MMC 1101 Thursday March 1, 2012

Writing for the Mass Media (8th edition) Copyright ©2012, 2009, 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Public relations, or PR, is a management function that helps organizations to communicate with targeted publics

Chapter 9: Writing for public relations PR is communication More companies using PR staffs What has a more positive context  Public relations OR Strategic communications Flacks: derogatory name for PR people who stretch or ignore truth

Chapter 9: Writing for PR PR practitioner: someone who works in PR with a diversity of responsibilities  External communication (outside your organization) Get out info and make sure properly disseminated  Internal communication (inside your organization) Intranet & other newsletters  Work with media to get out info about organization Media liaison: get info that press needs for story Advise company executives on how to deal with media  Produce public functions/events

Writing for the Mass Media (8th edition) Copyright ©2012, 2009, 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Practitioners gather information and structure it for specific formats All writings by practitioners are heavily scrutinized and subject to approval by the organization Must understand the company they are writing about It is important that the practitioner know who the public is for specific communication The practitioner must be good with people and use persuasive tactics to obtain information from within and outside the organization

Chapter 9: Writing for PR Produce public events cont.  Plan public events  Plan long-range PR plan (4 parts) Planning: how to communicate with all outside groups organizations deals with Research: determine who those outside groups are  Ways to communicate message  Find out what info the organization wants to communicate Communication: putting info into proper form  Writing a news release Evaluation: is plan working  How do you determine its success?

Chapter 9: Writing for PR Characteristics of PR practitioner  Ability to write  Mr. Marino’s former job at National Apartment Association

Writing for the Mass Media (8th edition) Copyright ©2012, 2009, 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Pamphlets and brochures Newsletters Magazines Annual reports Websites

Writing for the Mass Media (8th edition) Copyright ©2012, 2009, 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. Slide presentations Slides should serve as an outline to help focus on points the speaker wants to make Programs such as PowerPoint make slide presentations much easier Statements A short speech intended to summarize facts and make points efficiently Often no longer than one or two pages Speeches Come in a wide variety of forms

Chapter 9: Writing for PR Difference in PR & news writing  Trying to persuade in PR – intent – you are writing for a reason  Writing for smaller audience  Adhere to other writing style we have previously discussed  Know your subject intimately  Put in “laymen’s terms” – translate technical info for reader  Verbal acrobat: able to write for different audiences  Purpose of communication & audience

Writing for the Mass Media (8th edition) Copyright ©2012, 2009, 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. A news release is information that an organization wishes to make public Often written in the form of a news story Fewer than 10 percent of news releases are published because they are poorly written, and corporate managers do not understand news values Should contain a “headline” or “slug” telling the public what the story is about Should contain information about how a person within the organization can be reached Release time should also be included