Week six's readings

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings were how the relationship between the media and public relations is two-way, that just as PR provides information to the media, the media too provides information to PR. This is done through media monitoring, that is reading, watching and listening to the media every day.

Media monitoring, as simple as it is, has turned out to be good business for some companies. Professional media monitoring companies such as Media Monitors and Rehame are hired to clip print stories and monitor broadcast stories for their clients.

The PR practitioner uses a variety of tools to communicate with the media, usually through a media release or media conference. A media release, also called a news or press release, is a statement released from an organisation. A media conference, is a news or press conference to give all media access to the news at once, and to allow journalists to ask follow-up questions. A recent example is the Edison Chen media conference where he made his public apology.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that media relations will always remain an integral part of public relations, and how its impact and power should never be underestimated.