Week 7 - Investigating journalists’ assessments of public relations subsidies and contact preferences

This week's readings stem from a report published in the Public Relations Review, in which the authors attempted to ascertain the preferences and assessments of journalists vis-à-vis the media releases and promotional material provided by public relations practitioners. The study was conducted via a series of interviews, and the results revealed a widespread discontent among journalists regarding the practices of public relations personnel, with a majority of the journalists interviewed complaining of practitioners' "lack of news sense and values, accuracy, timeliness, and style of presentation". In addition, a significant number (78%) of the journalists interviewed also griped about the perceived self-serving, overtly self-promotional nature of the information provided by public relations practitioners.

What are we to make of all of this? I think the key points to remember from this week's readings are that there is clearly a disconnect between the two professions, which must be bridged by vigorous efforts on the part of public relations practitioners, in order to reap the full benefits of what should be a mutually beneficial relationship. Public relations practitioners should research the preferred modes of delivery of information, as well as how this information should be framed, so as to increase the likelihood of this information being used in the media.

The readings also made me think more about public relations theory and practice, in that practitioners should have a good grasp of the basic requirements of a good media release. We should attempt to emulate the preferred writing style of journalists. One good way to do so would be to use the inverted pyramid format in presenting our information. This means placing the most interesting, important and meaningful information at the top of the media release, followed by information of diminishing importance. This echoes the writing style most frequently used in news writing today, making journalists more inclined to use our media release in their stories. In addition, I think it would be good to include an interesting quote or two in the media release for impact, as well as include contact and practical details for follow-up action. All of this underscores the importance of good writing as a prerequisite for public relations practitioners today, and the importance of framing and developing your information correctly, to ensure a good working relationship with journalists.