Writing a media release

YAY! This is my last and final entry! I'm done with my PR readings and blog. Thanks to all who have been following my PR journey with me.

As stated by the title, this reading focuses entirely on how to write a good media release and the advantages of writing a media release. Since hundreds of media releases are issued every day, PR practitioners must ensure that their media release is the cream of the crop so that editors might consider publishing them. For that, they have to ensure that their release is well-written and professionally presented.

A media release is a mode of communication with the media and it helps saves time for both reporters and practitioners. Furthermore, it also helps the practitioners and the reporters to get their facts right and forces practitioners to think and check on what they wrote.

It is essential to catch the editor’s interest when writing a media release. Thus, practitioners should use several different methods in order to write a good release. Using celebrities or the public interests in the media release would make it interesting and this are some of the methods that can be used. Ensuring that the release is newsworthy is also essential as editors would not want to publish something that is not interesting. The introduction should be a catchy lead so that it will hook the reader’s attention.

The presentation of the release is also important as editors would want to read a well organised and pleasant to look at release. If practitioners produce a sloppy looking release without proper paragraphing, it will only further irritate the editors who have been reading hundreds of other releases that day.

In my opinion, using celebrities in the media releases is very common nowadays and thus I feel that practitioners should use other methods to make their release look good. This is because, celebrities are public figures and you never know what will happen in the future. Thus, the celebrity that you use may involve in a scandal in future and it will only make your release or company look bad. Image is important to a company as I already learned and mentioned in my previous reading. Thus, using celebrities could be a risky idea in my opinion.

In conclusion, writing a good media release is important for your company. Thus, all PR practitioners should be able to write media release as it will benefit them and their company. It is definitely a life-long learning skill.

Focus on Asian Public Relations Management

This chapter focuses on how public relations are practiced in different Asian countries compared with Western countries.

Asian countries have started to realise the importance of engaging the public which is similar to western countries as well. However the huge difference between Asian countries and western countries is government. In Asia, the government controls everything ranging from economy to democracy. This is a huge difference when compared with the western countries. Thus, strict government controls in certain Asian countries restricts PR practices from expanding as the government is watchdog for companies in Asia.

The language barrier and cultural aspects in certain Asian countries may pose a problem for PR practices as English is the general language for PR practices. Thus, countries whose second language is English may struggle when trying to expand their company. Furthermore, the size of a country and other aspects also affects PR practices in Asia. Thus, PR in Asia has to work around these problems and use it to their advantage in order to expand their business.

Coming closer to home, Singapore is a country which has limited land mass and is controlled by the government. Thus, government propaganda has definitely restricted Singapore’s PR practices. Another important factor for PR in Singapore is that it is completely ethical due to the Institute of Public Relations of Singapore. Thus, this helps to boost its PR market to organisations as they would want to invest their money on a safe PR practice. Furthermore, Singapore has definitely used its limited size to its advantage as business and industries most likely requires the services of PR practitioners located in small area (Stanton, 2009).

On the other hand, PR is Taiwan is politically driven as political parties use it for their campaigns. Furthermore, another advantage for them is that English is the language for their business sectors eliminating the problem of language barriers. Furthermore, scholars go overseas to study about PR methods and when they return home, they use it in their own country as well. Thus, there is a small amount of western influence in Taiwan’s PR practices as well. Furthermore, they have a liberal media allowing practice to be much easier there when compared with Singapore’s media.

In conclusion, I think that different countries adapt different methodology for their PR practices depending on their culture, government and even language. Thus, there are varieties of PR practices available to us currently. However, one must know when to use what sort of practice in what country or place. Thus, practitioners have to be adaptable as they have to cope and

manage with different culture.

New Media and Public Relations

This chapter is about new media and its impact on public relations. It is about how the internet has changed the way people interact with one another and how it affects or benefits public relations.

Public relations is concerned with either the management of relationships between publics and organisations or the management of communication between publics and organisations (Fitch, 2009). Thus, with the rise of new media, PR practitioners are able to communicate and relate with the public through the various online sites. They can also reach out to the public through their official websites that contains enough information to educate the public about them. Organisations can even create discussions forums to promote 2 way communications between the public and the organisation through social networking sites such as twitter, facebook, MySpace and many more. The creation of blogs also helps to promote an organisation. Thus, new media has indeed helped the organisation to reach out to a wider mass and it is a convenient method as well.

However, at the same time, the rise of new media has post the question of credibility. This is because, the net has become such that anyone can post anything online. This means that some people do not believe what they see online and thus, it might be a disadvantage to the organisation and PR practitioners as well. This is because the rise of Flogs which are fake blogs has made the public question the credibility of the website. An example would be the Wal-Mart flog which was created by PR agencies themselves. This is a form of unethical method and it back-fired the company when the public came to know about it. Thus, PR practitioners have to be cautious when they are dealing with the online community.

Another disadvantage would be that certain websites do not promote 2 way communications between the public and the organisation which is the main aim of PR. Even if they do, they provide limited communications such as chat boxes in blogs and social networking sites. And even if there is 2 way communications, the question of credibility arises again as companies would not know if the public means what they are saying or vice versa. This is because the problem of spammers may arise. Thus, new media does pose some concerns with PR practitioners.

In conclusion, I think new media is an effective way to reach out to a larger audience and it is definitely a convenient method as well. Although it poses to be a challenge to PR practitioners, they have to think of methods to keep their sources credible as they have to be on-par with the IT-savvy public. All hope is not lost as there are still so traditional and effective methods left such as e-mail and creating online websites as well. Thus, PR practitioners have to be creative and adaptable to the public.

Reputaion Management: A Driving Force For Action

This chapter focuses on Corporate public relations, the challenges face by them and the reputation of the company.

Corporate public relations is highly demanding as it deals with lots of big firms in the market. They face challenges such as reputation management where they have to maintain and manage a company's image because it is related with the company's branding and identity. This is because the public and the media especially scrutinise big firms and they are always waiting to pounce on these firms and pint-point their mistakes. An example will be the live earth concert sponsored by Panasonic to save electricity. But the media stated that they are wasting lots of electricity through the show and emitting carbon dioxide through the flying of the singers to various locations. Thus, Corporate PR is challenging as they have to handle these kind of situations.

In my opinion, the most important thing that corporate PR practitioners should do is to have a good and understanding relationship with their stakeholders. This is because if a stakeholder is not happy about something, they might spread around the company's name and thus ruin the company's reputation. This is because corporate organisations are always associated with making profit and if they do not have a good reputation, they cannot make a profit.

Corporate PR practitioners face the dilemma of behaving ethically as sometimes companies who demand for better results might force them to behave unethically in order to generate revenue for the company. Thus the topic of corporate social responsibility is questionable and poses as a challenge to PR practitioners. One thing I know for sure is that if a company is caught red-handed for ethical issues, they should never deny it as it will only ruin their reputation even more.

Identity, reputation, image and branding are essential for the corporate organisation not only for generating revenue but also to gain the trust of the public and their future stakeholders.

Thus the elite practitioners are the ones that are usually employed by these corporate organisation as they have to be able to deal with these issues.

An Issues-Crisis Perspective

This chapter highlights crisis and issues management in PR companies and how practitioners handle crisis within an organisation.

Issues management seeks to identify potential, emerging, or actual trends, concerns, or issues likely to affect an organisation and its key publics (Howell, 2009). It occurs when there is a gap between what the public expects from the organisation and what the organisation gives to the public. It sometimes can arise through public awareness as well. Thus, I think a practitioner's key role is to identify issues that may affect an organisation so that they will be well-prepared when the issue arises. This is because, not many organisations are prepare for and issue or crisis to arise. Thus they have to think and plan ahead. There are 4 main steps to issue management and they are; 1. Identifying the issue 2. Scanning the issue 3. Monitoring the issue 4. Analysing the issue. These steps will help to clear any issues within an organisation.

A crisis is a major occurrence with potentially negative outcomes that affect the organisation as well as its public, products, services and its reputation (Howell, 2009). In my opinion, the most important difference between a crisis and an issue is that a crisis can threaten the existence of an organisation whereas an issue will not do so. Thus, a crisis is in a more larger scale compared to an issue. There are 5 phases for crisis management. They are 1. Detection 2. Preparation, probing, prevention 3. Acute, Containment 4. Chronic, Learning and damage containment 5. Resolution and recovery. These phases will aid in eliminating a crisis.

Issues and crisis and inter-related in the sense that when an issue gets out of hand or control, it becomes a crisis. Thus, in my opinion, practitioners should attack an issue first and bring it under control so that a crisis will not arise. Practitioners should also consider using the media to prevent a crisis or an issue as the media is a prevalent tool and it will be able to reach out to numerous people. If practitioners address all the issues concern with the public through the media (including the web) it will effectively reach out to the public and may eradicate the problem of issue and crisis arising.

In conclusion, I personally feel that issues and crisis are inevitable to an organisation. Thus practitioners and organisation should be well prepared for it as the least they can do is be prepared for these situations and minimise the problem.