Media Relations: The Reality Behind the Glamour

Journalists, reporters, and the anchorman. That has always been the direction of my thoughts when ‘the media’ was mentioned. However, this Hollywood, glamour paparazzi is not as glitzy in reality. In the real world some hard-working PR practitioner has spent hours planning out the press conference for that sports team on the television or stressing over whether or not those press kits they spent weeks working on will gain positive coverage for their client. In many instances PR can also fall victim to this process of glamorisation. Media relations are the most well-known activity of the PR practitioner, after all who doesn’t think of C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) in the West Wing standing in front of all those journalists in the White House? This is the image we see everyday, however, this weeks readings show that there is more to media relations than publicity and press agentry.

The media environment has changed drastically since PR’s humble beginnings. The media now consists of television, newspapers, magazines, movies, radio, blogging, podcasting, SMS, mobile phone advertising and more! Its important to remember that no matter what aspect of the media you deal with – journalists to bloggers – “effective media relations still requires efficient, informed and ethical professional behaviour” (Johnston & Zawawi, p.239).

The reading this week stressed the need for PR practitioners to be up-to-date. Today’s media is slowly moving towards an online, almost constantly streaming industry with many of the major print media making the leap to online. Through this shift to cyber-news the public is also gaining the ability to take part in the broadcasting process as the media calls on its audiences to contribute by way of polls, comments, and websites such as ireport.com. With news moving this quickly PR practitioners need to know what’s going on.

With all of this growth happening in the media it is often easy to forget about the ‘alternative’ media. These media target specific groups of people, for example gay radio stations target the gay and lesbian community. Such media should not be overlooked and can come in handy when trying to reach a targeted group.

No matter what media you are aiming to gain coverage in one must always remember the nine values that make news. They are:

1. Impact

2. Conflict

3. Timeliness

4. Proximity

5. Prominence

6. Currency

7. Human interest

8. Unusual

9. Underdog/Fair Go

Although all these aspects of PR can be planned to a degree, you always need to be prepared for disaster. This week’s second reading demonstrates this in the exceptional way that Singapore’s health authorities dealt with the SARS epidemic. The entire strategy rested upon the public’s trust in health officials. In a situation like this one trust is imperative because, as the reading states, “when people cannot understand they have to believe. And whether they believe or not is a matter of trust” (Chong, p. 7). Gaining the public’s trust is down to the PR practitioner and their strategy.

Valete,

Kobe.

Readings: 

Chapter 9 ‘Media Relations’ in J. Johnston & C. Zawawi (Eds.), Public Relations: Theory and Practice (pp. 238-267). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Chong, M. (2006) A crisis of epidemic proportions: What communications lessons can
practitioners learn from the SARS crisis in Singapore. Public Relations Quarterly; Spring
2006; 51, 1; ABI/INFORM Global; pg. 6.