media relations

The important key points to take away from this reading would be:
1) the growing interdependence in the media and the public relations profession
2) the incorporation of the technical aspect and manager's role in the pubic relation's profession

1)

"With this contraction of daily print media has arisen a reliance on syndicated work, press agencies and news subsidies- material generated by organisations and channelled through public relations practitioner [...] Habermas noted how the demands of the press enhanced the growth of the public relations industry (1989)."

This quote shows how the media is rather reliant on the public relations industry for information from organisations. However, it was also noted that the public relations was reliant on the media industry thus making it a two-way relationship. The public relations also find thesmelves needing to gauge public opinion and moniter trends from the news media. Media stories that affect their organisation would require the public relations industry to act upon it immediately and perhaps go ahead with the backup plan if things were not progressing smoothly as reported on the news media.


2) Chapter 10 reiterates what I said in Chapter 7 about how social skills are only a portion of what a public relations practitioner requires. As a public relations practitioner, knowing how to write a good media release would be a bonus as the journalist would not be able to change much of what has been sent before publishing it in the papers the following day. It is important to produce a media release that would interest the journalist or else it might go unnoticed. Also, Chapter 10 covers the importance of holding a media conference and provides information on how to go about holding one while taking into considerations.

The theory of how to go about holding a media conference in this chapter is of great importance as a media conference would be open to scrutiny from the media itself. It would be important that the planning of a media conference is done well to prevent any loss of reputation in the midst of conducting one. The media conference would certainly allow wide dissemination of important information such as the release of products from an organisation. As such, this chapter has been useful in preparation for practice as a public relations practitioner.