Engaging with the Media

I think that it wouldn't be an overstatement to say that engaging with the media is an art in itself. Not only must PR practitioner be able to build relationship with the appropriate personnels, they must also be able to frame their media releases in such a way that it would not only capture the attention of journalist but also elicit positive responses from the public. On top of that, the amount of work they put in trying their best to present their releases, sourcing for the appropriate media and keep all in line with the objectives of the company, all these take up a tremendous amount of time and effort. I am sure from the readings I would not be able to truly appreciate the difficulties of the job but it has certainly helped me gain a clearer overview of it.

Although much has been said about drawing attention by engaging the media, the chapter also touched on ways to minimise media attention on bad news regarding the organization which I realised is equally as important. The media seems have a thirsting for bad news, and it is inevitable that an organisation makes mistakes now and then. Therefore it is important to choose to right timing to release a report and an example given was to release it at a time slot that has other more interesting and overwhelming news that would overshadow the release and thus reduce the negative effects that might come along with it.