Chapter 11: Getting Along With Journalists
I couldn’t have read this chapter in Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques, 6th ed. by Dennis Wilcox at a better time. While researching different jobs that I could possibly pursue, the main characteristic that stood out to me was that as a PR professional, you have to have the ability to get along with journalists. PR people serve as the primary contact between their client and the media creating he relationship between public relations and journalism.
PR people feed journalists the information and research they need to write thier stories. Most information that is seen in the media comes from public relations personnel. Journalists use the term, “spokesperson”, to refer to the public relations people they get all their information from.
With any relationship, there are areas of friction. Between public relations personnel and journalist there are 5 examples of friction:
- Hype and News Release Spam
- Name Calling
- Sloppy/Biased Reporting
- Tabloid Journalism
- Advertising Influence