Week 4 Readings- Media Relations

I believe the key messages from this weeks readings were that media relations is an important and necessary sub-field of PR, that media is also a business and establishing a relationship with a business is very different to a personal relationship (the media don't have to be loyal to you), they are also influenced by industry values as well as news worthiness, it's important not to overlook smaller media outlets or those with specialised audiences, you must know the media and work within their deadlines, requirements and structure to be most successful, the term media is much broader then we might imagine.

The key points in the readings could be applied to my group's work in that they helped me realise the way to structure our strategy in relation to the media. We need good media strategies and clear and well crafted messages. Also I have a better idea of the range of techniques that can be used to reach the media in our campaign other than just media releases. I see how we can make our information interesting, and use the wide variety of media to target it at just the right audience.

The readings made me think more about PR theory and practice in that media relations is not always as straight forward as making a press release newsworthy, I have to meet the agenda set by the media. Also relationships are not as easily maintained and established as I once thought- different institutions require different tactics. I have to establish my organisation as a credible source and there is a fine balance between presenting the facts (and being boring) and pulling an entertaining stunt (but loosing credibility). Also it is very important to frame the story in a way that is relevant to READERS of the publications. I would also have a better idea about the skills needed to set up a media conference or similar event.

The readings related to other reading I've done in the previous weeks in that they cemented my concept of frames, which I studied last year, and developed and refreshed my knowledge on media relations. Also I see how strategy again comes into play in this area of PR. I can also see how research into the media (or a media organisation and its readership) may benefit you in the long run and be the difference between whether your story is accepted or not.