Transcript Document
The Forum: Oktibbeha County Leadership Development Media Relations Communication • Common • Community Media Relations The Communication Process Sender Message Receiver Disseminating information Media Relations The Communication Process Channel Sender Message Noise Media Relations Receiver Basic principles • “You cannot not communicate.” • “The medium is the message.” Media Relations Dealing with the Media When and How Do You Do It? Media Relations Why the media? First Amendment • Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Media Relations Why the media? First Amendment • Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Media Relations Why the media? The people’s right to know Here’s Aundrea Media Relations Crises Handling Hot News Media Relations • Minimize panic • Maximize response • Refute misinformation • Promote accurate information Media Relations • Non-response invites trouble Media Relations All in a day’s work • Dean assassinated in home driveway • President flies girlfriend to town in university plane • Dean caught in state capital sex sting operation Media Relations All in a day’s work • University tent falls on 500 fifth-graders • Coach castrates steer to inspire win over the Texas longhorns • Animal rights activists protest greyhound research Media Relations News Media Relations What’s news? • Anything of interest to a significant number of people in a given group or area. • Getting caught cold on a hot topic. Media Relations • Determinants – Timeliness – Proximity – Importance – Policy Media Relations • Components – Conflict/Controversy – Progress – Unusualness/Novelty – Human Interest Media Relations The Questions – Who? – What? – Why? – Where? – When? – How? Media Relations The Questioners • Reporters – – – – Editors Commentators Publishers Gatekeepers Media Relations Media Relations The Inverted Pyramid Most Important Information • Answers before explanations • Summaries before details • Conclusions before discussions • General statement before specifics Media Relations Supporting Data and Examples Least Important Data Informing the Media • News releases • Feature stories • Advisories Media Relations News Contact: (your name or primary source quoted) Phone: xxx-yyy-zzzz Release Date: Month Day, Year Dated after: Month Day, Year Slug/Headline Byline Dateline ------------------------------- ----------------------------------------. Double-space; don’t hyphenate; don’t split paragraphs between pages. -- -----------------------------------. -----------------------------. -more- Media Relations Press Release Format Slug . . . # ---------------------------------------. ---------------------------------------------------. ------------------------------------. -----------------------------------------------------. ------------------------------------. -----------------------------------------------------. -End- Media Relations Press Release Format Headlines? Why Bother? • For the same reason that newspapers bother with them – to grab readers’ (editors’) attention Media Relations Style Associated Press Media Relations Quotes (attribution) • Use quotes to keep from editorializing – avoid value judgments • First quote: Use title, first name, last name • Subsequent quotes: Last name only · Media Relations Plugs • Include information about your organization at the end of your article • Types of information: – Aims and goals – Major activities – Membership – Cooperating organizations Media Relations Dealing with the Media It’s Personal and Professional Media Relations Proper Response • • • • • • • Prepare Right words Choose facts carefully No “no comment” Never “off the record” Your own words Positive offsets negative Media Relations The Future? • Is now – Blogs – Citizen journalists • The past is prologue – Acta diurna – Broadsides Media Relations Local contacts • Starkville Daily News – starkvilledailynews.com • Commercial Dispatch – cdispatch.com/ • WCBI – wcbi.com • WTVA – wtva.com • StarkvilleNow – starkville-now.com Media Relations • (662) 323-6586 • (662) 328-2424 • (662) 328-1224 • (662) 842-7620 • (662) 324-2489 Media Relations Communication Listen Speak Read Write/encode Media Relations Bad Writing Hints Or "How to write like a doctoral student." Source http://ocean.st.usm.edu/~ddavies/gerald.html Maintained by Dr. David R. Davies, University of Southern Mississippi. Used by permission of Gerald Grow, Florida A&M University. Media Relations 1. Start with a simple statement: • "We quit because nobody knew how to program the computer." Media Relations 2. Put it in the passive voice, to dilute the responsibility: • "It was decided to quit." Media Relations 3. Expand with terminology that does not add meaning: • "It was decided to terminate." Media Relations 4. Build in noun strings: • "It was decided to terminate project processes." Media Relations 5. Add a qualifier of uncertain relation to the original statement: • "On account of the status of the computer, it was decided to terminate project processes." Media Relations 6. Add noun strings and terminology to the qualifier: • "On account of the status of the computer program assessment planning development effort, it was decided to terminate project processes." Media Relations 7. Separate related words: • "On account of the status of the computer program assessment planning development effort, it was decided to terminate until a later date project processes." Media Relations 8. Equivocate: • "On account of the uncertain status of the computer program assessment planning development effort, it was proposed and tentatively accepted to terminate until a later date project processes." Media Relations 9. Obfuscate: • "Due to uncertainties in the status of the computer program assessment planning development effort, proposals were carefully considered and tentatively adopted to suspend temporarily until a later date project processes." Media Relations 10. Cover your tracks to make yourself look good: • "Due to unavoidable uncertainties in the status of the computer program assessment planning development effort, a number of contingency proposals were carefully considered and one was tentatively adopted to suspend on a temporary basis until a later date those project processes deemed unessential to the expeditious fulfillment of contract requirements." Media Relations The problem? Fog Gunning-Mueller Fog Index Flesch-Kincaid Readability Formula Media Relations Readability scores • Rating on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence. • Flesch Reading Ease score • Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score Media Relations Readability scores • Flesch Reading Ease score – Rates text on a 100-point scale – Higher score indicates easier to understand document – Aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70 Media Relations Readability scores • Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score – Rates text on a U.S. grade-school level. – For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document. – Aim for a score of approximately 7 to 8. Media Relations Readability Levels Grade Levels 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 Media Relations Warning Atlantic Monthly Wall Street Journal Reader’s Digest Ladies Home Journal True Confessions People, TV Guide National Enquirer Target Readability Levels Microsoft Word® • Tools – Options – Spelling & Grammar – Show readability statistics Media Relations Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations You can break up long sentences by replacing “although,” “while,” and “if” with “however” and “therefore”. Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Keep sentence s short Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations Original: Although forecasters had predicted a drop in interest rates during this quarter, they still see no long-term effect on growth. Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Keep sentence s short Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations Revised: Forecasters had predicted a drop in interest rates in this quarter. However, they still see no long-term effect on growth. Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Prefer the simple to the complex Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations “It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.” -Aristotle Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Prefer the familiar word Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) • English language – 400,000 entries in largest dictionary – At least 1,000,000 words – Nearly 2,000,000, if technical words counted – College graduate’s vocabulary • ~70,000 passive • ~60,000 active Source: World Wide Words © Michael Quinion Media Relations Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Prefer the familiar word Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations • • • • • • Utilize Contribute Beneficial Acquire Approximately Difficult • • • • • • Use Give Good Get About Hard Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Avoid unnece ssary words Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.” -William Strunk, Jr. Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Avoid unnece ssary words Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations “Vigorous writing should contain no unnecessary words or sentences just as a drawing should have no unnecessary lines.” Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Put action in your verbs Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations When application of pressure is employed by the operator, removal of the pin is accomplished. Press the pin to remove it. Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Write like you talk Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations Should the supply of national report forms sent to you not be sufficient to meet your requirements, application should be made to this office for additional copies. Contact my office if you need more national report forms. Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Use terms Reader’s experience Variety your reader To express can picture not to impress Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) “A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt.” -Mark Twain Media Relations Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Tie in with your reader’s experience Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations Mississippi State University’s former president expected the faculty and administrators to take risks. “You can’t steal second with your foot on first.” - Mac Portera Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Make full use of variety Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations • Average about 17 words per sentence • But, don’t make every sentence the same length • Establish a rhythm Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Write experience to Reader’s Variety express not to To express impress not to impress Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations My advice to you, especially but not exclusively to be followed during the period of time when, as a professional, you seek to improve your abilities at an institution of higher learning (such as Mississippi State University, also known as a land-grant institution), is that you be, in all instances where appropriate and in all situations of a communicative nature, brief, in the sense that you constantly speak to the possibility of creating meaningful dialogues using a contextual framework the ideation relevant to the fewest (in the sense of least) possible units of linguistic transfer of meaning from one conscious entity to another. Clear the Fog Short sentences Simple vs. complex The familiar word Unnecessary words Action verbs Write like you talk Picture terms Reader’s experience Variety To express not to impress Source: Communication Briefings (October, 1995) Media Relations Be brief. Remember to • Keep •It your communications • Short & • Simple Media Relations