Play Your Role: The importance of Media to Practitioners

Let’s just get down to it, Public Relations practitioners need the media! How else would they reach the masses or distribute messages to different audiences. The relationship between Public Relations and the media, is equally beneficial. The media also rely on practitioners for the latest info and updates. The media is always fishing for the scoop and it is practitioners and their clients who have it. 

It is vital to establish a great relationship with those who work in the media realm. If you have someone on your side, you will have someone willing to work with you and publish your message. You need a “mouth” to speak a message for you and if you have a creditable one, it works wonders you and your client.

When I say mouth, I mean someone who will distribute the message for you. Practitioners come up with the message as the “brain” and the media is the “mouth” for they deliver the message to the public. Each are equally important when it comes to the message and reaching a particular audience.

 

 

About time: The Uprising of PR

Well, well, well! Seems like people are starting to realize more and more the importance of PR and what practitioners do. It is not just going out and meeting people, but more about building and maintaining long term relationships that are beneficial for both parties involved. That is why I decided to enter this field. 

It is important for me to grow and connect those around me. Communication is everything and it is vital in the success or failure of a corporation or organization. I am sure we all can agree that everyone is not best at communicating. It is hard enough for some to sit down and have a simple convo with others, but that is alright. That is where practitioners come it. It is our job to figure out the best way to communicate a message to a certain audience.

Communication is POWER

Communication is a vital aspect of life. A being cannot exist in this world without being able to communicate. Whether one is able to communicate verbally or non verbally, the messages we send and how those messages are received can make a world of difference. 

There is power in one’s actions, in one’s words and in one’s message. And with the development of technology, it is my belief that technology has made it easier for people to send out messages. This is not necessarily a good thing because we now see an increase in bullying, particularly cyber bullying. However, we also see people able to start movements and now it can all start from simply someone changing their Facebook Profile picture and others following suit or from a posting going viral.

Communication can change the world, because a good communicator is able to not only reach others, but also listens and tries to understand others. A big part of communication is listening, and that is where a lot of us fall short. If we listened and respected others opinions, we would be able to communicate with each other a lot more efficiently without becoming so confrontational.

We all have power in our messages, so if it is not asking for too much, please chose your words carefully. And make sure that your actions compliment what you say. Because as the saying goes, “Actions speak louder than words”. And while that is a cliche’, it holds a lot of truth!!! Be great communicators. Be Powerful! 🙂

 

Help me Help You: the Relationship between the media and PR practitioners

When it comes to the relationship between PR practitioners and the media, they should share an equally beneficial relationship in order for either to be successful. While some may think they are one in the same, the fact of the matter is they both use each other for information. PR practitioners use the media to put out messages and reach specific public’s, whereas the media uses PR practitioners as a means to get the scoop. Each rely on each other.

While the relationship between the two should be beneficial for both parties, it does not always workout that way and that is when issues can arise. That is why the relationship between the two can be very sensitive because neither the media nor practitioners want to say something that may offend the other. You also do not want to break the trust within that relationship because once the trust is gone, the relationship will be as well. 

We also are seeing a shift in the type of news and information the media wants to cover, so it is important for practitioners to develop good relationships with the media in order to be informed and up to date on what types of stories a certain media is looking for. And when the media is in search of stories, practitioners want to accessible for upcoming events or stories they want to put out so their media contact can use something you have.

With PR practitioners and the media, the relationship is cyclical  You feed me and I’ll feed you. You scratch my back and I will scratch your’s. While it seems that the relationship is based solely on benefits  that is alright. Who wants any type of relationship that is not beneficial in some way??? I will answer that… NOBODY!!!

 

No news is good news, but bad news is great news!

It seems that even with the guidelines on what makes a story newsworthy or not, many people have their own interpretations on what makes for good news.  People put more and more of their trust in the media to deliver newsworthy stories to keep us informed. 

One of the things that makes for a compelling news article or broadcast is how fast the information is reported, and I mean the right information. A lot of times, especially with breaking news, the reporters do not necessarily have all of the facts together and there is nothing more frustrating than to hear a half story. I should not continually have questions unanswered. I want the entire story as quickly as possible. In order to do so, reporters need credible sources. That means asking questions and getting answers and fast!

 

A lot of what we see in today’s news broadcast or articles is a lot of negativity. While it is important to inform the public about bad things that may have some type of effect on them and their community, I feel that news lack balance. I am a sucker for hearing about heroes  or a story about justice. It seems that the media feeds off of negativity a lot more than positive stories.

I also think that with so much going on domestically and internationally, it is important to stress what is happening directly in communities. I believe that people care a lot more about what is going on down the street, than what is going on overseas. The public can relate a lot more to what goes on in their community because it is familiar to them. They have a direct connection to their community and not so much with foreign affairs  While I do think it is vital for people to have some type of idea as to things that are going on other places, it is hard for some to make a connection with a place or people they don’t know or may not even care about for that matter.

While this is only my opinion, I do feel people get different interpretations from news or watch or read news for different reasons. 

 

Student Replies:

Reply to dalton213

Which area of public relations are you most interested in (i.e. crisis planning, healthcare, financial relations, event planning, etc.) and why?

Crisis management does sound exciting and challenging because let’s face it, no matter what career or where you work there will be conflict or something that needs to be “fixed”. Public Relations helps us learn how to deal with conflicts that may arise within a corporation or business. Like you I love a challenge!!! It is so excited to be pushed beyond your limits. It helps you to be innovative and think outside the box! Predictable is so overrated!!!

Reply to kb04346

Week 3 Topic: Why I Tweet!

I like how you use twitter to keep up with things going on with businesses and organizations in Atlanta. I am from Atlanta as well and it sometimes gets hard to keep up with things going on back home especially with everything going on down here. I also agree with the point you made about people who have pointless motives behind their twitters. As the digital era is upon us, we see an increase of youth joining social networking sites, which correlates with an increase in cyber-bullying. I wish that there was a way for twitter and facebook for that matter to have age restrictions. Twitter is something that takes responsibility that at a certain age some people do not have.

Reply to Megspiration

Blog Post 3

I love twitter! I actually like it better than my facebook. I am way more connected to people all over through my twitter. For me I do not so much tweet what I am doing. I mostly tweet my thoughts or concerns about things going on. I also utilize twitter to stay up to date with news or organizations that I am not able to keep up with any other way. Twitter, like most social networking sites, also allows us to learn about a lot of different opportunities! A lot of businesses and organizations are moving towards utilizing social networking sites to reach a bigger audience! Though there are people who do abuse it and do post pointless tweets, I just choose who I follow wisely!!!

Reply to DANA’S BLOG

Why Public Relations is Beneficial for Everyone

I also believe that Public Relations should be taught on an introductory level for professionals. I also wrote about how every profession deals with P.R. in some way, shape, form or fashion. If professionals understood how important P.R. is and how beneficial it is to their businesses, maybe P.R. practitioners would get the respect that they deserve!

Reply to MALLORY MANN

Topic of the Week 4

Social Media has a huge impact on our society! As the digital era is upon us, it is important for all future professionals to understand how to utilize social media properly and the type of perception the particular social media they use sends to other people. I’m sure we all know someone who has inappropriate materials on their facebook, twitter, youtube, etc. and while it may or may not seem inappropriate to them at the time, their pages are a reflection of them onto others.

Reply to Aezhablake

Why will I not use Facebook?

I think all the extra apps, games, and etc. is what has made me step away from facebook. My page is still activated because I like to keep up with family and friends, but I have not post a status or pictures in months. There is entirely too much going on on Facebook and it has just become annoying!!! I guess it is one less distraction we have to deal with! 🙂

We All Need PRoper PReperation!!!

Public Relations is a part of every field and industry. When I say every, I mean EVERY! It is important for future educators, doctors, lawyers, professional athletes  etc., to learn information that can be beneficial to them when having to deal with the public. This is what PR professionals provide. What an introductory course can provide to those not wishing to enter the field, is a better understanding of what practitioners do and why this profession is a necessity. There are so many different ideas of what PR practitioners do but with no definite definition, an introductory class will provide some type of inside look as to what goes into the PR field. Though practitioners do not mind telling, or better yet showing, why the profession is a necessity, this course will give people better insight and hopefully a little more appreciation for practitioners.

Even if  the introductory course does not give people a better appreciation for the profession, it will allow them to get a glimpse of the importance of communication and introduce them to different mediums to utilize appropriately. 

 

 

 

 

To tweet or not to Tweet? That is the question

There are over 100 million active users on twitter and I am happy to say that I am one of them. We have entered the age of technology and every time someone or something is advertising itself, they seem to ask us to follow them on twitter. Our generation seems to keep up with things going on on the internet more than they take notice of what is actually going on physically in front of us. I know, crazy but that is the reality of today’s society. That is why social networking sites like twitter are so pivitol. I am not saying it is a necessity, but if your aim is to reach a big audience or to communicate with people all over the globe, this is the direction we must head in. I have not gotten the jist to this whole blogging thing but I hope to catch onto this as well. But if we wish to network ourselves, promote a brand, or simply communicate information, twitter is a good place to start. Almost EVERYTHING has a twitter. Though a lot of people see it as a means of keeping up with drama, I use it as a means of keeping up what is going on in the world we live in. I follow people from all over and each time I log onto my twitter, I learn something new whether that be a new brand that is being promoted, or some information about worldly news, or an opportunities that are out there. I know that everything posted is not accurate but the key is following the right people. I will continue to use twitter in the best way I know how and hopefully this will be a good tool that I can use during my career! By the way follow me on twitter @phe_phenomenon!!!

twitter-follow-achiever

Mr. Ethical aka Jerry Maguire

One of my favorite portrayals of Public Relations professionals is Jerry Maguire. Though Tom Cruise played a sports agent, a lot of his task involved strategies that apply to Public Relations and the different responsibilities that fall under that umbrella. But the reason this movie sticks out to me is because of our recent discussions on ETHICS. This movie starts off with Jerry Maguire being “The Man”. He was representing the best clients for his firm and seemed to be living the life. That all was changed when he had an epiphany after where he wrote a memo to his co workers entitled ” “The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business”. While his co workers thought his memo was commendable, upper management did not seem to think so.

Here we see personal ethics and morals interfering with the ethics of a company. This is a decision that a lot of us entering the P.R. profession will be faced with. I believe that was a very honest portrayal and what we the movie reveals to us is with the decision to stick to our own ethics, there may be consequences and in Jerry’s case he got fired. This is a reality that opens our eyes. 

What I learned from this movie is that we can still be successful and stick to our own ethics. It may take a lot of work and making a few people mad, but when it comes to representing someone or something, we have to make the decision as to whether or not we are going to stand for something we honestly believe or confine to the need for success by any means necessary. Each day we will be test with making ethical or unethical decisions, and like Jerry Maguire, I hope that I will be able to make ethically sound decisions.