Media Relations

It is very important to have contacts with the media. Michele Fryling came into our class and spoke about the importance of having one person speak to the media and the importance of one person being the contact for all communications in the organization. There are times when another person may need to speak, however for the most part an organization needs to have someone that knows they are in charge of the communication. This way everyone in the organization knows who that person is. All communication can be routed to this person. This also gives the organization a chance to form a relationship with the media. The media always knows who to talk to and the organization always has a contact in the media if it's necessary to get some information out to the public. This is beneficial both to the organization and also to the media, they both can help each other. Michele mentioned that when the paper needs someone to speak to concerning a certain subject, they contact her for suggestions and names. In this way Michele can control what is put into the paper and the kind of attention IUP can receive from this person. By acquiring a relationship with the media this can be a huge asset to a company.

We also saw how the media can affect a company thru the Coors Case. Breaking down the case and seeing how Coors handled the media to benefit the company was very interesting. This situation with Coors could have gone either way. The attention Coors was going to receive thru 60 Minutes could help or hurt them according to how they handled the situation. By doing their homework and grooming the Coors brothers, they were successful. Part of their success was determining the right spokespeople to be interviewed, which was the Coors brothers. This case showed how important the media are. By the end of the segment, most people thought David Sickler had a vendetta against Coors.

Personal Experience

My husband is a police officer in our area, because of his job he has met many news and media personalities and has developed a relationship with them. A few years ago my husband's grandfather lost his home to a fire. The news reporters kept making inquiries, after my husband approached them and mentioned that this was his grandfather's home, the media left the family alone. My husband's grandfather lost his home, thank goodness he didn't lose his life in the fire. This incident showed how having a relationship with the media kept the incident more private. The media respected our wishes and gave us our privacy.


References

Here's a link that can help you get the media's attention
http://www.aboutpublicrelations.net/ucdavid1.htm
http://www.mediarelationsblog.com/
http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/howto/courses/howtomedia.html

Here is a site that can help you develop media relations:
http://aboutpublicrelations.net/mediarel.htm