Introduction
Media Relations
- What do you want out of media relations?
- What’s in it for the media?
- Writing for the media vs other stakeholder writing
- How has social and new media impacted corporate communications?
- Is writing for new media different to writing for (traditional) heritage media?
The Media has Changed
Traditional vs New Media
Traditional Media
- News
- Website (Media Centre)
- Other
New Media
- Blogs
- Tweets
- Facebook Fan Page/Posts
- Podcasts
- Videos/Webinars
- TMZ
Characteristics and Style of Writing for Various Media Tools – traditional and new
Citizen Journalism
- What is it?
- Is the media release redundant?
- Is writing still important?
Know the basics or be binned! – The tools of writing
- 8 Parts of Speech/Writing
- Basic elements of grammar and punctuation (relevant for media writing)
- Interactive exercises
The Media Release
Case Study – Australia Post
The Moment of Truth – Writing a media release
- Format of a media release – letterhead, date, contact details, length, ends etc…
- Structure of a media release – the inverted pyramid
- Style and language
- Active vs Passive
- Breaking it down – headline, paragraphs (one idea, one sentence), lead paragraph (W,W,W,W,H), body paragraphs, quotes, end, background/Editor’s note
- PROOFREADING
- Writing Exercises
Selling the Message – How to get Heard
Newshounds Anonymous – Writing for news
- The composition of a news story – print, radio, TV, online – refer to copies of newspapers and radio news bulletin stories (supplied by MM)
- Finding your nose for news – picking the angles
- Audience analysis – yours and the media’s
- Matching your audience with the right media, angle etc…
- Content – your material vs the news angle – supporting reference material, pictorial, data etc… To use or not to use? The right way to use it
- Contacting the media – when, who and how?
- The 10-15 second/30-45 word rule – scripting for your voice message
Tailoring your Story to the Medium and Audience
The All – Important Follow Up
Assessing your Media Writing Success
Interactive Exercises
- Pick the audience of various media programmes, papers (different sections), magazines or online and pick the angle of product/service supplied.
- Find an angle for a media release, tweet, blog or Facebook post relating to your business
- Using products/services – ‘what’s the angle’ and ‘match the story with the media’. Write a 15 second “sales” introduction to your story for a voice message
Interactive Exercises
Media Liaison
- Sell your story to a journalist’s voice message (speaker phone)
- Sell your story to a journalist on the other end (speaker phone)
- Discussion
Interactive Exercise
- Analysis of media releases
- Good and bad examples of media releases. Spot the differences.
- Rewriting (bad) lead paragraphs (time permitting)
- Write your own lead paragraph (time permitting)
Learning Consolidation
Using a media release you have previously written – identify things you would change
- Self review of lead paragraphs against checklist
- Self review of inverted pyramid structure
- Self review of format, style and language
- Self review of punctuation
- Proofreading – by you and then another person
Questions
Close/conclusions/key learnings
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