By Mary Beth West, APR
For anyone who has worked in the public relations field, it doesn’t take long to realize that this profession is widely misunderstood, as it has been since it formally became a professional discipline in the mid-twentieth century.
One of the main reasons for this mystification is that so many people singularly define public relations as what they see firsthand, most often in the form of what’s known as “media relations” – the communications process of working directly with reporters, editors and media outlets to achieve an organizational goal.
And, unfortunately, what people readily observe in the media relations sphere is commonly not that flattering to the profession as a whole.
Turn on the TV most nights, and you’re faced with various spokespersons on the verge of fisticuffs, political press secretaries succumbing to the day’s feeding frenzy with the slip of a half-truth (i.e. a half-lie), or – my personal favorite – Hollywood characters from “Spin City,” “Wag the Dog,” “Sex and the City” or the like who define their PR success by how much they’re pulling the wool over someone’s eyes, or, in Samantha Jones’ case, pulling it off.
So to help set the record straight about media relations done well, “In the Profession” will focus this month on best practices for this segment of work.
I hasten to emphasize that media relations is one tool in the public relations and marketing communications arsenal – it’s not the whole of the PR toolbox itself, as some tend to assume. It is, however, the most high-profile and publicly visible tool. As such, a big part of representing the value of public relations accurately starts with making sure that media relations’ purpose and parameters for success are understood.
I’ll kick things off with our first piece of advice for the month: respect the First Amendment, freedom of the press and the role that media play to ensure that we live in an open and as-transparent-as-possible society.
Unfortunately, many businesses – and even many people working in a public relations role – view news media as the enemy and something to be feared. True, there can be some reporting tactics out there that are problematic (we’ll discuss those this month, too).
However, the best place to start in working with the media from a position of strength and confidence is to understand – and to respect – the media’s greater First Amendment-driven role in society . . . and in so doing, to seek a relationship with media contacts that facilitates a free flow of information, achieving your organization’s objectives while serving the public good. Pretty rewarding stuff all-around.
We look forward to sharing more on media relations in the month ahead, and we welcome your comments and feedback.
Tags: communications, First Amendment, Mary Beth West, media, media relations, Public Relations
