keepers' preferences.
• Journalists depend on public relations practitioners to help set, build and frame news agendas. By improving their framing skills and adhering to journalists preferences, practitioners will know better how to contact the journalists upon whose news coverage they rely.
• The importance of writing skills should be acknowledged as it is an essential public relations skill. Research has shown that writing related issues include: run-on sentences, poor paragraph structure, poor grammar, and not having the ability to change writing styles. It is important to be able to write accordingly to the publication you are aiming for (newspapers, television, internet, radio).
  
• Students should focus on learning about client-focused writing. Writing skills are imperative for graduates of PR courses.
  

How to write a Press Release:

1. Present information of genuine worth- Help the news editors understand why your release is of interest.
2. A press release is NOT an advertisement. Don't use clichéd words and phrases.
3. Different media require different formats/versions/styles of the news release. They may need different information and even visual texts.
4. Keep it short and clear. Say it in the first sentence!
5. Make the heading relevant and have impact. Grab attention. Use sub-headings.
6. Be careful and clever with quotes. (Avoid self-serving quotes).
7. Do the reporters job for them. Provide them with additional info, statistics, quotes etc.
8. Don't overload with your company info (THIS IS SELF-SERVING).
9. Give a broad range of sources/ contacts that are USEFUL!!!
   
10. Check and double check that it is spell and fact checked for accuracy.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that it is so important to have a good working relationship with journalists and knowing the correct ways to contact them as well as how to provide them with the information in the best way possible, will ultimately help your campaign be successful.

I didn't realise how much work a PR practitioner's job entails either. I have also learnt that the majority of what is published by media outlets today, is sourced from the PR practitioners. I now realise that I need to better my writing skills in order my future news releases to be published. It is important to meet the needs of journalists so that your companies campaign will be successful and have good media coverage.