Week 8

I think the important points to remember from this week's readings were:

*Good writing, particularly informative and persuasive writing, is a key skill to becoming a successful PR practitioner. This is reflected by Tench: "Writing is one of the foundations of a successful public relations practitioner and the ability to communicate messages clearly and concisely is one of their differing skills".

*The second article reflected on 10 ways to write a good media release. In summation these were:

1. Present information of genuine worth.
2. Don't mistake a press release for an advertisement.
3. Vary writing styles between the different formats.
4. Keep it short and succinct.
5. Make the heading relevant.
6. Be careful and clever with quotes.
7. Make it easy for the reporter to publish the work by providing support material.
8. Only include a brief description of the company you are from.
9. Give multiple contacts to the media outlet.
10. Always spell and fact check before sending.

*When contacting journalists, it is important to contact the appropriate person who will be dealing with the information you send through. For example, if sending information about a new cancer research program, it would not be suitable to send this to the weather presenter (as an extreme example). Furthermore, journalists tend to prefer dealing with PR practitioners who are brief and to the point and have the relevant information available to be sent to them. Keeping details succinct will not only make the practitioner come across as professional, but will also assist the journalist in his/her work, therefore increasing the possibility of positive press.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that:

*They made me understand the importance that practitioners place on good writing skills, particularly good grammar in their profession. The statistic in the first article that pointed out that practitioners reporting that writing tasks account for 71% of their work reinforced this. Furthermore, it is important to understand that there is not a single generic style of writing in the profession, which made me aware of the importance of having the skills to write in a number of differing media formats.

*They made me aware of the significance of providing accurate and succinct information when contacting media outlets. By providing information that will make other peoples jobs easier, it is more likely that your information will be published. It will also assist the practitioner in building rapport with future contacts which will ultimately lead to making the practitioners job easier in the long-term.