CCM 737

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CCM 737

• Media Relations

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Today

• Today we are going to discuss
• Chapter 1 and 2
• Ethics in PR
• Earned media what is it?
• News release writing

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Topics for news release/ Fact sheet

• Topic
• Write a news release and fact sheet on
• You are a group of seneca students wanting
  attention about how the York strike is wreaking
  havoc in your lives
• Youve formed a group (make up name) and want the
  news media to write a story on how
• The york strike is making you late for classes
• You have to walk long treks from bus
• You feel student safety is at risk b/c some women
  walk late at night on dark campus

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• You are urging the govt to legislate end to
  strike (pretend this isnt already happening)
• We are into week 12 (again pretend)
• You want Seneca to have better plans in place for
  student safety and to avoid this in the future

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Chap 1 and 2 Review

• Spin Lets have a discussion about it
• What does the book say about spin? Discuss
• What extreme example did the book use about spin?
  Discuss
• What do you think about using that type of spin
  in PR?
• How far is too far?
• These are things you are going to have to
  consider throughout your career in PR.
• Spin may be considered unethical what could be
  considered ethical spin? (former role)
• What about contrived letters to editor/phone in
  shows/ announcements to overshadow bad news?

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Chap 1 2

• Earned media
• How do you get news media attention?
• Earned media is when you go after the media and
  earn coverage
• Opposite would be paid media A.K.A
  advertising
• Many in PR launch an earned media campaign in
  conjunction with a paid advertising campaign
• CAN YOU GIVE ME examples of some of the bigger
  name PR campaigns that are launched in
  conjunction with advertising campaigns?

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Earned Media

• PROs
• Raise awareness of your issue
• Raise awareness of your group/ organization
• To inform your target audience
• To send a message to a third party (government)
• To effect an attitude change or a behaviour
  change
• Audience can be big can reach a lot of people
  through earned media
• Cost may be less than advertising campaign
• You can build public support

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Earned media

• What are the cons? What are the limits of
  earned media have?

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Earned media

• You are NOT in control
• Think about how it feels to pitch a story idea to
  a reporter, send the media release, do the
  interview and wait..( ask for copy?!?)
• Accuracy
• Unlike paid advertising, you may not be in the
  news for long, which means your message wont get
  repeated so your issue may only be in the news
  for one cycle or one newscast
• Conflict/Controversey aspect

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Earned media

• May not deliver your message or it could get
  garbled or not filtered adequately
• You may find that public doesnt support your
  viewpoint
• If you didnt think it through correctly, you may
  have an issue you need to manage
• We will discuss these things at length over the
  course of the semester and how to avoid the
  pitfalls and to get your message out the best way
  possible

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media / reporters

• Before you can go after reporters for coverage,
  you need to know who they are.
• READ Chapter 4, 5 and 8
• TV stations
• News Director the big boss of TV news
• Responsible for hiring, firing of news anchors,
  reporters, producers, editors overall direction
  of news on a daily basis. The buck stops at
  him/her
• Assignment editors assigns stories to reporters
  and monitors stories as they come in (other TV,
  radio, newspapers, wire services, news releases,
  police scanners)

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TV

• TV news producers responsible for overall TV
  newscast. Will ensure reporters do assignments,
  time out the show, filter through the news as it
  comes in and assigns writers to stories. Work
  closely with assignment editors, reporters. HIGH
  stress job
• Reporters take stories from assignment editors.
  Still have onus to find own stories and to get
  clearance to cover . Out in the field a lot on
  the scene.
• TV reporters some are beat reporters like
  Queens Park or City Hall, Police beat etc.
  Mostly general assignment

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Newspapers

• Publisher of the paper
• Editor similar to news director in TV
  responsible for all content in paper/ hires
  reporters, assignment editors etc
• Assignment editors several in a day. Morning
  assignment, afternoon, evening etc.
• Responsible for assigning stories to reporters,
  monitoring news (similar in TV but more onerous
  as it is a larger scale, more managerial
  responsibilities)
• Reporters Newspapers more often have beat
  reporters, still general assignment / also pitch
  stories, left to own devices

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Radio

• News director similar to TV but on a smaller
  scale, unless its an all news station/ talk radio
• Assignment some stations dont have assignment
  editors, some just reporters most may have 1 or
  2 reporters max. / very seldom beat reporters
• Newscasters responsible for writing stories,
  working with reporters, monitoring news wires,
  TV, radio stations etc.

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Newsrooms general

• Many people work in a newsroom
• Inherently not as organized as you may think
• If you send a news release to one reporter, dont
  assume he or she will pass along to editor,
  assignment editor. Usually thats it. Goes to
  his/her inbox and no further.
• May have to pitch your story over and over again
  to several editors, reporters before you get
  noticed.
• You may have to re-send your news release to all
  reporters several times to get noticed
• Send to the morning assignment editor he/she
  not interested will throw it away. You may have
  to re-send to afternoon assignment and re-pitch
  again

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Newsrooms - general

• Busy environments
• Lots of noise
• Lots of people moving in and out
• Producers, assignment, reporters generally may
  not know what each other is doing or working on
• Cast a wide net when pitching a story or sending
  out a release
• We will cover how to send release, how to pitch
  later in semester