PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING
WEEK TWO
THE PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITER
OUTLINE
The public relations writer
Research as a prelude to
writing
INTRODUCTION
Objective
This lecture seeks to explain the distinguishing features
of a public relations writer from a journalist and
provide insights on the relevance of research as a
prelude to writing.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this lecture, the student
should be able to:
INTRODUCTION Understand the functions of a public
II relations writer
Analyze and explain what research is
Elaborate the importance of research
as a prelude to writing
THE PUBLIC
RELATIONS WRITER
Although the public relations writer and
the journalist share a number of
common characteristics in their
approach to writing, the public relations
writer differs in
Objectives
Audiences
Channels
THE PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITER
OBJECTIVES
• A journalist is usually employed by a news organization to gather,
process, and synthesize information for the primary purpose of
providing news to the organization’s subscribers, viewers, or
listeners. A hallmark of professional reporting is to present
information in a fair and balanced manner.
• The public relations writer, in contrast, is usually employed by an
organization that wants to communicate with a variety of
audiences, either through the news media or through other
channels of communication.
THE PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITER
OBJECTIVES
• These organizations may include corporations,
government agencies, labour unions, trade
associations, or public relations firms that provide
information on behalf of clients.
• The writer’s purpose is advocacy. The goal is not only
to accurately inform but also to persuade and
motivate.
THE PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITER
AUDIENCES
• The traditional journalist writes for one audience—readers,
listeners, or viewers of the medium for which he or she works.
Newspapers, magazines, radio, and television are usually defined
as “mass media,” because the audience is very broad and its
members have little in common. An extension of the mass media,
of course, is online news sites such as the Ghana Web , My Joy
Online that also serve a broad spectrum of the public.
• The public relations writer, however, may write for numerous,
specialized audiences—employees, community leaders, customers,
teenagers, seniors, women, various ethnic and racial groups,
travellers, governmental regulatory agencies, investors, farmers,
and many others.
THE PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITER
AUDIENCES
• Effective public relations writing requires careful definition of the
audience and its composition so that information can be tailored
to its interests and concerns.
• A public relations writer performs research constantly to
determine the audience’s needs, concerns, and interests. Armed
with this information, the public relations writer can write a
more persuasive message.
THE PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITER
CHANNELS
• Journalists, by nature of their employment, primarily reach their
audiences through one channel: the medium that publishes,
broadcasts, or posts their work on a news website.
• The public relations writer, in contrast, is not restricted to any one
media platform but will use many channels and media platforms to
effectively reach well-defined audiences.
• Indeed, today’s public relations writer sits at the junction of multiple
media platforms that are broadly classified as earned, owned, and
paid media
THE PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITER
CHANNELS
• Earned media are defined as stories in the traditional mass media that are
selected by gatekeepers such as editors, broadcast producers, and bloggers. Earned
media is “earned,” in that objective reporters are persuaded to write favorably
about your organization. Earned media translates into positive publicity and is the
result of traditional news releases and story pitches and press conferences and
other devices based on building amicable relationships with reporters, editors,
bloggers, and other neutral reporters.
• Owned media are the “new media” channels we, ourselves, own and operate.
They can be Web sites, mobile sites, blogs, Twitter accounts, YouTube channels,
Facebook pages, and anything else that social media produces. This is the brave
new world of public relations, offering great opportunity for social media savvy
public relations professionals
• Paid media is the media you pay for. The primary format of paid media is
advertising.
RESEARCH AS A
PRELUDE TO WRITING
Public relations demands strong writing and
conceptual skills.
Public relations writing is about tailoring messages
for media and publics. The heart of public relations
practice remains in communication, particularly
writing
All public relations writing attempts to establish
positive relations between an organization and its
various publics, usually through image-building
techniques.
In reality, public relations work consists of four
main parts:
Research-An essential first step to any public
relations task is gathering relevant information. The
process is called research.
RESEARCH AS A
PRELUDE TO WRITING
Planning-Planning also involves the selection of
audiences to be reached, the key messages to be
distributed, and the strategies that should be used to
ensure the overall success of the program or campaign.
Communication- Public relations writing is a component
of communication that occurs only after extensive
research and planning to formulate the goals and
objectives of a campaign/programme has taken place.
Evaluation- Evaluation charts effectiveness of the
programme. Evaluation is a proactive, forward-looking
and formative activity that provides feedback to enhance
programme management. It is also a reviewing,
backward-looking summative activity that assesses the
outcome of the campaign/programme. It is the
assessment of what worked, what didn’t, and how to
improve in the future.
RESEARCH AS A
PRELUDE TO WRITING
Research is the systematic collection and
interpretation of information to increase
understanding and arrive at justifiable
conclusions.
Most people associate public relations
with conveying information; although that
association is accurate, research must be
the obligatory first step in any project.
That’s why research is so important to the
overall success of a public relations plan
RESEARCH AS A
PRELUDE TO WRITING
An essential first step to any public
relations writing task is gathering
relevant information. The process is
called research.
Research is much easier to
understand if we call it “fact finding”
or “information gathering.”
RESEARCH AS A
PRELUDE TO WRITING
An essential first step to
any public relations
writing task is gathering
relevant information. The
process is called research.
Research is much
easier to understand if
we call it “fact finding”
or “information
gathering.”
RESEARCH AS A
PRELUDE TO WRITING
Research involves digging,
thinking, verifying and analysing.
It is the act of deciding between
the probable and the improbable,
the true and the false, the likely
and the doubtful, the acceptable
and the unacceptable and the
right and the wrong.
Writers and researchers of all
types—not just public relations
professionals—depend on research
from two basic sources: paper and
people. Of course, “paper” doesn’t
always mean books.
RESEARCH AS A
PRELUDE TO WRITING
It can mean Internet sites,
CD-ROMs, magnetic tape or
disks, film, videotape,
audiotape, or some other
form of storage.
The important point to
remember is that sources
are either secondary (paper
or other form of stored
information) or primary
(people).
RESEARCH AS A
PRELUDE TO WRITING
Secondary Sources for Research -Every public relations writer should
have at least a working library in the office that contains a dictionary,
a thesaurus, appropriate reference volumes and bibliographies, and
pertinent professional and technical journals, and documents. The
most common sources of secondary information include Internet
sites, libraries, bibliographies, and government records.
Primary information or sources is developed mostly through
interviews and questionnaires. To get information by these means,
you must prepare yourself carefully to ask good questions of the right
people under the right circumstances.
Q &A
