Media Skills 2014: Week 1

1. Media Skills 2014!
Week 1
!
Dr Kane Hopkins

2. Stream + contact details
• Announcements, readings, admin guide, copies of materials,
tutor details, tutorial booking, assignment instructions and
assignment drop boxes
• PASS leader: Hannah Merritt. From week 2
• Where and when TBA
• Getting in touch with me:
• k.hopkins@massey.ac.nz
• 801 5799 extn 62355
• 5F48 – office hours Monday 2-4pm

3. The textbook

4. Assessment
Media Brief 4 August 2 pages 10%
Media!
Release
8 September 1 page 15%
Media Plan 13 October 6–8 pages 35%
Tutorials 10%
Exam ?? November 2 hours 30%

5. Assignment submission
• The assignments are all due Monday at 10am
• You have an automatic no-questions-asked one-week
extension
• You won’t lose any marks for your assignment being late
• But… you won’t get any feedback on your assignment
• If your assignment is going to be more than a week late, please
get in touch with me

6. Media Skills & Public Relations
• Media skills covers the skills used in media relations — a
technical function of public relations involving compiling, writing
and distributing information to the media, in an attempt to gain
editorial coverage
• We situate this within a PR framework that encourages
researching, strategising and planning (see Textbook Ch.1 and
Reading A for more on PR)
• The media are both a means of getting information out to
publics/audiences AND a monitoring tool or source of
information about society, industry, competitors, etc.

7. Why is media relations important?

8. Why is media relations important?

9. What are we going to look at?
• Media structure and functions
• Understanding audiences
• Newsworthiness, “angles” and how to get publicity
• Media relations and writing media releases
• How journalists work, including in different contexts
• Media planning and strategy
• The ethics of media relations and skills

10. How will we go about it?
• Module 1 (weeks 1 to 4) — familiarising ourselves with the
media; theory based
• Module 2 (weeks 5 to 9) — media writing skills (including
practical application)
• Module 3 (weeks 10-11) — the “live” media environment
(theory and practical skills)
• Summary and Integration (week 12)
• Note: You require set readings (see Stream) and a textbook
(“Media Relations: Issues and Strategies”)
• And… tutes start this week

11. Learning Outcomes!
(By semester end, you should know how to…)
1. Analyse the relationships between media goals, audiences,
and gatekeepers and apply these to media planning
2. Evaluate and apply newsworthiness criteria to media
writing for different genres
3. Demonstrate knowledge of procedures for broadcast
interviews, media conferences and online media relations
4. Demonstrate an understanding of journalists’ working
conditions, including ethical expectations and specialist
terminology.

12. Investor Relations
Advertising
Government Relations
Marketing
Consumer & Brand PR
Online PR
Community Relations
Public Affairs
Internal Communication
Publicity
Issues Management
Reputation Management
Corporate Communications
Media Relations
8.1%
20.3%
24.5%
35.6%
36.4%
38.4%
40.9%
45.5%
51.0%
53.6%
54.1%
59.5%
62.8%
64.7%

13. What are the media?
• The mediums used to send messages from source/s to
receivers
• The term usually implies large scale communication (i.e.
mass media)
• The media are a conduit — so in this paper, they are
regarded not as the target of your message so much as the
audiences they reach
• The “pipeline” analogy implies the audience is passive
• But the “uses and gratifications” approach asks how the
audience responds to information

14. Uses and Gratifications Model!
(Reading B)
• Audiences are not passive; often very active
• Audiences use the media for different purposes or to satisfy
various needs, at different times (e.g. sometimes rationally,
other times for escapism; to find out something new or to
seek reinforcement)
• Model has been criticised (empirical studies unclear) BUT
key point is that the audience is “in control”; therefore those
seeking to reach them need to begin by studying the
audience/s and their needs.

15. Where does the power lie?
• Audiences can be passive or independent; we can embrace
or resist media messages… the choice is ours (to some
extent, anyway)
• Yet studies consistently show the media are capable of
influencing the audience
• By developing a knowledge of media skills, you have the
opportunity to make your or your organisation’s voice heard.
How will you do this?

16. Key questions
• Who am I trying to communicate with?
• What are they like? (interests, values, needs, likes, dislikes,
characteristics)
• What media do they use?
• What do they use the media for?
• What media can I find that will help me to better understand
my audience?

17. A case study: Pacific peoples (Reading C)
• The need? Mental health workers familiar with Pacific people
— which led to a communication campaign to recruit
trainees
• Communicators researched values and targeted key media
(oral not written, not mainstream)
• Key message emphasised making a difference through
commitment to family and community
• Campaign monitored; seen as successful.

18. Summary
• Any information or media campaign should begin by looking
at, and trying to understand, the audience’s needs and
characteristics.
• The media are a way of reaching your “real” (or “end”)
audience; the media are not the actual audience for your
message (although you need to get them “on-side”).
• Audience characteristics (including cultural diversity) need to
be considered at all stages of message development.