Working With the Media: How to Reach the Widest Audience Possible

Working With the Media: How to Reach the Widest Audience Possible Christian Sinclair, MD Paula Spreitzer Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care

Overview
Introduction
From the Journalists’ Perspective
Practical Tips for Interviews
Success Stories

What are the benefits?
Public education for hospice
Increased exposure for your hospice and palliative medicine program
Highlighting staff and volunteers who do good work
Bringing meaning and purpose to a patient

What are the risks?
Possible errors in communicating information to the public
Appearing uninformed or unprofessional
Time and money to work with media

What is news?
Consider:
Timeliness
Proximity
Conflict
Prominence
Unusual-ness
Reach
Recurrence

Journalists’ Constraints
Work time
Print space/air time
Resources
News flow

Types of Coverage
News
Features
Editorials
Calendar listings

Inverted Pyramid

Examples

Media Outlets

Newspapers
Large dailies vs. small weeklies
Words, details, photos
Press releases, tip sheets,
columns
Editors
Beat reporters
Short deadlines

Magazines
Consumer, business, association
Words, details, photos
Press releases, tip sheets
Editors
Free-lance writers
Longer deadlines

Radio
Interview programs
Sound
Pitch letters, PSAs, press releases
Producers
News directors
Public affairs directors
Deadlines vary

Television
Producers
Assignment editors
Health reporters
Deadlines vary, usually short
News vs. interview formats
Visuals, sound
Press releases, pitch letters

Internet
Often driven by
other media
Words, details, photos,
video, sound
Blogs
E-newsletters
Deadline is now

www.pallimed.org

Practical Tips - Overview
Know your audience
Avoid technical words
Make the story about
somebody
Important facts first
HIPAA – Release form

Practical Tips - Overview
Do not argue
Never say “No comment”
Don’t exaggerate
Tell the truth

Television - Appearance
Nonverbal communication
No stripes, blue/navy is a safe choice
Avoid flashy jewelry
Think props
Lights are HOT!!!!
Makeup (not just for women)
Look at the interviewer

Broadcast
Watch for gestures
Avoid fidgeting
Control verbal ticks
Tape yourself to learn for next time

In General
Printed information
Know when to STOP!
Be conversational but not condescending
Advance notice of questions
“ Good question”

Practical Tips - Other
Call in to radio shows
Always be looking for topics

Europe wrestles with child euthanasia

Practical Tips – Writing Op-Ed Pieces
Have a clear message – controversy is good
Show how topic affects readers
Explain scope
Describe problem
Describe your solution
End with call to action or reinforce your message

Practical Tips – Writing Op-Ed Pieces
Find a topic
Read the paper often
Think broadly
Respond quickly
Ask for input from your agency
Enlist a ghost writer

From Letters, The Kansas City Star , 7/4/05
Terri Schiavo case
Right on, Leonard Pitts Jr. (6/28, Opinion, “Governor adds insult to injury”). And peace be to Michael Schiavo. This has been a mess of unbelievable proportions and an invasion into the life and death of a private citizen. It causes me concern for my basic freedoms as we seem to slip from “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Our brave are dying far from home while the politicians toil over one man’s right to make decisions for his critically/chronically ill wife. Shame on Jeb Bush, shame on George W. Bush, shame on the Republicans!
Beverly Kemper, RN Johnson County Nursing Center Olathe

Professional Journals
Think about the different tiers
Regional versus national
Another form of media
Letters to the editor
Original articles
Correspondence

Bibliography
AAP Communications Handbook (membership required)
www.aap.org/moc/pressroom/handbook/
htm
The Television Interview (inactive)
www.bremmercommunications.com/The_Television_Interview.htm

Share Your Success Stories! Christian Sinclair, MD [email_address] Paula Spreitzer [email_address]

Working With the Media: How to Reach the Widest Audience Possible

by Christian Sinclair, MD on Mar 17, 2010

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