by: Simone FraidFor my ethics study, I selected the book Media Training 101: A Guide to Meeting the Press by Sally Stewart.
Stewart founded SA Stewart Communications, an organization that helps businesses formulate strategic actions for marketing, communication, and media relations. She also was a reporter for USA Today, and therefore understands public relations from the perspective of the media.
In the book, she gives a wide range of advice, from dealing with crisis to creating a media kit. Through it all, she weaves each topic together with its relationship to the media.
And though she was a member of the media, she provides a very objective view of the media. She concedes that they have a great deal of power, but that they also harbor resentment against public relations and so they must be dealt with carefully.
Pretty much all of Stewart's advice stems from the same idea: public relations needs to be about facts. She says reporters are resentful of fluff and non-facts.
She also advises the reader to how to be a strategic communicator and get noticed in the press. Stewart tells businesses to use creativity and interesting angles to get their point across, but always while sticking to the truth. She tells also them to be tough and have a thick skin when the media doesn't act in their favor.
The entire book is a manual full of tips and steps to improve a business' positioning in the media. As Stewart says, it's not a substitute for having leadership and good experts to guide a business' media dealings, but it does give solid instruction that would be useful to anyone dealing with the media on a regular basis.
4 comments:
This was very insightful and useful information. Since we will be in constant communication with the press in the field of public relations, it was nice to read about something that can actually be utilized.
I agree I think public relations needs to be about the facts. The public already deals with all of the "fluff" information from the newspapers and they need to know that they can count on public relations practitioners to give them the facts. Along with giving the facts, PR practitioners need to remember to be creative when giving them.
I agree with everyone's comments. Public relations does need to focus on facts. Many people think negatively about this occupation, so honesty and integrity is extremely important to change these wide spread opinions about public relations. Plus it will create more trust from the public with our organizations.
Very interesting, and, more importantly, useful, review.
Talking to the press is a vital function of all PR Practitioners. Knowing what to do and what to avoid is a skill we should all have.
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