Chapter 19 - Journalism and Public Relations

What is PR?

• Public relations is planned and continuous communication designed to promote an organization and its image, products or services to the public.

  • Practitioners write news releases (also called press releases), create visual communication (photos and information graphics), produce video news releases (VNRs) for broadcast and YouTube, all to improve their client’s image.

• The overall objective of this field is to promote the client and get its name, product or service into the news without paying for advertising.

What is strategic communication?

Strategic communication is creating and developing a plan that effectively communicates a consistent message to particular audiences.

What is risk communication?

Involves preventative planning for any potential problems that might occur and having an action plan if they do.

What is crisis communication?

Crisis communication is after-the-fact, when PR must smooth things over between their client and the public.

Speech Writing for Public Officials

The specialized practice of crafting spoken remarks, policy statements, and talking points for government leaders, elected representatives, and civil servants.

19.1.2 - Corporate, Nonprofit and Government PR

• PR people may work within a for-profit company, a nonprofit organization, a government agency, or for a celebrity.

  • In these settings, they communicate with two groups:

    • An internal audience of officers and employees

    • An external audience of the general public or specific publics such as company partners.

19.1.2.1 - Internal Communications

• Practitioners handling internal communications work to keep a company’s employees informed about the organization. They ensure that all staff, whether in the same building or in a remote branch office, think of themselves as part of the company.

  • Some practitioners write features about employees and their role in the company. Others public photographs and brief biographies of new employees.

19.1.2.2 - External Communications

• PR practitioners promote a positive image of an organization by identifying different segments of the public and researching the best ways to reach them for messaging news.

  • These publics may be investors, customers, business associates, etc.

19.2 - Working with Journalists and News Media

• To make their promotional efforts effective, practitioners learn whom to contact.

  • “Shotgunning” a release—sending it to multiple departments in a news organization—wastes time and money.

  • By sending news releases to the right editor, practitioners increase the likelihood the story will be used and decreases the chance of harming their reputations.

  • The most common types of press releases are advance releases, releases that tell about the event after it happened, releases that are feature stories about discoveries and results.

19.2.2 - Event Stories

• A PR person sometimes writes about an event as though it already had happened and the news media is reporting on it

  • This type of release serves two main purposes:

    • It lets reporters know what will occur at the event.

    • It helps the story get published quickly after the event.

19.2.3 - Features

• Practitioners often write feature stories as news releases, and some may interest a local audience while others might have national appeal.

  • A well-written feature appears as an informative story rather than a publicity piece.

19.2.4 - Discoveries and Results

• Universities, hospitals, corporations and research institutions want the public to know about their discoveries and the results of their work.

  • Such announcements highlight and enhance an organization’s reputation.

19.3 - Tips for Effective News Releases

List a Contact and a Follow-Up Person

1. Reporters follow up interesting news releases to verify information or ask a question.

Send the Release on Time

1. Timing is important. A release received too close to a deadline is less likely to be used because editors have little time to verify information. One sent too early will likely be forgotten.

Include News Values

1. Successful releases are stories that journalists consider newsworthy and have an impact on the public.

   1. They have the elements of timeliness, magnitude or impact, prominence, proximity, unusualness or conflict.

Use Journalism’s Five W’s

1. Write like a journalist. News releases answer the questions of who, what, where, when, why and how. The best releases are written in a journalistic style that makes them hard to distinguish from published news stories.

Write Well

1. A news release is written so readers with varying education levels can understand it.

   1. Language is concise and simple; grammar and spelling are perfect; words are in active voice; paragraphs are short and get to the point.

Localize Information

1. News releases omit how the information affects people in a community. Localizing also can mean reflecting a psychological closeness.

Provide Visuals

1. Catches the eyes of readers and draws them into the story.

Provide Links

1. Effective releases have adequate details and links for reporters to get additional information on the topic addressed in the release.

19.5 - The No. 1 Problem: Lack of Newsworthiness

• Journalists prefer press releases that have news elements that satisfy their definition of news.

• News organizations reject releases if they have:

  • Limited Interest - Because media outlets operate under tight time constraints.

  
  

  • Contrived Events - Something that feels fake, forced, or overly planned rather than happening naturally.

  
  

  • Stating the Obvious - Because they lack news value and fail to offer new information.

  
  

  • Buried News - Journalists lack the time to dig for a reason.

  
  

  • Wordiness - Many news releases bury the most important information among a lot of words.

19.6 - The No. 2 Problem: Lack of Objectivity

The purpose of public relations and news releases is to promote awareness about a client. Unfortunately, many have no news value and are similar to advertisements.

• Advertisements - The worst news releases are blatant advertisements. They are obviously written to help sell an image, product or service.

• Laudatory Adjectives and Puffery - Journalists eliminate laudatory adjectives (words that express praise, admiration, or approval) when rewriting news releases. Stay objective.

• Empty Quotes - Generalities, platitudes, self-praise and gush often appear in direct quotations, but that never justifies its use.

  • If a quotation lacks substance, journalists will discard it.

• Bossing the Public - Instead of reporting news, some releases tell people to donate their time and money, buy new products, attend events or join organizations.

  • Journalists delete editorial comments or rewrite them in a more factual manner.

• One-Sided Stories - Almost all news releases are biased to benefit the client, and the client’s opinions sometimes are presented as fact.

  • Journalists investigate the other side of the story that were left out—and they localize the story. They also check the facts in a release to avoid serious errors.