Read the text. Relations with the media or media relations

Read the text. RELATIONS WITH THE MEDIA OR MEDIA RELATIONS

The media are businesses that gather, package and sell information. Journalists have mixed, feelings toward public relations practitioners—suspecting them of manipulation, while depending on them for information. Public relations practitioner When public relations practitioners build relationships of confidence and trust with journalists, many mutually beneficial interactions can results view journalists as an audience, a medium through which to reach the broader public, and as gatekeepers representing and responding to the public's need to know. Three direct ways of intentionally reaching the media include news releases, discussions with journalists (particularly interviews), and news conferences.

Public Opinion

When many people consider the function of public relations, their first thought is: "Those are the folks who deal with the media." And although public relations does far more than deal with the media, that certainly is an important aspect of the job. Media coverage can have significant positive or negative impacts on every aspect of an organization's operations. Public confidence and public support are often determined by the treatment an issue receives in the press and on radio and television. If a public relations practitioner is to work effectively with the media, he or she must understand how the media function and how reporters work. Insights into journalists' views of public relations and into the working relationship of journalists and public relations practitioners are also essential. Public relations practitioners must be prepared (and must prepare others) to deal with the media face-to-face. Finally, practitioners must be proficient in the art and craft of publicity and knowledgeable about the tools used to gain media attention.

Speak of the different opinions on public relations practitioner.

Answer the questions to the text.

I. What impact can media coverage have on every aspect of an organization's operations?

2. What must a public relations practitioner understand if he or she wants to work effectively with the media?

3. How do public relations practitioners view journalists?

4. What feelings have journalists toward public relations practitioners?

5. What are the three direct ways of intentionally reaching the media'? Explain each of them with your own examples.

Read the text. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOURNALISTS AND PRAC r t I IONERS

The Public Relations Practitioner's View of the Journalist

From the public relations practitioner's perspective, the journalist is at once an audience, a medium through which to reach the larger public, and a gatekeeper and responding to the publics need to know. Some go so far as to say that the practitioner's livelihood depends on reporters' or editors' decisions to use his material. Because of this dependency, practitioners' selection and presentation of information often conforms more to journalistic standards than to the desires of their superiors in their own organizations. In a sense, both the journalist and the practitioner, in dealing with each other, are caught between the demands of the organizations they represent and thee demands of the opposite party. Public relations practitioners, as boundary spanners, are often caught in the middle between journalistic and other institutions, trying to explain each to the other.

Mutual Dependence

The relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists is one of mutual dependency. Although journalists like to picture themselves as reluctant to utilize public relations (information, economic considerations force them to do otherwise. A news staff capable of ferreting information from every significant organization in a city without the assistance of representatives for those organizations would be prohibitively expensive. Indeed, numerous studies have placed public relations' contribution to total news coverage in excess of 50 percent. Moreover, the public relations practitioner makes the journalist's job much easier, saving time and effort and providing information that might otherwise be unavailable. To a considerable extent, the purposes of the news outlet and the public relations practitioner overlap. Both wish to inform the public of things that affect them. This provides the basis of a cooperative system for disseminating information. In this sense, public relations practitioners function as extensions of the news staff They play a specific, functional, cooperative role in society's information-gathering network, even though they owe no loyalty to specific news outlets, are not paid by them, and may never set foot in the building in which the news is produced. Communication between certain public relations practitioners and journalists is massive, Some public relations offices send out news releases daily. Additionally, personal contact and communication may be initiated by either party. The amount, of communication, between journalists and public relations practitioners is a measure of their dependency on one another. In some instances, public relations practitioners provide more useful information to specific media than do the journalists Those media employ. Through the efforts of public relations practitioners, the media receive a constant flow of free information. Facts that journalists might not have acquired otherwise become available in packaged form. The reporter or editor, as we noted above, can then decide what is newsworthy. As the editor of an Ohio daily, newspaper remarked with relish, "I'm the guy who says 'yes' or 'no', the public relations man has to say please. " That editor's assessment of journalists' power is strictly accurate only when public relations practitioners and journalists share no dependency. When interdependency exists, journalists retain nominal veto power over incoming information, but they abdicate much of their decision-making responsibility to public relations practitioners who select and control material given out: While journalists may reject one or another news release, they depend on the constant flow of information from representatives of important institutions. To a large extent, journalists are processors of information passed on by public relations practitioners who do the primary gathering. Under these circumstances, journalists' main means of control becomes their ability to refuse to deal with public relations practitioners who fail to meet subjective standards. Even such rejection is impossible, though, when the public relations practitioner is firmly entrenched in the institution.

Read the tat

WORKING WITH THE MEDIA

With a basic understanding of the complex relationships between pub& relations practitioners and journalists, we can outline a few general principles for working with the media. In the first piece, managers must reconcile them-selves to the -legitimacy of the media's role in monitoring the pedant-met of, their organizations and leaders. Managers and institutions must understand and `institutions the unique position of the media, realizing that, on one level, an grove adversarial relationship is normal. The best advice in dealing with the media is-to give journalists what they want in the form and language they want. Respond quickly and honestly. to media requests for information. By working to establish a relationship Of mutual - trust with particular journalists, you can defuse many potentially antagonistic encounters.

Preparing to Meet the Media

Consider the following situations:

You are the chief public relations official for a major company; A reporter calls your office at 9 A.M. She wants to see you for an interview at 11 A.M. She wants your company to respond to allegations made by a source that she is not at liberty to disclose. All she will say is that the charges deal with corporate finances and questionable conduct of certain corporate officials. As the public relations director of a major private university, you decide to hold a press conference to announce the initiation of an important fund-raising effort. A prominent alumnus has donated $5 million to kick off the campaign. You know that recent media coverage has criticized the university's budgetary problems, tuition hikes, and incursions into neighborhoods around the school that displaced poor people and eroded the community tax base. You are the community relations' director of the local police force. A reporter calls to request a meeting with your chief about low police morale resulting from the city's inability to meet rank-and-file demands for pay rises. When you attempt to arrange an interview for the following afternoon, the chief berates you, saying: "It's your job to keep the press off my back. Why can't you handle the guy's questions?" You convince the chief that the reporter would not talk to you because he said he was tired of the chief hiding behind his "flack." You tell him departmental integrity and morale depends on his willingness to deal with the press. You promise to help him prepare. He reluctantly agrees to the interview.

Preparation Strategies

Preparation to meet the media is essential for both individuals and organizations. Preparation =axle more than getting psyched up about a particular, interview, because, when the opportunity comes, there may be little time: to prepare, as the. cases Suggest. In the first example, a company official would have only two hours to gather information, and prepare strategy to deal effectively with some very sensitive issues. Before anyone in the organization meets with the media, the first step is to develop the proper set of attitudes. Meeting the media is an opportunity, not a problem; therefore, defensiveness is not appropriate. There is no need to feel intimidated—particularly if your objective is worthy. In the case of the university's fund-raising campaign, the purpose of the press conference must be kept firmly in mind. The public relations director should refuse, in a friendly way, to be dragged by reporters' questions into subjects other than the donation and campaign. The attitude of the interviewee toward the journalist should be one of hospitality, cooperation, and openness. At the same time, the interviewee should realize that the reporter need not be the person in control. The interviewee should decide what needs to be said and say it—no matter what the reporter's questions may be. A positive mental attitude is essential. Once- this-attitude established among everyone in an organization who may be called onto be interviewed, it becomes much easier and less traumatic to prepare for specific interviews. After the chief of police completes one interview successfully,' the next will be more easily handled. Before looking further at how individuals can interact successfully with the media, we will discuss how organizations can publicize themselves effectively.

Read the text

PUBLICITY

Publicity is a broad term that refers to the publication of news about art organization or person for which time or space was not purchased. The appeal of publicity is oredibility. Because publicity appears in the news media in the form of a story rather than an advertisement, it recelves what amounts to a third-party endorsemens from the editor. Since the editor has judged the publicity material newsworthy, the public is not likely perceive it as an advertisement. Publicity may, therefore, reach members of an organizations public who would be suspicious of advertising. Publicity can be divided into two categories: spontaneous and planned. A major accident, fire, explosion, strike, or any other unplanned event creates spontaneous publicity. When such an event occurs, news media will be eager to find out the causes circumstances, and who is involved. While spontaneous publicity is not necessarily negative, it should be handled through standing plans.

Planned publicity, on the other hand, does not originate from an emergency situation. It is the result of a conscious effort to attract attention to an issue, event or organization. Time is available to plan the event and how- it will be communicated to the news media. If a layoff, plant expansion, change in top personnel, new product, or some other potentially newsworthy event is contemplated, the method of announcing it is a major concern. How an organization's publics perceive an event can determine whether 'publicity is "good" or "bad."

2. Answer the questions to the text.

I. Into what categories can publicity be devided?

2. What is spontaneous publicity?

3. What is planned publicity?

4. What determines wherther publicity is "good" or bad"'?

3. Translate the text into Russian.

 

Communication between certain public relations practitioners and jour-nalists is massive., Some public relations offices send out news' releases daily. Additionally, personal contact and communication may be initiated by either party. The amount of communication,between journalists and public relations practitioners is a measure of their dependency on one another. In some •in-stances, public relations practitioners provide more useful information to spe-cific media than do the journalists those media employ. Through the efforts of public relations practitioners, the media receive a constant flow of free information. Facts that journalists might not have acquired otherwise become available in packaged form. The reporter or editor, as we noted above, can then decide what is newsworthy. As the editor of an Ohio daily newspaper remarked with relish, "I'm the guy who says 'yes' or 'no', the pbblie'relations man has to say 'please.' " That editor's assessment of journalists' power is strictly accurate only when public relations practitioners and journalists share no dependency. When interdependency exists, journalists retain nominal veto power over incoming information, but they abdicate much of their decision-making responsibility to public relations practitioners who select and control material given out: While journalists may reject one or another news release, they depend on the constant flow of infomiation from representatives of important institutions. To a large extent, journalists are processors of infonnation passed on -by public relations practitioners who do the primary gathering. Under these circumstances, journalists' main means of control becomes their ability to refuse to deal with public relations practitioners who fail to meet subjective standards. Even such rejection is impossible, though, when the public relations practitioner is firmly entrenched in the institution.

Read the text. RELATIONS WITH THE MEDIA OR MEDIA RELATIONS

The media are businesses that gather, package and sell information. Journalists have mixed, feelings toward public relations practitioners—suspecting them of manipulation, while depending on them for information. Public relations practitioner When public relations practitioners build relationships of confidence and trust with journalists, many mutually beneficial interactions can results view journalists as an audience, a medium through which to reach the broader public, and as gatekeepers representing and responding to the public's need to know. Three direct ways of intentionally reaching the media include news releases, discussions with journalists (particularly interviews), and news conferences.

Public Opinion

When many people consider the function of public relations, their first thought is: "Those are the folks who deal with the media." And although public relations does far more than deal with the media, that certainly is an important aspect of the job. Media coverage can have significant positive or negative impacts on every aspect of an organization's operations. Public confidence and public support are often determined by the treatment an issue receives in the press and on radio and television. If a public relations practitioner is to work effectively with the media, he or she must understand how the media function and how reporters work. Insights into journalists' views of public relations and into the working relationship of journalists and public relations practitioners are also essential. Public relations practitioners must be prepared (and must prepare others) to deal with the media face-to-face. Finally, practitioners must be proficient in the art and craft of publicity and knowledgeable about the tools used to gain media attention.