Module Introduction
The media provide the primary channel you will have to use to get many of your messages out to the public. You have to learn how to target your messages to the media in general and to the different types of media that you will deal with. The trade media have different interests and requirements than a national news magazine. Weekly newspapers are different from daily papers, and TV is different from radio. Individual newspapers in the same city sometimes have distinctly different styles and interests. A major city might have one paper aimed at people in project/programme purpose, and another aimed at everyone else.
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1. Use the Media to Deliver Your Message
The media
provide the primary channel you will have
to use to get many of your messages out to the public.
Unlike internal information networks or paid advertising, however, individual newspapers, magazines, radio and TV news shows decide which messages they want to carry, when to carry them, and how to present or interpret them.
In the same way that you have to target messages to various audiences, you have to learn how to target your message to the media, to the reporters and editors who will decide whether or not to use your information, and if so, in what way. At times, you could find yourself targeting information to a specific reporter or editor.
You must also learn how to target your information to the different types of media that you will deal with. The trade media have different interests and requirements than a national news magazine. Weekly newspapers are different from daily papers, and TV is different from radio. Individual newspapers in the same city sometimes have distinctly different styles and interests. A major city might have one paper aimed at people in project/programme purpose, and another aimed at everyone else.
The august and formal New York Times is aimed at a different audience than the one that the tabloid-style and sensationalistic New York Daily News is aimed at.
Due to the nature of the various media, some stories work best for TV. Others work best for print. Still others are better suited to radio. In many cases a story will work for all three, but each type of media will emphasize or focus on those specific elements that are best suited to its own format or style.
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2. Thinking Like a Journalist
Many people
spend a lot of time worrying and wondering what the media will do with news releases or
other information they send out, whether they will be used, and if they are, how. To
figure it out for yourself involves looking at it the way the media will.
Take all the information that you have, and spend a little bit of time pretending that you are a reporter. Answer the following three questions:
If you can answer yes to all three, the odds are that they will use it if they have the time or space for it. After all, there is a limited amount of space in a newspaper, and time on radio and TV. Sometimes they will use something that meets only two of the criteria; either #1 and #2, or #2 and #3.
It must, however, meet #2. It must be timely. The definition of timeliness changes from media to media. To a daily paper, something that happened Monday isn’t going to be of much interest in terms of Friday’s paper. But to a weekly that comes out on Saturday, it will be.
The definitions of “interesting” and “important” also depend upon the specific media you are taking about. These definitions depend upon the media’s audience and what they think is interesting and important.
The Stock Market Report has a different focus than Toy Soldier Digest, and the articles they run will reflect the interest of their readers.
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3. Thinking Like a Journalist (Continued)
Once the news
media—any media—decide to carry a story, the reporter’s primary job is to
answer the basic questions of journalism; the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of the
story.
Reporters
have to tell the complete story—or at least as much of it as they can get—and
they don’t really care who the story might either please or offend, as long as it is
the truth.
Here is one of the basic secrets of journalism: Displeasing, offending and even embarrassing the rich and powerful is fun; it helps make up for the low pay.
So, when the facts let them do so, they will—eagerly. Their readers, viewers and listeners will enjoy it as much as the reporters do.
Look at it this way. In the days of the old silent movies, one of the basic sight gags was to have people slip on a banana peel and land on their bottom. If a little old lady fell, it wasn’t funny. But if a rich, arrogant, and pompous banker slipped and fell, it was hilarious. The more important, arrogant, or pompous the person falling, the bigger the laugh it generated.
Many reporters live with this motto: “We are here to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.”
When they can do so, they will. If you, your boss, or your organization happen to be less than thrilled by the treatment, that’s life.
The best way to avoid this is to be very careful about the information that you give them.
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4. Thinking Like a Journalist (Continued)
Look at everything that a reporter might already know about the information you are releasing. What are other people saying about it? Your competition? Critics? The government? Members of the community? What have they said about it in the past? What, if anything, has actually changed since the last time the media has reported anything about it?
How important is it to the community? Where would you realistically expect to see it in the next day’s paper? How many words would you give it if you were the editor? Do you think TV news will cover it? If they do, how much time do you think they’ll give it, and what interviews will they focus on: the organization’s or the critics?
You know that
you can downplay information in your news release, maybe even ignore it completely. You
know, however, that reporters won’t. Instead, they’ll go back to the critics,
read to them what you said in your release, and then ask them for their comments. They
might then come back to get your reaction to their reaction, but the negative comments
will be part of the story and possibly even the focus of the story.
If you know
your subject as well as you should, you’ll have a pretty good idea what those people
will say, and what the media will do with it.
In many ways, the hardest part of the exercise might be telling your boss what to expect and why.
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5. How NOT To Write a News Release
If you can’t
get an editor interested in your news release in the first paragraph, it will not be run.
Editors look at hundreds of news releases, and they don’t waste time on the ones that
don’t grab their attention immediately.
Here are some other common mistakes.
Why should WE care?
The release lacks a local angle. Editors look for stories that will interest their audiences. If it is not about someone local, or a local organization, there better be something really interesting. If there isn’t, they won’t bother with it.
What are you talking about?
The release is confusing, poorly written, or hard to read. If it doesn’t make sense at the beginning the editor won’t even read through to see if it does at the end.
Who is this from?
The editor has to know whom it is from, what organization or organization they represent, and how to contact them. If there is no contact information, the editor will throw it away. If you are sending something to an editor on the other side of the country, it helps to have a toll-free number. After all, you’re the one who wants the editor to call.
You expect me to read all this?
The best news releases are one-page long. They can even go to two pages. Anything longer will tempt a busy editor to just ignore it and go to the next one.
Where was this when I could have
used this?
It’s late. Had you gotten it there earlier, they might have used it.
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6. Important Compared to…
Earlier
we look at the three basic criteria for news: interest, timeliness, and importance. Many
things happen every day that meet those three criteria, and you will hear or read about
only a small fraction of them. That is because those three criteria form only the first
hurdle. Once a possible story has gotten that far, it has to be judged against all the
other potential news stories of the day.
Here are 10
questions to ask yourself to help you determine how newsworthy your item might be. The
more “yes” answers you can honestly give, the more likely it is to be used.
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7. Eye Candy and Ear Appeal
Each type of
news media has different strengths and weaknesses which make it better able to handle some
stories, while limiting its ability to handle others.
Television
TV is a visual medium, so TV news shows tend to focus on stories that have strong visual elements, preferably with color, action, and movement. TV news stories usually have to be told quickly, in just two or three minutes or less. Even though they can handle charts, graphs, and columns of numbers, the camera will not spend too much time on them. They serve more as a background, to convey trends, or to highlight one or two facts.
Its greatest strength is that it can show the viewer what happened and, in
many cases, what is happening right now.
Often the camera is the real journalist, the real reporter. No matter what a human reporter might say about the story, the viewer’s eyes and mind are usually more focused on what they are seeing than on what they are hearing.
One of the maxims of TV news is: “If it bleeds, it leads.”
Stories with blood—literally as well as figuratively—are more likely to get prominence because there is so much interest in seeing human beings in danger, in watching emotional or overpowering visuals. A burning office tower, a flood covering a town in water, tearful parents describing how their child was killed or injured, are all more likely to get prime TV coverage than an annual report, quarterly sales figures, or a CEO speech to the stockholders.
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8. Eye Candy and Ear Appeal
(Continued)
Radio
Radio is all about sound, and the stories have to be even briefer. Most radio
news stories are under one minute in length.
There is no way for radio to handle any sort of charts or graphs, or long columns or lists of numbers.
Most radio news is read by an announcer or the reporter covering a specific story and will normally include an occasional short “sound bite” from the person being reported on or from the story itself.
Print (Newspapers)
Newspapers
are basically about words, but they can also handle still pictures, charts, and graphs.
They can run as many charts, graphs, and columns of numbers as they may feel are necessary
in order to tell the complete story, knowing that readers can and will look at them for as
long as they want to.
In the print media, physical space is limited, not the amount of time anyone can spend reading it.
Newspapers offer their readers the depth and details that are only hinted at by radio and TV reports.
Most people find out what is happening from TV and radio, but they learn why it is happening and what it actually means from their newspapers.
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8. Eye Candy and Ear Appeal
(Continued)
Print (News Magazines)
Magazines
offer everything that a daily newspaper does, but organized and filtered by time.
If a CEO is fired on Monday you’ll see a TV report on Monday. You’ll read the details on Tuesday in the newspaper, along with what everyone is saying about both the organization and the CEO. Wednesday’s paper might provide an analysis of what this means to the price of the organization’s stock. By Thursday you might read who the frontrunners are to become the new CEO.
When you read the story in a weekly news magazine you’ll see a less frantic, less urgent, and more thoughtful and composed story about how everything fits together at the organization and often within the sector of activity itself. The stories also tend to be more in depth.
Internet
The Internet
can offer the benefits of radio, TV, and print in one package.
In some cases it is possible to go to an Internet news site and see the actual TV news story and footage, hear the radio “sound bites,” and then read an expanded article on the subject. As the story “advances,” the story on the Internet may also be “advanced” to keep it as current and up-to-date as possible.
Some Internet news sites even offer a chance to have an e-mail “chat” with the reporter covering the story or with other experts there to comment on it during an open “chat room” session.
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10. News Does Not Happen in a Vacuum
News does not
happen in a vacuum.
Your are sending out just one more story in a long line of stories about your
organization or product, and reporters need to know what has gone on in the past in order to
accurately report what is going on now and why.
This is especially true with beat reporters who cover your organization or sector of activity on a regular basis. They need a steady stream of news and information.
Even though you know that TV reporters will not do anything with the charts or graphs and pages of financial information that you know that print reporters will use, you send the information to the TV reporters anyhow. Even though they don’t use it, they will probably read it to help them better understand the story; to put everything in the proper perspective.
Reporters do not report everything they know, just what they have time or room to report. The better informed they are, the more accurate their stories will be, even the brief ones.
In many cases reporters look at a news release and at all the acorganizationing charts, graphs, and numbers and see a story or story angle that you yourself did not realize was there.
When you hand out information to the media, decide what it is you are going to release, and then give it to everyone. Your job is to get it to them. Their job is to decide how much of it to use.
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1. Individual mediums often have different |
A. A reporter |
2. Looking at your message critically is thinking like… |
B. The complete story |
3. Reporters have to tell |
C. The media |
4. The articles that media run reflect |
D. The specific elements of a story best suited for their style. |
5. The primary channel to get messages to the public |
E. The interests of their readers |
6. Each media will emphasize… |
F. Styles |
Answers:
1.) F
2.) A
3.) B
4.) E
5.) C
6.) D
Multiple-Choice
1. The same way you target messages to an audience, you must learn ______ .
a. To target your message to the media
b. To target your message to the reporters
c. In what way to target the message
d. All
of the above
2. Thinking like a reporter entails asking ________ .
a. What
are other people asking about the information
b. What
are competitors and critics saying about the information
c. None of the above
d. Both
A and B
3. Most people find out ______ .
a. What
is happening from TV and radio
b. Why it is happening from TV and radio
c. Why
it is happening from newspapers
d. Both
A and C
4. Magazines offer everything that a daily newspaper does but ______ . (B)
a. A money back guarantee
b. Organized and filtered by time
c. Charts and graphs
d. In-depth analysis
True / False
1. _____ The Internet offers some benefits of each of the other media, but not all.
2. _____ Before the news media decides to run a story, it is the reporter’s job to find out the information.
3. _____ Unless something is interesting, timely, and important, it will never be reported.
4. _____ A story in a magazine is less frantic than in a newspaper.
5. _____ The first paragraph of a news release must be interesting if it is to be run.
6. _____ Many reporters believe the comfortable should be uncomfortable
Answers:
1. F – It offers all in one package.
2. F – The reporter gets the information after the story is to be run.
3. F - If it is two out of the three, or, at least, timely, there’s a good chance it will be run.
4. T
5. T
6. T
Summary
As we have seen, the
media is the primary channel you will have to use to get many of your messages out to the
public. You have to learn how to target your message to the media in general and to the
different types of media that you will deal with. The trade media has different
interests and requirements than a national news magazine. Weekly newspapers are different
from daily papers, and TV is different from radio. Individual newspapers in the same city
sometimes have distinctly different styles and interests. A major city might have one
paper aimed at people in project/programme purpose, and another aimed at everyone else.
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Test
1. _____ If a news release lacks a local angle or is poorly written, it probably won’t be run.
2. _____ TV tends to focus on only the most important issues.
3. _____ The media is the main way to get your messages to the public.
4. _____ Unless something is amusing, moving, or inspiring, it is unlikely to be considered newsworthy.
5. _____ It is impossible to target information to a specific reporter or editor.
6. _____ A medium’s style will often dictate what information it carries.
7. _____ Timeliness is extremely important to editors
8. _____ By downplaying negative information in a news release, you save your organization embarrassment.
9. _____ Each media has different interests and requirements.
10. _____ “If it bleeds, it leads” is the major dictum of radio.
Answers:
1. T
2. F – Tends to focus on stories with strong visual elements.
3. T
4. F – That’s only one aspect.
5. F – Sometimes that’s the most effective, though time-consuming way to get your information known.
6. T
7. T
8. F – Usually, it will come out, and then the media will really play it up.
9. T
10. F – That’s TV’s motto.
Bibliography
Jones, Clarence (2001). Winning with the News Media, Video Consultants.
Bly, Robert (1993). Targeted Public Relations, Henry Holt & Co.
Roggen, Ted (2001). Press Releases, Writer’s Club Press.
Glossary
Channel– Mode of receiving and sending information
Trade media – Media that exclusively focus on specific target segments like ocean-going shipping, computers, or human resources.
Tabloid media – Media that is focused on sensational stories that appeal to emotional or purient interests over the intellectual pursuit of reason.
Timely – Topical or current information
Learning Objectives
· Information that is important, interesting, and timely is deemed to be newsworthy.
· Different media has different strengths and weaknesses, which people in public relations need to know about.
Q&A
1. What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each kind of media?
Visual information works best on TV, especially that with color, action and movement. It can show the viewer what is happening or has just happened. However, most stories are of little depth, lasting no longer than 2-3 minutes (unless it’s a special program, especially on a cable channel.
Radio gives you a lot of different stories and appeals to many different audiences, but the stories tend to be very short (sound bites) because people cannot remember too much information from one sense (auditory).
Print can delve into the reasons of a story and can handle many different kinds of charts and graphs. Physical space is limited. Print limitations also include the fact that it cannot compete with the timeliness of radio and television.
The Internet can offer the benefits of all media; however, it does require accessibility to a computer and Internet. Sometimes there is so much information available on the Internet that people don’t know where to start. Also, there may be compatibility issues and downloading may take time, especially during peak hours.
2. Why should
public relations people think like journalists?
By analyzing the information you have like a journalist, you may be able to gauge whether your information has a good chance of being picked up by the media. If it’s timely, interesting and important to the medium’s audience, then it will most likely be considered newsworthy. Once the story is deemed interesting enough to be carried by the media, the who, what, when, where, why, and how have to be answered. If you are careful about the information given to a journalist, it is less likely to be embarrassing to your organization, even if it’s bad news. However, if a journalist feels that you’re hiding something, he or she will dig until the whole, ugly truth is discovered. So it’s best to be as up front and honest with them as you can be.
3. How can I tell if an item is newsworthy?
First of all, does it pass the “timely,
interesting, and important” test? Is it
innovative, different, or distinctive? Writing
about a test pilot is okay, but if it’s the first woman test pilot, then it’s
news. Will it affect the health, safety, or
livelihood of many in the community? Toxic
chemicals being dumped in a river is bad enough, but getting into a community’s wells
and drinking water is newsworthy, especially if the local plant that is doing the
polluting has to shut down, throwing many people out of work. Is it the results of a new survey or study? Is it amusing, moving, or inspiring? Running
End of Module