Week 8

Readings:

-Sallot, M. & Johnson, A. (2006). To contact … or not?: Investigating journalists’ assessments of public relations subsidies and contact preferences. Public Relations Review. 32(1) 83-86.

Media Release Readings:

-The Importance of Writing Skills by Kurt Wise in Public Relations Quarterly; Summer 2005; 50, 2; ABI/INFORM Global. pg. 37

-How To...Ten Steps to Press Release Perfection PR News. Potomac: Mar 20, 2006. Vol. 62, Iss. 12; pg. 1


I think the key points from this week's readings were that PR practitioners must understand their position within the publics and media and in doing so equip themselves to be as efficient and effective as they can. The readings highlighted complaints and problems expressed by journalists in regards to practitioners behavior and standard of work with the key theme of all the articles being the importance of a practitioner's writing and communication skills.


The article by Sallot conducts a qualitative study on 107 journalists to examine and measure their perceptions and attitudes towards PR practitioners

Interviews were coded and placed on a likert scale to assist in measuring the attitudes and allowing the study to be expressed in quantitative terms. I particularly enjoyed this article as I have undertaken as course in marketing research in which I created a similar study that assisted in the awareness of attitudes. This article showed the rather negative perceptions towards PR practitioners however in the discussion examples are provided on what journalists don’t want/like or do want/like from practitioners.

The following reading was the 10 Steps to Press Release which was perfectly positioned after Sallot. This reading raised 10 points that tied in well in the understanding of what makes an efficient and effective practitioner. I found the reading reminiscent of week 7 readings that reiterated the need for respect and understanding of the media. It also reiterated the need for revision and refinement of a practitioner’s work. This was further elaborated in 'The importance of writing skills'

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that …

• Writing skills are paramount in determining the success of a PR practitioner - this moves beyond spelling and grammar and into the realms of being succinct and holding the ability to express one's point well.

• There is a well established friction between journalists and practitioners - what this means for a practitioner is reviewing relationship management and making an effort to understand the media and press world.