Media research findings scandalised Britain’s journalistic community earlier this year when it was announced that only about 12% of news items about domestic news in the UK is not based to some extent on press releases or agency newswires.
Unfortunately, it is mainly the most financially secure corporations who can afford to pay former journalists to write press releases in good journalistic style. These companies are pro-actively managing the news we read about their activities. Now, an online guide is available for other organisations and users, outlining the tips and tricks of the trade. Calliope shows you how to write good press releases, ‘preformulated’ so that newswriters have to change very little to make it fit the news style.
It is well-known that the media can make or break organisations. That’s why more and more organisations are now taking the initiative: instead of simply responding to the journalists’ enquiries (or, worse, refusing any comments at all), they are also trying to pro-actively manage the news about themselves. Good or bad, the media are effective tools for communicating an organization’s priorities and accomplishments to the public. In this module we’ll look at one such way of initiating coverage: viz. issuing press releases. Here are some of the questions that we’ll try to answer in this module:
- The functions of press releases: Who can issue press releases? And why issue press releases?
- The topics of press releases: What are press releases about?
- The structure of press releases: What do press releases look like?
We’ll also introduce the central concept of preformulation.
Thanks to Tom for drawing my attention to this.
