Media relations and issues management

By Duruthu Edirimuni

Generating publicity is not as complex as you might think. Most of the success of public relations centres on knowing what to do and when. Implementing these initiatives can dramatically increase awareness of your business. Also central to practicing public relations and the process of creating the media's news agenda is a productive working relationship between journalists and public relations professionals. This is what the recent one day workshop on ‘Media Relations and issues management’ organised by Rowland PR, a local PR agency, discussed at length which turned out to be a very insightful experience to all who participated - the clients, media and the PR professionals.

A PR professional emphasised that trust amongst the triumvirate (media, PR and clients) is the most important aspect. “Once a company or PR practitioner loses an editor's trust, he or she is unlikely to get it back, and releases from that company are unlikely to ever get printed,” Beverly Pinder, CEO of Australian-based Rowland Pinder told the gathering.

She said that if both the practitioner and editor are hoodwinked, customers will certainly not be, at least not for very long, and word of their disenchantment will be heard loud and long among many circles. She said that public relations permeates modern society in part because of the very design of the mass media, in which a small number of individuals broadcast messages--skewed in the interests of government and corporate elites--to millions of passive recipients.

Pinder discussed the importance of media relationship and client relationship and said that these can expand to many years. Nimal Gunewardena, CEO Rowland PR said that both ‘People & Reputation’ are corporate assets and that the attainment of corporate objectives are linked to corporate reputations.

He said that the CEO believes reputation was always fixed by him on-the-go like all other “problems” and more often than not he does not see need for planned approach, corporate affairs function, specialist consultancy, or specific investment. At the workshop, the different sessions included ‘being media savvy’ and case studies on issues and crisis management, while the interesting simulation game was enjoyed by the participants.

A senor local editor, addressing the gathering said that today the leading newspapers take the view that the real criterion governing the publication or non-publication of matter which comes to the desk is its news value. “It is important to treat the media as a client,” he said.

He said that the newspaper cannot assume, nor is it its function to assume, the responsibility of guaranteeing that what it publishes will not work out to somebody's interest. He said that what the newspaper does strive for is that the news which it publishes shall be accurate, and (since it must select from the mass of news material available) that it shall be of interest and importance to large groups of its readers.

“In the selection of news the editor is usually entirely independent,” he said, adding that an editor does not have an obligation to publish anything that a PR company sends. “News is printed because of its news value and for no other reason and the editors determine with complete independence what is and what isn’t news,” he explained. He said that the editors are not influenced by any external pressure nor swayed by any values of expediency or opportunism.

“The conscientious editor in every newspaper realizes that his obligation to the public is news. The fact of its accomplishment makes it news,” he stressed. Maurice Perera, a veteran Sri Lankan journalist now based in Australia spoke about what news is and what the editors regard as news.

He stressed that it is important for the PR firms to pay attention to what the editors want. “So-called flow of propaganda into the newspaper offices of the country may, simply at the editor's discretion, find its way to the waste basket,” he said, adding that the source of the news offered to the editor should always be clearly stated and the facts accurately presented.

Participants pointed out many grey areas and the best way to handle certain difficult situations. Shuzanah Abdeen – General Manager, Triumph said that the sessions were very insightful and that the workshop was conducted with a high degree of interaction. “The simulation session was a masterpiece – amazingly structured, creatively conducted with absolute participation and we had great fun too. It is an excellent way to experience the real life issues, how best to handle it, understand the client’s role and empathize with the challenges a PR agency faces,” she said.