CHAPTER 18 Public Relations
Overview
Many others might start out in news but eventually end up in some area of public relations.
The stereotype of public relations students is that they want to go into the field because they
like people. The fact is that they had better like writing or, at least, they had better be good
at it.
This chapter begins with a discussion of the different approach public relations writers
take. The chapter then discusses the diversity of writing tasks those going into public
relations can expect. Whether they write for clients while at a public relations firm or work
for an organization and do internal and external public relations, they may be expected to
write anything from annual reports to newsletters, intranet messages and memos.
Teaching Tips
If you came into teaching journalism from a life as a reporter, it may be difficult for you to
explain the role of the public relations professional. There are many online resources you can
never been a PR practitioner yourself.
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(www.prnewswire.com
samples you can use. Several other online sources are listed at the end of the text chapter.
Lecture Notes
I. INTRODUCTION
A. A public relations anecdote about New York Yankees baseball player Alex
Rodriguez.
B. Social media expertise.
C. PR practitioners must be prepared to use all types of media.
II. PUBLIC RELATIONS: A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO NEWS
A. Most required skill for PR is good writing; must be able to do writing that is different
from the writing done by journalists.
B. Defining public relations.
1.
beneficial
2. Key terms include deliberate, planned, performance, public interest, two-way
communication, management function.
C. A range of interests.
1. Media relations, government affairs, public affairs, industry relations, investor-
financial-shareholder relations.
2. Strategic communication (a more scientific approach) is replacing public relations,
a shift largely driven by the use of social media.
D. Objectivity and public relations writing.
1. Persuasion and advocacy on behalf of an organization or client; have them appear
in the best possible light.
2. However, focus is still on the truth PRSA code of ethics prohibits dissemination
of false or misleading information.
III. THE MAIN FOCUS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING
A. The message a product, program or the organization itself; you must first know what
you hope to accomplish, including whether your purpose is simply to inform.
B. The audience targeting; internal vs. external messages.
1. Example of
for its new vehicle.
C. The media which medium?
1. Radio, television and newsstand publications.
2. The Internet: an all–in-one medium print, video and audio combined;
s a challenge.
3. Social networking media everything
has become personal in the world of public relations today; microblogging (plurk,
Tumblr, Identi.ca); Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn.
4. Internal publications, brochures and billboards printed materials being abandoned
in favor of electronic options.
IV. PERSUASIVE WRITING
A. Your attitude three core beliefs (people are good; people are intelligent and
educable; people are changeable).
B. Credibility and trust
V. NEWS RELEASES THAT GET ATTENTION
A. News releases are the most important writing task of PR practitioners.
B. Know what news is and how to write it know AP style; correct spelling, usage and
grammar are essential.
C. Know the structure and operations of newsrooms deadlines matter, respect them.
D. Know the people in the news media and the jobs they hold send releases to specific
people, and address them by name.
E. Know the style of writing that fits the medium
different mediums; be aware that some publications will use your news releases
almost verbatim.
F. Know how to distribute information online establish a credible website; be familiar
with PR industry online websites; become a new media expert to help get
organizational messages out.
VI. DIGITAL NEWS RELEASES
A. The inverted pyramid still the staple.
B. Social media news releases include original, high-quality image; provide source
URL for image; short, concise headline; first paragraph to answer the five Ws; core
VII. SOME FINAL ADVICE
A. Other important functions for PR professionals:
1. Planning and carrying out press conferences.
2. Dealing with foreign press.
3. Speechwriting.
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Class Activities and Discussion Questions
Activity 1: Divide your class into groups of three or four students. They will prepare a public
relations response to one of the following situations and give a three– to five-minute
presentation in class. The scenarios:
Poison in Tylenol pain capsules kills several consumers in the Chicago area.
Several fatal collisions in Toyota vehicles apparently resulted from problems with
California-grown bagged spinach, found to contain a virulent strain of E. coli bacteria,
kills a handful of people, sickening more than 100, including more than a dozen who
must be hospitalized.
In their presentations, students should include the key points of their message; how they
would distribute the message; what specific short-term and long-term advice they would offer
their clients to address these crisis situations. Discussion questions: Assess the
presentations which responses would be most effective? Why?
Activity 2: In a computer lab, divide students into groups of three or four, and assign them
one of the scenarios from activity 1. Have them discuss the scenario and then write a news
best possible light? What ongoing suggestions would you offer the client after the initial
crisis subsides?
Activity 3: Divide students into groups of three or four and have them prepare a public
relations campaign to be presented in class for the following scenario: During a recent
rush week at a campus fraternity, a freshman pledge died from alcohol poisoning. The
campus administration is investigating, and some fraternity members face possible legal
charges. In the aftermath of the incident, and with the cooperation of both the campus
administration and local law enforcement officials, a group of students has organized a
campaign to focus attention on the issue of underage and irresponsible drinking. The
Activity 4:
metro section. (Look for briefs that announce an upcoming event or meeting of some kind
these are typically generated by a news release.) Put students in pairs, and give them a news
that resulted in the story. Have some student pairs prepare their news release for print, others
for broadcast. All students should follow the news release guidelines in the chapter. Have
style that fits the medium. Discussion questions: How does the media outlet change the
writing style and format of the release? What made the best news releases effective?
Activity 5: Put students in pairs, and give each pair a different newspaper or magazine
feature story. Working backward (as in activity 4), the pairs should produce the written
portions of a successful social media news release, as developed by digital PR expert Sally
Falkow and described in the text. For photographs and other graphic and visual elements,
Solutions to Textbook Exercises
1. You will have to set a date for the groups to come together with their results and a
deadline for the report. You can require the report in any form you like; it need not be
written.
a. Target audiences might be the student body, friends and perhaps fraternity mates of the
student who was killed, faculty, alumni, family, hometown folks, high school
classmates and so on.
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campaign should have its own
themselves to running the marathon on behalf of the scholarship program.
2. Your journalism blog. nses should focus on the specifics of working in
the field that they would find attractive or not.
3. When assigning this exercise, you might want to encourage students to approach the
college sports information director as a group to request a press conference in order to
avoid a number of independent interviews.
4.
media news release as recommended by digital PR expert Sally Falkow.
Solutions to Workbook Exercises
1. Learning to write a news story teaches students the need for accuracy. It also teaches the
typical inverted pyramid structure, which is useful in many news releases that public
relations professionals send to the media. Students learn the difference between real news
and fluff or propaganda or self-aggrandizing statements. Students also learn how to deal
with journalists and newsrooms.
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3. News writers try to keep their personal opinions out of their stories. Though they may
have difficulty being objective, they should always strive to be impartial and fair. Public
relations writers, in contrast, work for a client, much the same as attorneys do. They strive
4.
5. Students should be sure to address the message, audience and media to be used in Alex
important for students to consider the role persuasive writing will play in this instance.
6. See the answer f
8. a. Errors:
Fourth paragraph: Insert the articl
–
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okay because the bank is performing a
worthwhile community service.
b. Errors:
the first sentence of the
–
Third paragraph: Take out the ellipsis that follows the first sentence. Add a comma after
c. Errors:
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Second paragraph: In
–
Sixth
9. a. You might find a child who has participated in this program. A second choice might be
to do a story about a teacher who works in the program.
b. Find a college student who followed the advice given in the news release and was able
to get financial assistance. Quotes from the parents of the student would also add
interest.
c.
addresses and websites
for more information, tell readers what they should store and where. Then find a
10.
write a story for television based on the release:
You might be paying more for your pork soon.
in unfamiliar territory this month. Many of them are
moving out of the red and into the black on their cash-flow statements.
11. Most good public relations work is done over a period of time in a campaign that involves
12. The point of this exercise is to give students experience writing news releases. Even those
journalism students who will never work in public relations will benefit from the
experience of writing news releases.
13. This exercise gives students the opportunity to practice writing a social media news
release. You might ask students to turn in this assignment online so that links and images
remain intact.
CHALLENGE EXERCISES
14. The point of this exercise is to make it clear to students that writing for radio is different
from writing for print and that they should not send the same release to both media.